Editor's Blog: Why we write about the iPhone

"I'm just flabbergasted that people have been so blinded by the marketing hype."

"I'm fed up with all the headlines about this device. Or am I missing the point - what does it do that a high-end Nokia doesn't already do?"

"…only three years after my all-singing all-dancing 3G phone came on the market too."

These are just three of the comments posted recently by silicon.com readers about the latest Apple iPhone. And if this is what our readers think - and there are others making similar points - why do we still write about the iPhone?

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I think it's worth looking more closely at why we've covered the launch of this particular phone so closely, especially when we let the vast majority of new handsets go unremarked.

Sure, Apple managed to shift one million 3G iPhones in the first weekend, with 10 million downloads of iPhone apps.

But that's still a drop in the vast ocean of mobile phones when roughly a billion are shipped every three months or so. And as many have pointed out, despite the marketing hype there are many things the iPhone doesn't do which other handsets have been doing for quite some time.

We've pointed this out ourselves. I'd refer you to an excellent column by Natasha Lomas that lists the 10 things we'd change on the 3G iPhone - with cut and paste and MMS high on the list, in case you were wondering.

So, there aren't many iPhone users out there and the device doesn't offer many things not already available in the market. Yet why do we continue to write about the iPhone?

I'd say - while there are many other phones that offer elements of what the iPhone does, few bring it together in such an elegant format. And I'd argue that simply to focus on the hardware itself, no matter how shiny or well designed it is, misses the point.

For us the more interesting thing about the iPhone is the way it has forced the mobile industry to change how it does business. And I don't just mean the slew of touchscreen phones that have appeared in the past year.

Apple has muscled in on the mobile operators in a way no other handset developer has ever managed. And made much, much more of an impact than Microsoft.

As well as talk about revenue-sharing deals with operators, it also threatens the existing model where the most important relationship customers have is with the operator.

For many of the people who were queuing up for their new phone last weekend, they are iPhone and Apple fans first, and O2 customers second. That's a big, and rather worrying, change for the operators which spend so much on building brand loyalty.

And developments such as the App Store also shake up the market by allowing iPhone owners to customise their phone with the applications they want.

Google's Android is another development having an impact on the mobile industry in a similar way, promising some of the flexibility of the PC in a mobile phone format - and it's another development we are following closely .

While we're at it, I could throw in some other trends the iPhone embodies - the explosion in mobile browsing and the advent of location-based services. And of course the iPhone embodies another big shift in the industry - the consumerisation of IT.

The iPhone might make up a tiny fraction of the mobile phone market - but it is dragging the rest of the industry with it.

There are plenty more reasons why silicon.com is interested in the iPhone, which is why we'll continue to follow it. It's about much more than keeping up with the Apple fanboys. Although of course, there's no denying it is very, very shiny…

Editor's choice - three things you should check out on silicon.com this week:
Check out the latest video in the silicon.com Traveller series, this week featuring Julie Meyer, CEO of VC firm Ariadne Capital, explains how to make business travel a more pleasant and relaxing experience. Take part in the silicon.com skills survey for your chance to win an iPod Nano, and read the latest instalment from The Naked CIO.