As we talked about before, the iPhone could be the next hit gadget   to invade Realtor's wallets over the next few years.  This is becoming more apparent as more and more applications are being developed at an unprecedented pace.  UI intense applications are going to catapult the iPhone into a mainstream social media device that you would not want to be without.  One of the future applications that will be launching is FLICKIM, a mobile Instant Messaging application that will allow you to chat with multiple parties simultaneously.  Not only that, YouTube videos can be sent through the chat service and streamed right on their iPhones.   Tech Crunch said that the application was developed within a week.   Wow!  If this can be developed within a week, I just can't imagine the applications that will be coming with more resources and developers dedicated to this new platform.

IM applications are on the rise and being heavily adopted on real estate websites and blogs.  Lots of Realtor sites are now embedded with Meebo, Plugoo, and Yahoo IM widgets, but 90% of them are always offline.  Why ?  Because agents are always on the go! They can't be sitting in front of their computer when they should be out in the field prospecting, building referral networks, and selling houses.  So why have an IM widget when you're not online even half the time ?  Well the iPhone and these new mobile IM apps may very well solve these problems.  I have mulitple Meebo , Yahoo and AIM accounts myself but once I'm away from the computer, all of these accounts are pretty much dead without a live connection. I've been looking for an easy Treo 650 app for a long time, but the services are clunky and very slow.  If FlickIM is as fast as it sounds, this may be one of the many applications that will drive greater adoption of instant communication widgets on blogs in the future.  Can't wait until it launches to find out.

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