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Smartphones and Cell Phones

Matthew Miller
Home / News & Blogs / Smartphones and Cell Phones

Thousands of phone apps are available, but what 3 do you really need?

By | September 30, 2009, 8:31am PDT

Summary: We constantly hear how many thousands of applications the Apple App Store has available, yet the quantity of apps and the race to the bottom mean little to me personally. While choice is nice, there are probably too many applications available for people to even begin to find all the best and filter through the junk. Steve Litchfield posted an article over at All About Symbian talking about how most people can probably have a great mobile experience with just a few selected apps rather than loading hundreds and hundreds of them on their phone. I consider myself something of a power user and generally have 25 to 35 apps and games loaded on my devices. Can you get by with just 3 apps and if so, what are they?

We constantly hear how many thousands of applications the Apple App Store has available, yet the quantity of apps and the race to the bottom mean little to me personally. While choice is nice, there are probably too many applications available for people to even begin to find all the best and filter through the junk. Steve Litchfield posted an article over at All About Symbian talking about how most people can probably have a great mobile experience with just a few selected apps rather than loading hundreds and hundreds of them on their phone. I consider myself something of a power user and generally have 25 to 35 apps and games loaded on my devices. However, if you take away games I too think I could easily get by and perform what I need to with just a few quality apps. Steve listed his three Symbian apps as Gravity, Google Maps, and Opera Mini. Take a look below to see what my selections are for each mobile operating system I have used and then chime in with the three you find essential.

Symbian

  1. Gravity (Twitter app)
  2. Quickoffice
  3. Mail For Exchange

Apple iPhone

  1. Echofon (Twitter app)
  2. Quickoffice
  3. Laridian PocketBible

Windows Mobile

  1. Spb Mobile Shell
  2. Twikini or PockeTwit
  3. Bing

Google Android

  1. Touchdown (Exchange client)
  2. Twidroid (Twitter app)
  3. Documents To Go

BlackBerry

  1. UberTwitter (Twitter app)
  2. Gmail
  3. Pandora

Palm WebOS

  1. Tweed (Twitter app)
  2. Pandora
  3. Evernote

Keep in mind that these are all 3rd party applications and that there are plenty of apps and utilities loaded by default in the operating system on each device. For example, native Office apps are present in Windows Mobile and an outstanding web browser is present on the iPhone so no 3rd party app is needed in these cases.

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Topics

Phone, Twitter Inc., App, Smart Phones, Advertising & Promotion, Telecom & Utilities, Operating Systems, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Marketing, Software, Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 125 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes an HTC Radar 4G, Dell Venue Pro, Apple iPad 2, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N9, Apple iPhone 4S, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".
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News Feed app is the best for news junkies
bluemember 1st Oct 2009
The News Feed app in the top 10 paid news app is hands-down the best and only app that I use everyday
View in thread
0 Votes
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It's interesting...
Sleeper Service Updated - 30th Sep 2009
...whatever platform you choose there are a handful of apps that are essential and everything else is kind of... well, fluff.

Anyway, from a Symbian perspective:

* Sports Tracker
* Nokia Maps
* Facebook
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The real lesson is that
frgough 30th Sep 2009
not everyone has the same three. Which is why the App store has so
many titles.

The secondary lesson is that ideologues will consider everything but
their three to be useless fluff and a waste of bandwidth.
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I like your comment about ideologues
NonZealot 30th Sep 2009
The secondary lesson is that ideologues will consider everything but their three to be useless fluff and a waste of bandwidth.

Very true. One of the advantages of Windows is that there are billions of applications out there for it. Apple ideologues would immediately apologize for Apple by saying "You don't need lots of apps, you only need the 1 that I happen to use."

Cue the double standards...
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Choice windows good, choice app store bad
Richard Flude 1st Oct 2009
Where's the author article complaining about choice of windows
applications?

"Apple ideologues would immediately apologize for Apple by saying "You
don't need lots of apps, you only need the 1 that I happen to use.""

Apple ideologues blamed for a double standard they didn't commit.

This stuff is priceless;-)
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Indeed.
Sleeper Service 30th Sep 2009
If you look at Rafe's article you will see that most Symbian users have differing top threes.

That said, there is probably a pool of, say, 20 to 30 useful app types which everyone uses at some point. They may be different manufacturers or platforms but they're essentially the same thing.
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20 to 30 apps are enough!!
bannedfromzdnetagain 30th Sep 2009
sure.

you anti-apple zealots live in deep denial. 20 apps is enough! i don't
want more than 20 apps! please keep away with your 85.000 apps! i
don't want them, i don't need them!
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I'm curious about your answer
NonZealot 30th Sep 2009
Just how many apps do you think there are currently available for Symbian and WindowsMobile?
0 Votes
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OK...
Sleeper Service Updated - 30th Sep 2009
...name the apps that you use ellroy and we'll see what they are and if there are alternatives.

Incidentally, I'm typing this on my Macbook - you shouldn't confuse zealotry with realism.
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Yes But...
condelirios 30th Sep 2009
iPhone has far less Apps available for it than say Windows Mobile ...Apple is just trying to tout it to use its shortcoming as a strength. Which is ok, but those Windows Mobile applications have been being built and sold for 10 years plus. There are literally billions of them.
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18.000
bannedfromzdnetagain 1st Oct 2009
according to the Windows Mobile press relations team: there are
currently 18.000+ apps avalaible for windows mobile 6.0 & 6.1

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/window
s_mobile_7.html;jsessionid=4YR5BCCDZVDYPQE1GHPSKHWATMY32JVN

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18,000 PROFESSIONAL apps
NonZealot Updated - 1st Oct 2009
iPhone can't boast the same thing since 90% of the apps in Apple's app store are iFart and iFlashlight apps.

We won't even talk about the millions of custom apps that aren't visible outside of the companies or individuals that wrote them.

We also won't talk about the millions of apps on forums like XDA.
0 Votes
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repeat
bannedfromzdnetagain 1st Oct 2009
just repeating the same bulls**t line of quadrillions ifart apps doesn't
make it more true. you live in deep denial, man.
  • Flagged
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Exactly right
NonZealot 30th Sep 2009
Being proud of 85,000 farting applications is... well... silly.

From a Windows Mobile perspective, the APPS I use the most:
1. Opera Mobile
2. Communicator (OCS client)
3. eWallet (password management)
(also a shout out to Google Maps)

The system modifications I use the most:
1. TouchPal (excellent keyboard)
2. SPB Mobile Shell (finally decided I like this more than TouchFLO)
3. ThumbCal (calendar / task app with a more finger friendly focus)
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You can't mean ...
Lunatic59 30th Sep 2009
...That jiggling boobs is unnecessary fluff?

I wasn't that impressed with Opera Mobile. Google
Maps is a must-have.

I prefer FingerKeyboard and PhoneEx is the only
shell modification I found necessary.

Oh, yeah, I make the occasional phone call, too.
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RE: Thousands of phone apps are available, but what 3 do you really need?
steve@... 30th Sep 2009
For the iPhone, I would include the Google Mobile app.
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Oh yeah, and one more
NonZealot 30th Sep 2009
I like iFart app #238. That one has the most realistic farting sounds.
0 Votes
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LMAO!
condelirios 30th Sep 2009
TOO funny
0 Votes
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RE: Thousands of phone apps are available, but what 3 do you really need?
sundaydrive 30th Sep 2009
SUNDAY DRIVE for iPhone
0 Votes
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RE: Thousands of phone apps are available, but what 3 do you really need?
BobZito 30th Sep 2009
I prefer games. =D

- Space Invaders: Infinity Gene
- Synth Racing
- Peggle
0 Votes
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pocket bible!
bannedfromzdnetagain 30th Sep 2009
matthew, call me not surprised! you carry the pocket bible on
your iphone (which you only have for testing purposes!) and
you probably believe that god created earth 6000 years ago
(or was it 5000?) and eve came from adam's rip. and there is
no real proof in evolution, right?

oh, and sure it is better to have only a few apps!
0 Votes
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In a forum full of offensive remarks...
msalzberg 30th Sep 2009
you've posted one of the worst.

0 Votes
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rational
bannedfromzdnetagain Updated - 1st Oct 2009
my point is that people who believe in god (or santa claus for that
matter) are making a big irrational choice one of the corner stones of
their lives. why would i follow their rational somewhere else?

matthews argument is that you and i only need a few apps, that there
are only a few useful apps available to begin with, so we don't need
the overwhelming choice of apple's app store (and i always thought
choice was good in the windows eco-system?)

sorry, but this is only the typical anti-apple bulls**t from apple-
haters like matthew. people have downloaded 2bn apps (and no
upgrades don't count) and 85.000 apps are available - just admit it
windows fanboys: it is an unbelievable success. give it to your hated
company that they reinvented apps (the whole process from finding,
downloading to installing directly) on phones.

0 Votes
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Don't kid yourself, kid...
Sleeper Service Updated - 1st Oct 2009
...I'm an atheist but I respect the right of others to choose their own faith. As long as we all respect the rights of others then there's no issue in this case - it's only when fundamentalists of any stripe (and I include angstheists in that bracket) rear their ugly heads that the problems start.

I suspect Matthew's faith encompasses the same love, tolerance and forgiveness that Jesus is said to have preached as opposed to your rude and over zealous approach to anything that doesn't share your world view.

And once again you miss the point - 85,000 apps mean nothing because it's a new platform and hasn't experienced the winnowing that other platforms have. Most people will use a small number of apps regularly, the best of breed survive and the others die out.

Now, if you would be so kind, please can you state the applications you use regluarly so we can discuss this sensibly? Otherwise we can only assume you're an angry young man who shouts a lot but has little of value to say.

0 Votes
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There are many sane, rational people...
msalzberg 1st Oct 2009
who believe in God, or a god, or many gods. That doesn't make their
powers of reasoning suspect.

This forum is full of people with irrational beliefs (Steve Jobs/Apple is
evil, Bill Gates/Steve Ballmer/Microsoft is evil). Given some of your past
posts, you seem to be one of them. Why should I, or anyone, follow any
of your more rational choices?
0 Votes
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sane and rational
bannedfromzdnetagain Updated - 1st Oct 2009
i am not questioning someone believing in god or gods (or santa
claus). i am perfectly fine with that as long as they don't bother
anyone with their believes and keep it a private matter. what i
question is someone believing what is written in the bible.

we have two possibilities here:
1. matthews has a stong believe in god and otherwise (like most
christians i know) doesn't believe that god created earth in 7 days
5000 years ago. but these friend of mine don't carry around a bible all
day. they pick the virtues and ideas they like from a collection of
fairytales written down by humans 1700-1800 years ago who didn't
know any better

or:

2. matthew does actually believe in what is written in the holy book.
that doesn't make him a sane, rational person.

i assume the second because his favourite app nr. 3 is pocket bible.
but i can be wrong of course. (otherwise matthew also thinks that
windows mobile 6.1. is a very good mobile os.)

so ask yourself: do you really want to read what someone is writing
here on zdnet who otherwise thinks that Jonah was in the belly of the
fish three days and three nights.

sorry, i don't.

0 Votes
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evil
bannedfromzdnetagain Updated - 1st Oct 2009
and i don't believe that microsoft is evil, i only think that they are
mediocre, have no taste and no ideas of their own. all they can do is copy
others (guru bar!) and that they have had a stranglehold on the it-world
for about the last 20 years now that cost us all billions in lost
productivity and causes an endless stream of frustations for millions of
people every day. the world would be much better off without redmond.
but they are not evil. they are just a bunch of people who think that
making money is the reason of life.
0 Votes
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Typical Apple user
NonZealot 30th Sep 2009
Totally inconsiderate of any choice that doesn't perfectly align with theirs. And no, I'm not a religious person but unlike the typical Apple user, I respect the choices made by others.
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"I respect the choices made by others."
msalzberg 30th Sep 2009
That's the funniest thing you've ever written.

That was a joke, right?
0 Votes
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Adam's rip?
Sleeper Service 30th Sep 2009
LOL, you can't even troll correctly!
0 Votes
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Depends entirely on the user
Ken_z 30th Sep 2009
I'l seen attorneys use an iPhone to look up a reference on
the go and have read multiple times of it's use by doctors
& students in medicine.

For me, it even depends on when I'm using it. Basic in
Oklahoma would be WeatherBug as it has radar available
and we have some nasty fronts going through.

ON the medical side I keep Bento for Rx lists and
GlucoseBuddy for test readings & insulin.

Maps and Google Earth are at the top of the list when
traveling.

And PocketPedia when in a bookstore or music store.

And then there are the grandkids who have their own stuff
on my iPhone.

Happiness, however, is being old enough to never have to
care about Outlook ever again!
0 Votes
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Are you freaking kidding???
wackoae 30th Sep 2009
Useless Twitter apps?
A stupid pocket bible?

Where is the virtual toilet paper app??

I can understand apps to access email .... but claiming that twitter and a bible related apps are needed on smart phone is plain ridiculous.

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Why the wrath...
Ondrax 30th Sep 2009
iPhone causes so much hatred around I can't believe it. For you guys
with the "billions" of WM apps available - I had bricked my WM device
with just that thing: installed several apps going one against each
other hence the machine died and refused to accept any date other than 1/1/1901. I switched to Symbian and very soon I better got my
iPhone and am at ease ever since...
App Store gives me certain level of security in this point - the apps are
at least harmless to my device.

Out of the 85,000 apps available are 84,950 useless, where I count
games which have no use but entertain. What's the ratio in WM world?
(And yes, how many decent games are there for WM?:)

As for me, the most useful app is WebIS's Pocket Informant which I
ironically had been using for years on my WM devices. I am happy
they brought it onto iPhone.

Navigation - Navigon is my choice.

Music - Last.fm
0 Votes
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Since you ask...
Sleeper Service 1st Oct 2009
...the ratios for WinMo and Symbian will be higher on the grounds that apps have been available for years and been through a winnowing process that Apple is yet to undertake.
0 Votes
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None
Earthling2 30th Sep 2009
Why do I need a phone that drops connections combined with a computer that I can't use to type or read?

Have fun.
0 Votes
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You don't -
Ondrax 30th Sep 2009
get yourself an iPhone:)
0 Votes
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RE: Thousands of phone apps are available, but what 3 do you really need?
Steve.bucknor 1st Oct 2009
Intresting.. Here are some more for your help.
http://www.justcompareit.com/s~q-iphone-application.aspx?ag=3
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Useless Twitter hype apps
IE9 1st Oct 2009
Forget the twitter junk and ass some usefull apps
0 Votes
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News Feed app is the best for news junkies
bluemember 1st Oct 2009
The News Feed app in the top 10 paid news app is hands-down the best and only app that I use everyday

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