Buggy Phone OSes – “New Reality” Or Same Old Same Old?
In the wake of the launch of the Blackberry Storm, Jim Balsilli, CEO of RIM been quoted as saying that smartphones being launched while still riddled with bugs is part of a “new reality”. Well, it’s certainly reality – but it’s hardly new. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any new phone, of any complexity, launched that wasn’t full of bugs, such is the pressure on companies to deliver new products into the market place…
However, while low quality phone OS platforms are hardly unfamiliar, there’s something new happening that is revolutionary. Phone makers are actually having to attempt fix their bugs. The clear leader is Apple with the iPhone. All updates to iPhone are easily accessible to 100% of iPhones around the world. That’s 100%. No exceptions. Regardless of network operator.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of this. What Apple is doing with updates and bug-fixes is the benchmark by which other mobile operators and handset makers will be judged. The standard is clear: all phone OS software updates need to be made trivially and simultaneously available to 100% of phones of any particular model, anywhere in the world. Any handset maker that doesn’t meet this standard should expect to (continue to) lose market share to Apple.
Asam Bashir wrote:
Regardless of network since updates are done through the desktop and iTunes. It is iTunes management and it’s easy to use interface that’s central to iPhone’s success, and iPods before that. The parts do not add up to the whole widget, iTunes is impossible for others to replicate…
Posted 31 Jan 2009 at 6:36 am ¶
simon wrote:
I agree that iTunes “experience” will prove difficult/impossible to replicate; for all sorts of reasons. It never ceases to shock me, though, how few people get this stuff. I sorry to say that I expect that many of the attempts to compete will be embarrassingly bad. That’s a shame because, as Tim Cook says, competition is good…
Posted 31 Jan 2009 at 1:33 pm ¶