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Technology Trends
Dialing Up the Future for iPhones on Campus
2/1/2007
DOMINICK: We have focused our own internal work on the Windows Mobile platform, because we can develop for that platform—we can write software for it, and we can modify the behavior of the device. So our work has been primarily in Windows Mobile. However I think the way that the iPhone has been hyped and the way this product is going to be launched, we’re going to have to address it, period.
The questions we have at this point are: Can we develop software for this Apple device? Or, will it be a completely closed device, where we are in essence dependent on Apple—given their digital rights management or their interface for the device—to put materials on it? That could be a limiting factor.
Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone at Macworld(Photo by Mary Grush)
CT: Are there any other technical drawbacks to the iPhone you can spot right now, even before seeing a copy? —For example, the choice of cellular technology.
DOMINICK: The iPhone does look like it has a very sophisticated Web browser on it, and just as a browsing device, it could be quite useful. However, since it doesn’t support the newer communication technologies—supposedly it just supports 3G—the data rates are going to be limited. It also does not appear to support a native GPS either, and location aware services are very interesting to us.
CT: And would a phone that incorporates VoIP be more interesting to you?
DOMINICK: It might be. Certainly that’s where we’ve been looking. But Apple is sort of the 800-pound gorilla in the personal device space right now. So, we are probably going to have to be more responsive to where that market goes, than not.
CT: How will you adjust your programs, then, to the technology directions in the market?
DOMINICK: We are already trying to figure out how to deal with iPods, just in general—podcasting, music services for them, that sort of thing. And now, the iPhones will have WiFi connections as well as cellular connections. They’re going to start showing up on campus with people who are ready to use them regardless of what our strategy is, I think.
We’re still interested in the VoIP phones. But if Apple comes out with a user interface for the iPhone that’s anywhere near what they did for the user interface for MP3 players, then that’s going to change the phone business like the iPod changed the MP3 player business. And they have done a great job with user interface in the past.
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