My first mobile purchase
I can't remember what exactly prompted it: I wanted an application for my cellphone that *wasn't* a productivity app, that *wasn't* the half-finished handiwork of a lone developer, and that did just work. So I ended up buying a game.
My phone is a Nokia 6630, running on the Series 60 platform. The Fido site does sell applications, including games. It was basically useless for looking for stuff. My phone isn't sold by Fido, and they only offer browsing by type of phone. There is no way to say what platform your phone is.
Luckily, the Mobile Gamer site in the UK was great. Right at the top of the site, you can filter everything available by your model of phone, and mine was listed, so I got a full page of Nokia 6630 games. I browsed around for a bit, and settled on Might & Magic -- the same name of a game that I remember playing on the Apple IIe. Actually, the graphics on my phone look better than an Apple IIe.
Getting the game was ridiculously easy. I entered in my full phone number, including the +1 to show it's in North America. I paid via PayPal. Moments later, I got an SMS with the URL of a download. I clicked on it in my phone. It downloaded the installer. The installer launched, and downloaded the rest of the game.
That is what seamless delivery of mobile content is all about. I didn't try it, but I suspect I could have navigated the site directly, and completed the entire experience via my phone's browser. Hmmm...pay for something via PayPal, have it delivered immediately around an identity-based infrastructure that's encrypted. Skype + eBay ring any bells now?
Oh, right. You want to know about the game? It's nothing like the original Might & Magic, but it is a fun and well-built game. It's addictive and yet easy enough to put down and come back to later (except this one part I'm stuck at, where the wizard keeps frying me...).
While New World Computing doesn't exist anymore, there is a brand new version coming out for the PC -- Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Preview.
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There's this thing called the App Store...
I'm sure you've had a chance to play around with the iPhone App Store at this point, right?
The process you described doesn't sound too bad, but for normal human beings, that's still pretty bad. The existence of another phone with an easily-browsed app store and click-confirm-download apps pretty much explains why the model you describe is doomed.
I'm not even going to make this a good-versus-evil argument: there's a lot to hate about a model where all the content is vetted, all the developers are licensed, and the store is tightly controlled. But you know what? There's a lot of iPhone developers now, and that's because Apple made their lives pretty easy (no managing your web store, pretty reasonable revenue-sharing terms, available free apps etc.) and Apple made the lives of end users pretty easy, too.
Quick, I dare you: the next time you see a person that you don't know to be a nerd but who does have an iPhone, ask them if they have a Paypal account. I bet they answer "Paypal?"
As long as they work out the current software bugs with the iPhone, the smartphone market will soon look like the personal music player market does.
Thanks for the note
A lot of people believe the Apple App Store to be the first mobile store. This post of mine is from almost exactly 3 years ago!
And yep, I definitely wouldn't define the above process as easy compared to how the App Store works today.
Re: Paypal. I haven't used an actual "Paypal" payment in a really long time. Paypal is just a seamless way to accept credit cards online, at this point.
I plan to write about the App Store at some point. We're still in a very North American mindset here -- remember that Nokia still makes 70% of the *worldwide* handset market...