Despite having spent a decent amount of time with Australians, I really don’t know what “sticking to one’s knitting” means but I can tell you this much: it’s adorable. The quote comes from Greg Winn, the number two exec at Telstra, one of Australia’s mobile phone providers, who wasn’t terribly impressed by the iPhone:
“There’s an old saying - stick to your knitting - and Apple is not a mobile phone manufacturer, that’s not their knitting,” Mr Winn told AAP.It’s strange commentary coming from Australia’s only provider of EDGE networking, and thus the logical choice for distribution down under. He goes on to specifically mention the non-replaceable battery as a sticking point, as well as wondering if Apple’s really committed to “the life cycle management and upgrades.”“You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality.”
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“I think people overreacted to it - there was not a lot of tremendously new stuff if you think about it,” he said.
Despite that, he believes the iPhone will be successful at first, and one would assume that he wouldn’t necessarily balk at being the distributor for the handset. That said, Steve Jobs is well known to be a fickle and wrathful god CEO, so it remains to be seen whether Telstra will get the ol’ Apple stamp of approval next year when the iPhone hits worldwide.
I have a feeling the saying is akin to "mind your own business."
"The life cycle management and upgrades." Right. Because Apple has never produced a line of consumer devices with continuous improvement and a life cyle. Except the freaking iPod.
The phrase 'stick to your knitting' basically means 'stick to the stuff you know and do well'.
It seems there is yet another industry person who fails to see past the feature set.
My impression is that the iPhone isn't going to be about features. Instead it's going to be about making the technology accessible.
It's going to be interesting to see how right or wrong these people's opinions turn out to be. For that matter, it'll be interesting to see how right my own opinions are too.
Well, if the iPhone goes to Telstra, I certainly won't be getting one: they're the most hideously overpriced provider imaginable, with terrible service. They've only stayed afloat by onselling the use of their infrastructure, which they built up over decades as a state-run monopoly. Boo, Telstra!
Good grief, in all the websites I've read about the iPhone, this is the first time it's been said that the iPhone cannot replace its battery. Darn. The lack of battery replaceability is pathetic in the ipod, which I own. Then again, so predictable of Apple.
Telstra wont get it, you know why? Because it competes directly with Telstra's Bigpond Music. They did the same thing with the Motorola V3i.
Anyway, who knows what we are going to get, it's still a whole year away. I put odds on that Apple have a 3G version by then. The only reason they used EDGE is because it's more widespread in the US than 3G is. They didn't want CDMA (thank goodness) because it's not used in many countries. So EDGE was pretty much their only choice if you ask me. Let's just wait and see before we jump to conclusions.
“You can pretty much be assured that Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and ZTE and others will be coming out with devices that have similar functionality.”
Why no admonition to these manufacturers as well? Is their nitting mp3 music players, internet browser, and GUI as well?