iPhone’s ease of use

Craig, I very much agree with both your trends – to the iPhone and to the diminishing role of the Yellow Pages. Every smartphone can have some version of the Google search bar installed these days and it returns good search results, but this pales in comparison to the iPhone’s ease of use and broad palate of applications.

I just bought my first two iPhones, and while the Google geek in me was tempted by an Android-based handset, the iPhone applications and their momentum are just too compelling.

All we need now are realistic flat-rate data plans, as Japan’s carriers introduced six years ago, and your two trends would become tsunamis. Unfortunately we’re bogged down by a lack of competition in the telco space, made worse by Vodafone’s acquisition of 3, which continues to destroy value for every other business in Australia.

Thank goodness we had an Apple in the world whose brand-power was strong enough to take on the carriers, and now we have progress in mobile phone value-add.