An Important Thing About iPhone OS 3.0: It’s Not About the Pre

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There’s a story going around that some of what Apple may announce today for the iPhone 3.0 OS will be to counter Palm’s Pre. Kevin Rose mentioned this, and it’s covered in a few places, including right here.

Personally, I think such discussion is Pre-mature.

The Pre was announced little more than two months ago, and it’s unproven. There’s no way Apple would interrupt ongoing development to push new functionality to counter this device. No. Way.

  • First, the Pre is vapor. Why in heaven’s name would Apple begin rushing a new feature into the iPhone (possibly causing more harm than good) solely for the sake of a device that we won’t see for many months? And when it’s finally available it could be a freakin’ disaster for all we know. Until the Pre hits the market with a big splash, it’s no more an “iPhone killer” than the Prada, G1 or Storm were before it.
  • Second, if you think Apple shipped iPhone OS 1.0 with no plans for 2.0, and then shipped 2.0 with no plans for 3.0, you haven’t paid much attention to Apple over the last decade. These guys have an OS (and for that matter, hardware) plan that they’re following, and the announcement of one new device is not going to derail that.
  • Third, developing an OS takes time. Even if they wanted to, just how much do you think Apple could get done in two months (and less than six until it likely ships)? Very little. For example, if background processing is announced for 3.0, are you going to believe it’s because Apple slapped it together in a couple months in a state of panic, or because they were working on it all along? Obviously, it’s the latter.

What I’m trying to say is that if Apple fills “gaps” in the iPhone feature list tomorrow, it’s because they’ve been working on them for a while, not because of any vapor device.

I’m sure this “Apple is worried about the Pre” meme will continue well after the OS announcement today, but I’m not buying it. Frankly, it makes zero sense at this stage in the respective devices’ lives.

Finally, none of this meant to disparage the Pre, which I’m as interested in seeing as anyone. Once it’s on the market for a month or two we’ll see what it really is. But, right now, the idea that Apple is worried enough about it to deviate from what has proven to be a hugely successful smartphone strategy is just silly.

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