Killer Mobile App? Making Phone Calls

The killer app is making calls

I agree with this statement wholeheartedly - but if Steve and Jonathan really believe it, why didn’t they make a dazzlingly attractive and intuitive phone with a sensible form factor?

My current phone, and its ancestors, have all managed to make calls pretty well, and while they didn’t have a nice voicemail inbox or a decent web browser, they did at least fit in my pocket.

Still, it’s good to see a smartphone that does acknowledge its core function as making phone calls.

Great quote and it answers a lot of critics who complain about not being able to feel the buttons and dial without looking.

With this phone, you don’t really dial anymore. You manage contacts and then just choose who to call. Its much more efficient and keeps people from trying to use their phone while they’re doing something important that requires their attention (ie. driving).

It’s a great quote but I agree with Peter - if the killer app is making calls why isn’t the phone built more around that? I really don’t see why they’ve entered the smartphone market. The iPod is a great success with teens, not primarily with business executives. It would have made more sense to build it around the needs of that demographic: iTunes, texting, making calls and photographing.

Socializing rather than cool features.

Good point, Peter. I assumed that the iPhone would fit in a pocket…and I think Steve even mentioned something to that effect…if it can’t then that’s a big problem to be sure.

Here’s a glimpse of the size of the thing:

Relative size of iPhone

Dennis: My 2 year old cell phone has an address book and manages my contacts–I rarely punch in numbers to dial. The phone I had 2 years before that did the same thing.

Jason Fried’s take on the iPhone’s lack of tactility is interesting: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/188-iphone-not-touchy-feely

Also, was making phone calls on phones ever really a problem? I’ve never thought my phone was very difficult to make calls with (it’s a flip phone, so no need to lock it–I just open it, dial, and press send… I could do it without looking if I wanted. Or, I could press the down arrow to instantly scroll through my contacts, scroll to the one I want and press send… or press send to see recently calls or missed calls, scroll and press send… how does the iPhone improve on this? or even do it as well?). I mean, the killer app is the phone, but this isn’t really a phone, it’s more like a UMPC.

For the record I think the iPhone looks cool, but I’m beginning to think it is more like the Segway scooter: revolutionary technologies in a not-so-revolutionary package. That is to say, I think the gyroscope (uh, if that’s what it’s called) balancing tech in the Segway will be very important in some future device… and I think the multi-touch sensing in the iPhone will be important… in some other device (maybe even a future version of the iPhone).

Sadly, he is wrong. Or else he is ignoring 95% of the world’s *mobile device* users.

The killer app of mobile devices is not voice, it is text communication. And touchscreens are notoriously bad as keyboards. No tactile response. QWERTY is good for when you have all your fingers available, terrible for one-handed thumb use.

Have you run out and gotten your flatpanel keyboard yet? No, you haven’t.

Also, is the device carrier locked?
Also, can we install our own apps on the device? Can we write applications that run on the device and access the address book and the camera and the file system? To be seen…

quote: The killer app of mobile devices is not voice, it is text communication.

that’s why the iPhone has iChat/SMS (AOL Instant Messenger) built in.

Wow) I dont know that the iPhone has iChat/SMS (AOL Instant )
Cool)
Waiting for new generation of phones

I also dont know about that iPhone has iChat/SMS (AOL Instant) Its really great to use them. I want to use them as soon as possible.

Boris:
 Steve here is not suggesting that the BIG NEW THING on cell phones is making calls. What he’s doing is using a term (”Killer App”) that is being tossed around alot nowadays. A “Killer App” is a proprietary application—or an application exclusive to a type of device— that makes that device invaluable. By claiming that making phone calls is the “Killer App” of a cell phone, he’s implying that the one application on cell phones that will determine their worth is how well they make phone calls.
 What he’s implying is that no matter how good a cell phone is at text messaging, no matter how good it is at e-mail, or photography, or video, or anything else at all, if it stinks at making phone calls, it’s basically useless. I had a friend once say he’d use the text messaging feature on a phone when he could “talk a text message”. Which is hilarious—Why not just call the person?
 Phones are, first and foremost, for making phone calls. Steve’s got that, and he is making it clear here that the focus of their work on the iPhone is going to be on ease of making calls. And I think if the iPhone turns out like any of Apple’s current products, it will be functional, easy-to-use, and (best of all) won’t break every other day.
 Personally, I’m switching to Cingular just for the iPhone.