The Importance of Mobile Devices
Alex Iskold wrote a great post about the iPhone SDK. Alex states that, “a handheld device has lept forward, years ahead of what is available inside any modern browser.” This is a very powerful offering.
Mobile phones are the most important device of the text generation. You can think of it as the bloodline of our social economy. Text and email are the only ways to truly reach me 24/7. My phone never leaves my side. This is part of the reason why Twitter is the new AIM. Additionally, the data that my phone stores is more valuable to me than data stored on my computer or the web. This includes Facebook. The contacts in my phone are people who I have a strong relationship with. I try to keep my Facebook friends limited to real friends, but there are still a few people on that list who aren’t in my address book. It gets even worse when I look at my AIM buddy list.
The idea that developers can harness this network through the Apple SDK is very compelling. The potential is there to unlock more value than we’ve ever experienced. It will be interesting to see how developers are able to tie this into new and existing offerings. The key is functionality. A great app will understand how I use my phone.
As smartphones continue to penetrate younger demographics, the importance of mobile services and applications will drastically increase.
