The iPhone as Platform
Obviously 2007 will go down as the year Apple changed the mobile cell phone industry with its wondrous iPhone. By all accounts the iPhone introduction was as breakthrough and as big an event as the original Mac. Yet 2008 will be the year the iPhone really takes off as a platform.
For Apple, one of the best things that will happen in 2008 will be the release of the Apple iPhone SDK (software development kit) in February. And one of the surprises for the entire tech industry in 2008 will be its phenomenal take-up. Mark my word, the iPhone SDK and what people will be doing with it will be one of the big discussions throughout 2008.
Although Apple is destined to release both a 3G iPhone and a nano version that is much cheaper, the iPhone discussion is likely going to intensify around its adaptability and flexibility as a true mobile computing device after the release of the SDK. And a by-product of that hype will continue to drive importance and focus to the Safari web browser.
The Mac is an iPhone
Perhaps one of the more delightful twists that should emerge in 2008 will be the way Apple leverages the iPhone’s enduring Multi-touch interface with future Macs, particularly mobiles. Apple will put that interface on the Mac in a way that will make the Mac feel like an extension of the iPhone — not the other way around. In which form this comes is anybody’s best guess but obviously it involves a Multi-touchscreen or screens, as in plural.
Some possibilities include new laptops that convert to tablets. Some folks have written about multi-touch areas near the palm rest area. Yet other possibilities include Apple media slates which simply obtain their image, wirelessly, from another Mac in the house or office.
When one thinks about where Apple is likely headed with the new iTunes movie rentals, and where it has already shunned the idea of competing with Sony on large flat-screen TVs, this forces you to think of new concepts for other types of media screen devices related to AppleTV and where Apple can innovate at the consumer device level.
We have already learned this year that Apple is working not just on its hobby — AppleTV — but on possibly a fifth new leg on which to bear its business. This fifth new product category will no doubt have something to do with the home, a fertile territory pregnant with possibilities on how we manage our lives and the array of electronics that draw energy within our homes. Energy — or how we use it in particular — can become the fifth new hot product category for Apple, something I am sure Al Gore personally would love to see happen.
The Top is the New Bottom
This of course leads to another major realization about computing technology in general. And that is that the leading edge of computing technology is making a tectonic shift, from the world of big business to the world of the consumer.
Much like how leading-edge computer graphics shifted from places like Boeing and SGI to Sony and ATi, the market shift in information technology will continue its trek towards the consumer and their device and information needs. Apple may have been ridiculed in 1984 because the Mac and its graphical interface was so easy it was “like a toy” but now it is actually electronic toys themselves (Wii’s, iPods, iPhones, Garmins, etc.) that rule the day.
Except we don’t call them toys now, do we?
Toys are things we can live without. But the ease-of-use of a toy is something we are finding we must have with the electronic devices we rely on each day.
Life in the 21st century is a pressure-cooker on a global scale. People work harder today than their parents and grandparents did 25 and 50 years ago. Society has gotten more complex, more competitive, and more difficult. Thank god there is Apple. No other tech company seems to understand this — that what we really need, is a kind of new relief.
Apple is Easy
But Verizon tells us in its entertaining commercials that relief from the 21st century is not entirely possible. Can you hear me now?
And can you tear your teenager or college age daughter away from Facebook, for even a day?
The answer is yes and no. Life in the 21st century is about connection.
To everything. All the time. The Net is the “new city.” And Apple is Central Park, a sharp contrast to all its neighbors. Soft, inviting, comfortable and warm. Apple’s famous “ease-of-use” is where the fresh air is. And people are flocking to it.
What Lies Ahead
So what lies ahead for Apple is sort of easy, in a way. Just ask yourself: what in life is just too stupid and more complex than it needs to be?
Let’s start with the TV. Sometimes I just want to throw the thing out the window. Why? Because finding content to watch, in situ, is utterly frustrating and time consuming. Wading through 200+ channels on ultra-slow cable box interfaces is agonizing. The TV is for people who are time-rich. But those who usually hold the money are time-poor. Those who hold actual purchasing power are walking away from the television because the television is too damn slow and complex.
But Apple will begin fixing this issue with the AppleTV device, version 2. They will start with renting movies and fix the other issues in the fullness of time. Mark my word, this is ripe Apple territory.
Where are my Kids?
Apple will also address other new complexities in modern life. Where are my kids now? Where’s my wife? Is she at the grocery store? I want to know. Personally, I want to know because more often than not, she forgets to get that thing I like to eat that she doesn’t like to eat. No, it’s not because she doesn’t love me, but because it’s habit and life is rushedand hectic.
With mobile technology and constant Net connections newfound possibilities emerge for both software and hardware. Knowing where loved ones are in the physical realm, as well as the digital, is going to be a valuable tool — for a whole host of reasons. If Apple can “live” connect two Leopard-based Macs together so that we can share screens, it can certainly connect a Mac to an iPhone and use the iPhone’s built-in camera to stream a video feed or picture back to the Mac. Imagine the uses….
One should definitely expect video in the next iPhone, even a nano version should be able to capture video. And if the iPhone is going to be an equal device citizen in the Apple universe, then bring Dot Macsupport directly to the iPhone device without having to dock and sync to a Mac.
As I said before, the pace of life in the 21st century is faster and more hectic and Apple is the company that can bring relief.
Life is Haptic
And speaking of hectic. If Apple is Central Park in the new city of the 21st century — the Net. Then what about sounds and touch? This is part of what delights us in life. Translating zeroes and ones into touch and sound is a key part of the magic of the relief. Nintendo partly understands this. That is why the Wii is so magical and successful.
But Apple could excel here too! Color changes, pulses, temperature zones. These are just some of the possibilities in what is known ashaptic interface design. In 2008 some of this will start to enter into Apple’s physical devices in a way that is uniquely Apple. In other words, the perfect marriage of software and hardware.
The Broader Picture
I could easily go on about the nitty gritty of what Apple may actually introduce in 2008, but that would pointless. 2008 will be a watershed year for tech because of several tipping points going on simultaneously.
We are in the midst of a social revolution on the Net and this has not gone unnoticed by Jobs & Co. While it is too late for Apple to introduce the Facebook killer, it already has a social scene at iTunes. It just needs to make it more social and more “connected.”
Other trends likely going to “tip” in 2008 will be SaaS (software as a service) in business and personal use. How Apple may play its role in software as a service is not clear. On the business side, the company will likely do nothing, preferring instead to focus on the consumer side of technology. Yet by 2009 I expect Apple to have figured out where to go with providing software as a service over the Net.
The broad picture for Apple in 2008 will center around its continued consumer device success with the iPhone being the epicenter. The fourth leg of Apple will emerge this January at Macworld with the AppleTV and the iTunes movie rentals strategy. These two alone will keep Apple quite busy.
Haptic interface features, Multi-touch on the Mac, and possibly a new product called the Mac Touch, a new type of screen-based device, should all emerge in 2008 at some point starting at Macworld Expo.
It should be another rocking year for Apple!
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