One of the truly great things about the App Store is that one can go through the entire catalogue of applications and know, when they download an app that it will run on their iPhone, whatever the model. This is a breakthrough in mobile applications that no one seems to have picked up on. No worrying about getting the same application to work on varying pieces of hardware. You can install an app on your iPhone and know that it will operate perfectly as there have been no other models to ‘distract’ the development of the application.

However, with the release of the iPhone 3GS, I think that Apple are making the first steps to diverging the iPhone line, in terms of different hardware functionality. And this will be a problem in the future.

Right now, we’ve got two models of iPhone on sale. The 3G and the 3GS. Both these phones, on the whole are very similar, with the 3GS only having a handful of features, such as video capabilities, voice control, a magnetometer and a 3 megapixel camera with autofocus differentiating it from the previous model.

This leaves very few extra requirements that an iPhone application may have for added functionality or a certain feature to operate at its best. And yes, a lot of the time, we’re only seeing quality improvements. For instance, a barcode reader, to be effective might require the autofocus lens of the 3GS. As with the 3G, the application would struggle to get an accurate image of the barcode. But the app would still be able to function, it’s just that a lot more care would have to be taken in scanning the iPhone. Be it, making sure the lighting conditions are okay and keeping a steady hand.

Now imagine the iPhone landscape a few years down the line. A couple regular iPhones? Plus an iPhone Nano with a smaller screen? This leaves Apple with a very large problem. With there being different capabilities and physical limitations on the iPhone product line – we’re going to see several versions of a single application; first changed depending on physical capabilities, and secondly, games may be changed depending on the speed of the hardware that they run on.

The irony of this of course, is that at WWDC 09 Phil Schiller called out Nokia for this exact issue:

Not all the apps run on all the phones. It’s really complicated so we took a lot of the phones and added them together to make a bigger number [to give a number of apps on the store].

In this scenario, we’d be stuck with possibly hundreds of thousands of apps on the store, some that can run on your specific iPhone model, but other versions that may not. My feelings are that, for Apple to solve this problem they’re going to have to take a tough stance.

Imagine, you bring your shiny new iPhone home after picking it up from the store. Once you’ve plugged it in, the iTunes Store would detect which model you were using and only display the relevant apps that operate on the model you own. So when you go searching for that game that requires a certain CPU speed to run, you won’t purchase the version that doesn’t operate well on your iPhone. In fact, you won’t even know the other version of the app exists. In turn making the browsing experience of the App Store (which right now is pretty poor) a lot more tolerable.

I favour this idea because it hits two birds with one stone; it simply cuts down on the amount of apps in the store and allows you to not have to worry about getting the optimum experience from applications from your iPhone. Not being a developer however, I’m unsure how they’d react to such a system. I’d envision a series of boxes for the developer to tick, suggesting which iPhone models the app will run on.

The other option, of course, is to go to the simple, and effective method of stating ’system requirements’ in the app info section on the store, requiring the purchaser to check if the application is compatible with their model of iPhone. I just feel that the afore mentioned solution is a more elegant way of handling this inherent issue with the current way the App Store functions.

PS: My bud, Chris Gilbert, has written a piece on this very same topic, it’s worth a read.

I’m not going to lie, I’m still fairly skeptical about the Palm Pre. it’s not that I don’t want it to be a success – I just wonder how anyone can stand up and say how a device is going to be a game changer when at most, they’ve played around with a prototype for twenty minutes. I’m also cautious because we’ve been here before. Anyone remember the Blackberry Storm? Everyone thought that was going to blow the iPhone out of the water; for those not aware, it certainly didn’t.

Over the past few months since CES, when Palm announced the Pre, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the direction that Palm are taking the Pre and I can’t really understand the choices that they’ve made. In some leaked internal material, they implore salesmen not to persuade certain “IT Centric Business Users”  – whatever that means – to buy the device.

I have a few problems with this. Surely, Palm, a company that isn’t doing so well right now should be putting all their energy into a phone that really, if it lives up to the hype; should be able to do ‘everything’ a Treo can do. This suggests to me a very confused product line, and makes me doubt who exactly Palm are marketing the Pre for. After all, surely if this device is so damn easy to use, the Pre should be for everyone. By doing so, like Apple, Palm wouldn’t be alienating a large possible portion of what could be a lucrative market – everyone. Apple is not afraid to say that the iPhone is for everyone. Look at the name of their ad campaign “There’s an app for just about anything”.

There’s one aspect about the whole business focus that Palm is working on that I’m slightly miffed about which Engadget pointed out:

One critical thing to note for business users and frequent flyers: the Sprint version of the phone — the first to be released — will not be a global phone, meaning it can’t be used on GSM networks overseas.

Let me get this straight. You want me to purchase a phone for business that I can’t use in most parts of the world? In other words, you want me to have two phones. One for when I’m at home and one for when I travel abroad. Forgoing to whole logistics issues of having multiple numbers and syncing everything together there’s a very large financial aspect for business to worry about. Seriously now, wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to buy one cell phone that happens to cost the price of the Palm Pre (after rebate, I’ll get onto that later) and works in other countries?

I hate pointing out the elephant in the room but… iPhone?

John Gruber put it best: “rebates suck”. They really do. The whole idea is that it’s such a terrible procedure to go and get the money back from the manufacturer – that most people give up and the company doesn’t loose any money. A sucky way to do business if you ask me. There is a silver lining however, Best Buy, are offering an instant rebate. I would be very, very surprised if Pre’s were purchased anywhere else but Best Buy.

I was really, really surprised when I found out that Palm weren’t going to be offering any form of desktop syncing application for the Pre – and slightly worried. Anyone who knows a little about the success of the iPods and iPhone is aware that, really, it’s iTunes that’s behind it. iTunes is the piece of software that allows the experience to be so damn seamless. I am not of the opinion that we are at a point where one can rely on their cell phone completely for contact information, let alone media.

By the sound of things, Palm’s intent on having a “Data Transfer Assistant” which for me suggests a world of hurt. For instance: I want to watch a movie on my Pre. How do I go about doing this? I can’t use iTunes or any other downloadable content store because of this little thing called DRM. So movies are out to the picture. Next up, music – a lot easier now that DRM for audio is a thing of the past. But first I have to navigate through my entire music file structure, copy it over to the “Data Transfer Assistant” and pray that the Pre works out where is should be stored?

Yeah, not quite my cup of tea.

Don’t worry, it’s not all bad however, there are a couple of items on the feature set that have caught my eye. If Synergy works, it will be revolutionary. If it doesn’t, then in turn the rest of the experience with the Pre will be a nightmare. I’m also very curious about the WebOS that Palm are pushing – kind of similar to how Apple intended the iPhone to operate. Of course, it didn’t and for now at least, we won’t be running any 3D Games on the Pre.

In the end, no matter how well the Pre does, Palm will have learnt a lot about the current state of the mobile industry, and being an iPhone user, I’m glad someone is keeping Apple on their toes. Because, RIM and HTC certainly aren’t.

Your move, Apple.

I’ve got a new favourite iPhone game – FlightControl [App Store Link]. A gorgeous and very addictive app that requires you to take on the position as an air traffic controller.

An iPhone with a keyboard? -

“Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149.”

Why would Apple ever do this? By doing so they would be acknowledging that their touch technology isn’t as good as they promoted and be and their keyboard with they touted as better than a tactile keyboard floored. Apple can’t turn back now they’ve gone down the touch road.

Piper Jaffray gets the dumbass of the week award from me.