DisAPPointing: The world of mobile apps can be a time waster

Photoshop received approval this week for their own official iPhone app, which allows users to rotate, crop, use filter effects, adjust exposure, tint and saturation. Not exactly groundbreaking, but regular users and the tech savvy should expect a heavy hitter to have a presence in the app market.

The concept of an app store for mobile phones is doggone appealing for 21st century cell phone users. Apple's campaign "There's an app for that" has become synonymous with the utility of mobile communication and convenience. Although BlackBerry maker RIM released it's own version of the app store earlier this year, Apple has touted the availability of thousands of programs in its own store and even surpassed two billion downloads at the end of September.

Many companies have hitched a ride on the app wave with useful components, such as remote ordering for Chipotle and Starbucks (they actually have two) and pop culture icons such rapper T. Pain's auto voice tuner. Others have shown to be timelessly useful, such as Google Maps and weather alert applications like WeatherBug.

Despite the usefulness of some applications, the app market at large has reached a point beyond saturation. As is true with social media usage, some tools are simply time wasters. For those who remember the infamous pre-installed Snake game on old Nokia phones, this was enough a to satisfy the urge to procrastinate for most people.

The bottom line is that smartphone users and application developers must seriously consider the ultimate goal of time and money spent developing, searching, downloading and "playing." As technology history teaches us, this too shall pass.

• Brands: This means determining the PR and financial investment and ROI developing an app would take. In the case of Photoshop, the justification is clear.
• Consumers: The app store could largely be procrastination 2.0 and another drain on your bank account.

A brilliant video advertisement from WorldMate illustrates my point:

Microsoft Jumps Head-First into Social Media

There is a new era about to embark at Microsoft worldwide.

The new 82-member social media innovation team, dubbed FUSE (FUture Social Experiences), is set to begin sending some serious waves through the company's software development. Conceptualized and assembled by Ray Ozzie, Micro's Chief Software Architect, the FUSE team is expected to begin applying social media capabilities into PCs and business products.

The implications of this move could have an enormous impact on the public's daily computing, indicating that social media is becoming less of a learned process and more of a traditional 21st century lifestyle. Early adopters will be a driving force.

Ozzie cites high-bandwidth internet, both wired and wireless, the wide availability of digital camera phones and 'app-capable' phones, etc. as obvious justification for the team's dedicated purpose. Internet-connected game consoles and TVs are part of the equation as well. Social movies and programming have already been available, although not mainstream, for the past year or so.

The marketing team at Microsoft formally acknowledges that social media has transcended "communication and collaboration" and directly affects product experiences and consumer behavior. An important point to emphasize with slow-adopting clients.

Some of you may already be familiar with the rumored LookingGlass product, which is Microsoft's prototype for social media business software. It is unclear if LookingGlass is the front-runner of the new FUSE team, but it is very likely there is a connection. Click here for the original FUSE article.

Happy tweeting, everyone.