iPhone
I was really excited to see Steve Jobs present the new apple phone where he demonstrated the Google Maps application. The possibilities swirled in my mind. Then reality. First, the google map app showed a graphic of maps with push pins, and I have been meaning to introduce a push pin graphic into RUNNINGMAP for a while but just didn’t get to it. Now, if I do it, it will look like I am just copying them. Sigh. The phone has a full blown browser which means it can show RUNNINGMAP! Ah, no Flash Player. (that will come). It does not matter, it runs OSX! We can release a desktop version that runs RUNNINGMAP. Nope, Apple is not allowing 3rd party applications to run on this thing. They are locking it down! Which I’m sure is necessary since it has WiFI and Cingular (their cellular partner) would not want skype clients running on this thing. OKAY so at lease people can collect gps lat/lon while carrying this thing. No GPS (this will be added I predict). And lastly, it is expensive! $499 to $599 USD plus you have to sign up for a 2 year cingular contract and some probably ungodly per month fee. Steve Jobs wants to capture 1% of the market by the end of 2008 (massive market bw) but this will be tough. In the end this phone will have little market penetration so ultimately not an important vehicle for RUNNINGMAP at this time.
For myself, I just want a phone that will sync cleanly with my Mac address book. I pay $10/month for my Telus pay-and-talk plan. I really really liked the Newton when it first came out, but it was a thousand bucks! I eventually bought one used for $150. I suspect I will pass on the iPhone until they come out with iPhone nano that I can use on a pay-and-talk account.
