The Top Ten Missed iPhone Opportunities — So Far.

I've had an iPhone 3G since Friday, and while I do love it, it boggles my mind that so much potential is going unrealized. I've identified the top ten missed opportunities around the iPhone (as I see them). Hopefully the folks I've identified as 'missing out' will take note and do what they should.

10. No news is bad news -- for sports.

There is no application for getting sports news and headlines. How is that possible? Not a single sports news entity has produced a native app for the iPhone to deliver news directly to the handset. That means out of ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox, Sporting News, and Sports Illustrated, not a single one delivers news and headlines to the phone. The GPS aspect of the phone could make an app like this indispensable for the die-hard sports fan. Shame on the major sports networks/news organizations.

9. Dear Mr. Fantasy, give me an app.

And speaking of sports, how can there be no application from any of the major fantasy sports sites for fantasy news, or team management? With such a huge (and revenue-generating) market for this stuff, the absence of this blows my mind.

8. Standing on the site-lines.

It boggles my mind that some of the most popular sites are not optimized for use on the iPhone. This is a pretty easy thing to do, yet after almost a year on the market, and contributing a significant percentage of mobile web traffic, and with mobile web traffic, in general, increasing (in January, ESPN.com had more visitors to its mobile website than its regular website), many sites by default deliver a general WAP site (meant for tiny flip/candy bar phones) when visited from the mobile Safari browser. Worse yet, a visitor will see the regular website -- and if it utilizes Flash, looks completely broken. Knowing how relatively easy it is to develop (via HTML/CSS), there's no excuse.

7. Directile dysfunction.

Any app that can potentially utilize the iPhone's native GPS to enhance the user experience, but doesn't, gets a big 'shame on you'. Hopefully, MySpace and Facebook will find a way to do this without messing with our privacy (also pointed out by Techcrunch here).

6. Blaggards.

No Wordpress iPhone app at (the app store) launch was pretty lame. As a matter of fact, any blogging platform without an app to administer blogs is missing out on a golden opportunity to get folks to post on-the-go.

5. Ama-gone?

Where is Amazon.com for the iPhone? The biggest online retailer with no way to shop securely via an app the iPhone? Wow. eBay beat them to the punch.

4. Ticket to nowhere.

The concert business is in the crapper, yes. But wouldn't it be great to have an app that knows the music you have on your phone and points you in the right direction to where/when those artists will be on tour? And then buy those tickets? Ticketmaster? Hello?

3. Lack of black.

Why can't we buy a black version of the classic iPhone headset/headphones? With a piece of hardware this 'hot', it would be nice to get a little less conspicuous with the headphones. For safety's sake. This one's all on you, Apple.

2. Media blackout.

It's surprising that practically no media properties have yet to make an iPhone app available. The only companies that seem to have paid attention are some news organizations and Comedy Central on behalf of South Park (via RealNetworks).

1. Dateless in Cupertino.

Wow. No apps for singles/daters. Surprised Match.com, eHarmony, Lavalife, etc. weren't all over this. It seems like such a logical step -- and one heckuva way to take advantage of the phone's GPS capabilities.

So there you have it. It's certainly possible that there will be apps/products to come that will fill the vacancies created by these opportunities, but they're not here yet. I'll be eagerly awaiting their arrival though. Except for the dating apps. Sorry, ladies. Happily married.

What do YOU think is missing so far?