There’s no question that Apple’s launch of the iPhone last year changed the handset market and raised the bar for mobile technology and interaction.
The big news Monday at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco was of course CEO Steve Jobs’ announcement of a 3G version of the iPhone.
So, the speculation of many bloggers and news channels has been replaced by the hard facts of the iPhone release. US and UK customers will be able to get the new phone from July 11th. Callender Creates provide the need to know facts from the WWDC.
From my point of view, the announcements all focused on iPhone applications and web technologies the iPhone can now handle, with faster speeds. We will see how 02 handle this one before making promises 😉
There were many comments on the blogosphere for their own personal requirements, like a bigger camera, video and more battery life. Not much to shout about here, however, the fact that they have pushed for GPS is a large step into geographical (geo) based web applications. Apple have been working with Skyhook Wireless for the last few years on location based services:
Skyhook created the first Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), the world’s first location platform to use the native 802.11 radio already on mobile devices to deliver accurate positioning worldwide.
This is exciting stuff, with GPS the future of these apps can only improve with specific results depending on factors such as your location, likes and contacts:
- Local Search – Krillion
- Location Based Gaming – Geocaching.com
- Location Sharing – Yahoo! Fire Eagle
- Social Discovery – Whrrl
Furthering the idea of the ‘web on the move’ – providing lightweight, personalised web sites that customise results and content for you – Irish Blogger Paul Walsh, has thoughts on the impact of the iPhone on the development community.
One of the finer points worth digging deeper into from Monday morning’s Apple news out of the WWDC is the company’s new workaround to notifications from third-party apps in the latest iPhone system software – Apple’s new notification system.
So in conclusion, a solid announcement from Apple, perhaps not as far as everyone had hoped, but it wasn’t going to be as large as the iPhone’s first release.