Cult of Mac speculation on iPhone

 For those who aren't that geeky, let me explain. The real geeks were dissapointed that you won't be able to just load any old program on these new iPhones. This artilce makes the point that with Web 2.0, who cares! I have to agree. As I use more and more Web 2.0 apps as long as  I have a broswer, I am happy, regardless of platform.

In the rush to file my column on Tuesday about iPhone lockdown and why Apple won't open up to non-Apple software, I forgot to mention the most interesting thing: what does it matter, when users can run third-party software as web apps?
Instead of making software to be installed on the iPhone, like on a computer, developers could turn their wares into web apps and put them on the web, in the data cloud.
Take Google's online word processor and spreadsheet: surely these will be just as accessible to iPhone users as Google Maps? Why install Microsoft Word when you have Google Docs available anywhere, anytime.
Maybe Google has a whole bunch of web apps for the iPhone and future smartphones like it -- take that Microsoft!Is this what Eric Schmidt was talking about when he joined Steve Jobs onstage at Macworld and talked about a Google/Apple "merger."The iPhone would use Apple's OS locally, when it is acting as an iPod, and the much-anticipated Google's OS (or GooOS when online.Of course, there may be problems with latency and delay.
Web apps are never be as snappy as their desktop equivalents. And many people don't like the idea of storing spreadsheets or first novels online.But maybe the iPhone could turn out to be a hybrid, dual-OS device?

WIRED Blogs: Cult of Mac

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