Apple To Open iPhone To Developers; Good News for TalkPlus, Truphone and Others
Source: andyabramson.blogs.com
I have to give credit to two of my agencies clients, Truphone and TalkPlus. Both showed a lot of guts and insight in betting the farm so to speak and going forward with advanced development of clients and processes that will let their services work (or work soon) on the iPhone from Apple in the face of all the perceived direction of Apple, none of which was I buying for one minute.
This story by Matt Richtel in today’s New York Times pretty much sums up how I’ve felt all along, especially with the quote from the Gartner analyst, Michael McGuire, who seems to feel the same as me. Apple had this in the plan all along. Here’s why:
1) The initial iPhone had to be better than any other new phone on the market. To be that way meant, control. No one would ever say Apple is anything less than about control of their intellectual property. It was in keeping with their behavior, but not core to their beliefs.
2) Apple has always embraced the developer community. While big companies had shied away from writing software for Apple products, new upstarts were embraced. Did anyone, other than maybe some folks at AT&T, think the Leopard had changed their spots?
3) The iPhone is a computer. It’s an extension of the Mac OS universe. To be the most seamless mobile extension of the world’s easiest OS to use, it has to have extensions of those applications, and not all can be browser/Safari based.
4) Apple has always been about creativity and imagination. It has been about thinking different. The iPhone is a different way to be thinking about a mobile device.
5) The second generation iPhone will more than likely feature HSDPA or HSUPA. Apple has had a knack of being first with wireless embedded in its Mac’s ahead of other manufacturers. They have embraced Bluetooth first, WiFi first. My guess is they have a deal with AT&T to embrace HSUPA first or even WiMax with Sprint or Clearwire. The new wireless platforms will require new applications. That means there is a need for a thriving developer community, just like what Symbian and Java have, but done the Apple way.
So, I’m not surprised. Just feeling like my clients were right all along for taking the time and effort to be leaders, not followers as they blaze the trail of development for the iPhone.
