Two things people should wait for before considering buying an iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G:
- Flash support so they can have a full web experience
- Access to the app store for those who don't live in the US or don't have access to a US-based credit card.
The iPhone 3G and the iPod Touch second generation (2G) are great products by any measure: they combine the ease of use, full-features of the iPod, with the ability to surf the web on a "real" web browser as opposed to the slow, crippled browsers on other mobile devices. The iPod capabilities of the iPhone and iPod Touch include the ability (via iTunes) to convert our audio CDs into MP3s and bring them over to the iPhone/iPod Touch. We can also arrange the songs into playlists and load beautiful album covers so we can see the album art as we listen to the songs. We can also bring over movies and TV shows to watch. And with an adaptor cable, we can even connect the iPhone/iPod Touch to a TV set and watch the videos on a big screen! Then there's the myriad of free audio and video content available via podcasts: one can view or listen to lectures on subjects ranging from psychology to physics from top universities like MIT, UC Berkeley, Stanford, etc. One can download podcasts about almost every subject in the world: cars, comics, politics, comedy, computers, software programs, sports, etc. We can even copy lyrics over and sing along with the songs, we can listen to audio books, we can play the games that come with the iPod.
What makes iPhone/iPod Touch better buys over the regular iPod though (and this includes the iPod Shuffle, iPod Classic and iPod Nano) are two things: first off is Internet capability. Using Wi-Fi, the iPhone and iPod Touch has a full-featured browser in Safari that lets you browse the web as you would on a desktop. Other mobile devices, due to their underpowered microprocessors and small-scale operating systems can only support a poor browsing experience. Websites load very slowly, you sometimes don't see the page as you would on a full computer, and generally it's a pain to use that you'd wind up hardly ever using the feature. This is why most mobile users almost never use their device's Internet capabilities. But then came the iPhone/iPod Touch, where browsing the Internet is almost the same as on a full computer, and suddenly the statistics show a majority of owners of these devices are on the web and surfing like anything. Why is why, Apple needs to get its act together and allow Adobe to install Flash on the iPhone/iPod Touch. Flash is needed because a lot of sites nowadays use it for the site's layout and interface as well as for games and extra features. Photo sites use it for slideshows, kids sites use it for games and educational features. YouTube uses it for videos.
Yes, the iPhone/iPod Touch has a YouTube application that allows users to view the videos as long as they've been converted, but this lowers the number of videos available out there, as well as restricting users from viewing Flash video from other sites. Apple reason for not including Flash, they said, is because the Flash technology currently available for mobile devices is "Flash Lite" and it doesn't have the full-features that avail of the iPhone/iPod Touch's powerful processor and full operating system. In other words, Apple wants the iPhone/iPod Touch Flash experience to be the same as on the desktop which gives them an advantage over other mobile devices and becomes another winning feature. It's possible Adobe will make a Flash "special edition" for Apple's mobile devices. They've already said, all they need is a go signal from Apple and they can implement immediately. They haven't said though if the Flash tech they're going to install is just another version of Flash Lite for the full Flash desktop version. For buyers, this can be a deal breaker, especially for iPod Touch buyers, because if you buy an iPod Touch now and Apple/Adobe adds the Flash capability later on, you might have to pay for it unlike for iPhone owner who get updates for free. Apple usually charges iPod Touch owners for upgrades that add capabilities unlike iPhone owners who are charged more for the device and who usually pay a monthly charge to their telcos of which Apple gets a cut.
Another feature that makes the iPhone/iPod Touch a better buy are the newfangled software programs appearing almost daily for the devices. Really cool and fun games, useful programs, neat and snazzy software are made available to iPhone/iPod Touch owners via Apple's App Store. Here, users can download free apps and buy the for-sale ones. Unfortunately, one needs to have a US or Canadian based credit card to be able to access the store. Without such a credit card, you're out of luck. So for the thousands of iPhone/iPod Touch owners, crippling the devices' capability and still charging the full price is just not right. There are dozens of "killer apps" coming out now that makes these devices a good buy, but this becomes a moot point if these apps aren't made available to non-US buyers.
Apple basically needs to open up its App Store via prepaid cards sold in various countries that act as User IDs to allow access to the store and download free apps and pay for the commercial ones. How difficult can that be for Apple?
This will most likely happen some day soon. We doubt Apple will restrict App Store purchasers to just First World country users and let all others use the jailbreaking software to load their devices with Apps. This would not be financially and strategically prudent for Apple. But we users just have to wait and see. Hold on to our money a little longer and wait for these two important changes to take place before making the purchase.
