Musings from The Software Underground

Ok, let's assume for a minute that Apple has an iPhone in development right now, and that it's even close to release.

What would be the big deal, really? Why do people seem to want this from Apple SO badly? Is it because they want to combine an iPod and a phone, and have one device instead of two? Well, we already have that, the Motorola SLVR L7. This plays iTunes music, it has support for AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and ICQ and email. It has bluetooth and a Java VM. It has a camera. What more do people want/need? On top of all this, it's actually made by a company that is primarily a PHONE maker (ok, that may be arguable, but Motorola makes a LOT of cell phones) and it's sold by... cellular service companies! Apple is neither a phone maker nor a cell service company.

These companies have been doing their respective things for years, so what makes people think Apple can do all of this any better?

Maybe it's because of this: cellphones, in general... well, they suck. I think what we're really all wishing for is for a company like Apple to come in, and actually make these phones USABLE.

I've had a Sony Ericsson Java-enabled, web enabled phone for a while now, a couple of years maybe (I know that's like 20 years in cell phone years). I've downloaded a Java game at some point, and it works well enough, but of course when I get rid of the phone, bye-bye game. I use the web on it occasionally, but the web interface is horrible. To get to the scores for say the current Red Sox game in progress takes I think 6 or 7 clicks, about 6 or 7 times longer than it does for me to process the information. From what I've seen, the operating systems on other phones aren't much better.

So now what if... what IF Apple brought their style and design to this space?

What if they made a phone that synced information: contacts, calendar, notes, to dos, even recipes or a shopping list, as easily as an iPod syncs?

What if they went beyond the pretty much utilitarian OS of the iPod and offered an OS on a phone that developers like us could extend, enhance and create cool apps for? Not OS X-on-a-phone, but something simpler, and even easier to develop for.

What if they made a phone that was a phone AND an iPod and didn't sacrifice some features from both spaces? A phone with dual batteries, or extended battery time, so that playing your MP3s wouldn't sacrifice your talk time, and vice versa? A phone that took pictures and could sync directly with iPhoto. A phone that could sync with iCal, Mail or with any application on your Mac that supported it? And finally, a phone that had many gigabytes of storage instead of the 512MB in the SLVR.

All of the above, all of this is what I think Mac users are salivating for, what they are hoping will be offered, and THAT'S why an iPhone is potentially such a big deal.

Apple changes spaces completely when they enter them. Yes Creative had an MP3 player, the Nomad, which offered a hard drive, Pre-iPod. But it was as big as existing portable CD players of the day, had a really simple interface and didn't sync with the Mac at all (at least I don't remember that it did). Apple came into the space and changed the game completely by doing what they tend to do best: thinking "different." Remember when the iMac was first released, and it was released without a floppy drive, and with solid USB support?

Apple has this way of studying and then entering existing spaces... and changing them forever. I think this is why an iPhone would be such a big deal, because if Apple does the typical Apple thing, and comes out with a phone, the cell phone space will never be the same. ...and that's what everyone is hoping for.