So Apple said that they wouldn’t allow third party apps to be developed for the iPhone. After claims that it wouldn’t really be a smart phone by many critics, including myself, they decided to add support for online third party applications that would work via the Safari browser on the phone. But, since these apps, such as Google Docs are available online, it could prove to be the ultimate way to create documents that will be accessible with a net connection. That means that there’d be no need to remember to sync your docs between computer and phone. However, the speed and expensive data costs might limit the service from being of any use to most customers. If browsing via EDGE, it isn’t going to be a very fast experience, which if data charges remain as they are, it could work out quite expensive to ammend a few documents on the commute to work. When in a wi-fi hotspot, albeit still pricy, the iPhone should really show what it’s got to offer. With a full scaled web browsing experience, it should make surfing on the go a pleasent experience. However, without feedback from the touchscreen, how intuitive the experience will be is yet to be seen.
Are any of these factors important though? No, in fact around 7 million Brits would buy the iPhone upon launch here, 56% of all questioned had heard of the iPhone. Posing the question where have all the other forty four percent been hiding for the past few months. The iPhone definitely has what people want though, enough for Apple to take advantage of them without them even caring. Americans who want the iPhone will be locked into a two year contract with AT & T. And when I say locked, I mean locked as it needs to be a new contract as the phone will be locked down to prevent users from simply entering a PAYG or another used SIM card. Europeans won’t have the option of a PAYG iPhone, but unlike the US, there is speculation that they could have to open the iPhone up to any network, meaning that users could enter their own SIM from any network. This is largely because Apple aren’t getting along too wee with the phone operators in Europe – due to Apple’s control issues. How likely this turns out is yet to be seen as Apple want control over the entire user experience, no change there then! If this were to happen, then Apple would need a work around for some of the iPhones features like the visual voice mail. This needs to be ideally integrated with the operator, but for the phone to work as it should on any network, Apple would need to somehow divert the feature to one of their own service. Something that I doubt they’d be keen to do. Ideally, they want a single operator, in the running are Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange, the latter being the only one with decent EDGE coverage across Europe.
Unsurprisingly, iPhone users will also be “locked in” to the iTunes market place by handing over their deets to the iTunes store upon activating the device. It’s recommended to get an account now, to save time later. Or maybe so that you can get some tunes from the store before you bag your iPhone. So, Apple’s taking advantage of the millions of people even before they get the device. Just shows what a company can do when they have the most desirable product on the market – even if it isn’t the best spec’d.
