Here it comes; iPhone v1.0 is a closed phone

Eventually it is on the market; iPhone is ready to sell in US market. Going back the last week’s announcement about some technical features of iPhone, we see that it is a closed phone, which does not developers to create native iPhone apps…

Ok, Jobs announced that Safari browser on iPhone will support full AJAX applications plus an API set which enables accessing native iPhone functionality (like contact list, call management and etc.).

There are still may questions to be answered;

• The performance of Safari browser may not enough for handling heavy AJAX code on the device
• What is the capability and security model for provided SDK ?
• How AJAX apps will be delivered to iPhone? Will they be downloaded as a web page or is there an installation package?

Apple knows it very well that, what makes a “computing hardware” successful is the open environment for 3rd part apps. It is not reasonable to provide a device which runs only Apple software. If so, it makes iPhone only a next generation iPod+a phone+a browsing device, but not a smartphone.

The most major motivation for smartphone buyers is, they want to customize their phone with third party apps and they want to feel flexible while doing it. It is the success behind Symbian and MS Mobile platforms.

As a smartphone user, I dropped the iPhone from my shopping list until is will open itself to developers. Many rumors state that iPhone v2.0 will eventually include and open SDK for native iPhone apps. Anyway, do you pay 600 USD for a mobile phone that you can not customize with downloadable applications?

Touching the phone

It seems that iPhone phenemenon for multi touch user interfaces and motion sensors are shaping the handset vendors’ future product plans.

Look! HTC, the provider of Windows based mobiles is launching a new iPhone like gadget.

Mobile 2.0: Usable mobile internet

What we see on Web 2.0 technology wise, was the use of browser based thick clients which improved the user experience with;

• mimimized round-trips to server using AJAX code
• faster responses and richer user interface
• a simple an clean user interface which makes web apps. more userfriedly.

Now, many argue the emergence of next wave of mobile applications which they call Mobile 2.0. Similar to Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0 involves “thick” clients which provides rich user activity on mobile device, in contrast to “browser only” strategy. Thick mobile clients are generally J2Me, Flash Lite or native S60 applications. Take mobile gmail of Google for instance. It provides a really usable application with reach interactivity in J2ME application.

There still two camps discussing the best approach for rich functionality to the mobile devices;

• User experience by a mobile application (On-device Portal-ODP)
• User experience by AJAX enabled device browser (Mobile widgets)

Mobile widgets is a new move and supported by Nokia and Opera.

For the moment ODP club is getting more fans.

Here some very good posts about thick client approach in mobile;

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/understanding_mobile_2.php

http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2005/11/web-30.html

Jobs and Gates on the future of mobile applications

“Bill and Steve talk about their biggest regrets; what excites and surprises them in technology today; mobile devices; and what they feel computing will be like in five years.”

In a part of speech for D5, Bill and Steve mentions really usable applications on the mobile client and “cloud” of services is a really good marriage.

Those ideas are generally shapes by Google’s successful move to mobile space by some simple phone apps like gmaps and gmail. Those apps are really cool, Steve mentions that they are even better than PC experience. If you ever use mobile gmail for instance, it is extremely cool and easy to browse your past emails, search your inbox and compose e-mail on the go.

We will be seeing those kind of apps will flourish in the future; Steve Jobs mentions this approach is more powerfull than browser-thin client solution in terms of user experience.

We will also need some design tools to publish rich mobile apps. Announcement of Smartface Designer by Mobinex, a rapid authoring tool which enables creating rich mobile apps in a visual programming environment, is a good move to this space.

Click to see video

“Surface” of Microsoft

This is quite interesting to see innovative real life experiences of multi-touch screen panels, like MS “Surface”.

Ok, it is not something new… We are seeing multi-touch panel examples a lot, but going commercial is just new.

When I check the demonstration videos on youtube, i noticed that the following points makes it a benefical device for user experience;

A living room experience:

Surface is very suitable for a living room experience. People are spending more of their time interacting with digital media in groups. Just imagine sitting with your friends in your living room. Probobaly, you would be showing them the latest pictures you have taken or a shocking video from youtube. It is very difficult to share a group experience with your laptop. Surface creates a unique experience for creating a real community digital media experience.

Real object interaction

This makes a totaly new concept. Interacting with objects in virtual to real and vice versa. There seems endless opportunities for this new medium. Just one example, it makes device sync simple and pervasive. Just put your cell phone on to the surface table and it is synced with your Web photo album instantly.

and we will see how the consumer market will react surface. Probobaly we will see the first application in hotels, bars an in some shopping centers.

Mobinex launces mobile authoring software Smartface Designer

Mobinex annouced the public release of Smartface Designer, a software tool which enable a novice PC user to publish mobile applications.

Smartface Designer provides a drag and drop IDE with some object you can use to create mobile apps. It is a high-level environment and it is very suitable for mobile media applications or mobile user interfaces for backend operator-media provider services.

press release: http://www.mobinex.biz/news_publicdesigner.asp

new iphone rival

here it comes!

iphone will not be alone in its breed of really nice looking gadget for mobile geeks.

here is a concept design from Asus, which I beleive better than iphone in features.

http://www.unwiredview.com/2007/02/05/asus-aura-iphone-like-concept/