THE iPHONE PROSPERITY By Michael S. Malone
To appreciate the sheer volume of frustrated entrepreneurial energy in the United States that is being bottled-up by the economy and Washington, you need only look at the Apple iPhone. To me, it is emblematic of what is both right and wrong in America right now.
As you may have read, last Thursday at 5 pm Apple announced that somewhere out there in the world one of its customers had just downloaded the 1 billionth iPhone software application. That’s an astounding number, especially when you consider that the Apple App store only opened in July of last year. It means that iPhone users downloaded an average of more than 5 million apps per day during that interval . . .and number that climbed to more than 5.5 million per day during the final run-up to billionth.
In other words, not only is that pace being maintained, it is actually accelerating as the installed base of iPhones grows (it is now more than 15 million units in the U.S.), the number of application developers grow (there are now thousands), and iPhone users continue to increase the number of applications they wish to load into their devices.
These figures absolutely swamp the nearest competitor, smartphones featuring the Android operating system by at least ten-to-one. However, Android phones are still relatively new, with an installed base in the U.S. of less than 2 million devices, so the gap shouldn’t be surprising. And we can assume, as the numerous other Android phones now in development – such as Motorola’s – hit the market that will we see a Land Rush for applications in this business as least as great as the one for the iPhone.
The implications of this flat-out race for supremacy in smart phones is the topic for another column. What I’m interested in right now is the larger cultural meaning of this explosion in iPhone software.
Sure, the iPhone is terrific device, with a lot of breakthrough features – and some obvious weakness. It is targeted at a customer base that is legendary for its emotional commitment to Apple products and willingness to expend enormous amounts of intellectual capital designing new products and applications for Apple products. And the device has enjoyed the usual high-media coverage of an major, Steve Jobs hosted, launch followed by a classic Apple marketing/advertising campaign.
In other words, it should be surprising that, with a product as revolutionary as the iPhone, Apple has sold 15 million units in the U.S. market in less than two years. Nor, given the cultural cachet Apple fanatics award each other for varying levels of loyalty to the company and its products, is it surprising how many iPhone users have loaded up their phones with scores of new applications, most of which are little more than novelties that will be used once or twice and forgotten.
No, what I think is stunning about the whole iPhone phenomenon is how many individuals and small teams are busily at work right now developing ever-new apps for the device. There are 35,000 of these apps available from the App Store right now, and the list grows by the hour. Some of these applications are junk, most are dumb, some are outright evil (like the controversial baby shaking game) and some are very useful – MultiPhoto, Tweetie, etc. – if not quite yet essential. I have no doubt that somewhere out there waiting to be developed is that killer app that will take the iPhone even higher into the stratosphere.
Page 1 of 2 Next ->
Digg This
del.icio.us
PJM Home
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
10 Comments
1. Edgelings.com » The iPhone Prosperity : magiciphone.info:[...] See more here: Edgelings.com » The iPhone Prosperity [...]
May 1, 2009 - 6:44 am 2. Pajamas Media » The iPhone Prosperity:[...] the entire story here [...]
May 2, 2009 - 12:28 pm 3. drjohn:Should Apple be forced to share those profits with the makers of all smart phones in the interest of fairness?
May 2, 2009 - 12:57 pm 4. Gozer the Carpathian:Oooh good zing there drjohn.
Seriously I’m a Mac guy but I don’t own an iPhone. Why? Because I live in the middle of nowhere where all the cool things an iPhone would allow me to do don’t work. (No regular 3G, no movie theaters or resteraunts I haven’t been to etc.) Though even with all those reasons not to have one I’ve been sorely tempted several times to get one. Mainly because of all those cool things you can download to make the iPhone even better.
Way to go Apple for opening the doors, and way to go every Tom Dick and Harriot for rushing through them and going for it!
May 2, 2009 - 4:49 pm 5. Tom Perkins:“The smartest move Apple has made in the last few years is not the introduction of the iPhone, but the company’s historic break with its past, ‘We control everything’, philosophy of keeping its products buttoned up to all but carefully licensed developers.”
Feh. Imagine how much better the tech world would be if Jobs hadn’t cocked it up in the first place, and Gates had had real competition.
I’m glad he didn’t re-screw up.
May 2, 2009 - 6:04 pm 6. Wallace:A little correction here:
The smartest move Apple has made in the last few years is not the introduction of the iPhone, but the company’s historic break with its past, ‘We control everything’, philosophy of keeping its products buttoned up to all but carefully licensed developers.
This is not quiet true. Apple’s Macintosh platform has always been open to other developers. For years you can develop Mac apps even without Apple’s license. In the old days, all you need was CodeWarrior to help you create an app with a GUI. You didn’t even need that if you just wanted to write, say, a fluid dynamic simulation code without a GUI that dumped data into a file. When Apple moved to Mac OS X, they updated the IDE they got from NeXT (Project Builder and Interface Builder). Then they bundled them with every Mac sold for free, though you did need to install them yourself since not all Mac buyers wanted to be developers. That IDE has morphed into Xcode now, which you also need to create iPhone apps. You can even register for a free Apple Developer Connection membership.
What Apple wants to control is the hardware, the OS and the APIs and frameworks to create the best combination and to ensure a great user experience when using Apple’s product. What apps running on the top of that, Apple doesn’t care. This has not changed. You can only legally install Mac OS X on Mac hardware and only Apple builds the Mac hardware. This is also true for the iPhone hardware and its OS.
Lastly, the article focused on iPhone. However, iPod touch must also been given a credit for the success of the AppStore. 13 million is not a small number.
May 2, 2009 - 6:18 pm 7. Ellen K:Although I know that artists and designers such as myself have “unlimited” capabilities with Apple products, I just cannot bring myself to join with that smug, self-congratulatory image that so many Apple adherents assume. Call me a maverick, but I really hate those ads on TV. And frankly, I find that we have allowed what was supposed to be a tool become a social distraction that invades our privacy and keeps us from communicating with the people who are actually IN OUR LIVES. So, no Iphone for me. In fact, I have the same phone I have had for seven years. Until it stops working, I will continue with my sad, scratched little clamshell and know in my heart that I didn’t sell my life and soul in order to be just another puppet in Jobs world order.
May 2, 2009 - 10:18 pm 8. canuck:The Chinese sell a “knock off” which is the CECT Sci Phone. Essentially it is the same phone but will handle two SIM cards simultaneously. 3G version is not yet available but undoubtedly coming.
Price is around $118 for unlocked GSM telephone and is widely available.
May 3, 2009 - 5:03 am 9. George in SA:I am NOT an Apple person, use Windows on all PCs and servers, but really like my iPhone. I think it’s the best personal device out there for many business people who don’t need heavy device typing but do want the email, calendar, picture and application capabilities. The biggest problem is the battery drain if you’re using WiFi + email — you’re lucky to get 10 hours a day out of it. It really needs a replaceable battery.
May 4, 2009 - 8:26 am 10. Another 3g Mobile Phones Blog:[...] Edgelings.com » The iPhone Prosperity internet advertising No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> [...]
May 5, 2009 - 10:29 pm