People are up in arms over the new developers terms that effectively are going to shut Adobe Flash developers out of the iPhone.

There are accusations flying and terms that aren’t making a lot of sense regarding how Apple operates, and let’s just cut to them.

Apple designs a complete ecosystem, hardware and software. No one complains about the closed ecosystems for gaming platforms such as the Wii, Xbox or PS3. And they are unarguably very successful.

The real question you might ask yourself is who is Apple’s customer for mobile devices. Is it Adobe? Microsoft? Google?

It’s the end user, and quiet honestly, the end user has pretty simple needs. How often have I heard a person riddicule the iPhone or smartphones saying, all I want to do is make a phone call! Simplicity!

Apple got it with the simple apps that come with the phone.

Flash support means that Apple will have to support another technology on it’s phone and ensure it is stable and doesn’t interfere with the product. According to Apple, it drains battery life significantly faster.

But what about…

What about what? Apple makes both the hardware and software. They don’t license it to anyone. For 1 full year the idea of an App was foreign unless you jailbroke your phone. One page of Apps was it. People still bought the phone. No one complained that it didn’t have Java Apps or lots of other stuff.

Why? Because there was no expectation.

Oh yes, I’m a fan of Apple. But I also offer criticism when that’s due too.

Personally I believe that the flash/CS5 deal has more to do with Adobe’s lack of OS X support for 64 bit with Photoshop, which may have moved Mac Sales to Windows PCs.

Who bit whose hand first? Huh?

Of course you can’t write terms of service that say, if you use flash, it won’t be supported, now can ya, so they made it generic.

I think that the people who have more room to criticize are Independent Musicians who use iTMS to sell their music.

But atleast music has gone DRM free.

If you don’t like the Apple mobile experience, there are plenty of other well established competitors, Blackberry, Android, Palm, Windows7 mobile. Just to name a few, not to mention all those feature phones out there.

Criticism is good, but let’s not call it a monopoly.

What do I want to see?  Well it’s pretty obvious:

1. Multitasking.  I don’t want to exit Pandora because I want to check some email… Jeeze!  I think we should at least be able to have 2 or 3 apps run simultaneously.  I can understand if there is a limit.


2. Better App Navigation.  For those who only have 30 Apps, well, this doesn’t apply to you.  For those of you and you know who I’m talking about; you are laughing and crying with 11 pages… you need much much more.  But you know, the pages thing kinda sucks, I’d rather have a most frequently used page, and be able to navigate using some sort of hierarchal method.


3. Printing.  Yeah, it would be WiFi based, but with a home network, wouldn’t it be great if it could find a printer and send the job out, especially for the iPad.


4. Better integration of Mobile Me, so when a family of people who all have their own accounts want to share music or Apps, they don’t have to just have one account and sync multiple devices, rather that App or music (DRM) is considered purchase for all of the account holders under that family plan.

I don’t think I’m asking for too much.  I think we’ll see at least one of those things, but I won’t hold my breathe.  Let me know what you think.  The announcement can’t come too soon, huh!

Well, the biggest hurdle that all SmartPhones have to really overcome is Price.  These are not devices that are going to get into the hands of cost conscious consumers in this economy.  While i’m not a bean counter for Google, and don’t know the big strategy there, but I’ll throw a real stab at what I believe could win the day.

• PRICE, PRICE, PRICE. $50 unlimited Service Plan on a Google phone, this would be the really killer phone.  Make the phone cost $99 or $199.  People will pay it and see value for that.  The key here is that Google needs people to not only be on their OS (android) but on their Hardware/Software.


• The Google Philosophy. The idea is that if you buy into something like this, then you also agree that Google can use lots of data (in an aggregated sense) to create marketing strategies for better future product placement.  This in itself is a revenue source and a vital way to understand the Google User Base.


• It’s a Platform. Second more units sold means more people are going to develop Applications for that App Store.  Apple is seeing a great revenue stream there, and Google could do the same thing if it wants to without stifling innovation.

I own an iPhone, and I love it.  But I’m also a fan of Google’s products and innovations.  Competition is good for everyone, especially dedicated iPhone owners. Without something dynamic and different, it could just become another homogenized Android phone and a blip on the Radar.

Software Applications
1.  Bar-Code Reader (Like Delicious Library)
2.  Voice Recorder – PODCAST on the road
3.  Video Recorder – Video PODCAST on the road
4.  WiFi Finder
5.  Bluetooth Finder
6.  Play Music/Video wirelessly streamed to the iPhone.
7.  JAVA Apps
8.  Games
9.  Transfer non-DRM files between other iPhones and Mac/PCs
10.  Anti-theft protection (emails you automatically if the device is picked up and turned on)
11.  Emulate Palm OS (with ease)
12.  Run/view Office products (Gasp!)
13.  Financial planner
14.  Credit-Card/Checking Alert (Every time your card is used, get notified).

Hardware Add-ons

15.    GPS Interface
16.    Point of Sale Credit card System
17.    Driver License verification
18.     (check ages at a bar)
19.     (pull up police record data for law enforcement)
20.    Game controller
21.    Hands Free Carphone
22.    Bluetooth Keyboard Use
23.    Memory expansion unit
24.    Biometric verification (finger print scanner/reader)
25.    Automobile troubleshooting device/interface . (Diagnostic tool to Read/Scan Car Computers)
   
Widgets

26. Netflix Que
27. Cheap Gas
28. Book hotels/flights/cars
29. Trade stocks
 
Possible undisclosed features
30. Printing (Via WiFi/Bluetooth)
31. Filesharing
32. System partitioning/use as a boot device.