Some practical thoughts/analysis on the "iPhone"

All signs lead to iPhone lately. Trademark’s in far-off countries; long-registered domain names; iTunes error codes that talk about iPod-like phone synchronization of songs, tv shows, movies, contacts, and games. It’s all there, except for the actual hardware and Steve’s blessing of “one more thing.”

So, what if Apple were to sell “the iPhone?” It’d have to be far better than Apple’s “collaboration” with Motorola on the CRAPR ROKR. Far better integrated with iTunes and Mac OS X. Far more intuitive Jonathan-Ive-ish hardware.

But I don’t think that Apple would build such a device from the bottom-up. Unlike the iPod—although an amazingly ergonomic device—is functionally a simple play-back device. It’s more about data retrieval, not data entry or creation.

Would Apple invest the time to engineer a mobile OS for a much more capable handset? Start with iPod functionality, add making calls, texting, emailing, adding phone numbers, playing games (oh wait, we have that on iPods now, dern!), surfing the net, taking photos, etc. There’s a lot of work that goes into a mobile phone, and even though Apple secretly developed OS X on Intel, I doubt that lab has shoe-horned Tiger onto a RAZR.

My bet is on Apple using an existing platform, and an extensible one at that. It have to be robust enough to play H.264 videos, games, advanced contact management, and file browsing. I don’t think it’ll be Microsoft because Steve always complains about Bill not having any taste. I don’t think it’ll be linux based because from all reports the mobile version just isn’t ready yet. No, I think it’s a platform for which they’ve already ported and developed—Symbian S60.

Already developed for? Huh? Yeah—S60’s browser is based on Safari and khtml, which Apple help develop for S60. It’s a great mobile browser, providing a lot more functionality than the often touted Opera Mobile does.

S60 already has built-in support for OS X’s iSync. It works well with iCal for events and to-dos, and it even brings over your Address Book contacts’ mug-shots.

Apple could gussy-up the GUI with themes or even develop something slick with the S60’s supported Macromedia Flash, and then build all the iTunes enabled applications it wanted. Developers are already writing apps for the S60 platform as it is.

The S60 platform gives Apple the ability to hit the ground running in the mobile market, and the flexibility to create the iPhone as they see fit. But I’m sure you’ve thought about it, so what do you think?

Comments from the old website

Interesting Post
Posted by BobMueller at 2006-10-20 08:05
Interesting post, it seems that you put some thought into this! You make a very interesting point.

thanks
Posted by admin at 2006-10-20 11:09
for the kind comments—I do try to be thoughtful :-)

How about you, what would you like to see in an ideal phone (whether or not produced by Apple). Any practical predictions?

S60 based iPhone
Posted by Anonymous User at 2006-11-04 16:54
S60 based iPhone would be cool, in tems of software, but he problem would be the battery and the price.
And S60 are a bit slow.

Anyway, I have a Nokia N80, and I would buy an iPhone, if it was based on Symbian System.

I’d prefer a different platform
Posted by Anonymous User at 2006-11-17 11:57
I’ve used a number of different phone platforms (with a Mac) and the only one I’ve actually been comfortable with is Sony Ericsson’s non-Symbian one (i.e. the one which powers all of their lower-end phones). I’ve used many S60 devices and they’ve all been unstable and slow, the third-party apps for them are terrible, and the iSync support isn’t really all that good. Sony Ericsson’s phones have always been much more Mac-like in their design, and have always worked VERY well with OS X and iSync, even going back to their really ancient pre-Sony models (the first phone I ever used with iSync was an Ericsson R520m and it was fabulous, as was the very similar T39m).

I try new phones way too much (all my friends and coworkers keep telling me I “have a problem”) and I always end up going back to Sony Ericsson.

agreed, in part
Posted by admin at 2006-11-17 12:35
those are all good points, and i agree that SE makes a phone and interface that works great (if not best) with the Mac.

however, a couple of issues in your post highlight why i suggested S60 as the actual candidate, and not SE’s:

1. SE’s low-end phone interface is not developed or employed by any other phone but SE’s phones. unlike the S60 platform, which is widely developed for and can be used on other devices, other than nokia’s. it’s not likely that SE’s going to open up their platform for a competitor such as apple in this market.

2. despite s60’s somewhat slugishness on nokia phones, i think it’s actually the best platform to sync with macs. it’s a smart phone platform, which SE’s is not—which allows for a lot more extensibility for different types of phones (just because a platform is a smart phone, doesn’t mean all those features have to be used in a particular phone—take for example nokia’s 5500 sport phone). and those those who have tried syncing with an s60 would have to agree—all the contact information as well as little things like address book photos fall into place.

but you’re right, apple would really have to finesse the s60’s performance and interface to make it into something worth embossing the apple logo on.

Nobackup thinks… not…
Posted by Anonymous User at 2007-01-02 14:46
me thinks it will be based on the new moto E6… it looks like a iPOD right out of the box… including wheel… yes its linux…and OS X is just a shell/gui ontop of unix.. so OS X “mini” could just be the same on top of motos base OS…. this would also allow them to expand to the K1 & Z3 which are also based on linux…