Phone or Platform?
October 4th, 2007I should probably do a poll, but instead, make a comment on your thoughts; is the iPhone just a really awesome phone or the hint of a new platform?
I think it’s too soon to tell, but the ball is clearly in Apple’s court. o
New platform, I think. Perhaps entrance into subscription-based software (downloaded through iTunes) and other on-demand development. The phone is merely a vehicle in this case. If watches (also portable) made sense, it would be the iWatch.
Sadly, a feature phone right now…
A feature phone missing features, and having extra features.
You’re right… too soon to know for sure but if they open their API’s and allow 3rd party development then it clearly could be a great platform.
Although I’m treating it as a mini-tablet that I can make calls on, Pete is right about the 3rd party stuff. Jobs will have to loosen the leash if it’s to become a (successful) new platform. The fantastic interface and usability make the platform a likely next step, but some of the features - as Chris said - are lacking. Deleting my Gmail one at a time is slow enough. Once I start forwarding my work email to it… [groan]
platform, i think. or, i hope.
That is exactly the right question.
It should be a platform, but seems to be veering sharply in the direction of “just a killer phone.”
Maybe by Macworld ’08, they will have figured out what they want it to be.
And Brian Faust, bite your tongue about that nonsense about subscription-based software. Therein lies madness. And ickiness. Rented software, gack.
I agree with Jon. If Apple knows what’s good for them, they’ll treat this damned phone like they would any other piece of computer hardware under their control — they write the OS, assemble the physical components, and when it comes to software, give developers and users some friggin’ respect. The important thing to remember is that it’s not an ipod, and it’s not a phone. It has pieces of both of those, but what they sold us on was the the platform, even if they didn’t promise anything. Let’s call a spade a spade — how many times did Steve-o blurt that the iPhone was built on top of Mac OSX — it was very much implied that this thing is a computer.
Apple has too frequently implied things, while fudging the facts.
I’m wondering, since I don’t have an iPhone, if someone might say a little about how it could be a platform. Especially given that I don’t have a touch screen I am having a hard time picturing the translation into a spreadsheet. Anyone care to school me?
Alyce,
It’s not that kind of platform. But the touch screen is screaming for other kinds of applications that go beyond calling, web surfing or reading and responding to email. Until you experience what it’s like to lie in bed and check your feeds or sit on a plane and watch a movie, both things using the same small device, it’s hard to explain the appeal.
The iPhone gets so much right. And it seems like it is Apple’s game to win or lose. They appear to be choosing the latter right now, but I want to believe that they’ll see this as a time to transcend cellular carriers and their desire to lock things down.
Since I don’t have one, either, I’m wondering if anyone can talk about the possibility of it being a knowledge-sharing platform.
We’re still looking for a handheld device that can provide “how-to” information for techs in the field, short videos of a process or procedure, and access to shared knowledge quickly.
While there has been lots of experimenting with different form factors, most of that “SmartPhone” area has not been very successful.
Since Apple, at it’s core (!) was built on the education market — could it be useful in that arena?
Clearly the potential is there for a platform, but even as “just a phone” it’s the best one out there.
Amid all the complaining about SDKs, and hacking, and third-party apps, I think a lot of people have forgotten how awesome of a device it is. Pick up a SLVR (which cost me $200 new w/contract a year ago) or Treo and be reminded.
This is not to say that I will not kiss the ground Jobs walks on if he gives developers an SDK with which to make my phone even better. I would love to have Delicious Library, Adium, Cha-Ching, and Twitter on my phone. But I never had them on any previous phone either, so I can’t really justify complaining. Maybe that’s just me.
It can’t be a platform until it’s open to 3rd party development. So for now, I would suggest it’s just a PlatPhone.
: P
http://flickr.com/photos/joshhelfferich/sets/72157601645189869/detail/
Phone. Safari’s a platform, but hamstrung by the phone.
Granted, kick-ass phone, but not yet a platform, because of how constrained developers are on it.
What a Future iPhone With WiMax Might Look Like
NOW you’re talkin’!
Oh Lordy, I’m hopin for a platform, chock full o third party software. I dont even have one yet, I sometimes go to ATT just to look at it, but I am waiting for G2…
Phone. Definitely phone. Since my husband bought me the phone for my birthday I now have the iPod, the iPhone, and a new iMac …. I’ve converted. All because of the phone. We’ll see where it eventually takes me. (I still have my laptop - I take it out at night after my husband goes to bed and play with it. Hey, we all have secrets right?)
Are those the only two options?
It is a platform, but you are right, it is up to Apple whether the platform will ever realize even a fraction of its capabilities. As it stands now, with the implied messages being sent from Cupertino, it is a heartbreaking waste of potential. That said, I love my iPhone and am probably biased toward the platform response because I rarely use the phone part of it and use Safari a lot.
really awesome phone and hint at a new platform.
Weren’t you just saying something about, oh I dunno, drying marketing lube?
There’s no question in my mind, Apple is setting themselves up for a new platform. They don’t have to take it any further than they have, though, and they’ll probably keep it that way at every step. There’s a lot of risk involved, and the iPhone and the touchPod are offering a good, profitable excuse to test the waters. I assume, at least, that the iPhone is profitable, what with the pricetag large enough to need lube and all.
I use my iPhone as a “mobile internet device with a phone tacked on for good measure.” So I’ll go with platform.
A Jobs-run Apple always seems to want to see how far it can stretch its products. But Apple does need to open the iPhone to third party developers and I think it will.
I looked at an iPhone at my local AT&T store (i’m looking to upgrade my Razr) and the interface & Screen were far better than my beloved HP iPaq 2795. Granted I love my iPaq and won’t stop using it, BUT if I get a smartphone or even an iPhone but it would be sweet if HP put the iPhone’s screen on their iPaq’s….
I liked the look of the iPhone notepad but I would like it even better if it you could edit/view MS Office documents on it or sync with MS Outlook. (don’t hate me for saying that…)
I vote for platform.
B/c that would make more money in the long run, yes?
I have to say that it is definitely a platform(all be it still in early stages of evolution) that has a phone built into it. I have seen many times when people no longer get up off the couch to look at IMDB and see who was that actor in that thing… or look at this funny thing on youtube or myspace or something. It has taken over basic times people go grab a laptop to look something up. it’s not finished as a platform for sure, but i think it’s more than a phone.
I love the idea of it as an Iwatch, techno-bling as an extension of the body. I think it’s a new way of thinking about tools–and it was framed as a phone because that is the most intimate tool we are currently accustomed to using. Well, techno tool.
For me the cost of the iPhone, the rate plans and having to sign a 2 year contract for a device that duplicates services I already have is too high a price. I can make a grocery list with paper and pen for free, why use an iPhone?
If the folks that voted for the iPhone as a platform prove to be correct and we get 3rd party software for it, like Quicken, I’d be all about the iPhone. Until then, I’ll wait.
I think the nature of “phone” will change.
iChat in your hand?
Then you’d have people walking around with their iChatPhone at arms length bumping into things. It will be chaos and the end of civilization as we know it.
Much as we have calculators built into the weirdest products so may go the phone.
Definitely platform.
rumor is a multi touch tablet by 09.
just a matter of time. dell has multi touch in the works too. ms has their ideas for the technology. lenovo/ibm can’t be far behind.
It’s v1.0 of a possible future platform that capitalizes on increasing demand for full-featured mobile, connected devices.
In its current form, however, it’s too feature-limited to be considered revolutionary. But that’s irrelevant for Apple: all these need to do it crank Mr. Jobs’s reality distortion field and then collect kajillions of dollars from fashion-forward early adopters. It’s this cash flow that will drive evolution to v2.0 and beyond.
The fact that the new iPod touch is essentially the iPhone without the phone speaks volumes about Apple’s mobile platform strategy.
Platform! Around the time of its release I was bellowing on and on to whomever was unfortunate enough to have to hear me that this was, in concept anyway, a fundamentally different doohicky (albeit one that we knew was coming down the pike) and that the marketing should not focus on it as a phone. For some reason Apple’s Marketing Department must have felt secure enough with their approach not to have to contact me about the issue.
I’ve had one since the day it came out. It’s a fancy phone.
It’ll be a platform if they allow people to create their own widgets on it.
It’s a phone that hints.
(oh, and by the way - anyone else try to run their finger across the screen when using other people’s
s phones? I got a hearty laugh when I did that the other day.)
Phone or platform? Well, I don’t own the iphone. But my most awesome boss just bought everyone in our office the 16G touch (there are 8 of us). So after using this little guy for the last week I think it is the most awesome electronic toy evah!
Add one more missing link and it’s a radical new platform i.e. ‘Rendezvous’. Okay, It used to be ‘Rendezvous’, Now It’s ‘Bonjour’. When you can subtly & safely link to those in your proximity, as well as your wider, Working Area as well as, a la wireless 802.11n, the internet as a whole - Watch Out !!
It’s an entirely new world, Sweetheart !!
It’s a platform. It’s not a phone. It’s not an mp3 player either. It’s a handheld multimedia decive. Apple just announced that in February they will be releasing an SDK (Software Developer Kit) for the iPhone and, recently released, iPod Touch. I just got the ‘Touch’ and used a program to add all of the iPhone applications to it. Also, an ‘installer’ that lets you add a ton of other apps through a web based interface. I carry this thing with all the time, watch movies in near hi-def. Check mail, cruise the web, post on my blog, etc.
It’s a computer in the palm of your hand and there will be a ton of additional free, fee-based service, or purchase only applications for these things. Apple has sold a bunch of them but with this move, they have raised the bar, set a new standard, and will sell a ‘bazillion’ more.
With flash based memory prices spiraling, they can up the memory on iPods and iPhones and not raise the cost. 32gb and 64gb models are not a stretch at all. As they raise the storage on these models, they will sell a kajillion bazillion.
It has shaken up the industry and left everyone else scrambling to keep up.
Ok, I’m done. They can have my iPod Touch when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
I know this is almost a month later, but according to Time: http://tinyurl.com/25rtdt
“4. It’s not a phone, it’s a platform”