The impact of the iPhone on South Africa

The iPhone is on its way to sunny South Africa and the excitement is already beginning to build. The news that the iPhone would be available in South Africa spread rapidly through the MSM and the local blogosphere. Some, however, have been sceptical as to the magnitude of the potential impact the release of the iPhone here will have. Here is why they should be as excited as everyone else!

The iPhone has sold exceptionally well, with approximately six million units moved by its first anniversary on 29 June. While perhaps not as incredible as a Steve Jobs’ keynote might imply, this is still a serious feat — going from zero to six million units shipped in one year is no joke, and the impact of the iPhone has been very significant. It has changed the way consumers who have experienced its interface perceive the mobile web (no longer clunky WAP but rather slick browsing via a small version of Safari) and stimulated significant innovation in the mobile device space. Furthermore, the new version of the iPhone which is to be released locally also sports 3G connectivity, making rich media browsing from a mobile device sound very attractive! Allan Kent (of Saatchi and Saatchi’s At Play) articulated his feeling that the iPhone is going to change the game for mobile applications: “The most important thing that I mentioned earlier is that I believe the iPhone interface will make mobile applications a lot more accessible to people.” This is definitely going to be the case, in fact I would contend that it’s going to change more than just the game, but the entire context in which mobile application development takes place. Both web apps developed specifically for iPhones and native apps that are able to leverage the unique featureset provided by the iPhone SDK are going to finally start delivering on the promises of convergence that have been floating around for years.

Thus a large part of what the iPhone represents has yet to be unlocked: there is going to be an explosion of fascinating new applications for the device as the second year of the device’s existence unfolds. An interesting example of what can be achieved with a little work is Patrick Collison’s wikipedia on the iPhone project which yields, as he says, “the warm fuzzy feeling of having the sum of all human knowledge in your pocket.” Social functionality on the iPhone has already been shown to be successful with the widely acclaimed Facebook iPhone portal and much more innovation on this front is to be expected. I’m looking forward to the South African iPhone launch: there’s no doubt that Apple’s device is a winner!

PS: Vodacom has set up a microsite for people interested in getting an iPhone when it launches locally to leave their details. Vodacom says it will get back to those who sign up “as soon as [the iPhone] becomes available.”