When Apple released its iPhone in 2007, 30 million users have discovered that the device and its iPod touch sibling are about more than just combining a phone with an iPod – it’s based, fundamentally, around using a handset to do all those things, from shopping to searching, that had previously been confined to the desktop. At the heart of this idea, although few realised it when the iPhone was released, is the idea of using the phone to run self-contained “applications”. So, Apple releases Apple’s iPhone App Store.
Since July 2008, when the App Store launched, iPhone and iPod touch owners have downloaded more than 800 million applications. Surprisingly, video games have been one of the most popular applications. Games such as Super Monkey Ball are tailor-made for the iPhone’s touch-screen and its built-in accelerometer, which knows which way you’re holding the phone.
Seeing so much opportunities in online application store, mobile phone companies including Nokia and RIM are launching online application stores to challenge Apple’s iPhone App Store.
Nokia has announced that it is launching an application store so that users of its handsets can download and install new software. The Ovi Store is still a couple of months off launch, but there are still plenty of applications that Nokia users – and users of other Symbian software-based phones, such as many devices from Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG – can install. There’s a well-established community of developers building programs, many of them free, that can be used on a host of devices.
BlackBerrys are no longer aimed just at businessmen. Now everyone wants access to their emails on the go. BlackBerry manafacturers RIM will soon be launching App World, their online application store where users can download a host of software and programs to add extra functionality to their phone. Many of the applications will have a business focus, providing stock market trackers and even productivity software. But a great many more will be designed with fun and frivolity in mind. There’s already a wide variety of applications available for many BlackBerry handsets, such as ebook reading software and spreadsheet editors.
Posted by GadGet-Zoom under: Apple
