Apple’s iPhone is the best thing to happen to the American smartphone industry
By Stefan Constantinescu on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 1:09 PM PST In Ideas and rants
Before the iPhone it was considered ridiculous for the mainstream American consumer to purchase a cellphone for more than $100 or $200. Operators would provide heavy subsides on devices with the catch that you had to remain a subscriber for at least 2 years. The iPhone changed all that. It became acceptable to shell out over half a grand (now only $400 vs $600 initially) for a device that could play music, videos, browse the internet, send and receive text messages and phone calls.
Then one day the iPhone was hacked and America’s most popular feature phone became America’s most popular smartphone. Applications could be installed, functionality could be added, your iPhone became more than an iPod connected to the cellular network. Your iPhone became a computer that was always connected and always in your pocket.
Recently Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) updated the iPhone’s firmware and those users who once enjoyed applications that let them play Nintendo games, chat with their friends over IM, upload images straight to Flickr, were now confronted with a dead device. Punished for exploring their curiosity, punished for thinking differently, the company who once stood for creating technology that enhanced your life turned into the company that wanted to control the end user experience.
Gizmodo recently came to the realization that the iPhone isn’t the holiest of holy devices, something I’ve been saying since before the damn thing came out, and I’m glad that the backlash is starting to happen. If there was ever a time for cellphone manufactures and operators to innovate in the states, than this is it. With Sprint (NYSE: S) saying their WiMAX network will be used for non subsided hardware and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) printing ads in the Times proclaiming how free their devics are, who will be the creator of a new device that gets as much hype as the iPhone did, yet deliver more to the consumer than the iPhone ever could?
The iPhone really is the best thing to ever happen to the American smartphone industry. Expect to see S60, Windows Mobile and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) steal the best ideas Apple developed, compounded with the philosophy that users want to expand their devices functionality, and unleash a wave of devices that are easier to use and sexier than ever imagined.
Good thinking!
I agree that this will level the play field and it will be brutal…
However, do you feel that the competition will capitalize on this or just use similar tactics, just because they can. See software update policy for S60 (no feature pack updates) and danger of “monopolist” strategy for winmobile?
You are exaggerating the results of the iPhone firmware update. Only unlocked iPhones were dead, not jailbroken phones running third party applications. Who are the American service providers encouraging their customers to unlock their cellphones? Certainly not Verizon, AT&T or Sprint. Only T-Mobile might do that, but they have the weakest network.
The Smart Phone manufacturers will never catch up. They could never compete with the iPhone on price. That is why they are subsidized– to give the impression that they offer a good value.
Why hasn’t Apple allowed Third Party Apps? Because they are waiting for some competition and none is on the horizon. When the Smart Phone manufacturers come close, Apple will slap them up side the head with a new update that delivers all those apps for free through iTunes. Apple already offers $450 worth of software free on the iPhone. Apple’s Ringtones cost $1.98 plus you buy the song they were made from. The competition’s Ringtones are $2.50 for a three month rental. Then, you get real web surfing on the iPhone. The Smart Phone manufacturers have a long way to go.
You write, “Punished for exploring their curiosity, punished for thinking differently, the company who once stood for creating technology that enhanced your life turned into the company that wanted to control the end user experience.”
That simply is not true. Apple from the get go said it would not initially support third party development efforts, and warned that future updates might render the third party applications inoperable. Apple has also said it would not intentionally brick an iPhone, but admitted that may happen to unlocked phones as a result of updates. APple simply doesn’t want to support third party efforts right now, and it isn’t going to concern itself with breaking third party applications and unlocks.
That makes sense from my perspective. It clearly rushed the iPhone to market, and cut out some features as it struggled to complete both the iPhone and Leopard. With Leopard finished next month, APple will likely alter the iPhone’s OS quite a bit implementing features it initially wanted to included from the get go. It cannot worry about disrupting applications and unlocks. I suspect when things settle down, Apple will support third party application development. Right now, however, its resources are stretched thin.
Also APple has always controlled the user experience to some extent. Look at the iPod. That is not necessarily a bad thing either, as the more third parties that are involved, the more chance of a product crashing. Initially that would have been bad for the iPhone.
The apologetics are here, score!
Louis, what? What is the $450 worth of software iPhone has?
I luv my iPhone. See you guy in 5 years!
I bought my iPhone two days before the patch. It is easily the coolest (most fun) gadget that I have ever owned. I have no intnent to hack it and am confident that there will be apps. Apple is not quick to give up control of their QA process and we users should appreciate that.
@Louis
Smartphone manufacturers have nothing to do with the prices of ringtones. If you own an unlocked smartphone, you should know how to make your own, which is free. You do also understand that WM and S60 also browse the “real web” as you call it, and have been doing it for much longer than the iPhone has, right? The only company that should really compete with the iPhone is Motorola, since their products are in the same ball park (see, “RAZR”, or “all show-no go”). Apple hasn’t allowed third party apps because they haven’t figured out a way to suck the rest of your money out of your wallet for them yet.
Are you 11?
You are confusing unlocked iPhones with hacked iPhones. Only iPhones that were unlocked for use on another network have been bricked by the update, which Apple warned people of ahead of time. (The general consensus seems to be that Apple should have intentionally not fixed the known buffer overflow error in the iPhone’s OS X which allowed the unlocking, which is just patently ridiculous.) iPhones that have been hacked for third party applications are just fine. Although the update removed any installed third party apps from updated iPhones, the phones are fully functional and can be hacked again to reinstall their apps after the firmware update, which many have done with no negative effects whatsoever. If you’re going to overreact to this situation, at least make sure you understand exactly what happened first, and get your facts straight.
i took a hammer and broke it the second day IT SUCKS THEY CAN DO BETTER
Moto Razr was $499 at release, with subsidies – it is now FREE with subsidies, and the software / UI still sucks.
My Blackberry (7290, OS 4.1) is mostly closed, has extremely limited software available for it, and does not have a decent browser (OK, Opera Mini 4 beta is pretty damn good, but a real PITA to install)
Best street price on a N95 is what? $625 or so? S60 is a great platform, but the user interface is archaic.
What is a real shame is that, except for the smartphone/PDA category, the usability of ALL cell phones for contact management and calendar integration with the phone is atrocious! Everyone talks about the phones, but, with the exception of Apple, no one talks about the software that makes the phone what it is. Hardware is a commodity folks, and software is the differentiator.
Someone will soon have 3rd party apps again on the phone, or, if capitalism works, a competitor will create a product that can compete (none exist today, IMHO), and Apple, through this competitive pressure, will be forced to open the phone to 3rd party applications.
However, for those that modified the fuel system on their car (hacked the phone), and their car blew up – tough luck. If you modified your suspension to allow the car to run on railroad rails, or lifted/lowered the suspension, or changed the gearing in the drive train, and it broke, the manufacturer is probably not going to honor the warranty.
Or to flip it around, if someone modified a business report that you wrote, you are now responsible for what that report says, even though you did not make the changes. You’re fired for someone else’s actions. Would you fight it, prove that they modified your product (report), which caused the failure?
What all the whiners are saying is that they should be allowed to buy anything, modify it, and then, if the mfg updates the product, all their modifications should still work, and the mfg is responsible if it doesn’t.
Large scale software systems are purchased, and then often tailored for the company, When the software vendor updates the software, the tailored changes often “break” on the upgrade. Companies have to make a decision as to whether the value of their modifications outweigh the value of the new features. Tailored software is not covered under warranty.
The Apple iPhone practices are uniform, best practices, identical to what every software manufacturer out there offers. Don’t like it, decide to do something else – it is a free market, and consumers can vote with their wallet, making the iPhone the fastest selling cell phone of all time.
Stefan: Last score you’ll ever make. Your name is now on the Think Before You Click™ list.
Well, well, well…
So let’s get the facts straight:
Apple did not brick phones which had third party software (but were not unlocked)… but according to other reports they did…
Apple did not make it harder to install third party software with the new firmware… but according to others they did…
So what is the truth? I think it is pointless to argue if the facts are blured… let’s wait and see the truth first… than we can meditate…
How about Feature pack upgrades for S60?
How about N-series features for E-seies (A2DP has come for the N91 8GB, N73, but not for any E-series) and E-series features for N-series phones (this is a limitation why the N95 does not have the possibility to display the incoming messages-emails on the standby screen…)?
How about Nokia being open with features which ae already there just let us have them?
Shall I go the MS too?
And one more thing:
If the Nokia E70 could get the rock solid memory handling firmware of the Nokia E61i, we would have a clear iPhone “killer” with a competing revolutionary concept: with a great full keyboard…
A shocking fact about the E70: Pixel wise it has only 5% less screen realestate than the iPhone, so it displays full 800×600 web sites readable at 50% zoom (has Flashlite 1.1 too). Try it – push # twice when in the S60 browser – and drop your jaws…