iPhone Frenzy, This Time Around It's About the Apps

Will there be iPhone frenzy on July 11? We know that there will be plenty of phones to go around, but still my friends and I are already planning to line up at the Apple Store in the wee hours of July 11th to get first dibs. Why do we care this much about a mobile phone upgrade?

The new iPhone 3G has a lot going for it--simply stated, the pricing strategy alone is a win-win (we'll pay less upfront and about $40 more in the long-term). But, it's not about the price or the 3G tech, or the new plastics involved.

Far more significant than the hardware upgrades, all iPhones will be able to connect to the App Store, an online service from Apple that will allow us to easily install third-party software that utilizes all of the iPhone's capabilities. This newfound ability to run virtually any application will soon let the little, mobile Apple computer in our pockets do things for us that the machines on our desks could only dream of.

But what will all these life-changing applications cost us? Will the $200 I save on my iPhone 3G just eventually get gobbled up by the App Store instead? Will the average iPhone customer even want to pay for these apps? And, how in the world will companies focused on the Apps, like newly launched Instinctiv.com actually monetize the software?

Enter Eric Litman, founder and CEO of Medialets, a New York-based advertising delivery platform whose work I hope will end up saving me a lot of my hard-earned cash. His company encourages developers who might otherwise charge up-front licensing fees to instead give their wares away for free. The costs of development would be supported by showing innovative, dynamic advertisements displayed inside the apps with Medialets technology.

Litman, an entrepreneur at heart, has enjoyed a rapid succession of exits before the age of 30. He recently left a venture capital fund in DC to come to New York and provide the advertising world with the ability to reach consumers in contextually relevant and geo-targeted manners, which has long been the Holy Grail for marketers. His backgrounds in both the agency and mobile realms make him a perfect candidate to lead the charge in reshaping the way marketers engage their target audiences.

My prediction: Things are going to change. Today's mobile ecosystem - the current iPhone ecosystem - is about to feel a major disruption led by Litman and others. Mobile will never be the same and rising stars will come out in droves to be a part of the App Store.

So, now, can you blame me for wanting to be first in line on July 11? A piece of history is worth a few lost hours of sleep and $199.

Comments

[querencia]

The iphone is actually LESS than a phone, as far as that goes. It sucks.its slippery and totally dangerous to use in the car, requiring 2 hands and sustained eye contact to use. so i don't. turns its own ipod on for no apparant reason (their tech support knows about this but hasn't got a solution) and runs the battery down. Adds every single contact in my computer whether I want it to or not. Loses phone numbers I put into it when i sync it. Says it works with my outlook calendar (one of my conditions for buying it) but actually doesn't. Crashed my entire system when I first attempted to activate it. Intermittently downloads email but then content of the message is not there. Doesn't work overseas. Cannot survive being dropped so I have to be ultra careful of this slippery little thing. The ONLY thing I like about it is that I can make the screen big enough to see. If a blackberry could do that- i would change in a heartbeat, even though it is a lot of work to change over to anything new. I might anyhow. It looked so great on the video that introduced all the features. Too bad more of them don't actually work.

[Paradym]

"and totally dangerous to use in the car"
Every phone is dangerous to use in the car. Unless you are The President (but then you wouldn't be driving) or a surgeon on call, there is nothing so important that the call can't wait. Ignore the phone when you drive or pull over to use the phone. Stop endangering my safety because of your delusional self-importance causing you to use your phone while you drive.

[jfor]

Isnt the I phone in the end. errrl just a phone?

[theJuanStar]

No. It's a computer that can make and receive phone calls. There is a difference.

[jfor]

Oh its a computer. Funny the marketing says its a phone. To bad it can't toast my bagel, Now that was a great invention. The bagel, Not the toaster.