iPhone 3.0: the detail is the process, not the features

Rodney Gedda

Rodney Gedda is the former deputy editor of CIO and former editor of Techworld.

This week's release of iPhone OS 3.0 marked another nail in the coffin of the proprietary mobile handset. Albeit the iPhone may be proprietary to Apple, its software design, application installation and software update processes is indeed more open and hence revolutionary. Even if the 3.0 update did not overwhelm the iPhone purists, the fact that such many new features can be added to a mobile phone in one hit is a refreshing change for the industry.

The iPhone 3.0 and Android 1.5 (aka “Cupcake”) updates are prime examples of how the mobile industry will be increasingly led by software, not devices.

Rather than try to re-engineer a new hardware device that requires design, manufacturing, distribution and testing energy, Apple and Google were smart enough to realise that software is infinitely more flexible than hardware and requires two less steps in the product development chain (hold the manufacturing and distribution).

The processors that now fit into smartphones are more than capable of running more and more advanced applications so it makes sense that all the buzz is around software.

The crux of my “clone wars” argument is that mobile devices, like PCs before them, will realize their full potential when they can leverage industry-standard software.

Windows won the desktop battle not because it was inherently “better” than the closed systems at the time, but because the applications that ran on it could be used by consumers on any hardware device (the clones).

The same way Apple PCs will always be Apple, Android and Windows Mobile will always be along side it because they can be adopted en masse by the non-Apple phone makers. Let's hope the open source Symbian can get its act together and not get left behind.

Apple's aggressive mobile software (and content) strategy is the direction the industry should be taking notice of most.

Today Slashdot (from Computerworld US) even ran with the security updates that came with iPhone 3.0.

Welcome to the world of open mobile software, patches and all.

As the devices themselves become more powerful, consumers will begin to expect more out of software updates than they ever have in the past.

People shouldn't get too hung up about the type and range of enhancements in any one software update.

Who knows, iPhone 4.0 may include a personal secretary with an app for tracking whales in the Pacific Ocean.

Far out, I know, but possible with a software update.