The future of the iPhone is coming into focus, even if it is a bit abstract at the moment. Reports are beginning to surface that Infineon, a German chipmaker, will provide Apple with a new chip set for the next-generation iPhone — let’s call it iPhone 2.0.
Syndicated from last100, our digital lifestyle blog
According to analysts from the investment bank UBS, iPhone 2.0 is set to launch mid-year, which means we may actually see it sometime in late summer or early Fall. The new chip set is expected to bring faster 3G network capabilities to the iPhone, a much-anticipated upgrade.
In the meantime, Apple announced the other day it will release “the iPhone software roadmap” on March 6. Many around the Web believe this will be the much-anticipated software developer kit (SDK), although there is speculation that it might be just a roadmap and that the actual SDK won’t be released until later in the Spring.
No matter when it’s released, the SDK is important because it will allow third-party developers to write specific applications for the phone, essentially giving it a “new” feeling — let’s call this one iPhone 1.5.
Taken together, iPhone 1.5 and iPhone 2.0 bring the future into focus, propelling Apple toward its oft-stated goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of the year.
Third-party applications appeal to holdouts like the enterprise market who have been waiting for the additional functionality found on smartphones from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Research in Motion (Blackberry), among others.
Another set of holdouts are those who want the faster data capabilities of 3G networks, which is important to the overseas market. Assuming iPhone 2.0 is released early enough to impact sales, Apple should hit its mark of selling 10 million iPhones by year-end.
Reading between the lines, Tim Cook, Apple’s COO, hinted at this timing. The iPhone is already an “incredible accomplishment,” he told the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium Wednesday, but it has far more potential in the long term (Cook’s presentation).
“I need a bigger word than ‘enormous’ to describe it,” he said.
This post is syndicated from last100, our digital lifestyle blog covering Internet TV, digital music, Mobile Web and more. You can subscribe to last100 here.
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For Apple to compete with the upcoming Android phones, 3g would be nice, but iPhone will really need to add some kind of GPS functionality for location-aware services. Right now the Google Maps location finding via GSM triangulation is inaccurate and location finding via wifi is limited.
I think GPS will make or break iPhone's chances vs Android.
Posted by: Hung | March 2, 2008 2:03 PM@hung
You don't really need GPS, since when do you not know the address that you are at. I know where I am now, there are very few times, where I need to GPS to locate me as I don't drive/walk around with a blind fold on.
I did setup Lojack on my iPhone so it Twitters the location of my phone every 10 mins, as you say this is not accurate (but if you average the results its better). It is fun but it doesn't really have a true practical purpose.
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/02/21/tuaw-responds-iphone-lojack/
In response to the iPhone SDK if it does come I would speculate that Apple would do the following (this comes from talks with a friend) that apple would allow iphone users to purchase applications via iTunes. We would speculate that applications would probably fall into different price brackets (they did this with music, tv, movies).
These brackets might be:
free, $5, $10, $20?
or just 1 price? But what ever it will be, it will be easy to understand the cost and I would speculate that Apple will take 50% revenue share (which I would still happily sign up for to get access to this huge sea of iPhones.)
Looking forwards to march 6th, but the road map sounds really bad as it does not sound like we are getting the SDK or we will get it but not be able to do anything with it until iTunes is ready?
Posted by: John Ballinger | March 2, 2008 3:30 PMOnce the applications are developed for iPhone, it will be the death for Palm. One of the main reasons many are still using Palm, Windows mobile is because of the number of applications available now. Compared to the usability in Palm, iPhone is way good.
Posted by: Chris | March 2, 2008 3:55 PM"[...] You don't really need GPS, since when do you not know the address that you are at."
Uh...quite often when I'm driving. Again, when the phone knows where it is (and, in theory, where I am), it can give me much more useful information. When I land in New York City and ask for a weather report, it won't give me the weather for Los Angeles.
There's also the concept of geotagging for photos. Sure, I can go in and mark my photos as "Hawaii", but it's pretty nice when the camera (or phone, in this case) does it for me. So I can say, "Show me all photos from Honolulu" without having to have marked them that way before.
"It's not that big a deal to go in and change your location on the iPhone." No, it isn't. But the difference between a "smart" device and a "dumb" device is how much the device "knows." A device that knows where it is and can act accordingly is seen as much smarter than a device that has to be continually told, "Okay, now you're in New York City" before you can ask, "Is it going to rain tomorrow?"
To use the dreaded car analogy, it isn't that big a deal to drive a car with a clutch. But lots of people prefer automatic transmissions where the car takes care of what gear it's in.
Posted by: Peter | March 2, 2008 5:11 PMDon't forget the fact that this SDK will also enable iPod touch devices to benefit from these same apps.
With 100M iPods sold the potential to convert that market to touch users is HUGE. While there is an understandable tendency to focus on the phone piece of the equation, the overall platform footprint that we are talking about is much bigger once touch devices are factored in.
I have recently blogged about the touch from perspective of user and from developer perspective (in anticipation of SDK). Check out the post if interested:
iPod touch: Take two http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/02/ipod-touch-take.html
Cheers,
Mark
Posted by: Mark Sigal | March 2, 2008 10:47 PMThe iPhone ushers a paradigm change in user interfaces. It is an incredible product where technology, form and factor come together. I can not wait for future releases of the product.
http://www.fabianschonholz.com/2007/09/02/apple-the-iphone-and-product-development/
Posted by: Fabian Schonholz | March 2, 2008 11:03 PMnVidia phones will be way ahead the iphone
Posted by: i-guide | March 3, 2008 7:28 AMhttp://www.i-guide.ro
I can't wait to use the next iphones!
Posted by: kay | March 8, 2008 12:53 AMnot 100% sure, but I think Infineon is actually an Austrian company...
Posted by: Michael Kamleitner | March 16, 2008 5:00 PM