Today’s WWDC keynote was largely disappointing in my opinion, though you can watch it yourself and pass your own judgement. Basically, it was largely taken up by iPhone Developers from various companies showing off whatever Applications they have developed for the iPhone using the iPhone SDK. Yes, it would be interesting if not for the fact that the iPhone SDK was already introduced in March 2008 and we have seen the ease of use of the SDK. Lots of repeated stuff from the March 2008 presentation such as the Enterprise features and AppStore taking up a great half of the entire Keynote.
Then was the introduction of MobileMe, Apple’s second take on cloud based applications, replacing .Mac. It does have some cool features, however, not unlike Google Apps, but one thing it has the advantage of is a beautiful AJAX based web interface - making Google Apps’ seem immature at best - and of course excellent syncing with Macs. Yes, there might be plugins and workarounds to get all my Mail/iCal/Address Book data synced to Google Apps and across my 2 Macs, but frankly speaking, they do not sync that well. Wheras, on the other hand, from the demonstration at least, MobileMe syncs the devices and the server nicely. I would love to get a MobileMe plan seriously when it rolls out.
Then of course the iPhone 3G - which many called a 2nd Generation iPhone, though personally I would disagree. What’s really new over the 1st Generation iPhone is just a slight change in design, an option for a larger flash drive, longer battery life, a GPS unit and a HUGE drop in price. Now, the huge drop in price is really something I must protest about. Starting at USD$199 - meaning roughly a maximum price of S$400 when it comes out in Singapore - the iPhone will become one of the cheapest (if not the cheapest) smartphone on the market. What happened to Apple product’s exclusivity? Not to sound like a prick, but I buy Apple products knowing that it will be a premium product (not in terms of quality though) that many others would not be willing to pay for. (of course also mainly because they are great) But recently, it would seem Apple products are losing its status as a premium product, especially with the falling US dollar. It is not an uncommon sight to see people lugging around MacBooks or having iPod Nanos - both of which are the cut down versions of the other Apple products. Now with the iPhone at such a ridiculously cheap price, people would be mad to not buy one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least 5 iPhones in a crowded MRT carriage after its launch here in Singapore. That’s why I am going to buy the white edition - however much I prefer black over white - because the white version only comes in 16GB flavors, which are slightly more expensive over the 8GB model. At least a white iPhone will stand out amongst all the black iPhones that I foresee many people carrying in the future.
Anyway, let me get back to explaining why I wouldn’t really call this new iPhone a second generation iPhone. Yes, it might have 3G, it might have GPS, it might have Handwriting recognition for chinese (and Japanese) characters - a huge plus point for me - , it might have a longer battery life, but otherwise everything remains almost the same. Not much innovation, not even a video taking option nor a camera upgrade. This is very unlike Apple tradition. Look at the Leopard OS X - over 300 new features over Tiger, many of which can be seen from the user end. (eg. Time Machine, Spaces etc.) However, the new iPhone, to me, only offers a few minor updates over the first generation of iPhones. (I still don’t think they support Bluetooth file transfer) Look at the new OS planned as well - 10.6 (Snow Leopard) - emphasis is on quality and security of the OS. Is it because Apple is losing steam in terms of innovation? I rather hope not.
In short, as I mentioned at the start of the post, WWDC 2008 Keynote has largely disappointed me in terms of the innovation that Apple can come up with.
Tags: 2008, 3G, Apple, disappointing, iphone, keynote, Mac/iPod/iPhone, mobileme, SDK, WWDC
