The next iPhone will be...
Alex Kidman has some pet theories about the third generation iPhone, and why Mac rumour sites get it wrong.
OK, team. Let's recap what's actually genuinely known about the next update to Apple's highly successful iPhone, shall we?
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. No verified facts at all.
We don't know a damn thing, and that's the way Apple likes it.
Sure, you could point to any number of Apple rumour sites -- new ones seem to pop up at regular basis -- and talk about things like Apple's huge contracts for flash memory and the need for a 32GB iPhone, or the integration of a higher megapixel camera and the possibilities of mobile iMovie, or how the iPhone 4G will suddenly sprout wings and fly around the house, dropping freshly peeled grapes into your lap while Aerosmith's "Love In An Elevator" plays. I'd buy one for that "feature" alone, really.
You could spend thousands of hours "researching" (code for "What can we make up in Photoshop today?" or "What sounds feasible and will get us lots of page hits?") what's going to be in the next generation iPhone, and for the most part, those would just be wasted hours.
Unless, that is, any Cupertino employees would like to drop me a line about all the new iPhone features. I'll only turn it into a little story, I promise. Sure, you'd be kissing your career goodbye, and depending on the exact circumstances of your contract you may find several of your so-called "vital" organs being donated to Steve Jobs under less than sanitary conditions (for you), but that's a small price to pay for sating the public's desire for information, isn't it?
I'm waiting...
OK, I didn't think that would work.
What I do find interesting about all the pre-hype furore surrounding the next generation iPhone is that it ignores both Apple's history of "i" branded product development, not to mention the known facts about the upcoming 3.0 firmware, most of which arguably cover the ground that Apple will view as "innovation" in the iPhone space. Things like Bluetooth A2DP, Spotlight search, Modem Tethering, Cut/Paste and MMS.
Apple's sold a lot of iPhones and has a huge installed base of units, rather like it's got a huge installed base of iPods. New iPods have generally been released as entirely new product lines -- iPod Minis, Nanos, Shuffles and the like -- rather than keeping the same name.
Existing Apple portable product lines have tended to evolve, rather than get huge changes just for the sake of change, and it wouldn't make much sense for Apple to instantly annoy all the existing iPhone/iPod Touch owners by introducing a ton of new 3rd Generation-only iPhone features. They might own the handsets outright by now -- well, some of them, anyway -- but with a billion apps sold, Apple's still got a rich revenue stream from the existing owners coming in.
Yeah, it's likely the next iPhone will feature a few new quirks -- I'd be surprised if Apple can even source 2.0 Megapixel sensors any more, and a 32GB iPhone would probably make them a lot of money -- but with a large installed base and a firmware upgrade that will bring new features to the entire product line, not just the new ones, why would they bother? I'm just guessing -- as are the vast majority of the "rumour" sites -- but I'd put money down that the next iPhone will look astonishingly like the current one in pretty much every important aspect.
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