

Woobius - Mobile Apps: It's just the beginning - swombat
http://www.vodafonemobileclicks.com/blog/uk/113/mobile_apps_its_just_the_beginning/

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jasongullickson
I'm surprised this hasn't sparked more discussion already.

I think it's easy to throw all of these "platforms" into the same basket (the
way "ecommerce" was the catch-all bucket for all web apps involving money in
the roaring 90's). This post nicely summarizes the difference between
something like Facebook (which essentially wraps a traditional web app) and an
actual operating system/hardware platform.

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geekchick
Had to write as we were talking about exactly the same thing today in my
office, how using Twitter and Facebook to promote commercial companies doesn't
work because it is too much of a social platform. Its about time people start
to use this great technology we have through apps to help working life not
just for fun. I work in exhibitions and could see how this application to
share drawings could help me communicate with contractors on site. Looks as
though it would have lots of other uses other than just architecture. Great
vid by the way.

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mattmaroon
"Once upon a time, Facebook released an application platform. There followed a
gold rush, a frantic summer where everyone tried to release Facebook
applications. Some hit it big, going from zero to millions of users in a
matter of weeks. Soon, the number of applications became so large (and
Facebook became so good at plugging every spammy hole which applications used
and abused to spread) that the rate of success of new apps approached zero.
The golden age was over."

Actually that's the exact opposite of what happened. A bunch of people did
initially make apps that hit 10s of millions of customers really fast, but
they had no way to monetize and profited very little. Then new apps figured
out how to monetize, and even growing at more reasonable (but still fast)
rates, began to make a fortune.

Now new apps conquer the network almost monthly now and make assloads of
money.

True, they're not business utilities, but neither are most of the phone ones.
In both cases it's games that are winning, and will be winning 5 years from
now. Facebook may be a toy, but so is an iPhone.

The iPhone app store is probably the only one where you can make big bucks,
and it's a total crapshoot. Hundreds of apps drop each day, 99.9% of them
amount to nothing but months of wasted development time. And the few apps that
do make a big bang are almost all entertainment-related.

