Apple iPhone 4 Drawbacks
There are plenty of impressive new things on the Apple iPhone 4, but in the end, Apple’s strict rules in regards to how much functionality will be accessible to users still ends up stifling the experience.
The first big issue with the iPhone 4 is that it cannot function without iTunes. Now, there really is no problem about requiring a mobile phone to hook up with specialized phone software –it is actually safer that way. The real issue here is that iTunes really does a number on the iPhone’s internal memory.
The big issue with iTunes is that the way it stores data and information is so mixed up that anyone accessing the internal memory of the iPhone or any other Apple device directly would be surprised by a bunch of jumbled filenames and file folders. This makes the iPhone unusable with other software, of from being browsed directly with a computer.
The lack of a removable battery is still an issue. This long standing problem with Apple already has many people resigned about it, but the fact of the matter is that not being able to manually change the battery (without doing something that voids the warranty) is a serious issue. Batteries tend to die out faster than the devices that they are stuck to, and being able to replace a battery after a year is a convenience that many Apple device users cannot get to enjoy.
Lastly, Apple’s iPhone OS still does not (nor will it ever) support Flash. Sure, HTML5 is great and impressive, and it will definitely be the new media of choice. But until that time comes, Flash is still the norm in the internet, and there is nothing more annoying than realizing that the site you want to browse on your iPhone uses Flash –and there is no specialized app that will let you see the special content.
Future Forecast: Apple and the Competition
There are plenty of things that we are already expecting from the new Apple iPhone that is reportedly going to be unveiled by Steve Jobs this coming June 7th, but the fact of the matter is, most of the expectations on the device’s market performance are based on how well the iPhone 3G/3Gs has performed for the past couple of years.
The Apple iPhone managed to stay on top of the market by offering the most apps, a new way to use a touch screen user interface and of course, being so incredibly stylish. In fact, they did this so well that they have been on top since the iPhone came out last 2008. But that was over two years ago and Apple is no longer the only big fish in the sea that know how to swim well.
Their competitors have also been getting better and better, in fact Google was a big surprise as it burst through the industry as a fledgling underdog into what is now the only mobile platform that seems capable of taking down the iPhone OS.
Even Microsoft has hit the reset button in hopes of catching up with the iPhone. While the Windows Mobile OS has maintained a steady hold of the business market, it still failed to win the hearts of the general market. Their new Windows Phone 7 mobile platform might just be the OS that will change all of that.
This is not to say that Apple’s next generation does not have what it takes to last for another couple of more years, but with the rate that mobile technology is improving, they will certainly be facing more and better competition than the previous iPhone ever did –at this rate, it is hard to predict that Apple can maintain its position for as long as it did before.
Apple iPhone 4.0: Problems with Ads and Apps
It was surprising to hear Steve Jobs talk about new embedded advertisements as if it was a great thing for end users. Granted that it will bring in more revenue for companies, the fact of the matter is that the average end user hates ads. In fact, it is even hard to find a minority of end users who enjoy having ads.
Now, the iAds feature is apparently going to being plenty more advertising content in almost everything that an iPhone user will be doing; looks like the inclusion of the Multitasking option is not just for the user, but also for Apple to be able to run the iAds app in the background as well.
Steve Jobs has not identified iAds as an app per se, but it will certainly be running in the phone’s background regardless. And from the looks of it, the feature is part of the new OS as opposed to an optional element that users can choose to not install.
The only hope here is that there will be an opt-out choice too.
Apple is also going to cause app developers some serious grief as they have practically banned the use of Adobe Flash for developing software for the iPhone. Many developers rely on Flash to iPhone compilers in order to convert their works into iPhone compatible format. This little ban on Adobe may be a critical business move on the part of Apple, but it certainly does not win them any brownie points from the developer community –dictating which programs can be used in development has always been a major problem.
The new OS update was announced last Thursday night.
Get to know more about the new features, details and overall impact of the iPhone 4.0 OS update at Tech Radar.