Mobile advertising, the availability of mobile web apps, and mobile phone services that allow you to know the location of others. There is a lot of buzz going on about who is going to crack the “let me do everything on my mobile phone” code. Who will come up with the killer app that will allow this to happen? Who will define and own the market? Michael Arrington of TechCrunch had a great post about one such app.
It appears that the introduction of the iPhone has everyone convinced that the iPhone will provide the technical platform upon which these ideas could work. Makes me wonder. Is this the only way? So much of what I’m reading is about companies trying to find ways to port the current paradigm and experience onto the mobile platform. The iPhone certainly does lend itself to doing that better than most phones out there. But what would happen if we had no iPhone? What if we had to find a way to “go mobile” without all the apps, ads, and services that were originally designed to be delivered via another medium?
I don’t have an answer, but I will pose the problem. How can people have access to information from wherever they are? If I were to focus purely on this question would I say, “well, we have to start with a phone-like device, and apps like facebook…”
I’m not sure I would.