Alright, it’s been about 9 months since the original Apple iPhone hit the market. And with it’s 1 year anniversary just 4 months away, with out any hardware updates (As great as the 16GB model is, it’s no hardware update) the device has aged quickly in technical specifications and features.
The first generation iPhone is still an amazing device despite its dated hardware, and with the 2.0 software on the way and the iPhone SDK released earlier this year, the first generation has a lot of (software) potential ahead of it. But with a lot of the fan-fare-frenzy gone from the 1st Generation iPhone, attention has turned to software updates, hacks, jailbreaks, and unlocking the iPhone. Which gives hackers and developers alike a wonderful platform to develop applications that enhance the iPhone as a mobile Internet device. While news of these stories float the Internet and are informative, they’ve also lost their sparkle of interest in my opinion.
Now stories and rumors of the 2nd Generation iPhone are flooding the Apple enthusiast, rumor, and news websites. The 3G iPhone is no-longer a “rumored” device – we should all know by now that the coveted high-speed data touchscreen mobile phone is going to hit the market within 2008 – the questions are: what will the software support, and when will we get it?
Let’s take the second question into play first, “When Will We Get It?” Well, I have my own guesses as to when Apple will have the device patented, FCC-tested, and pushed through into full-production for the masses. Last year, Steve announced the iPhone in January and pushed the device through its necessary stages and had it in customers’ hands on June 29th. 7 Months to finalize patents, get certification, settle a law suit, ramp-up production, package it, and finally ship it to the stores. So far this year, Steve hasn’t said one word about the iPhone – aside from the January update and the iPhone SDK and iPhone 2.0 software beta testing, but still nothing about the next generation of the device. The WWDC is set for the second week of June and they’ve been marketing about iPhone Development, getting the tools to the developers, and so on. IF Steve were to announce the 3G iPhone on June 9th, just as the WWDC kicks off, (a) I’ll be surprised, (b) I’d expect him to say that we’ll have it by the end of August – or September – if that early.
Now, onto my speculation for the device itself, but let’s crack this question about the software open into what software and hardware capabilities the could 3G iPhone support. My speculation would have to take into account what the iPhone can currently do – either OTB, JailBroken, or iPhone 2.0 OS. Obviously, it’ll support high-speed data, Microsoft Exchange Server, Custom Ringtones and GPS location/navigation – the iPhone has suffered too much critisim for Apple to miss this points, not to mention, some features are already under development with the 2.0 OS and have been activated with software updates. So, what future enhancements should the iPhone support? I believe that the following things will (a) be included in the iPhone 2.0 upgrade, or (b) be included in the 3G iPhone hardware.
Here’s my list:
- “Real-Time” Maps/Navigation
- Video Capture and Playback
- Connectivity to upload photos/videos to Flickr, YouTube, and Dot-Mac Accounts
- 5 MP Camera on the back
- 3 MP Camera on the front for Video Conferencing
- iChat/IM Software
- Single and Multi-Player Games
- View and Modify Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files
- Support for Adobe Flash in Mobile Safari
That’s my quick, short list of things that I expect the next generation iPhone to support, and I hope to hear about news of the new generation in the middle of May and on June 9th at the WWDC.
Keep a close watch on those Feeds and searches.
