On the first day of sales alone, the iPhone sold over 200,000 units. Since then, it has quickly become a "must have" electronic device. The iPhone features a variety of unique applications as well as a revolutionary touch screen display.

The future of the iPhone is extremely exciting. First, the new generation of iPhone will be able to run Microsoft applications including Outlook. This will enable the iPhone to compete with phones primarily marketed to business users. Secondly, the iPhone will open up its powerful application platform to the public. This will allow third-party designers to develop unique applications and software for the iPhone. Other rumors suggest that the new iPhone will come with Leopard as its standard operating system and that it will have built in GPS capabilities.

Current model

The current iPhone is available with either an eight or a sixteen-gigabyte hard drive and includes the following features:

• Three breakthrough devices in one - iPod, Internet, and phone
• Widescreen iPod - iTunes, music, TV, videos, and more
• Cutting edge user interface with large multi-touch display
• Full screen Safari Web browser views actual web pages
• 2 MP camera with photo management capabilities
• Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rates - EDR
• Full synching abilities with your existing iTunes collection
• Scroll iTunes by album cover, artist, song or playlist
• Watch widescreen TV shows, movies, and videos
• Smart screen shifts to landscape mode for viewing videos
• Visual Voicemail - View calls and individually select messages
• Built-in Google Maps, YouTube, Stock, and Weather Widgets
• Simultaneous multitasking - Web surf and download email
• Download data over Wi-Fi or high-speed EDGE networks
• Smart screen with ambient light and proximity sensor
• Integrated full QWERTY quick touch screen
• Maps - View maps, traffic, directions and more
• Integrated Google and Yahoo! searches
• Send and receive desktop-class email
• Text messaging
• Conference calling
• Speakerphone
  

iPhone 2.0

The next generation of iPhone will feature one very important application: Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. This allows iPhone users to connect to Microsoft applications including the popular e-mail provider, Outlook. This addition will open the iPhone market to all sized businesses as well as large corporations as Microsoft is currently the preferred business software.

Future applications

Some of the potential applications for the new generation of iPhones include:

• Reality recognition: Imagine visiting a new city and pointing your iPhone at a monument. With reality recognition, users can quickly identify the monument and then instantly learn about its history via Wikipedia or either information site.

• Improved people and item tagging:  Imagine walking through a city and finding an interesting shop, restaurant, or theater. With advanced tagging, iPhone users take a picture of the location and then comment/tag it. Other users throughout the world can access this exact location via GPS. With improved people tagging, iPhone users take a picture of a person, comment/tag it, and then make the image/bio available to anyone in the world.
  

• The end of paper transactions:  Just as other mobile devices have done in the past, the future iPhone will eliminate the need for paper transactions. Instead of sharing business cards, iPhone users will simply send their contact information wirelessly. The same is true regarding sales receipts.

• Improved voice recognition:  Voice recognition software is already available; however, it has yet to integrate itself fully into a mobile device such as an iPhone. Future iPhone applications could include instant voice dialing, memo creation, and advanced web navigation.

• Gaming possibilities:  Online gaming has become extremely popular in the last few years. Gamers now have the ability to customize locations and characters to provide a more interactive experience. Future gaming applications on the iPhone could include the ability to play against other players located within a specific geographical location as well as to integrate the game and the iPhone user's location based on advanced GPS instruments.

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