iPhone Launch Day

You would have to be under a seriously large rock to miss all of the buzz and hype about the iPhone which will be released today at 6 pm. The initial reviews are in and are pretty positive. It looks like it will sell like gangbusters, despite some of its downsides (price, slow data access, lack of integration into Exchange or Blackberry networks, etc.).

In Jobsian fashion I will make the statement that this will change everything (at least in the cell phone industry). Unless the phone completely tanks every cell phone manufacturer and carrier will be madly trying to come up with their 'iPhone-killer' phones to rival the iPhone/AT&T combo. Some will have physical keyboards for faster typing, cheaper, and faster, but all of them will be including full browsers instead of the clunky, unusable browsers in almost all phones today. The iPhone effects of the cell phone industry will be felt for many years to come.

Beyond the slick, cool design and interface and a music player that people actually want, it is really the integration of the internet into every aspect of the phone that really changes everything. First is a full browser that pretty much works like a real browser. Normally cell phone browsers are tacked onto the phone and virtually unusable. They bear very little resemblance to the browsers we use on our computers. As a web developer I absolutely hate these browsers as there are seemingly hundreds of them all with major quicks and issues. Dealing with the differences between Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari is trivial compared with the multitude of web phone browsers. A full browser restores sanity to the experience for users and developers.

Furthermore, Apple's 'widgets' to make it easy to get to the Internet information you actually want and use all of the time, like weather, stock quotes, maps, and email rather than having to dig through dozens of menus. I anticipate that both Apple and other cell phone manufacturers will push Internet integration deeper and deeper into their phones.

So what should businesses do about it? Your IT department will need to decide how much to support the iPhone, just as they must decide on how much to support Blackberries, Treos, and the like. Also make sure that you are testing your websites in Safari as well as Internet Explorer and Firefox so the display properly on the iPhone. Then keep an eye on the effects on the industry and how it affects your mobile website strategy.

And lastly go see one in an Apple store and try it out to see what all the hype is about.