Another Idea Down the Drain

Well, there you have it - right there in the agreement for the iPhone developer program: You can't drive a cruise missile via an iPhone application. There goes my fancy new government contract. From the agreement itself:

Applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes.

Doesn't that suck? Just what exactly are we to do with our iPhones* if we can't blow something up?


*I don't own an iPhone and plan to only if I develop something really cool that needs testing.

Changed My Mind About iPod Touch

I saw an ad on Gmail from Amazon, pushing the iPod Touch at a discount. 9% off the 32GB, bringing it down to $460 or so. I wanted to look at it again, so I went to the Apple store and watched the videos. Some of the features are great, but they're just not worth $460. For instance, any PDA these days can play music and videos, and most of them in that price range are equipped with Bluetooth. The iPhone with a contract has Internet access everywhere. Not so with the iPod.

No Bluetooth, WiFi only, no GPS (seriously, how hard would that be?), no replaceable battery, and it's $500. It just doesn't make sense. I'm going to wait for a multi-touch enabled Open Handset sporting Android. From the emulator that comes with the SDK, I expect to have everything that could possibly be crammed into a handheld device at my disposal. Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, GPS, accelerometer, multi-touch, and possibly a keyboard. All on an open platform for which the API is very open. Sure, I won't have 32GB of storage, but I will be able to use any wireless carrier, use Bluetooth headphones, and write an application that does whatever I want it to, without anyone stopping me.

The iPhone Didn't Do It for Me

I'm surprised at Apple. Usually when something really groundbreaking comes out, the price of the item I've had my eye on drops into my range. In my case, it's been the 32GB iPod Touch for several months. I was glad to hear about the iPhone 3G, and even happier that the price of that was $199.* Almost two weeks later, the 32GB iPod is still $499. Why?

Is it that the price of the new iPhone is so low that Apple can't reduce the price of the iPod? Are there so many people dropping $500 bills on the biggest Touch that they don't worry about lowering that number?

Or is it just that the iPhone 3G is not that groundbreaking? I have a few reasons that might be the case:

1. Hundreds of thousands of people already have the pokey iPhone, and it's good enough for e-mail, so why change?
2. Solutions were built to make the first iPhone work for their business, so there really is no need to update to a new device that supports MS Exchange natively. It would make the recent infrastructure change a big waste of money.
   
3. They are late adopters, and only six months into the first two-year contract on the old iPhone. They simply can't afford to upgrade to a new device.
4. It wasn't impressive enough the first time to waste money on it again.
5. We're all waiting for Android on Open Handsets.
   

In any case, I'm still not buying the Touch until the price goes down. It will only take time, or the release of a 64GB or 128GB Touch. Fine with me. As soon as it hits $300 for the 32GB, I'm in. But I'm definitely not buying an iPhone.

*Price is $199 with a 2-year contract with AT&T wireless, the very worst wireless carrier in terms of customer service. Good luck if you think the $199 tag is worth it.