iPhone's Subway Finder Shows the Future of Information
Does it still make sense to call an iPhone a "phone" anymore? Sure, you can make and receive calls on it, but the time I spend conversing on the device is dwarfed by the time I put into other applications.
One thing is becoming clear to me. Smart phones have surpassed computers as the vanguard platform that delivers the hottest innovations, such as GPS, to everyday consumers.
Take the New York Nearest Subway app by acrossair. This new program for the iPhone 3GS allows you to translate the confusing New York subway system by simply holding up your iPhone. A heads-up display, combined with the phone's GPS, points you in the right direction to the subway line you are looking for. (See the video for a demo).
It also points the way toward how companies will be successful starting in, well, now. And that is by being the best at finding, processing, and sharing information, says John Svikola is his Harvard Business Publishing blog post, Organized Information is the Next Moon Shot.
Svikola says the iPhone subway app is a peek into the future.
"Imagine -- any service force could have information about the device to be serviced routed to their phone just by pointing the device at the appliance in question. Think about how productive your salespeople could be if they could have facts about the company, client, or product right in front of them in real time. The question is, can your firm gather, organize and deploy this information so it is usable by those who drive the revenue or make the big decisions?"So even as great whiz-bang technology finds and delivers incredible information, remember that some of the most important people in your organization are the software developers, info analysts and other folks who can suck in that data, extract the important nuggets, and put them at the fingertips of decision makers.