April 22nd, 2009
The iPhone is clearly the king of 3rd party apps
I just read a post over on The iPhone blog that links to the Read Write Web article on smartphone applications. Read Write Web states that the iPhone is king, smartphones are the new laptops, and iPhone applications can and do make money. The data shows that the iPhone is clearly and undisputably the king when it comes to mobile applications. The quality and content of the apps are the main reason I use my iPhone from time to time because the phone itself lacks functions I find much better on Windows Mobile and S60.
While I do have a lot of applications on my iPhone, I find that there are really only a dozen or so that I use regularly and wonder if this is what most iPhone users are experiencing too. There is only so much time you have to use your phone and you can only have so many applications loaded that you actually use regularly. Do most people download and install like crazy and then rarely use the applications again?
The article also mentions updating applications and here is one area where Apple needs to work on. I get strange update notifications that indicate an update is available with a revision date in 2008 even though I already have the latest version on my iPhone. I do not find the update process to be very accurate or robust. I sometimes get update notifications on my iPhone that are different than the ones that appear in iTunes. I do appreciate that there is such a mechanism, but Apple needs to fix some of these issues.
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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