Frog expects Iphone to be handset prince

NOT LONG NOW until we can get our hands on the Iphone, a gadget that is presumably located in the hem of Steve Jobs' garment, a piece of silken material no mortal may touch. At least not without signing a non-disclosure agreement tighter than a song featuring Sly and Robbie's rhythm section.

Most pundits, journalists, analysts and others of a self-elected expert tendency have played their cards close to their respective chests so far on the Iphone, with nobody wishing to proclaim that it the best thing since the proverbial or the worst move since Caligula made his horse a senator. Those quotes can stick around you for a long time, don't you know.

But one man is going out on a limb and he's erring on the positive side - no, make that leaning way over to the positive side.

"It's hard to point to one handset and say, this is the iconic implementation of what people want. The BlackBerry is probably the closest but the rest of the phone experience is not there. The Apple Iphone is going to be great because it will say, ‘if you want to make a great experience, here's the bar'." Some of us like the bar right where it is but who says it's such a hot box? This is Mark Rolston, senior vice president at Frog Design, a company that has worked with pretty well an A-Z of software and hardware companies that pride themselves on the gorgeousness of their products.

Rolston says Frog has not worked with Apple on the Iphone but adds that a couple of former Frogs, as he calls them, have done, alongside veterans of OSX and Ipod design. Also, he coyly adds that current Frogs have had access to the product.

But how big will the Iphone be?

"You can expect Apple is going to create an ecosystem. It's going to be like the Mac and the Ipod. I don't think that people see the shift. They're underestimating what Apple is doing. Apple is moving its entire business to this platform. Look at the margins they get on Macs and imagine the same margins with 100x more units."

Rolston even defends Apple against the notion that the Iphone could be a lock-in.

"The Iphone will be no more limiting in its opportunities to be customised than most phones," he says. "The capability of the widget is no less capable than the average Java applet."

Strong words and strong opinions. There's no doubt the Iphone has some interesting notions but as with scratchy Ipod screens, dodgy batteries and keyboards with lettering that fades, Apple's recent products often seem to have sprinted through the final steps of the QA process. One thing's for sure, it's going to be a very interesting product. µ