Is the iPhone Distracting Apple?
13 03 2008Often times, people request features for the iPhone. What about features found on the iPhone but not the Mac?
With the release of the iPhone firmware version 2.0, Apple has launched a set of enterprise features aimed at companies with mobile cell phones- support for Exchange servers, Cisco IPSec VPN and more. While this may be great for the iPhone, and help gain support from large companies and professionals alike- what about the Mac? If Apple supports these features for the iPhone, why can’t they give native support in OS X?
The initiative from Apple to open up the iPhone to developers and natively support a wide host of enterprise features is welcomed by all, as this is something Apple usually stays away from. In the past, Apple has typically made anyone wishing to use such enterprise features found in the iPhone firmware 2.0 relay on 3rd party developers such as Microsoft or Cisco. Why can’t Mail have Exchange support?! If Apple is going to continue to add features to the iPhone, will the Mac be left in the dark?
There is a long standing rumor that Leopard was delayed because of the June iPhone release date. This wouldn’t be the first time that Apple has neglected the Mac over the iPhone- but with good reason. The iPhone marks a new chapter of Apple, one that is showing a more mature Apple- and could become extremely successful over the coarse of the next few months. All I ask from Apple is- can we have all the iPhone features on the Mac?
RSS 2.0
I think you ask a lot of good questions. Steve Jobs explaining that Leopard’s release was initially delayed due to having moved resources over to the iPhone was troubling, and I think we Mac users initially paid the price. It seems as though Apple knows where their cash cow is, i.e. in the iPhone and iPod brand. We Mac users owe quite a bit of gratitude to the iPod product’s success as it really helped Apple get out of a financial bind IMO. The iPod also acted like a “gateway device” for Windows users looking for an operating system that was less error prone and worked as simple as their iPod. We also can’t forget about the intel transition a few years back and how many resources that had to take. Overall, Apple has done a fantastic job. I think they risk placing so many carrots in the iPhone/iPod line as they really should be pushing Mac sales even more than they have. I’ll stop my long winded rant here. Great write-up!
Thanks for the interesting article. I can tolerate the delays that the iPod/iPhone bring, but they are unfortunate. I think Apple has been doing a pretty good job, I remember the same remarks over the iPod.
I see no reason Apple would allow mail to work with Exchange, I guess we will have to wait and see.
dlodewyk