A Meaningful Life

We are about to see the start of unshaped iPhone plan disasters reported in the Australia press and blogs over coming weeks.

Shaping is when your Telco service provider cuts down the speed of your internet connection on your mobile or computer device. It’s an alternative to paying high excess usage charges on a per Megabyte basis above your plan allowance.

The problem is that all the iPhone plans I have seen aren’t shaped so there is potential for overunning your data allowance and racking up a large bill if you’re not the vigilant personality type.

Another risk is that application you have permissioned to silently drink your data in the background while you enjoy your iPhone party?

At 35 cents per Megabyte with Optus as just one example it does make me think there might just be a few high profile accidents waiting to happen.

To find out what you have used so far in your iPhone go to Settings > General > Usage > Received.

Free wireless hotspots and light native applications will help but the reality is that until Telco plans are generous or protective in their design for consumers, accidents may happen. I hope I’m wrong.

Photo: Storem

There are many business models emerging amongst iPhone developers. Many remind me of Google using Search (the drawcard) to pump their Adwords product (the money engine).

Since learning that business model lesson back in the late 90’s I’ve always thought about what I call drawcards, and specifically in the tech space, drawcard applications. Browser widgets are another good example.

Some iPhone developers will sell their apps, some will provide them free and monetise the user base down the track and the smart ones in my opinion will create drawcard applications to their existing businesses. They might even build them and sell them to other businesses who can apply them like thick sweet icing to their existing applications used by large customer bases.

Remember the Milk did the drawcard thing just that recently with their iPhone personal task management app which incidentally won Apples Design Award for the best iPhone app of 2008.

Google, Flickr and many others believe in building free drawcard applications and widgets for their paid ‘PRO’ service offerings. Even Remember the Milk did this, you need to be a paying customer to use their iPhone app. So the issue for those who don’t sell of the back of other business revenue streams is that you have an immediate disadvantage.

Those iPhone developers that survive as a stand alone will do so because they have managed to build a problem killer that outspreads competing applications quickly and unequivocally.

As an aside…

You have to amazed by Apple brand being a drawcard in it’s own right. Just look at the CBD David Jones wall of Apple Branding I snapped this morning on the way into the Saasu.com offices. Incidentally I took the photo with my Blackberry and uploaded it directly into my Flickr account with an app Flickr provides that is free. So the strategy works on me as a consumer. You can see my pics at flickr.com/photos/marclehmann/

It was a spectacle with followers no different to sport or rock-star crowd pull. It’s simply about passion for something. That’s just how humans are. There’s nothing wrong with that in my book.

I posted on SydneyNorg a citizen journalism website (love that concept) about the opening in a bit more detail. I met up Bronwen Clune the creator of PerthNorg and SydneyNorg at drinks with Ross Dawson of Future Exploration Network last night.