Thoughts on iPhone OS 3.0
Earlier this week, Apple unveiled iPhone OS 3.0. Coming this summer, iPhone OS 3.0 offers approximately 100 new features for end users, and over 1000 new features for developers. If you follow these types of things, you’ve already read much about what to expect. Here’s a few of my thoughts and perceptions.
First off – iPhone OS 3.0 delivers just about everything I was looking for in the next release. The one omission is video recording. We know that the iPhone is capable of such a feature because there is already an application that does this for jailbroken iPhones. The only reason I can think of that Apple didn’t include this feature is that they are holding it back to accompany a hardware update at some point in the future. Or, that the feature is in development but just isn’t fully baked yet. Either way, the very fact that this is one of the last features Apple has yet to implement on the iPhone is a good sign that they have delivered just about everything users were asking for. Being all things to all people isn’t easy, but Apple is doing a great of just of being just that.
One feature that (some) developers were hoping for but didn’t get is background processing. Apple made a point of demonstrating how background processing goes through battery life like the Octomom goes through diapers. Apple’s solution is the long delayed push notification API. This API, which was originally promised for iPhone 2.0 is now slated for 3.0. Apple demoed it with AIM, and it seems to do the trick. As a user, I’d like background processing, but not at the expense of having a fully drained device inside of an hour. Since the iPhone is – you guessed it – a phone, this is obviously an inexcusable side effect.
Other random thoughts:
Opening up the app store to GPS apps that offer turn by turn directions is huge. The iPhone is on the verge of becoming a fully usable GPS device. The only question remaining is how much the developers of said apps will charge. Both Garmin and Tom Tom have stated they are working on such apps. But both companies will be very careful how they price their app. Price it too low and they risk cannabalizing GPS unit sales. Price it too high and they risk being beaten in this market by the lower priced player. Turn by turn directions is probably the feature I am most looking forward to.
The Peer to Peer functioanlity is huge. It adds yet another tool for game developers to create rich gaming experiences.
Apple’s announcement that there are 30 million iPhone OS devices is game changing. They’ve built this market in less than 2 years. It’s not unrealistic to expect this market to grow by 20 million units in 2009. I haven’t seen recent figures on the number of Macs running OS X in the wild, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple has more devices running iPhone OS than Mac OS X at this point. If not, iPhone OS devices will probably outnumber OS X devices by the end of the year.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that Apple will continue to move more and more in the direction of producing iPhone OS devices. Apple has already shown a lack of interest in desktop Macs. I’m not saying that Apple will be getting out of the Mac market, but clearly you devote resources to the line of business that is making you more money. And the iPhone OS line, with sheer numbers of units sold, revenue sharing from carriers, and 30% of all apps sold offers the biggest revenue driver for the company. Apple would be crazy not to prioritize it.
And finally, this little thought: Snow Leopard is supposed to be released this summer. Yet the last look the public got at it was at WWDC 2007. Apple has already demonstrated iPhone OS to the world, and given developers access to the SDK and OS firmware update. How come OS X developers aren’t getting the same courtesy? As a developer, I’d like a little heads up as to when Snow Leopard is shipping.
Category: News
