Why Apple's iPhone is like a 1981 IBM PC

• Tags:
• Apple,
• Mac OS X,
• Developer,
• IPhone

Rupert Goodwins ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 27 Mar 2008 08:39 GMT

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

...sensible management. Moreover, with thin-client design methodologies, you can cram a very great deal of use into very tiny code stubs. You write code that works within the restrictions.

Perhaps the best arguments against Apple allowing background tasks are that they take up too much airtime, draining the battery, and that there's no way for them to communicate to the user when they need attention. If either of these two things were a given for background tasks, then Apple would have a point. But they're not, and it doesn't.

If the design of the iPhone precludes proper always-on connectivity — which wouldn't be the first time the company has gone for form over function — then have a decent scheduler, which understands the metrics of wireless access and makes intelligent decisions about when to allow what to connect. This does put the onus on application designers to understand the limitations and capabilities of such a channel and to create software accordingly, but then that is their job. Likewise, if there is a limited user interface, then create a common alert mechanism which mediates requests and interactions. There are good ways to do this; it takes cleverness, a feel for usability and a good understanding of design principles. Last time I looked, Apple had some form here.

To some extent, all these arguments are otiose. Background tasks clearly run well on the iPhone; Apple's own software uses them, as do the products of some of its closest friends. OS X is a modern operating system with all the capabilities needed, even in a restricted, real-time environment. Even the most rabid "fanboys" won't argue that background processing will never come. Instead, they say, we must trust Apple and let it deliver what it likes when it likes.

I don't know why Apple hasn't let anyone else have the keys to that particular kingdom. Perhaps it really can't make the technology work properly. Perhaps it wants to limit the amount of work it has to do to approve applications for distribution — after all, if you can't run any background tasks, you never have to worry about unforeseen interactions — and that 30 percent of retail price just won't pay for enough testing. Perhaps it doesn't trust application designers or users very much. Perhaps it wants the best software for itself, where it can limit what it can do in order not to upset its telco friends.

Whatever the reason, it reflects badly on Apple. It's either not as clever as it makes out, greedier than it likes to admit, more hemmed in by its design decisions than it wishes to make apparent or just determined to force its vision on the world regardless of what the world wants. Think different?

But it leaves the company vulnerable to the competition and to a loss of lustre. The iPhone is not an iPod; it's a smartphone connecting to a universe of fast-changing data on behalf of innovation-hungry users. The sooner it stops pretending to be a 1981 IBM PC, the better it will be for everyone.

• 
• 
• 
• 

• Share this article:
• Digg
• Slashdot
• Del.ici.ous
• Stumble
• Reddit

• Most Recent
• Most Popular