The ambitious (perhaps over ambitious?) multi-country launch of Apple’s 3G iPhone was marred on Friday by problems with the new activation system, designed to reduce the number of handsets slipping around the operators’ two-year contract tie-ins. However, the launch did come with good news too, mainly on the software front, with more than 500 applications appearing in the new AppStore for the iPhone and iTouch.
The 3G/AppStore debut, described by Apple chief Steve Jobs as the “most important launch of my career”, outdid expectations on the software front, where about 300 programs had been expected to be available through the new channel. About 25% of the apps are free, and the majority of the rest are under $10 (Apple takes a share of the revenues). About one-third are games.
Among the most high profile additions were two offerings from Google. Google and Apple have their political and commercial differences, but in some ways are pursuing a similar vision of a mobile world driven by software developers not hardware makers or operators (even if Apple’s applications world is far more closed than the search giant’s). Now available for the iPhone are Google Talk and Google Mobile App, which includes a native version of the search facility that has already attracted rave reviews compared to former Google products for the older iPhone.
Google has made a version of Google Talk, its instant messaging application, to run on the new iPhone. The application works from the Safari browser and once users sign in they have access to all the contacts lists from their desktops, highlighting the accelerating trend for popular applications that cross the PC and mobile environments – a move recently given significant momentum by Adobe and by Sun’s plans to harmonize the mobile and desktop variants of Java.
Google Talk also epitomizes the rise of richly functional services that deliver no revenues to the operator, and will actually hit mobile operator cash cows like SMS. The app will also be available on Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian and, in time, lower end phones, pushing it into some emerging markets even ahead of text.
Also debuting a program for the 3G iPhone was British Airways, with free downloadable software that allows frequent flyers to view the BA timetable, get real time arrival and departure information and book flights on the Apple handsets. BA said it was the first airline with an iPhone app, and CIO Paul Coby said: “We’re always seeking to improve the service our customers enjoy by the smart use of innovative technology and the iPhone is a fantastic way to achieve this.”
Meanwhile, although the worst problems with activation seemed to afflict AT&T in the US, where the launch was described by some observers as a “fiasco”, the UK’s O2 was suffering too. As well taking 20 minutes or more for many users to activate their phones online, they found that this process only worked with Internet Explorer, not Apple’s own browser Safari.
However despite these activation problems, Apple managed to ship over a million 3G iPhones on launch day Friday and over the weekend. Also, the new App Store is estimated to have enjoyed over 10 million downloads in the same three-day period. Handset makers love to trade headline shipments figures of course, but the most interesting aspect of the iPhone is the wider impact its massive publicity machine has – by throwing a spotlight on new mobile trends. One of these is ‘hyperlocal’ mobile services, especially social networking – not unique to the 3G iPhone for sure, but gaining a new profile from iPhone applications.
Most smartphone makers know that the hot buttons in the mobile internet are location-based services and social networking, and if you put GPS in the handset and mix the two features together, this drives significant increases in mobile web usage. Even greater uptake – and greater differentiation from PC-based services – could be stimulated by going ‘hyperlocal’, and there will be a race between the big names like Facebook, and the mobile specialists, to get there first.
The latest mobile MySpace and Facebook applications suggest that the big brands will win out. Announced for the 3G iPhone and other platforms, these two giants of social networking have both made their products far more sophisticated than their initial mobile versions. And their clear edge over mobile specific social networking systems like Loopt and Whrrl, both also available for the new Apple phone, is that users don’t have to download another piece of software and become part of yet another social network.
Loopt and Whrrl were early in integrating their services with GPS so that users can locate their friends accurately and create ‘hyperlocal’ interactions with friends (or strangers when ad hoc connections are enabled) currently in the neighborhood. These services then integrate with other location-based features like finding restaurants or bars, and social networkers can do microblogging with small local groups, and hyperlocal reviews, all based around GPS.
Now Facebook and MySpace will soon follow suit. The new Apple versions integrate with any iPhone’s camera, allowing for direct upload of pictures to user profiles, and Facebook has incorporated chat too, and the two majors are expected to tie their services to GPS functionality on the iPhone as early as September. At that point, the advantage of the mobile specific apps could disappear. Perhaps their greatest hope lies with the mobile operators. Keen to control the social networking phenomenon rather than just provide the bitpipe for it, some cellcos are putting the application at the heart of their mobile web offerings. Particularly prominent in this is T-Mobile, which has made social networking the lead app in its web ‘n’ walk portal and tariffs, and is introducing a service that allows users to keep track of all their social networking sites and profiles from a single dashboard. That could be the best survival route for the mobile specialists – unless, like some start-ups like ZYB, which sold to Vodafone, they can get a lucrative acquisition by an operator, portal or handset maker.