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iPhone: The REAL Impact
Location: Toronto
I recently had a great discussion with Om Malik of GigaOM blog fame. Our dialog was on a broader discussion around Mark Cuban’s recent statements that the Internet is Dead, but in the course of the dialog we had a brief detour to talk about what is innovative and exciting in the communications industry. During that dialog the subject of the iPhone came up.
I was quoted early on (just before the launch) as saying that the iPhone, while exciting, was not that interesting in terms of its networking and infrastructure capability. Clearly, a GSM/GPRS phone is nothing new and even one with Wi-Fi isn’t that interesting from a transport discussion. Now, if we were talking about it having 4G capability, that would be a different story …
However, the iPhone is exciting from the perspective that it simplifies complex communications tasks via a more unified communications interface.
At Nortel, we have been telling the world that the three big inflections occurring in the telecom sector are: 4G in the wireless world (which mobilizes Internet services); the shift to Ethernet in the carrier wireline world (which drives cost down and capacity up dramatically in backhaul and core transport); and Unified Communications (which brings together the applications and communications worlds). All three are important and critical to the future of telecom. In many cases, though, the industry looks at an innovation or product and assumes its impact is in one area (e.g., wireless), when in reality the real change is in one of the other spaces.
The iPhone is such a device. Although originally viewed as a wireless innovation, it’s real value is in unifying communications. It is a mass market manifestation of a communications technology (a cell phone) that seamlessly integrates with the applications around it (music, contacts, web, video, mapping…) and it does this extremely well.
If you have not used an iPhone, let me give you a brief view of the experience. The interface is extremely simple and almost all actions are accomplished with 1 or 2 taps to the screen. Complex tasks such as seeing who has called you, retrieving the specific call of interest, and responding to that person are simpler than on any other interface I have seen (see for yourself here). While many of the tools are Internet-based, such as YouTube and Google Maps, the main interface is clean and offers the ability to link into them via a single tap. The usability is of a level similar to an iPod, which most agree is the simplest and cleanest MP3 player to date.
We have a phrase at Nortel that says “simplicity trumps complexity”. This is in line with our strategy and direction behind the premise of unified communications, which is to close the gap between the tools we use to communicate and the information we want to communicate. Today, that gap is large and in most cases the tools we use for information and productivity (spreadsheets, web pages, ERP, CRM, …) are completely separate from the tools we use for communications (phones, video conferencing, email, IM…). In the U/C space, consider the power of having communications functions embedded within applications. For example, a cell in a spreadsheet might have not just a formula and data but also have an indicator of who created the formula, if that person was available to communicate and even have a single-click capability to directly call, conference or message that person with context. That kind of experience is true U/C because it moves the communications and applications functions into the same experience.
If you believe that this gap between data and communications tools is a source of lost productivity and that moving these two areas closer together would drive a better business experience and greater productivity, then we are in sync on the promise of unified communications. The Innovative Communications Alliance between Microsoft and Nortel is focused on making that promise real. Our activities with other applications providers, such as IBM, are also directed at this vision.
In the meantime, if you want to see what happens when a very good unified interface is created in a device that is both a source of information and a tool of communication, look no further than the iPhone as an early example of what is possible when this linkage happens.
Now, imagine if not only the interface was as good as it is , but if that innovation was combined with the best network experience possible at a dramatically different performance and cost level – which is where 4G and Carrier Ethernet come in. This idea of a broadband connectivity experience everywhere creates a truly transformed end user experience.
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September 12th, 2007 at 9:49 am from John Roese’s Blog » Blog Archive » One Laptop Per Child - Where in the world is that cool green and white laptop?