MaryLou: Lost in a deluge of applications

We are wading in a sea of applications, and the tide is only rising higher and higher. Is the regular mobile consumer going to drown in an overwhelming array of choice for how they can use their mobile phone?

The majority of people I know in my mid 20s peer group use their mobiles largely for – gasp – calls and texts, with emails and photos still confined to the domain of the home PC.

They ask, do I really need Sat Nav on my mobile phone, when my trusty London A to Z, or the Google map I printed out and scrunched into my handbag, do the job just fine?

They think nothing of waiting a few hours to update their Facebook profiles when they get home, not on the train, pulling out a paperback to pass the time instead.

Five megapixels means nothing to them, when we have perfectly adequate 7.1 megapixel Nikon or Sony cameras that actually zoom and flash – imagine.

With handset manufacturers and software developers bringing out technology at such a rapid rate, regular consumers face being lost in the deluge.

They need more than ever to be taught what applications exist and how they can use them. Because a world where their mobile does everything still seems like a fantasy future, even though it is practically here.