The iPad, iPhone and Apple [AAPL] recognition of the importance of digital experiences since the iMac accurately reflects the zeitgeist. Today there's signs these digital experiences are escaping from the virtual world to join us in the real -- now the world's fastest selling app, Angry Birds, has just birthed a real world theme park.
Finland's Särkänniemi Adventure Park will officially open its latest attraction, Angry Birds Land, on June 8. This is described as a "real world adventure" that's based on the popular app which lets theme park visitors ride the rides and meet characters from the game. In other words, Angry Birds has gone Disney.
The area includes 12 rides, an adventure course and "themed food outlets", presumably including bacon sandwiches. Naturally, Angry Birds developer, Rovio, helped design the place.
In summer, the park will introduce a Magic Place in which gamers will be able to upgrade their Angry Birds games. In what way games can be upgraded isn't specified, but I guess this could include new levels available only to visitors to the park.
"The opening of Angry Birds Land in Särkänniemi is a really big deal for us", said the park's managing director, Miikka Seppälä. "The theme and design of Angry Birds is internationally renowned, so we are delighted to welcome visitors from around the globe to experience the product for themselves.
"The area is definitely a must see destination for millions of Angry Birds players, but also a great experience for those who are not yet familiar with the game."
Take note: Angry Birds Space has quickly become the fastest-selling mobile app ever, after achieving a record breaking 50 million downloads in just 35 days.
What's interesting about the new park is that it illustrates the impact of mobile experiences on our culture. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 will remain the defining moment when computing moved from the PC to become pervasive across everyday human experience for millions on the planet.
No one should be in any doubt at the impact. Whole industries are transforming in reaction to the mobile opportunity. Health; tourism; travel; music and media; publishing; the enterprise and beyond. It's inevitable this impact will be met by cultural expressions reflective of the importance of this evolution.
Cynics will see this Angry Birds theme park -- essentially little more than traditional rides with themed branding -- as a somewhat trivial example of this expression. They have a point, but it's still fascinating to watch an experience which began on a 4-inch screen take a step through the magic portal to become a tangible reality within the real world. There will be more digital experiences taking a step into a real world incarnation in years to come, I'm certain.
The earlier reference to Disney is also important. Disney's success was built on meeting the then revolutionary media innovation of the time -- movies -- and harnessing this to define cartoons as a form of mass market creative expression. It wasn't until 1955, over 20-years subsequent to the appearance of the first Disney cartoons that Disneyland opened its doors.
Reality, augmented
Such is the accelerated pace of change in our new Century and such the immediate impact of our digitally-connected mobile evolution that it has taken Rovio just under three years for a theme park based on its popular digital experience to open its doors.
I argue that in terms of the cultural impact of mobile on everyday life we are really only at the beginning: as PCs birthed the Internet, the mobile era will deliver still unvisualized waves of change.
The digital grandfathers who defined our journey so far are making way for a new breed of youthful "digital natives" who will, it seems, work not just to augment our reality, but also to bring digital experiences physically into our world. And I think that's really rather interesting. Like living in The Jetsons, as someone once remarked. Or Blade Runner.
Fonte: Computer World
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