I should have known when my partner, Ben Sanders, who runs the technology practice at Resolute Digital, offered to sell me his Treo 700W phone for a bargain price of $100 back in March, 2008 that I was going to be taken [worse, I already has a 700P but I figured the Windows version would sync better with Vista -- and it did].  Ben was getting  a new iPhone and ditching the Treo.  Ben is known as a new adopter and I, like many Treo users was worried about typing on the keypadless iPhone and spotty AT&T coverage.

So when Resolute Digital standardized on iPhones a few months ago, I was skeptical.
I was about as wrong about the iPhone as I was in 1994 when I pronounced the Internet as too slow (using Mosiac and a 28.8k modem) to be useful as a communication’s platform.

This iPhone phenomenon is the real deal. For many companies, building and promoting a dedicated iPhone application is going to be as important, if more important, than their own website. The reason is there are many kinds of applications that are better suited for an easy to use mobile platform like iPhone than an office, home, or laptop computer. Such as finding a Starbucks when you’re on the road. Checking the weather forecast from your sailboat. Reserving a car or hotel when you realize you’re going to be stuck in Kansas City for the night. The last thing you want to do is battle a mobile browser trying to make an e-commerce internet connection.

Companies that lag in putting their reservation system on the iPhone will find they are losing real business. For example, I needed a car and I couldn’t find an iPhone app for Enterprise or National so I went to Avis (Hertz has one too). Sometimes I get tired of that old gray lady, the New York Times, and I want to check out the New York Post’s racy headlines or the Daily News. The Times has a great iPhone app. The other papers don’t. So guess what I read on the subway.

We at Resolute are so sure that designing and building quality iPhone (and other mobile apps) will be a huge business in the next 24 months, we’ve launched a dedicated business iPhone Dev Shop to serve that need. Our first application, Parents® magazine iPlay ’n Learn™,  rose rapidly to 3rd place in the Education category and is now #13 in the”What’s Hot category-  iPlay and Learn iPhone.

Compared with building websites, iPhone apps can be built at much lower cost.  And they can be developed quickly.  These are not going to be optional items, so marketers better find some spare budget pronto.