January 9th, 2007
Apple introduces iPhone with Google integration
You no doubt already heard about the iPhone — we witnessed something incredible at the MacWorld keynote in San Francisco today. It's true that other phones already have roughly the same functionality, but this is the first device to perfect the entire user experience. It's not a stretch to say it blows away every other mobile device currently on the market.
Apple has partnered with three companies to make this phone what it is today: Cingular/AT&T, Yahoo! and Google. Since this is a Google blog, I am going to focus on what Apple is doing with Google on this product.
The first place you will find Google on the iPhone is in Safari. By default, Google will be the search engine used by its search box — but in the spirit of choice, users are free to change that default setting to something like Yahoo.
The second point of integration is the built in Google Maps application. Users will already know exactly how to use this feature if they have tried Google Maps in a real browser. This feature isn't just for maps though, it's local search. In his keynote today, Steve Jobs pranked a Starbucks he located through the service to ask for 4000 latte's.
Unfortunately, the phone will only be available through Cingular in the United States starting in June. The partnership between these two companies was described as a "multi-year deal", so don't expect to see any other carriers selling the phone for a while. Europeans need not worry though, as the phone should be available there in the fourth quarter of this year.
There is no word on Canada yet, and I'm sure many of us hope we aren't left out for too long!
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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