Welcome to the iGeneration

The iGeneration want to multi-task all the time; they want to do as many things as they can while doing as much as they can. They want to do more than they could do an hour ago, and they want it now. Considering that Apple’s iPhone was only launched in the spring of 2008, it is phenomenal to look at its rapid proliferation.

Not so long ago, the smartphones was seen merely as a phone with bonus functionality. The iPhone and its applications have changed everything, essentially providing a pocket-sized PC customisable to each user’s needs – business, pleasure or a combination of the two.

The jack of all trades
Applications enable your miniature jack-of-all-trades to e-mail, take pictures, keep track of breaking news, watch films, listen to music, play games, read the dailies – the possibilities are nigh-on endless. Take the example of Sky News’ news app: it allows users to send their own news reports and pictures directly, perfectly epitomising the effect Web 2.0 has had on our consumption of news. Whereas previously, Web 2.0 would take its form via smaller, more compartmentalised outlets, for a brand as universal and far-reaching as Sky News to have taken the bold step of opening their ears and eyes to this all-new bespoke world is a decisive move.  The mobile web has become not just entirely bespoke but moreover, entirely user-centred.

Digression versus work-obsession
For the everyday member of the iGeneration, the most popular apps are likely to be communications-related. 24-hour access to work e-mails, being on call all the time – as much as the iPhone’s boundless capacity to entertain could be seen to facilitate laziness, there is also a danger of it inducing “work crazy” behaviour. The recession provides a convenient excuse to be on call more often than is “healthy”. Social networking and the on-the-go PC are similarly a match made in heaven, allowing Twitter and Facebook users to tweet, update statuses, upload photos and communicate while on the move. Whether the two extremes will counterbalance is yet to be seen.

Multiple-personality disorder
Apple’s keynote at the WWDC last week saw senior vice president of iPhone software Scott Forstall analyse the rapid growth of apps. Less than a year ago, OS 2.0 and the SDK were released and now, we are at a point where there are more than 50,000 apps for sale in the App Store. By April 2009, one billion applications had been downloaded. The statistics are phenomenal and entirely unprecedented – in comparison with the Palm Pre and the BlackBerry, the iPhone is a far more multi-faceted gadget.

In terms of entertainment, the new OS 3.0 games are as pristine as a PC user could expect. For the user wanting GPS functionality, the iPhone offers apps as pristine as standalone navigation systems. The speed of development, at least in the public eye, has been phenomenal; if this is a taster for the future of apps, the population will soon be able to exist without ever having leave their collective chair. They can do anything at the tap of a touch-screen. Gone are the days of scouring a phone book or dust down books in the attic in the pursuit of information; the iPhone has embedded itself in the 21st century, for better or for worse.

The parallel, portable web
The mobile web is a new and exciting medium; a front door, an open-access platform for developers. The browser has lost importance in this new world, in stark comparison with the parallel world of the PC, where the launch of Google’s new minimalist Chrome browser is still courting a frenzy. Apple’s vision is somewhat parallel to the internet’s; under Steve Jobs, the iPhone offers a versatile set of content-providing tools. And by placing itself at the hub of this new world, Apple’s iTunes store has become financial protagonist of this new narrative, taking a 30 percent cut of each sale.

The future
The more popular the iPhone gets – and the greater the demand for more functionality – the more apps will become available. The more apps there are, the more crowded the iTunes store will be. With everything from iPickupLines (an automated app suggesting pick-up lines such as “If you were the new burger at McDonalds you would be the McGorgeous!”) to LogMeInIgnition (allowing users to take remote control of another computer and troubleshoot problems) available right now, the marketplace leaves few gaps that aren’t immediately filled by keen developers. A fantastic new platform for entrepreneurs and consumers alike, the iGeneration live through a portal more the generation preceding them could ever have predicted.