With 5% market saturation in the smartphone market, the iPhone has come a long way in the 2 years since its inception. And with nearly 2 years before a suitable competitor has been able to enter the marketplace, Apple has found itself in a position where they could sit back comfortably and watch the steady sales roll in. But of course, this would not be the Apple we know.
In one day, Google has released two new apps available for the iPhone, both of which should deliver tremendous value to its users instantly, and increasingly so over time. The first one allows voice-recognition searching, satisfying users who often find themselves searching on-the-go, cursing the notorious keyboard with no tactile response. And if all goes according to plan, I imagine within a week we’ll be seeing iPhone commercials with real-life applications for using this feature. As an aside, looking at search query reports showing the actual terms searched that match to the keywords in my SEM campaigns, it makes me laugh to think about those same nonsensical strings of words actually being said out loud. But, perhaps some of those will actually make more sense being said out loud than they do when typed into a search box.
The second application allows for locally-targeted results to be generated in Google search, using the GPS receiver in the iPhone. This will allow a level of hyper-targeting to a local level that cannot be matched in search on computers, as IP-based location identification will never be as accurate as GPS targeting. As industry experts have been saying for years, the future of search is in local. And the way to make local bigger is to make location-targeting smaller. And this is exactly what Google is doing. And this feature, once again pioneered by Google, will change local search as we know it. Hyper-targeting, with the location accuracy that GPS delivers, will allow thousands of advertisers to reach searchers when previously, it was only the bigger of the small local advertisers that were able to reach users looking for localized results; think Papa Johns/Pizza Hut/Dominos results when searching for “pizza” in NYC.
And once again, if history has taught us anything, we should begin seeing iPhone commercials highlighting this new feature within a week. Make sure to pay close attention though; in this down economy, even a company as robust and successful as Apple may look for opportunities to shave off some advertising costs, consolidating these two features into one commercial.
In one day, Google has released two new applications for the iPhone that will continue to push Apple’s dominance in innovation in the smartphone market. But correct me if I’m wrong…didn’t Google just release a smartphone of their own not even 2 months ago? With a loyal fan-base, some might argue its numbers and might equivalent to Apple’s (I imagine an army of engineers in glasses similar to the ones in the Verizon Wireless commercials), Google has set the stage for a phone with the potential to win over the market that Apple has not been able to penetrate.
And what better testing ground to experiment with than the application-hungry iPhone market? So beyond just the wonderful branding (YouTube videos or Google searches in most iPhone commercials), has the iPhone’s purpose to Google shifted to a testing ground, inspiring developers worldwide to continue building applications with Android’s open-source code? How long will it be before Android is able to do everything the iPhone can, and then whiz by it with the plethora of developers creating applications that even the all-mighty Apple won’t be able to keep up with? Whatever does end up happening, we can be sure that while Android may not be making headlines daily, there is a lot going on behind the scenes, and Apple, in the meantime, isn’t stopping to take a nap halfway through the race.
