by Frank McPherson, author of How To Do Everything With Windows Mobile

 
I am sure that I am no different from most Windows Mobile users in that I read about the latest iPhone news with interest. At the end of the day I think the biggest part of the announcement was the price: a $199 iPhone is very compelling. The two things that most caught my eye is the news that Apple and AT&T have redone their deal and MobileMe. (I wonder how much Apple payed for me.com?)

The big deal to me about re-doing the deal is that Apple is no longer receiving a cut on the phone services side. This allows AT&T to keep all the revenue for their part and to subsidize the device, which is probably a key enabler for the $199 price point. Why I think this is important is that it means Apple's only revenues on the iPhone will come from selling the hardware and software, so it will be in their interest to get the device into as many distribution channels as possible. I wonder if Apple's exclusivity deal with AT&T prevents it from selling a SIM unlocked version?

MobileMe is interesting to me primarily because it represents something that I believe Microsoft should already be providing with Windows Mobile. Mobile Phones are becoming primary data stores meaning that users will much prefer over the air synchronization of data rather than having to tether their devices. All of the pieces to enable this for Windows Mobile have been available for years with Exchange ActiveSync. IMHO Microsoft should have partnered with one of the hosted Exchange providers to include a year's worth of Hosted Exchange for free with every new device. Microsoft could still do this to counter MobileMe, though it needs to add file synchronization. Perhaps Live Mesh will provide something like MobileMe, but I am not holding my breath until it is available.

Labels: 2008, devices

posted by Frank at 7:09 PM

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