Apps, whether they are on the iPhone, HTC Magic, Vodafone 360 or the Web are very much in their infancy, but this is about to change!
Up until now most mobile applications have been hindered by vendor lockin’s, the main perpetrators being Vodafone, T-Mobile and Nokia.
Carsonified - The Future of Web Apps Candy
Once the new mobile standards come into play with specific micro formats and easier adaptation of web 2.0 API we should see application use increase by a dramatic percentage, even if this is use of Tom-Tom apps, social apps and games via non smart phones.
iphone and iphone applications
The App revolution is already full tilt online with sites like http://appuseful.com/ and http://www.igoapps.com/ (for iphone users) developing an impressive following. The lastest technologies in the creation of web Apps are Cappuccino and Objective J, created by 280North who combined these two technologies to offer an application framework with key features in aiding Javascript development. Basically making it 100 times easier to create and deploy your applications online.
Cappucino Web Framework Logo
Some techie features of this new technology:
Objective J
o Add’s key features to Javascript
o Strict superset of Javascript
o No plug-in, no compile
Cappuccino
o Application framework
o Modelled on Cocoa the Mac / iphone apps
o Provides a foundation for your apps
A great example of this new technology is 230 slides, which allow you to upload existing presentations that you have made or create new slideshows, surf for images within the application and video and easily share these with your network.
280 slides online presentation app
Now there are still a lot of people who think that the App has a really short lifespan, I totally disagree. The App will most likely in a few years disappear, but not in a redundant way, in the same way we don’t concern ourselves with thinking of how wireless works or how electricity works.
Apps are no longer a rare thing, they are moving through what is called the copycat stage, this is when there is a lot of pulling and pushing about their success and thousands of Applications are being created. Very soon this technology will become translucent, it will enter the Norm, become boring and be replaced by something that isn’t called an App at all, the App with be the foundations, much as cables that connect us from our home PC’s to the U.S aren’t something we think about. Watch Stefan Fountains talk on the future of mobile http://events.carsonified.com/fowa/2008/london/videos/stefan-fountain/highlights
Mark Weiser said “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”
Apps are at the same stage as movies were back in 2003 when the first VHS/DVD players were released, people knew that DVD’s were better but had a vested interest in VHS so the Combined player heralded the end of the VHS
If you replace VHS with desktop and DVD with Mobile and web, you can see where the App market is now, we know that Mobile Apps are better as they are with us where ever we go, but we still like out onscreen social updates, our desktop tweetdecks (also available on iphone) and our calculators and desktop email clients.
Black Samsung dvd vhs player
A lot of research into Apps on the iphone show that the sudden influx of people downloading Apps directly after their iPhone purchase drop dramatically after a few weeks. This seams like common sense to me, when you’re still getting used to your new phone you will download a lot of Apps to try them out and see what works for you. You will most likely stick with the Apps that help you manage your life such as http://www.tubeexits.co.uk/ that helps you beat the crowds at Tube stations, http://www.redlaser.com/ that lets you scan barcodes on products and see where to find it cheaper and http://gizmodo.com/5026881/crash-bandicoot-nitro-kart-3d when you’ve got a minute or so to waste sitting on the train.
iphone applications
So what do I think the future of Apps is? We will very soon see Apps that come looking for us, they will remember where we have been and make insanely accurate predictions using advertising, updates and even to the point of RT’ing other peoples Tweets on our behalf. They will run in the background of our lives like our tiny personal assistants, working every millisecond of everyday to make our lives just that little bit more Apptastic.
I don’t think we have even seen the surface of what App’s will grow into over the next 12 months, I can’t wait.
I think the bigger issue here Claire begins thusly:
Why is there no app that can make me a cup o coffee in the morning?
Seriously though, great post, I was speaking to a few of the speakers from FOWA in London recently, and they are a super smart bunch.
Does the RedLaser app work in the UK though?
That is one of the things that bugs me right now, all the kickass concept apps are US specific. There is one that Kevin Rose just invested in called FourSquare, which is a superb concept, but it is heavily US specific (Note: they just added London apparently).
Anyway, great post.
Dean
PS: Jailbreak FTW ;-)
Thanks Dean, i am having the same frustration with finding an ‘air tagging’ app that works in UK, its a great app and i can’t seam to find a way to get it.
Redlaser does work in UK yep, its a brilliant app, save alot of money on DVD’s with it. (i know i should download)
Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to post and (Jailbreak is noted :) )
Apps are the front-end creations of concepts. As technology progresses, concepts that seemed far fetched can then materialise into a known usable entity. When this entity becomes part of everyday use and losses its “newness” it becomes the “norm” which in turn ups the bar for new concepts. The cycle continues.
As far as Apps are concerned they are becoming the norm but we are only at the beginning of the cycle as they rely on the average john smith to own the capable hardware. This will at some point happen just as broadband has become a staple of everyday life, Apps will do to in time
Totally, apps havent even really been given birth too yet, they are still in our everyday lives and if we are still thinking about them as Apps then they really havent reached what they could well be..
Thanks for the comment Greg :)
The mobile browser is going to explode shortly.
I read a really interesting piece on the BBC earlier in the week which made reference to all handsets that will be in the mix for the ever growing of people using mobile technology to run their lives.
i different type of handset?
Really interesting post! Great Speakers!
Wish I’d been there!
I love the explanation on how ‘we’ feel about web apps today! The transition from VHS to DVD mediated by the DVD/VHS Combo player…
Sometimes I feel like some of my lovely clients are a little bit like the combo player!
I agree that things are moving quickly and that there are so many fantastic and ‘every day help’ apps, that I truly think as Claire says, will become the norm, but I’m also surprised to see that a great deal of the big players, don’t seem to have caught up yet!
Great Mark Quote!
Mark Weiser said “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.”
The future of Apps? Both scary and exciting! Now where’s my pa?
I loved that DVD combo explaination too, and the quote is amasing… its so true that the important things become invisible isnt it.
I really hope that the whole app world ramps up and hits more of the mobile networks soon, i find my iphone so useful and its a shame that other people don;t have access to the kind of technology that amases me – like geotargeting, push email, redlaser and bump.
:)