The Rocky Road of Locative Apps on the iPhone
Before 2.0's arrival on the iPhone I was totally stoked, wired and infused with such enthuasiam about the locative based services capability in the iphone, no one could of talked me down from my cloud. However now, after experiencing it.. its well.. ummmm not what I expected.
In previous posts I've talked about the various issues with LBS on the iPhone. Now I can see some of that come through while reading reviews of the various apps in the app store. One of the biggest hurdles locative apps have is to really fit into our daily grind, how do you arrive on the scene with an idea so perfect, so essential its not questioned or debated it just goes into pocket with your keys, wallet and everything else. How do you become a need over night in todays far forward future like living? I dunno. Ya gotta hit all the right spots and make the user feel so happy that you are it, you're the one.
Sadly locative apps are not there yet. Some good ideas going around though. Find like people near by, write on a virtual wall in front of a wendy's, geo-cache game, oh and find that starbucks. It will be some time before we'll know what ideas are really sticking. Right now, everybody and every developer is just diving in period, much like the 2.0 web craze itself. It wasn't about making apps better for users, it was about mashups, and making new stuff just cause you could. On the small screen, that is your desktop, you may be willing to go a few rounds on an idea, try it for a bit, I have a feeling on the phone screen your patenice is much shorter. You download, test, play, and abandon fast- moving on to the next app you think could be interesting or, if you're not an app ho like myself you're waiting for your friends to tell you what to get, and they are waiting on us. The cycle is never ending and that means more apps for all as well continue to stumble in the dark and figure out just what is the killer LBS app for the iphone.
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