The iPhone OS and the rest...

Every once in a while I come across a discussion about smartphones. There is a fellow saying that he prefers Nokia model A while another is arguing that Blackberry model B is much better. Every time I run across this scenario, my thoughts are the same: "these fellows haven't got it yet".

For me, an extra feature here, or an extra button there, doesn't come close to having a real, live hand-sized computer in the shape of a phone. That is what an iPhone is.

Now, Google is going in the right direction in trying to build a mobile platform with Android, but by not making the phones themselves, they fall into the same pit as Microsoft with Windows Mobile. They loose control of the end-user experience. Nokia, in this respect, is much better positioned now that it controls both development of the software platform and the hardware.

With the iPhone OS, a specialized version of the same OS X that runs on the Macs, Apple has scored a hit as few have in the techonolgy industry in the past. There can be little doubt that the iPhone OS running now in million of iPhones and iPod Touches in the world, have established a thriving user, software and accessories ecosystem.

The speed with which developers rushed to build iPhone applications is telling of the fascination these nifty little devices exert on people. I have been a user of handheld devices in the past. For many years you wouldn't catch me going out without my faithful Dell Axim, which succeded two Palm handhelds. Today, I use an iPod to do all the things I used to do with my Windows Mobile device, in a much easier, faster and more elegant way, and to do a whole lot more.

The technological lead that Apple has over all its competitors isn't just associated with having a great hardware device. Quite the contrary! The technology that distances the iPhone from all its competitors is the iPhone OS and all that it inherits directly from OS X.