iPhone Predictions Scorecard

Here were my original predictions about the iPhone 2.0, updated with the actual announcement from Apple:

• 16 GB and 32 GB versions of the phone at $399 and $499 respectively and yes, there will be a 3G chipset as the entire world is predicting.
  Apple stuck with the 8 GB and 16 GB versions of the phone, now with 3G, but with a severe price cut of $199 and $299 respectively.
• No internal GPS chip, but the 2.0 software will support external GPS devices through Bluetooth or through the dock connector. GPS kills the battery life and I don’t think that Apple would be willing to trade battery life for handheld GPS when they have a good solution with triangulation and WiFi locations.
  Internal “Assisted” GPS is onboard with the new phone.
• The iPhone will be a little bit thinner and perhaps a little lighter from an upgraded glass used for the touch screen. There are mixed rumors about the iPhone getting thinner and some saying that it will get thicker. Remember, Apple would rather make it thinner and lighter. Can you really picture Steve Jobs going onto the stage and saying, “The new iPhone is 2 millimeters thicker than before and I think that our customers are really going to appreciate the added girth.” Seriously.
  Steve downplayed the size other than to mention that it is thinner at the edges. The case is now plastic and the upgraded glass allowed it to be mostly the same weight.
• No ‘haptic’ touch response. Totally useless feature to have the phone vibrate a little when you touch it. Seriously, the touch response is built in to your actual fingers. If they include this, there better be a way to turn it off.
  Correct on this.
• There will be a way to search your contacts database on the phone that is similar to Spotlight search where you just start typing part of a name, company, address, phone number and it narrows down the contacts as you type. I need contacts search all of the time as I remember part of someone’s name or a company name.
  Mostly correct. Hard to determine if you can search business name or address from the demos.
• The 2.0 firmware will have a task application that works with the Leopard task service. I think that the reason this wasn’t included already has more to do with getting tasks to play nicely with Outlook on Windows machines.
  No task application, although the App Store will certainly get a full collection.
• Along the same lines the Notes application will get more useful and will synchronize with the Leopard notes that are in Apple Mail. My way out theory on this is that it will support in-line voice notes. If Apple doesn’t do it, I’m sure that a third-party developer will go for something like this.
  This may just arrive, but nothing for certain with today’s announcement.
• The 2.0 firmware will include a built-in game, something like Solitaire. There will be a LOT of games released with the 2.0 firmware and the AppStore for the iPhone. iPod Touch users will be thrilled as well for the new games that will turn the iPod Touch into a viable player in the handheld gaming space.
  No built in game, but the App Store will have at least 3 very cool games at launch as demonstrated yesterday. iPod Touch users will have to pay $10 to upgrade to the new firmware.
• The really interesting news is going to be from third-party developers and what they release for the iPhone. Apple can focus on the core feature set knowing that there are thousands of developers just waiting to create cool applications for a very hungry market of consumers. Personally, I want Yojimbo to sync with the iPhone.
  We saw demonstrations from a collection of companies including a music application from a single developer and very cool medical applications.
• For email, each account can have its own default signature, perhaps even sync this with Apple Mail. I have no reason to expect this, but it is a little wishful thinking.
  Still wishful thinking. We did get some better email management and saving image attachments.
• This may sound really basic, but there will be a way to copy and paste text from one application to another. This is more a challenge with the touch interface than anything else as there isn’t a logical gesture for this that doesn’t require a little bit of training.
  Not yet as far as I can tell. Perhaps in iPhone 2.1 or 3.0.

All in all, yesterday’s announcement is a bit of a yawn for me. Really, the big difference with the new iPhone is the plastic case, the 3G speed, GPS and a price cut. Functionally, my current iPhone will be able to do almost all of the same things (not the GPS or as fast) as the new model. Launching it in 70 countries is pretty special as well, but since I’m here in the USA, that wasn’t an issue for me.

The interesting announcement was revamping .Mac into MobileMe, and as a subscriber to .Mac, I’m curious to get my hands on the new features when this rolls out next month.