Steve Outing writing at reinventingclassifieds.com speculates that the Apple iPhone could be a good platform through which to deliver access to smart classifieds. His Garage Sale example demonstrates how the iPhone and other similarly enabled devices can kill many categories of print classifieds once handset use is widespread:
Design a garage sale iPhone app that will pull in ads for local garage sales and map them. (This app would — no, must — bring in ads from the local newspaper AND other sources, especially free-classifieds sites like Craigslist and Kijiji.) Utilizing iPhone 3G’s new GPS functionality and ability to show map directions, the app would be a fantastic tool when driving around on a Saturday morning looking for garage sales.
The arrival o the iPhone in Australia is very exciting. It is a disruptive device to old media businesses like newsagencies and maybe we will start to take notice of how the world is changing.