Glenn Andert’s blog

Is this The End of the iPhone?

There is tremendous potential for the iPhone, or a knock off, to become THE platform in the future.

Why do you need a laptop (or desktop) computer when you have such a powerful phone? The phone can obviously do calls, txts, store your contacts. It’s now not unusual to have 5 megapixel camera in the phone (not that the iPhone does). The new iPhone 3G has an internal GPS making it a wonderful navigation device. It has WiFi which means you can connect to the internet for free in zillions of places such as cafes (well, in the US, but not NZ yet). The browser on the phone works pretty well. The google mobile apps work great giving you excellent access to email, maps, routes, shared documents, shared calendar, etc. The iPhone 3G also has broadband over the cellular network, giving you internet access just about anywhere. Etc etc etc.

So why do you need a “computer”? After all, its just another bloody computer to purchase, maintain etc. And its the existance of both your “computer” and your phone that creates the syncronization nightmare for contacts, calendar, email, etc.

For a lot of work you need a nice big LCD screen, keyboard, mouse, speakers, game controls, etc. The iPhone of the future might easily plug into a docking station that will contain those peripherals. This does not appear to be all that hard from a technology perspective.

So, it’s pretty clear that the phone is the platform of the future, not the PC. This is not news to Microsoft – they have been worried about this for years. Hence their efforts with the MobilePC.

Remember when the Macintosh was king? And the PC was crap? And the PC won? Why is that? Because Apple kept the Mac platform proprietary. Well, history repeats. The iPhone is king. Apple – what are you going to do this time?