The Brad Hole

Someone recently asked me what I thought of the rumors of the Apple iPhone, based on a blurb I wrote back in August here in the blog where I crapped on the idea as horrific. With MacWorld around the corner, I'm going to indulge my speculative urges and show to the world once and for all why I'm poor at prognostication. Be sure and check back in a few weeks to gloat. ;-) On that note, let's get started.

The way Apple works - at least when they have their greatest success - is by releasing products that address common needs and make them very approachable and easy to use. The iPod does this for portable music, the Mac and to a greater extent the iLife and iWork packages attempt to do this for common consumer software needs. The Mighty Mouse is another example of what I would consider the "simple elegance" of Apple design. So, what about phones?

First, if you've ever used a cell phone, you can probably list a number of major gripes: it's somewhat difficult to upload/download data to your phone, you are locked into various contracts typically lasting 2 years before you can switch (and sometimes changes in your plan further extend this contract in non-obvious ways), you are nickle-and-dimed for various charges that, by all rights, should be free (e.g. ring tones, wallpapers), some phones support usage as a modem for laptops yet are crippled by service providers, and there is no unified set of peripherals - you typically have to find accessories that match your phone and/or similar models.

What could Apple bring to the cell phone market? For one, it seems a safe assumption that Apple has to pair with an existing cell provider, much like Motorola and other phone manufacturers. In that light, there are many things that are likely out of Apple's control: the service contract mess and rampant surcharges being foremost. But what would Apple bring to the table to make up for that?

I would imagine, essentially, an iPod-cum-Treo. That is, an iPod-like device whose PDA features have been fully realized: to-do lists, calendars, address book syncing with the Mac and of course music. The iPod is already close to this mythical device: it lacks phone support and a way to input data from the iPod directly, but is close on all the rest. Way back when, I did an interview with IMG and Jean-Luc Dinsdale where I stated the breathtakingly obvious: that phones and PDAs were destined to collide. Since then they have, but it's been patchy IMHO. I have been impressed with Beth's Treo 650, but it is a bit bulky and of course lacks the ease of use of an iPod or other Apple products. She has to use the Missing Sync to get data on it, and there have been times where it has flaked out so badly that it had to be completely wiped and reset to be usable again. If I were a novice computer user (particularly a Mac user), I would want better, smoother integration.

One complaint I have heard with regards to cell phones is that they often try too hard to be too many things, and do not excel at any of them. I suppose this is true for certain tasks: cameras come to immediately to mind. That said, I don't think it's out of the question to expect a PDA-phone-mp3 player device to excel in all 3 categories.

How would I picture this mythical Apple device? In truth, I'd imagine it to be like the rumors of the next-gen iPod, with a full touch-screen interface all along the front, doing away with the physical buttons and wheel that are found on the current iPod. This gives the device the flexibility it needs to be an iPod or a phone (or anything else) and allows Apple lots of leeway for the future in terms of interface design. Perhaps it'd even support a PalmOS-like graffiti (e.g. Apple's under-used Inkwell technology).

If you wanted to take the device integration further, there is of course Apple's dip into the waters with iPod gaming. Right now, games on phones are a) tiny and b) crap. No one really wants this because phones are poor gaming platforms. But imagine an iPod-like device with a fairly large screen and suddenly you're closing in on a PSP or Nintendo DS in terms of usability (whether it works well in practice is an issue for another day). Do I want an iPod-PDA-phone with games? Yeah, that sounds pretty neat. Although I'm guessing the current iPod games market is small, you do have a fairly large potential audience of video iPod owners and "iPhone" buyers - a stable and consistent platform in theory.

Even if I took it up the ass for all the incidental charges that are sure to follow (as is the way with corporate leeches like Verizon, Sprint and their ilk), I think such a device represents the first step out of the cesspool that is cell phone technology of today. I'd love to see Apple gain some leverage to help force these bloodsuckers in line, much like they've tried to do with the music industry. I suppose only time will tell if that's possible, and I'm pretty skeptical on the whole. But I'm willing to be shown the light.