Follow me!

Why Have an iPhone App?

posted on February 5, 2010

Last night the C.C. Chapman All Access iPhone application went live. It pulls together most of the content I produce on the web including my photos, tweets and multiple podcasts. I wanted this so that it would be easy to find and consume my latest creations from a single location.

But, honestly I was also thinking big picture and way beyond this.

While I didn’t know that the Apple iPad was exactly what was coming, we all knew that some form of larger iPhone like tablet would be coming. This is why I hired a developer to make me an application. When that device came out I wanted to make sure that I had an easy one click way for anyone to get at all my content.

I think the iPad is going to usher in a whole new wave of people consuming online content. Let’s face it. While you and I understand RSS readers and their power, most people still surf the web by going through their bookmarks and surfing from one site to another.

Devices like the iPad and applications on it are the next generation of this. Instead of going through bookmarks you are going to be clicking through applications and I wanted to make sure my content was there as well. I believe there is going to be a rush of people wanting to be there and while you should make sure your web content is optimized for that sort of browsing, I wanted to go a step further and make it even easier.

Good read? Share with others!
Categories: Announcements
  • http://twitter.com/planetsab Sebastian Keil

    First ;-) You could guess that I would download it, right? I hope you'll use it, too, and send out One Guys Thoughts more often, maybe throught another app.
    Keep innovating.

  • http://www.dandyid.org/id/attitude Attitude

    I like your point about RSS and iPad.

  • http://twitter.com/comedy4cast Clinton

    Kinda makes me sad that we all seem to be going the app route. It just seems like it will fragment the listening/viewing audience. You only want to put so many apps on your device (before you hit a limit or it becomes too confusing). An aggregator doesn't impose that kind of restriction.

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      I agree that aggregators are easier, but you and I both know that the majority of people still don't understand or use them. I'm still going to be creating the content on the regular channels. The app uses RSS to pull in all the content which is what I wanted because I just wanted to provide another option to get it all. Making my own personal aggregator.

      • http://twitter.com/comedy4cast Clinton

        As long as it's MORE options I like it and it make sense. Now, to find an app developer. Any suggestions? ;-)

      • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

        Well mine I'm not sure is looking for more work at the moment. I've asked him to let me know since I expected many questions like this. But, I know there are companies out there that can roll one pretty quick and cheap now.

  • http://wayne-sutton.com Wayne Sutton

    Smart move CC, I'm thinking about doing the same. I'm going to download your app. Congrats and continue to have a great 2010. See you at SXSW?

    • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

      Thanks man and yup, see you in Austin!

  • nicolefiliatrault

    Congratulations – interesting approach and one I think may well be adopted by many. I'm always surprised by the number of people I run into who don't participate in social media because “there are too many different ways to do it, I can't choose, my brain boils over, etc.” Way to lead the way!

  • http://twitter.com/MKMartin Matt Martin

    C.C. I agree that the iPad could open up a whole new avenue of computing for the masses. A compact, simple to use, tablet will appeal to a lot of people who want to simply surf the net and compose a few emails.

    Love your use of the iPhone app. For others that might be interested there are a few companies out there who can build an app for your online feeds (blogs, Youtube, Flickr, etc). If interested check out iSites, http://isites.us/ and Appmakr, http://www.appmakr.com/

  • Pingback: uberVU - social comments

  • Facebook User

    Nice job on the custom iPhone app.

    Playing devil's advocate though, I think I'd disagree with your iPad comments and the need for an app. Steve Jobs demonstrated the device sitting in his chair, focussing on the fact that it's been purposefully built as the perfect web browsing device. So creating a custom app that pulls in an RSS feed that's a derivative of a website from which it originates seems really counter productive. On an iPad, the best app for browsing web-based content is going to be the built-in browser.

    I would say to everyone it's better focus on building an iPad friendly launchpad on your website (with useragent redirect) that aggregates all your content in html format and then let users add a web clipping if they want one-click access.

    Just my 2 cents :)

  • Pingback: Will RSS Fall to Apps?

  • http://twitter.com/TechPRMaven TechPRMaven

    I really like the app! Interesting point about RSS also. I'm really starting to prefer the iPhone apps over RSS feeds and I'm excited that more people like you and Chris Brogan are launching apps. It makes it so easy to catch up on your posts from virtually anywhere. Thank you!

  • http://mattsearles.com/ matt searles

    While some of my iPad sentiment is still pretty close to Hitler's, it does seem like kind of a no brainer kinda move to me.

  • http://twitter.com/TechPRMaven TechPRMaven

    I really like the app! Interesting point about RSS also. I'm really starting to prefer the iPhone apps over RSS feeds and I'm excited that more people like you and Chris Brogan are launching apps. It makes it so easy to catch up on your posts from virtually anywhere. Thank you!

  • http://mattsearles.com/ matt searles

    While some of my iPad sentiment is still pretty close to Hitler's, it does seem like kind of a no brainer kinda move to me.

  • Pingback: Doug Haslam » Blog Archive » Social Media Top 5: Vanity iPhone Apps, Facebook=AOL?, Grumpy Old (non) Twitterers, and More Lunacy