
The iPhone Software Revolution - wyday
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001280.html
======
tsally
Hrm. So on the one hand, your personal beliefs prevent you from using a
computer that is completely controled and locked down, but because everyone
else is doing it for phones, it's ok then? I'm not criticizing Jeff for buying
an iPhone, but let's be very clear on the price of the 'hacker mentality' in
this case. :-)

An important lesson here for free software advocates as well. Only now are
free software operating systems catching up in usability and user
friendliness. Let's not make the same mistake on mobile devices as well.

~~~
compay
Android is quite a ways along already. Though it's not as polished as the
iPhone's OS it's _much_ closer than, say, Linux desktops are to OS X.

In fact I just ditched my first generation iPhone for a G1 running Android.
While I admit the iPhone is a better device, the G1 with Android is good
enough and much more freely hackable.

~~~
stalf
Actualy, Android's interface on the recently released HTC Hero is far better
than iPhone's.

Android's the future.

~~~
jcl
How is the Android interface on the Hero different from the baseline Android
interface everywhere else?

~~~
w1ntermute
I'm no expert on the topic, but I believe he's referring to " _the new HTC
Sense widget-based interface_ " ([http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/24/htc-hero-
details-begin-le...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/24/htc-hero-details-
begin-leaking-from-htcs-own-website/)).

------
plinkplonk
This is a very USA centric post. Nothing wrong with that of course.

"Locked in to a single vendor? Everyone signs a multi-year contract."

in the United States.

Here in India (set to become the second largest cell phone market in the
world, behind China and replacing the USA by 2010), most (> 99.5%) phones are
unlocked and so vendor neutral. You can switch vendors and phones
independently. The Telecom Ministry is putting in place a regulation to allow
phone number portability. This should happen in a couple of months and then
you can switch service providers and your old cell number remains valid with
the new vendor.

"I predict they will dominate the market for years to come. "

The US market. Sure.

"and signing up for the $99 iPhone Developer Program -- can build an app and
sell it to the worldwide audience of iPhone users."

Rant mode on.

I'll be damned if I pay 99$ a year to be "allowed" to develop software for a
device I paid for. AFAIK (correct me if I am wrong) I have to pay to deploy an
app on _my own phone_.

Rant Mode off.

~~~
yardie
Here in the UK, FR, DE, US, and etc. you buy the iPhone on contract to get it
subsidized. It costs 700$ in the US unsubsidized which is approximately what
it costs (34,000Rs) in India according to Vodafone. And if you're going to buy
a phone you might as well get the carrier to cover part of the costs. Except
for PAYG you'll still pay way too much on your plan.

Development is free. It only costs you when you go to submit it to the store.
Not everyone likes a closed system but, not everyone likes to pay for
something that could be done for free. But not everyone has the time to setup
their own store. If you don't like the terms you are free to go to Blackberry
app world (also costs money to join), or Fandango (if you thought 70/30 split
was high they want 50/50).

If you are really determined not to pay the fee you can jailbreak install SSH
and sftp your application onto the phone. There are myriad guides on the net
explaining how to accomplish this.

~~~
plinkplonk
"And if you're going to buy a phone you might as well get the carrier to cover
part of the costs."

but that is the point. I don't want a phone locked to a particular carrier for
predetermined period of time, thanks. I, and a vast majority of Indians,
_want_ the freedom to switch carriers and phones independently. That is
something Indian consumers actively _prefer_.

The IPhone in India is still locked to a specific carrier. A vast majority of
phones sold in India are not. And the IPhone was a big failure in India
(except for _very_ _very_ small numbers of apple fanboy types) and continues
to have a miniscule market share, not even 1% of the market. The overall
numbers sold are in the low thousands, and this in a market which _grows_ by
millions in a year. Nokia rules here, followed by Samsung and Motorola.

Indian customers constantly shift plans, looking to optimize for their
particular patterns of usage. They constantly change phpones, across brands. A
phone locked to specific vendors or plans will _never_ be a success here.

SMS is huge in India. Incoming SMS is free and outgoing sms costs about half a
rupee - a tenth of a cent - per message. A non SMS friendly phone (the
original IPhone had some defects wrt sms I don't know about the latest one)
will never be a success here.

"If you are really determined not to pay the fee you can jailbreak install SSH
and sftp your application onto the phone. "

I was talking of default _and_ legal ways to use one's cellphone. Sure any
hardware can be hacked, with enough effort. I shouldn't have to do that with
something I paid serious money for.

"Development is free. It only costs you when you go to submit it to the
store."

How is development "free"? Can i deploy an app I wrote on _my_ Iphone (without
selling to other people, just for my use) without paying Apple money? I think
not. Hell, even Windows ME phones allows me to deploy any application I want
on _my_ device, for my own use.

" It costs 700$ in the US unsubsidized which is approximately what it costs
(34,000Rs) in India according to Vodafone. "

The Iphone costs 34000 Rs in India _and_ is _locked_ to specific vendors. And
a huge failure _in India_. For that money I can buy a very high end _unlocked_
phone (HTC, Nokia, RIM - yes an unlocked blackberry - <any other vendor>).
Indians in general don't warm to overpriced locked phones.

~~~
yardie
I agree with you on the locking and the price in India. I wasn't aware they
made you pay full and the phone was still locked. But you can't compare every
phone to smartphones. A lowly Nokia 1100 costs less than $30. But it's your
basic mobile phone. You won't find people doing a lot of browsing from it.

But if you don't like the terms of deployment you are free to develop for
other platforms. Usually, someone will come along and brag about how they
won't develop their application for the iphone. But there are thousands of
others that put up with it everyday. The fact is Apple took a page out of the
microsoft playbook. They got the developers to invest early which brings
users, which attracts more developers. Compared to the price to get a person
with brains 99$ is just the price of doing business. Paying full price for an
iPhone to test in is also the price of doing business.

But I've met a few Indian developers working on the iPhone. They need them to
do their job so someone is buying them. Even if it is only a few Indian iphone
developers.

What the $99/299 price is a small barrier to entry. It's like Apple is saying
we want only serious developers submitting stuff to the Apple store. The world
is full of good ideas but littered with half completed projects. This is one
way of getting through the noise. And if $99 is too much for you then you
weren't serious about it to begin with.

~~~
plinkplonk
" But you can't compare every phone to smartphones. A lowly Nokia 1100 costs
less than $30. But it's your basic mobile phone. You won't find people doing a
lot of browsing from it."

Correct but the point is moot because the IPhone doesn't have even one percent
of the _smartphone_ market in India(mostly Nokia, with Blackberry second with
assorted others third. IPhone is nowhere in sight. The IPhone was a _collosal_
failure here and likely to stay that way.).

(EDIT: Some rough numbers: Total number of cellphones sold in India annually =
About 130 million. Number of _smartphones_ sold in India annually =6-8
million. Number of Iphones sold in India so far = about 9,000. The math is ...
interesting)

"What the $99/299 price is a small barrier to entry. It's like Apple is saying
we want only serious developers submitting stuff to the Apple store. The world
is full of good ideas but littered with half completed projects. This is one
way of getting through the noise. And if $99 is too much for you then you
weren't serious about it to begin with."

This is different from what you said earlier. First, you said.

"Development is free. It only costs you when you go to submit it to the
store."

As you rightly point out in your next post, this is simply not true. You have
to pay at least 99$ to develop an app and deploy it on your Iphone to test it.
(unless you are claiming that "deployment" on a phone to test it is somehow
outside "development").

Now you are saying you have to pay Apple to prove your seriousness. This is a
different proposition from ""Development is free".

$ 99/299 to develop for the IPhone can be interpreted in many ways but "free"
is not a valid interpretation. Hence my response to your claim that IPhone dev
is free.

" It's like Apple is saying we want only serious developers submitting stuff
to the Apple store. "

No it is not. In that case Apple should charge 99$ the first time anyone tries
to sell a product in the Apple Store. By charging the money to allow a
developer to deploy an app on his own phone, Apple is saying _developing_ for
the IPhone is some kind of privilege one has to pay for.

I for one will _never_ develop for the IPhone where I have to pay to develop
for _my own_ phone, but that is a purely personal decision and certainly not
"bragging" as you claim. YMMV. And that is as it should be.

The one good thing in all this is that at least In China and India, IPhones
won't be popular for a long long time. Small Mercies.

------
praptak
"A landmark, genre-defining product, no longer a mere smartphone but an honest
to God fully capable, no-compromises computer [...]"

You lost me there. Can I run whatever software I choose on it? No? Then please
shut up about "fully capable, no-compromises" computer.

~~~
wmeredith
I'm _pretty_ sure he's talking about hardware, you're talking about a software
issue.

~~~
edw519
Does the iphone have a USB port? Can I plug in my 19" monitor, keyboard, or
mouse?

~~~
rdj
The iphone does have a connection point, and if I remember correctly, they are
opening it up to third parties. So, if the phone can take blood pressure and
insulin readings, I'm guessing it will only be a matter of time before it also
accepts USB enabled devices. On a side note, I did see a pocket LED? projector
(~$400) connected to this port on the iphone. It worked nicely.

------
awolf
Apple is master of the user Interface hands down. Where else besides a device
you use contantly, in quick bursts, while on-the-go does user interface matter
more?

Sure some folks on HN will prefer an open OS- but for the general public it
will be a very long time before any other mobile OS catches up in terms of
ease of use. And when they do catch up it will be from copying Apple's every
move.

~~~
nailer
I'lll be sure to consider that when switching between a contacts mail and
messages without switching apps, browsing a web page with a Flash enabled,
Skyping over 3G, or calling peoplewith a single hit from the home screen on
the HTC Hero I'm going to replace my iPhone with.

~~~
roc
And that flexibility comes at a direct cost to ease of use. Particularly on a
mobile with limited battery life.

And can we stop with the adobe marketing bullet-point? Do real people actually
-care- if they get _flash_ on their phone?

IME what people are looking for is support of video sites that aren't youtube.

But shouldn't we be calling on those sites to support vanilla h264 and html 5
rather than h264-wrapped-in-proprietary-inefficient-mess?

Why call on -phones- to destroy our batteries trying to make that proprietary
inefficient mess run acceptably?

~~~
nailer
are you saying open source video codecs use less power? Do you have a
reference for that?

------
wallflower
If you do not yet read it, I highly recommend Daniel Eran Dilger's
RoughlyDrafted Magazine for cogent, prescient, detailed, forward-looking
analysis of Apple as Apple evolves. Unfortunately, some of his better stuff is
buried in his archives.

<http://www.roughlydrafted.com/>

"The big 3.0: How iPhone will shift peripheral devices"

[http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/03/20/the-big-30-how-
ipho...](http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/03/20/the-big-30-how-iphone-will-
shift-peripheral-devices/)

"Why Windows 7 is Microsoft's next Zune"

[http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/05/09/why-windows-7-is-
mi...](http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/05/09/why-windows-7-is-microsofts-
next-zune/)

[http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22By+daniel+eran%22+%2B+...](http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22By+daniel+eran%22+%2B+site%3Aroughlydrafted.com&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=xxOAMYytekc)

From June 2007:

"Apple’s updates will draw a stark contrast between the iPhone as a handheld
Mac, and the basic smartphones that can only run mini-apps and a few poorly
drawn, overpriced software titles.

Apple has turned the mobile industry into a consumer facing market, where
consumers will buy the phone, get updates, and buy software from Apple. That
makes Apple responsible for their security, their demanded features, and their
support. That’s not how things work today in the mobile world...

Once users get accustomed to a full handheld computer that works
intelligently, are they going to make any attempt to break free and grab a
smartphone that really does very little, like the Motorola Q?

It will also be very difficult for other hardware makers to match Apple's
product on an engineering scale. Sure, Nokia, Sony, and others can make
fancier phones with features the iPhone lacks, whether its a 6 MP camera, a
GPS unit, WiMax, an FM radio, or a cheese slicer, but the real trick to
engineering is to know what to leave out."

[http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/73805E44-AEF...](http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/73805E44-AEF4-4F7F-BEF4-C759574D1D09.html)

~~~
TwoSheds
RoughlyDrafted is extremely biased. I can't stomach the site and I'm an Apple
fanboy.

------
ph0rque
> But a cell phone? It's a closed ecosystem, by definition, running on a
> proprietary network.

It might be a closed system _now_ , but give it a few years; I don't see any
reasons why a cell phone (small computer, really) will remain closed for long.

~~~
dfj225
Exactly. My prediction is that as cell phones become increasingly powerful,
they will eventually replace computers, as we know them today, in most average
consumers' lives.

When this is the case, I don't think that closed systems can or should be
tolerated. Phones will simply be too important and too central to everyone's
life to allow for this.

This is why I'm hoping that Android (or some other similarly open platform)
gains a prominent place in the market, showing the rest of the industry the
way forward.

~~~
herval
Computers are quite central to everyone's lives, and still, 98% of people
'tolerate' Windows and OSX...

Plus, cellphones are much more seen as appliances than 'computers' (at least
today). As they get smarter, so do videogames, DVRs and other appliances - and
still, there's no rush for making any of those electronics 'open source', nor
claims for intolerance.

Android has an edge since the company behind it knows how to make software -
I'm not convinced, though, it would be any different if Google did it all
closed-source...

~~~
dfj225
> Computers are quite central to everyone's lives, and still, 98% of people
> 'tolerate' Windows and OSX...

On Windows and OSX you can install and run whatever application you want. You
can, without permission from Microsoft or Apple, develop whatever application
you like and distribute it in any fashion you wish. This is the key difference
between the iPhone and "computers" that I was trying to highlight.

------
ErrantX
Hmmm is it just me or does it sound like Jeff has fallen under the Apple
marketing spell.

I think so :D Kudos Apple.

The Iphone is a fantastic product (dont get me wrong): but even more
interesting is the unbelievable marketing job Apple did on it. They put an OK
phone into the markets ahead of it's time (with V1) and whipped up a demand.
Then fullfilled it with the 3G and now the 3G S - nothing else can get a look
in at the moment.

~~~
zimbabwe
_They put an OK phone into the markets ahead of it's time (with V1) and
whipped up a demand._

Just for fun, last week I had some friends over and we streamed that iPhone
keynote where Steve Jobs first announces what the iPhone is capable of. The
iPod controls, the iTunes syncing with Address Book support, the full web
browsing of Safari, the multitouch, the photo support, the visual voicemail.
Merging calls with a touch. It was pretty engrossing, even for friends who
weren't huge techies, to see that keynote and remember that back then the Razr
was considered a cutting-edge phone.

The original iPhone wasn't perfect, but it was _leagues_ beyond anything else
both in design concept and in actual performance. There are still no phones
that come close to the iPod part of the software, and perhaps one or two
phones can match any other part of the iPhone's functionality. It evolved, and
it _had_ to evolve because it was flawed, but that original design was
mindblowing when I was a kid (a lot of people cut class to go to the library
and look at the initial reports) and it still has that effect if you look at
the original unveiling. The new stuff makes the original attempt look amateur,
but the original attempt was pretty bitching as well.

~~~
troystribling
I owned a couple of Win Mobile phones prior to the first gen iPhone. The first
iPhone was the first where browsing the internet was practical.

~~~
nailer
I moved from an N95 (3G, KHTML) to iPhone (2G, KHTML). The browsing on the
iPhone was understandably much slower than the Nokia. But the rest of the UI
made up for it.

------
dinkumthinkum
It seems ironic for someone who derides learning anything about computer
science and finds knowing anything about the C programming language to be
totally ridiculous and antiquated to be lauding a system that is primarily
programmed in Objective-C (rather than VB6 or whatever), on a programming blog
no less.

But to be fair, not much programming is talked about on that blog from what I
can see so maybe it is more Engadget-lite-lite.

------
jsz0
"Here's how far I am willing to go: I believe the iPhone will ultimately be
judged a more important product than the original Apple Macintosh."

I've been saying the same thing for a while. Like many revolutionary products
the iPhone isn't the first device to ever offer these features but it IS the
first device to make them accessible to the masses. Part of that is a good
user interface but an equally, or possibly more, important part of it is
advertising. Apple educated customers on what the device could do out of the
box. Now they're even advertising third party apps. As a result many people
are able to use services & technologies that were out of reach to them before
-- or they were ignorant these things even existed. Lots of people will say
marketing doesn't matter and it's just fluff and blah blah but making people
aware of something, and making it possible for them to use it, is a huge part
of what makes a technology revolutionary.

------
garply
I guess I just don't get it. I was recently in the market for a cellphone and
with a $200-300 budget I was choosing between the new iPhone and an A1600
Motorola Ming. I ended up shelling out about $250 for the Ming for several
reasons:

1) The iPhone feels bulky - I don't like such a massive phone.

2) The Ming has a clamshell model - this ties in with the iPhone's size
problem, but it also deals with protecting the screen... I've seen people
using skins just to protect their phone.

3) The Ming's battery is trivially replaceable (~$10 for a battery).

4) The Ming runs Linux.

I've used both and find the software interfaces comparably pleasant, although
different. And contracts were a non-issue because where I'm located (China)
the carriers don't lock the handset down.

The only downside I've found - and this comes with the size reduction - is
that some of my activity is stylus-based. For some things (like calling
contacts) fingers work fine though. Overall, I'm quite happy and I wonder if
the iPhone is overhyped.

~~~
yardie
I just checked the specs on a Ming. No 3G, No wifi (china doesn't allow it
someone posted), lower resolution screen, and a stylus?! BTW, it weighs as
much as an iPhone. Linux on mobile phones is at a dead end. Even Motorola is
jumping to android. And actual useful MIDP applications are few and far
between.

If you wanted the cheaper phone then just say so. But the Ming is truly not in
the same league as the iPhone, HTC, or Blackberry.

~~~
garply
I wasn't actually looking for the cheaper phone. Before I made the purchase,
someone else pointed out to me the hardware difference - lack of 3G, wifi, and
screen resolution - I didn't see how they were selling points. Having used a
friend's iPhone extensively, I never made use of wifi or really benefited from
the screen resolution. And 3G is just higher transfer speed, right? Perhaps
the issue is that I don't watch videos on my cellphone? I like to make calls,
check email, and use GPS on my phone. To me, the loss of those hardware
features didn't seem to be anywhere near worth the loss of the clamshell
design and the extra battery.

------
calambrac
I have a new game, where I see how many sentences into a Jeff Atwood article I
can get before the first completely idiotic statement, and then I stop
reading. I don't spend a lot of time there.

"But as I predicted, 12 months later, the iPhone 3G rectified all the
shortcomings of the first version."

The 3G had a slightly different form factor, a flush headphone jack, and 3G. I
guess I just never internalized how serious some people were in their demands
for less aluminum, adapter-less private music consumption, and the ability to
flush their battery for spotty slightly-faster data downloads.

Threadjacking attempt: if you could excise one overly-influential blogger from
the interwebs, who would it be? Atwood's quickly approaching
Enderle/Dvorak/Scoble territory on that list for me.

------
PieSquared
Sigh. How many software revolutions can there be in a year...?

~~~
Tichy
If progress accelerates exponentially and "revolution" is defined as a fixed
width leap, perhaps it is naturally if the density of revolutions/year
increases.

------
mcantelon
What does this article say that is interesting that caused people to upvote
it?

~~~
wmeredith
You can answer your own question by spending a few minutes reading this
comments page.

~~~
mcantelon
I did and came up with nothing. What do you see as interesting about his
article?

------
gcheong
I was thinking about how much I used my iPod touch on my last vacation: to
check e-mail, browse the web, as an alarm clock, for games and, occasionally,
to play music.

------
jpeterson
Couldn't help but be reminded of this article:

<http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone>

~~~
wmeredith
Couldn't help but point out that on a 3gs iPhone running 3.0 OS almost
everything in that article is refuted. (It's still hilarious, though.)

------
Tomer
This is an amazing web site! where do you get from the news?! you have so many
good web sites you refer to...

