The iPhone 3G hogged its share of the spotlight over the weekend. The “twice the speed, half the price” phone sold upwards 1 million units over the weekend. But while most of the spotlight was focused on the new phone itself (and the difficulties experienced during the launch), I believe time will show the iPhone App Store — a iTunes-integrated online store that allows consumers to easily install a seemingly endless variety of games, utilities and other applications — was the Apple release most deserving of the weekend spotlight.
The new features (3G antenna, standard headphone jack, etc.) are improvements, don’t get me wrong. But they are the sort of sustaining improvements that customers expect, and they don’t exactly break new ground. I doubt whether these features alone can propel the iPhone to the level of success that Apple’s other “i” product has achieved. (If they could, you’d see a lot more buzz about the LG Dare and the Samsung Instinct).
It is the App Store that adds features in a disruptive way that other phones can’t match. With it, the Apple finally gives consumers a way to conveniently add third-party programs to their phones. (I’ve used both Palm OS and Windows mobile devices and can testify that until now this has been neither a quick nor a convenient process). In the same way that the iTunes music store made the iPod much more than another digital music player by allowing the consumer to easily buy, organize, sync and play music, the App Store makes the iPhone more than another smartphone. It turns it into a computer in your pocket, ready to be customized with the applications that you want.
How significant will the effect of the App Store be? Well, if the history of the iPod before and after iTunes is any guide, the effect will be enormous.
Prior to the release of iTunes in April, 2004, no more than 1 million iPods has been sold during any quarter. After it was released for Windows in October of 2004 (it was a Mac only release for the first few months), at least 4 million iPods (and as many as 22 million!) have been sold every quarter.
Of course, there are differences. Consumers already had well-established habits relating to buying and listening to music that the iPod + iTunes could build on. Similar habits relating to the use of third-party applications on mobile devices may not be as prevalent. And this time, the competition isn’t as far behind. Google is hard at work pushing its own mobile platform, Android, with headset makers and application developers (and might even be developing a Google phone). Also, incumbents like Nokia, which acquired Symbian recently, aren’t sitting still either. Both may be able to offer consumers devices that are as flexible and application ready as the iPhone in the near term.
In the face of these challenges, it will be interesting to see whether Apple will be able to repeat the success of the iPod. It is doing plenty right. But will it be enough?
I've spent some time recently exploring the blogosphere to find reviews of various online money management services, including Mint, Wesabe, Geezeo and others. The interest is personal - Ive been a Mint user for the past few months and though Im relatively satisfied with the experience, Ive been wondering how Mint stacks up against the competition. As someone who could never get into the habit of using Quicken or Microsoft Money (although one program came with my computer and I bought the other a couple of years back in order to fulfill a short-lived New Years resolution to keep better track of my finances), I was a bit surprised by some of the criticisms I read:
Turns out that the folks at Intuit are on top of their game (not too surprising, since they'd had previous success with low-end disruptive products like QuickBooks). They launched an web-based solution, 
Google and Sun Microsystems 
oogle recently announced its Google Apps Premier Edition, a package of hosted services for businesses including calendars, word processing and messaging. For a $50 annual fee per user account, businesses can use the suite over the web on Googles computers eliminating the hassles of installing or maintaining software on employees PCs. With the Premier Edition, companies are guaranteed 99.9% uptime, phone help and extra storage. Industry analysts are calling this move a shot at Microsoft, whose omnipresent Office product are filled with extensive features that are overshot for the average employee.
However, Google Apps makes it easier for businesses to share their documents internally. CTOs, such as Gregory Simpson of GE, are attracted to Googles web expertise and ability to enable employees to better collaborate, a feature other competitors seem to neglect.