Your iPhone is simply a new interface

I have been thinking about this for a while now, but it took Mick’s Mobile Killed The Desktop Star post to remind me to write it down. The correct answer is “derrr Mick, of course!”

When the iPhone had just launched and everyone was asking my opinion I suggested that they think of it as a “mini-laptop” instead of a “mobile phone”. When you watch someone using it you know why – Phone and SMS and Calendar are just 3 applications of the 15 that I use on a regular basis.

iphone-vnc Your iPhone is simply a new interface

When you are carrying all of this media with you – music, video, games, blogs, documents, spreadsheets.. you do start to wonder if you need a laptop as well. When I have been traveling recently I often take the iPhone and leave the laptop at home, and I don’t miss it at all. I can do 80% of the things that I want to, and the other 20% can wait until I get back.

When you combine all of these data formats with the web you now have a very practical platform. I don’t need to carry my music with me because I have the Last.fm app and can stream anything. I can watch YouTube videos in the YouTube app. I can edit documents with Google Apps. I can read blogs with the RSS readers. The device itself doesn’t actually have to store any of this media as long as it has the network connections to get it from the web. I can browse the real web in Safari. 

This all means that at the end of the day the iPhone is simply a new interface. It can get content from the network but it can also share that content on the network. 

Soon there will be connectors publicly available to plug the iPhone into an external display, such as a computer screen or a TV. When your apps are using these screens for display the iPhone can turn into a touchpad interface for input. You might be typing into a keyboard on the iPhone and seeing a document on the screen. You might be playing a game on the iPhone with all the action happening on the TV. You might be using the iPhone as a remote control (which you can already do) for your stereo.

Forget tablets, forget netbooks, forget all that. Your iPhone is simply a new interface. A good one!

By Ross Hill - March 25th, 2009 at 10:08pm with 1,354 views -

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  • iPhone is just this and you've nailed it Ross. I took it to a meeting, and had internet, twitter, notes, could research the presenter in real time. All this in my front pocket.

    I find my iPhone frees me from the PC. When my work day is done, I can relax on the sofa and tweet on the thing. When my day starts, I can check priority email before my boys get up.

    I can be productive without having to carry 3 kilos of tech + it's necessary appendages and built in typewriter. It's good.

    Sam.
    @samotage
  • This reminds me of the presentation Kevin Kelly made about the first 5000 days of the internet at TED.

    http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_...

    In it, he discusses how we are progressing towards a place where you simply carry around 'screens' that access the network could(internet)to get your stuff done. He talks about how TV's, phones, computers and other things will simply become windows into this cloud.
  • OK - stimulated by Ross's blog and my comments about Connected Computing, here is my own blog post. Love to get your thoughts! :-)

    http://robjam.es/2009/03/connected-computing-ho...
  • I have an Asus R2h and a Hp Mini Note and my nokia n95-8gb... and I live on my phone... and I live on my net books as well.

    One of the main reasons is weight.. I can take a netbook with me... and do all my basic file and image processing from my nikon d90 with a netbook that a phone can't do. I like the size of the screen and the keyboard on the mininote makes it easy to use.

    The R2H spends a lot of time in my car as a 7" screen gps with full topo maps of australia... which are over a dvd worth for each state at xmas I travelled to 3 states.. a phone can't store that much data.

    If I go to a conf I like to be able to take notes and a netbook will let me do that by having it sit on my lap and still I can carry it around all day as well. Another use is when I go out taking photos.. I take a netbook (not much weight) and a 320gig USB hd as a back up device. That way I only need 2 $60 class6 Sd cards :-)

    When I get home I access the big computer like the 2x24" monitors that I have are great for detailed photo editing...

    I think netbooks have a great place, as does my phone as does my big computer.. they all have a purpose and all get used :-)
  • Anthony, I was just chatting to Ross about exactly the same thing! I have an iPhone and a Macbook. About 8 weeks ago, I purchased a Dell Mini 9 netbook. It has been turned on all of 6 times and now I am looking at selling it. In fact the most use I got out of it was installing Mac OS X (ie/ hackintosh) about 3 weeks ago. I just don't have a need for it. As Ross, pointed out, when I am out and about I use the iPhone and can achieve most things, the rest can wait when I have the macbook in front of me. This is why I highlight the network connectivity issue, lose that, and all three are almost useless (I still keep some files locally on the macbook, but I do use a lot of cloud storage these days).

    Katherine, I just had a look at the article you referred to. I don't think it is a new concept that I am talking about (connected computing), we are just getting more attached it;remote storage (DropBox), remote backup (mozy), remote email (gmail), remote documents (Google Apps) etc etc. What I am interested in how we got here, how it evolved here, and most importantly - where is it going? I feel I have a blog post on this coming soon :-) watch this space!!
  • @Rob James - There's a similar concept in Wired's March issue (http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/...). The device is not the most important thing, it's the network connection that's the most valued commodity. Interesting concept.
  • Don't do it Anthony! You don't need one! Another shiny gadge will appear soon enough.. save yourself some cash and get the new iPod Shuffle :)
  • I have been trying to justify the purchase of a netbook for the last couple months... connectivity iphone, portability iphone, having a new gadge or charging my iphone is all I can come up with.
  • Great post Ross, you actually touched on something that I have been talking about for some time, the concept of connected computing. More and more, we are becoming less reliant on our devices, and more on the network. Which is exactly what makes this post so true for the iPhone. Once we lose that network, the device becomes less useful. In fact, that is true for any device. If you end up somewhere with your laptop that has no connectivity, it suddenly becomes a brick. This was so true last year, I was speaking at the Enterprise 2.0 show in Boston, and to prove my point, the afternoon had no wireless, and being inside meant a poor mobile signal. And for the first time, everyone in the auditorium had their laptops closed and were listening. Otherwise they would have been twittering, blogging, emailing etc. We have become reliant on our network more than the devices. Follow me on twitter @snaglepus
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