Apple iPhone 3G @ $99 – News?

How is it that Apple manages to co-opt most of the English speaking media, lost journos included, with it’s product announcements? Is it anything to do with the fact that so many “media types” use Apple’s products themselves? Kindred spirits…

Annoying or excellent marketing aside, there is one aspect of Apple’s  recent announcement of the $99 iPhone 3G and it’s slick, animated, color interface (the “GUI”, (Graphical User Interface)) that hasn’t been widely acknowledged. Is this the moment programmers may, at last, “get it“?

For years pimply nerds have passed puberty learning to program the cheapest viable device. For earlier generations in the US and UK this meant microcomputers such as the MITS Altair 8800, Apple II, Atari 2600, Acorn BBC Model B, Commodore PET & 64,  Sinclair ZX80/81, Tandy TRS-80, VIC-20, and later the ubiquitous PC. Given the rudimentary graphics of their machines the young guns could be forgiven for not quite getting up to speed when it came to the user interface. Tab forward to 2009 and the developer-in-diapers can afford to sweat over the graphically gifted iPhone.

“Handsome” and “geek” have for too long been mutually exclusive. Years of monomaniacal focus on code excluded aesthetic ideals. But now beauty has arrived and she’s putting out the trash. If tyro coders want to make money they can no longer ignore A Truth. Like Idols, software is judged by it’s appearance. Seriously. The best designed applications, not Frankenstein functions, are downloaded and paid for at Apple’s App Store.

It’s a wonderful opportunity. The very low hurdle price and the commercial simplicity of the App Store, and Apple’s downloadable iPhone SDK (Software Development Kit), has ensured the gadget is embraced by an army of enthusiasts. They also mean that thousands of budding developers will master the fine art of interface design.

If the $99 iPhone 3G USA sticker price, albeit tied to a two year network contract, is deployed worldwide the iPhone stands to be embraced by millions of new users. For highly motivated, ingenious, design-aware, would-be next-gen Marc Andreeson’s, the iPhone 3G puts their first fortune within reach. Almost.

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