I finally got to touch an IPhone a few days ago and it's definitely a very cool device. I'm even considering it as option when my wireless contract ends in September. However, after using it for a little while, I think Apple made two mistakes.
The first is the lack of qwerty keyboard. For this reason alone, it will never displace the Blackberry in the business market or the Sidekick in the younger instant messaging crowd.
The second mistake is the lack of an open SDK. I understand the desire to not give users the ability to break their own phones but allowing approved developers to build 3rd-party applications would have made sense. Apple could have exerted some influence over all 3rd-party efforts. But, they chose a different route and tried to control consumer and developer usage by keeping the platform closed. Unfortunately for Apple, that strategy quickly failed. IPhone hacks began to appear days after the official market release.
It's amazing that companies still believe they can control usage via a closed platform. Computer Security 101 tells us: Security by obscurity never works. Apple should have provided a way for developers to interact with the IPhone. It would have allowed Apple to participate and interact with the development community. Now, trying to rein in those 3rd-party efforts in is going to be very difficult. I wouldn't be surprised to see lawsuits from Apple.
Anyway, I wonder what the first solid 3rd-party application will be...
Phone Can Now Serve Web Pages, Run Python, Open Source Apps - gizmodo.com
Crashed iPhone in Single-User Mode Shows Need for Changes at Apple - gizmodo.com
By the way, the first Open Phone Platform:
openmoko - openmoko.com
Comments