iPhone As A Disruptor
Jason Kottke has an article about the iPhone that really bears further thought and analysis. Titled Your Company; There’s An App For That, it talks about ways in which smart phones in general — and Apple in the particular — are in direct competition with lots of companies that might not quite know it’s coming:
Well, the iPhone does a lot of useful things pretty well, well enough that it is replacing several specialized devices that do one or two things really well. Space in backpacks, pockets, and purses is a finite resource, as is money (obviously). As a result, many are opting to carry only the iPhone with them when they might have toted several devices around. Here is a short list of devices with capabilities duplicated to some degree by the iPhone: [shortening & formatting for space reasons]
- Mobile phone
- PDA
- iPod
- Point and shoot camera
- Personal computer
- Nintendo DS or PSP
- GPS
- Flip video camera
- Compass
- Watch
- Portable DVD player
- Kindle
With all the apps available at the App Store, the list goes on: pedometer, tape recorder, heart monitor, calculator, remote control, USB key, and on and on. Electronic devices aren’t even the whole story. I used to carry a folding map of Manhattan (and the subway) with me wherever I went but not anymore. With Safari, Instapaper, and Amazon’s Kindle app, books and magazines aren’t necessary to provide on-the-go reading material.
This got me thinking…
I know some people who are using their iPhone/iPod as a way of tracking their workout information (replacing their watch and GPS). I’ve seen at least one person using their iPhone as a bike computer. Personally, I use my iPod as another USB drive (as well as music in my car). My Blackberry contains most of the data I would have previously carried in my wallet (insurance information and the like). Both the 80/20 rule of “good enough” and Moore’s law of increased performance means that this trend will only continue…
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