[MLUG - DISCUSSION] Circuits: Hello BlackBerry, Meet the iPhone (fwd)

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Another interesting article from David Pogue.  So what's up with the 
OpenMoko Neo1973 project?

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo1973#Estimated_time_line

They'd better hurry!  --Mike

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/personaltech/13pogue-email.html


- From the Desk of David Pogue -
----------------------------------------

Hello BlackBerry, Meet the iPhone
By DAVID POGUE

Before you start reading this, a word of warning: this
column is about the iPhone. If you're one of those people
who are sick and tired of hearing about the iPhone, then
scroll on while you still can.

Then again, if you're one of those people, you've got much
bigger problems than this column. Maybe you'd better take
six months off to explore the Serengeti.

That's because last week, Apple announced iPhone 2.0. It's
not a new phone model (although that will be coming this
year, too)--it's new software for the existing phone. And in
my considered opinion, it will be an even bigger deal than
the iPhone itself.

The new software, slated for the end of June, will have two
parts. First, it will tap into Microsoft Exchange, the
e-mail distribution system used by hundreds of thousands of
corporations. You'll get "push" e-mail, meaning that
messages appear in real time on your iPhone. And when
anybody changes your calendar or address book on your
computer at work, your iPhone will be automatically,
wirelessly updated, wherever you happen to be.

All of this is already on the BlackBerry, which is Apple's
obvious target here. Without an actual keyboard, the iPhone
won't kill off the BlackBerry entirely (although I do like
the way the on-screen keyboard forces iPhone people to be
super-concise). But it will carve away a certain chunk of
the BlackBerry's market.

The big knife is Part 2 of iPhone 2.0. That's the SDK--the
Software Development Kit--which Apple has released in
beta-test form. The idea here is that any programmer can
now write software for the iPhone. Not illicit, hacky apps
like people have been writing so far, but authorized,
tested, legitimate software, much of it free, that can tap
into all the features of the iPhone.

There's a video of Steve Jobs's announcement
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/rtp20e92/event/index.html?internal=fj2l3s9dm


About two-thirds of the way into it, you can see demos of
five iPhone programs that software companies came up with
when given two weeks with the SDK. There was an AIM chat
program, a sales-force automation tool, and so on, all
good-looking and natural-feeling on the touch screen. And
there was an Electronic Arts game that exploits the
iPhone's accelerometers, which detect how you're tilting
the iPhone in any dimension; in this game, you navigate the
3-D world by tipping the iPhone forward, back, left, right,
up or down.

I can't tell you how huge this is going to be. There will be
thousands of iPhone programs, covering every possible
interest. The iPhone will be valuable for far more than
simple communications tasks; it will be the first
widespread pocket desktop computer. You're witnessing the
birth of a third major computer platform: Windows, Mac OS
X, iPhone.

Sure, there are add-on programs for the Treo, BlackBerry and
Windows Mobile. But they'll never achieve the ubiquity or
popularity of iPhone apps, because Apple will preinstall
the iPhone Apps Store right on every phone. That's an
online catalog of iPhone programs, which you can browse,
download and install wirelessly, wherever you happen to be.
That's several thousand fewer barriers and steps than you'd
encounter on the other smartphone platforms. That, and the
fact that the iPhone is already the second most popular
smartphone (after the BlackBerry), spells good things for
the success of this initiative.

Software companies and programmers can charge anything they
like for their programs--Apple keeps 30 percent of each
sale--but I expect many or most of the apps will be free. 
The one thing that raised my eyebrows, though, is that Apple
intends to be the exclusive source of all iPhone apps. You
won't be able to get iPhone add-ons from the usual
shareware sites like Downloads.com, Shareware.com or
VersionTracker.com, or even from the developers' own Web
sites. (Or, rather, you will, but you probably won't be
able to do that effortless wireless finding-and-installing
thing.) Once again, Apple is doing things its own way,
tradition be damned.

On the plus side, this arrangement means that Apple is
responsible for approving the quality and safety of each
program you install. It also means that it's easy to find
some program you've read about, since there's only one
place to look. And I'm guessing that Apple will make paying
for the for-fee programs effortless, like clicking BUY SONG
on the iTunes store--even fewer barriers to entry.

All of this, of course, will have the side effect of
enriching Apple; Apple's shrewd that way. But aside from
the usual Apple-bashers online, nobody will mind. The
release of iPhone 2.0 is over three months away, but I'll
stick my neck out and make a prediction: it will be a
gigantic success, spreading the iPhone's popularity both
upward, into the corporate market, and downward, into the
hands of the masses. iPhone 2.0 will turn this phone into
an engineering tool, a game console, a free-calls Skype
phone, a business tool, a dating service, an e-book reader,
a chat room, a database, an Etch-a-Sketch...and that's on Day
One.

In short, it's not going to be a pleasant summer for people
who are sick of hearing about the iPhone.

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