Media Blog
Friday, January 05, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Opening up the iPod API and Apples a la carte iPhone
As usually happens shortly before Macworld, the rumor mills are full of fun Apple lore, but what's the real story? We have new products coming from Apple along the lines of iTV, iPhone, and new iPods, but what is really new about these devices? What features are they going to offer? How are they going to run? Two interesting rumors about these devices are Mac OS X Embedded and Apple selling mobile phone service as an MVNO (Mobile virtual network operator). We are going to talk about these two rumors, and I'm going to suggest that Mac OS X Embedded is not going to happen but something even more exciting will. And Apple will become an MVNO so they can offer a simple and inexpensive a la carte service for the iPhone.
Apple is not going to make an embedded version of Mac OS X because embedded hardware today is not ready for a full blown OS. There are many pieces that would need to be pulled out of the OS to get this to work well and Apple is not ready to do this. Even if they did, the OS would still run slow and have poor battery life. These are two things Apple does not want to see happen. I understand that this can be done; we have embedded Linux phones. I'm not saying that they couldn't do it, just that they won't.
The hardware needed to make these devices work with a true Mac OS X would raise Apple's cost of the device, and the cost is very critical for these new consumer devices.
What is going to run this cool new phone, or iTV for that matter? It will be the iPod's OS. The iPod has a stable OS. It has nice performance, and low energy requirements. Like the iPod, iTV and iPhone will integrate with iTunes.
But what does all this embedded talk mean? It means that Apple is finally ready to open up the iPod OS and let the world write software for all of their amazing devices. Don't believe me? Keep reading.
The iPod already has a large selection of third party games. This means Apple already has a pretty complete API that has already been tested and used by third parties. It has a port of the Quartz drawing API, meaning the device will be able to display images and offer basic PDF support. There are embedded OpenGL drivers to speed up the 2D drawing. CoreFoundation (CF) is a basic framework of Mac OS X that lets us do many basic programming tasks. This is very portable code and runs on the iPod. Apple and Nokia's work on an embedded WebKit (Safari and Widget core) means Apple already has a Javascript and HTML engine that will be easy to port to the iPod. All of these pieces will make it easier for current software developers to port code to these devices as well.
Without a huge amount of work, Apple can now open their iPod API for developers to write C applications, Widgets, and modern HTML. They most likely ported Objective-C, parts of Core Video or small parts of QuickTime for video access, and a basic BSD based IP layer for communications with the new devices.
This open API explains why Apple is going to offer their own mobile phone service as an MVNO. Apple wants to change the way the world works with mobile devices. The current carriers (Cingular, Sprint, Verizon, etc.) do not offer a model that makes it easy or convenient to get great new software onto phones. They unnaturally restrict services on phones, all to charge you higher monthly fees.
Apple loves the a la carte business, and has done a wonderful marketing campaign to convince customers that the a la carte business is perfect for them. Apple knows how successful an a la carte phone business would be.
Want to make calls on your phone? No problem, get an free account and it will cost you five cents a minute to use the phone. Want to send a text message? Five cents, please. Want to play a game on your phone? No problem again, buy the game from iTunes and synch it or buy it on the phone and just play it. This won't expire after a month as it does on the crazy phone carriers. What are they thinking, that you should pay five dollars per month to play a game? And of course, music and video will just work perfectly and beautifully. You will be able to buy from iTunes or buy from the phone. Since Apple controls the network, they will be able to put the transfer cost into the purchase price. If you are on another carrier, you will have to pay them for the download.
Now we will have phones and devices that we can write software for, sell software to, and use without ugly commitments or contracts. In a years time, there will be a world of applications for these next-generation phones, iPods, and iTVs.
You'll be able to buy a phone without any contract, and use it to play games and music with no monthly fee. The a la cart business model will be so popular for parents, teenagers, and college students that the market will swarm to the phone.
What does this mean for all of our tribalmedia customers? It means we will start porting iShell to this great new platform. Yet again, iShell will open up a new world of possibilities for designers around the world.
Matt Veenstra
president
tribalmedia
Apple is not going to make an embedded version of Mac OS X because embedded hardware today is not ready for a full blown OS. There are many pieces that would need to be pulled out of the OS to get this to work well and Apple is not ready to do this. Even if they did, the OS would still run slow and have poor battery life. These are two things Apple does not want to see happen. I understand that this can be done; we have embedded Linux phones. I'm not saying that they couldn't do it, just that they won't.
The hardware needed to make these devices work with a true Mac OS X would raise Apple's cost of the device, and the cost is very critical for these new consumer devices.
What is going to run this cool new phone, or iTV for that matter? It will be the iPod's OS. The iPod has a stable OS. It has nice performance, and low energy requirements. Like the iPod, iTV and iPhone will integrate with iTunes.
But what does all this embedded talk mean? It means that Apple is finally ready to open up the iPod OS and let the world write software for all of their amazing devices. Don't believe me? Keep reading.
The iPod already has a large selection of third party games. This means Apple already has a pretty complete API that has already been tested and used by third parties. It has a port of the Quartz drawing API, meaning the device will be able to display images and offer basic PDF support. There are embedded OpenGL drivers to speed up the 2D drawing. CoreFoundation (CF) is a basic framework of Mac OS X that lets us do many basic programming tasks. This is very portable code and runs on the iPod. Apple and Nokia's work on an embedded WebKit (Safari and Widget core) means Apple already has a Javascript and HTML engine that will be easy to port to the iPod. All of these pieces will make it easier for current software developers to port code to these devices as well.
Without a huge amount of work, Apple can now open their iPod API for developers to write C applications, Widgets, and modern HTML. They most likely ported Objective-C, parts of Core Video or small parts of QuickTime for video access, and a basic BSD based IP layer for communications with the new devices.
This open API explains why Apple is going to offer their own mobile phone service as an MVNO. Apple wants to change the way the world works with mobile devices. The current carriers (Cingular, Sprint, Verizon, etc.) do not offer a model that makes it easy or convenient to get great new software onto phones. They unnaturally restrict services on phones, all to charge you higher monthly fees.
Apple loves the a la carte business, and has done a wonderful marketing campaign to convince customers that the a la carte business is perfect for them. Apple knows how successful an a la carte phone business would be.
Want to make calls on your phone? No problem, get an free account and it will cost you five cents a minute to use the phone. Want to send a text message? Five cents, please. Want to play a game on your phone? No problem again, buy the game from iTunes and synch it or buy it on the phone and just play it. This won't expire after a month as it does on the crazy phone carriers. What are they thinking, that you should pay five dollars per month to play a game? And of course, music and video will just work perfectly and beautifully. You will be able to buy from iTunes or buy from the phone. Since Apple controls the network, they will be able to put the transfer cost into the purchase price. If you are on another carrier, you will have to pay them for the download.
Now we will have phones and devices that we can write software for, sell software to, and use without ugly commitments or contracts. In a years time, there will be a world of applications for these next-generation phones, iPods, and iTVs.
You'll be able to buy a phone without any contract, and use it to play games and music with no monthly fee. The a la cart business model will be so popular for parents, teenagers, and college students that the market will swarm to the phone.
What does this mean for all of our tribalmedia customers? It means we will start porting iShell to this great new platform. Yet again, iShell will open up a new world of possibilities for designers around the world.
Matt Veenstra
president
tribalmedia