The feature set for release 3.0 of the iPhone operating system was announced yesterday, but I think the photo above says just about everything that needs to be said.
Yes, that’s the iPhone serving as its own graphic equalizer user interface in order to maximize the performance of a third-party peripheral.
There is no one else in product design who thinks like this.
The huge benefit of naming things is that it enables us to conceptually separate this from that, to isolate particular objects or ideas so that we can think about their unique properties and potential.
The outrageous curse of naming things is that we tend to force-fit whatever it is we’re thinking about into the shoebox we’ve crafted for it by naming it.
Do you see? A public hallway is a shopping mall, and vice versa, but few of us can think of both at the same time. A mobile phone powerful enough to please Steve Jobs is going to be powerful enough to do almost anything, but only people who think like Steve Jobs can find the almost anything inside the phone.
Every other smart phone on the market is just a phone with some gadgets slapped on as afterthoughts. The iPhone is well on its way to being almost everything…
Mike in Dallas says:
Now that is cool, I love my iphone. I had to replace it like 3 times but it is a great phone and worth the money
March 18, 2009 — 9:34 am
Mark Green says:
Your article reminds me of my favorite IPhone commercial… “There’s an App for That”.
March 18, 2009 — 10:52 am
Kim Hannemann says:
Odd you should mention that today.
http://innovations.coe.berkeley.edu/vol3-issue2-feb09/hannemann
This is my son and his idea – now LifeScan has done it, or most of it. He’s happy for them if they have done it right.
March 18, 2009 — 11:22 am
Kim Hannemann says:
My son Chris just had his idea stolen:
http://innovations.coe.berkeley.edu/vol3-issue2-feb09/hannemann
But he is reasonably happy it’s gotten done by LifeScan. He’s going to get into the program and make it better.
March 18, 2009 — 11:30 am
James Boyer says:
Yeah, Steve Jobs is something else. It is really hard to think of anyone in the Real Estate marketing business like him.
March 18, 2009 — 2:14 pm
Brad Coy says:
Just the sort of thing that will make me buy one… finally. When I get home I plug my Blackberry into the charger and on the same shelf sits a Bose ipod player, which has all but replaced our home stereo. One less step in my routine (provided this charges the Iphone)
Now if they could only make the face of these things a little more crack resistant 🙂
March 18, 2009 — 3:46 pm
Kim Hannemann says:
Sorry I hit you with two comments for essentially the same thing. When I didn’t see the first one appear, I rewrote and submitted it again. Brain freeze.
March 18, 2009 — 4:59 pm
Greg Swann says:
Not to worry. It was a great achievement both times!
March 18, 2009 — 5:08 pm
Joe Strummer says:
I really like Apple. I got my first Apple when I was 10 – an Apple II+ with 48k RAM. It was awesome. For a decade, I switched to PCs, but now I’m back, with a Macbook, iPod, Touch.
But there’s one really annoying thing about Apple, and that Job’s theory of design seems to demand a closed system. That has some advantages in quality control. But it also means you get basic features when Apple says it’s going to give them to you, and not a moment sooner (unless you get a PearPC – “Der PC mit Mac OS” – or jailbreak your iPhone.
Instead of making the Mac inter-operable with other services out there, it encourages – even nags – you to use the awful MobileMe.
For the iPhone, Apple took 2 years to implement cut and paste and MMS. It only now has promised “push”. Only now has it promised tethering. No flash in its browser even though flash is pretty ubiquitous on the web.
Apple gets away with a lot because its design is superior, and it has vision. But I do wish it would adopt a more Googley approach when it comes to certain things: stress open standards and interoperability, and focus on features and durability.
March 19, 2009 — 5:13 pm
Steve says:
I was very reluctant to purchase my iPhone. I don’t like wasting money and at first was not able to clearly ascertain how my return on investment would be achieved.
Having had it now for over 6 months, I continue to discover new ways that it adds value and efficiency to my life. After my GPS was stolen, I didn’t replace it and instead use my iPhone GPS. I was never an “email on the phone” person before, but I didn’t realize how many dead spaces of time are in an average day during which I can check and return emails so that I’ll have less to do when I get back to the office. And the list goes on….
Steve
March 20, 2009 — 7:13 am
Phil Hutson says:
That’s the thing about the Apple in general, they find these hole in the market and then fill its every nook and cranny. And we love ’em for it.
March 25, 2009 — 8:55 am