Will the iPhone Be Fair Game?

The iPhone, up until now, hasn’t met a lot of customer expectations. Want to send a “Happy New Year!” message to all your friends? You can… one at a time. Want to have live Google maps as you drive without having to look at street signs every second? You can’t. But this, my friends, may be about to change - according to various sources on the Internet, including GearLive. The last firmware update to grace the iPhone included very minute additions (iTunes WiFi), and was mostly put in place to resolve some of the bugs. However, with the release of iPhone firmware 1.1.3, the iPhone could be that much closer to being real competition. The new update may include the things that Apple truly forgot on release.

A list, perhaps, will explain it better:

Google Maps Hybrid Mode
Drag and Drop Applications on Home Screen
Bookmark Shortcuts on Home Screen
Home Screen Support of Pagination
Multiple Receivers via SMS Messages
Google Maps Pin-Point Application Using Cell Tower Triangulation

Sure, Apple is still missing things: for example, a louder ring/vibration, flash-supported Safari, and 3^rd party apps - but it's certainly getting there. This update will hopefully bring us that much closer to the release of the iPhone SDK, which will, in my opinion, put a "smackdown" on some of the competitors.

What do I expect to see in updates to come? And what do I really want?

Expected:

Flash-supported Safari
3rd Party Apps (Developer SDK)
Stereo Bluetooth Support
SMS Forwarding
MMS Support
Automatic Gmail/Yahoo!/Hotmail IMAP Setup
Louder Ring/Vibrate Capabilities
Cut/Paste/Save on Web Pages
Alternate Modem Support
Microsoft Exchange Support

Never Going to Happen:

Normal Headphone Support
iTunes WiFi: Complete the Album Feature
GPS (Not Just a Guesstimate, Please)
Pictures to Google Maps – Save a picture at a certain location
Unlocking without Bricking

The rumored firmware update may not give the iPhone everything Windows Mobile has to offer; however, I think it has potential. I think people dismissed the iPhone right away without thinking of the prospect of future updates. There will be no need for an iPhone 2, in my opinion, but perhaps just an iPhone firmware v2. Stay updated - perhaps before you know it, you’ll be ditching that Windows Mobile, Blackberry, or Palm based handset and switching over.