Oh how the iPhone has inspired a generation. All those applications. Apple doesn’t advertise the iPhone, they don’t have to, even the ads talk about the applications.

Of course, not to be outdone, other vendors are adopting the same strategy. Android Store, Windows Mobile Marketplace, Nokia Ovi Store (sounds like the right time of the month), Blackberry, Palm, they all want a piece of the action.

But with over 100,000 applications available for the iPhone, just which ones are worth downloading and buying? How do you tell? In truth, probably the same way you purchase any product from 100,000 on offer at K-Mart, David Jones, and Dick Smith. You trust the judgement of friends, people like yourself, and of course are aptly persuaded by the $2b marketing campaigns of the large vendors. Yes, there’s a reason that with few exceptions, the most popular applications even on the iPhone App Store, are produced by Google, EA, Activision and others.

In this episode we look at mobile applications along 2 axis, creating 4 quadrants: Frequency of Use (i.e. how often we use the app ourselves) and Impact/Importance (i.e. mission critical or frivolous). We talk at some length about the Frequent-Important apps, and mention the others.

However, we decided to neglect the obvious candidates such as email, calendar, contacts etc. They’re on every smartphone, and probably the primary reason to have one in the first place.

Rather unsurprisingly, many of our most valued apps are available across a number of platforms. Both James and I have come from many years in the Windows Mobile world, and recently bought iPhones. So having music, GPS, camera, video etc is not new to us. But it is true to say that we both have many more applications on this platform than any others.

Keeping Up

James is still digging into his Government Data, and I’ve been listening to Audio Books. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve listened to “The E-Myth Revisited” (again), “Losing my Virginity”, “Focus” by Stephen Covey, and am currently listening to “Persuasion – the Art of Getting What you Want” by Dave Lakhani.

Audiobooks by Audible, I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Next Episode

As Episode 10 will be the last Episode of 2009, we’re going to do some Crystal Ball gazing. From our knowledge of the Tech Landscape, people we know and work with, and reading of the trends, we’re going to take a punt at what 2010 is going to bring. Will Cloud Computing come into it’s own? Will Apple release a Tablet or Netbook? Will Google’s Chrome OS make an impact? What about Android, WinMo7, Palm Pre and the host of “iPhone Killers”

Tune in and take part.

As ever, send your comments, thoughts, and frustrations to tag@channel42.info

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See you on the Flipside

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