Jun
24
Living in your pocket
Filed Under Innovation, Mobile | 2 Comments
It was the launch of the 3G iPhone 2 this week. It looks almost identical to its predecessor but much faster with ‘HSPDA broadband’. The only surprise was the almost ‘buy one; get one free’ price cut. Far more significant was what didn’t happen - the launch of the new iPhone 2.0 software - which many commentators are saying is little less than the arrival of the “next computing platform”.
Amazingly, the software that runs iPhones is very similar indeed to that on your laptops or desktops. It is a full-on computer operating system - in fact a good one - Apple OS X. In March, Apple surprised many by opening it up for 1000’s of external programmers and companies to make their own applications.
In the early 90’s I was quite critical of Apple, but recently they seem to be producing quite astonishing and disruptive creative jumps, and the potential for all sorts of highly collaborative, creative and personalised tools is apparent here again. The move of powerful computers off our desks and into our pockets will bring new meaning and opportunity to mobile and virtual working - it should be fun. I can’t wait to see what ingenious ideas the developer community out there is going to serve up for us.
So when the iPhone 2.0 software is released in a couple of weeks an important new phase of the mobile revolution begins.