“Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of attending all of Apple’s major milestone events, including the launch of the first-ever Mac back in 1984, as well as the initial iPod launch. More recently, I was there when Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. At the event, Jobs referenced the two previous major platform announcements and declared that the iPhone would be the third,” Tim Bajarin writes for PC Magazine.
“Thanks to the recent launch of the iPhone SDK, we now have a glimpse of what the iPhone is going to be when it grows up. At the SDK launch, John Doer [sic] of Kleiner Perkins announced that Kleiner would put $100 million into iPhone software start-ups. His exact words in reference to the iPhone were ‘This is the next PC.’ Very few media reports recorded this comment, or if they did, they did not put it into context. In these few words, Doer told us exactly what the iPhone is destined to be,” Bajarin writes. “You might be interested to know that John Doer is one of the most forward-thinking venture capitalists in the world. He became a billionaire by betting on the likes of Amazon, Google, and dozens of the PC industry’s biggest companies.”
MacDailyNews Note: It’s “Doerr” (two r’s) and what he really said, exactly, was “The Mac and the iPod are two truly amazing platforms. There’s over a million developers on the Mac and over 5,000 independent products for the iPod. Today, we’re witnessing history. That’s the launching of the SDK, the creation of the third great platform, the iPhone and the iPod touch. Think about it. What the iPhone’s all about is, in your pocket, you have something that’s broadband and connected all the time. It’s personal. It knows who you are and where you are. That’s a big deal. A really big deal. It’s bigger than the personal computer.“
Bajarin continues, “Certain key components will make this vision of the iPhone becoming the next PC a reality. First, Intel’s new Centrino Atom chips will deliver the processing power needed (data speeds of more than 1 GHz). Couple this with the rich operating systems and next-generation software that can be run on a device such as the iPhone and you have the power of a traditional PC in something that fits into your pocket. If history is our guide, we may look back at this iPhone SDK launch as a defining moment in the world of personal computing.”
Full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MidWest Mac” for the heads up.]
Wherever you see “iPhone” in any article talking about the future potential of Apple’s new platform’, remember to mentally add “and iPod touch,” if it’s not mentioned. Currently, there are likely just as many, if not more, iPod touch units out there than iPhones. Apple’s multi-touch platform already extends past the iPhone device and will sooner than later grow beyond just the iPod touch, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air.
[UPDATE: 2:54pm EDT: Added MacBook Air, MacBook Pro mentions to Take as per alansky’s and others’ reminders below.]
I haven’t used the MBA much (other than a quick walk through an Apple store) but I don’t see it’s features as being Multi-touch. At least not any more so than my MB has. Sure you can do neat tricks like turn a photo, but how ground breaking is that anyways.
To me a the first Multi-Touch computer will be one that has multi-touch as its PRIMARY input, like the iPhone or the soon (or later) to be released Surface. The air has multi-touch as an afterthought.
That said, I think apple should have delivered a multi-touch tablet instead of the air. I don’t see why they didn’t.
Then again, I bet that I do know why they didn’t release a multi-touch tablet. The capacitive detector would have to be 13 inches in diagonal and that would have probably priced it well out of range of 80% of the population.
Da*n money. You always screw over really good technology.
The SDK has some serious competition on the way.
It’ll be fun to watch the sparks fly!
“What’s that thing that Spock always carried around with him?”
The tricorder.
Best not to lose sight of the potential for Microsoft (or new stalking company) to rip off the Apple iPhone idea, licence software to third-party, open-network, clunky $100 ‘iPhonski’ clones along with a developer kit – all on the market within 6 months … happened before.
Rather than always adding “and iPod touch”, why not just say “iPhone OS” and be done with it?
Apple calls it, and refers to it, as the iPhone OS, and it applies to everything running that OS. If we don’t pick up this nomenclature soon, we’ll eventually be saying iPhone, and iPhone 3G, and iPhone nano, and iPod touch, and Mac tablet, and…
@dallas: “That said, I think apple should have delivered a multi-touch tablet instead of the air. I don’t see why they didn’t.”
I think it’s because there is as yet no software for it. You couldn’t just slap current OS X apps on there, and that’s why the iPod Touch is so important (and the one with a cellphone cobbled onto it); they are there to bring about the needed development. It’s also why we are seeing a lot of seemingly cosmetic changes to OS X, such as coverflow.
People will freak out if they’re dropped in at the deep end, or just like the boiling frog, you need to warm the water gradually or it will jump out.
Didn’t AT&T;win the auction for the new freqs. from the FCC…. If so then I think you will see (Hear) AT&T;coverage problems slowly coming to an end
Good call MDN. Whenever the iPhone is mentioned it needs to be associated to the Touch. The average joe is confused between what will work on the Touch or the iPhone. Apple should nip this in the bud. The Touch should greatly outsell the phone.
I want a Touch but people keep thinking it has phone capabilities.
People are confused with the two products. Still haven’t seen touch ads on TV.
Come on Apple,promote the Touch.
Remember the Nintendo touch ads?
Touch This
“Still haven’t seen touch ads on TV.”
There have been two. But only one is on the Apple.com site:
http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/ads/
i agree with John Doe !
Except that:
the iPhone is not broadband
it does not know where u are
it’s not connected all the time
(especially if u are a third party developer)
it’s not bigger than the personal computer (sry)
by the way, by “bigger than the PC” they mean the mac as well !
this site would be a lot better if u weren’t so partial, the mac is better anyway, no need to exagerate.
It’s a Zune Tang related joke. He usually signed off every post with “Suck on that, MAC dorks.”
To expand on this as further explanation…
Zune Tang, in his spoofery, capitalizes MAC because so many Windows people mistakingly do just that (you see it all the time when they are busy bashing Apple on chat boards). They are so unfamiliar with the product that they are dumping on that they do not realize that Mac is short for Macintosh.
I dont like ‘Average Joe’.
He is always getting things wrong, doesnt understand technology, isnt very good-looking, wears horrible clothes, drinks too much, smokes cigarettes, votes right-wing.
Why doesnt ‘Average Joe’ get hip?
And why is it always ‘your’ average joe?
Actually, Apple is secretly working on OLR as well before releasing a larger touch pad computing device. They are also secretly investing in barbershops. The device will have iChat with a camera built in, and, for those of us who dislike typing on smaller keyboards, the camera will optically recognize your words by reading your lips! This will serve as a two fold function: the first being to save time on input into your device, and the second being the increase in need for mustache trims! Apple will rule the world and it’s barbershops
Re:walk away Bill
No AT&T;did not just win the spectrum action for 700MHz, they purchased a pice of the 700 MHz spectrum for another company that had had acquired it in a previous action. But as we have seen from that action, the Government is slow to deliver on the space after it has been purchased (They are still waiting to get the 700MHz back from TV and keep giving extensions).
The touch has Inet only at hotspots while the iphone has it in many places but not nearly as many as Verizon-based data phones. When a new application appears that enables Dial-Up Internet (DUI) using the iphone modem for my Macbook I’ll exchange the 1st handheld computer, My Treo, for an iphone. Better yet, Apple makes a Verizon version so that I can keep the cross-country and back-country connectivity.
Bigger than the PC, wow better get Zune Thang to quickly get on Microsoft to start making PCs so that they can catch up. Let’s see, they are only about 20+ years behind.
I wonder, what would a MS PC be called, if they were to make one of course.
JackB,
There’s no such thing as Verizon having better nationwide access. It’s either in favor of ATT or its dead even. I believe it favors ATT slightly. The issue is that because our nation’s cell networks are not compatible, there is an artificial barrier between each proprietary network creating irregular gaps in service that favor one carrier or another regionally. ATT has way better coverage in some areas, and Verizon has better coverage in others.
It sounds like you tend to go to the areas where Verizon is better, and that makes it a better choice for you right now. But you could just as easily spend time in areas heavily covered by ATT and feel the opposite.
The sad thing is that it matters at all, they should all work together and be on whatever the most popular global standard is so we don’t get left behind.
Regardless of all this, Verizon has worse customer service, and doesn’t have the iPhone.
mac touch
mac pad
mac finger
no no no no
mac touch
yeh yeh yeh
peace
\ln
mdn key word was deep….
@Ampar
“The tricorder”
I’ll by an iPhone when they program it to scan for vital signs.