Sunday, 24 February 2008

iphone itunes ipod im not sure



iPhone, iTunes, iPod, I'm not sure

I recommend to you Ajit Jaokar's brilliant analysis of Apple's much

trumpeted entry into the mobile market with iPhone. Ajit's "tail

wagging the dog" analysis is not only extremely perceptive any

insightful, but describes something very important about Apple's

iPhone strategy which might have passed some of us by.

Ajit has picked up on a piece on ZDNet about the iPhone feature Visual

voicemail as announced by Steve Jobs himself -- "wouldn't it be great

if you didn't have to listen to five of them to list to the sixth?

Just like email you can go directly to the voicemails that interest

you."

As Ajit points out this could only be achieved if iPhone had a very

special relationship with the operator community because voice mail is

stored in the network, not on the phone. It tells of a very

proprietary approach.

And here's another one - I picked up whilst browsing that iPhone can

only be configured while connected to iTunes. It is perhaps of no

surprise that the iPhone follows in the iPod footsteps of operating in

its own tightly controlled an self-fulfilling ecosystem.

This does echo the entire Apple Mac strategy from day 1 of a closed

ecosystem, and it may be that Apple (probably uniquely) can make this

happen. There's a lot of evidence pointing that way (although it seems

unlikely this iPhone strategy can work in Europe). It is however


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