Phone alone
It wasn't too long ago that smartphones were a geeky gadget for the self-anointed early adopters and tech posers, but it won't be long before they're as ubiquitous as TVs, or clothes, or air.
What made me think this was an image Scott put up on Twitter, via his smartphone of course, entitled "Even children can't escape smartphones". The image was of a cheap child's toy, which I'm told came free with a pre-school children's magazine, that was clearly designed to look like and iPhone, or at least a generic smartphone.
That, my friends, is market penetration. When you've got kids that can barely string a sentence together, and can't concentrate on anything for more than five seconds, craving a product that's aimed at adults, then you've surely achieved all you possibly can marketing wise. In fact you might as well disband the whole marketing department, coz there's nothing left for them to do.
And it doesn't stop there. Check out the clip below - it's an iPhone/iPad app called Nursery Rhymes with Storytime, and it uses Facetime to let parents remotely read to their kids, while providing some kind of interactive fun for said kid. The video below is clearly meant to be cute and touching, but I just find it pretty kin creepy.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say Apple is focusing on the sprogg market. In fact I'm saying it doesn't need to because the sprogg market is coming to it. The point I'm making is that smartphones are fast becoming much more than just a communication tool, or even a convergent device; they're becoming part of the fabric of our lives.
The sheer amount of functionality now crammed into these things has given app and service developers a mad choice of tools to work with. The really cool stuff now is not new hardware features, but what developers are doing with them.
Take the story on HEXUS last week about eBay Classifieds. The eBay bloke said cameraphones have transformed the way people flog stuff online coz now you just need to take a photo with your phone and upload it with a price tag and hey presto - millions of people can buy the stuff you've got bored of. Mental.
Before I sign off I've got to congratulate you guys on the chat you got going over those new Apple TV ads for the iPhone - 65 comments last time I looked. I've got to be honest, those ads do get on my tits a bit, but it cracks me up how much Apple winds some people up. To help you guys chill before the weekend, here's an iPhone ad spoof. Laters.
