When the iPhone was first introduced I was hooked. As a Mechanical Engineer and self proclaimed geek I just fell in love with the whole idea of a full blown computer of such simplicity in a cell phone. Technology has jumped leaps and bounds in the last 60+ years. Computers are in just about everything we purchase. From trains, planes and automobiles to our kitchen and living rooms. Our homes are filled with these little micro computers quietly allowing us to have a more modern life.
However the whole concept of “There’s an App for that” has become a little stale in my opinion. Come on please give me a break. Just how many apps do we need? I am not saying the iPhone should not become as ubiquitous as the computer as I think it has already achieved that status. But the hype should be toned down.
There are millions of applications that do everything one can imagine. As an IT professional I work with and encounter these on a daily basis. But they don’t all run on an iPhone or should they? We are reaching a point in our technological revolution where we are miniaturizing everything. Some day we will all have a computer plugged in to our brains that allow us to do some amazing things. Not that we aren’t now. With these new miniature device implants we can and will control machines and other forms of technology from a far without ever having to leave our normal surroundings.
However there is a price we will have to pay in our futures for this. That price will be our freedom of self expression and our individuality. Our privacy will erode to nothing and there will be no secretes in this brave new world. Eventually the hype will go away as more and more cell phone companies adopt this technology. It is already starting to happen now that Google has the Android and HTC, Nokia and others are quickly transforming our personal form of communication in the next generation of cell phones. Now we just have to live through who has the best network; AT&T or Verizon. For the network is the nerve center for our connectivity. Without the network we all will become islands to our selves. The iPhone and other cell phones will become just another miniature computer with less capability then our modern laptops today.
As we become more addicted to these app’s let’s not forget that we shape our future as much as we consume. So I beg the question how far is enough. Do we really need an another app that runs on the iPhone. Case in point; most of us only dream of having the economic power to afford the finer things in life. Like owning a Ferrari or mansion. Do you shop at Gucci? Well if you do there is an app for that! I kid you not! And I ask one more time do we need it? What is it giving us in return except to say we too are part of the community and advertising to the elite top 10% who can afford to shop there?
I venture to say there are thousands of iPhone apps that are useless and should be removed. They don’t provide the user with anything substantial in return. Please don’t think I want to curtail the ingenuity of the developers or their dreams. But we need to reach a point where software applications have a useful purpose. There is enough clutter in our lives without adding more to our cell phones.
