Altyrian View

So Twitter wasn”t the biggest social app in 2009. It was Farmville, boasting 69 million active users. Yes, that Farmville – the one with the “Bill has found a lost cow. Click to adopt it.” status updates in Facebook.

TECHDIGEST compares Farmville to SecondLife”s “long lost cousin.” Like Second Life, the creators of Farmville got obscene amounts of money (a $200 million investment), but it is just another fad? To be fair, the investment wasn”t necessarily for the development of Farmville but for a host of new games that the developers wants to get us to play.

As you know, the biggest challenge of games like this is figuring out a way to make money. Of course, there is the ad revenue from the page views associated with playing the online game, but I”m sure that the developers would prefer a more direct form of cash flow. I happen to play Farmville (level 70, thank you very much), and I have yet to pay real money to buy virtual farm dollars – even if those farm dollars are needed to get my final blue ribbon.

What Farmville”s growth does show us is that there is a desire to play games online (duh) and that people like the social interactions afforded from games like Farmville. Is Farmville the end? No. Just like Second Life, it is merely a precursor to future development.

Apple, fresh off the introduction of the iPad, might have something new in store for music shoppers. According to Patently Apple, the maker of the iPhone has won a patent for a 3D virtual Apple store. While some might think that this is merely a gimmick to get more traffic into the iTunes music store, I think that it has huge potential.

If you have an iPhone and surfed the apps, you know what an unwieldy jungle that can be. I remember the “early days” when I would literally look at every app that had been released to decide if I wanted to try it out. Of course, with hundreds of thousands of apps, that is impossible today.

Enter the 3D world. Now, you are able to interact with people who potentially share your interests. You are able to discuss apps and help each other explore. Of course, it also opens the door for virtual salespeople that could be a real pain.

For those of you who tried Second Life, you know that interacting in a 3D environment has many advantages over shopping in a 2D browser. Of course, however, Second Life is like yesterday’s bread – stale. Can Apple make it work? If anyone can…

That’s my Altyrian View.