A few other features seem a little trickier to implement, but competing products have them, so why doesn't the iPhone?
* The iPhone needs to be able to run applications in background. Right now, only certain Apple-built apps run in the background, including Mail and the iPod app. For everything else, when you switch between apps, the first app you were running shuts down. I find this most inconvenient when I'm updating an app that synchs to data on the Internet or on the desktop; I need to remember to make sure the application synchs before switching to something else.
* The iPhone probably limits multitasking applications to enhance stability and improve battery life; a misbehaving app could slow down or freeze up the iPhone, and drain power. But a little careful support for multitasking would have a huge payoff for iPhone users. Apple has reportedly test-released tools for updating apps in background, but those tools have never made it into production software.
* The iPhone needs to support real-time, spoken-out-loud, turn-by-turn directions in its mapping software. Right now, I carry my iPhone and a Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS on driving trips to unfamiliar places; I'd like to ditch the 350 and just carry the iPhone. Real-time, spoken turn-by-turn directions might be too demanding for the present-day iPhones, and I expressed skepticism in October that they'd ever materialize on current hardware. But Apple just needs to prove me wrong on this.
Finally, the iPhone needs better battery life.
The iPhone does so many difficult things so well, why does it fall down on these apparently easy things?
4. Come Out With A Netbook
The iPhone demonstrates the value of a relatively inexpensive device that's easy to carry with you and gives you wireless access to the Internet and productivity and entertainment apps. It would be an even better device if the screen were a few inches bigger, and if it had a 10-finger hardware keyboard. It'd probably cost a few hundred dollars more than the iPhone, but it would be worth it for the added usability.
The machine we're describing here would be an Apple netbook. It'd be bigger and heavier than an iPhone, but smaller and more lightweight than the MacBook Air (which has a 13" display and weighs in at 3 pounds). It would have a 7-10" display, touchscreen and hardware keyboard, and be about the size and weight of a hardcover book. It'd be the kind of thing you could tuck into a gear bag and take with you everywhere you go.
The price would be between the iPhone, which sells for $299 maximum, and the $1,000 low-end MacBook. That relatively low price would be a factor in the device's portability. It would be priced low enough so that if it got lost, stolen, or run over by a truck, you'd be disappointed but you wouldn't have a heart attack, and therefore you'd be more likely to take it with you more places.
Jobs seemed to dismiss netbook plans in October, saying, "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA won't let us do that." But that statement leaves wiggle room. A netbook doesn't have to be $500 or less.
And a netbook doesn't have to be junk -- although it is, by most definitions, underpowered compared with a conventional notebook computer. A smartphone, like the iPhone or RIM BlackBerry, is underpowered compared with a notebook, but smartphones aren't junk. Like a smartphone, a good netbook trades performance for low cost and portability.
The Mac community has been buzzing with rumors and speculation about an upcoming netbook. Apple analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said he thinks Apple would do well to release an 11" MacBook Air priced at $800-$1,000 in 2009, followed by a similarly priced tablet Mac in 2010. Technology Business Research analyst Ezra Gottheil predicted that Apple will introduce a netbook at Macworld in January, although that prediction seemed unlikely, and turned out to be wrong.
A netbook would fill a hole in Mac users' gear bags, and in Apple's product line. Its relatively low price would be especially attractive in this tight economy. Apple needs to come out with a netbook this year.
