Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"An iPhone price war currently underway in France may be our first glimpse of what we can expect if, as rumored, AT&T's exclusivity deal with Apple runs out next year, and the iPhone comes to other carriers."

Ah the free market forces at work. We can only hope that AT&T's hold on the iPhone does run out next year. Not that I would switch, as AT&T works fine for me in my area, but I'd definitely feel the benefits of a little competition and enjoy every minute of it! 

"Apple's upgrade strategy helps their users and the company in a bunch of different ways. It lets users buy iPhones with some confidence, knowing that they're not going to get left behind next year. It lets developers aim at the latest platform, without having to worry about supporting the older versions of the iPhone OS. And it keeps users with Apple because they don't enter a new buying cycle, thinking of new choices and potentially churning off to the latest new thing."

Sagan brings up an excellent point. RIM and Microsoft, two of the biggest direct competitors in the Smartphone arena, just can't get more than a point-release out to customers. If you throw in Nokia, you rarely see any groundbreaking upgrades to a phone OS that doesn't require the purchase of new hardware.

He also hits the nail on the head when he says that it makes customers more confident in the product knowing they won't be left behind if an upgrade comes down the pipeline. That's one of the reasons I so love my iPhone; unlike they myriad other smartphones I've owned, it's still just as useful as the day I got it because of an upgrade to the OS.

A free upgrade to the OS.

"Developers can sign up to begin submitting their apps for inclusion in the launch of App World if they haven't already and consumers can now register to stay notified of updates. To purchase from App World a PayPal account will be required, and RIM has tossed a page up on the site directing people to create their accounts."

Ugh. Paypal? Five bucks says it won't work with my security key. Something tells me this knock-off of the App Store isn't going to take off the way Google's knock-off did on the G1. The funniest part about App World is that when the iPhone came out, we were told that there were thousands of available apps for BlackBerry devices and the ecosystem for apps was very vibrant. I guess that was just hooey and no one was actually using them, otherwise why create a new distribution model? I reckon most BlackBerry owners have never added one single app to their phones up until now (I work in a company filled with "stock" BlackBerry handhelds). Amazing how it took Apple demonstrating the obvious (if you make it easy, people will buy) to get RIM, Microsoft, and Google to follow along.

I remember it very clearly. It was January 2007, and I was sitting in my office furiously refreshing the page on my work computer reading the liveblogging that was going on. It was finally here; Steve Jobs was announcing the iPhone. It was a device thousands upon thousands of loyal Apple customers were dying for. A phone designed to work with their platform, not hacked to "function" with it. Out of the box, it was designed to sync our contacts and calendar, give us e-mail that was better than anything else on the market, and a web experience that no one on the market could match. I'll never forget how my mind boggled that day, and I haven't felt that way about a product announcement since then. Today, however, I think another company has finally done something that I never thought I would see: developed a competitor to the iPhone that could take a bite out of the iPhone, and surprise of surprises, it's Palm. Read more...