Apple’s Grand Plan for the iPhone
From Financial Times
Steve Jobs and two of his top lieutenants spent just over an hour last week outlining their plans to allow software makers to create programs custom-built to run on the iPhone, Apple’s innovative mobile handset.
The move could mark the beginning of a new phase in the development of mobile software, as programmers build programs that are not limited by the physical constraints – such as fixed buttons and small screens – that plague many other mobile handsets.
The iPhone’s break-through touch screen means that Apple’s mobile handset is a virtual blank slate, and the ability to write mobile software free from the usual constraints is likely to have software geeks salivating.
“You’ve got the ultimate in flexibility in user interface,” says Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner.
“That, combined with a big, high resolution screen, makes it an intriguing platform in the mobile space.”
John Doerr, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, underscored the excitement around the iPhone’s potential to emerge as a powerful new software platform on Thursday.
Read more at Financial Times