[PSM] Perhaps. Or (hopefully) something new entirely. The iPhone platform is more open and capable than any broadly available mobile platform, so I expect to see interesting things.

On top of all this, from my experience, most iPhone users are not teenagers tooling around. They are adults, tech geeks, and those who always want the latest and greatest. Adults don’t need social networking. They need it to function well. Tech geeks and the rest will move on to the next big thing shortly after. Apple just needs to provide the hardware and the basic software. Adding java would be nice. More memory. A 3g model in the U.S. would be nice. And eventually opening the iPhone up to the the rest of the wireless community would be nice. If a customer wants social networking let them add an external app. Someone will develop one that can do all of the above. For everyone else, Apple should focus on what’s really important. They may not have the perfect product, but they’re on the right track. The Blackberry beware.

[PSM] You could have said the same thing about iPods originally - that Adults don’t go around listening to music. No, they didn’t, not before the iPod. But with the iPod, they did. They same will happen when a truly great social networking device comes out. But the iPhone wasn’t it.

[PSM] I see your point, but I disagree. Obviously I’m not saying you should put in the kitchen sink of social networking features, and indeed some of the current “trends” are more fads. But I don’t think Apple’s decision to leave out social networking as a concept in the iPhone was a deliberate omission based on a superior vision of the future. As I argued in the posting, I think it’s a generational issue.