Perhaps Apple should start thinking of a new name for its iPhone. With more than 50,000 different applications now available for the company’s genresmashing device, actually making phone calls is only a tiny part of what iPhone users do with their handy little gizmos.

The latest version is the iPhone 3GS which has video recording for the first time besides other cool applications. And with more applications being invented every day, and the latest version offering far more power, durability and convenience than its predecessors, it might just be a matter of time before the iPhone starts making other specialized devices entirely obsolete. Take GPS navigation systems for example. These marvels of technology can magically tell you where you are and how to get to where you want to be.


They can also offer you other important information – local restaurants, traffic conditions and petrol prices – though this is rarely up-to-date. But as leading GPS maker Tom Tom demonstrated at the recent unveiling of the next generation iPhone, there really is no need to own a separate GPS device any longer. The company demonstrated its new application for the iPhone, which turns the device into a highly-capable GPS system, especially if customers buy the specially-designed cradle and charger.

According to independent tech analyst Carmi Levy, the big advantage will come when the usual information provided by GPS units is integrated with all the other tricks of which the iPhone is capable. People will be able to check local restaurants, order local cinema tickets and other such conveniences. Travelling sales people will be able to plot their route, call up information on their customers, arrange meetings, and book a lunch reservation with a few easy clicks.

“The iPhone is the ultimate converged device – you can do more on an iPhone than any other device,” said Levy. The secret to that capability is not merely the iPhone’s hardware. Just as important is the developer infrastructure that promotes all the third-party applications and allows users to customise their devices to their individual needs. “You have 50,000 ways to customise the iPhone – it becomes whatever you want it to be,” Levy said.

It’s not just GPS makers that have to worry about competition from the iPhone. Point-and-click cameras could also be on the way out, Levy said. Not only are lenses and flashes on smartphones quickly improving, smartphones are also much better for most casual photographers because they allow the easy sharing of pictures and videos.

“Point-and-shoot manufacturers need to innovate or they will go out of business,” he said. Another threatened sector is the handheld gaming console. Devices like Sony’s PSP can cost as much or more than an iPhone, which offers thousands of games for download. The trend is clear, said MacWorld’s Christopher Breen. “The more functionality the iPhone and other smartphones get, the more obsolete one function devices become.

“Why bother picking up a pocket camera with video function, aGPS device, a portable video game machine or an MP3 player when you can get it all in one sleek little box?” Other new technologies starting to appear in other smart-phones could further help the devices take over the world, including eliminating much of the need for laptops and netbooks.

So-called Pico projectors aim to overcome the “display bottleneck” of handheld devices. These tiny laser projectors display images from handheld devices onto any surface and thus escape the shackles of small screen viewing. They can even be used to screen a virtual keyboard to eliminate the need to use tiny input devices.

All these bells and whistles will mean little without improvements in battery life – though built-in solar device chargers that are being introduced in Korea and Japan could help this issue immensely. But there’s one vital tech device that will always be around, Levy points out. No one will ever be able to build an espresso machine into an iPhone for the coffee addict!