iPhone apps

Thomas Husson | March 10, 2008, 03:46 PM

Articles about the iPhone last month were mainly focusing on the 4M sales mark and the smuggling happening in some part of the world. Such a phenomenon can be explained by a couple of elements: the fact that the $ is at its weakest, that beyond o2 Ireland no new distribution agreement* was officially signed. It means than more than a year after having been announced, some consumers simply want to own the device. This always happen with strong brands and selective distribution models. No reason why the iPhone should be an exception.

With an installed base of more than 4M and the high usage of the early iPhone adopters, it makes sense for developpers to start creating dedicated applications. See Michael Gartenberg's first take here. After all, there are only 3 times more Blackberry devices. So as many have already observed the Exchange announcement is a direct threat to RIM.

Looking at consumers' applications, I find it interesting that the main game publishers announced dedicated games for the iPhone: 15 games for Gameloft (already a partner on iPods), EA ("spore" in Sept 08) and SEGA with Super Monkey Ball. The CEO of Glu Mobile is reported to have said in the press that the SDK was 100% right. But he also added that it would add complexity since it would be another platform to develop for. Making money in a fragmented market is always a challenge. The long term questions to which it is still difficult to answer are: can Apple continue not to embracing the mobile ecosystem (all apps to be distributed via Apple store or iTunes with 30% rev share for Apple, 70% for the developer and 0% for the operator) and when can developers / publishers expect a ROI when you compare that with much larger installed bases (Symbian phones,...)? Controlling the software distribution via iTunes is also a way for Apple to make sure smugglers won't benefit from the latest versions and applications.

Last but not least: BBC has made its iPlayer TV catch-up service available on iPhone. The service does not use the new SDK but is a streaming browser-based solution. Looks great and a very interesting concept. As my colleagues Nick Thomas and Mark Mulligan pointed out: then what’s left that you would want to pay for if you can watch free catch-up TV? Probably some more premium content categories such as sport.

* UPDATED: and T-Mobile Austria who launched the iPhone this week