Julian Cooling: The iPhone 2.0 - platform as a service?

SMS Text News reader Julian sent me this thoughtful viewpoint on the iPhone and platform-as-a-service. Have a read…

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I am blown away by the vision of the platform. People keep harping on about ‘software as service’ and ‘the cloud’. The network operators want to be service providers, Nokia is trying everything to be a service provider. HP has just bought EDS for a large number of billions to be a service’s company. The magic about the Apple iPhone2? I will give you a hint. It’s not about the hardware or the ticket price.

I was sitting following the keynote listening to the well informed tech heads around me complaining that the keynote is the strategic statement for the next 12 months and that Jobs was wasting precious minutes of his 2 hours. He was talking about software deployment, types of applications, easy distribution deals. Where were the toys? One person had the Apple stock traker up to watch the worm heading down. I agreed that it was a keynote, but I don’t think Jobs wasted a minute.

What Jobs was announcing to a developer conference is something that Microsoft hasn’t begun to do with Windows Mobile and Nokia’s Ovi is fumbling in bandname darkness. Jobs has monitorised the developer community so that they win and the mobile user wins. Yes its a toll gate but most people only buy their software through a single shop and a trusted brand anyway. It is a platform that gives the full experience of the open network, with the single proviso that you place a dollar in the hand at the gate going in and going out.

Apple has is making services money at every link in the chain and they have made the idea of paying for everything attractive and exciting: MobileMe, iTunes for professional content, the software store, the hardware. These are just the cash streams I know about – what a strategic vision for the next 12 months! The new hardware toys, when they arrive will line up like ducks in the pond.

They appear to have lost their slice of the monthly network revenue, but I don’t think they care.

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Nice one Julian — thanks!