For years now, people have been predicting that The Next Big Thing from Apple would be an “iPhone” – combining an iPod media player, with a mobile (cell) phone.  Well, finally, at MacWorld this year – the adoring fans got their wish.  

Apple decided to make it into a “smart phone” – that is, it’s basicly combining all the funcionalities of a PDA (email, contacts, calendar, media, etc) and a phone.  It’s not a particularly new concept, there’s been versions of this for years now. Some running Palm’s PalmOS software (Palm Treo), but most others running a variant of Windows CE (HP, iMate, etc).

Instead of the typical route that others have gone - grabbing a PDA, shoving some phone parts into it, and writing a few extensions – Apple has decided to create a single integrated interface. Go check out the demo – if it actually works like in the demo, then it could actually be quite good. (Yeah, I made a positive comment about Apple. Mark this one down in your diaries – it’s not likely to happen again)

The thing is – the technology it’s running on, is already out of date, or is only just keeping up with the competition.

• Does it support WCDMA, or another form of 3G?
  No.
  
• Can you buy it, and stick a standard GSM SIM in it?
  Nope – it’s only available through a single US Carrier.  
  
• Does it have a nice high-resolution camera?
  Sure, by 2004 standards. 2Mpx isn’t shabby, but it’s not exactly something people are going to get worked up about now.
  
• Can you do Video Calling?
  Nope – plus you can’t do Video Calling on GSM (even with EDGE support).
  
• Can you do over-the-air purchasing of songs through iTunes
  Nope.
  
• Can you sync with your PC/Mac, using the built-in Wifi?
  Nope.
  
• Does it have a Hi-res screen?
  Nope, 320×480.  (My 10 month old Dell Axim X51v has a 480×640 in about the same size – enough for full-resolution TV shows)
  
• Does it have some revolutionary battery, or some power saving function that makes it last longer than the competition?
  Nope – it’s fairly bog-standard, again, by comparion with others.

Okay, so the picture is this: It’s basicly a run-of-the-mill smartphone with Apple software on it to make a pretty interface.  The one feature that it has, that others don’t – is the multi-touch interface — i.e using two fingers to zoom in and out – probably quite handy.

For many users of smart-phones, one good thing is that they can load in other software. Book readers, games, CRM software, databases, etc. The thing is, Apple isn’t going to let you do that - infact, you can’t load ANY software on the phone.  “Approved Developers” may get to do this, but not your average-joe hobbyist developer.

Why is this? Well – here’s an excerpt from a Newsweek interview with Steve Jobs:

“You don’t want your phone to be an open platform,” meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider’s network, says Jobs. “You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.”

Either Steve and his technical people have no f’ing clue – or they’ve got a very fragile mobile network in the US. 

- end of rant -