Steve Jobs and the Orifice
David Pogue posted a sarcastic list of questions people have been asking about the iPhone over at the NYTimes. David is apparently a true believer and he has actually held an iPhone in his hand. But I submitted this response for posting as a comment on his blog:
Context & Ripple Effects
The iPhone had already moved from keynote presentation to early hands-on scrutiny, with David Pogue among those who had handled the device. Apple’s reported position against third-party iPhone applications turns that scrutiny from a hardware question into a question of who controls the software experience.
The story’s pickup by Slashdot, Infinite Loop, and Read/WriteWeb shows that the restriction—not merely the device’s debut—had become a central point of debate around Apple’s phone strategy.
First-order effects
- Independent developers are excluded from creating native iPhone applications under Apple’s stated policy, leaving Apple to define the device’s available software experience.
- Prospective iPhone buyers must evaluate the product around Apple-provided capabilities rather than an external application ecosystem.
Second-order effects
- Apple assumes the burden of supplying features that outside developers might otherwise add, concentrating both product control and product-pressure on Steve Jobs’s company.
- Other handset makers gain a clear opening to differentiate on developer access if they choose to make third-party software a selling point.
Third-order effects
- If handset makers adopt Apple’s model, mobile software distribution shifts toward device makers acting as gatekeepers rather than independent developers reaching users directly.
The trend: The iPhone launch is becoming an early test of whether consumer phones compete through tightly controlled integrated experiences or developer-accessible software platforms.