Well, I guess I'm very late. One thing about the iPhone and tech bloggers is it seems like if you haven't said or written about it, you just aren't one.
As someone who's seen a few ground-breaking product launches in this industry, I must say I'm not that impressed. Yes, it's a great product - for some. But cellphones are a one billion device per year industry. Theoretically, you can have five hundred handset models released into the market a year with the majority of them being successful and profitable. So what separates the iPhone from this pack? A kick-ass screen - yes. But that's not "Apple proprietary technology". Good industrial design - cool. Hype, well... The fact that Apple can stretch its brand successfully to a line of handsets is frankly less surprising than the fact Dolce & Gabbana can. Does that revolutionize the cellphone industry? Hardly.
What the iPhone definitely isn't is a good business tool. These rely mainly on messaging capabilities - secure push e-mail with strong text input capabilities. The iPhone's touch screen, great for zooming in on maps (assuming they're Google's) and viewing YouTube clips, is not text-entry friendly. The system also lacks of a robust push email solution, and the fact it's a closed platform lets no 3rd party contribute one, or any other horizontal application that cannot be delivered over a browser.
So - RIM has nothing to worry about. Neither do people like HTC, unless they see themselves as players in the gizmo space rather than business device makers. The iPhone's dent in the smartphone market (is it a smartphone? isn't a smartphone defined as a handset with an open OS?) will be limited to people who are actually media device consumers, not smartphone consumers. Yes, it's a big segment, and Nokia / Sony Ericsson / Motorola should take heed. But for now the iPhone will go no further than that sector.
.... Late addition - Dec. 14th 2008 ....
I am getting a lot of responses for this post still... I expect you may also want to read this subsequent post before commenting...
WorldMate attended the 8200 Alumnus Conversion
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Last week we got a chance to attend this year’s 8200 Alumnus conversion.
It’s been a great experience seeing all of the people come together to
celebrate l...
8 years ago
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10 comments:
Its easy to install 3rd party apps on the iPhone. Try AppInstall.
Are you going to update your thoughts now that the iPhone 3G is available? Quite a few in our company have happily switched from WM and BB devices, but we're missing out on your WM Live developments. I suspect there will be other customers you'll see disappearing if you don't develop for the iPhone as well.
I am a gold member, and I will only keep my subscription till it expires, that if I don't see it on my iPhone. Say what you may about iPhone, it is just the most seamless thing to sync with my macbook pro and air. BB syncing is a pain in the behind
Now that iPhone 3G has fixed everything you mentioned in your post a year ago, maybe now is a good time for a worldmate iPhone edition.
It's a great little prog. My favorite is the flight specific travel info. Such a time saver when i'm on the go!
So, Blackberry has nothing to fear?
Now that the iPhone has outsold all RIM devices in the last quarter, I can't see how Worldmate can afford to ignore the device anymore despite the constraints of the platform.
Live is only available on WinMo and BB and not more popular platforms such as S60, so what's the problem?
Seriousy, Nadav, what is up with your thinking here?
I have been a WorldMate customer of yours since your early days on the Palm. It was the single best and most useful application I ever owned on my various Palm and Clie handhelds over the years, and on my Blackberry too.
However, now that I have an iPhone 3G, I want to have this excellent program on this phone too. Imagine my surprise when I search for the iPhone version, to find this blog post of yours.
Developing this app for the iPhone should be a no-brainer for Mobimate, yet instead, all I could find is this blog where you are wasting time trash-talking the platform (and by extension,the owners) instead of getting on with the release of the iPhone version.
There should be a substantial market for your program on this platform, what with over 10 million iPhones sold. What is with the "platform wars"?? You're a software company after all, not a competitor?? And the logic that the iPhone is not a business solution and therefore not deserving of this app is absurd - aside from the fact that said logic is based on the temporary current situation wherein the iPhone does not YET have push-email.
Please reconsider your position - I would suggest that you are leaving yourself wide open to a competitive entry on this platform. I want WorldMate Pro for iPhone, but I would most certainly settle for a similar solution from someone else who respects my choice of platform.
Yours Sincerely,
Robert Stewart
(registration name: Robert Stewart)
p.s. I also have owned WorldMate on Windows Mobile as well!
p.p.s I don't necessarily care for the "Live" feature of background messages. I would be happy with the standard WorldMate Pro features, as I don't want background multitasking anyway - which is why I did not get WorldMate Live... I feel it would only create "drag" on my BlackBerry..
This is my favorite quote from the Amazon Queen review at AppVee:The game has now officially been ported to the iPhone and iPod Touch and is every bit as awesome as the original as far as gameplay goes.
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