An Important Thing About iPhone OS 3.0: It’s Not About the Pre
There’s a story going around that some of what Apple may announce today for the iPhone 3.0 OS will be to counter Palm’s Pre. Kevin Rose mentioned this, and it’s covered in a few places, including right here.
Personally, I think such discussion is Pre-mature.
The Pre was announced little more than two months ago, and it’s unproven. There’s no way Apple would interrupt ongoing development to push new functionality to counter this device. No. Way.
- First, the Pre is vapor. Why in heaven’s name would Apple begin rushing a new feature into the iPhone (possibly causing more harm than good) solely for the sake of a device that we won’t see for many months? And when it’s finally available it could be a freakin’ disaster for all we know. Until the Pre hits the market with a big splash, it’s no more an “iPhone killer” than the Prada, G1 or Storm were before it.
- Second, if you think Apple shipped iPhone OS 1.0 with no plans for 2.0, and then shipped 2.0 with no plans for 3.0, you haven’t paid much attention to Apple over the last decade. These guys have an OS (and for that matter, hardware) plan that they’re following, and the announcement of one new device is not going to derail that.
- Third, developing an OS takes time. Even if they wanted to, just how much do you think Apple could get done in two months (and less than six until it likely ships)? Very little. For example, if background processing is announced for 3.0, are you going to believe it’s because Apple slapped it together in a couple months in a state of panic, or because they were working on it all along? Obviously, it’s the latter.
What I’m trying to say is that if Apple fills “gaps” in the iPhone feature list tomorrow, it’s because they’ve been working on them for a while, not because of any vapor device.
I’m sure this “Apple is worried about the Pre” meme will continue well after the OS announcement today, but I’m not buying it. Frankly, it makes zero sense at this stage in the respective devices’ lives.
Finally, none of this meant to disparage the Pre, which I’m as interested in seeing as anyone. Once it’s on the market for a month or two we’ll see what it really is. But, right now, the idea that Apple is worried enough about it to deviate from what has proven to be a hugely successful smartphone strategy is just silly.
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Anthony on March 17th, 2009 at 6:44 am
Couldn’t agree with you more.
DMW on March 17th, 2009 at 6:53 am
I agree with both of you
Steve on March 17th, 2009 at 7:47 am
Maybe you’re right, and maybe you’re not, but there’s one thing to remember: having competition, be it vapor or not, is a good thing. As it not stands, Microsoft (and RIM) isn’t really competition in the same sense that the Pre is. The Pre, having so many features similar to the iPhone and working in a way that seems to make sense, definitely puts it a step above the others. Apple finally has what looks to be a legitimate competitor.
If you don’t think that features, whether planned or not, don’t get pushed a little faster when it looks like the competition might take some sales, you need to look again. Maybe copy and paste has been planned since 1.0 or maybe not. It may have just been a “we’ll get to it when we get a chance”. Well, now that everyone else can do it, don’t you think Apple might have the incentive to get that feature out the door a little quicker?
The Pre may turn out to be a dud, but it might not. Competition is a good thing and I look forward to what it will bring to both camps. Just because Apple did it first (decent smartphone), doesn’t mean they did it best.
Champs on March 17th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Reasonable iPhone users like myself can at least see the weak points of the OS and see many of them addressed by the Pre. The notion that this isn’t about Palm’s new phone would only be plausible if Cupertino hadn’t gone silent on push notifications (or any other development issue) months ago.
The two phones do not occupy the same market space, but there are a lot of BlackBerry, WinMo, and Sidekick converts who want better execution of their old smartphones, not a fancy featurephone.
mark on March 17th, 2009 at 8:28 am
finally, an intelligent article from someone who knows something about software development.
that said, some details could’ve been tweaked at the last moment based on what was seen at CES.
competition is necessary if you think Apple would otherwise rest on its laurels. but under Jobs’ direction, there’s little chance that Apple has decided to rest, as he always seems to be aiming to make stuff better regardless of what his competitors are doing.
Gazoobee on March 17th, 2009 at 8:49 am
I agree with “mark” above, (and the thrust of the main article of course). Software development being what it is, it’s unlikely that OS 3.0 was designed in response to anything but is more a steady planned progression.
That being said, a part of the progression has to be to make the system more powerful as generations go by and to remove the barriers that had to be erected initially, to make OS-X run on such a small and hardware limited device.
So from my point of view, I think they will come out with more of a “full power” OS-X mobile this time. This means that the artificial limitation on multi-tasking of third party apps may be eliminated (at least on the new hardware). Another thing missing from the mobile variant is be the ability for apps to address a local file system. This would make all kinds of document editing capabilities possible and “cut and paste” becomes both necessary and expected as well.
cmfnyc on March 17th, 2009 at 8:58 am
Another dose of sanity in the Apple blogosphere. I agree with Tom. It makes absolutely no sense that Apple would rush to feature-match vaporware. But rush to announce? That’s another question. Apple doesn’t pre-announce products as much or as far in advance as others, which is good business, I think. If you leave too much airspace between product announcement and product delivery, you give customers and media plenty of time to fill the void with expectations. I’ll be rooting for Palm to get back into the game, but I fear the Pre will be crushed by months upon months of expectation proliferation. You’d think Microsoft learned about the damages of the long-and-winding-road to product delivery given its Vista woes, but they turned around and pre-announced a point update to Windows Mobile months in advance. The problem is you’d think Windows Mobile 6.5 was already here. When it shows up, it may be too late to its own party.
So that gets me back to the question I’m curious about. How much of a sneak peek is it? In my experience, Apple does not leave more than few months between announcement and product release. (Mac OSes being an exception). So if iPhone 3.0 rolls in June, that seems to fit a normal announcement. Anything later would suggest that Apple is concerned about something.
Icecastles on March 17th, 2009 at 9:13 am
My biggest concern is that 3.0 is going to follow the version conventions that Apple has established for iTunes – namely, giving it a fully new version number (rather than a point release like calling it 2.1) not because the OS has changed that much, but to promote a sales element. For example, several new “versions” of iTunes have been the introduction of the iTunes store, video rentals, podcast downloads, et cetera. These are big deals to be sure, but they don’t really fit with what one would consider to be a new version number rather than an incremental upgrade.
So with the big rumor (which I tend to think is correct) being a ‘premium’ version of the App Store (good idea by the way), I have a strong feeling that while there will be a few much-needed enhancements like copy-paste, there isn’t really going to be anything that, in the strict sense of the term, will justify calling it OS 3.0. But it sure gets a lot more press than announcing a new point release.
Staff Comment Tom Reestman, TheAppleBlog on March 17th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Champs,
Apple had “gone silent” on push notifications long before any of us ever heard of the Pre. Besides, in the case of background apps most smartphones do it, so I don’t think the Pre’s ability to do this is anything special. Heck, its the iPhones INability to do it that’s “special” (and not in a god way).
All,
OSes are evolving, so there are certainly “tweaks” that could take place late in the game. I see that all the time. But even then, I imagine those occurring after the Pre is out and successful, not while it’s still vapor. Apple has no issue implementing their own unproven designs, but they’re not likely to implement someone else’s.
Finally, let’s say iPhone 3.0 hits in June (no date has been given), and the Pre also hits in June (again, no date has been given). If the Pre is successful, and has some unique features, then certainly I can see Apple modifying 4.0 in some ways. And I agree with all those saying such competition is a good thing.
My point is it’s easier to do that when the next release is still fairly early in its cycle, and it’s less risky when you’ve seen a given feature be successful in the wild. Neither of those would apply to the 3.0 release today.
Steve - Athena Design on March 17th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I totally agree with your view, Apple know what they are doing and follow well established processes, and they (in my view) are well disciplined and controlled they don’t do ‘knee jerk reactions’ that’s what make Apple so successful they are visionaries and follow that vision along with other brands like Nintendo.
Rob Oakes on March 18th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Of course it’s about the Pre. Not the Pre that will be released in a few months (or whenever Palm actually gets around to it), but the Pre that exists in the minds of reviewers, commentators and (most importantly) the heads of Apple’s executives. The Pre of their imagination is a serious threat to iPhone and Apple executives are at least wary.
We see the wariness in much of what Apple does; in the legal threats and in the iPhone 3.0 event from yesterday. Two of the biggest new features: copy/paste and background notifications are direct responses to the Pre, though in fundamentally different ways.
The addition of copy/paste plugs the most egregious hole in the iPhone’s feature set. It also takes away the biggest functionality stick which could be legitimately used to hit Apple. (For that matter, most of the new features might be described as such.)
The When the Pre launched, they carefully crafted their presentation and press-release to highlight multiple running apps. What better way to highlight their superiority over the competition. Apple provided their response yesterday, or so the careful discussion of background apps and battery life would greatly suggest. The presentation was deliberate and wholly unnecessary; in many ways it’s as as close to transparency as I’ve ever seen from Apple. But they explained their position (somewhat persuasively), nonetheless.
And these are only two examples. Let’s also add turn-by-turn directions, expanded calendar sync, and stereo bluetooth to the list. A head to head comparison between iPhone 3.0 and the Pre can be found here.
Contrary to the myth of “quiet innovation” that Apple would like to perpetuate in the media, they are an extremely competitive company. Moreover, the Pre has them firing on all cylinders. I hope that Tim Cook wakes up in night terrors. I hope he drives iPhone engineering to produce wild and amazing new software + devices. I’ve already more or less declared my loyalty to the iPhone platform and will be the direct beneficiary of those efforts. (I can only hope that a proper Exchange implementation of note and task sync will take the place of copy/paste as the biggest iPhone functionality gripe.)
In closing, of course iPhone 3.0 is about the Pre. Just like Windows Mobile 7.0 and Android are about the iPhone. All of the devices must meet the mythical standards of the general public. Two years ago, iPhone brought about a fundamental change. And in the next few years, I think it likely that there will an all out smart-phone war. When the final numbers are tallied, 30 million devices will be a pathetic pittance. Whoever wins this fight (Apple, Palm, Microsoft, Google) will dominate a market of billions.
Bleawnuttelay on April 16th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
nice, really nice!