An Explosion of Smart Phones

The iPhone--Why it Started a Revolution
In June, 2007--less than three years ago--Apple Computer introduced the iPhone, which initiated a new class of devices now known as "smart phones".
The iPhone is really more of a handheld computer--with wireless capability that allows access to the Internet and Web--than it is a phone. It has two major capabilities that were breakthrough technologies when the device was introduced.
First, it has a very high-performance display. The screen is relatively large (for a phone), with unusually high resolution (165 pixels per inch compared to 72-80 pixels per inch for the typical personal computer monitor). The device also has software that is very good at performing the necessary interpolation of pixels when viewing web sites at any size, providing a very high quality image.
Second, the iPhone not only has a touch-screen user interface, but has taken the touch-screen approach to a new level for handhelds by the use of "multitouch" technology. This allows detection of more than one finger on the screen, and allows recognition of gestures. This is used in the iPhone, for example, to allow a user to "zoom in" by making a pinching gesture (thumb and finger moving toward each other), and to "zoom out" by making a reverse pinching gesture (thumb and finger moving apart).
Such zooming, combined with the ability to move the display up and down and from side to side by simply sliding a finger, allows the user to effectively view a web site with a large amount of information even with a small display screen.
The iPhone screen is also unusually bright--important when tourists are reading it outside in bright daylight.

A Long-Needed Capability for Travel Information
A device like the iPhone has long been desired in the tourism world. The personal computer based Web works fine for tourists who are at home planning a trip, but tourists also make many decisions during their trip for which they need information, and are always at risk at getting lost and needing additional information. A handheld device with the needed information that could be easily accessed would be very desirable.
Devices have been around for a decade or more that came close to fulfilling this need. Handheld "organizers" like Palm Computers had the basic capability, but only a relatively small proportion of the population actually has them. There is also an issue about how to get the information into the device. Cell phones since the late 1990s have had the capability of accessing the Web with so-called "microbrowsers", but the technology was for years limited in many ways--small screens, lacking color, slow connection speeds, poor navigation capabilities, difficulty in entering text, and poor wireless reliability.
It took the iPhone to provided the necessary capability. The fact that the device is a phone means that the average tourist will carry it rather than leave it home, and it appears that the majority of tourists will soon own some kind of smart phone.

The Industry Response to the iPhone
The success of the iPhone has led to a very rapid response by wireless providers and phone manufacturers to offer a product with something like the capabilities of the iPhone. Such "smart phones" generally have relatively large, high-resolution displays, sophisticated software, and some means of easily entering text, such as a pull-out Querty keyboard. Some smart phones have touch-screen user interfaces, and all major cell phone manufacturers have now introduced touch-screen phones. At present, about 2/3 of new cell phones now being sold are smart phones. Touch-screen phones are still relatively expensive, and only the Apple iPhone has a substantial number of phones in the hands of users, with about 24 million being sold so far. However, as technology improves and prices for touch-screen phones drop, other touch-screen phones are expected to be sold in large numbers.

Touch-Screen Phones and StreetWalker™
The touch-screen user interface, together with a high-resolution display, provide the needed capabilities to access travel information for rural counties, towns, and small cities by means of the StreetWalker maps. In particular, the touch screen allows easy reading of maps by zooming in and then moving them around at the slide of a finger. Although the iPhone gesture for zooming in and out is convenient, zooming can also be done with buttons and the result in the case of a specialized map system like StreetWalker is about as good as the iPhone gesture zooming.

You can get some idea of what StreetWalker looks like on a touch-screen phone with this simulated iPhone StreetWalker Demo. Or you can get an iPhone and go to yosemitevisitor.com/murphys. It will automatically detect that you have an iPhone and present the iPhone version of the site.

At present, the StreetWalker maps work with the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Palm Pixi. We are working to extend them to other touch-screen phones.

Handling Other Phones
Nearly all cell phones sold today contain a micro web browser. The StreetWalker system presently supports all phones by providing information in text form. Navigation is via text menus rather than touching bubbles on maps as is done with touch-screen phones. Photos can also be viewed. You can see this by accessing one of the sites using our technology, such as www.sonoravisitor.com/m with any phone or even a PC. Although smart phones that do not have a touch-screen cannot effectively navigate the StreetWalker maps, their larger screens and high resolution make them very effective at displaying the text and photos of this alternative approach.
The user experience with a phone without a touch screen isn't nearly as good as one with the maps and touch screeen, and tourists will use them differently. They are likely to use the text-based phones mainly for seeking specific information ("What's the name of that hotel near Hetch Hetchy?") rather than exploring more generally.
The Future
Some analysts believe that within five years, touch-screen smart phones as well as handheld devices with larger screens (known as tablets) will be so ubiquitous that they will be the primary way of accessing the Internet and Web, with personal computers used much less. If this turns out to be true, this means that these devices will be used not only for accessing travel information while on a trip, but also for planning trips while at home. Some of this kind of use is already being done with the iPhone.

The recent announcement of Apple's new tablet computer continues this trend, and we will be working to extend StreetWalker to the new tablet and the competitors that will inevitably be introduced.