With new iPhone software, Apple breaks from the pack
By the time Apple officially releases the OS X 2.0 update in June, there will be no doubt that the iPhone will have turned both the personal computing and mobile communications industries on their head in just one year.
Let's be clear: Apple didn't invent the concept of the smartphone. People have been making calls, checking corporate e-mail, surfing the Internet, watching videos, and playing games on handheld devices for years. What Apple has done, however, is put together the most complete and compelling combination of those features and wrapped it with a breakthrough in user interface design.
The enterprise-friendly features and roadmap for third-party applications unveiled Thursday at its Cupertino, Calif., headquarters bring Apple two steps closer to that point. And when the final piece--the 3G iPhone--arrives at some point in the upcoming future, Apple will have developed the first truly mobile computer.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs explains how the iPhone is about to enter its second chapter.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)At least, for now. Will all mobile developers find it as easy to build iPhone applications as the five developers highlighted during Thursday's event? Does the addition of push e-mail make the iPhone more attractive than the BlackBerry? And how soon will it be before the rest of the world figures out Apple's secret: it's the software, stupid. The answers to those questions will dictate the second chapter of the iPhone.
Let's review what was introduced Thursday. The new enterprise features are a slam dunk. Licensing Microsoft's ActiveSync is a move as important to the growth of the iPhone as developing a version of iTunes for Windows was for growth of the iPod. iPhone users will now have secure and reliable access to Microsoft's widely used Exchange e-mail server, turning their iPhone into an extension of their desktop.
iPhone opens up for business
No one will be able to say, after the release of OS X 2.0, that the iPhone isn't suitable for businesses. It will have a laundry list of enterprise features, starting with ActiveSync. That protocol allows for the secure, wireless syncing of e-mail, calendars, and contacts data. It turns the iPhone into a BlackBerry or Treo.
IT departments cautiously testing the iPhone waters will also be able to breathe easier with features like Cisco's IPSec virtual private network technology (IPSec is an encryption standard), "remote wipe" technology that can erase sensitive data if an iPhone is lost or stolen, and better wireless security with 802.1x support.
This is an unquestioned win for Apple in the enterprise, as IT managers will get almost everything they want in a mobile business device. Software developers might not be quite so ecstatic at their portion of Thursday's news, but it could have been worse.
Developers swarmed Apple's Web site in the immediate aftermath of the company's presentation, trying to get more information and to download a beta version of the SDK. Several Apple blogs reported very slow load times on Apple's developer Web pages.
Developers will get access to the iPhone for $99 a year, as part of Apple's iPhone Developer Program. The program, however, will only be available to U.S. developers at first, and only "a limited number" of developers at that. Apple declined to elaborate on the exact definition of "limited." A separate $299 "enterprise" developer program will be available for corporations creating in-house applications.
Cocoa Touch is the key
The actual development process itself should be very familiar to anyone who has developed a
Mac application in the past, as Apple's in-depth presentation on OS X confirmed that the mobile operating system shares many of the same underpinnings as Mac OS X. The difference, however, is a tweaked version of Cocoa, Apple's programming environment, called Cocoa Touch.
Cocoa Touch is the key to iPhone applications. It will allow developers to take advantage of the touchscreen interface that has been key to early iPhone demand. EA's Spore and Apple's Touch Fighter games demonstrated just what innovative developers will be able to do with that technology.
But while the games should be interesting, there are countless other possibilities. I was struck by Epocrates' concept applications involving the iPhone as a diagnostic instrument, allowing doctors to check for drug interactions, obtain patient history, or even check the picture of an unknown pill against a database of pills.
As expected, Apple is going to control the distribution of the applications through either the iTunes Store or the App Store, which will allow iPhone users to wirelessly download applications. Apple gets a 30 percent cut of the revenue of any iPhone or iPod Touch application sold through the stores, which sounds like a lot to me but apparently didn't faze some developers. Free applications will be listed free of charge on the App Store.
An Apple representative confirmed that the company will certify every application made available through the App Store. That will be a ton of work--and might explain why participation will be limited at first--but Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it's necessary to ensure security and reliability. All applications will have to be electronically signed by their developers, a process similar to what is required by Symbian, the most widely used smartphone operating system.
The devil, as always, will be in the details of that application certification program. Wireless unlocking applications? Of course not, Jobs said. But voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software will be permitted, he said, so long as it only uses the Wi-Fi chip for communication, not the EDGE cellular network.
So where will Apple draw the line? This was perhaps the key unanswered question from Thursday's presentation. Apple seems open to quite a few different types of applications, but if it's planning to certify them individually, some patterns might emerge and provide some hints of where Apple wants to go with its own software applications. As developers get their hands on the beta SDK, I expect a lot more of those questions to be answered, at least in part.
A wide-open race
To me, the most interesting thing about the development of the smartphone industry is the wide-open nature of the race. This time around, a winner is not going to be picked in the early stages of the competition. Several huge important companies--Apple, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, RIM, and don't forget about Palm just yet--have already had an impact on the development of the product, and will continue to do so well into the future.
Despite sitting out the first few years, Apple has arguably vaulted ahead of its competition in just 12 months. The other players in this industry came into smartphones building them for businesspeople and their IT masters. Then they tried to woo the consumer.
Apple has done the complete opposite, hooking those who had never used a smartphone before with the iPhone's interface, and now giving them the opportunity to use it for both work and play.
The first era of the mobile-computing industry was about hardware. The second part will be about software. And right now, no one is developing mobile software like Apple.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
able to enter the cellphone market"...
Or was Dell's CEO suggesting to "give back the money to
shareholders"?
That's it folks.
The rest is just the usual hype that Apple generates with consistant masterfulness.
Windows Mobile has had an SDK, ActiveSync, a developer community, industry partners, 3G devices, FOR YEARS! What it does not have is the Apple flare which I must admit is quite impressive.
platform"
Hah! Good luck with that one.
You sound like the people who said the iPhone was just hype
during the first half of 2007. Some people never learn.
The only thing Windows Mobile is on are field equipment and people hate it, and ugly tablets that cost more than their worth to waste IT budget to maintain.
As always MS ends up making lousy copies of what Apple does. I have no doubt they will attempt to do the same again.
How's your Zune? Working well? Letting you boogie to your tunes?
The one argument and defense that the Windows folks had left was the cry of "but it don't do business apps!"
It does now. Meanwhile, WinMobile continues to crash and burn in the marketshare contest. Palm is likely to be next, then (maybe) Symbian. RIM hasn't too much to worry about (yet), but if I were them I wouldn't just stand there and watch.
The funny part is, MSFT has nothing to counter it. They even licensed to Apple the one and only thing they could've fought off the iPhone with (although to be honest, Push email is overrated, and the iPhone can happily read IMAP emails off of any properly built Exchange server...)
/P
The one argument and defense that the Windows folks had left was the cry of "but it don't do business apps!"
It does now. Meanwhile, WinMobile continues to crash and burn in the marketshare contest. Palm is likely to be next, then (maybe) Symbian. RIM hasn't too much to worry about (yet), but if I were them I wouldn't just stand there and watch.
The funny part is, MSFT has nothing to counter it. They even licensed to Apple the one and only thing they could've fought off the iPhone with (although to be honest, Push email is overrated, and the iPhone can happily read IMAP emails off of any properly built Exchange server...)
/P
locked in a dungeon since 1995. Seriously though, I doubt
you've even used an iPhone if you think Windows Mobile is better
than the iPhone OS. After Apple licensed Exchange from MS, they
just isn't any more excuses why this phone couldn't be
considered for business use. And Apple like them or not is going
to see a bonanza in sales which means more iPhone models.
But in any case, this is HUGE HUGE NEWS! I can only imagine the
amount of amazing apps that are just around the corner for this
truly amazing communication device.
I predict it's going to be even BIGGER than the iPod. Just watch!
future as a corporate tool. I own two and I like the product. But
I'm pretty convinced that without standard text editor cut &
paste funcitonality that will never happen.
I still can't see any reason what so ever to create a product with
w-mail, sms, calender, contacts and notes functions without cut
& paste.
Does anyone think that a coporate user who get info through
sms will want to copy that by hand in to an e-mail.
Somebody at Apple's Iphone R&D forgot to think I'd say.
It's more than close to stupidity...
- Apple's Secret
- by theoxygenthief March 7, 2008 1:42 PM PST
- I find it interesting that you've taken it upon yourself to decide that Apple's secret is "the software, stupid". It wasn't software that made the iPod such a great success. It's the useability, stupid.
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- And it is usable because....
- by groink_hi March 9, 2008 2:40 PM PDT
- ... of the software. If you took the software out of the iPhone, you're left with metal, glass and plastic. If you threw any other OS onto the iPhone hardware, you would have a different software experience.
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