iPhone news

As soon as the iPhone was launched, a lot of questions were cropped up on the adaptability of the new phone in the existing conditions. One confounding question among these was the availability of third party applications in it.

There is a widespread speculation that Apple iPhone is a first-party mobile phone, and Apple’s association with Cingular Wireless for data transfer restricts the user to follow their routes strictly ruling out all the possibilities of customizing the phone.

Steve Jobs, CEO, Apple Inc., answered positively to the worrying question of the users and also justified the ‘closeness’ of the phone saying that an open platform would muddle up the service provider’s network. He was alluding that Cingular Wireless does not allow the users to mess up their network by allowing third party software. Cingular is the exclusive U.S. carrier of Apple iPhone.

Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod marketing, too had the same opinion. He confirmed the fact that there is little scope for third party applications in iPhone. However, he added that Apple is open for third parties for designing peripherals for the iPhone. Later, Greg did not forget to defend the iPhone saying that it is not totally ‘closed’ as it has already partnered with Yahoo! and Google for accessing their selected services. Yahoo! has offered free push e-mail service to iPhone users, and Google will provide the
Integrated Google Map facility to locate local businesses and other places.

Steve Jobs’ justification sounds puny; with the mobile networks flooding with the Windows applications and similar software, the ‘security concern’ of the iPhone may not sell easily. This GPRS/EDGE phone does not support 3G. With its other limitations such as the non-expandable memory, the scope for further modifications remains a fantasy for the enthusiastic iPhone lovers.

The use of Mac OS X software adds a ray of hope for developments. It seems that Apple is planning to develop more applications on OS X’s Mach kernel and the ARM processor architecture. Hope these developments happen in the near future eliminating the ambiguity over the efficiency of the compact version of OS X software used in the present model.

Another interesting claim from the Apple is that the iPhone is loaded with a lot of applications that can invite third party participation. For example, the applications such as the motion sensors, radio networking, and the computing features, etc., have lots of scope for third party applications, according to Apple. What seems more strange is the claim that most of these applications are too advanced to run in the present conditions.

Apple iPhone is yet to reach the market. Even though the Apple iPhone is priced reasonably, there is confusion among the industrialists on how the market will react to the cute gadget. It would be great if Apple could sort out the limitations of this new multipurpose mobile and reach to the proximity of the revolutionary users by adding the appropriate applications in it.