It’s a good time today to remember Al, Laura Ries and the gems of their wisdom.

The marketing consultants predicted [1, 2, 3, 4] a year ago:

• “The iPhone will do a lot of things but it will do nothing well. And that is why it is destined for failure” and
• “If the iPod is the biggest success of the 21st century then iPhone is likely to be the biggest flop of the 21st century.”

Disqualifying.

“Perhaps, but I don’t know if it has the intestinal fortitude.” Apple’s Avie Tevanian answers to the question whether Microsoft can re-architect Windows from the ground-up.

Via DF.

iPhone3G. Coming to Romania.

Here:

• Apple Gazette [autorefresh]
• Ars Technica
• CNN Fortune
• CNet News
• Engadget
• Gizmodo [autorefresh]
• Mac Observer [autorefresh]
• MacDailyNews [autorefresh]
• MacNN [autorefresh]
• MacRumors [autorefresh]
• Macworld
• TUAW
• TechCrunch
• TechzTalk

P.S. Blog entry № 500.

“France Telecom’s Orange said in a one-sentence statement that it will sell the handset in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and African markets later this year.”—see the Associated Press release. Via Brandly yours.

“By choosing to compete on design instead of technology alone, Apple seems to have found a loophole in the Innovator’s Dilemma.” Why Doesn’t Apple Face The Innovator’s Dilemma?

“Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.” From Vodafone’s press release cited by DF.

“I think people are really noticing the difference between Mac OS X and Windows to a greater degree than ever before.” Steve Jobs about Apple’s 51% increase in Macintosh sales.

Wired Magazine — The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry.

John Siracusa writes a wise post for the old-school Stevenote diehards to read and meditate upon.

iPhone, six months after debuting, is already outselling all Windows Mobile phones combined. Via DF.

Predicting Apple’s future was always an extreme sport for involuntary jackasses. [Via DF]

“I’d shut down [Apple] and give the money back to the shareholders.” Michael Dell, ten years ago. Clever tip. [Via DF.]

Steve Jobs on the cat and mouse game game with iPhone unlockers: “I’m not sure if we are the cat or the mouse. People will try to break in, and it’s our job to stop them breaking in.” Oops. [Via PowerPage]

Apple unveiled the new iPods: new iPod classic, new iPod nano (ad) and brand new iPod touch (tour). Plus iTunes® Wi-Fi Music Store. Watch Job’s keynote.

“Today isn’t a good day to be a Zune fan, that’s for sure. Why? Because Apple unleashed a new wave of iPods today, and they’re every bit as impressive as I was fearing they’d be. This was no simple product refresh with memory bumps and price drops — no, this is a whole new generation of iPods.” Zunethoughts.com [via DF]

“If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.” Anssi Vanjoki — Nokia’s Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia on Nokia copying the iPhone. Read Nokia’s iPhone — no, seriously at Engadget.

Following Apple’s announcement, today my .Mac iDisk capacity indicates 10GB. Thank you.

iPhone is “like someone assembled the finest orchestra the world, but decided to leave out the trumpets”, says Mike Davidson, (yes, the inventor of sIFR). For one if the best iPhone reviews, read his Letting go of the Trumpets: A Week with the iPhone.

The iPhone is out in the wild now and swarms of enchanted buyers are giving it glowing reviews. For an UI expert opinion head to John Gruber’s iPhone First Impressions and while reading it, stop for a second and think — this is only the first version of it, iPhone 1.0.

Al and Laura Ries in their mysterious anti-iPhone crusade [1, 2, 3, 4]: “The iPhone will do a lot of things but it will do nothing well. And that is why it is destined for failure” and “If the iPod is the biggest success of the 21st century then iPhone is likely to be the biggest flop of the 21st century.” Strong words, bold predictions. One comment reads “Ries, you’re dated.”

Steve Jobs’ keynote address WWDC San Francisco 2007 is available as video-on-demand on the Apple’s new website. Enjoy.