2009 was the year for mobile Apps with perhaps Apple being the most notable for its hugely successful App store. Many others have followed suit and now there are App stores for platforms including Android, Nokia, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
Working in the creative industry for many years I’ve been surrounded by Apple evangelists and I’m accustomed to the almost godlike status Apple users accord the company. However after playing with a friend’s iPhone a couple of years ago and seeing some of the first Apps available I realised how great this would become as a platform. Whilst I think the majority of Apps on the Apple App store fairly useless there’s a small percentage that are really worth installing and now I coudn’t imagine not using them.
It’s an indication of its maturity as a platform that people now are much less likely to install an app that makes fart sounds and more likely to use them to interact with their social networks, blog, find locations, check mail, watch movies, upload/download photos etc. Although Apple has been pretty restrictive in managing both developers and customers of the App store I think they’ve blazed a trail for mobile Apps that has raised the bar for everyone.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what new Apps will be available in 2010 with rising trends like Augmented Reality, location aware apps and social networking. As more mobile platforms become available and the technology gets cheaper, I think a much greater number of people will use mobile in place of desktop Apps, especially those that don’t need the performance or storage of a laptop or desktop e.g. web based Apps.
