The iPhone user population is both easily definable but diverse in many ways. Many have deep interests and knowledge in technology, while some are just in the cool. Developing applications for iPhone customers is, therefore, a tough challenge.

With Girlfriend Caller, we saw many ratings of 4 or 5 stars, but also many 1 stars. Why? The answer may in fact be very simple. Free applications often have many more customers reviews, but it’s never perfect. In fact, it reminds me of a line straight out of Batman, “You’re either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Free applications either crash and burn, or stay around long enough to be hated by everybody.

However, I am in fact excited to see so many people download Girlfriend Caller, a first, but of course not last series of free (and some paid) applications coming from our team. More than anything, we want your feedback, your feature requests.

Let’s hear from you, the customer, in much more details than the simple reviews that is written quite quickly on the still imperfect iPhone keyboard.

We want to encourage feedback that are constructive. A 1 star saying “this app sucks” does not help make the next generation applications better. A 4 star, “here’s what I want” helps keep us motivated and serve your interests. We do what do we do because we enjoy it.

PS. Why was it called the Girlfriend Caller? Let me explain….

With many iPhone applications coming soon, I can’t expect that you would be able to try them all. I yet to have extended exposure to many developers and their applications, but I’m going to mention one here that I would strongly encourage you to try.

Zintin is a picture social networking tool. I have seen these guys at work from the early beginning and their application hit the spot in photo sharing on the iPhone. You can take pictures, share them with anyone around you, and also edit the pictures to add a little piece of creativity. It is these kinds of apps that makes the iPhone so useful, and I highly encourage you to check out their application when it releases. Zintin does these three things very well:

1. you can discover the people around you and know when your friends are nearby
2. you can share pictures and express yourself on your wall
3. you can engage new people, or just have fun with your friends.

It will be exciting to use Zintin, and it’d be even better when you and friends all use it, so be sure to check it out on the app store, or visit their site.

Mobile is the next big thing, says Google’s Eric Schmidt in 2007. However, just today, myself and a few other mobile developers got together and watched a chilling reminder of the last time mobile was supposed to be big.

Riot-On is a documentary-movie about a Finnish company that set out to conquer the mobile space. The year is 2000, and the company was called Riot-Entertainment. Six founders, 21 million euros, and an astounding bankruptcy that left the company an additional 3 million euros in debt just 666 days later.

In 2000, Finland had the biggest penetration of mobile phones in the world at over 80%. It was just before the bubble bursted. The founders were persuasive, and had amazing CVs, diverse and highly desirable skill sets, and a promise of game-changing mobile applications.

With no product to demo, no infrastructure, and no understanding of technical feasibility, Jan Wellmann, CEO of Riot-E, was not only able to persuade almost 10 investors to put in millions of euros, but he developed exclusive contracts with media companies for Lord of the Rings, X-men and uncountable other large deals for the mobile game space. Their product, however, was ultimately a mobile game that involves rock-paper-scissor. No, seriously, rock-paper-scissor. With X-Men and Lord of the Rings nevertheless.

While the company went bankrupt just two years after its start, it is estimated that the media contracts that these guys came up was worth over $200 million. Where did they fail? How did this all happen? Where was oversight?

The movie did an astounding job of explaining exactly what happened, and the trailer did not do full justice about the whole company. In fact, as the movie ended, I realized that these guys were really on to something, but their time was over. It was too late. They lost the trust of investors, their employees, and have disappointed far too many people. Somewhere in between the falsification of their concepts, the lies, and the contracts, I feel that at least someone in the company knew what he was doing. Granted that the coders had sex orgies in the company’s sauna, and the financial officer was given a free trip to Spain with four hookers so that he would shut up about the budget, nevertheless, the business team was incredible.

They certainly had their joy, their fun and their seasons in the sun, but the hills that they climbed were just seasons out of time. Perhaps they were too early for their time, or perhaps they just had too much %*@$## fun to get anything done.

So now I come back to present day. Is it time again for the rise of the mobile kings? Or is it just another overblown-hype. Sure, the big guys are saying that, yes, now it is the time for mobile to conquer new territories; but many things have been said many time in the past, and people typically forget the predictions that never happened.

… But you know what, I’m optimistic. So optimistic, in fact, that my partners and I gave up other *wonderful* opportunities to work on our mobile application. Do you know what I’m most excited about? The idea that mobile phones could replace the computers in third world countries. India. China. Africa. But I digress, and I’ll talk about that soon enough.

Oh yeah, have a drink when you watch this movie. We had three bottles of wine, and so should you.

The movie is available on Amazon.