Apple's iPhone: at the software core Apple’s iPhone has been hailed as proof that its handset rivals lack imagination in industrial design. However, the iPhone’s innovations actually come at a cost in software flexibility that will do little to worry the industry’s established platform players. Key messages • Apple’s multimedia-centric iPhone represents perhaps the most successful convergence between form and function in a mobile device to date – a feat achieved through creative use of software, software-hardware integration and a healthy dose of ergonomic and aesthetic thought. • This has been achieved via a product-oriented, consumer-electronics-centric approach to design rather than the platform-oriented, developer-centric approach to high-end mobile device software now being pursued by other vendors. • The lack of flexibility and extensibility in the iPhone’s software platform tends to mitigate against its use across a broader spectrum of device use cases and form factors.