Over on Macworld.com I’ve posted The Once and Future iPhone as an Editor’s Blog entry. The gist is that one advantage the iPhone has over other mobile phones is that it has the potential to be much more like a computer or iPod in its ability to be upgraded. I won’t regurgitate the article’s points here. Feel free to follow the link to its natural conclusion.
But, as a sidebar to the topic of that entry, I’m intrigued that so much of the iPhone discussion in the mainstream press focuses on the iPhone as a typical phone when it clearly isn’t. As I point out in the entry referenced above, the iPhone’s upgradeability alone makes it stand apart from similar devices.
I won’t go so far as to say that we’ll one day throw away our computers in favor of a device like the iPhone, but clearly this device has the potential to be more than a phone and personal information manager. And it puzzles me that the notion hasn’t generally caught on that the iPhone is more platform than simply peripheral.
Other phones are upgradeable. I posted more details on your MacWorld essay, but rest assured that my Sidekick has over the years gotten several major over-the-air updates that most definitely added significant new features to it, including entire applications.
I wouldn't start trumpeting the iPhone's upgradability until Apple at least announces some sort of real SDK for third-party apps, something that nearly every other cellphone has.
But you know I'm buying one on Friday anyway :)