iPhone OS 4.0 Live Event is one of the most anticipated event for many people. As usual, in Singapore, it is in the wee hours (1 am) but many technology bloggers are staying up late to ensure that they do not miss anything. So, what is installed for us with iPhone OS 4.0? Good news for iPhone 3Gs / iPod Touch 3rd Gen owners, not so good news for iPhone 3G / iPod Touch 2nd Gen owners and bad news for iPhone owners. Read on.
Report Card
Ok, before going into the OS 4.0, Steve Jobs has this habit of reporting success.
- 450,000 iPad sold as of today (8th April)
- 185,000 apps in Apps store (of which 3,500 of them are for iPad)
- 600,000 iBooks downloaded
- 4 billion apps download
and of course, a happy customer with iPad.
Now, he talks about Market Share. Did he purposely left out Microsoft Windows Phone/Windows Mobile?
iPhone OS 4.0 Features
According to Steve, there are over 100 new features. Today’s event is Developers’ preview day. With that many features, he broke it down to 7 Tentpole features.
- Multi-tasking
- Folder
- Enhanced mail
- iBooks
- Enterprise
- Game Center
- iAD
Features Breakdown
(1) Multi-tasking
Finally, Multi-task arrives on iPhone. However, Apple realizes that multi-task drains up battery if many are running in the background. For Apple, they do it smart (and they mentioned that that is why they took so long to implement).
Steve demoed it by running a few apps (simulated, of course).
Double click on Home Button will bring up a dock. The dock displays the apps running. The smart thing about this multi-task feature is that it stops the app when you “jump” to the next one. That, I believe, is the main reason that it can maintain battery life.
That is NOT it for Multi-tasking. Apple explains more on it by introducing 7 API services. These services are the backbone of iPhone multi-tasking.
Background Audio:
Apple chooses Pandora to demonstrate background music while running other apps.
Voice over IP:
Apple uses Skype as an example that iPhone can run Skype in background and receive calls while using other apps. Apple also shows GPS software (Tom Tom in this case) to demonstrate turn-by-turn voice navigation when app is running in background.
Background location:
Very sensitive issue. Apple is showing cell Towers that can identify users’ location and has ensure that users are aware that apps are using location based services and they can be turned off easily with indicator. See the arrow below?
Push Notification:
Apple reported 10 billion push notifications in 9 months! And in iPhone OS 4.0, it will be part of the Multi-tasking feature.
Local Notification:
Now on iPhone OS 4.0, Apple is allowing 3rd Party Server to push notification to users, as shown in the diagram below.
Task completion:
Apps that requires time to complete (like uploading a picture) can now work in background. Users will be notified once action is completed.
Fast App Switching:
It stops the app in the state that the user left. Users can return later from where they left off earlier, without missing a thing.
That is it for Multi-tasking feature.
(2) Folder
In iPhone OS 4.0, you can group apps in one folder. The OS will automatically name the folder based on the apps usage. Users can also choose to rename it anytime. A simple picture to illustrate this point.
(3) Enhanced Mail
In short, multiple mail accounts can be created on iPhone OS 4.0. That means you can have more than 1 Exchange account. And one smart function is the threaded function. You can read all mail accounts in a single thread. If you don’t like it, you can use the fast inbox switching function.
(4) iBooks
This needs no introduction. The same thing that iPad iBooks has, iPhone OS 4.0 will have.
(5) Enterprise
This is about using iPhone in companies. Apple has a bad start in this when they first introduces iPhone. Now, with iPhone OS 4.0, they have enhanced data protection, Mobile Device Management, Wireless app Distribution, Multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange Server 2010 and SSL VPN Support. These are just what the Corporates need. Good!
(6) Game Center
iPhone has always been labeled as a gaming console. So, this feature is expected. With so many games on app store, Apple recognizes that some games are made popular by other users. In this Game Center, it helps you to find out what your friends are playing and you can invite friends to play the same game. Talk about marketing strategy. Apple is always good with it.
Some stats.
Summary of Game Center
(7) iAD
My guess is that this is the biggest agenda in today’s iPhone OS 4.0 event. Recently, Apple has struggled with Google to buy over AdMob and Apple failed. However, they decided to get a smaller company, Quattro.
What is significant is that Apple is finally stepping into mobile advertising and the features that it presented is something that many would not have imagine. This again, is the strength of Apple.
So, what do we have in iAD?
Apple uses Emotion + Interactivity graph to describe about Mobile Advertising.
“So that’s what iAd is all about. It’s about motion plus interactivity. The ads keep you in your app. Today when you click on a banner ad, it yanks you out of your app and throws you onto the advertisers web page. So people don’t click on the ads.”
Steve mentions that people don’t do search on mobile platform. Most people run apps on mobile phone and that is where the advertising opportunities arrive.
For iPhone 4.0 OS, ads will show on app. However, the biggest difference is that the ad will not throw you to some webpages. Instead, it is built within the app and they can become super interactive. Steve demoed some ads like Toy Story 3, Nike and Target.
In the Toy Story ad, you can play video, save wall paper, play game (and even buy the game), check out nearby theatres.
In the Nike ad, you can actually view videos of Air Jordan and its history.
You can also download the Nike apps from this advert.
These ads are really mind-blowing. In fact, they looked just like an app. And you will forget that you are actually watching an advertisement. How clever.
So, what is in for developers of the ads? 60% revenue goes to developers and the rest to Apple.
And that is it for the seventh and last tentpole of features for iPhone OS 4.0
Availability
Some good and bad news. Good news for iPhone 3Gs / iPod Touch 3rd Gen users as it will be will be available to them in Summer 2010. iPhone 3G users / iPod Touch 2nd Gen users will also have it but with NO MULTI-TASKING. For the first Generation iPhone users, you are not getting it.
iPad users will also get it. But you will need to wait a little while.
Thanks to Engadget, Cnet, Gizmodo, Gdgt for doing these Live Blogging events. Without them, we (as in other part of the World) would have to wait a while to get to know these first hand news.
Here are some Live Blogging Event Sites that you might want to head over to see if I missed out anything. Remember to check out the Q&A session which I leave out (I think it is boring).
Engadget
Gizmodo
Gdgt
Cnet
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