Boom! iPhone Rocks Tech World
At the Steve Jobs keynote speech at Macworld this morning PST, he announced "three revolutionary new products". An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. But turns out it's all one device: the fabled iPhone!
We'll have extended
analysis about this later today, but for now let's review the news. Here's the feature
list:
- Instead of a standard keypad, the iPhone uses a patented Apple technology called "multi-touch". It doesn't use a stylus, has "multi-finger gestures" and claims to ignore unintended touches. Jobs compared it to two other revolutionary Apple UIs - the mouse on the Macintosh and the click wheel on the iPod.
- 3.5 inch touchscreen with a virtual keyboard.
- iPhone runs OS X, Apple's standard operating system; according to Engadget's superb coverage: "It let us create desktop class applications and networking, not the cripled stuff you find on most phones, these are real desktop applications."
- Syncs with iTunes: "iTunes is going to sync all your media to your iPhone -- but also a ton of data. Contacts, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks, email accounts..."
- Apple's design chops is all over the iPhone: "3.5-inch screen, highest resolution screen we've ever shipped, 160ppi. There's only one button, the "home" button [...] thinner than any smartphone..."
- 2 megapixel camera built in
- Outstanding media features - scroll through your music, widescreen video, album art, built-in speaker...
- Sync your iPhone with your PC or Mac (for contacts etc)
- Standard phone features - SMS, calendar, photos, etc. With photos there is a motion sensor that rotates photos when you turn the phone.
- Visual voicemail
- Rich HTML emails - works with any IMAP or POP3 email service. This spells trouble for Blackberry!
- The Safari browser runs on iPhone - "it's the first fully-usable browser on a cellphone." Jobs shows the NYT running in the iPhone - the actual website, not a puny WAP version.
- Google Maps
- Widgets that connect to Internet seamlessly (via WiFi and EDGE)
- Free "push" IMAP email from Yahoo
In terms of phone dimensions, iPhone is a quad-band GSM + EDGE phone (no 3G, notes Engadget). It has WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0.
Apple + Google + Yahoo
Google CEO Eric Schmidt
and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang both made an appearance in Steve Jobs' keynote. Schmidt is an
Apple board member and had this to say:
"From a google perspective we've pushed very hard to partner with Apple and working with many many different data service -- Steve showed a little bit. It comes together seamlessly. This is the first of a whole new generation..."
Jerry Yang then said:
"One of the things we're going to be doing is launching some of our new services , Yahoo Go and One Search on this phone. Mail is a killer app on the phone, Yahoo is trying to redesign the web and email experience on mobile devices."
Summary
Steve Jobs said about the iPhone: "it's the internet in your pocket for the first time ever." He also called it "the ultimate digital device". A 4GB model will cost $499 and an 8GB model will retail for $599. It will be available in June in the US (on the Cingular network), Europe in the 4th quarter, Asia in 2008.
With a desktop-like UI and partnerships with two of the Big 3 Internet companies (Google and Yahoo), Apple is really upping the ante in the Mobile Web market. I think this will finally propel mobile Internet into the mainstream. Maybe 2007 will be the year of the Mobile Web after all!
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No 3G is exactly what I thought. Maybe the European version will have this since UMTS has been rolled out in those markets. The one thing that Apple normally does is go with the latest technologies (no floppy, Firewire, 802.11g, etc) so it surprised me that they didn't put in UMTS. Maybe this is because there are no networks in the US that support this standard (I'm not sure being a Kiwi).
Cingular, the carrier that Apple is going with does support UMTS AFAIK (I have an HSDPA phone), so the lack of 3G is a bummer
And so the game of turning hardware into software continues. This is one of the most amazing modern gadgets and it shows that Apple is capable of incredible discipline and boundless creativity. Go guys, go!
Alex
Anyone care to explain to me how they got a full version of OS X running on a mobile phone? It seems amazing to me. Vista wouldn't run on a mobile phone surely? Microsoft have to release cut-down mobile versions of Windows for mobiles.
What I don't get is why I should want to sync my "contacts, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks, email accounts..." through ITunes...
It's not so hard fitting in OS X - Microsoft does a similar thing with WinCE and you have Linux and *BSD for embedded devices. Don't forget that today's handheld devices have very powerful CPUs.
To me the iPhone seems like an iPod with phone functionality tacked on. How will you download music to fill up the 4/8GB? With slow GPRS, or find a hotspot somewhere? What about streaming mobile TV and video? That's not going to work even on the slightly faster EDGE.
Without server side support and other security features there's no way the iPhone will spell trouble for Blackberry. I think people are getting just a tad carried away over the iPhone... OK, it's made by Apple, but can we have a bit less adulation already, and more balance?
Please remove my all rights reserved pictures from this post. The photographs are available for license if you would like.
I'm not a big cell phone guy at all, but I want this one. Price is a bit more than I want to spend with my cell phone habits.
Excellent!
@Walter,
Interesting point, I have to agree, that has not been done in a clean way.
Alex
I'm sure that Douglas Engelbart appreciates Jobs taking credit for the mouse.
And for everybody who now wants to change to Cingular but is stuck under contract, please checkout Cellswapper.com :)
http://www.cellswapper.com
(We just launched for general public)
Niall, as requested I've removed your photo (I only used one).
I'm amped for this phone. However, I haven't seen too many people talking about the implications for Ajax-enabled websites.
It seems to me that this is the first device to come along which truly supports (X)HTML/CSS/JavaScript. That should open up some exciting possibilities for developers of web applications. Not to mention OS X, which is a boon for C/Objective-C developers.
Steve Jobs said about the iPhone: "it's the internet in your pocket for the first time ever." Is it really, or is it actually Cingular/AT&T walled garden WiFi? More on that thought on the NextBlitz blog.
10 Big questions about the iPod phone:
http://bla.st/site/blog/40/
Especially for those of us in unmentioned countries - how long, if at all will it take for the iPhone to become available in New Zealand (for example)?
Apple Newton II. I'm glad that I was right on the AppleInsider forum that Apple is on its track to "Apple Cell Computer". Vote for my project of the cell computer on Intel's Mobilitity Mod Challenge and we'll see and Microsoft Cell Computer too - I really enjoyed Bill Gates's "Connected experiences" at CES 2007.
The link is -
Intel Mobile Mod Challenge 06
http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/isn/contestplatform/default.aspx
What a wonderful example of collaboration and innovation. The teams at both Apple and Intel should be proud. Congratulations.
Hi Richard,
Thanks for this. Good coverage
Some comments
a) >>> "(Safari) it's the first fully-usable browser on a cellphone." - I think Jobs said that? But thats not quite true. Others like Nokia and Opera have been having full web browsers for about a year now. Something which I have long talked about (in context of RIA, Ajax etc on mobile devices)
b) The real significance is:
The announcement is too Cingular centric - thus the jury is out on it's wider uptake
I cover this on my blog at
(The iPhone is extraordinary not because of it’s UI but because it’s the tail wagging the dog .. But the real question is: How many dogs can it wag?)
http://opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2007/01/the_iphone_is_e_1.html
In a nutshell:
The iPhone is cool, sexy etc because it works closely with the one Operator where its launched(namely Cingular in the US). In that deployment, Apple seems to be the dominant partner rather than Cingular if you consider feartures like Visual voicemail (which is unlike the norm i.e. the Carrier is the more dominant patner in such relationships). The caveat is, as more Operators deploy the iPhone, either it becomes too complex or it becomes least common denominator
Thus, the jury is out still IMHO
See
http://opengardensblog.futuretext.com/archives/2007/01/the_iphone_is_e_1.html
kind rgds
Ajit
MediaVidea analyzes 8 important issues related to iPhone and Apple's future course of direction.
http://mediavidea.blogspot.com/2007/01/apples-iphone-8-important-issues.html
Most importantly, Is iPhone a revolution?
Am I the only to wonder the following? what do you do of all the fancy web applications if you're in wifi coverage??? No 3G means ANYTHING is going to take ages to download...
Am I the only to wonder the following? what do you do of all the fancy web applications if you're not in wifi coverage??? No 3G means ANYTHING is going to take ages to download...
As with all great hardware, this immediately creates demand for appropriate software: social networking software able to find friends as cool as the phone you're now using.
Check out iPhoneTopsites.com for the best up and coming iPhone sites on the web.
Have Yahoo and Google worked together before on something like this?
iPhone is available with Cingular ONLY!? And what if I am stuck under contract with a carrier OTHER than Cingular but still want a iPhone?
Well, the only solution I could fine was http://www.Cellswapper.com - they get you out of any cell phone contract!
iPhone is available with Cingular ONLY!? And what if I am stuck under contract with a carrier OTHER than Cingular but still want a iPhone?
Well, the only solution I could fine was http://www.Cellswapper.com - they get you out of any cell phone contract!