The Myth of the Killer App

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.brighthand.com/newsite/palm/views/killerapp.html">http://www.brighthand.com/newsite/palm/views/killerapp.html</a><br /><br />Steve Bush published this column several weeks ago, and I've been wanting to write a rebuttal ever since. First, go read the article. Now let's talk about it...<br /><br />Steve says "Truth is, I don't believe there is such a thing as a "killer app." I'd agree with him if he said "the" instead of "a". To say there's no such thing as a "killer app" denies that for every person that uses a computer or a PDA, there's one application or use for that device that, if taken away, would render it far less useful for that person. There's no ONE killer app for PDAs or computers, but each person has one thing that they use it for more than anything else. Many people that I've spoken to who are getting a computer for the first time, or upgrading to a newer one, will have one reason that stands out above the rest: "I want to edit my home videos" or "I want to play games". They'll have a long list of things they think they'll use the computer for, but there's always one thing that stands out above the rest as the focal point for that purchase: that's the killer app for them.<br /><br />People are social creatures - most of us love to communicate. The flood gates on email opened up when AOL and Compuserve allowed people to email outside their "wall gardens" and allowed everyone to communicate with everyone else that had an email address. So if there's one broad stroke I can paint using the phrase "killer app" it's this: "The killer PDA applications for consumers will be based on communication in one form or another". Maybe that's instant messaging, email, or maybe it's web browsing to connect to discussion boards like this one. There's certainly no magic bullet for PDA sales: all the easy sales for people who felt PIM was the killer app have been made.<br /><br />What's your killer app? What's the one thing that if it was taken away, your device would be drastically less useful? For me, it's PIM - looking up contacts, meetings, tasks, etc. is still my #1 use for my Pocket PC. There are other uses like games, audio, eBooks, spreadsheets that I use a great deal, but if PIM were to go away, I wouldn't take my device with me everywhere I went - I'd only use it when travelling.

[[Cruzer]]

For me it would 2 things. Pocket Informant and Terminal Server. Takes those things away from me and I'm dead in the water. Yes I can make do with the built in PIM's but PI does a better job. And there is no other substitution for Terminal Server..(well maybe, like VNC or Citrix but I would have to have those setup on the server end).

RC

[rubberdemon]

I agree that killer apps already exist for most people, especially the fanatics... If I hadn't become dependent on Outlook on my desktop, I would have viewed my iPAQ as not terribly indispensable. As it is, I've begun to download my brain into the thing - if it doesn't beep me for an appointment, I probably won't make the appointment...

I can forsee the communications aspect being the killer app that brings a new flood of people to PDAs - not necessarily email, though it's nice to get it on the road, but IM software, which so many people are getting hooked on. The first time I used Microsoft Messenger on my iPAQ I got so geekily excited my wife thought I'd finally lost it.

[JonnoB]

The first time I used Microsoft Messenger on my iPAQ I got so geekily excited my wife thought I'd finally lost it.


Whew.... thought I was the only one. Using Messenger wirelessly was a revelation to me.

[Chris Spera]

For me, it would be the following:

Ilium Software's Keep Track (http://www.iliumsoft.com/keeptrk.htm) and Phatware's Calligrapher (http://www.paragraph.com/calligrapher.html).

If I lost either of these, I wouldn't carry my PDA with me hardly at all.

KeepTrack saved my checking account from a fate worse than death; and Calligrapher allows me to quickly take meeting notes with my own hand writing right in Pocket Word.

As KeepTrack is a personal app, and Calligrapher is used primarily at the office, both these apps make my iPAQ 3765 an all around winner.

Christopher Spera
-------
pocketnow Writer

pocketnow.com -- it's all about portability...
http://www.pocketnow.com

[Steve Bush]

I'd agree with him if he said "the" instead of "a".

I believe I did, Jason. Check the title of the editorial.

My position in the editorial depends on your definition of "killer app." In the editorial I define "killer app" as "...an application that makes some ordinary gadget--one that no one is really buying--so useful that people will sell their children to buy the device." If you define "killer app" as a highly useful app then you're not really disagreeing with my position, you're disagreeing with the definition I'm relying on.

However, the intent of the piece was as much to point out that the phrase "killer app" has become as dated as "groovy app" and that we should probably start weaning ourselves off it. :wink:

[Master O'Mayhem]

Kick Ass app

[rubberdemon]

How about 'compelling app?' or 'primary app?'

[fundmgr90210]

At this point I'd say there are 2 killer apps that need to come into play in the world of mobile technology:

1) Affordable, high speed wireless;

2) Converged devices (voice & data) in a pleasing, convenient form factor;

[Jason Dunn]

At this point I'd say there are 2 killer apps that need to come into play in the world of mobile technology:
1) Affordable, high speed wireless;
2) Converged devices (voice & data) in a pleasing, convenient form factor;


Ah, but those aren't apps - those are pieces of technology. What would someone do with the affordable, high speed wireless? That's the killer app component - what they do with it. :-)

[dazz]

I think Jason has hit it on the head; There is NO "killer app" per se. We each have an app that we use more than any other with varying degrees of killeraciousness (hey, i'm allowed to make up words!). Who CARES what we call it!!!

Also, functionality does not meant killer app. i.e. wireless, multimedia, voice/data, faster, blah, blah mean nothing unless the application to which we put this is most important to our needs.

Dazz

[Russ Smith]

It's odd how great minds work on the same track. (And that mine sometimes shows up on the same track along with them.) I've got an editorial going up tonight on pocketnow.com about this subject. I come out at about the same point Jason does.

[fundmgr90210]

At this point I'd say there are 2 killer apps that need to come into play in the world of mobile technology:
1) Affordable, high speed wireless;
2) Converged devices (voice & data) in a pleasing, convenient form factor;


Ah, but those aren't apps - those are pieces of technology. What would someone do with the affordable, high speed wireless? That's the killer app component - what they do with it. :-)


Yes, I suppose your right in the truest sense of the word (so yea, PIM is certainly a "killer app" under that definition, email applications as well). At some point, everything's an application of something else however. Semantics ; )

[Cliffbrooks]

For the PC, the internet was/is the killer app. The last 10 years has seen an incredible increase in the number of PCs sold, to the effect that computers have become comoditized and difficult to make a profit on. So I disagree -- the concept of the killer apt is not only legitimate, but necessary to move PDA use into the mainstream. The PDA world needs a killer app.

To say that each user has his own killer application may be true, but a real killer app is one that makes the device indispensible to the masses. I've given all my "extra" PDAs to friends, and though they really like them, they haven't become indispensible. On the other hand, all of these friends find their home computers/internet connections indispensible.

-C

[Duncan]

The Pocket PC does not have ONE killer app, nor does it need one. It is, in itself, a killer product.

The combination of Pocket Outlook, Pocket Office, PIE and many other third party apps. DO make the Pocket PC indispensible to me and many others.

What matters is not a killer app. but that the hardware exists to do whatever we needed desktop PCs or hulking great batterry guzzling laptops to achieve in the past while being in a form factor that makes these applications truly portable for the first time.

[CME2C]

The killer app for me is the clock. I use the clock on my Maestro everyday. If it wasn't for the clock, I would just buy an address book/calendar, carry all of my medical textbooks, my gameboy, and my TV/VCR all in my labcoat. Does anyone know of a good clock app?? I am getting on in years so maybe one with a bigger readout??

Mike

[Brad Adrian]

I define "killer app" as "...an application that makes some ordinary gadget--one that no one is really buying--so useful that people will sell their children to buy the device."

You point is well taken, Steve. I think that the term "killer app" is one of the greatest misnomers to plague the mobility arena. Vendor upon vendor upon vendor has been in search of that single, perfect application that will guarantee adoption by every man, woman and child. As the comments in this thread attest, there is no such thing.

Except for Solitaire, of course. :wink:

[Rob Alexander]

I think most people here have made some really good points. On Steve's behalf, I would say that I was into computers before and during the introduction of the PC and my anecdotal experience is that the word processor was as much a motivation for the purchase of the PC from businesses I was involved in as was Lotus 1-2-3. That's not to say that Lotus wasn't a major part of the purchasing decision, just that those two things were somewhat equal. So I would support his skepticism that 1-2-3 was "the" killer app that made the PC a success.

At the same time, the argument of others here, that there are several killer apps and that each may have his own, rings true to me. I think the killer app is so elusive because there just isn't any one thing that really is that for everyone. (Which, by Steve's definition would mean there isn't such a thing.) Nevertheless, there are certainly important and useful apps that can spur the sales of hardware and I wouldn't disagree that some type of wireless communications could one day be one of those important apps.

For me, the Pocket PC is really all about one concept; having information with me when I need it. There's no one app that does this. Pocket Outlook does that with my PIM type information. My image viewer (IA Album) does it with jpegs (personal things, travel information, lots of maps, copy of passport, etc). Pocket Word, Reader, and Acrobat do that for text-based things. Listpro does it for lists and eWallet keeps a ton of personal scraps of information that I never used to have when I needed them. What's missing for me are 1) a decent Pocket Quicken to add my financial information to the list, and 2) a Pocket Reference Manager to have my research bibliography databases with me at all times. I don't imagine that last one would appeal to all that many people, but for me, it would be...er...really nice.

So those are the things that make me carry my PPC all the time. Someday wireless might be important too, but there's no system in existence right now that I find compelling in that way, so it's still all about information. And for the record, I agree with Steve's real point. The phrase 'killer app' is overused and it probably is time to let it drift off into history. :P

[Daniel]

The first time I used Microsoft Messenger on my iPAQ I got so geekily excited my wife thought I'd finally lost it.Whew.... thought I was the only one. Using Messenger wirelessly was a revelation to me.

Me too! :D

Daniel

[Daniel]

I think that there are "killer apps" and there will be, but it is dependent on a shared platform and a common need. I personally think that the "killer app" is an application that is widely used and a compelling reason to purchase a product. For example, spreadsheets, e-mail and the internet are "killer apps" (given the we broaden the definition of "app" to be more inline with the dictionary meaning) for PCs. I think that the portability factor is one such driving force in PDA purchases.
The thing with "killer apps" is that you don't they don't exist until people know about them. I think people, on an individual level, have "killer apps", but there is also "killer apps" on a more general level that are generally compelling (good word that one) across a broad group of people. I think this is the definition of a "killer app". I would call Calligrapher & Transcriber enabling technologies (wanna play catch-phrase bingo?), rather than "killer apps". I don't think that there is any one "killer app" for PDAs at this point, but I don't think that that means that there will never be one. Voice dictation that actually works could be it, it would make the device a lot more usable. I think that voice dication might fall between "killer app" and enabling technology though. Everyone that I know (non-geek) that has a PDA really has it because they can then carry around their personal information. I think if you asked (just about) anyone, this would be one of the main reasons that they puchased a PDA, you could call this a killer application of the technology.

I think that generally speaking a "killer app" doesn't just jump out at people, because it may not exist yet.

Daniel

[dma1965]

For me it is eWallet, Excel, and Agenda Fusion. These allow me to lead an easier and more productive life. :lol:

[johnnyboy]

I have to say that while there was no killer app that brought me to Pocket PC, I found one when I got there.
I can't deny I bought mine for its Toy Factor. The great games, MP3, DIVX and the potential through CF for GPS systems and GPRS mobile coms definitely appealled. But in the end it was the capability to get E-mail just through basic GSM (IR) and have offline web pages available to read using AvantGo that kept me using it. Otherwise it would become dusty in my bottom draw along with the Playstation.
I have to be honest though, this really is a plan come good. I was terrible with diaries and remebering dates and saw this as attractive encouragement to start organising my life. It seems to have worked!