On my flight tonight I was perusing the in-flight magazine when I came upon an ad for the Bloomberg iPhone App. It struck me after a moment that I had never before seen a full-page ad in a magazine for any other application for a mobile phone, and it made me consider the question: Is the iPhone ready to be declared mainstream?
When the iPhone was first introduced, there were few in the industry who doubted that it would be revolutionary — and would undoubtedly raise the bar for mobile phone development. We’ve seen this come to fruition in the form of Android, the Blackberry Storm, and now the Palm Pre. However, I doubt that even Apple would have been willing to bet that the iPhone might become mainstream – and yet, we see this happening right before our eyes. Perhaps no better indicator of how mainstream a product is can be had than whether or not it is carried by Wal-Mart – which is not a company known for carrying low-volume products. A year ago, meeting another iPhone user was almost a rare occurrence; today it is the rare flight on which I fail to spot another iPhone user – which also says volumes about the iPhone’s inroads into the business market.
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What is most compelling to me about this ad is the fact that this is a free app — in other words, Bloomberg is spending a decent amount of money in order to give something away. While they certainly hope that you’ll be impressed enough with their service to sign up, the fact that they spent that much money to promote an application that can only be used by what must amount to a fraction of their customer base certainly speaks volumes as to what Bloomberg thinks of the potential for the iPhone.
I’ve tried to recall ever seeing anything similar for any other mobile platform and am unable. Even PalmOS – which reigned supreme in terms of the number of applications and business users for years – and Windows CE/PocketPC/Windows Mobile cannot make such a claim to the best of my knowledge.
So whether or not we are ready to declare the iPhone as "officially mainstream", we certainly cannot deny that it is well on the way there.
What does all this mean for iPhone users? Simply put, more. More applications, more accessories, more members of the various iPhone communities that have sprung up such as our humble selves here at JAIB.
And that can’t be a bad thing.
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