AMERICAN GEEK

The Future Of The iPhone

Will Apple's next version be bigger, faster and cheaper?

By N’Gai Croal | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 16, 2008

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  • Posted By: Meggsy @ 12/21/2008 3:39:14 PM

    The biggest perk of an iPhone over say a Blackberry for me is the use of a full internet browser, that being said the biggest improvement I'd like to see on an iPhone would be the use of Flash. Out of everything the phone gives or doesn't give me, it is the one thing I can't buy an application to fix.

  • Posted By: oliverclosoff @ 12/18/2008 9:20:34 AM

    Actually, there is already a company putting technology together to "tether" the iPhone to standalone digital cameras from DSLRs to point-and-shoots. http://www.newviewtechnologies.com/
    Not sure how this will be able to coordinate with all the competing technologies and providers, but it provides a good opportunity to do much of what may be requested of the digital darkroom concept.

  • Posted By: planner @ 12/17/2008 2:56:57 PM

    One of the reasons I like the Iphone is it knows what it is... Lack of "variet"y is only a problem if there's demand for variety that's not met. Is there? Who says so??? It's why we have so many channels on cable - buy something else if it works better for you.

  • Posted By: simulant @ 12/17/2008 2:55:51 PM

    Once they shrink the laser keyboard down to a size small enough to embed into a handheld, that will greatly improve user input-ability!! This is where the laser keyboard is currently at: http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/

    And in the not-so-distant future, imagine a holographic screen projected in mid-air from the handheld as well as a brain-computer-interface that can interpret the signals from your neurons so you can control it using only your thoughts.

    This stuff is not as far off as most people think!

  • Posted By: eMJayy @ 12/17/2008 12:53:35 PM

    The iPhone will continue to be successful inside the US, but its cost and lack of variety prohibits it from making a serious challenge to the established players who operate at the global level.

  • Posted By: gcv1 @ 12/17/2008 11:42:28 AM

    These suggestions all go to show that Apple has the market cornered when it comes to great design. Other ideas like those listed all seem so conventional and klunky. I hope that Apple stick to their product and don't try being all things to all people. I love my iPhone (the original model) and will readily upgrade to the next generation if Apple can see fit to add MMS capabilities - that seems to easy to do. I am skipping the 3G out of protest for the missing MMS capability. Who wants to receive images through a klunky AT&T website when most other phones can simply receive the image.

    The only other improvements I can think of involve make the phone thinner, the screen bigger, the processor faster, internet access faster, the battery life longer, and the design cooler. Everything else can be handled in software.

  • Posted By: DPC5 @ 12/16/2008 6:17:55 PM

    This article is insanely speculative. Why would Apple branch out into tiny little handheld phones that don't play to its strategic strengths, design and advanced software? A tablet/bigger iPhone is more likely, but still pretty unlikely given that Apple has repeatedly said it would not make a tablet.

    Apple can put a camera on, reduce price, increase storage capacity... I mean, it already acts as a phone, iPod, wireless internet access point for e-mail and documents, GPS device, and plays games. What else can they do to add value? Not much.

    • Posted By: Vigilance @ 12/17/2008 10:16:14 AM

      I believe that the world of possibilities for improving handheld technologies is vast and largely untapped.

      For instance, the cameras on phones right now are jokes. Can you imagine if you could not only take a photo or blurry fifteen-second video with a handheld device, but shoot an entire commercial or music video and *edit* it right there on the phone? With the advent of 21st-century technological progress, things like this become possible. You might say to yourself that you personally would have no use for something like that - I certainly would, however, and so would many others, particularly young people.

      That's an example. I'm sure I could find other examples of technological innovations for each category you mentioned as well as a range of possibilities you haven't even thought of. Remember, what you have is really a tiny but very powerful personal computer with these devices, and, just the same way as personal and business computing revolutionized the late 20th century, it's likely that personal wireless computing will enable the 21st to grow in ways we never thought of. Your comment reminds me a little bit of the comments about the Wright Bros' airplane at Kitty Hawk - "Marvelous. But it will never be more than a toy." Many things are speculative, but I think the importance of advanced wireless communication and data manipulation are not.

  • Posted By: jpuser @ 12/16/2008 5:03:13 PM

    Here in Japan, apple's iPhone is not so successful. It ran headlong to companies such as matsushita, nec, and others. And, hard to believe, apple simply do not evolve fast enough compare to them. iPhone's images are actually: expensive, not-too-useful-although-fancy-enough, and boring. Apple just couldn't understand that there are markets which actually differed with the States', and thus failed on its marketing strategies.

    • Posted By: Vigilance @ 12/17/2008 10:07:56 AM

      We have no hope of competing with Asia in terms of pocket electronics and wireless communications in the next few decades. Our rotted-out corporate giants stifle innovation and charge hobbling pay-per-play fees instead of rewarding innovation and providing cheaper bulk data rates to stimulate the technological performance of their customer base.

      Verizon and others are flush with cash right now - but I would say to look for a systemic collapse of the U.S. wireless telecommunications providers within about fifteen years. By that time the technology won't even be comparable and people who haven't upgraded will suffer competitive and business disadvantage, and demand will fall away from the stagnant U.S. market, at which point you all will swoop in like vultures and feast on the scraps of more of our corporate gluttony. And a job well done it will be, too.

  • Posted By: MeNotYouToo @ 12/16/2008 10:53:43 PM

    When I first saw this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4296efmOWLs
    I thought it was real - perhaps Apple would take a clue!

  • Posted By: cjstheman @ 12/16/2008 5:34:19 PM

    I wouldn't count on Steve's "One More Thing". Apple just announced that Steve Jobs will not be giving what will be the last Macworld Keynote which made his"One More Thing" line famous. Guess will have to cross our fingers and hope for a Apple Media Event to maybe catch a glimpse of the Mac leader.

  • Posted By: Vigilance @ 12/16/2008 3:59:35 PM

    We all ought to be thanking our lucky stars for Apple.

    I mean, in today's economic world, who would have thought you could run a *successful company* simply by innovating, producing quality goods that enhance people's lives, and getting those products to market? it boggles the mind

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