February 9th, 2009
The Business of Being Jonas (aka: Why the iPhone is even more important than you think it is.)
For the last 30 years, software companies have made good money “automating” business processes. SAP wired the back office. Oracle took down finances. Tivoli figured out IT operations. Salesforce, Adobe, Remedy, and many many others: they each carved out a piece of manual, time-consuming, inefficient business operations and made them more efficient.
Of course, these companies would have never been successful without an appropriate hardware platform (think desktop apps, client-server, n tier architectures, and http more recently). They also couldn’t have 
done it without a willing audience: namely large companies with legions of workers sitting behind desks pushing paper. This synergistic cycle has driven business value and wealth creation like few other industries over the last quarter century.
Fast forward to the emergence of the consumer web in the early part of this decade and we see similar synergies occurring outside of the enterprise.
Amazon automated shopping, Travelocity took on travel, Flickr became our photo gallery. These services profited from the same model; consumers with personal computers and Internet access wanted more efficient processes to help them live their lives.
Now here is where it gets interesting. New platforms are going to push the boundaries of human computer interaction like never before. For example, let’s look at me. The business of being Jonas does not stop when I leave work or turn off my home computer. From the minute I wake up in the morning, until the minute I fall asleep at night, I am actively executing “business” processes; where the process is the business of being me. There is the “turn off the alarm clock” process, and the “brush my teeth” process. The “find a matched pair of socks” process and the “drive to work” process. The “get flowers for mom” process and the “figure out what’s for dinner” process. The “hang a new picture in my office” process and the “find out how the Longhorns did” process. There is even a “think about a blog posting” process.
Each of the processes requires my time and attention (to a greater or lesser degree). Some I enjoy doing, and others I could do without. Regardless, I’d bet that each of these processes could be enhanced. They could be automated. They could be done quicker or more efficiently. They could be more fun, or at least less painful.
And this is where the iPhone comes in. The iPhone is an always-on, always-connected, always-with-me platform that fits the synergistic model of person (Jonas), process (hang a picture in my office), platform (iPhone running Clinometer app). Here are some other examples:
Each of these applications represents a small, finite piece of process automation. The iPhone platform makes each of them available – just at the exact moment – when I need them. With a few finger swipes they manifest themselves, deliver their value, and then disappear back into the ether. Today there are over 10,000 apps available for the iPhone platform and the rate of developer adoption and new application functionality is simply breathtaking.
Imagine what the next decade has in store for us with this paradigm: Overlay the continued progress of Moore’s Law, the emergence of the 4G network spectrum, and the blossoming science of brain-machine interfaces. I can imagine teams already scheming apps like: Never Forget a Face app, Locate my Stuff app, and Write my Blog Posting app (now with 30% more wit).
I imagine my iPhone as a virtual bubble that surrounds me – augmenting who I am with enhanced awareness, intelligence, and senses. The ubiquitous personal process execution platform of the year 2020 will be nothing short of wondrous. It will be every present, ever watchful, always trustworthy, and my wish may very well be its command.