iPhone Revisited: Signs and Portents

IanFogg | May 14, 2008, 06:11 PM

I've not been using the iPhone as my main phone (various reasons, nothing exciting).

This week I had another go and I was impressed all over again.

It's so easy to forget this is still just a version 1, given the smoothness of most of the experience:

version 1 hardware;
version 1 applications;
version 1 operating system;
version 1 business model.

There's been lots of speculation about what Apple will announce in addition to the new applications shop and version 2 OS that, unusually, they've pre-announced. A lot of the debate has been on a few narrow areas: games and 3g hardware.

But with this tremendous foundation there are so many different avenues that Apple could explore. Apple could innovate in any, or all, of the areas I listed above as "version 1".

Then there are the third party applications and software companies. With the original iPod Apple created a dynamic hardware ecosystem that added to flexibility with cases, adaptors, fm radios etc. The unofficial applications already available indicate the likely explosion of software choice that's imminent as Apple makes third party software legitimate.

The iPhone and iPod Touch's impacts on markets are just beginning. The competition has to be ready for another tidal wave of activity and mindshare growth from Apple.

And, that innovation will likely not be related to the mobile phone market alone.