Smartphone applications - all the things you can do with your phone..

The number of smartphone users is increasing quickly - it has been presumed that over 450 million smartphones will be sold in the world this year. The most popular smartphones are Apple, Samsung, HTC and Blackberry. Because of the growing success there is a good chance in reaching new customers through them. Smartphone users are most probably connected to internet pretty much 24/7 and in addition to surfing in the internet there are different applications coming more all the time which can be downloaded from the markets.



TripAdvisor has also created applications for their customers. TripAdvisor application has been downloaded just from the Android Market more than 1 million times. That's only from Android Market - Apple and Blackberry have their own markets as well. In addition to the basic application that works the same way as their website, there are also city guides free of charge. After downloading it the customer can use it without connecting to the internet so there wont be any roaming charges. The application shows you your location and what is near you. There are restaurants, hotels, attractions, free self-guided tours and all the best places for clubbing and shopping of course. It gives you tips on transportation and says when is the most ideal time to travel to your destination.
(Check out some more from http://www.tripadvisor.com/MobileApps )

Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by sound, graphics or GPS data. (http://mashable.com/follow/topics/augmented-reality)
Augmented reality makes it possible to find certain things from a new environment, for example the restaurants and pubs near by. All you need to do is look at the city view through your phone and the program gives you details on the screen.

Here is an example of what you can create with augmented reality.

The reason for bringing up TripAdvisor, augmented reality and smartphone applications is the following:
What if Haikko Manor could create an application in co-operation with TripAdvisor? As TripAdvisor already has applications, they have the knowhow to create one and for the financial side it would be cheaper if they created it together. Wouldn't it be impressive when you're looking for hotels at TripAdvisor, you find details of the Haikko Manor and it suggests to download an application to your phone as well? It would be something to make it show up from the competitors.

As earlier mentioned in the Prezi presentation, Haikko Manor's history begins in the mid-14th century and many members of the Russian Imperial family have visited the manor. Through the application it would be possible to see how the manor house and the surroundings looked/might have looked back at the 14th century and during different   decades.

It could also show how the area looks like during the summer and winter time. For example the foreigners who visit the Haikko Manor in summer could see how the surroundings look like during winter - without having to complain about the cold weather. The beautiful scenery of the winter wonderland could possibly lure them to visit Finland in winter time as well.

Another thing that is very important to take care of is optimizing websites for mobiles. You can easily check how suitable websites are for mobiles from here. According to the GetMoMeter, Haikko got 2 out of 5 on the mobile-friendliness scale. The site hasn't been optimized for mobiles and even with a smartphone you need to zoom in a lot to be able to read the text and press the right links.

Anyhow, the technology is developing all the time and surely even within a couple of years there are so much more you can do with your phone. All that's needed is imagination to come up with new ideas.