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Editorial
iPhone 3.0 is Great in Itself, but Also a Precursor
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 4:00 PM - by John Martellaro
On Tuesday, Apple's Greg Joswiak and Scott Forstall announced the iPhone 3.0 software and corresponding SDK. While the additions are much need (or long overdue like MMS and Cut/Paste), some of them can also be interpreted to pave the way for what's next.
One of the things I like to ask myself is what is necessary for the next thing to come along?" That is, if one were to take the idea of a 10-inch iTablet/MacBook touch/Super touch seriously, one would have to ask what additions to the current iPhone OS would have to be made and which ones would be, well, extraneous.
Here were the major announcements for iPhone 3.0 today:
- MMS
- Support for external hardware
- Cut, copy, paste
- In app subscriptions
- Peer to peer connections
- Spotlight app
- Tethering enabled
- GPS, turn-by-turn directions
- Streaming video
- Landscape mail, text, notes
- Bluetooth Stereo
- Parental controls
- Voice Memos
Taken by themselves, these are laudable additions to the iPhone and iPod touch platforms, but many of them, to me, scream preparation for a larger platform.
For example, external hardware support for keyboards and so on, landscape mail, text, notes, blue-tooth stereo and parental controls are obvious necessities for an iTablet on a user's (teenager's) lap. Especially for games.
The other question I ask myself is, "What changes to the iPhone OS are required to make it a full-fledged user OS in general when combined with multi-touch?" That is, what does Apple have to add to iPhone OS to make it a viable alternative to a notebook (or netbook) computer?
Again, the changes included in iPhone 3.0 seem to me to be the essential ones that move the iPhone OS closer to that goal. Of course, they also have the short term goal of helping Apple compete with the other smartphone competitors. That's a simultaneous goal.
We know that Apple is keeping an eye on the netbook market, but wants to re-conceive of that market in Apple's own vision. In my opinion, the changes announced today are the essential ones that work for now but also make a hypothetical iTablet practical. Now all that's needed is for Apple to figure out the product profile and positioning -- not an easy task. However, the moment we start to emerge from the recession, Apple will be ready with the next generation mobile OS, iPhone OS 3.x that has what it needs and has been fully vetted.
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