The real innovation behind the iPhone
The real innovation behind the iPhone
Is Apple's latest innovation a design breakthrough or simply old technology in new-fangled packaging?
by Richard Halkett
Yesterday, Apple finally launched its iPhone, promising to "change the way that we talk". At the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, Steve Jobs demonstrated his legendary showmanship yet again by taking a call from Jerry Yang (founder of Yahoo!) and ordering 4000 lattes from the nearest Starbucks.
The serious point here is that if we unpack the innovation that is the iPhone (assuming that it works), we uncover a very interesting story.
Unpacking the iPhone
Yes, it looks good: design is part of the equation. But it is not a breakthrough design in the manner of the iPod - it is an evolution of it, in fact, I'm surprised that they haven't done something more exciting with the form factor.
Yes, there is some neat technology: it's a phone, an iPod and a computer all in one. But I'm guessing that much of the breakthrough is in miniaturisation (in incremental product improvement) rather than entirely new widgets (although there must be a pretty cool touch screen in there to get past the problems inherent in previous devices).
Crucially, there are breakthroughs in software: iPhone will run full-blown Mac OSX - a big leap from Nokia's operating system, that of Blackberry's or even that of Windows Mobile. More importantly, though is the patented new interface system, "Multi-Touch." [Note, however, that in the UK you couldn't patent it because we can't patent software - not necessarily a bad thing before everyone leaps to arms about the UK being unfit to create "the next Apple" or whatever.].
However, even this disguises the true innovation. "Multi-Touch" is simply a software manifestation of another Apple breakthrough in user-interfaces. This time it is in context-sensitive touch-screens whereas for the original Macintosh it was the mouse and for the iPod it was the click-wheel. Each time, the hardware or software that resulted was simply the manifestation of the larger thought about how we relate to computers.
Watch this space
The most important innovation, however, has yet to be seen. The iPod's real differentiating factor was the availability of iTunes - a better service than all other MP3 players could muster.
This time, it will be in the phone service that people can receive: its coverage, quality and innovative business model which allows sensible billing for music downloads and the like.
No-one will want an iPhone (however nice to look at) if you can only use the advanced features by paying per kilobyte to download, or alternatively only get poor-quality music, or get hit with massive (or massively variable) bills of £100-200 per month.
The big breakthrough will be happening right now at Apple HQ as the sales guys and the legal team get to work taking calls from Vodafone, O2, Verizon, Cingular and the rest and try to hammer out a simple, straightforward package ready for launch.
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Published January 2006
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