To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade, That Is the Question

I've had my trusty iPhone 2 G since it dropped. In two months, my 2 year contract expires, and I will be free and clear of AT&T's onerous terms. But now that the 3GS is here, chock full of exciting new features (that aren't available for the 2G), I am faced with a dilemma.

FYI, I paid $399 for my 8 gig iPhone a few years ago. My initial excitement for having copped the freshest phone in the market, soon gave way to dismay, as Apple decided to drop the price (and offer that measly credit to suckers like me).

I was even further disheartened with the abysmal Edge Network, and the less-than-stellar browsing experience outside of a WiFi signal. Eventually, I came to accept these limitations, still happy to be part of the exclusive iPhone family.

When the 3G was released, not soon thereafter, I began to worry that I had a 'sucker' tattooed to my forehead. Surely, Apple hasn't released a new iPhone less than a year after the introduction of the first. I couldn't stomach shelling out any more money for a phone, which had so quickly ushered in the obselescence of my own.

I stuck to my guns, though, and avoided the siren call of the 3G, with it's (allegedly) faster 3G connection speeds, and (supposed) enhancements. Yeah, it's a little sleeker, but it's not sleek enough!

Now the 3GS teases me. It calls me. I've got a video camera, voice controls, a compass, MMS, cut&paste, blah, blah, blah. It costs less than I paid for my 2G and way more features. It's bringing sexy back. Can I afford to be without it?

Well, for now, the answer to that question is an unequivocal 'Yes. I can.' Truth is, I'm broke. As much as I'd love to own the latest and greatest, I can't justify yet another gadget (but damn! I want it!)

If anyone within the sound of my blog feels moved to charity...hit a bruh up.

The Open Screen Project

I recently completed a survey for Fierce Wireless, which asked about the mobile strategies my company was implementing.  It soon became apparent that the survey was really about Abode's mobile efforts, and was gathering information on how effectively Adobe made it's presence in the mobile space felt.

Apparently, Adobe has been quite busy in the mobile space for some time. Flash Lite, Adobe Labs and the Open Screen Project are a few of Adobe's more well known efforts, but they have been actively engaged in developing mobile solutions, to allow developers and end-users to benefit from the Adobe suite of products and services.

Adobe's mobile efforts are similar to those of Apple, Google, and more recently handset manufacturer, Nokia, who are taking steps to offer their current user base greater utility, driven by extentions of their current capabilities.  Adobe's efforts are equally ambitious, with the announcement of the Open Screen Project Fund, which they hope will generate Apple SDK, and Android-like responses within the developer communities, that will translate into greater Adobe-based mobile applications for end-users.

Will Adobe open up their own App Store?  Who knows.  Ultimately, I was glad to have been included in the survey, because it gave me a chance to look into Adobe's efforts, and extend my knowledge of all that is mobile.  If you're not up-to-speed on Adobe, definitely check them out.

The Future is Mobile

Years ago, I used to have this running debate with a friend of mine regarding which platform was going to be the dominant one in the future, Windows of Mac.  I was the Windows fan, because I felt that it was a superior business platform, and was far more ubiquitous than Mac (which I relegated to the world of artistic/design types).  My friend (the artistic/design type) was steeped in Macs (they gave them out at Princeton University), and believed that the people at Apple were on to something.

Every so often, we'd sit down and compare notes, and as the years progressed, we discovered we were both right.  Windows is still the dominant platform, installed on 95% of the world's computers.  But Mac is the dominant platform for media.  And so we called a truce to our ongoing debate, since virtually everything you could do only exclusively on one platform or the other (back in the day), could be accomplished on either today (and fairly interchangeably, read: Intel Dual Core).

The dominant platform today, as I see it, is not Windows or Mac.  Its not even computer based.  It mobile.  Period.  Full Stop.  There are more mobile phones in operation today than there are personal computers.  In 2006 browsing on mobile phones overtook browsing on PCs as the dominant way to surf the internet.  Today, virtually any task you can perform on a computer can be accomplished on a mobile device.  And smart phones, like the iPhone, Blackberry and Treo, are affording the types of business productivity, typically offered by laptops.

While there are still issues of interoperability, and lots of content, applications and functionality is not yet device or carrier agnostic, these issues are being addressed.  Unlike the clash of the titans, between Mac and Windows, mobile device manufacturer, carriers, aggregators and the like, are utilizing lots of different standards, thereby giving users lots of options.  What's more, its not likely than a single uniform standard is on the immediate horizon.

But what's of singular importance, is the fact that mobile is still a vast untapped, undefined horizon.  Its the wild wild west (Kool Moe Dee, not Will Smith).  I stay preaching about the virtues of mobile, and regularly encourage my clients to get up on it (Salt N' Pepa style).  There is soooo much money to be made by content creators and aggregators.  And there are few barriers to entry.

Mobile phones are inherently social networking tools, and so anyone interested in capturing an increasingly mobile audience, needs to start capturing mobile phone numbers (as well as email addresses) to truly stay connected.  Failing to adopt a mobile strategy, in addition to an internet or web strategy is a fatal flaw in any marketing or promotions plan.  The low price point for acquiring a mobile phone, means that an ever increasing audience is ripe for the picking for the really focused player.

At the end of the day, mobile is where its at, and where its going to be for the foreseeable future.  

The following was a public service announcement.