iPhone 3G: Software + Hardware + Services
News Commentary. One transforming moment with an iPhone 3G hints of the future platform to come. |
On Sunday night, I was at a friend's house, with about 15 hungry teens in tow. One newly graduated high schooler skipped out for burgers and buns. Another went for soda. Can you say Mountain Dew? I was charged with getting pizza.
I typically order pizza on a computer. It's usually fast and reliable. But I didn't have a PC in my pocket—or did I? The iPhone 3G moved into my hands, and I tapped Safari and entered in "www.pizzah" and a URL suggestion for Pizza Hut popped up. Another tap.
My plan had been to go to the Pizza Hut Web site and from there navigate to the store locator. Instead, I got directed to the Pizza Hut Mobile page, with the three options seen in the pic below. The choices were just what I, or pretty much anyone else going to Pizza Hut, would want on a phone.
Damn, there were no "deals," so I used the store locator. I typed in my buddy's street address and ZIP code, which took me not to the Pizza Hut store locator on the Web but to Google Maps on the iPhone 3G. The second pic shows what I saw on Sunday night (reconstructed this morning). I could have electronically ordered but chose to phone the store, seeing as I was far from home at a friend's house.
It's a Better Platform
Now, how cool is that? While ordering, I recalled the scene from the 1995 movie "The Net," where programmer Angela Bennett orders pizza on her computer. That was beyond bleeding edge 13 years ago. The pizza ordering shows the potential and power of a mobile phone as future platform and PC replacement—yeah, I blogged that last week.
It's the service to software to hardware integration, available where I needed it, that made the pizza ordering experience so easy and, well, exciting. Microsoft harps on and on and on about its software-plus-services strategy. I'm a critic; Microsoft has got it wrong. The next-generation platform will be about software plus hardware plus services.
In my pizza ordering example, the hardware obviously is the cell phone, iPhone 2.0 and Apple apps are the software, and there are multiple services: AT&T's 3G network, Pizza Hut's mobile Web page (sized about right for the iPhone) and Google Maps (as combined software on the device and service in the cloud). The integration among them is surprisingly tight.
On a PC, typing www.pizzahut.com takes the user to a main Pizza Hut page where one link is "Locations." Clicking that link leads to a place to type in street address and ZIP code. From there, the user goes to a MapQuest page with the location of the nearest store. But on an iPhone 3G, I went instead to the resident Google Maps application, not another Web page. That's software plus hardware plus services at work, and nicely implemented, too.
Apple can't take all the credit here. Pizza Hut Mobile is available to pretty much any cell phone with a Web browser. But it's the software-plus-hardware-plus-service integration that lowers the experience level to easy. The successful mobile platform will offer better integration across services people need to regularly use on the go.
Treo Can't Find Pizza Hut
One of the other parents showed up, a couple hours after the pizza was eaten, and we started talking cell phones. Again. Last week, we compared his Palm Treo to the iPhone 3G. As we matched up features, he boasted that his Palm could do as much as my iPhone—albeit more slowly and not as easily. I couldn't resist a repeat performance. I asked him to navigate to www.pizzahut.com. He couldn't get to either the normal or mobile Web page. "Why don't you try it?"—and he handed me the Treo. I got to an XML error notice and no further. There would be no pizza orders or any store locations coming from his phone.
Apparently, the pizza demo had a huge impact on this other friend. Last night he called to talk iPhone 3G. His Verizon contract expired a few weeks back, so he can switch carriers without penalty. He asked about features, AT&T pricing and MobileMe. He was particularly interested in MobileMe.
My friend is an accountant, with a small business. Right now he pays a Web service provider for Exchange and Web site hosting. But he doesn't use most of the Exchange features, mainly just e-mail. MobileMe's $99 a year pricing would be big savings on what he pays for hosted Exchange, while offering similar enough features and benefits.
A couple other things intrigued my friend: His Verizon data plan is same price as would be the one for an iPhone 3G ($30 a month). AT&T's 3G network allows simultaneous voice and data; he frequently needs to send e-mail to someone he is talking to, something Verizon's network doesn't support.
Will he switch? I expect so, but not right away. Apple phone supplies are short, and he has got to work out the math (Shouldn't be a problem for an accountant, right?) Other family members have to stay with Verizon until contracts expire—and they're staggered over some time. He wants to see when it makes the most sense to switch, given other Verizon service contractual obligations.
Last week, he was loving his Treo. This week, it's a burden, as he contemplates the iPhone 3G. As for the pizza, is that for here or to go?
[Please send your tips or rumors to watchtips at live.com]
Related Posts:
- iPhone 3G: Windows 95, Only Better, Apple Watch, July 14, 2008
- Is This Any Way to Launch a Platform?, Apple Watch, July 14, 2008
- The Minus in Software plus Services, Microsoft Watch, Jan. 8, 2008
Comments (3)
Great piece, Joe.
This is how Apple has been winning customers away from Windows--one at a time with great experiences and word-of-mouth, myself included.
Recent history suggests that MSFT has gotten too big and bureaucratic to make that kind of magic happen much anymore.
When was the last "insanely great" moment you had with MSFT products. Maybe LiveMesh--maybe. But it sure wasn't Vista. For many, that last insanely great moment was effortlessly connecting to a wireless network for the first time using XP. At that moment, a previously painful process suddenly became a very Apple-like no-brainer, and MSFT deserves credit for that.
Ask a typical Mac or iPhone user what their last insanely great moment was and they will rattle off half a dozen things.
Including ordering pizza.
Posted by dev | July 24, 2008 4:57 AM
Speaking of games, here's a video of a cool new iPhone game that I just downloaded, called MotionX Poker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZqNi06tdBU. Very fun game
Posted by KareemahB | July 25, 2008 7:59 PM
very interesting
Posted by jiimiona | August 9, 2008 9:11 AM