“Don’t bet on Apple loosening the shackles off its much-lauded iPhone operating system (OS)–even if it means this could broaden the device’s appeal to developers and mobile device users,” Farihan Bahrin reports for ZDNet Asia under a typically goofy headline, “iPhone OS shackles to stay.”
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, some people still can’t figure out that inviting every cook in the world on down to the worst fast food fry cook is a prescription for spoiled broth, i.e. Windows. Measured control is good. We prefer to have someone in charge; someone who’s obsessive about quality and attention-to-detail, thanks. That’s a major reason why the Mac is superior to Windows and the iPhone with OS X will be superior to all of the other antiquated mobile phones on the market. Get it?
Bahrin continues, “‘Apple has a history of seeking to control its development environment, thus limiting access to the iPhone OS would enable it to maintain this approach,’ Gavin Byrne, research analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview. Tony Cripps, Ovum’s service manager for Mobile User Experience, noted in his research study that compared to competing platforms–such as Microsoft’s Windows Mobile–the iPhone’s native programming environment ‘appears to be closed to post-loaded applications and possibly even to third-party pre-loaded applications.'”
MacDailyNews Take: His “research?” Oh, la, la! Puleeze. Apple isn’t talking — trust us — and they certainly aren’t participating in any “research” beyond answering “no comment” regarding iPhone’s OS, licensing, and applications.
Bahrin continues, “Cripps added that this closed-door policy makes the iPhone a poor service platform for mobile network operators. ‘This is way out of step with growing mobile operator demands for consistent, common and widely deployed handset platforms on which to launch new services,’ said Cripps, adding that the iPhone, while clearly a special device from the consumer point of view, is little more than another handset to operators.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ovum purports to be “Advisers on the commercial impact of technology and market changes in telecoms, software and IT services.” Hey, they never promised good advice, did they? Can Cripps really be so blind or is something else at play here?
Bahrin continues, “Although Apple has been hiring more staff to work on the product, the company’s decision to keep the iPhone’s platform close to external parties has won it little fans among application developers and mobile network operators. Informa’s Byrne, however, noted that the Cupertino-based company seemed prepared to make exceptions when it suited them. ‘It would seem likely that Apple [would have to work] with a number of key technology companies such as Google,’ argued Byrne. He added that for certain applications–such as the iPhone’s Google Map function, for example–Apple would have had to collaborate closely with the search giant to optimize the application for the iPhone’s platform.”
“‘Even if [the iPhone] is opened up to third parties, it is difficult to see how the installed base of iPhones can reach the level where it becomes a truly attractive service platform for operator and developer investment,’ Cripps countered,” Bahrin reports. “Apple’s apparent ditching of conventional application paradigms for mobile phones seems ill-advised if the company really wanted the iPhone to be perceived as a smartphone and to take on mobile juggernauts such as Nokia, Microsoft and Motorola.”
MacDailyNews Take: March 14, 2007, 9:12am EDT: iCal’ed Tony Cripps for future reference. They lack of understanding boggles the mind: All Apple does is repeatedly and routinely ditch conventional paradigms, Mr. Cripps (aka Mr. Due for a Rude Awakening).
Bahrin continues, “Some industry observers have suggested that in order for Apple to achieve significant market penetration in the next year, the company should consider licensing the iPhone’s OS to external handset makers. Cripps, however, doubts that manufacturers will buy into this idea, arguing that the lack of flexibility and extensibility in the iPhone’s software platform would potentially limit its use across a broader spectrum of applications and devices.”
MacDailyNews Take: Tony Cripps. Proving not only that it’s possible to talk out of a orifice other than the mouth, but elevating it to an art-form.
Bahrin continues, “Instead of buying Apple’s technology, Cripps predicted, manufacturers will try to emulate the iPhone’s software interface for one-off products using custom platforms based on Linux or Windows CE. ‘It is far from impossible,’ Cripps said.”
Full article here.
Either Cripps doesn’t get it (which is hard to believe considering his line of work) or he doesn’t want to get it. Discuss.*
*Attribution: Coffee Talk with Linda Richman
Related articles:
RUMOR: Apple considering licensing iPhone OS X, multi-touch? – March 13, 2007
Wired’s Mortensen: Apple is under-selling iPhone with their 10 million figure – March 13, 2007
Getting ready for Apple iPhone: How to get out of your 2-year cellphone contract – March 13, 2007
Apple’s marketing machine does it again: iPhone generates $400 million in free publicity – March 10, 2007
Analyst: Apple’s iPhone has Palm ‘shaking in their sandals’ – March 09, 2007
Which company is most at risk from Apple’s looming iPhone onslaught? – March 04, 2007
Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple ‘buy’ – says market is underestimating iPhone demand – March 01, 2007
Apple’s 10 million iPhone sales target for 2008 would surpass most other smart phone sales – March 01, 2007
Apple COO Tim Cook: iPhone is a revolutionary product; you get what you pay for – February 28, 2007
How will vehicle makers integrate Apple’s iPhone? – February 28, 2007
Apple COO Tim Cook: iPhone on track for June launch – February 27, 2007
Goldman Sachs: 4 reasons to be bullish on Apple’s iPhone – February 26, 2007
Apple airs iPhone teaser ad during Oscars – February 25, 2007
Apple preps 3G iPhone model for Europe – February 25, 2007
The once-mighty Palm Inc. doomed to decline and failure – thanks to Apple’s iPhone – February 23, 2007
Palm CEO can’t stop talking about Apple iPhone – February 19, 2007
How Steve Jobs played hardball in iPhone deal with AT&T (Cingular) – February 17, 2007
Digit takes a closer look at Apple’s iPhone – February 14, 2007
Microsoft caught off-guard, beaten badly by Apple’s iPhone innovations – February 13, 2007
Apple’s soon-to-be iPhone rivals sound just like iPod rivals circa 2001 – February 01, 2007
How Verizon blew the Apple iPhone deal – January 29, 2007
O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile battle for exclusive rights to Apple iPhone in UK – January 26, 2007
Rogers to offer Apple iPhone exclusively in Canada – January 25, 2007
Research in Motion downgraded due to Apple iPhone competition – January 23, 2007
Ihnatko: Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone (which runs Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) – January 18, 2007
Microsoft CEO Ballmer laughs at Apple iPhone – January 17, 2007
RealMoney: Apple just blew up the whole damn mobile-phone supply chain with its new iPhone – January 11, 2007
eWeek: Apple iPhone fallout: ‘They must be crying in Nokia-ville and other telephony towns today’ – January 10, 2007
Jefferies downgrades Motorola on fears of market share loss to Apple iPhone – January 10, 2007
The massive FUD campaign against Apple’s iPhone ramps up – January 10, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
A pincushion is neither a pin nor a cushion. Discuss LOL
“[T]he lack of flexibility and extensibility in the iPhone’s software platform would potentially limit its use across a broader spectrum of applications and devices.”
Like computers or set top boxes? It’s a version of OS X for pity’s sake. It has huge potential for interaction.
“Measured control is good.”
I want that on a T-Shirt!
“Apple’s apparent ditching of conventional application paradigms for mobile phones seems ill-advised…
Why they do it is to produce a NEW paradigm….not to make a me-too product.
Farihan Bahr wants to be known as a technological dickhead…Cancel or Allow?
The guy either has another agenda or is totally in the dark which is NOT uncommon these days. Personally, I think it is the former of the two. Apple has a few companies running scared these days, and for good reason. Those very same companies have been asleep at the wheel too long. Now they know they can’t catch up and be competitive in a short time frame to save their own skins.
Most of the aruments Bahrin made to support his conclusions ACTUALLY supported Apple’s way of doing things, just the opposite of Bahrin.
It is! It’s a cushion for pins
iPhone BITCH!
Why do you want a t-shirt with “that” on it? Wouldn’t it be better to have “Measured control is good.” on it?
Buster,
Get your dickheads straight: it’s Tony Cripps, not Farihan Bahrin, who’s either obtuse or being paid by Apple’s soon-to-be-demolished “competition” to spread iPhone FUD.
This Wharton Professor, PETER FADER is just as CLUELESS!!!
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=695467&rl=1
Given what passes for a “smartphone” from other companies these days I’m completely content that the analysts and industry wonks are saying the iPhone won’t likely be perceived as such.
Case in point – a recent article from Mike Elgan entitled “Why ‘Smart Phone’ is a dumb label”
http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9012135
“Technological dickhead”…..LOL.
Yup, that description is right on. Notice the use of flowery words in his statements. Read it again and it all means nothing, especially when you have a handset that will do more than the current crop. These people are so stuuuuuuupid.
“It is! It’s a cushion for pins”
No, it’s receptacle for pins
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@Peter
Whoops….my bad. Thanks for the heads up.
All these analysts seem to be under the impression that if you sell a lot of something it must be automatically good. “people buy lots of mobile phones, therefore the software that they come with must be great, therefore the current model is the only one that will work.” Forget the fact that people aren’t universally praising windows mobile and that people don’t like their mobile phones other than for the convenience of being able to make phone calls whilst mobile. The iPhone may not ultimately succeed but it’s trying something different, to improve a market whose only idea of innovation is to make everything smaller and more fiddly to use.
Ovum list Microsoft as a client.
Just sayin’
What’s more extensible than the UNIX foundation of OS X?
It is just another handset… but one that works better than all the others… and has more features… and is worth it!
MW: increase
As in, Apple will increase their target beyond 10 million rather quickly.
To me, one of the biggest features about the iPhone that I have not seen mentioned is that you will be able to buy it and GET SUPPORT for it at Apple Stores. How many times have we all walked into the Verizon Store, Cingular Store, Nextel Store, Any Other Mobile Carrier Store, asked for help with a handset and gotten the confused stare of a mongoloid with a name tag? Oh and a little drool and twinkie cream on it after they hold it. Imagine getting the kind of help that the Genuis Bars consistently provide for our Macs and iPods for our phones. That fact alone has me drooling for the iPhone. Apple’s new paradigm makes this possible.
“adding that the iPhone, while clearly a special device from the consumer point of view, is little more than another handset to operators.”
This just shows how much he fits the Windows “good enough” midset. Those pesky “consumers” have the nerve to think it is special, but what do they know? You would think that the long-term implications of this way of thinking would be pretty obvious right now to anyone in business given the very visible examples provided by the American auto industry.
Somone really needs to hit some executives in the head and remind them THE CONSUMERS ARE THE ONES SPENDING THE MONEY. As a business, your main goal should be TO GIVE THE CONSUMERS WHAT THEY WANT!!!!!!
The reaction from the iPhone naysayers is pretty typical of those who have never understood the appeal of premium products. They just think that it is all a gimmick and marketing. It never occurs to them that maybe there actually is a better way to do or make something, and that even seemingly small improvements can lead to very large differences in the user experience for the customers.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that after reading the linked article I am all verklempt.
I agree with loki capret. What is more open than UNIX??? AT&T/Bell Labs (a telephone company) help develop UNIX. Isn’t it ironic that UNIX is the basis for the iPhone? UNIX is as open architecture as can be found in the world today. I’ll drop it here. Ugh.
Must be a cottage industry blooming with this type if reporting. Doesn’t appear they left the house….
On a lighter note, Peter called someone a dick….
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@newton: interesting that you raised Peter Fader.
I iCal’d Peter Fader in January over his Wharton podcast which was also an extremely crass attempt to put down Apple and iPhone…
This is the link to the podcast in question:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=120724941&s=143444&i=13778415
Wow Moment.
That was a whole lotta dumb in one article. I wish I had time to pull it apart line by line, but I don’t. The best one, though, was this one:
“This is way out of step with growing mobile operator demands for consistent, common and widely deployed handset platforms on which to launch new services”
It’s nice to see that no one in the handset industry has figured out one simple fact yet – people don’t give a fuck about your services. They don’t *want* to pay you 2 dollars for a bloody 30 second ringtone, you just make them do it because they don’t have a better alternative.
They don’t care about your strategic partnerships. They want a phone that they can enjoy using. They are not getting this yet. At all. All you phones suck ox balls. The interfaces are klugey and badly designed, the phones themselves are uncomfortable to hold up to your ear, and can be a nightmare to sync with a computer or get your music on to or your pictures off of. They’re a great place “to launch new services”, but personally, every second I spend with one makes a little part of me die inside. I’m so glad you made a deal with some game company to put adds on my fucking phone, that’s so cool. You don’t consider how consumers are forgotten in the whole equation, except for the part where they give you their money. You’re obviously not paying attention to anything else. Your UIs suck. They’re ugly. They’re hard to use. They do not have me in mind.
The handset industry does not exist to make good products, it exists to create and preserve revenue. That’s it. Now, businesses are in business to make money, that’s a universal fact. But as a consumer, I’m not getting any value out of this deal, not compared to how much of my money you are taking. Every company comes up with all kinds of great new ways to monetize a service or a technology, but it’s painfully obvious that no one actually thinks about what the consumer actually wants. Hey, here’s one: instead of paying you 2 dollars for a snippet of a song, how about you let me take clips from my own music library and *easily* transfer them to my phone to use how I like? Or how about this – why not build wi-fi into a phone, and whenever I’m in range of an open access point, you switch my calls over to VOIP automatically so I don’t use so many minutes? Could we do that, or would it endanger one of your revenue streams?
Apple is breaking the paradigm. They are totally out of step. And thank goodness for that. If Apple does everything wrong in the handset industry and goes against every bit of conventional wisdom, then they are bound to actually create a good product and not just another crappy block of plastic. The Big Established Players can do no better than RAZR and Chocolate, and that is pretty sad. I say we put ’em all out of business. I think we just might, and I am pretty sure they’re starting to figure this out.
So, handset industry, I have one word for you:
Die.
-c
MW: ‘planning’ (for a revolution)