Generalism

Why does version 2 of the iPhone matter? Version 1 has done well, and started to define the future of the smartphone market, if not the mobile phone market as a whole. If you don’t have one, you probably gaze on one with envious eyes, or shun away in denial. If you’re not the lucky company that makes one as a business, you’re probably looking at what gives the iPhone that certain something and wondering how you can get ahead by doing bigger, better, faster, more.

Except of course that getting ahead is always much trickier when you’re staring at the back of someone’s rapidly shrinking head.

So why get excited about version 2 of this market-changing device? Because of course version 1 was really a Beta version of the product. It was a great Beta admittedly, but a Beta nonetheless, the same as version 1 of the iPod, version 1 of the Mac.

The first iPhone had to pave the way, it had to do things differently, make people sit up and take notice, and succeed from the off. Have you ever tried winning the first tennis competition you’ve entered? Or publishing the first book you’ve ever written? It’s really hard, and more often than not you enter your first one with a view to getting ready for the next and your first trophy success.

And this is the key; version 1 was getting ready for version 2, which means that things should really start get interesting. Admittedly my excitement and anticipation were both with version 1, but my bank balance and phone contract have their gazes fixed firmly on version 2.

I’m hoping they’re both going to be well-placed.