Consumer Electronics Blog New Iphone App
Daniel Rosenstein 
Iphone is sexy and sleek. Mac has clearly carved out a huge space for themselves in the cell phone market. Iphones appear exclusive, business-like, artistic, hip and about any other positive attribute you want to project onto an inanimate electronic device. However, appearance alone doesn't explain the explosive success of the technology. I phone is ubiquitously successful because it has opened a portal to the real future of electronics: hand held personal computing. In the end, this is why people keep their Iphones. They are incredibly useful. Of course there are the usual simple applications: music programs, scheduling, phone books, timers, alarms, games, GPS and anything you can access on the web. However, there is one application not yet created that will be an astounding success when it arrives and the Iphone is the perfect medium. The Iphone needs a vital statistics monitoring application.
To backtrack a little, Iphone isn't just a cell phone. It really is a hand-held personal computing device. More and more people will be using such devices to charge items at a store, to receive all their emails, to surf the web, even to work on business documents once small roll-up keypads really hit (they're already available). Then we have the historical context. The next 20-40 years, marketing and customer service is going to become more and more oriented towards the massive baby-boom generation as it moves into old age. And with old age comes health problems. So how will this application serve this need?
Let's start at the beginning. GPS is already a common reality. It takes little imagination to understand that within the next five to ten years, people may begin to use Iphone GPS, not just to find themselves but to keep track of their children or their loved ones. Sure there will be privacy issues and there will be conflicts. There will be jealous boyfriends or girlfriends basically using it to stalk their significant other. There will be talk shows hashing over the problem of over-controlling parents who track their poor teenage children 24 hours a day. But anything so useful and powerful is going to become common use. In fact, it is probably only a matter of time before small chips are placed in children's clothing or (gasp) even under their skin so that if they lose their Iphone, it could notify the parents of the child's whereabouts. For that matter, it could help you to find your phone. As Orwellian as it might seem, this will be a reality.
Ok, so let's go one step further. Lance Armstrong is one of the most successful athletes of all times. He won the Tour de France seven times, even after recovering from cancer. His heart and lungs operate at a level achieved by few others. One of the reasons he is so successful is that he hooked himself up to vitals monitors when he trained. He learned exactly what the feeling was when his body began to work inefficiently or fail. In this way he learned to push and develop his body to its maximum potential by constantly monitoring his own physical state. So what does this have to do with Iphone apps?
Doctors, athletes and select others already monitor vitals and use the information in incredibly important ways that prolong and improve life. Like all technology, this will soon be cheaper, more efficient, smaller and less intrusive. Again, it is only a matter of time until small sensors will be able to monitor your heart rate, your electrolytes, your lung performance, your blood flow and more. With a nation full of aging baby boomers this will be very important and is going to be utilized by someone, if not Iphone.
This is how it would work. You have an aging uncle, parent or grandparent that you care for very much. First, you could tap into the GPS and locate your loved one within seconds. Their chip would locate them through their Iphone even if they had dropped it or left it in the car. Secondly, your loved one's Iphone could be monitoring all of these vital signs 24 hours a day. There are minute chemical and electrical changes when the body is going to have a stroke or heart attack. The app could respond to unhealthy or dangerous conditions and send an alarm. For emergency health conditions the application would call two or three phone numbers in the Iphone that had been designated as emergency contacts. The application would also text over the vital information with a possible diagnosis. Your uncle may be suffering a heart attack. Your grandfather's heat levels are dangerously high. He needs water. Your mother who is suffering from dementia has wandered a mile from her home.
As you can see, the application doesn't sound sexy or hip or sleek. However, the most successful products are those that serve a fundamental human need: food, water, health, survival. It is for these kinds of reasons, you can be sure that this application will be a reality in the near future. And if Iphone stays at the head of the class, it is sure to the medium for this application. Mark my words. This is going to happen.
Tags: • app • iphone • cell phone • iphone app • iphone apps • phone books • phone market • phone numbers • privacy issues • customer service •
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New Iphone App
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