We’ve developed a few iPhone apps since the AppStore opened July 2008. Just out of curiosity and for the fun of it. Our latest app is Fit to drive? –  designed to increase awareness of drinking and driving.

We’ve had a lot of debates too – also with sceptical clients that still consider iPhone and apps a passing trend – let’s wait and see if that lasts. No reason for iPhone optimised websites either. Hey, approximately 2/3 of total mobile surfing happens on an iPhone. Go to the café next door, ask two people – one with iPhone and one without – whether they have been online with their phone. The iPhone user will say yes, the other is likely to say no.

Our feeling is that it will not only last, but skyrocket. Apple currently dominates this new market because it created it. App-thinking defines the future for a lot of services delivered on mobile platforms. More than 2 billion apps  downloaded, turnover beyond EUR 2 billion and –  60 million iPhones sold according to TechCrunch. This tells us that those who still don’t believe in apps, better start believing.

What is more, if you add the numbers of iPod Touch sold, it becomes the fastest growing  hardware platform in consumer tech history. The iPhone, the apps and the unbeaten user experience of the iPhone have created a new opportunity space. Of course, leading today is not the same as leading tomorrow but it does make the other tech kings shudder.

Creating a successful app-store isn’t as easy. Google and NOKIA are trying hard. Apparently even the Danish AppStore grosses more in a single day than  Android Market in a year. What about Ovi?. Long way to go but together with Apple they’ll create a whole new category of on-line experiences.

Our point of view? iPhone or not, don’t miss the train – deliver your existing or new service via a mobile app. It’s key to your future.

Robot geeks, check out Botjunkie, or as a starter, Fast Companys great line up of Boston Dynamics amazing running, walking, climbing ’terminators’. Cool stuff. I’m gonna buy one of these guys asap. Maybe the RHex on the video below who seems to be the perfect role model and buddy for my Husquarna AutoMower®.

One of my colleagues circulated a series of 70’s Trabant commercials. Watching them with both amazement and ostalgia, I realised that I’d almost forgotten about this automotive impossibility which survived more than thirty years. Including most of its strange signature features. 15 years delivery time. Under-the-hood, fast refuelling. Its funny two-stroke sound. Its signature 50 meter smoke tail dragging behind it. And not to forget, the innovative body work in Duroplast composite (which unfortunately wasn’t really water resistant). But even more fascinating is how more than three million of these things were put together – finished off with both passion and frustration. Have a look, and rediscover that superior product finish is nothing but a matter of creative craftsmanship and a willing heart.

Tired of getting out to refuel? Tired of getting hands and shoes ‘dieseled’ every time? Here is the solution. Automatic refuelling! It might be your most unrealised need.

The retailer will be happy as well. According to Fuelmatics, Easy-Fill® doubles customers per hour, increases their loyalty and rocket sales in shop! The latter is quite amazing as most auto-refuellers stay in their cars and never make it to the shop. Must be some new kind of remote shopping.

Anyway, I’m an automation geek and just I’m longing to do that drive-through fill up!

I’ve just had a meeting with a business man from Asia, who is about to launch an online service that allows design project owners to crowdsource on even complicated design projects. Three months ago I had a similar meeting with a Dutch guy, also about to launch a crowdsourcing tool.

This momentum just confirms my belief that crowdsourcing is a key design tool of the future. Why? It allows thousands of brains to chip into the development process, making the creative process quicker and more expansive.

My bet it’s not a stand-alone solution. Creative processes require considerable and careful management. But with a little culture change and enough contributors and users on board, I do believe that crowdsourcing is a key way forward for creative development.

Call it the democratisation of design – even non-designers can point and click their way to ingenious solutions with a crowdsourcing tool. Time to retire, I guess.

Not everything goes fast in China, but some things move incredibly fast. One of them is the MagLev train in Shanghai, which I took this week. It takes you 30 kilometres in less than 8 minutes. Leaning into curves at a speed of approx 430 km/h is quite amazing.

The paradox is that the end station, however, is in the middle of nowhere. We had to transfer to a taxi. And with a speed of 430 km/hr, couldn’t you have built a bit more track?

Nevermind, many Danish commuters daily spend between 3-4 hours in an old-fashioned train travelling between Copenhagen and the country’s second-biggest city, Aarhus. MagLev would do the same lap in about 45 minutes. Add a bridge across the Kattegat and it’s 20! Almost faster than taking the phone:)

Wake up, DK! China’s coming!

LG is launching yet another phone that attacks our senses. I liked the Chocolate and loved the shine – design wise anyway.

Now they are launching their next Black Label handset and it looks stylish with its carbon fibre and tempered glass styling – and of course touch screen control . Furthermore LG promises that it will be the slimmest 5 megapixel camera phone on the market. This means it has to be thinner than the 14.9mm thin Samsung G600.

I can’t wait to see it in real….