Bryan's Blurbs

The iPhone, iPod Touch, it's future and Steve Jobs on business (May 14th, 2008) (Updated on June 9th, 2008)

After much controversy on the iPhone and who Apple is targeting with the current device and the future "3G" iPhone, I decided to throw in my two cents. It may be worth more than that, but considering how many people actually click on ads, it's probably worth two....maybe three.

One of the biggest controversies surrounding the iPhone is that it is locked to one carrier. Currently AT&T is the carrier here in the United States. With just a few notable exceptions, in most other countries there is only a single service provider as well. Everyone wants to know when Apple will open the phone up and ideally make it unlocked. APPLE NEVER WILL. Or more....Steve Jobs never will. Maybe we seem to forget what company we are dealing with here. This is a company that builds an operating system that is locked to their own hardware. An entire suite of INCREDIBLE software (iLife, iWork and the Pro Apps) that will only operate on their computers. (Even though they could sell it to millions of Windows users. Remember, they have already ported Safari and iTunes. The infrastructure is there. Apple is all about controlling the End User Experience. With the iPhone, that End User Experience extends to the cellular service provider. Apple wants to have a company that they can control. The iPhone is currently AT&T's best selling phone. It has brought them many customers and millions of dollars. I would have to believe that Apple pretty much has AT&T in their hands. Although Apple does benefit from AT&T, in the long run I would have to believe that AT&T is the bigger benefactor. Apple is fine with that as long as they have the control. To Apple, it's not about the immediate money. It's the long term control. It's about Apple being able to roll out new exclusive features such as Visual Voicemail, whenever they want. With the 3G iPhone coming, you can be guaranteed that AT&T will be actively making their coverage area for 3G larger and probably at a much faster rate than they would if the iPhone didn't exist. You can be sure that Apple is going to give us features that take advantage of the faster network other than just speedier browsing and YouTube downloads. Verizon offers phones that have digital TV receivers.....I feel sure you'll be able to buy Music, Movies and TV Shows directly on the iPhone over 3G soon enough.

The iPhone will continue to be locked. It will continue to be an AT&T exclusive until they piss off Steve Jobs. It will continue to be successful and we will benefit from the arrangement (Wifi at Starbucks, etc.)

I also constantly hear people talking about the "iPhone killer". I hear about Google Android. I hear about the new Touch Screen Phones from LG, etc. The thing that people seem to forget is that try as they might, other phone manufactuers will NEVER come close to an iPhone killer. They can mimic the interface all they want, but they will never have OSX, the backbone of the iPhone. They will never have iTunes. They will never have all the deals that Apple has made with Music Labels, etc. This is stuff that Apple has been developing for ages. A company like LG or Motorola can't do what Apple has been working on for years in just a few months. They will always be YEARS behind Apple. And just as they begin to catch up, a new device will be introduced by Apple. Just look at what happened to Microsoft's Zune. When it was introduced everyone was talking about how Microsoft was on Apple's heels. Then Apple brought out the iPod Touch, which makes the Zune (As well as the iPod Classic) look ancient. Steve Jobs does not think about the industry today. He does not think of the industry tomorrow. He thinks about the industry 5 years from now and is designing products that are 5 years ahead of their time.

Now let's talk about the iPhone and the iPod Touch Operating System. Apple is not developing a phone or iPod platform. We can be sure of that. The touch screen and the interface that Apple is developing will be the way that we use computers in a few years. You'll still have a desktop for the heavy lifting (Video Editing, etc.) But I will not lug my laptop to Starbuck's any longer. I will be sitting on the beach (Yes, I live on South Beach in Miami, FL) holding a tablet. Probably the size of a book. Either LED or OLED backlit. (So you can read it in the sun.) I'll be reading my newspaper or magazine that I subscribe to on iTunes. My magazine or book might have an embedded video, etc. I might be typing a short blog entry using the onscreen keyboard. Or I might be sitting at Starbucks with tablet, pull out my bluetooth keyboard and type a longer blog entry, etc. It is the future, we all know that. Including Steve Jobs. He intends for that Tablet to have an Apple logo on the back of it. He intends for you to buy all of your content through iTunes. If you take a look at the iPhone SDK, you can see it. When you launch XCode or Interface Builder, the "iPhone OS" Projects are listed above the Mac OSX Projects. You don't develop a seperate OS and a Full Featured SDK for just a phone. This is not just another Phone or iPod. It is a platform. A Computing platform for the future. Apple's Computing Platform for the future.

Oh yeah, Stop complaining that it doesn't have a "real" keyboard. I type very well on my iPod Touch. It's a beautiful experience and very well implemented. Kid's are going to grow up using these onscreen keyboards and won't think twice about it. Receptionists will still have a full keyboard, but for most things, the onscreen keyboard or a small bluetooth keyboard will be just fine.

Very Soon the iPhone 2.0 software will be released. The App Store will be turned on and on that day, millionaires will be made. Apple is making the phone more accessible to more and more people. Even businesses. This is a move that is very historic. Steve Jobs hates big business. He has been burned by big business sooooo many times. He is a consumer oriented CEO and Apple is a consumer oriented company. Apple could have owned big business. Within NeXTSTEP (OSX before Apple bought it.) there was a little product called Database Kit that allowed you to build Database based apps in minutes using any major Database that you like. It was a killer feature and something that no one else had. This is the kind of stuff that makes a large business salivate. But it was never moved into OSX. One has to wonder why. I believe that it's because NeXT was never as successful as Steve Jobs would have liked. NeXT was aimed solely at big business and when Apple bought NeXTSTEP, Steve said fuck big business. If you'd like to see it in action, demonstrated by the man himself, check this out: Steve Jobs demoing NeXTSTEP Release 3 it's at 23:15. Apple likes being the BMW or Mercedes of the computer industry. They do not want to be anything else. 10 Million iPhone customers (1% of the cellular market.) is fine with Apple. If Steve Jobs can reach more people without compromising "His" product or standards, then so be it. But if not, 1% is fine. Apple may be a publicly held company, but when it comes down to it, no one is going to go up against Steve Jobs, again. We saw what happened the last time that happened.

The iPhone OS is Steve Jobs second chance at owning the computer industry. The iPhone and iPod Touch are Mac's. I know many Windows users who don't even realize they own a Mac (the iPhone or Touch). For Steve, it's not about the money or marketshare. For him, it's a mission. He sees himself as a Visionary (And many would argue he is, including myself.) and he believe's using an Apple product should be a moving, almost religious experience. The Blackberry is not a competitor to the iPhone. For Steve Jobs, there is No competitor to the iPhone. It is unlike any device that has existed before. He is perfecting multiple technologies, not competing with Rim, Palm, Motorola, or LG.

For anyone who would like to learn more about Steve Jobs and the way he thinks, I would recommend that you check out the book, The Second Coming of Steve Jobs by Alan Deutschman. It is more about him and his history than it is about current day Apple. It is available on Amazon if you use the link to the right. I thoroughly enjoyed it.