OK, I had the choice to get a smartphone instead and I did. But I’m still a little frustrated because iPhone / iPod touch would be such perfectly suited platforms for music programs.

Enough complaints, I’ll just continue to program my apps for symbian / windows mobile and hope future smartphones will be a little more stylish. iPhone users certainly can live without my programs and enjoy the premium software selection provided by apple.

Example:
Apple makes these great, general-purpose devices that are easy to type on, called computers. With my cheap Sprint phone, I can use 3G speeds by connecting to my phone via Bluetooth with my MacBook. It’s perfectly well-designed. Works great. Apple apparently didn’t care enough to implement this. And that’s essentially what a phone is — a modem. So I’d say the iPhone *doesn’t* do some fundamental things well.

And the music app … I think the point is, these Palm apps do an excellent job of being mobile music machines. (Probably not the drum pad so much above, but I think it was just intended as proof-of-concept / experiment.) So, if you can use a $99 phone to have a little portable idea pad, if you use that just once or twice but it keeps you creative on the go, what’s the harm?

I agree that cramming unnecessary functionality is another matter … for instance, yeah, it’s extra work to carry an actual camera but well worth it. But then, why not let users choose? If you don’t want apps, don’t install them. But electronics are valuable; shouldn’t the user determine their functionality?

They are offering free 2nd day shipping, so the palm route didn’t seem half bad for once.

the iPhone is not just a phone (actually, the phone functions are rather average or even below that, the cheapest Nokia will do the same or even better) but a little computer - and also marketed as such - with a powerful processor and an interesting multitouch interface that could very well work as music production device. It’s that promise of a little computer with “OS X” on it which makes people wonder why there is no software for it.

I see the system is new and it’s a little risky to open it up for 3rd party software. However, Symbian and Microsoft have shown that it is possible. Most people just enjoy the standard OS functions, but it’s great to be able to extend functionality with all kinds of handy apps.
I’m afraid Apple has not closed the system for user securety but to secure revenue streams. If it was open, they couldn’t sell ringtones anymore and they’d lose control on which audio player you use. And I guess they plan to sell apps via iTunes which will of course do better without competition from outside.

Anyway, as I said before: I agree the iPhone should remain a phone and nothing else and people who want apps should get a real smartphone instead.

And, anyway, assuming we do agree with Apple’s decision, if you are *developing apps*, it does raise the question of how much effort you want to put into the iPhone.