Legal Research

What Smartphones Should Libraries Support?

By admin

Libraries are challenged with figuring our which of the many smartphone platforms and standards out there to align with their strategies. It seems to change daily but I think it depends on what your user market is.

Right now I think that this is what is predictable, barring any big changes:

1. For the special library market I’d build Blackberry apps first for intranets and special library user needs and then I’d build Apple iPhone apps. Some sectors of the special library marketplace will be quite different given the security needs of some companies, R&D institutions and the military.

2. For the academic, college and public library markets, I’d build Apple iPhone apps first and then invest in clones of those apps to work on Google Android enabled phones.

It’s anyone’s guess how this will all shake out and this is all very experimental right now but you can easliy try a few different apps ahead of time.

Google makes biggest gain in smartphone market share
from Ars Technica

“US mobile users are increasingly getting into text messaging, Internet browsing, and social networks as they continue to shift to more capable devices. Additionally, Apple’s and Google’s share of the smartphone market is inching up while other leaders?namely RIM?are slowly being chipped away, at least according to the latest data from comScore.”

For my money, I think that most library apps need to be free to the end user. There are already a few to play with for OPACs and AccessMyLibrary kind of stuff. It’s anyone’s guess what this field will look like in a couple of years when the clones of the iTunes store will support Droids and BB’s.

You can play with a few free ones right now for libraries and I just downloaded the cowbell iPhone app for the Olympics. It’s fun in that silly season kind of way.

I wonder what will happen.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on February 16, 2010 (boomark / email).