January 11, 2007......... iPhone is a closed platform

Word has it that the iPhone is not able to run a standard Mac program. There is no word on whether it can run specialized programs, and no word on whether outside developers are invited to build specialized programs for it. So we don't know if iPhone will have a word processor or a spreadsheet or drawing or accounting or database or gaming.... the list is long. Most importantly, we don't know whether it will connect to networks other than PSTN and email. How 20th Century!

As it stands, and notwithstanding the fascinating UI, iPhone is short on features, and it doesn't seem possible for Apple to create them internally. iPhone sees itself as a replacement for mobile phones and PDA's. I was hoping for a laptop computer that I could put in my pocket. Big difference. If iPhone doesn't get computerish features before its release in June, competitors such as OQO will have an opportunity to stay competitive.

So here we are already, six months before iPhone's release, saying that it is the platform by which all other such platforms are measured. That's certainly the way it happened with the iPod five years ago. But there is a good chance that Cingular is going to impose a heavy hand on the communications side of the iPhone platform, and that this will prevent Apple from having a repeat performance. Why would Apple have locked itself into a single mobile network? Is Cingular subsidizing the cost of iPhone in exchange for exclusivity?

Adam Engst, the well know Mac analyst and blogger says "Apple has told some people that it won't be open, but that doesn't prevent them from changing their minds or even using an unusual model, like the Nintendo game model (where developers build software, but only Apple would certify and distribute)." Adam is an optimist. I know I said in an earlier posting that iPhone is a true borderless communication device. But the opposite could be closer to the truth, and if Adam is wrong, someone needs to punch some holes through iPhone's walls. Information Week apparently agrees.