Killer apps

1&2. Safari and Google Maps

There are two killer apps in the iPhone. The first is Safari.

Even with the slower EDGE network, Apple’s ability to surf the regular web and display websites with exceptional fidelity is its killer app. Before Safari, users had to use special “WAP” based proxy servers and view lower quality websites. Now, virtually every site works with the Safari. The ability to render HTML properly isn’t the only strength – the intelligent auto-zooming feature when you double-tap and user-selectable landscape/portrait mode display make surfing the web practical.

You can use a traditional WAP browse to look things up on Wikipedia, but Safari adds a whole new level of flexibility. Imagine walking through a store and seeing a cool item on clearance. It looks cheap, and it looks good, but since you hadn’t left the house searching for this clearance item, you simply haven’t done the research. Is this the bargain of the century? Or are you succumbing to an impulse buy? Historically, you’d have to call up a friend and ask them for advice (I’ve been on the receiving end of many of these). With the iPhone, you can quickly jump onto Google, figure out the street price on eBay, use Google to search for professional and user reviews and make an informed decision right there in the store. Is this a feature worth $500/$600? No. But it is an example of how the iPhone allows users to do things that were previously difficult or impossible to achieve. We are only beginning to see the tip of the iceberg on what “full internet in your pocket” really means.

There is no question that I would prefer to have Java and Flash capabilities on the iPhone, but even in the current limited form of Safari, I’ve been able to do much more than I could. Likewise, there is no question that palmtop PCs such as the OQO or Vaio U70 which run a full Windows XP offer a superior web-browsing experience. The difference is battery life and the fact that the iPhone literally fits in your pocket, making it more likely that a) you will use the internet without thinking about how much battery life you have left and b) that you’ll actually have the iPhone in your pocket rather than in the dock at home.

Google Maps is the second killer app of the iPhone. The mobile version of Google maps has been around for the Treo, but the experience on the iPhone is vastly different. With the full Google Maps drag-and-scroll interface, along with integration with Google’s business yellow-pages equivalent search, the experience is completely different. It’s faster to look and browse for restaurants in major cities where you’re actually walking around (New York, Santa Monica, Las Vegas, etc.) with Google Maps. As noted in my original article, a main weakness of Google Maps is that you cannot email directions to your colleagues directly from the phone.