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Best Buy Gets Snarky Regarding the iPhone

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007  |  Tom Carmony

Apple's iPhoneThough I don’t make much use of it anymore, I’ve been a member of Best Buy’s Rewards Zone program for a number of years, and as such, receive Best, their pseudo-magazine each year at the start of the holiday shopping season. The magazine typically presents relatively “fluff” pieces covering the latest technology and highlighting brands and models available in-store.

This year’s edition features a write-up on various smart phones, and has an interesting side bar (p. 77) on Apple’s iPhone. Of course, Best Buy cannot sell iPhones, as the device is still only available either direct from Apple (via their online or brick-and-mortar stores) or via AT&T Wireless. Given Best Buy’s iPhone status (i.e., on the outside looking in), it’s not entirely surprising the snarky tone they take in assessing the iPhone’s value (or in their words, lack thereof) to the business user:

“But iPhone is not as smart as Apple thinks it is. Most glaring is iPhone’s current lack of compatibility with push Microsoft Exchange and Blackberry e-mail, essential components for corporate adoption. And AT&T’s slow and erratic EDGE network cripples Web surfing and e-mail downloads … iPhone is packed with a lot of distractions. After all, who wants to work when you can watch a movie, listen to music, or surf YouTube?”

Of course, while the EDGE network “cripples” surfing and downloads for iPhone, it apparently is perfectly sufficient for other AT&T smart phones, such as the Blackberry Curve and Samsung Blackjack (i.e., those that Best Buy can actually sell).

It’s not that they’re not raising some valid points (e.g., Exchange support is a non-starter for a fair number of business users), it’s the way in which they’re doing it, which comes off as little more than a case of sour grapes to the informed reader.

 
 

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