Elliott C. Back: Internet & Technology

People keep going back and forth on whether we’ll be able to write our own applications for the iPhone. Since it runs a version of OSX on an ARM processor, there should be a rich set of APIs for graphics, file system IO, net applications, and UI. We know that Apple’s OSX Quartz API was recently modified to allow resolutions differing from 72dpi by introducing the notion of “scale.” Their software is ripe for 3rd party applications on the iPhone, and we know from their Yahoo / Google partnerships that non-apple software will already be running on the iPhone.

Apple Gazette theorizes that Cingular doesn’t want developers writing replacements for their for-fee services. He quotes Steve Jobs’ lame excuse for restricted application access:

“These are devices that need to work, and you can’t do that if you load any software on them,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there’s not going to be software to buy that you can load on them coming from us. It doesn’t mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment.”

Probably Cingular and Apple are worried about a few things:

• A security hole is found and a virus can spread through iPhones at a lightening pace
• 3rd party applications reduce Cingular’s for-pay applications’ appeal
• 3rd party applications mean Apple can’t control their branded UI
• A very good 3rd party application could make the iPhone more popular for that application that for the device itself, leading to a watering down of the Apple brand recognition

Worst case scenario: Apple releases the iPhone SDK and immediately Microsoft IE 7 is ported to the iPhone.

Apple, Inc is up 8% in the stock market after they announced a new cross-technology product at Macworld 2007 today, the Apple iPhone:

The iPhone is a smart phone running some version of OSX, sporting a wide-screen touch-sensitive display, iTunes, Safari, Widgets, and other mac apps, 8 GB of Flash Storage, support for GSM, Wifi, Bluetooth, and Edge networks, 5 hours of talk time, and 16 hours of music time. The phone is just 11mm thick, and will go for $599 ($100 less for a 4GB version) exclusively from Cingular. Deals were also announced with Yahoo for push-mail, and Google for Maps. Some problems with this in the future:

• Vendor tie in w/ Cingular will limit market share
• Availability will be a big issue–can Apple meet the demand?
• Battery-life issues will be important. Everything here is innovative, except for battery life, which has not improved
• Can Cingular provide the iPhone with enough bandwidth?
• Scratching, smudging and assorted damage to the touch-screen
• TM lawsuits from Cisco / Linksys, who own the iPhone trademark
• Lack of open standards for programming in the new “OSX-like” iPhone OS

I predict, like the iPod v1.0, future versions of the iPhone will solve these problems and more. I’m still buying one in June, though! Update: Engadget has a nice comparison of the size of this baby on their blog. It’s a nice size!

Since Engadget mentioned the Best Buy Mobile that just opened in Times Square NYC, I thought I’d drop by for a couple pictures of the store itself:

While I was there, I got to peek at a few older-gen phones, none of which impressed me much. The White Chocolate by LG is quite nice, but it’s bulky and clunky-looking, much like the Zune:

This Sony Ericsson Walkman phone is much the same–cool, but too big for my tastes. I want something sleeker:

Why is it that nothing substantially better in form factor and sexiness than the Razor V3 has hit US markets yet? I want a metal-cased phone, slim, contoured, with fancy edging and detail touches.