What the iPhone can’t do - reality shatters the technological imaginary:

What the iPhone can’t do - reality shatters the technological imaginary: Apple’s confidence that it can change the market and a future standard form of mobile communication?

I have been so wrapped up in what the iPhone can do I have not paid much attention to what he device fails to do. I have been somewhat blinded by the gimmicky features and novel forms of interface and navigation. Whilst setting up a Bluetooth device on a PC at work, with the assistance of another technician, I realised that the iPhone was not actually capable of sending or receiving files via Bluetooth. This reminded me that I had previously noted that the iPhone was not capable of sending or receiving photos via the media messaging service. I was so surprised at this discovery (lack of MMS) that I searched several forums to ascertain whether this was in fact the case. Every phone that I have owned since around 2001 has been capable of receiving, if not sending and receiving images sent via the Media Messaging Service. This seemed to me to be a big mistake, how could Apple fail to include this simple and well-established technology on their new device? And even if it was some kind of mistake, why was it not rectified in the release of the second version of the iPhone?

Why has Apple made the decision not to include such features on the iPhone? Bluetooth communication and the media messaging service are long standing standard technologies, functions, included on almost every new phone with a camera (Bluetooth usually appears on slightly higher end devices where as the MMS service features on mobile camera phones across the board). One could suggest that Apple is so confident in their device that they aim to change the way in which we communicate via mobile device. Instead of sending picture messages via the MMS we are able to use Email - what is the point of sending pictures via a limited MMS when we can easily send them via full-access Email over the Internet? Is Apple envisioning a time (are we currently experiencing a time, or moving towards a time) when we will use open networks such as the Internet to communicate on the move rather than the familiar but limited mobile telephone networks? I had not even considered MMS or SMS as being limiting before reflecting upon my use of the iPhone - by failing to include these technologies Apple have forced me to think about why they had chosen not to roll them out, Apple forced me to consider the limitations of the previous technologies (because of course, this could not be a mistake - there were perfectly legitimate reasons for not including these technologies, not least the fact that the iPhone was destined to be a success before it was released to the public and changes such as this would ‘just be accepted’).

As Apple allows the capabilities of the (now ‘old’ technology) MMS to be absorbed into full access Email over the Internet it begins to make explicit the technology of mobile telephony. The mobile telephone is no longer required to send MMS, or maybe even SMS, it returns to a previous form - that of voice calling. The medium is stripped back to a pre-existing form.

The reason behind Bluetooth not being included on the device (in terms of file transfer) can be put down to control of a monopolised economy. Apple does not wish its iPhone users to distribute ‘paid for’ (or free for that matter) content with ease. Although the user is fooled into thinking that the device is highly customisable (wallpapers, phone name, ring tones, ‘apps’, importation of existing data [syncing music, contacts, calendars etc]) it is in fact extremely controlled and locked down in terms of its content. An interesting example of this imagined ability to customise the device can be seen in the selection of alert sounds. Only a predefined set of sounds can be used as alerts, ensuring that the iPhone remains recognisable to others even when out of sight. Allowing the iPhone user to allocate any sound to an alert notification would render the iPhone as being indistinguishable to any other phone. Recognising ‘old’ mobile phones by their ring tones/alerts.