The $100 rebate was a good move by Apple. I was impressed that within a couple of weeks they had a rock solid online application to actually get the rebate coupon. Considering the testing needed to put out a public web application it was very timely. Big companies often take months to do something like this. I took the coupon into the local Apple store and bought a VModa Vibe Duo noise-isolating hi-definition headset for the iPhone. The sleek “hands-free” microphone and amazing high-definition sound are quite impressive. The discrete microphone blends seamlessly with the black fabric cable. It comes with a black leather pouch and is remarkably lightweight. The store rep offered to send my purchase receipt via email. I was impressed.
From a business point of view the rebate not only took the sting out of the big price cut impacting the early adopters but will ultimately be the sleeves out of Apple’s vest. One of the financial analysts said the cost of the rebate to Apple would be $100 million. I don’t believe that for a second. First of all, some percentage of those who are eligible will never bother to pursue the rebate. Others will follow the (simple) online procedure and print out the coupon and leave it on their desk to get lost. Some of those who do take the initiative to use the rebate will go to an Apple store and see a host of goodies for sale which will leave an impression with them. When it comes to spending the $100, I suspect most will spend more than $100 rather than leave money on the table. Some may buy a Mac Mini or a big monitor or some software. Whatever they walk out with it will add to the amount of Apple computing and accessories that are in people’s hands and will lead to more purchases in the future and continued increases in market share for Apple.
That’s the good news. Now the bad news. Like many others, I got bricked on Thursday night — the Net is buzzing with commentary about it — google “Survey – What do you think of the iPhone 1.1.1 Firmware breaking 3rd party applications?” and read about it. As previously reported, one of the two major shortcomings of the iPhone is the availability of applications (the other being the AT&T network). Skeptics were pessimistic about the speed of introduction of improvements and believed that Apple and AT&T would operate an approval and collection gate for anything new. I was more optimistic. I turned out to be wrong — so far. When Steve Jobs said the iPhone would be open to Web applications he meant applications that worked through the Apple Safari browser, not applications that worked natively as part of the iPhone menu. Then along came AppTapp from a company called Nullriver in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Someone at Demo showed me a link where you can download an "installer" that puts a new icon on the iPhone. When you click the icon the iPhone shows a list of dozens (maybe hundreds) of third party applications that work on the iPhone. These are not web apps but native iPhone apps. Apps that do not require being connected to the AT&T network. These are apps that have nothing to do with who the network provider is and do not involved cracking open the case and using a soldering iron. They are just apps that use the iPhone as a platform to run. The first app I installed was a launcher. This icon displays a menu of the iPhone third party apps that you have installed. I installed a dozen or so very useful new things.
The first app I chose was Navizon, a software-only wireless positioning system that triangulates signals broadcasted from WiFi access points and cell towers and then displays a Google Map of where you are. You can then click "Directions to here" or "Directions from here". By using the incredible squeeze magnification feature of the iPhone you can zoom in on either the map or satellite images of where you are. This is a really great value-added application for the iPhone. I also installed an instant messaging program that let me IM through AOL IM and pedometer app that uses the iPhone accelerometer to measure how far you have walked.. Other applications include dictionaries of various kinds, games, and programs that allow you to see all the files on your iPhone and more importantly allow you to create files and exchange them with your PC. This could solve my problem of not being able to display my frequent flier and hotel account numbers like I could on the Treo. In summary I found the initial set of third party applications empowering and exciting. That was until I got home late Thursday night and put the iPhone in the dock and got the latest iPhone "update" from Apple. The update added iTunes to the iPhone, a very nice addition indeed, but it also *deleted* all the third party applications including the launcher and installer. An industry colleague described this unprecedented move by Apple as "hostile".
Apple has now created the iBrick — an iPhone that doesn’t do nearly what it can do. Ironically, third party apps are the heart and soul of the Mac. Microsoft and Apple both have their office suites and various applications but without third party applications we would not have a fraction of what we have as users. Apple has basically said that the iPhone is theirPhone. You can install only the applications that they (and AT&T) decide are good for you and for which they will decide how much you will pay. Imagine turning on your computer one day and seeing a message saying that Windows (or Mac OS X) has "been updated" and then you find that Quicken, Dreamweaver, OpenOffice, Adobe Photoshop, Google Desktop, AOL Instant Messenger, Skype, and dozens of other things you are dependent on have been *deleted* and a modification was installed that will prevent any further additions of third party software on your computer. That is what we have here.
The important letter in PC is the P, for personal. I think of my PC as *my* PC. Millions of people use only what Microsoft or Apple provide and don’t take the risk of downloading and installing third party software. They may consider it rogue software, be concerned about the possibility of the software containing a virus or crashing the computer — all of which are risks. Millions of others, like me, accept some risk and like to experiment with new software and capitalize on the infinite creativity of software developers. I have a ThinkPad that came with Windows XP on it. I erased that and put Ubuntu Linux and VMWare on it. Millions of people use OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Office, partly because OO is free and partly because they just choose to. That is the great thing about the Internet and PC’s — they give us choice.
What is next? I am sure people are hard at work to figure out how to make third party software work on iPhone again. Many iPhone users are going to Hackintosh for instructions on how to downgrade their iPhone to the prior version of firmware so they can reinstall the third party software. What is the prognosis? I am not politically liberal but when it comes to the Internet and personal computers I guess I would be called a libertarian. The question to me is whether mobile computing is going to be a locked-down proprietary world controlled by Apple, AT&T, Verizon, Qualcomm, and a few others or whether it is going to be an open highly creative and collaborative world like the Internet and PC’s have been. I would never bet against the grass roots.
Apple did listen when the mass market said it wanted downloadable ringtones for the iPhone but their implementation is not as brilliant as other aspects of the iPhone. Apple is charging 99 cents to make a song you already paid 99 cents for into a ringtone. I purchased an album called "Crazy Ringtone #2". It contains some really good tracks. When I tried to add the ringtones to my iPhone I got an error message saying that these particular ringtones do not qualify to be iPhone ringtones, even though I had purchased them through iTunes. Meanwhile we are stuck with the sparse and weak AT&T network. The iPhone is an ingenious and elegant piece of hardware — it is a very powerful and well designed mobile computer. The iBricking of the iPhone has really soured me on Apple. I haven’t given up but now that I see how powerful iPhone applications can be I will be more impatient to see the platform open up more.
