and then read the review from Techcrunch. I am inclined to say that the company behind this piece of software is going to be big in the very near future

If you take a look at the Apple hardware line you realize that except for the Apple TV and maybe the Iphone, is very difficult to improve hardware wise the products that are already there. Think about it. How would you change the latest notebooks? Maybe replacing the LCD with OLED? Maybe replacing the battery with some fuel cell battery? I thought about it for the week and came with no other improving options. The same can be said about IMac, Mac mini, MacPro or the Apple Monitors (it’s obvious that the old 30″ will be replaced sooner or later with an LCD based on the technology from the 24″ monitor just released). For all these (let’s say the MAC division) there are going to be evolutionary hardware changes but I do not think is going to be something revolutionary in the next few years. (I know that making a prediction like that in this industry could be seen as coming from a crazy non educated person )

Also it’s clear that IPhone is also almost perfect hardware wise, but here because the technology is still evolving rapidly we could get revolutionary things in the next year or so.

I am sure that the next differentiator for Apple is going to be software based and most probably we will see the first steps in the Snow Leopard release. If you are agreeing with me so far let’s speculate further.

Without new products (not evolutionary but revolutionary) some time in the next 24 months Apple won’t be able to grow anymore. And I am almost sure that the income coming from the Itunes and the Iphone app store won’t be able to compensate. When you have your vision completed (in this case Steve’s vision) is very easy to get bored and work becoming less fun that it used to be. Combine these 2 reasons with Steve’s age and most probably these are the combined reasons which are making Steve thinking about leaving Apple.

The alternative scenario is that Apple is going to be able to open new markets and I am not talking now about a tablet mac or an ebook reader. I hope to get something totally new maybe something related to domestic robots. I am sure that if the job is interesting enough, Steve will stay at Apple forever. It will step down from the CEO position but for sure is still going to be involved in the product design.

• If you want to see how Iphone SDK compares with the rest of the mobile platforms SDK you should check this chart from Engadget
• Adobe is on the loosing side because flash and Air won’t be on the iphone. Adobe can try to add them using the SDK, but nobody is going to use that additional layer. There is no killer app for Flash or Air for the Iphone. Also on a side note is worth to mention that Silverlight 2.0 from Microsoft is providing support for offline apps.
• Google really has to improve Android and some how talk the developers into using their SDK instead of Apple’s.
• Nintendo and other mobile console makers will be on the loosing side also because is so much better having only one device in your pocket.
• I wonder if other video codecs will be available on the Iphone. Most probably Apple will find a reason not to allow Xvid or WMV to run on the Iphone.
• Probably Iphone was rushed to the market, and they didn’t had time to actually make their software really stable and create an SDK. This was probably the main reason you get access to native apps only 1 year later.
• Probably if Apple is going to add HDSPA and GPS to Iphone in june, is going to be the best device ever. Also it needs bluetooth and some accesories like video googles.
• Scott Forstall, the guy who did the SDK presentation has a very similar style of talking and acting on stage with Steve Jobs. Not sure if the similarities goes further than this, but if Iphone is going to be huge, this guy could be the next in line for the CEO position. It seems to me that Scott has the same attention to details in relation to the interface like Steve does.
• Not sure how Apple will address the fact that they sell Ipod Touch in almost all the countries in the world, but you do have acces to Itunes store only in around 20 countries. How I will get apps for an Ipod Touch sold in Romania for that matter?
• Apple will have a problem with the Ipod Touch. By switching the focus from Iphone being the best ipod ever to Iphone being the killer PDA phone, Apple created for them a problem. Nobody will buy Ipod touch for getting apps that are really useful only when you have acces to the network. Probably Ipod Touch will get a bigger screen and evolve into an ebook reader, but again this is just educated guessing. Will see what’s happening in june at the developers conference.
• Didn’t see in the demo if you can actually edit your calendar apointments when you get them from the Exchange server. I hope you have full functionality and not read only.
• By getting so many apps running on the Iphone, the battery will become a much more important issue. Most probably with the update in June, if any, Apple will provide a user replaceable battery.