Apple announces the iPhone
January 9, 2007 at 10:22 AM
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For those who have been saying the mobile web is going to die out, here is your reality check. Apple has just announced the new iPhone. Think a iPod meets a Newton meets a mobile phone. The kicker is no buttons, widescreen... and it has an accelerometer.. cause, you know, they have soo much room in that tiny device to play with. The phone will run Safari/KHTML which will probably have a huge impact on the mobile space. If consumers adopt it, and manufactures rush to compete with it, then that will mean that WAP 2.0 as we know it will go away according to mobile web expert Brian Fling.
Comments
It would be interesting if instead of creating a new standard, the mobile web browser just adapted so it could handly regular pages. It's even more interesting that we're already pontificating that one company could change the general perception of the mobile web in one fell swoop.
After reading the specs on the iphone and seeing the photos of it...I'm blown away. Its completely software based, no hardware buttons on it from what I can see (maybe a power button, not sure?). I'm a fan of both mac and PC (yes, we do exist) and this in my eyes is a BIG deal. Both for us as developers and the consumers looking for shiny new toys. I currently have a treo 650, and I can see going to the iphone for just the size difference. Software, in most cases equals easy upgrades; hardware does not. Lets see how the reviews pan out =)
The great thing about the iPhone is it renders actual web pages, not dumbed down "pages for mobile devices" with different style sheets - that kind of mobile web was just never going to catch on.
I think it was a perfect move for apple to come out with the apple iPhone. The iPhone has most features consumers have been waiting to have. I also think the price will not deter to many people from buying the apple iPhone. I even think they will sell more then the 10 million apple iPhones they expect to sell within the year.
