Mobile phones and the Internet

Earlier this week Google announced it was seeing 50 times as much activity from iPhone users as any other mobile handset.

Yes, 50X. "We thought it was a mistake and made our engineers check the logs again," Google's head of mobile is quoted as saying.

The article goes on to discuss Google's plan for expanding mobile services, but that's not the real news here. It's more about how iPhone users view and use the device, which is unlike any other cell phone.

1. The iPhone renders full web pages. No other phone does this or even comes close. It's so easy to use, and so attractive, that iPhone users (like me) don't seek alternatives, like using SMS to contact Google or buying standalone GPS devices.
2. The iPhone has wifi. A few other smart phones are getting into this, but they're still restricted to mobile-web renderings and all the scroll-wheel-and-chiclet-clicking activity that they imply.
3. The combination of the above two features turns the iPhone into a pocket-size computer. Which means that someone with an iPhone finds it easy to jump online on a whim, and use it in ways other phone (and laptop) owners do not.

This is where the iPhone is shifting paradigms. It's not just about the touch-screen UI; it's about the immediacy it provides.

I can be sitting on my couch, watching TV, become curious about something a broadcaster says, and in seconds google the information with the gadget in my pocket and my wireless network. No reaching for the laptop, waking it up, sitting properly; no fiddling with a typical smart phone's menus and cell towers.

After a while this becomes second nature, which increases the frequency of use and creates the snowball effect Google is seeing from iPhone searches. More and more consumers will move in this direction as the rest of the mobile device industry catches on.