With the much ballyhooed debut of the iPhone just two days away (June 29 at 6 p.m.), E-Brief editors spoke to some floral industry technophiles about whether they'll be among the hoards of people camping out to pay $500 or more for Apple's newest handheld gizmo (Have you missed the hype? Check out Apples' 20-minute video on it).

Bob Aykens, a member of the SAF Technology Committee, put off getting an iPod for two years before his PC-using sensibilities were lured by Apple. "I opened my mind and was amazed with the iPod," says Aykens, of Memorial Florists & Greenhouses in Appleton, Wis., and a speaker at the upcoming SAF Convention in Palm Springs, Calif. But that's where he draws the line: (iPhone) "looks amazing, but I don't know if it's a business solution," he says. "Imagine sitting in a meeting full of people that have iPhones. I think little would get done."

Other members of the Technology Committee tend to agree. "It's a fun e-gadget," says Maris Angolia, of Karin's Florist, Inc., in Vienna, Va. "But I don't see a real business application for it right now."

Tina Stoecker, AIFD, PFCI of Designs of the Times Florist in Melbourne, Fla., confesses to "drooling" at iPhone promotions, but her desire to cut back on some of her constant-contact capabilities outweighs her excitement. "I don't know if it is my age, schedule or a trend I hear reflected through my client's voices," she says, "but I find I want to be unplugged these days, and a text message is all I care to get.  With my BlackBerry, I feel constantly connected and constantly on the clock and the urgency to reply."

Fellow committee member Chad Kremp, AAF, of Kremp Florist in Philadelphia, isn't quite as quick to dismiss it. "The iPhone is definitely tempting, even at the higher price, you get so many different devices all in one," he says. The deal-breaker for him, however, is his phone service. The iPhone uses AT&T, and Kremp uses Nextel at the shop.

Therein lies what may emerge as the biggest hurdle for most would-be iPhone buyers, says SAF's chief information officer, Renato Sogueco. "I'd love to have [an iPhone], but am I willing to pay the $175 fee to cancel my contract with Sprint -- on top of the $600 I'll spend for the actual device, and the $80 to $100 a month in fees?" His answer: "No."

"It's great for the technorati with lots of money," he says, but if you want to make a smart business decision, financially, wait for your current phone contract to expire. "By then, they'll probably have another version with even more memory, too."

Read Sogueco's monthly advice in the Plugged In column of Floral Management.

--Kate F. Penn
kpenn@safnow.org

 

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