iPhone 3.0

Yesterday evening  (5pm GMT) Apple held their big press conference to announce the next version of the software that runs the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Like some sad Apple groupie I was following the gdgt live text feed from the event. So sitting at a pc (yes not a Mac, I was at my aunts for the evening) for the duration of the event. As the presentation progressed I got more and more excited at was appearing on the screen.

I'm not going to go into much detail about what was announced, that is getting some excellent coverage elsewhere.

The software on the iPhone was good, there were one or two features folks wanted, but it was the best on the market by a long way. Add on to that the amazing amount of applications you can get for the iPhone and none of the competition was getting close to the iPhone.

Now it is over two years since the iPhone came out. In that time we have seen two interactions of the hardware, and now the third version of the operating system.

In the same time the competition has tried to catch up and compete with the iPhone. Which frankly I don't think they have done. Market leaders Nokia have had two years to come up with a smartphone to compete and their effort announced at a Nokia world event last year will only have just made it to market by the Summer. It was already looking like it was an also ran then, but even more so now.

BlackBerry bought out an "iPhone killer" last year that promised much, but just didn't deliver. Google released the G1 to much acclaim, and is still in my opinion at the moment the main competition to the iPhone. But the G1 has been hampered by poor battery life. Which has been due to the fact it can run apps in the background, and these apps cause the battery to run down even faster. Which I think is the reason why Apple said they wouldn't allow it. Somehow ironic I think that the phone aimed at beating the iPhone proves Apples point.

I will briefly mention that fact Microsoft with Windows Mobile are being left behind. They are still talking about their next release of the operating system, which is still about a year away. It will have to be something something very very special to move folks away from the iPhone, and to compete with everyone else. I think the next release will be more evolution than revolution, and may well be the last version we see of this OS.

Finally we have what could be a true "iPhone killer" coming to market very soon, the Palm Pre. The Palm Pre is the last roll of the dice from Palm to save the company. Which looks like a very good last roll as well. The Pre was worked on by some ex-Apple iPhone guys, which as we know from using the iPhone they know a thing or two about smartphones.

The Pre is bad news for Nokia, as it makes their poor effort look even worse. I still can't believe that Nokia have got it so wrong after taking so long to come up with that phone. The Pre was good news for iPhone users. It is (or could be) the first competitor to get close to the iPhone. Competition is good.

I think it is with one eye on the Pre that Apple released version 3 of the iPhone OS yesterday. The best just got even better. The bar has been raised again, and it will be interesting to see how the competition reacts.

In the meantime I am getting excited about all the 100 new features added for users. But also about the new apps that third parties will be developing that will come out making use of the new 1000 API's they can use.

This Summer it's going to be great playing with these new apps and features, I can't wait.