Looking back on Apple's 2010: iSlate, iPhone 4G, troublesome jailbreakers, continued dominance

This is a speculative article written from the perspective of Christmas 2010.

Up until the beginning of this year, the words “iPhone” and “exclusivity” were regularly found in the same sentence. Downloading applications, unlimited data on a contract, only available from a limited number of shops, no hardware fragmentation (Android, we’re looking at you). Everything about iPhone was exclusive.

But it’s hard to say something's exclusive when there are almost 70 million out there in the wild. After Christmas 2009 all those tasty contracts carriers signed with Steve Jobs ran out, and Apple took to every high street store, online electronics pusher and newsagents to sell the iPhone.

It might have lost its exclusive sheen, but no pair of trousers was complete without an Apple-shaped bulge in them.

By which I mean there were a lot of iPhones in pockets. Ahem.

A corporation as big and powerful as Apple has never been able to resist the attempts at controlling the hardware, even after it’s been sold. The long running feud between Adobe and Apple reached an impasse this year when the Flash developer announced that all attempts to port the popular web-based platform to iPhone had ceased, despite all other makes of smartphone now being fully equipped.

Apple was never too keen on the notion anyway, given that users could be playing Flash games within the device’s browser, though it was a painful jab to the ribs when jailbroken handsets saw Adobe’s system working and installed, even as the legal test case against unlocking the iPhone fell apart around Apple just a couple of weeks before.

A constant stream of updates have since attempted to keep the jailbreakers at bay, including the new iSlate-friendly iTunes. But with the increasing number of Bluetooth peripherals the homebrew community is coupling to the iDevices (try to remember what it was like before the Zeemote, mouse, keyboard and PS3 controller worked with the iPhone - hard to believe the games ever caught on) and Apple showing little interest in the gaming accessories market itself, Cupertino has evidently lost that battle. 2010 was the year when the iPhone really was set free, in every sense of the matter.

Naturally, Apple isn’t happy unless it’s whipping up a rumour storm, and the latter half of the year has been spent pondering the whys and whither-tos of the next iPhone model, previously pegged as the 4G (unlikely that it'll be marketed as such, from what we've seen in the run up to Christmas).

Many predictions believed we’d see this new device filter out in 2010, but its delays suggest Apple might actually be holding out while the networks catch up.

There's been an increase in the number of 3GS enhanced games we’re seeing, but other than ad-based augmented reality applications, the majority of the App Store is still required to sport complete compatibility with the iPhone 3G, so upping the hardware specs again isn’t going to sell software.

What the 4G really promises is better, faster connectivity. Wi-fi is rumoured to be adopting the increasingly popular 801.11n standard, an OLED screen and the improved battery life the iPhone has been crying out for since day one (which remains to be seen, of course).

Perhaps the most interesting new feature is the promise of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology allowing for secure “digital wallet” payments.

But for all the apps and games that have lit up the world’s touchscreens this year and made our thumbs bleed with joy, it’s that initial and casual shedding of exclusivity that’s been the driving force behind the iPhone’s continued success.

The 3G hardware dazzled us when it was first launched way back in 2008, but the novelty had faded by the beginning of 2010. A quarter of a million active applications on the App Store is attractive to the new smartphone buyer, but establishing the iPhone as a vital lifestyle accessory is what's really kept the sales in such good health.

2010 wasn’t a year when Apple had to worry about success - it simply had to continue with its existing success. The large form tablet is co-existing very comfortably with the iPhone (Q2 financials suggesting existing iPhone and iPod touch users were the first in the queue for the iSlate), so the majority of touchscreens on the street are distinctly fruit flavoured.

2011 will be a different matter, though. Repeating success isn’t nearly the same as continuing it, so the iPhone 4G needs to re-establish the exclusivity that’s always been at the core of Apple’s accomplishment.

We’ve seen the next generation of power processor-equipped smartphone begin to emerge, and they leave the iPhone 3GS standing at the starting line. But pockets are being cut in jeans specifically to fit an iPhone, so this is a device the world has got used to carrying - it doesn’t need any introduction, and it doesn’t need to convince people of its usability.

If Apple can convince us to upgrade that pricey hardware once again as the networks roll out their high speed data networks in the next month or two, there’s no reason the iPhone can’t own 2011 as well.