3G iPhone – The Mobile Web Just Arrived
Yesterday evening UK time Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPhone and the much-promised mobile internet was born.
There have been many attempts at internet on the move in recent years but something has always held it back. No single device has covered all the bases. The new iPhone knocks those previous attempts to the floor and batters them to a pulp.
My much loved Nokia N95 has 3G and a competent built in browser but the screen is too tiny for surfing, there’s no QWERTY keyboard and until recently Vodafone’s data pricing made the mobile internet an expensive and unpredictable proposition. The built in wifi is good but you need to install a third party app such as Devicescape to make hopping onto wifi hotspots a breeze.
The new iPhone brings the Apple handset into the 21st century with 3G for high speed mobile internet access and has the customary huge screen, excellent Safari browser and multi touch interface. But what’s really going to kickstart the mobile web on the iPhone is the pricing.
At last the iPhone is available on the sort of price deals that UK and European mobile users expect. An 18 month £35 contract gets you 600 minutes and the handset is just £99. You can even get the 8GB model for free if you’re prepared to pay £45 a month. All tariffs include unlimited 3G browsing and unlimited wifi browsing via The Cloud and BT Openzone.
Pay as you go pricing is apparently “coming soon”. That opens the iPhone up to the mass market who don’t want or can’t get a contract.
The techy crowd are still bemoaning the low spec 2 megapixel camera that doesn’t include a flash and certainly that’s the feature that is a bit of a downer for me, but the mass market mobile phone users really don’t care that much about the camera. People don’t really expect their phones to take fantastic shots they just want to be able to take a few snaps when they’re out down the pub.
Of more interest to the techies though is the App Store. Apple have opened up development of iPhone applications and provided a one stop shop for selling your wares. This could be huge. What sells Windows isn’t the operating system it’s the applications you can run on it. No phone so far has had a wealth of applications that can easily be installed by the average Joe User. The iPhone may just be the first one that does.
So for us affiliates now is the time to start building the mobile web. I think we’re going to see a huge land grab over the next 6-12 months. It may not be immediately profitable but it’s going to be like Web 2.0 all over again : get users, build loyalty, monetise when you can. This is the mobile web 2.0 and it’s going to be massive.
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January 21st, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I thought this was a worthwhile article, and I pretty much agree with what you said. Also I do have a very quick concern… I’ve used an iPhone for over three years at this point. And also I’ve last week upgraded to the iPhone 4. While I adore the iPhone ( in general), I totally hate AT&T. I don’t want to try to jailbreak the iPhone to use a better service provider, nonetheless , if Apple continues to be in partnership with AT&T a lot longer I’ll be forced to switch to buying an Android phone. The question for you is, do you think Apple has any desires to open up the iPhone to more providers in the near future? Mainly I’d personally want to get one with legitimate 4G coverage! Thanks for the tips!
February 17th, 2011 at 9:38 am
There is a complete sub-market in the area of the mobile telephone sector area connected to the jailbreak or unlocking of the mobile phones so that they can be utilized on any mobile network, and recent Supreme Court selections in the USA handed down have confirmed that the jailbreak sector is legal and reputable. That is, finish-person customers are very in their legal rights to do what they wish to their cellular cell phone handset to enable the cellphone to do the job on other network carriers which is typically recognized as jailbreak or unlocking the network block.
Learn how to Jailbreak your iPhone