

The next-gen iPhone will be the new Pocket PC - thomas
http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/the-next-gen-iphone-will-be-the-new-pocket-pc-20090415/

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SamAtt
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=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0&feature=player_embedded)

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pieter
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.

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roc
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
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.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
[http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/03/gigabyte.debut...](http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/03/gigabyte.debuts.at.cebit/)

I'm waiting for something like this to mature.

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randallsquared
That's still too big for me (while being too small to effectively type on). My
G1 is really close, and except for lacking a telephony component, the OQO is
nearly spot on.

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nazgulnarsil
Checking out the newer OQO (and the dock) it is as close as you can get
currently to an all in one device.

What would be perfect is something just like form factor wise it but with the
possibility of some sort of fold out/flexible screen (maybe a a built in laser
projector?)

The next 5 years are going to be very exciting in the mobile computer market.

~~~
randallsquared
Yeah, a foldable e-paper screen (already on a Motorola phone, I think) would
be close to ideal. The OQO is much more interesting than I remember it being
when I last heard about it. Maybe my needs have changed, or maybe the initial
version wasn't so great.

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

~~~
jodrellblank
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?

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grinich
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.

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zackattack
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
<http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/>

