Thursday we reviewed the iPhone and how it could impact social media. That is to say that it hasn’t yet although it has experienced tremendous growth and some claim it is behind Twitter’s explosion. It’s the device that’s driving the smartphone explosion in the United States and could be behind the growing number of those accessing social networks via mobile devices. Currently 25% of Facebook users access the site via mobile devices. That is 100 million people.
It’s important to remember that the iPhone/iPhone apps are a walled garden in the same sense that Facebook is. It’s out of the reach of what we consider the web. (Some have suggested that apps be keystones to bring disparate information from the web together. Can’t find the post right now.) Google got a lot of advertising information when they acquired AdMob since AdMob provided advertising for iPhone applications; it’s not the web. (Some We reviewed some applications that demonstrate how physical the device is. We also talked about other key functions that I’d like to see. Some of the apps that we reviewed are RedLaser, “PowerPoint apps“, Smule’s Ocarina and Ustream Live Broadcaster. One of my students had a brilliant recommendation for the RedLaser application. They should allow you to enter two stores to compare prices between them so if you’re at Whole Foods and you wanted to know how much milk cost across the street at King Soopers. This would extend RedLaser’s offering to like products since they may not carry the same brand. We tested the Ustream live broadcast app in class and even though the quality was not that good because the connection to the interwebs was too slow, the app was still amazing. We talked about how a live stream could benefit two students based on the business models they’re developing.
The student’s presentations have taken more time with a lot of conversation, which is more than I could have hope for. Very smart class. It has also pushed the class schedule back and we’re going to have to cover personal branding and delicious in one night.
