iPhones can predict the future with new 'forward-looking' technology.
In the app store, users can click on the 'view future purchases' to enter a date and time in the future and get a list of all the predicted user purchases from the current time until then, with each individual purchase stamped with the time down to the second.
Apple uses this information to forecast sales of the iPhone, as well as when to introduce new versions and upgrades, but it is the iPhone application developers who benefit most from this feature:
From the moment a new application is made available to the masses, at the set pricepoint, an iPhone developer can get a pinpoint accurate forecast (to the year 3000) of all future sales of their application, making planning and allocation of resources far easier than in the days before 'forward-looking' technology! It also goes without saying that developers can choose to adjust the price of their application up or down, and see instantaneous changes in the future purchases of their product in order to fine-tune sales, product longevity, and market penetration.
Google is developing a similar functioning technology called 'hindsight' whereby it intends to alter Apple's iPhone sales figures in the past in an attempt to boost sales of its own smart phone.
