Apple's iPhone Rings a Lot of Bells

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com/ticker/' rel='ticker'>SUNW) Java runs on millions of wireless phones, as does Symbian OS, which is produced by Symbian, a London-based company whose majority owner is Nokia (NOK). There are also embedded versions of Linux and Unix.

And embedded Microsoft (MSFT) Windows shows up in the darndest places these days. There are embedded versions of Windows in phones, cash registers, the dashboards of cars, wristwatches, and in one notable example, a refrigerator.

While Mac OS X would make about as much sense as a Windows operating system for an Internet-enabled refrigerator—which in my view is practically no sense at all—it will make a great deal of sense in a range of consumer entertainment and information devices that we can only now begin to imagine.

What fits in a device as small as an iPhone can fit almost anywhere else. And it can result in a powerful user experience when paired with the touch-screen technology on display in the iPhone. Turns out the touch-screen capabilities grew in part out of Apple research into tablet computers. The idea behind touch-screen technology is to turn the computer into something more like a paper notebook by supplying a pen-like stylus and handwriting-recognition technology—thereby creating a whole new method for mobile computing. Microsoft did it, but in truth it wasn't all that exciting: The most popular type of tablet is a notebook with a screen that rotates around to lie flat, screen-up, over the keyboard.

Power to the Mac

And imagine the possibilities in the combination of Apple's touch-screen interface with the Mac OS X—especially considering the other big Apple announcement of Jan. 9: Apple TV. Take an Apple-made TV set, for example. Throw in all the features of Apple TV—maybe even a touch-sensitive screen—and the Mac OS, and you've got an Internet-ready TV that is ready to download whatever you want to watch, be it from iTunes, YouTube (GOOG), or some other source. Throw in an iSight camera, like those found on the iMac, MacBook, and MacBook Pro, and you've got a TV set that's suitable for the Jetsons.

A Mac-like interface could do wonders for Internet radio too. Past attempts were hard to use. Think of the iPod Hi-Fi with a touch-screen control panel, showing widgets that, when launched, tune in conventional AM, FM, or satellite radio—plus streaming radio stations from around the world.

I don't know that Apple would or should consider turning its expertise toward making any of these devices, but as the needs of the consumer marketplace begin to evolve, there is no reason the Mac OS can't be adapted to meet them. The Mac OS could revolutionize such tasks as browsing the Web, reading a digital book, making an Internet phone call, printing a picture, or playing a video game—all untethered to the confines of a PC.

Despite its ancestry as the company that gave us the first truly personal computer, it appears that Apple has found some truly exciting new territory to explore. It's certainly going to be a lot of fun to watch. Unless of course, you work for a competitor.

Hesseldahl is a senior writer for BusinessWeek.com and his Byte of the Apple column, covering all things Apple, appears biweekly at www.businessweek.com/technology.