Greg Joswiak on the iPhone SDK, iPod

[MacRumors]

Fortune interviews Apple's Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing, Greg Joswiak, about the iPod and the iPhone.

The article covers Apple's marketing and research focus over the years, and does reiterate that Apple will likely be using a digital-signature approach to the upcoming iPhone software developer kit.

One of the things Steve talked about in his open letter is something Nokia's doing, which is requiring a digital signature. That way if there's something wrong with an application, you have a way to track it back to where it came from.

Joswiak also claims that one of the main advantages Apple has over their competitors is looking ahead to the future:

Our competitors tend to put the cross hairs on where we are now, and by the time they come up with a product that tries to match where we are now, we’re beyond them. We’re one or two generations beyond, moving faster than they are.

Article Link

[luke-j-s]

This sounds great.. one or even TWO generations ahead. Oooh i cant wait

[MadDog31]

Very good read...and he's right, the others aim to match now, Apple's already miles ahead. I still find it amazing how they can do that over and over...it's the reason why I'm switching over next year from Windows...I'm tired of the same old crap.

[plumbingandtech]

Our competitors tend to put the cross hairs on where we are now, and by the time they come up with a product that tries to match where we are now, we’re beyond them. We’re one or two generations beyond, moving faster than they are.

Yep. And when android ships, they need to get all 30 cooks in the kitchen to start working on the next rev of it.

That'll be fun, and fragmented IF they do not require the same specs on every phone.

[Tymmz]

I really need to see one major "useful" update before I start believing in Apple's words. Wifi store, good, but what else beside bug-fixes?

[MarkMS]

I just want to be able to shoot video. Plain and simple.

Besides that, I'm still happy with my purchase of the iPhone.

[MattJessop]

It'll be very interesting to see what 'one or two generations ahead' is?

I mean, I'm guessing tying GPS into contacts would be a good idea? - Want to find somebody? Just send them a text message w/ GPS signal link, so they can just google map to you? Or you could just find a friend the same way.

Or maybe they actually just mean that the iPhone Safari will be snappier.

[theheadguy]

Originally Posted by Tymmz

I really need to see one major "useful" update before I start believing in Apple's words. Wifi store, good, but what else beside bug-fixes?

Agreed. Additionally, none of this comes off as impressive. The iPod still does not have a native FM transmitter. Lame. Regarding planning one or two generations ahead, yippee. While everyone jumps for joy at the thought of that, I'll celebrate in 4 years when the work comes to fruitition. Lastly, while people take aim at how I am not precise with the "4 years", calm yourselves... My point is it's frustrating to see such long pauses between advancement. While Apple's VP of hardware takes aim at Nokia and other's, it's not like they haven't done a lot of their own R&D, and rather quickly. They pump out new models very quickly, and some of them are very good. While Apple's R&D process obviously has it's strong points, it is in my opinion, deeply flawed timewise.

[Stella]

As long as Apple don't charge for the signing then this is a good approach.

Symbian are moving to having all its applications signed ( though not mandatory ). The digital signing dictates what APIs the application can access, for security purposes.

[donlphi]

Originally Posted by Tymmz

I really need to see one major "useful" update before I start believing in Apple's words. Wifi store, good, but what else beside bug-fixes?

AGREED! This is ridiculous. I took off all of my hacks, refreshed my iPhone to factory settings, anticipating SOMETHING, ANYTHING worthwhile, but I feel like they have really dropped the ball when it comes to developing stuff for this device. It is starting to feel like APPLE-TV. They updated the YOUTUBE and they were done.

I have a hunch 1st generation iPhone purchasers are going to get screwed one more time. The 2nd generation phone will be released before we see any major updates.

Bummer...

[twoboxen]

It's true... when the iPhone gets 3G everyone else will still be on 1G.

Android already has several steps up on Apple.
1. Customer choice -- Same software, you choose what features you want in a device
2. Customer choice x2 -- Choose the provider that works best for YOU, the consumer.
3. Open, no need to hack it to make it work.

Fortunately, if you don't like the way android is going, feel free to make it your own branch (at risk of breaking compatibility with other 3rd party software, of course)

I think the iPhone is cute, has nifty visual effects that many users love, and will continue to be good for those users. Me, however, I'll wait for the Android deviceS arriving throughout 2008.

[shawnce]

Originally Posted by donlphi

AGREED! This is ridiculous. I took off all of my hacks, refreshed my iPhone to factory settings, anticipating SOMETHING, ANYTHING worthwhile, but I feel like they have really dropped the ball when it comes to developing stuff for this device. It is starting to feel like APPLE-TV. They updated the YOUTUBE and they were done.

...they added iTunes WIFI store and various other requested features to existing iPhone applications.

Anyway Apple has been obviously focusing on building out the international support for the iPhone. That work has mostly finished now so expect more focus on expanding features (primarily around the time of the 3rd party SDK).

The iPhone is a VERY young device, some folks appear to have way to high expectations for feature roll out given all of the build out for the international market and real world customer feedback that Apple is processing.

[fishballer]

3rd party apps?

geez. i'm still hoping to surf and play music for more than 5 secs without crashing.

[k2director]

Well, Greg, when it comes to a To Do application for the iPhone, you're not exactly one or two generations ahead, are you?

5 months and counting...

[Roy Hobbs]

Originally Posted by theheadguy

Agreed. Additionally, none of this comes off as impressive. The iPod still does not have a native FM transmitter. Lame. Regarding planning one or two generations ahead, yippee. While everyone jumps for joy at the thought of that, I'll celebrate in 4 years when the work comes to fruitition. Lastly, while people take aim at how I am not precise with the "4 years", calm yourselves... My point is it's frustrating to see such long pauses between advancement. While Apple's VP of hardware takes aim at Nokia and other's, it's not like they haven't done a lot of their own R&D, and rather quickly. They pump out new models very quickly, and some of them are very good. While Apple's R&D process obviously has it's strong points, it is in my opinion, deeply flawed timewise.

FM transmitter, are you serious???
The iPod and iPhone may be lacking but an FM transmitter if the last of their worries.

[viennese]

Originally Posted by MadDog31

Very good read...and he's right, the others aim to match now, Apple's already miles ahead. I still find it amazing how they can do that over and over...it's the reason why I'm switching over next year from Windows...I'm tired of the same old crap.

Well, I have already switched to Apple since 1985. They were the front runner then and still are.

[crackermac]

Originally Posted by twoboxen

Android already has several steps up on Apple.
1. Customer choice -- Same software, you choose what features you want in a device
2. Customer choice x2 -- Choose the provider that works best for YOU, the consumer.
3. Open, no need to hack it to make it work.

Fortunately, if you don't like the way android is going, feel free to make it your own branch (at risk of breaking compatibility with other 3rd party software, of course)

I think the iPhone is cute, has nifty visual effects that many users love, and will continue to be good for those users. Me, however, I'll wait for the Android deviceS arriving throughout 2008.

Doubtful it will stay open. Google already said they were expecting companies to lock down the OS and put their own flavor or spin on it. It'll still be up to the carrier to manage. Look at Symbian, "The open mobile operating system." It's just another OS that developers have to write applications on. Android = lame, but only because it won't stay open. Carriers are greedy and want to nickel & dime you.

[Stampyhead]

Originally Posted by theheadguy

The iPod still does not have a native FM transmitter. Lame.

I think it's progressive that the device does NOT have an FM transmitter. What a total, pointless waste of space. I got an iPod so I wouldn't have to listen to the radio anymore...

[chr1s60]

Originally Posted by Tymmz

I really need to see one major "useful" update before I start believing in Apple's words. Wifi store, good, but what else beside bug-fixes?

I feel the same way. I am currently very happy with my iPhone, but I continue to hear about the great things Apple has for the iPhone and I am yet to see them. I don't need some enormous update that completely changes the phone, I would simply like one or two new features that improve the phone. Something simple like copy/past or the addition of MMS would be enough to give me faith is what Apple is developing for iPhone.

[psychofreak]

Originally Posted by Stampyhead

I think it's progressive that the device does NOT have an FM transmitter. What a total, pointless waste of space. I got an iPod so I wouldn't have to listen to the radio anymore...

You may be in the majority, but a significant minority of people want radio, and it would hardly cost Apple anything to put one in...

[AgingGeek]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Joswiak also claims that one of the main advantages Apple has over their competitors is looking ahead to the future:

"Always to the future he is looking. Never is his mind on WHERE he is now, WHAT he is doing..." - Yoda (Paraphrase)

[crackermac]

Originally Posted by psychofreak

You may be in the majority, but a significant minority of people want radio, and it would hardly cost Apple anything to put one in...

What the heck is that? Oxymoron?

I'm glad there is no FM transmitter or radio. Cost most likely isn't an issue. It's space and the fact that the significant majority don't want it.

[Popeye206]

Originally Posted by donlphi

I have a hunch 1st generation iPhone purchasers are going to get screwed one more time. The 2nd generation phone will be released before we see any major updates.

I think you're wrong here. I do think Apple stay's ahead of the game much further than it seems most of the time. Development of these sort of things take time and think about it... we just heard of the iPhone less than a year ago and it's only been out since July. Yes, I wish there was a more substantial update by now, but in the bigger scheme of things, we shouldn't expect something until closer to MacWorld. Then it will be one year since the intro and I'm sure Apple wants to keep the iPhone hype going.

Look at it this way... what if we were talking about the Zune Phone from MS... we'd still be waiting on our first virus patch! :-) Major update? Don't even think of that for 2 years... of course, some other company would need to develop it first so they could copy it.

[shawnce]

FM transmitter = sends out an FM signal allowing FM receivers to lock and decode the signal

FM receiver = listens for FM transmissions, decodes them converting to (most often) an audio signal.

The later is often called a radio.

[psychofreak]

Originally Posted by crackermac

What the heck is that? Oxymoron?

Nope, just as a significant minority of people want the lap-timing function on iPods, enough to justify having it...