CEO Steve Jobs (with a veritable chorus of board members and execs answering backup), took his annual grilling yesterday courtesy of Apple's shareholders meeting.
Among the iPhone related news:
- When asked why Apple doesn't take games seriously enough to acquire their own Halo-class developer (ironic, as Halo was originally intended for the Mac), Jobs highlighted Thurday's iPhone SDK event as opening a new door for Apple gaming.
- With regards to the still languishing .Mac online service -- specifically the possibility of blogging tools -- Jobs responded that we'd see more from .Mac before the end of the year, and with the iPhone SDK, if Apple didn't provide a mobile blogging tool, a 3rd party would be able to. (Then El Jobso kindly suggested the questioner learn Cocao and write the app himself!)
- On the subject of iTunes movie rentals, and why Apple does not yet have the 1000 movies Jobs said would be available by now, the mustache-twirling serial villains at Big Media were handed the blame, specifically the longer-than-anticipated delays in securing download rights for older films before such rights were ever foreseen, much less clarified. (Perhaps next time someone could ask Le Steve about international downloads for those of us outside the USA?)
- Tim Cook, as previously reported, fielded the question on the iPhone in China, and in Asia in general.
- In what some are interpreting as a rare slip in the long tradition of Jobs not commenting on potential future releases (his ship don't leak from the top!), longer than normal pauses apparently prefaced Jobs' no-comments on questions about an X-Serve Mini style embedded home server and an Apple TV supported by advertising rather than download purchase fees. Not iPhone specific, but either bit of tech could substantially impact the iPhone's capabilities or content models.
- Lastly, when asked why the iPhone always has half the memory of the iPod Touch, Jobs pointed out that things like the cell radio take up more space in the iPhone, leaving less for memory, and that the iPod would likely always take the lead in storage size.
Be sure to check out AppleInsider's complete coverage on the shareholders meeting in general, including the Mac, Apple Retail, and more.
Reader comments
Jobs Speaks! iPhone News from Apple's Annual Shareholders Meeting
You did not mention than Jobs said flash is not coming to the iPhone any time soon.
Surur
Hey surur -
Just came in to mention the same. Shrug, all things considered I think this is the right decision. Flash support on WinMo is iffy at best anyway.
Honestly, what I'm hoping for is Silverlight becomes the new de-facto "mobile flash" platform in some way.
I disagree. Like it or not, flash is the de facto container for online video. A few months ago something became seriously borked on my computer, and flash did not work. For the most part this was no problem, but increasingly reviews are now done in video form, and text have fallen by the way side. If you want to see how PointUI or SPB Mobile Shell or the latest Xperia phone works, you have to be able to see the video, and to be able to see all online video (not just youtube) you need flash. There was great celebration when it started working again.
In short, you dont experience the full internet (which has moved from text and images to video these days) without flash.
Surur
What I'm saying is that flash is HORRIBLE on ALL mobile and will be for the foreseeable future. the growth of the smartphone market actually presents an opportunity to BREAK the flash video monopoly and we can move to something that's more cross platform and more open and more mobile-friendly.
Um, one of the great features of the iPhone is the wonderful screen and full browser. Why would you not want to put that goodness to use?
I put together a separate post on the Flash comment, since it's one of the bigger/est rumors.
(I put some reasons in there as to why not, including resource hogging, proprietary standard, and competitive vs. QuickTime...)
I put together a separate post on the Flash comment, since it's one of the bigger/est rumors.
(I put some reasons in there as to why not, including resource hogging, proprietary standard, and competitive vs. QuickTime...)
These posts about why iPhone users deserve less always amuse me. Tell me about the evils of cut and paste again?
Surur
iPhone users definitely deserve less (buggy software that is). Well put!
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