In other news, the iPhone 3G/3GS can get the software update but will only get some of the features. It will NOT get multitasking- http://gizmodo.com/5512610/original-iphones-3g-cant-fully-upgrade-to-iphone-os-4 They will probably release a new phone around that time that will. Honestly tho, Steve Jobs is brilliant. There is no denying that. He got people hooked on his products (including myself before my iBook broke down and I got a Windows for one quarter the price that is better lol), and every year they release something (and every time it is holding something back, so the next year they can release something else). Great for business, bad for consumers.
Haven't read the Gizmodo article, but my understanding of what Apple is doing is that they're offering the following compromise: - Allow apps to save state and stay in memory (but frozen) - Offer a fast way of switching between them - Offer backgrounded apps a way to do processing by offering a number of OS-provided services such as media playback and VoIP. Yes, the Skype app would be able to work in the background using this method. It still falls short of "real" multitasking the way Android and WebOS do it, but it will be significantly better than what it is now. The notification system is not going to be improved/changed, which is a disappointment. So now you can pause your game to go skip a track on Pandora, but an incoming text will still interrupt you. I think Apple really doesn't want to compromise on GUI performance at all, which is why they're reluctant to go all the way with multitasking even after all these years/pressure.
At least give us some features, guess Apple thinks that the iPhone 2G and the iPod Touch 1G aren't powerful enough to run iBooks or combine mail inboxes they must think we are all idiots.
What other phone manufacturer makes features that highlight new models available for previous models? This is the cell phone market, not computer market. Makers update their cell lines every year with new features.
I am a former fanboy, I used to be one of those people who thought Apples technologies were great. And was down to buy anything Apple. I will admit that when the iPhone first came out, it was revolutionary. It did transform the smartphone market. But now the market has so many just as good and better touchscreen options available (HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Palm). Now smart enough to realize that 3G, copy and paste, 3.2MP camera/camcorder, multitasking, little bit of a faster processor/more ram (last three generations of iPhones have seen these additions) are not groundbreaking revolutionary breakthroughs in the smartphone world. Apple is adding multi-tasking and spell check while HTC/Samsung are making phones that can shoot video and output them in 720p. A little behind the curve?
Don't mind the no 3G; I'm at the end of my contract and was planning on a new phone anyway. Game Center sounds interesting; basically an xbox live system for apps. Which is good, since a lot of developers were trying to do it, resulting in lots of different systems. Like all the other additions, including the Mail improvements. Much needed.
Hmm... my contract ends in July, but I'm not sure I see any reason to upgrade to the new phone from my 3G. The multitasking seems bastardized from what everyone's saying, otherwise that may have been a good reason to get it. Other than that, I don't see anything else I find useful enough to pay the price for it. I'll probably just go month-to-month or switch to something else. The only thing keeping me on this iPhone is the availability of the apps, but maybe I just need to see what apps are available on an Android platform. I'd like to also see what the Microsoft phone OS is going to be like, especially since the Zune guys are helping build it, but they're already trying to out-dumb Apple by not including cut & paste capabilities because they don't think users need it. lol.
kinda off topic but there is a rumor of a macbook pro update expected april 13th. take it for what it's worth. http://experts.thelink.co.uk/2010/04/08/new-apple-macbook-pro-core-i7-laptop-incoming/
this is true, however the interface within the iphone is still far superior to all the other phones, i think thats why consumers like them so much.
This, right here, exemplifies what people are starting to really hate about the way Apple does business: http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/08/apples-iphone-lockdown-apps-must-be-written-in-one-of-three-la/ Apple, not content with banning scriptable applications (the anti-Flash rule) is now dictating to developers what language they can code in and what tools they can use to compile. Of course, it's obvious they're doing this to lock out Adobe's Flash-to-iPhone compiler tool, developers be damned. The last time a large computer company was doing stuff like this, we had a DOJ investigation and antitrust suit. The irony of the situation is that Adobe's software (Photoshop, Illustrator, PageMaker etc.) was what kept the Mac ecosystem alive back in the day when they were still small fish in the pond. One can only hope that asinine anticompetitive policies like this only serve to drive more developers away from the iPhone platform and over to Android and WebOS.
The average consumer does care that they can't view Flash video web sites on their iDevice, their kids can't play games on Disney.com and they can't play Farmville on Facebook like 70 million other users can. And soon enough, they will start to care that their favorite apps and features are showing up on Android, WebOS and Windows 7 phones while Steve "if it has a stylus, they got it wrong" Jobs tells them what they do and don't need. Competition. It's a good thing.
I'd like to know if there's a report or link that says the "average consumer" cares about the things you have mentioned above enough to jettison their iPhone for an Android, WebOS or Windows 7 Mobile. I'm just curious because you want to make these claims on behalf of the "average consumer" and I'd just like to see if that is the general sentiment on why people switch from an iPhone to any of the other phones. Just to throw this out there before you think I'm blinded by an Apple lovefest or whatever, I've owned and used Nokias, SEs, and Blackberrys before and I think WebOS has definitely made Jobs/Apple work harder in the OS department.
Keep in mind we haven't actually seen the new phone yet, nor whatever new features/changes with the OS that will tie with the hardware. That won't be announced until the summer.
