San Francisco - Perhaps Apple should start thinking of a new
name for its iPhone. With more than 50,000 different applications now
available for the company's genre-smashing device, actually making
phone calls is only a tiny part of what iPhone users do with their
handy little gizmos.
And with more applications being invented every day, and the
latest version of the iPhone offering far more power, durability and
convenience than its predecessors, it might just be a matter of time
before the iPhone starts making other specialized devices entirely
obsolete.
Take GPS navigation systems for example. These marvels of
technology can magically tell you where you are and how to get to
where you want to be. They can also offer you other important
information - local restaurants, traffic conditions and petrol prices
- though this is rarely up-to-date.
But as leading GPS maker Tom Tom demonstrated at the unveiling of
the next generation iPhone on Monday, there really is no need to own
a separate GPS device any longer. The company demonstrated its new
application for the iPhone, which turns the device into a highly
capable GPS system, especially if customers buy the specially
designed cradle and charger.
According to independent tech analyst Carmi Levy, the big
advantage will come when the usual information provided by GPS units
is integrated with all the other tricks of which the iPhone is
capable. People will be able to check local restaurants, order local
cinema tickets and other such conveniences. Travelling sales people
will be able to plot their route, call up information on their
customers, arrange meetings, and book a lunch reservation with a few
easy clicks.
'The iPhone is the ultimate converged device - you can do more on
an iPhone than any other device,' said Levy.
The secret to that capability is not merely the iPhone's hardware.
Just as important is the developer infrastructure that promotes all
the third-party applications and allows users to customize their
devices to their individual needs. 'You have 50,000 ways to customize
the iPhone - it becomes whatever you want it to be,' Levy said.
It's not just GPS makers that have to worry about competition from
the iPhone. Point and click cameras could also be on the way out,
Levy said. Not only are lenses and flashes on smartphones quickly
improving, smartphones are also much better for most casual
photographers because they allow the easy sharing of pictures and
videos.
'Point and shoot manufacturers need to innovate or they will go
out of business,' he said.
Another threatened sector is the handheld gaming console. Devices
like Sony's PSP can cost as much or more than an iPhone, which offers
thousands of games for download.
The trend is clear, said MacWorld's Christopher Breen. 'The more
functionality the iPhone and other smartphones get, the more obsolete
one-function devices become. Why bother picking up a pocket camera
with video function, a GPS device, a portable video game machine or
an MP3 player when you can get it all in one sleek little box?'
Other new technologies starting to appear in other smartphones
could further help the devices take over the world, including
eliminating much of the need for laptops and netbooks.
So-called Pico projectors aim to overcome the 'display bottleneck'
of handheld devices. These tiny laser projectors display images from
handheld devices onto any surface and thus escape the shackles of
small screen viewing. They can even be used to screen a virtual
keyboard to eliminate the need to use tiny input devices.
All these bells and whistles will mean little without improvements
in battery life - though built in solar device chargers that are
being introduced in Korea and Japan could help this issue immensely.
But there's one vital tech device that will always be around, Levy
points out. Caffeine may be the lifeblood of the tech, but no-one
will ever be able to build an espresso machine into an iPhone.
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