ALTHOUGH I BUY mobile phones for their durability and tactile functionality, the mobile landscape today revolves around mindshare. People want to think they're getting the latest, coolest thing and that's often something in their mind. Based on the foot traffic I've watched walk in and out of local phone shops, people think apps are the ultimate measure of sophistication. Lust for apps started in the States around two years ago when people started realising they could carry really potent computing power in their pockets. Today, 42.7 million smartphones are running in the US. Apple created this market segment on my birthday in 2007. And consumers want smartphones nowadays, more than they want a device that last three years. I'm trying to guide new students into their first leap towards the smartphone ecosystem, pointing out my recommendations in a vast selection of mobile applications now running on smartphones. I lead with "make sure you get wifi" because of the trend I'm noticing by mobile phone operators to extract more than the contracted levels of data usage from their customers. Apps can be data carnivores and in my life, whenever I permit my smartphones to update things on their own throughout a month, I'm assured of exceeding my data limits and I end up paying an extra 100 euro to my mobile operator for easy access to smart apps. It's no wonder that Irish mobile phone operators hype the App Store and Android Market. When more people use those facilities, operators enjoy an easy boost in revenue-based services traveling over the air.
Ramon Nuez -- "Smartphone Application Market is a $2.2 Billion Business" in the Huffington Post, 22 Sep 10.
Photo of me using Seesmic on my Xperia X10 Android phone.
