For example the Killer app of the personal computer was the Spreadsheet. The discovered app was desktop publishing in all its forms (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, PageMaker, Quark Express, Photoshop). This discovered app then evolved into the web browser.
The killer app for the mobile phone was voice. The discovered app was messaging (i.e. SMS and to a lesser extent the multimedia variants).
The killer app for the internet was email. The discovered app was search.
Interestingly enough there is no killer smartphone app. All the research data tends to suggest it is all about buying into a better mobile phone experience (i.e. A fashion makeover that is more aligned to the cyclical mobile buying experience than the introduction of a new technology platform). Therefore I would suggest for now at least the killer app for the smartphone is more (i.e. doesn’t matter what it is games, connectivity, search, web, productivity, messaging or media. My smart phone does a hell of a lot more than my dumb phone) or, at the very least, replication of the desktop computing experience on the mobile phone. Meanwhile I suspect the discovered app is going to be Augmented Reality in all its variant forms (e.g. ShopSavvy, Redlaser, Aislebuyer, Google Goggles, mobile payments).
Wade through the app stores and you discover an endless array of apps that generate lists. And this is why I suspect that for all the gloss and glam of the smartphone revolution the user experience hasn’t really evolved all that much. At the core of the smartphone user experience is still the good old list engine. Yes you navigate by touching the screen but most of the time you are still working with endless user generated lists.
So perhaps we may have to concede that, at least based on the growing number apps in the app store, if there is a killer app for the smartphone it may well be the list generator (e.g. Google search and Twitter).
Which leads me to the question: What is the killer app for the iPad and what should we expect to be the discovered app? Indeed is there a killer app driving sales or is it just another chance to replicate the desktop experience on a slightly larger mobile platform? Are we just buying another list engine experience?
A quick look through the App Store will reveal very quickly there are no must have killer apps for the iPad. Indeed it would be relatively easy to frame an argument suggesting that the long tail of the App Store is a reflection of the range and quality of the content on display rather than any fundamental weakness in the App Store economy.
Even some of the most impressive apps in the store look and feel like a throw back to a previous era in desktop computing. Here I am thinking of the music apps like GarageBand, the Korg Synthesizers and Rebirth and the iMovie video editor.And yet there is still a magical feel about the device and that magical feel is essentially all about computing becoming a tactile experience.
For me the breakthrough iPad apps are the ones that exploit this tactile experience to maximum advantage so that you can create something new a unique to the iPad experience.
The one’s that I have discovered so far that match that criteria are Flipboard (The DIY RSS Feeder Magazine app) and the painting apps Sketchbook and Artrage. However the one that elevates my expectations beyond what the iPad can become is MorphWiz.
To see what I mean check out these demo videos of some of these apps.
The Artrage app replicates the real world experience of mix media art without the expense or the mess involved in working with paint and chalk by delivering a virtual artists studio.
While the two Korg and ReBirth sythesizer apps are best described as music hardware simulators.
Finally the Morphwiz changes the iPad into a virtual musical instrument. The key difference being it isn’t simulating a drum kit or piano. It is a new creation. A new way of making music. This what I find interesting about Jordan Rudess and Kevin Chartier magical creation and I hope that it is Apps that like this that inspire all of us to rethink how we interact with more mundane media like words and numbers and tables in a database so that we can discover an interactive world far removed from our current fascination with creating endless lists. More importantly they can teach us all that you can build mobile apps the inspire and delight customers so much that they are more than happy to pay for the experience.
Posted on May 27, 2011
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