@ThinkSecret - Apple iPhone to be Released in January
posted in Strategy, Design, User Interface |“Sources report to Thinksecret.com that Apple’s iPhone is on track to be released in January, this after the company faced numerous difficult technological and engineering hurdles. The phone is said to feature a 3 megapixel camera, 2.2 inch display and complete iTunes integration.” read more | digg story
I hope this is true. Like I was with the original iPod, I’ll be one of the first to buy an iPhone. But Apple has some serious strategic, technical and design issues to address before successfully launching the long-rumored and much-anticipated Apple mobile phone. In many respects, launching a phone is significantly more complex than launching an MP3 player. Here are a few of the hurdles Apple must get past.
Partner with Carriers v. MVNO
Will Apple sell the iPhone to one or more of the existing carriers — in the same way that Motorola, Nokia and others do — or will they become a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) like Virgin Mobile and ESPN Mobile? The former is the simplest, but making the phone available to carriers like Verizon and Cingular means that Apple plays be their rules in many respects. If the iPhone allows over-the-air (OTA) purchases from the iTunes Store, for example, the carriers will likely want a cut of already slim margins. Becoming an MVNO, however, is much more complex (though Apple appears to have much of the infrastructure that would be required for billing, customer relationship management, etc.), and far riskier. Like Apple, ESPN has incredibly loyal, passionate customers, but they have thus far been unable to leverage it’s brand to create a successful mobile business.
My guess is that Apple will become an MVNO, reselling Sprint (who is big into MVNO services) or Cingular (who has partnered with Apple at some level with iSync compatibility and then the Rokr phone). This would give them complete control over the user experience, and continue to strengthen their customer ownership position. It would likely also allow them to be far more creative in marketing solutions, like iTunes integration (OTA purchases that are downloaded to your iTunes library later, sync’d via Wi-fi, USB or Bluetooth, for example). Then the company is likely to create a new sub-brand called Apple Wireless. This brand would combine everything wireless that Apple has to offer, from the new iPhone to Airport products, the iTV, wireless mouse and keyboard, and others. In addition to offering phone service (over GSM for global compatibility), Apple Wireless will offer a flavor of national broadband wireless coverage for othere products, like the MacBooks and eventually, iPods that are not also phones.
Human-Product Interaction
Managing a music collection — indeed an entire media collection — in a portable device doesn’t get much better than the elegance and simplicity of the iPod. Combined with it’s seamless integration with iTunes on the desktop, usability is perhaps the key factor of it’s success. The original click wheel input schema has been refined nicely over time, to an incredibly simple and easy-to-use product. But as Apple has added features such as videos and games to the iPod’s capabilities, the software user interface — while essentially based on the exact same design — has gotten much more complex, if only by virtue of the length (number of items) and depth (nested levels) of menus.
I have no doubts that Apple can design a similarly simple and elegant software user interface for a more complex product like the iPhone. Frankly, I’ve never been too impressed with other phone manufacturer’s UI’s, and Apple’s track record suggests that they can pull this off. But the mobile phone offers new challenges, and the human interfaces for both the hardware and software must evolve beyond the iPod’s while retaining it’s most important characteristics. The iPod is essentially a read-only device (save for Playlists on the Go and other minor examples). The iPhone will have to be a read-write device, allowing alphanumeric input for entering names and phone numbers into the address book, composing SMS text messages, and other core functions. The scroll wheel and browsing software, even with the newest enhancements such as search, are likely insufficient for these functions (I’ve used a very similar interaction pattern to create screen names on Golden Tee Live, and it’s not particularly efficient). LG’s Chocolate by Verizon, with an iPod like form factor and sliding keyboard seems most likely, but now an iPhone with a similar design may be seen as lacking Apple’s legendary design innovation.
Product-Product Interaction
I suspect that the new iPhone will sync seamlessly with Macintosh computers using a new version of iSync that allows users to choose which Address Book groups, iCal calendars, iTunes playlists, iPhoto albums and other content. iSync will be reborn to support the iPhone and will become the “digital hub control panel” that many expected it to be when initially launched (Apple subsequently put iPod sync controls inside iTunes). Sync services will be a core system object, like Address Book entries, and iTunes, the new iSync and other applications — including those from third-party developers — will be able to read and write these settings.
Perhaps more importantly, iSync will become the second major Apple application (after iTunes) to be broadly released for Windows. After the success of iPod for Windows, it would be hard to imagine Apple releasing the iPhone for Macintosh only. This will require that the new iSync follow the SyncML standard (syncronization markup language), or some other specification that allows easy syncronization with Outlook and other Windows-based personal information management (PIM) applications.
Syncing your iPhone with your desktop, whether Macintosh or Windows OS, will be possible through Wi-fi, USB or Bluetooth. In fact, I’d love to see a background process that syncs the devices automatically when connected via Wi-fi or Bluetooth, eliminating the need for me to initiate the sync. Eventually (initially?), I also expect .mac sync to play a role. A much-improved iSync will make .mac sync a more viable and useful option for keeping devices in sync across a network.
Conclusion
My wishlist for the iPhone includes many more features, such as Mail, Keynote and Pages To Go, as well as the once-rumored “home on iPod” feature that allows a users’ entire home directory to exsit on th portable device. Perhaps eventually it will include many of these features, but I expect Apple to initially focus on getting a more limited iPhone done just right, with the possibility for feature enhancements via software updates over time. Based on past experience, only the first issue above seems truly challenging to Apple. But they’ve got to nail the others for the iPhone to be the runaway success that the iPod has become. Personally, I can’t wait.
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