4 ms·

The next-gen iPhone will be the new Pocket PC

10 points by thomas 18y ago

SamAtt 18y ago
This article is basically just speculation on his part but I disagree with his premise. He’s looking at the next generation iPhone like Microsoft looks at products which is to stuff as many features in as possible. Even if they don’t work all that well. But Apple tends to be the opposite. They’ll go so far as to leave out features that other competitors have if they think the technology isn’t there yet. Which is why I don’t expect to see things like office document editing in the next iPhone. The whole post reminds me of this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&feature=playe...
roc 18y ago
The only problem I have with his premise is that handhelds don't really -need- more hardware to become the next major general purpose computing platform. Incremental advancements will make them -better-, but current generation devices are already there. Every single person I've seen get a Blackberry, iPhone or android device has seriously curtailed their laptop usage. They've also (almost annoyingly) increased the degree to which they reach for their mobile apps, for tasks that could never justify pulling out the laptop. It's reminiscent of the way that early laptops, while not yet sufficient to replace any desktop, still significantly ate into desktop usage. The 'tipping point' he postulates is yet to come has already passed. In my opinion, Nokia's n770 was probably the last device that wasn't -quite- there. Everything after has been plenty capable hardware-wise.
- randallsquared 18y ago
  There's a difference between a device that can do the job and a device that you prefer to use to do that job. I prefer my android phone to a netbook, because it has the phone part, and because netbooks which are near it in size don't have typable keyboards (for me), so I'm not losing that much. A friend and I were talking about this recently, and he mentioned that he'd love to just carry around a single device that he could use for all his computing, but that it would have to have all the features of an iPhone or G1, plus the ability to use a regular keyboard, mouse, and screen when he was at home. With such a device, a laptop that was basically just a peripheral bed for the phone/device would be useful, as well, for that typable keyboard. I think we're almost there, but not quite. The requisite features could be built into current-tech devices, but aren't, at the moment.
  - tjr 18y ago
    http://philip.greenspun.com/business/mobile-phone-as-home-computer http://philip.greenspun.com/business/mobile-phone-as-home-co...
    - randallsquared 18y ago
      This conflates "just one device" with "make everything simpler", and sacrifices the first for the second, while it's the first I care about more. I don't mind having a Linux box with a filesystem and a command line -- I actually like that -- I just want to have all of my data available all the time, and all of my connectivity available all the time, and I'd prefer not to have to sync a bunch of devices and figure out which ones to take or leave when I'm out. Right now I'd be happy with a device that had a dongle that you could connect DVI to, and accepted a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Higher speed internet than my 3G is a nice-to-have, but not essential.
      - royalpineapple 18y ago
        something like http://www.oqo.com/products/index.html http://www.oqo.com/products/index.html perhaps?
        randallsquared 18y ago
        Yes, exactly! Except with telephony and 3G support. :)
        frig 18y ago
        You can get it with a 3g datalink built in. Telephony, sadly, not yet.
        randallsquared 18y ago
        Yeah, I noticed the 3G support after posting that. With 3G, though, Skype might be enough... I'm now seriously looking at this thing. Google produced some worrying posts and news articles, which may dissuade me, but if not, I may well buy one shortly.
pieter 18y ago
The article mostly combines rumors from shady sources and some imagination to speculaty about future iPhone uses. It then tries to sell to us that the combination of video editing, video calling, and more advanced gaming will bring us the 'new pocket pc'? Who is going to edit video on an iPhone? You might want to cut out a small part of a recording and send that to friend, but I find it hard to call that 'video editting' or label that as an important function. Phones have been able to video call for a while now, but no-one does it, and I guess there's a reason for that. It then continues to say that a) the iPhone needs a more powerful GPU to compete on the gaming market and b) that game houses are interested in the iPhone because of its installed base of 30 million. That doesn't really add up, if you need the more powerful graphics, the previous devices are useless to you, and so you have to start with a base of 0 users. Even worse, because 30 million people already have an iPhone/iPod touch, they are less likely to upgrade to the new version any time soon. It also states that more powerful CPU/GPU is necessary for editing office documents. I don't see how more power is going to help in that aspect. The bottleneck here is a poor interface for editing documents. The limited screen size and poor input method are something you can't fix with more power. That said, I do think that a more powerful iPhone is attractive. It works now, but it would be much nicer if Safari would be more responsive and could hold pages in its cache for longer. Right now looking up something on Google might take more than a minute, with slow Safari start times and slow 3G connectivity. A faster iPhone will become more usable immediately, even without new apps taking advantage of the increased speed.
budwin 18y ago
video chat will _not_ be the next killer app. Sorry.
- jodrellblank 17y ago
  I kind of agree - heck I'd still like a cellphone with good enough audio quality that I can hear most of what the other person's saying. If I could hear all of it and tell who they are from the sound of their voice that would be sweet. On the other hand, if there's any company who could make a simple, usable videophone device and make it popular, Apple can. Killer App? Doesn't feel everso likely, does it?
zackattack 18y ago
I lost my phone last night. Are there any online prediction markets (perhaps based overseas) that have an estimate as to when the next generation iteration might drop?
- there 18y ago
  http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
grinich 18y ago
Integration with other services is what will push the iPhone beyond the paradigm of a cellular phone. Full wireless interaction with any type of device is not that far off, especially with the 3.0 software. Most of us already have very capable computers in our pockets. The problem is that we're using them wrong.

10 points by thomas 18y ago

This article is basically just speculation on his part but I disagree with his premise. He’s looking at the next generation iPhone like Microsoft looks at products which is to stuff as many features in as possible. Even if they don’t work all that well. But Apple tends to be the opposite. They’ll go so far as to leave out features that other competitors have if they think the technology isn’t there yet. Which is why I don’t expect to see things like office document editing in the next iPhone. The whole post reminds me of this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&feature=player_embedded http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&feature=playe...

roc 18y ago

The only problem I have with his premise is that handhelds don't really -need- more hardware to become the next major general purpose computing platform. Incremental advancements will make them -better-, but current generation devices are already there. Every single person I've seen get a Blackberry, iPhone or android device has seriously curtailed their laptop usage. They've also (almost annoyingly) increased the degree to which they reach for their mobile apps, for tasks that could never justify pulling out the laptop. It's reminiscent of the way that early laptops, while not yet sufficient to replace any desktop, still significantly ate into desktop usage. The 'tipping point' he postulates is yet to come has already passed. In my opinion, Nokia's n770 was probably the last device that wasn't -quite- there. Everything after has been plenty capable hardware-wise.

randallsquared 18y ago
There's a difference between a device that can do the job and a device that you prefer to use to do that job. I prefer my android phone to a netbook, because it has the phone part, and because netbooks which are near it in size don't have typable keyboards (for me), so I'm not losing that much. A friend and I were talking about this recently, and he mentioned that he'd love to just carry around a single device that he could use for all his computing, but that it would have to have all the features of an iPhone or G1, plus the ability to use a regular keyboard, mouse, and screen when he was at home. With such a device, a laptop that was basically just a peripheral bed for the phone/device would be useful, as well, for that typable keyboard. I think we're almost there, but not quite. The requisite features could be built into current-tech devices, but aren't, at the moment.
- tjr 18y ago
  http://philip.greenspun.com/business/mobile-phone-as-home-computer http://philip.greenspun.com/business/mobile-phone-as-home-co...
  - randallsquared 18y ago
    This conflates "just one device" with "make everything simpler", and sacrifices the first for the second, while it's the first I care about more. I don't mind having a Linux box with a filesystem and a command line -- I actually like that -- I just want to have all of my data available all the time, and all of my connectivity available all the time, and I'd prefer not to have to sync a bunch of devices and figure out which ones to take or leave when I'm out. Right now I'd be happy with a device that had a dongle that you could connect DVI to, and accepted a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Higher speed internet than my 3G is a nice-to-have, but not essential.
    - royalpineapple 18y ago
      something like http://www.oqo.com/products/index.html http://www.oqo.com/products/index.html perhaps?
      - randallsquared 18y ago
        Yes, exactly! Except with telephony and 3G support. :)
        frig 18y ago
        You can get it with a 3g datalink built in. Telephony, sadly, not yet.
        randallsquared 18y ago
        Yeah, I noticed the 3G support after posting that. With 3G, though, Skype might be enough... I'm now seriously looking at this thing. Google produced some worrying posts and news articles, which may dissuade me, but if not, I may well buy one shortly.

pieter 18y ago

The article mostly combines rumors from shady sources and some imagination to speculaty about future iPhone uses. It then tries to sell to us that the combination of video editing, video calling, and more advanced gaming will bring us the 'new pocket pc'? Who is going to edit video on an iPhone? You might want to cut out a small part of a recording and send that to friend, but I find it hard to call that 'video editting' or label that as an important function. Phones have been able to video call for a while now, but no-one does it, and I guess there's a reason for that. It then continues to say that a) the iPhone needs a more powerful GPU to compete on the gaming market and b) that game houses are interested in the iPhone because of its installed base of 30 million. That doesn't really add up, if you need the more powerful graphics, the previous devices are useless to you, and so you have to start with a base of 0 users. Even worse, because 30 million people already have an iPhone/iPod touch, they are less likely to upgrade to the new version any time soon. It also states that more powerful CPU/GPU is necessary for editing office documents. I don't see how more power is going to help in that aspect. The bottleneck here is a poor interface for editing documents. The limited screen size and poor input method are something you can't fix with more power. That said, I do think that a more powerful iPhone is attractive. It works now, but it would be much nicer if Safari would be more responsive and could hold pages in its cache for longer. Right now looking up something on Google might take more than a minute, with slow Safari start times and slow 3G connectivity. A faster iPhone will become more usable immediately, even without new apps taking advantage of the increased speed.

budwin 18y ago

video chat will _not_ be the next killer app. Sorry.

jodrellblank 17y ago
I kind of agree - heck I'd still like a cellphone with good enough audio quality that I can hear most of what the other person's saying. If I could hear all of it and tell who they are from the sound of their voice that would be sweet. On the other hand, if there's any company who could make a simple, usable videophone device and make it popular, Apple can. Killer App? Doesn't feel everso likely, does it?

zackattack 18y ago

I lost my phone last night. Are there any online prediction markets (perhaps based overseas) that have an estimate as to when the next generation iteration might drop?

there 18y ago
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/ http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

grinich 18y ago

Integration with other services is what will push the iPhone beyond the paradigm of a cellular phone. Full wireless interaction with any type of device is not that far off, especially with the 3.0 software. Most of us already have very capable computers in our pockets. The problem is that we're using them wrong.