THE IPHONE HAS given birth to the iEcosystem. Whether that’s a good thing, though, is debatable.
Apple Inc.’s decision to bar third-party developers from building applications for its high-profile device has drawn scorn in the software world. But there is no shortage of Internet-based applications and sites designed specifically for the iPhone.
Google Inc. last month became one of the first developers on the bandwagon with a stripped-down version of its mobile search offering for iPhone users. A handful of instant messaging and chat services have built custom versions of their Web-based clients for the handset, and HarperCollins Publishers last week announced a pilot program to bring excerpts of new titles specifically to iPhones via the Internet. Facebook has also joined the craze with an iPhone-specific version of its offering that mimics the handset’s user interface, and fellow social networking site Multiply offers an iPhone-tailored site as well.
AdMob has added the allimportant component of marketing dollars to the mix, releasing a special ad unit designed for the iPhone. The technology is being used in a new ad campaign from Starbucks Coffee Co. that encourages users to enter a ZIP code, launching a Google Maps application that directs them to the nearest outlet of the ubiquitous coffee chain.
But some onlookers believe the rash of iPhone-specific sites and applications may be further fragmenting a mobile Internet that is already in splinters.
“The problem occurs when application developers evaluate which platforms to focus their attention on,” according to John Strand of Strand Consult, a Danish market research firm. “Are there enough iPhones on the market, and will there be a business case for application developers to create applications for such a niche platform? We don’t doubt that the iPhone will quickly develop into a music player with a built-in phone and browser capability. But is this what customers want?”
From a consumer’s perspective, the demand for iPhone-specific offerings is understandable. Many of the new sites minimize the pain points of the iPhone-specifically, the lack of a physical keyboard and the glacial pace of AT&T Mobility’s EDGE network-as they leverage the handset’s Safari browser, full screen and userfriendly software.
Whether a market exists for such offerings is questionable, though. While iPhone sales appear to be strong, the company is expected to ship only about 1.5 million units by the end of the year-an impressive figure, to be sure, but only a fraction of the overall U.S. market. And iPhone users may be more tech-savvy than most U.S. consumers, but it’s unlikely many of them spend a lot of time surfing the mobile Internet using AT&T Mobility’s EDGE network.
“I think it’s pretty clear that people ride Apple’s coattails” and try to market all sorts of things that can be associated with the company’s hot products, said Kurt Scherf, a principal analyst with Parks Associates. Creating iPhone-specific Web sites “isn’t altogether a dumb idea, but that’s not a strong endorsement.”
Safari-centric
The proliferation of such sites may even serve as a speed bump for wireless Web usage, critics say. Web pages built for Safari can be difficult or impossible to view with other browsers, especially those used by desktop computers. Until now, developers typically have had to build two sites-one for computers and another for the mobile phone. The new subset creates a third tier of the Internet, some claim, leading to more headaches both for developers and for consumers.
“I seem to recall that for many years the Mac community bemoaned the practice of designing Web apps that only worked in a particular browser,” Scott McNulty wrote on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. “This painful practice has found new life in the form of iPhone-only apps. Nothing irks me more than browsing to a site only to be greeted with a page that, based on the user agent my browser supplies, keeps me out.”
And the trend comes at a time when wireless is struggling with a host of fragmentation issues. The industry has yet to find a standard format for mobile URLs-from simply placing an “m” at the front of a domain name to using the controversial suffix .mobi-and is struggling with transcoding technologies and mobile advertising headaches.
But while the rise of Safari-specific sights may not help the overall market for the mobile Internet, it may simply underscore an increasing-and inevitable-trend. Although some continue to espouse a “one Internet” scenario where technology would customize standardized Web content for any device, others believe the increasingly fragmented handset market will demand multiple Internet formats to support a wide variety of devices.
“The challenge is that you are always going to have this problem,” said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates. “With a few rules of thumb, you could design a site that more or less looks the same on everybody’s computer, but you are never going to be able to do that on the handset side.”
At least, Barrett added, not for the foreseeable future.
