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What’s the Big Surprise from Apple?

by Patrick Ruffini :: January 8th, 2007 12:32 am

With Macworld kicking off in San Francisco and CES opening up in Vegas, intrigue surrounds what exactly Steve Jobs has up his sleeve. The Apple homepage boldly proclaims “The first 30 years were just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.” Scoble has bloggers speculating on the aspect ratio of that graphic (it’s darn close to 16:9). Mike Davidson says that Jobs will live up to the hype and more, adding that with all the speculation about a new phone he thinks Apple’s big play will be iTheater, effectively iTunes for your TV.

Tomorrow’s NYT says, no, it’s a phone:

That shift may well be underscored tomorrow when Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, is expected to unveil an Apple phone representing his company’s new mobile communications strategy — highlighted by a device that may include Jobsian refinements such as a sleek ceramic case and a transparent touch screen.

Industry executives and competitors believe that Apple has developed the first of a new generation of devices that are closer to personal computers in pocket form, meaning that they will easily handle music, entertainment, productivity tasks and communications on cellular and other wireless networks.

After all the rumors of an iPhone, Apple may be a day late and a dollar short. Heck, even the name was swiped out from under them. I’m sure the Apple phone will be a thing to behold, but what will it be able to do that nothing else will? The iPod was revolutionary for its design and the iTunes interface. Blackberry was revolutionary because you could send actual emails and for the keyboard (hence leapfrogging SMS). Will the Apple phone be just as revolutionary or just have more bells and whistles? Add-on services to existing cell phones (be it cameras or MP3 players) just don’t seem that compelling.

I think the single most revolutionary thing that could be done in the mobile space is to make the phones themselves location aware, so I can tell if someone on my buddy list is just around the corner or find all Xbox inventory, Mexican restaurants, or flower shops within a mile or two of my precise location, or have the phone alert me if I come within a mile of any services on my watchlist. Doubtless we’d have to see advances in the arena of RFID here.

If it’s just a phone with the standard set of features that exist today, it will not live up to the hype. If it’s something truly new on the mobile front, or something that makes the process of big screen convergence radically simpler, watch out.

Tagged: apple ces2007 macworld mobile

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