iPhone fans will be wetting themselves tonight with the exciting news that the new iPhone has video capability. Whoop whoop – for just a few hundred pounds you can have what all the cheap crappy phones have. Well done Apple!
Ages ago, a friend of a friend of mine wrote a video recording program for the current iPhone. The App Store rejected it. I wonder why?! Could it be that Apple wanted to make sure the current model could not be upgraded in order to entice more people to pay a lot more for the new version? Ooh, BE, you cynic. Countless people have complained that the iPod often dies shortly after its warranty period, what better way to get people to replace their iPhone than preventing software features from being added to old hardware?
Apple has done what it is good at, and what it is bad at: kept the iPhone a closed shop. Yes it is a lot cooler than its smartphone competitor the G1. But on the G1, the video app came as a free automatic software update. Some of the iPhone’s other cool features have also recently tacked on to Android as free updates. Apple charge you for stuff that should be free, Android give you the stuff for free when as soon as they’ve worked it out.
For example, while I was fiddling around earlier on my G1 I discovered that it had gained the screen rotate feature that the iPhone has had since day one. There is now an on-screen keyboard as well (which was noticeably lacking before). I hadn’t paid extra for these features. I didn’t have to ditch my current handset in order to get them. I didn’t have to buy in to the brand for another year.
Now, if someone could make an Android handset that looked as great as the iPhone…
I have just gone onto a Macbook and discovered that, despite there being software which supposedly syncs Blackberries and Macs, none of it works.
Remedy…buy an Apple iPhone, of course.
Am I beginning to spot a trend here?
I too have dabbled in mobile development, and its not pretty. The network operators own the ball court and the handset manufacturers own the ball. I tried to write a simple answerphone app for a well known handset a while back, only to find the api had been disabled at the request of the network operator because it competed with their chargeable voicemail system.
It’s too early to say if Android will be any better, but I certainly hope so.
Solution: buy a G1
Actually, I’ve heard fantastic things about the Palm Pre – looks gorgeous, seems to have a really well designed interface and scores above the iPhone on quite a few proper feature points. Worth a look when it comes out in the UK.
However, I’m sticking with my iPhone, because although it has its foibles and its issues, it’s still the only device in its class – how many people, for instance, would buy an Android phone that didn’t have a phone in it? The iPod Touch is a really big seller.
Incidentally, BE, I thought you would prefer if people used a proper video camera for video, and a proper stills camera for photos. You struck me as the ‘get a device which does one thing and does it properly’ type of person. That’s what I do (although video cameras are a bit expensive for me, I use the video on my stills camera).
Lake – sounds about right!
Ray – let’s hope it stays “open”.
Stu – I don’t use the video camera! That isn’t the point. The point is that Apple refuse to allow a video camera program on the current iPhone so as to differentiate the next iPhone model. That is the kind of marketing and customer service attitude which will destroy the likelihood that I will buy an Apple product. I am not an Android loyalist particularly, but I do think their attitude is a lot healthier.
There are one or two technological reasons for Apple not to allow hacks which make the stills camera do something it’s not designed to do – not least the fact that I’ll bet it destroyed the battery life of the device. Apple are extremelyprotective of the user experience on an iPhone – which is part of the reason that iPhones have such good press in terms of battery life, performance, and not crashing all the time.
From Apple’s perspective, somebody could buy an iPhone, download a video application, take a load of video and then spend ages badmouthing the iPhone for being slow and having bad battery life. They don’t want the user experience of the iPhone to be conflated with the user experience of the Apps.
I agree that in that way Android’s attitude is ‘healthier’ in an open-source ‘free as in speech’ way, but budding entrepreneur that I am, I can’t argue with the success of the iPhone platform – and if most people cared about the ‘freedom’ thing, they’d have bought more Android phones. There’s no business case for Apple to stop doing exactly what they’re doing, and there’s no divine right of software developers to have their Apps on the iPhone.
It’s down to a personal choice. I happen to really like having a phone which values user experience over openness. You prefer openness and are willing to sacrifice a little usability for it. It’s better for there to be several competing approaches.
Stu – I am not saying that Apple have a moral duty. They can do what they like. I am saying that their attitude to built-in-obsolescence puts me off and means that I will not give them my money. People buy Apple stuff because it is cool. Some of Apple’s other tactics leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.