Take a look at any Facebook Profile or iPhone Home Screen and you can see how lucrative the closed market is. But with one click your benovolent provider can remove the need for your application by implementing the same application as a native feature. That is to say Apple denying applications to the app store because they are developing the same feature or adding a feature which negates a £4.99 app.
Facebook has done the dirty on the Birthday Reminders Applications, by implementing birthday notifcation into Facebook by default.
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There has been lots of talk about Apple is doomed to fail with the iPhone as a software Platform and the Android platform is going to be so much better, simple because its open.
Firstly, take a look at the iPhone. Its a fantastically designed device, and the attention to detail is insane - that's not to say the Android platform isn't. But it is a sensible justification that the platform needs to slightly closed to allow a continuity of quality to be maintained. Secondly, the iTunes to iPhone facility has yet to face any real competition, its far from perfect but there is a seamless connection from buying to using. You click buy and the app or music is downloaded and synced to your phone, without having to drag and drop, move or do anything manually. However there is growing concern that the closed nature of the platform will be its undoing see Pull My Finger [1] Read more...
WWDC was a bit of a let down, iphone alleys' coverage by ustream however was fantastic. I was expecting more information and more products, not a grueling 45mins of demo's of apps we cant use for a month, not quite the usual Apple finesse we have come to appreciate.
One important thing to note was Steve Job's committed to pricing the new 8gb iPhone at no more that $199US in all 70 countries the iPhone 3g will be sold in by the end of the year. I hope this is the signal of a much bigger push by Apple to price equivalently in all countries. That said they create products people will gladly pay for in some cases even twice such as myself who will be upgrading come July 11th once again.
Surprisingly the announcement of OS X 10.6 dubbed Snow Leopard was pushed from the forefront of the announcement, giving credence to the fact it will not be a stability release just a fit and polish release to keep ahead of the competition. Also .mac will be no longer and be replaced by mobile me, which has to be an improvement of the aging .mac name and technology.
It was a bit of a let down in the fact that Steve had very little stage time, some reported as usually steve looked ill.
Shock Horror - There was no one more thing.
Ok So heres my predications:
- iPhone 2,
- iPhone App Store
- New Firmware for existing iPhones
- New Version of OS X 10.6 - Snow Leopard - Nice and shiny none feature release
- New Cinema Displays
- Updated Macbook Pro's
- Twitter will die - Twitter Blog
- Lets not forget the one more thing that no one guesses, my money is on a Yellow Submarine iPhone and all the Beetles back catalogue on iTunes
Well I was expecting the no easy way to upgrade to the 16gb iPhone from my 8gb. What I was not expecting is that you aren't able to add the International Data Plan, to any iPhone tariff. So it costs a whopping £7.50 per mb thats a couple of cents shy of $15, whenever your outside the UK. The best they could come up with is leave your iPhone in Airplane mode for the duration of your trip.
Get a grip O2, even AT&T can offer Data plans for outside the US to iPhone customers.
