iPhone predictions for 2009 – UPDATED Jan 2nd
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UPDATED again with features from Apple announcements on September 9th 2009
UPDATED with features from Apple announcements on March 17th 2009
Here are MoGeneration’s iPhone predictions for 2009, please add yours in the comments.
App Store subscription payment model – UPDATE – available in iPhone OS 3.0
Currently its difficult to sell time restricted or periodically updated content via the app store. Bringing the subscription model to the App Store should encourage development of apps like:
- Magazines / ebooks
- Productivity / specialised applications – Such as the rumoured online version of iWork.
Push notifications finally arrive UPDATE – available in iPhone OS 3.0
Push notifications were due in September 2008. Apple are uncharacteristically late providing them. MoGeneration suspect its due to the cost of providing the service to free apps. RIMs push model for Blackberry has a licensing cost to the carriers who provide the phone. Apple are unlikely to follow the same path. Expect a low latency/high volume Push API for paid apps and the opposite for free apps.
Smaller iPhone arrives, possibly called the iPhone Nano
There will undoubtedly be a reduction in the overall size of the iPhone however MoGeneration strongly believe the screen size will not be reduced in resolution or size. New iPhones will probably have ‘edge to edge’ screens. Most iPhone apps today would break if a new resolution was introduced. The iPhone app approval process does not inspect the apps to see if they hard code the screen size – if it DID then it would be an indication of new iPhone resolutions. This is a good argument against an imminent release of a larger resolution iPhone based Netbook.
Carrier restrictions removed on new iPhones
Its clear that Apples contracts with carriers restrict exclusivity to a single model of iPhone e.g. iPhone 2G or 3G. Expect a new iPhone, if its is the nano or iPhone Pro to be completely unrestricted. Countries such as France and Belgium have already outlawed carrier specific contracts for the iPhone. Its a dying business model and Apple will be sick of going to court in 70 countries.
iPhone demographic broadens
This holiday season Apple and major retailers marketing the iPhone and iPod Touch as game devices. Expect more iPhone apps for kids, like our own Moo Shake! but also apps for seniors who like everyone else, find the iPhone the easiest phone to use for internet and multimedia.
Larger capacity iPhones
The iPhone will become available in 32, 64 and 128 Gig varieties throughout the year beginning with Macworld in January.
App Store Genius recommends apps based on your iPhone usage and profile
UPDATE this is part of iPhone OS 3.1 and iTunes 9 as announced by Apple on 9/9/09
The app store is a hit based business which means a few apps and games make a lot of money and everything else doesn’t do so well once it drops off the ‘recently released’ or ‘top 25′ lists. Apple will partially solve this by extending the music Genius concept to recommend apps based on your usage of the iPhone and your iTunes profile. Like Genius for music this will be an opt-in service which performs better the more data it has to analyse.
UPDATE Emily Freeman has posted some predictions for all things mobile in Australia.
Please send us your iPhone predictions for 2009 below.
9 Comments to iPhone predictions for 2009 – UPDATED
[...] wrote blog post on iPhone predictions for 2009 over on the MoGeneration.com site. Please add your own! This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 4:52 pm [...]
2 January 2009
[...] Business , media Tags: apple, iphone, Nintendo DS Over at MoGeneration they have made some predictions for the iPhone in 2009. Nothing too radical, but clearly what happens with the iPhone is crucial for [...]
These predictions make a lot of sense. I’m curious if the App Store will start accepting desktop apps as well.
Astute comments about the screen size of the much-rumoured iPhone Nano, and an equally compelling argument against an iPhone-based netbook, however I hope you’re wrong as this would be the successor to the Newton I’ve been waiting for!
An iPhoneOS based netbook is unlikely but that doesn’t mean there won’t be an OSX based netbook!
Well, I am devastated that there was neither an iPhone nor an OSX netbook… but what do you think of the new Palm Pre?
In my opinion, it’s a nice looking device, and the specs are at least on par with modern offerings from other manufacturers (which in itself is a big step forward for Palm), but I get the feeling that it’s a case of “too little too late” from Palm which is a darned shame.
For one thing, have any details been released about how to write or get new apps for it? The PalmOS 4 platform had oodles and oodles of apps as one of its strengths. Is the world ready for yet another mobile development platform?
So what do you think – does Palm have a chance of getting back to its glory days with this device and OS?
Hi Terence,
Macworld lived up to its name…macs, macs, macs.
The Palm Pre would have been a killer up to a year ago. I think it might just be too late, its a great rival for iPhone 1.0 but too far behind 2.0 (app stores, worldwide 3G, iFund etc). However the Palm customers are very loyal (like Apple customers) so I think Palm will survive for a little longer. You might get your netbook if Palm marry this OS with their Foleo netbook from last year, that would be a neat device.
BTW the 13″ macbook I have is as close to computing perfection as I have found. I did not upgrade a single thing on it and I’ve even abandoned using the mouse. I also do really miss a large screen due to all the decent window management tools – expose etc.
Keith
[...] out Keith’s iPhone predictions for 2009 on the MoGeneration [...]
2 January 2009