Nov
If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know I am no fan of Apple products, in particular the iPhone. It has more shortcomings than I want to go into here for me to consider it a serious tool which is what I use my phone for. However, there is one thing I do admire about it, the apps that others are building for it. For the most part I view a lot of them as simply toys. From what I have seen there are a lot of apps that are simply one use wonders.
However, there are some exceptions and for me the one that stands out beyond all others and that I believe to be a truly game changing piece of software is Bump. Recently Sequoia Capital invested $3m in the company, a good sign that it is a technology to be taken seriously. The reason I see the app as serious software is because it has potential way beyond the iPhone and way beyond just phones.
How It Might Work
Here is a world where Bump is pervasive, at least in my imagination:
I am going to attend a conference in another city. I download my flight, hotel, car & conference itineraries to my mobile device and head to the airport. I approach the check in kiosk and “bump” it with my mobile device, it picks up the flight itinerary and checks me in. I move to security and onto the gate. I want a coffee and a bagel but didnt get cash out. No problem, I “bump” the register and it withdraws money from the account details stored in my phone (yes I know tech like this already exists in other countries).
I arrive in the conference city, pick up a rental car and yes, you guessed it, I “bump” and go. I drive to the Hotel where instead of joining the line to check in, I simply “bump” a kiosk which dispenses a keycard and I head to my room.
I head to the conference and again, no lines for me, I simply “Bump” a kiosk, which prints my badge, I pick up a conference packet and I’m in.
Monetization Without Ads!
All of these interactions are fully monetizable, without the reliance on Ad revenue. The airline, hotel, car rental and even the coffee shop & conference venue pay a small % of their booking fee to enable “Bump” services.
Never mind its current use, of trading contact details, and rumoured to be coming in the next version, media sharing on iPhones. This is a piece of software with real potential.
Where would you use “Bump”?
image by Maria Shaw
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While I understand it has shortcomings, I must admit that I love my iPhone. I think one of the smartest moves Apple has ever made was to open it's iPhone code to developers. I'm so amazed at the inventive apps coming out. Have you seen the ocarina app? While it's not particularly useful it's just super cool that someone came up with the idea that you could blow into the microphone and use it as a musical instrument. Great stuff.
My biggest problem with Bump right now is that it requires the other person to also have the software. (Since the app was the Apple Store's one billionth download, it got extra publicity, which helps somewhat.) In general I find it much easier to transfer vCard files over email or SMS. I'm also unsure how secure Bump would be for financial transactions unless those were limited to 3G. (Even then, I don't know that I'd give AT&T that kind of access!)
Bump is definitely a clever use of the phone's GPS to identify proximity and accelerometer to acknowledge a transfer of data. But I think that barcode technologies work better across multiple smartphone platforms and do not require connectivity at the time of scanning.
Nice foresight, Simon. Another great use for the technology would be "bumping" to unlock and start your car – now we're moving closer to a keyless society and one less thing for me to juggle with my groceries!