Many people would agree if I say that Apple’s iPhone is the most successful gadget ever released to date. No, I’m not an Apple fanboy, I assure you. I don’t even own an iPhone. I am, however, a person who keeps up to date with the latest in technology. And so far, my findings show that the iPhone is still on top.

Because of Apple’s quick rise to the top, a lot are hoping to replicate the iPhone’s success by making something similar. Top phone manufacturers like Nokia, Ericson and Samsung tried but ultimately failed. Google made their own Android phones which was quite promising but still couldn’t topple the king from his throne.

For years the iPhone continued to reign. And the question that went on everyone’s mind is, what made the iPhone so successful?

Aside from the sleek look and gorgeous user interface of the iPhone, there is one other thing that ultimately catapulted it to success: The applications.

Yes, the apps. You see, before the iPhone, nobody cared about applications on phones. They just peruse whatever’s pre-installed on their phones. To those who wanted to have more would have to go through a very tedious process just to get a program (this is what apps were previously called). Nobody knew where to look for programs that they need. Of course, one can find them on the internet, but searching took a lot of time and effort. Also, the procedure of getting one to the phone was complicated. Not to mention the headaches needed when paying for it. Even the freebies were ignored. The market for applications on phones quickly plummeted and everyone continued on with their lives.

That is until Apple released the iPhone3G which came with App Store support. Users can now go directly to the App Store through their iPhones which made getting apps easier. The growing number of third-party applications, which consists of both freebie and paid, also spurred the interest of users. Plus, they were very easy to search through as they are only in one location. Payment was also made easier as you would only need a single iTunes account.

What Apple did was they introduced a hassle free way to get applications onto phones. Apps ranged from work-related apps to games and people ate it up. They gobbled the free stuff and even the paid ones like chips! It became quite a trend and people couldn’t resist it. It was quite a phenomenon.

Since the App Store was only for the iPhone and other Apple products, this increased the demand for the device. Apple was smart enough to notice this and continued their support for both the device and store. They’ve invited more developers to create more apps and continued to stir the interests of the consumers.

And the rest is history.

So if you want to defeat the iPhone, you need to come up with something like the iPhone did. Yes, their success was somewhat accidental, but sometimes it is the accidental ones that make it big.

Loooking forward for the next big thing ~ Pol