Phone or computer?
In the first month of Apple’s iTunes App Store going live, users downloaded 60m software applications to their iPhones. The App Store is arguably the most compelling feature of the iPhone and is changing the way people think about mobile devices.
Moore’s Law marches relentlessly on. Gordon Moore, co-founder of chip maker Intel, first posited his now-famous law in 1965 when he wrote that the number of transistors that can be inexpensively placed on an integrated circuit was doubling roughly every two years, and would continue to do so.
The hypothesis has proved uncannily accurate and computing power has continued to increase at an exponential rate. Moore once joked that his law was a violation of Murphy’s Law: “Everything gets better and better.”
Nowhere is the rapid pace of advancing processing power more evident than in the cellphone industry, where manufacturers are marketing their new, high-end handsets not as cellphones but as multimedia computers.
“Computer” is a good word to describe the latest slew of smartphones from companies such as Nokia, Apple, Research In Motion and Samsung. These devices are capable of almost everything you can do on a PC. And like PCs, they run powerful operating systems on top of which users can install applications.
Until now, though, few smartphone owners have taken full advantage of what their devices are capable of, instead simply using the programs that came preinstalled. But Apple, the venerable maker of Macs and iPods, has changed the game with the iPhone. It has coupled the iPhone with an online store where users can easily download and install new programs.
The iTunes App Store has proved an enormous success. Though most of the 60m apps that users downloaded in the first month are free, Apple has sold an average of US$1m/day of software through the store. Apple keeps 30% of the revenue, and distributes the rest to developers. “Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently told The Wall Street Journal. “We think the phone of the future will be differentiated by software.”
Of course, the iPhone is still to be launched in SA. Local distributor Vodacom is under a strict non disclosure agreement and won’t reveal when it will go on sale, though some time in the next 45 days seems likely.
But you don’t have to wait for the iPhone to extend your phone’s functionality. Most of today’s smartphones — and even some entry-level devices — allow users to install third-party applications. If your phone runs the Windows Mobile or Symbian operating systems, chances are you can install apps.
I use a Symbian S60-based Nokia handset, the E61i, and some of my favourite — nay, essential — apps are:
* Opera Mini: This mobile Web browser is far superior to the default browser that ships with Nokia handsets;
* Gmail: The mobile front-end to Google’s e-mail program lets you search through your entire inbox from your phone;
* OctroTalk: This instant messaging (IM) and Internet telephony tool connects to Google Talk and other instant messaging (IM) services that use the open Jabber protocol. If OctroTalk isn’t your cup of tea, try Fring, GoTalkMobile, or — dare I say it? — MXit (strictly for the under-25s). These programs are a good way to minimise SMS charges.
There are plenty of other cools apps available online. Use Google to find others specific to your handset. Be careful which programs you install, though. Viruses and spyware aren’t as pervasive on mobile platforms as they are on Windows desktops, but they do exist.
First published as the column Technology & You in the Financial Mail of August 15 2008
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