Ric Ferraro's Blog

10 Steps for Building the Best Mobile Marketing App (Part 2)

2012-01-26T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here are the last 5 steps for building a great mobile marketing app, following up from yesterday's post:

6. Usability

Mobile is not online. Keep in mind mobile’s innate characteristics like a smaller screen and longer loading times. The interaction between windows is more complicated than on a PC.

The touch and feel of navigating with a touchscreen is significantly different to using a mouse. Transactions have to be simple, yet secure, since security is a big issue for mobile users.

Since the launch of the iPhone 4S, navigation through voice- recognition should be taken into account.

7. Ubiquity

Mobile goes everywhere with you. Many people even sleep with their phone. It is the only device that is constantly with the user, indoors and outdoors.

Mobile can bridge the individual with everything around them. Take advantage of the “anytime, anywhere” potential. Encourage users to interact with the environment through the mobile phone, give them something to explore. The more senses are activated; the more intense is the brand experience.

Its ubiquity is what makes mobiles the most powerful marketing channel there is. Touchpoints can be created when they are most relevant. For example, Geo- location lets you approach a user as they walk by a store or reward them for entering or checking-in.

8. Uniquely Personal

The mobile phone is the most private device we use. It holds a wealth of private information including friends, social networks and even our location. Marketers are lucky to be let into this private sphere of any user. However, this leap of trust should be treated with great responsibility.

Do not just assume the user wants to be open with you. Ask permission to provide a service or communication. More than anything, location is a sensible information. If you choose to use location features, always take the opt-in route and make opting out easy. Users are willing to share information, but on their terms. Reward, but don’t blackmail them.

9. Mocial

Mobile is inherently social. Most of the times a mobile phone is picked up it is to interact with other people. The fusion of mobile and social media, short “mocial”, is therefore no surprise

Most users are logged into Facebook while using any other function on their phone. Use this in your favour and create fast logins through social networks. Enable and encourage sharing whenever it makes sense. And already think about sharing when setting up the scope for your app. Make sure to include sharable content and let your fans do the publicity for you.

Read more on mobile and social media here.

10. Don’t hide the app

Apps don’t market themselves. If no one knows that you have an app, no one will download it. Start promoting the app on other channels. Deep integrate it into the overall Marketing Plan and give incentives for downloading the app.

10 Steps for Building the Best Mobile Marketing App

2012-01-25T07:08:00.000-08:00

Here are the first 5 Steps for creating a great mobile marketing app:

1. What do you want to achieve

Mobile phones are used everywhere and all the time in your customers daily lives and can therefore support almost any aspects of a holistic marketing strategy. To develop truly successful mobile marketing campaigns you need to define what you need and combine this with insights of what your customers want.

Here are some examples of what you might want to achieve:

Mobile app as part of a branding strategy to help position the make
A tool to raise awareness of an upcoming release or the launch of a new brand
Create a new sales channel to reach customers and drive sales
Mobile app as an extension for an existing service
Drive footfall to a brick and mortar store
Engage customers at the POS and enhance the in-store shopping experience

An example of an insight associated with this could be that people that buy running shoes want to keep track of how far and for how long they run. You can guess where this may take you…

2. Get the whole picture

Mobile is a powerful channel, but it is not a standalone. To leverage from its full potential it has to be integrated into the general marketing strategy.

Interlink between channels. Let channels “play” with each other, the more interaction, the more engaged the customer
Cross-promote throughout all channels. Use NFC, QR Codes or links to connect mobile with OOH Media, Print or TV and vice versa. Create and benefit from synergies

3. Be relevant

Get to know your target group and create an app that is relevant for them. Follow the user’s journey and detect potential touchpoints. What needs do they have, where can an app fit in?

Most successful mobile marketing apps are usually those that either kill time or save time. Think about how you can make life easier for your customers or how to entertain them.

4. Be yourself

Don’t chase the latest buzz just to be cool. The most innovative app does not help achieve any goals if it is completely detached from your brand and what it stands for.

Have a look at your values, your positioning and your message and work out something around it. Create a logical connection between the app and its functionalities, rather than just “brand” the new Angry Birds.

Generally, be wise about branding. A little logo on the side would probably not even be noticed, a big one would be annoying.

5. Pick the right platforms

Not everyone has an iPhone or an Android. Not even everyone has a smartphone. Users of different mobile platforms skew distinctive. Sketch out the target group for your brand and match it with the user profiles for different platforms. Read about mobile user profiles here.

Keep in mind that the target group for your mobile app might just be a subset of your entire audience. If you have a disperse audience, a mobile site is mandatory.

(Blog post courtesy of Golden Gekko)

In-Car Mobile Apps: the future of Telematics on show in Munich

2012-01-06T10:44:00.000-08:00

In-Car Mobile Apps: the future of Telematics on show in Munich

MUNICH -Carmanufacturers have had a rough ride since 2008, with a drop inconsumer demand leading to government bailouts and corporaterestructuring.

But, the good news is that sales since last year havebegun to pick up and car manufacturers are focusing on new technologyto differentiate their products. The Fiat Group was one of the earlyinnovators, with their Blue&Me partnership with Microsoftallowing drivers to make calls, navigate and use apps from connectedmobile devices.

Fordis signaling their intention to innovate in this area as well bymaking a special appearance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelonanext month and discuss their view of the market opportunity for themobile sector and telematics in the automative sector.One of theareas where developments are anticipated is in self-diagnosis appsallowing drivers to access car diagnostics, schedule maintenance andreview their driving performance.

Thisis big change and an area worth keeping abreast of.

TelematicsUpdate is organising an event called “Content & Apps forAutomotive Europe 2012”,scheduled for 18th-19th April, 2012 inMunich, Germany. It is designed to give attendeeskey insights on how in-vehicle connectivity is being revolutionisedas OEMs integrate dynamic content to stay relevant throughout thevehicle life cycle.

Fiat,Ford, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, Nokia, Harman, Denso, QNX, Chleon,Magneti Marelli, Continental, The Linux Foundation, Telenor andmany more will discuss their content & apps strategies.

Theconference will attract over 250 senior-level delegates dedicated tointegration of in-car content and the related business models,you will be able to attend over 30 business-focussed sessions andhear from over 30 top-class speakers.

Asa blog reader of Ric Ferraro's Blog, you are entitled to an ExclusiveDiscount: anextra $100 discount ontop of any current web discounts! Downloadthe brochure here and register usingdiscount code '1937RF'

WebOS Future is Open Source -HP makes code available to developers

2011-12-10T11:29:00.001-08:00

Today, HP concluded months of deliberation, u-turns and negotiations with the announcement that it will open source WebOS instead of keeping it in-house or selling it off to suitors like Amazon.

This is good news because it ends months of uncertainty which have severely tested the patience of developers and undermined businesses that had already committed to WebOS. The fact that no hardware plans have been announced is perhaps not as big an issue as it seems -if the open sourcing of the code works, then the hardware is likely to follow.

It still remains unlikely that WebOS will, at least in its current state, pose any real challenge to Windows or Android. Though sometimes, the power of the community in open-source environments can make the difference, so it is too early to write it off altogether.

Key to the future is not only the development of the code base and the hardware available to run it, but also the distribution for the software or apps developed in WebOS. With over 100 sizeable App Stores out there, the App Catalog needs some attention as well. Hopefully HP will, as part as its committment to continue investing in WebOS, not forget this, and give the WebOS App Catalog a long needed update to keep its appeal.

Mobile World Congress 2012 -WIP Jam and Party

2011-12-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA- With Christmas less than three weeks away, it can be easy to forget that the Mobile World Congress, the world´s largest trade event for the mobile sector, is also round the corner.

For the joy of mobile app developers everywhere, WIP is organizing the WIP Jam event for developers within the grounds of the Fira complex on the 1^st March 2012 (in Auditorium A, to be precise). This will be preceded by the WIP Party the previous evening at the Rock Museum in the Richard Rogers-designed Las Arenas (upstairs in the Rock Museum venue).

Both events are NOT TO BE MISSED. The WIP Jam event will have the successful formula of short presentations and many breakout sessions to talk about topical issues in mobile, facilitated by familiar faces in mobile development. The WIP Party will have free food and drinks and a Jameoke (for those up for some singing).

You can sign up to the WIP Party by clicking here

Integrating NFC in mobile apps – implementation costs

2011-12-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

In this guest post by Magnus Jern, he sums up the current opportunities and challenges of implementing NFC mobile solutions.

NFC has been around since 2003 but it´s not until now that technology and adoption are ready for commercial deployment. It is embedded in the latest Android handsets, including the Nexus S. RIM are including it in all their new devices and Apple want to equip the iPhone 5 with an NFC chip, despite rumours they would not. Nokia is launching a series of devices including NFC, starting with the C7 and most other handset manufacturers will include NFC in their devices within the next 2 years.

According to Wikipedia: “Near field communication, or NFC, is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less. (…) This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is also possible, where both devices are powered.”

The technology is enabling new and exciting mobile interactions such as loyalty cards, identification, travel tickets and micro-payments.

What is the cost of implementing NFC in your mobile applications?

The implementation of writing and reading data on the application side is fairly straight forward, just a few API calls that most developers will already be familiar with.

So the cost of implementing NFC in an application is very small compared to the cost of setting up the backend infrastructure that may be required to support it. A typical NFC application, which reads an NFC chip once to authenticate that the user has been in a certain store or redeemed a voucher, could cost as little as 10-20.000 euros to implement, but NFC itself can be added to existing applications very cheaply.

So what’s next?

During the coming years we will see thousands of different applications including NFC. Some of those will be ground-breaking and others will quickly be forgotten. Banks, retailers, transportation businesses, fast food restaurants and events companies will all be experimenting with the possibilities. Watch this space.

NFC - The best enabler for the future mobile wallet?

2011-10-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

There has been talk of NFC as a big driver of the mobile wallet since at least 2008, and the idea of using NFC has been toyed with by operators for some time. Anything that adds value to what a mobile phone can do is clearly going to be appealing to mobile operators (especially if it locks subscribers in or has a proprietary element to it), though the numbers of different stakeholders involved is still holding back NFC. Retailers, financial institutions, operators and manufacturers all have a role to play but also all have different vested interests in how it should be deployed.

The curious thing is that NFC is touted as the cornerstone of mobile transactions, mobile payments and mobile banking in the future. The reality is that NFC was never conceived for this kind of use case. Born out of RFID technology, some of the earlier uses were in tracking physical goods (from cows to library books!). This is relevant because security and encryption of NFC is a key blocker for further deployement of mobile payments (or other secure uses, like accessing buildings).

Even though NFC chips can only be read optimally at a distance of 20cm, the radio frequencies emitted can be captured a few metres away. I remember attending a panel discussion earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress where a PayPal executive was asked what was stopping them from developing mobile payments with NFC. The answer was that it was simply not safe enough.

This could change though -if NTT DoCoMo was able to deploy over 100,000 "NFC keys" to their mobile subscribers allowing them to unlock the front door to their homes with their mobile phone back in 2008, then securing NFC transmissions further should be possible.

I believe though that from securing NFC communication for simple use cases like unlocking doors to that of making payments, there is still a long way to go. But then, at the same time, there are sceptics who still believe online use of credit cards is unsafe, so a great deal will be down to popular perception. Apple...please lead the way....

HTML5 for Mobile -better than native apps or a "flash" in the pan?

2011-09-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

Interest in HTML5 is definitely hotting up-and not only from within geekland. Leading corporates are keen to "something different" that hasn´t been before, and HTML5 is definitely flavour of the month.

There still are several issues with HTML5 that mean that its adoption has been limited or, at best, what has been adopted were the "easy bits" of HTML5 that are more stable than the more racy components (the location component, for example).

Specifically in terms of mobile browser adapted sites, the examples are even thinner on the ground. The Financial Times´s recent move to switch from a native iPhone app to a HTML5 site instead could be seen as a watershed event.

However, while HTML5 is great for showing content, clearly it is not a replacement for native apps which call native features of the handset (camera, accelerometer etc). Can you make an image in an HTML5 mobile site animate when you shake the phone...no, you cannot (and yes, some clients ask for it!).

You can see a great comparison by Michael Mahemoff of some pros and cons of developing native vs HTML5 apps here: HTML5 vs Native apps comparison. Overall, the point is that web apps are closing the gap on native apps..this is true in many ways, but then the gap in some cases was very large.

Testing Mobile Websites using Mobile Emulators

2011-08-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

I am a keen follower of Mobiforge.com (formerly known as dev.mobi) since they provide a great set of practical guidelines for mobile development.

In a recent post, Mike McQuillan provides one of the clearest set of guidelines I have seen recently on how to use mobile emulators for testing mobile websites.

With around 4500 mobile devices on the market today, testing across all platforms and devices is a big challenge. Emulators are a big help in this area (even though from experience, they come with a caveat of never being able to completely replicate 100% of what individual handsets will do).

Emulators are broken down into three main types:

Device emulators - These are generally provided by device manufacturers and simulate the actual device. Device emulators are excellent for testing your site or application on a particular device or set of devices.
Browser emulators - These simulate mobile browser environments. Whilst useful for determining the functionality available in a particular mobile browser, they are useless for device-specific testing.
Operating System Emulators - Microsoft provides emulators for Windows Mobile, and Google provides an emulator for Android. These run within a simulated mobile device environment and provide access to applications running within the operating system, e.g. a Web browser.

Web-based/browser emulators are the quickest to install and access. A good point Mike makes is that despite Nokia still being a leading handset manufacturer, there are surprisingly few handset emulators for their devices.

In order to access all the emulators from device manufacturers, you will need to register on the relevant Developer Portal. If you are looking to test a mobile website for iPhone and don´t have a MacBook there is no need to panic.

You can find a PC-friendly iPhone emulator at: http://testiphone.com/. I actually tested this with my blog (which is mobile-adapted) but the emulator failed to reproduce my website correctly, so I would treat this emulator with caution.

You can find more detailed instructions on each emulator (including set up screenshots) in the MobiForge article by clicking on this post´s title.

DroidCon hits the UK -Android Developers Invited in London

2011-07-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

LONDON -If you are passing by London at the start of October, make sure you don't miss out on DroidCon 2011, taking place at the Islington Design Centre on the 6th and 7th of October.

This is the UK's largest Android-only development event taking place this year and will include some big names in the Android world. The first day features a Bar Camp and Developer Camp. The second day will be a conference day with presentations from Android experts worldwide.These include Richard Hyndman and Nick Butcher from Google and Mark Murphy from CommonsWare.

The Super Early Bird tickets are now sold out, but you can still grab some Early Bird discounted tickets at 150 GBP.

There were will be plenty of goodies and related discounts for attendees, including a special delegate discount on my book, "Location Aware Applications" published by Manning (US). Check back here soon for the discount code and more updates on the event!

AppWorks o2 Oslo- Summary of Mobile Tech Conference

2011-06-10T03:34:00.000-07:00

App works olso location everywhere 05.2011 rf slideshare

View more presentations from Ric Ferraro

OSLO- Appworks is one of the leading mobile conferences in Scandinavia (organized by Mobilen.no, famous for their Telecruise conference that takes place on a cruise ship) and it was a real pleasure to speak about Location-Aware apps during the 1-day event at the end of May.

The conference attracted a great mix of mobile entrepreneurs, developers and 'big guns' like Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Nokia and HTC, with a conference format running in parallel to a workshop format (Klubbscenen).

Location-based services were one of the main items on the day's agenda, so it was perhaps provocative of me to kick off my keynote by stating that Location-Based Services were extinct today. The reasons for stating this is that location is no longer a service but a feature that is embedded everywhere. You can see my full slide deck above, by the way, and check out the other themes I presented.

Location on mobile is also firmly in the mainstream today -with Facebook in particular achieving what Foursquare couldn't.I'm a big believer in the fact that contextual search (with mobile apps knowing what I'm more likely to be interested in according to time of day, previous searches, ambient temperature etc) will unlock the full potential of location. It is still early days for this, but as Google (and others) invest in research in this area and processing power on mobile devices keeps increasing, we will see some real examples of this soon.

There were some great presentations at the event by other speakers - I particularly enjoyed the ones by John Valentine (from SCVNGR), Megan Miller (on usability of iPad apps) and Ola Larsen (from RIM). Ola showed a video that I thought was pretty cool, on Hyper-Augmented Reality. You can see the video below and get an insight into what one version of the future of AR could be like. Enjoy!

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

AppWorks Oslo- On Embedded Location and Location Privacy

2011-05-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

OSLO -I will be speaking about 'Location, Location, Location' at the AppWorks Conference at Latter at Aker Brygge in Oslo on the 24th May and will join John Valentine from Scvngr, Christophe Joyau from Nokia and Mette Lykke from Endomondo in the first conference session on "Location Based Services".

This is interesting, as the first point I will be making in my presentation will be that "Location Based Services" are extinct. Readers familiar with my blog will know that I have mentioned this point before. What do I mean by this?

The point is not just a semantic one. We are now in a world of "location everywhere", with location becoming a pervasive and embedded element of mobile. In fact, you could argue (and I certainly do) that location has gone mainstream. Cue Facebook Places and Twitter, for example.

While location today is powerful, it is still lacking an edge. That edge could come from adding context to location, and so provide a cooler mobile experience (including predicting that you are about to head for a restaurant or go shopping).

Location privacy has been and continues to be a very hot debate. Expect this to remain the case 40 years from now. At the same time, it won't matter. The new digital native generation considers this a moot point. To get free digital services, it goes without saying that some invasion of privacy is required (even if it is only to better target 'harmless' ads).

At the same time, players in the mobile ecosytem can buffer themselves against the worst privacy storms by using common sense. The main rule being, don't store users' private data unless you really have to.

I will be covering more points in my presentation-those who will be there, look forward to meeting you. For the others, please check back on my blog for the Slideshare version.

Ethical Shopping Mobile Apps

2011-04-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by a CNN report on Ethical Shopping apps to take a look at what could be an increasingly popular segment of mobile apps. Ethical apps have an element of community involvement, shopping, sharing with friends and continuous updates that make them a compelling proposition not just for the conscious shopper.

There are several country-based apps currently available on iTunes:

1. The Good Shopping Guide priced £2.99 aimed at the UK market

2. The Good Guide (free) aimed at the US market

3. Shop Ethical $2.49 aimed at the Australian market

4. Barcoo (free) developed in Germany but available in English

Barcoo and the Good Guide are also available on the Android market.

One of the key features of these apps is a barcode scanner, with both the Barcoo and The Good Guide apps providing this, though some app developers exclude this as smaller brands would 'slip through the net'.

Data on the 'ethical footprint' of specific brands is normally gathered from Ethical Trade Associations like Fair Trade or Friends of the Earth. According to William Sankey of the Ethical Company Organisation in an interview for The Guardian although there is growing awareness of the benefits of fair trade and organic goods, there is less information that gives consumers an overall ethical footprint of the product and the company behind the brand.

"Shoppers may be surprised to find that often there is not a price premium [on ethical goods]," he said. Beko, for example, makers of the cheapest larder fridge is also the top-scoring ethical brand in this category.

As mobile commerce takes on a bigger role in terms of overall e-commerce and electronic payments, there is a gap available for Fair Trade Bodies to supply their Ethical Product Databases to online stores and so allow shoppers to make more informed purchasing decisions.

Indoor Positioning -Cloud Support for Location Apps?

2011-04-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

Indoor Positioning Systems (occasionally referred to as IPS) are hotting up...Navteq recently announced the launch of their Destination Maps service enabling "orientation, guidance and routing for interior spaces"

According to Navteq, Destination Maps "moves the industry beyond the interactive floor plan maps available today and into a three-dimensional data model essential to a more advanced exploration and guidance experience. It does this by providing pedestrian-specific attributes unique to interior requirements like stairs and elevators as well as recognizing different floor levels (called Z-levels) that are essential for applications to "understand" movement between floors once inside a venue and generate routes and guidance. NAVTEQ Destination Maps also include a Virtual Connections feature that enables more intuitive guidance by recognizing how pedestrians "cut across" open areas."

Hopefully, the NAQVTEQ development will come hand in hand with more widespread deployment of Femto cells within buildings, to get over those annoying network black-spots that still plague mobile subscribers in certain areas.

A number of location start-ups are looking to capitalize on the promise of indoor location, including Dubai-based GloPos and Swedish start-up Qubulus.

Qubulus co-founder Frank Schuil recently contributed to an article for TheNextWeb explaining where indoor positioning can benefit the current application market the most. Here are a couple of ideas from that article suggested by Frank:

1. Airport apps

In this case indoor positioning can benefit all parties. Consumers can meet other travelers in their proximity, get point of sales notifications from the shops in the airport and know how long it would take to walk to the gate based on their current position.

The airport can monitor the mobile traffic for crowd control, staff management and alerts and the airlines can locate passengers giving them a push notification to start walking towards the gate just in time to prevent delays. There are already some nifty mobile apps out there that could easily extend their service this way like GateGuru and American Airlines’ recently released Android app.

2. Point of sales apps

Location-based coupons in one way or another have always been the holy grail of the LBS industry. To be able to target a consumer with the right message at the point of sale can drastically improve the ROI of any marketing campaign.

The problem to date is that shops are often inside malls and that products are always indoors. Without indoor positioning the point of sale has proven to be too distant for people to act upon the offer. To get people to buy into an offer indoor positioning needs to drop down to <1m accuracy and become a commodity that existing services can seamlessly integrate into their service to trigger the consumer in the physical space. As a reminder to those who see the possibilities of trigger marketing; the key is not to be as intrusive as the mall screens in the Tom Cruise movie hit Minority Report.

One of the traditional issues with IPS was the need for building owners (such as shopping mall owners) to make an investment in (expensive) transmitting technology. New technologies based on hybrid positioning, smarter algorhythms and cloud-based infrastructure could take IPS beyond it's current niche markets.

Mobile Health (M-Health)- Some Lessons from the Mobile World Congress 2011

2011-03-03T11:35:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA - Business at this year's MWC was brisk. So brisk, in fact, that I hardly got round to attending any mobile seminars. Pity. However, the good folks at the GSMA have now released some of the presentations given at these seminars for all attendees to read.

M-Health is one of a number of applied mobile use cases that holds great potential, both in terms of the breadth of applications possible and, critically, in terms of the cost savings achievable for increasingly cash-strapped public health services.

Below is a presentation given by Alessio Ascari and Lisa Ellis from McKinsey on the opportunities and challenges of M-Health.

A Glimpse into the Future Business and Technology of mHealth

View more presentations from Ric Ferraro

Guest Post: NTT DoCoMo 3D Lynx phone..challenger to LG Optimus 3D?

2011-02-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

LG wasn't the only manufacturer with a 3D phone at the Mobile World Congress 2011: NTT Docomo also showcased the Lynx 3D model produced by Sharp.

Italian blogger Flavio, has the details and the hands-on photos in this guest post (see link above to click through to Flavio's tech news site).

LG Optimus 3D had a lot of coverage during the last Mobile World Congress, but it wasn't the only 3D Android smartphone we have seen. The Japanese carrier NTT Docomo showed the Sharp Lynx 3D SH-03C, which also has a stunning 3D effect on its 3.8" display even though it has only a single-core 1 GHz processor and runs Android 2.1. Here some photos:

Specifications of this smartphone:

* Android 2.1 (upgrade to 2.2 arriving on Q2 2011)
* Single-Core 1 GHz processor
* 512 MB RAM + 512 MB ROM
* microSD up to 32 GB support
* 3.8" touchscreen ASV (Advanced Super View) TFT display
* Screen resolution: 480 x 800 px
* Capable of 3D content without 3D glasses
* 9.6 Mpx camera with AutoFocus
* Video capture at 720p HD with 1280 x 720 px even on 3D mode
* GSM/GPRS/EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA networks
* Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS connectivity
* Size: 123 x 62 x 13.4 mm
* Weight: 140 grams
* Battery: 1400 mAh

Mobile World Congress 2011 Summary -Quick thoughts

2011-02-17T12:52:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA- As usual, it has been a hectic 4 days at the MWC this year, with many exhibitors, new trends and, of course, plenty of gadgets on display.

Overall, the impression is that there were more visitors compared to 2010 and renewed optimism for the sector as a whole, following the gloomy economic backdrop to the 2010 edition.

There were rafts of new gadget announcements, with the LG Optimus 3D smartphone with 3D viewing as well as recording capabilities (no goggles required!) capturing the attention. You can see photos from the LG stand above during the Optimus demo.

Rare was the announcement of new products that didn't mention a tablet-type device, both 10 inch and 7 inch. Each tablet type will fill a different usage niche -though on a personal level, I prefer the 7 inch versions (like the sleek Blackberry Playbook on show) rather than a larger tablet than gets closer in size and weight to a laptop device.

On a geographical level, the might of the Chinese industrial powerhouse was evident, with an even bigger presence than last year in terms of exhibitors and, from the various Chinese OEM's I spoke to, a clearer mobile strategy following the tentative moves of the last couple of years. It is clear that many of these manufacturers would like to re-grade their products and move them up the value chain by giving them brand support (rather than white-labelling for operators).

Finally, when it comes to the OS domain, let's just take a second to pause and consider the rise and rise of Google's Android system. Within one year, Android has risen to the top of the pack and for many stakeholders, is THE operating system of choice. It is not unrealistic to project that in one year, the once mighty Symbian/Java combo will be relegated to the bottom of the pack. Quite how the Microsoft WindowsPhone tie-up with Nokia will pan out is difficult to see, but the potential for it to be a contender cannot be denied.

Mobile World Congress 2011 Agenda -The Definitive Event Planner

2011-01-31T12:38:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA- Due to popular demand, I am sharing an excellent summary of the main Mobile World Congress 2011 events happening within and without the Fira grounds during the four days of 'mobile madness' from 14-17th of February in Barcelona. I normally aim to keep my blog posts nice and short to help reading them, but today is an exception...

Special thanks to MobileMonday for compiling the list (Photo Credit: LeCool Magazine).

Sunday, February 13th

EVENT: Showstoppers Invite Only
TIME: 17:00 to 20:00
LOCATION: Husa Rey Juan Carlos, Avinguda Diagonal, 661, Barcelona

EVENT: SonyEricsson Press Conference: Xperia Family Invite Only
TIME: 18:00 to
LOCATION: Opium Mar, Paseo Marítimo 34, Barcelona

Mobile Sunday Barcelona 2011-01-15
WHEN: Sunday, February 13, 2011, 7 PM
WHERE: VINTAGE, Carrer de la Fusina, 7, 08003 Barcelona
WEBSITE: http://www.m-trends.org/2011/01/mobile-sunday-barcelona-2011.html

The sixth annual Mobile ~~Monday~~ Sunday – an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums is hosted by Rudy de Waele (m-trends.org), meets at one of the coolest bars in Barcelona, the VINTAGE, that has a spacious, jazzy, loungy atmosphere with various rooms and salons. On offerfor 500 guests is drinks and nibbles, a heated terrace, sofas, private salons, four screens and a dancefloor. Attended by start-ups to VCs, operators to handset manufacturers, making an influential crowd. This is also a unique chance for you to meet the most influent bloggers writing about mobile and to meet the MobileMonday global chapter founders all in one spot.

Monday, February 14th

Mobile World Congress Brokerage 2011
WHEN: Monday-Wednesday, February 14-16, 2011
WHERE: Fira de Barcelona
WEBSITE: http://mobile.b2bmatchmaking.com/p_index.php

This forum will bring together suppliers and users of mobile technology and know-how from all over Europe (and other countries such as Canada, Israel, United States and more) to discuss solutions and new opportunities for the future. The Mobile Brokerage Event 2011 is the ideal environment for: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), offering and those looking for new technologies; scientists and research institutes offering innovative RTD results; start-up companies and entrepreneurs; operators willing to meet innovators and added-value service providers.

Special Mobile Monday

About: “A special event « Mobile Monday » will be organized on the Demo Area of the French Pavilion“
Time: 14 February, 2011:3:00-3:50pm
Location: French Pavilion, “Demo space” on 2E47, Fira Barcelona
RSVP: None required. More information here.
Cost: Free

Teleca Destination Innovation: Daily Cocktail Hour

About: “We’ll be serving drinks and snacks every day during the show between 5 and 6. Visit us at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, Spain between February 14-17 and see how our solutions give you an edge in the mobile world. We offer device manufacturers, consumer electronics and automotive companies ways to greater profit and shorter development times in Mobile Linux smartphones and tablets, In-Vehicle Infotainment and end-to-end applications. It’s your destination for real innovation.”
Time: 14 February, 2011: 5-6pm
Location: 8B79 in Hall 8
RSVP: Not required
Cost: Free

EVENT: Block Party! No RSVP required
Sponsored by RIM, NTT Solmare and Velti
TIME: 17:00 to 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 7, Stand 7B42, 7C44, and 7C58, Fira de Barcelona

EVENT: European Leaders – Hot Topics at MWC 2011 More Info — RSVP here
Sponsored by SVB, Hotwire, LD&A & Whitebull
TIME: 18:00 to 21:00
LOCATION: Hotel Omm, c/Rosselo 265, Barcelona

Mobile Premier Awards
WHEN: Monday, February 14, 2011, 3 PM
WHERE: Telefonica R&D Catalunya Headquaters
WEBSITE: http://www.mobilepremierawards.com

The Mobile Premier Awards are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and the point of reference in early-stage innovation during the Mobile World Congress, featuring 20 finalists from the AppCircuses events held during 2010. Participation is free and open to any start-up or developer with a mobile app! Registration will start 2:30 PM, drinks will be offered after the event in the same location until ca. 8 PM.The nominated apps for the Mobile Premier Awards 2011 edition include the AppCircus winners of the 2010 series of events and a selection of the best apps of the AppCircus Categories. All entries will be judged by an international jury (2011 jury TBC) in the week from January 17-22. The finalists to present at the event will be announced on January 24, 2011

Mobile Valentines Day
WHEN: Monday, February 14, 2011 7-11:30pm
WHERE: Alsur Cafe el Born: Carrer dels Carders 17, Barcelona.
WEBSITE: http://www.amiando.com/em/mvalentine/263571228

*RSVP required, please visit website.

Each year in February we get together to celebrate our true love to mobile devices by taking part in Mobile World Congress, which starts this year on February 14th. To share your passion to mobile we are happy to invite you to Mobile Valentine’s Day party at MWC 2011. Bring your good mood, networking skills and friends with you.

This event is sponsored by Mobile Europe Magazine, SPB Software and Camerjam, who make sure there will be enough food and drinks for all.

Tuesday, February 15th

BlackBerry Developer Day at Mobile World Congress
When: Tue, February 15, 1pm – 2pm
Where: Mobile World Congress – App Planet in Hall 7
Description: http://uk.blackberry.com/campaign/appplanet/

MWC 2011: Celebrate with Redknee!

About: “Redknee would like you to join us for drinks to toast to a successful Mobile World Congress 2011 and year ahead. Come and join Redknee executives, our global operator customers, media and analysts for an informal meet and greet.“
Time: 15 February, 2011: 3:30pm
Location: Redknee Stand in Hall 1, Stand 1E37
RSVP: For more information and to RSVP please contact Amy Wong at amy.wong@redknee.com.
Cost: Free

The Global Mobile Awards Ceremony
WHEN: Tuesday, 15 February 2011, 3:45 – 5:15
WHERE: Conference center, Hall 5, Auditorium 1
WEBSITE: http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/awards/global_mobile_awards.htm

The Awards presentation will take place in a special ceremony during Mobile World Congress, followed by the official Congress Party & Awards Celebration event. The afternoon Global Mobile Awards Ceremony is included in Gold and Platinum Passes. The evening Congress Party & Awards Celebration is included in the Platinum Pass only, but may be added on to Gold, Silver and Exhibition Visitor Passes for an additional fee.

Cocktail Reception – Swedish Trade Council Pavilion

About: “Since 2002, the Swedish Trade Council has managed the Pavilion at Mobile World Congress. In addition to the featured companies, the Pavilion will host a cocktail reception on Tuesday, February 15 at 4 p.m. The featured guest will be Dr. Marianne Treschow, the former Director General and member of the Board of the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) and current Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Associate for Scandinavia. There will also be opportunities to talk with some of Sweden’s leading mobile and telecommunications leaders regarding their plans for Mobile 3.0.“
Time: 15 February, 2011: 4:00 pm
Location: Swedish Trade Council Pavilion, Hall 2 F1, Fira
RSVP: RSVP to mwc@swedishtrade.se
Cost: Free

Enterprise Ireland

About: “You are invited to attend the Mobile World Congress “Get Connected Reception” hosted by the Ireland Pavilion.“
Time: 15 February, 2011: 4:30-6pm
Location: Hall 1, Stand no. 1F17, FIRA Barcelona Spain
RSVP: Not required.
Cost: Free

EVENT: Sybase 365 Cocktail Reception RSVP Required
TIME: 17:00 to 19:00
LOCATION: Sybase booth, Hall 2, Stand 2A15, Fira de Barcelona

Women in Mobile Data: Cava and Canapes

About: “Women in Mobile Data are excited to announce that Amdocs are kindly sponsoring their MWC2011 ‘Cava and Canapes’ networking event.“
Time: 15 February, 2011: 5-7pm
Location: Amdocs stand: B101 in Hall 8
RSVP: Not required.
Cost: Free, sponsored by Amdocs

EVENT: Ericsson Social Event Open to All
TIME: 18:30 to 20:30
LOCATION: Ericsson booth, Hall 6, Fira de Barcelona

GoMo News Blender
WHEN: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6:30-11:00pm
WHERE: Incognito BAR, Calle Fusina 6, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
WEBSITE: http://plancast.com/p/39xy

The GoMo News Blender now in its fourth year has become a symbolic, yet legitimate path of the institution that is the Mobile World Congress. Last year at the Blender, they drank the bar dry; twice! In 2010, readership on GoMo more than doubled and are hitting over 300K page views a month. Sponsors this year, for the second year running are Smaato and Diffusion PR who have doubled the investment, so there will be more food and drink for all.

Congress Party & Global Mobile Awards Celebration
WHEN: Tuesday, 15 February 2011, 7:45 – Midnight
WHERE: National Palace in Montjuïc
WEBSITE: http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/awards/awards_celebration.htm

This evening event provides attendees with fantastic high-level networking opportunities – while enjoying world-class entertainment. This year we’re pleased to feature Grammy and Brit award-winning singer/songwriter Duffy. Welsh singer-songwriter Duffy won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for Rockferry in 2009, and she was nominated for two other Grammy awards. The evening Congress Party & Awards Celebration is included in the Platinum Pass only, but may be added on to Gold, Silver and Exhibition Visitor Passes for an additional fee. See the website.

Silverstreet & Tranglo GSMA MWC 2011 Party
WHEN: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 9 PM
WHERE: Hyde Club, Pasaje Domingo 3, 08008 Barcelona
WEBSITE: http://www.tranglo.com/events/tranglo-networking-party-gsma-mwc-201…

*RSVP by February 9, 2011 to: Barcelona@silverstreet.com/ barcelona@tranglo.com

Wednesday, February 16th

WIP Jam Party @ MWC “Carnival of Nations Party”
WHEN: Thursday, 16 February, 2011, 7:30 PM – 10:30 PM
WHERE: Marmalade, Riera Alta 4-6, 08001, Barcelona
WEBSITE: http://www.wipconnector.com/wipjam/mwc2011party

This is “THE” Developer Party at MWC so make sure you come and connect with all the members of the mobile ecosystem. This won’t be just any boring old party. By popular demand, we are bringing back “Jameoke” for the third time – bigger and better than ever! Best practice up for the fun!

EVENT: Intel AppUp Application Lab: MeeGo Series RSVP here
TIME: 09:00 to 12:30
LOCATION: Barcelona Activa, Llacuna, 162 – 164, Barcelona

EVENT: Intel AppUp Application Lab: MeeGo Series RSVP here
TIME: 13:00 to 16:30
LOCATION: Barcelona Activa, Llacuna, 162 – 164, Barcelona

EVENT: Teleca AB Cocktails and Snacks No RSVP required
TIME: 17:00 to 18:00
LOCATION: Teleca AB booth in Hall 8, Stand 8B79, Fira de Barcelona

EVENT: openET Alliance Launch Party RSVP here
TIME: 17:00 to 19:00
LOCATION: Hall 1, Stand 1E56, Fira de Barcelona

MobileMonday Networking Cocktail with Marseille-Provence
Robert Maury, CEO of Provence Promotion and Jari Tammisto, CEO of MobileMonday are happy to invite you to the Mobile Monday networking cocktail event by Marseille-Provence on Wednesday 16th February 2011 at 17.00 at Mobile World Congress, Hall 2, French Pavilion at Aisle 2F49. RSVP Here.

Swedish Beers
WHEN: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, TIME TBC
WHERE: TBD
WEBSITE: Check Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2456995682

Swedish Beers is an ad hoc (roughly quarterly) networking event for folks with an interest in mobile technology, mobile marketing and mobile media. You don’t have to be a geek to attend, and they actively encourage people to join us from all industries – media, creative, marketing, mobile, telecoms etc.

MWC Beach Lounge with UK technology journalists and PRs

About: “To end Mobile World Congress 2011 in style, UKTJPR (UK Tech Journalists & PRs) is having its biggest event to date. Thanks to Qualcomm and Huawei, we are hosting an Ibiza style party at the trendy Bestial Beach Lounge restaurant. The party will kick off at 20:00 – beer, wine and buffet food being served between 20:30 to 22:30. At 22:30 the fully free open bar starts, and the party gets into full swing. We have a DJ to provide the tunes, a large outdoor heated and covered terrace and relaxing indoor chill-out areas. Qualcomm will be providing shuttle buses to bring people to and from the venue. Numbers are limited so if you are able to attend, send us your hotel details and we will arrange for the buses to pick up from convenient locations. There will be a special Huawei-sponsored giveaways at the party with details to be revealed soon… The doors will close at 02:00, but for those still standing the venue is next to club Opium with easy access to taxis.“
Time: 16 February, 2011: 8pm-1:30am
Location: Bestial Beach Lounge Villa Olympica C/ Ramon Trias Fargas
RSVP: Required. More information here.
Cost: Free sponsored by Qualcomm and Huawei

Thursday, February 17th

Barcelona MLOVE Party

About: “In celebration of MWC, you are invited to take part in our first Barcelona MLOVE Party on the 17th of February – the final after work party! To dance and talk the night away, please check-in to reserve your space in the prestigious and secret party location.

With a focus on small format conferences, local meet-ups and “camps” – MLOVE brings together mobile passionistas in an atmosphere of inspiration, communication, learning and understanding. MLOVE participants debate about the future of mobile and how little things can make the world a better place. The second MLOVE ConFestival 2011, www.mlove.com will take place June 29th to July 1st in an ancient castle in Europe.”

Time: 17 February, 2011: 7-10pm
Location: During MWC, the location details will be announced
RSVP: On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130601037001088#!/event.php?eid=177300312303628
Cost: First drinks free. “Many thanks to friendticker and MxO for sponsoring the MLOVE party.”

WipJam @MWC App Planet: See my earlier blog post on this here

Goodbye LBS, Hello Location-Awareness: The Groupon Example

2011-01-18T09:12:00.000-08:00

I have been having several conversations, interviews and online debates around LBS, the opportunities for LBS services and the degree of hype of LBS (for example, compared to Augmented Reality).

This has made me come to two conclusions:
1. There is confusion over the difference between LBS and Location-Awareness
2. There is a lack of awareness (excuse the pun) that LBS no longer exists

I have to thank Tomi Ahonen for helping me crystallize my thoughts on the subject.

There is still a great deal of misunderstanding in the use of the term 'location based services'. This term is now outdated-services that simply provide location and nothing else are a thing of the the last decade.

We now should refer to these as 'Location-Aware applications' or location-aware services..Why? Because location is a feature not a service in its own right. As such, location is being embedded everywhere, because it is phenomenally useful on mobile devices.

Take Groupon, for example. Billed the fastest growing company in the US in 2010, with over $500m in revenues for that year, Groupon has built a global success story based on offering localized offers and discounts via e-coupons. Last but not least, it became profitable after six months.

Given that Groupon is a location-based service with a full suite of location-aware applications, we could argue that it is a LBS (and a very successful one at that). But location is not the service it offers, it is merely a feature of its service (location awareness allows nearby offers to be delivered more easily).

This is not simply a question of semantics. The point is that location has allowed Groupon to unlock a great deal of value for its service by being embedded within it. In a similiar fashion, location awareness is allowing and will allow a great deal of businesses to create value within their mobile service.

Are location-aware services over-hyped today? I don't think so. On the contrary, I think most companies are only just beginning to realize the huge potential of embedding location (and accurate location, at that) within their mobile offer or service.

We can safely close the door on the world of LBS (it was a hell of a ride) and say hello to the world of 'location-everywhere' with location-awareness increasingly embedded as a feature on the majority of newly launched mobile services.

Calling all developers -WIPJAM comes to Barcelona at Mobile World Congress 2011

2011-01-05T02:06:00.000-08:00

In a refreshing departure from tradition, I am not providing any predictions for 2011 (or any other future year) as a final/first post of the year.

Instead, I wanted to share some information about the upcoming WIPJam taking place at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on the 17th of February 2011 starting at 10am in the App Planet @ Hall 7 of the exhibition. The WIPJAM is organised by the great WIP Connector team.and with over 200 attendees (already a sell-out), promises to be even bigger and better than last year's. Don't panic if you didn't make it in time to register, you can still put your name on a Waiting List..

As if this wasn't enough, WIP is also organising the WIPJAM Carnival of Nations Party on the 16th February at 19.30 @Marmalade. This is "THE" Developer Party at MWC so you don’t want to miss it! Come and connect with all the members of the mobile ecosystem. This won't be just any boring old party. Back by popular demand, they will have WIP "Jameoke" for the third time - bigger and better than ever! Practice your singing skills to join the fun!

You can find more info and registration by clicking here:

Location Trends 2011 & Why Contextual Search is one step closer

2010-12-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

I was due to present at Mobile Monday Oslo last week, when a Spanish air traffic controllers strike prevented me from catching my flight. I was going to present ideas from my book on Location Aware Apps (with co-author Murat Aktihanoglu, published by Manning-USA) as well as take a look at the current and future trends for location on mobile.

While my talk may have been postponed, I've decided to share the presentation deck I prepared here so that those who were looking forward to hearing it can at least get a flavour for it (see below).

My key conclusion: location today is everwhere. We can now archive the term Location Based Services (LBS) and think more of location-aware apps. I was listening to Marissa Mayer speak at the LeWeb conference in Paris a couple of days ago (via Ustream) and she made a point of stating that Google is working hard to make contextual awareness (or contextual search in Google-speak) a reality.

This is great news, as I have been stating for the last couple of years that contextual awareness is the holy grail for mobile apps. I also mention this at the start of my book and explain why this is so. We are now a (big) step closer to achieving it...

"Location Everywhere" -Mobile Location Trends 2011

View more presentations from Ric Ferraro.

Augmented Reality ads on Mobile World Congress to feature in TIME magazine

2010-11-29T06:59:00.000-08:00

It may seem early for some, but the Mobile World Congress 2011 edition is round the corner. As preparations build up, you can expect attention-grabbing initiatives to pop up around the place.

First off the block seems to have been SF-based Augmented Reality (AR) developer Junaio, who recently announced that they have developed an AR ad for the GSMA to help them promote the Mobile World Congress.

To advertise App Planet and the Mobile World Congress, the GSMA will place AR enhanced ads in key publications like TIME Magazine, Fortune, WSJ, The International Herald Tribune, Telecom2.0, Vanilla Plus, Wireless Week and others. When viewed through the junaio AR app the ad will trigger a 3D App Planet circled by satellites, which can be clicked to display further information about the conference`s scope and themes.

The ads are worth checking out and also represent a signal of AR becoming increasingly popular as a catchy, mass-market advertisement tool.

Monetizing Mobile Apps- A Value-based approach

2010-11-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

Apart from deciding whether to charge on a one-off or a subscription basis, mobile app developers need also to consider whether their application has mass market appeal as well as perceived value. This can help determine which strategy to follow when deciding how to price the application (free or not). It can also help to determine whether to include advertising or not.

In my book, Building Location Aware Apps (2010 Manning Publications, R Ferraro and M Aktihanoglu-AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON.COM) I present a model of how the perceived value of the app and target market can be combined to decide on the charging strategy for the app itself:

'Freebie' applications are shown in the lower left-hand quadrant of the matrix. When it comes to monetizing an application, there is clearly no interest in giving it away for free, especially if it is not supported by ads. However, in the case of low value/low market potential applications this is often the only choice available.

'Long Tail Kings' are those applications that address a small, but definable niche within the market with a high-value proposition. They can charge for their application a premium price, and don’t need to include advertising as a result.Long Tail Kings can try over time to extend their appeal to other market segments.

'Killer Apps' rule over the mobile landscape. By offering great value to the consumer within a mass market, they can use their dominant position to not only charge for their application but also generate regular advertising revenue. Other applications continually aspire to become killer apps, though most never make it.

'Boot Campers' are those applications that hold great promise, because they have a large market potential, but that do not hold a great deal of perceived value in the eyes of the consumer. Boot Campers have to work extremely hard (hence the name) to work their way out of their quadrant by convincing consumers of the value they can offer.

There is a lot more on this and other approaches to determine how best to monetize your mobile app (including a full range of mobile advertising options) in my book. I also explore the freemium model in more detail, as it remains one of the key ways of successfully commercialising digital products.

Short Guide to Mobile Commerce-from Mobile Money to M-banking

2010-11-10T09:14:00.000-08:00

I frequently get asked about mobile commerce, mobile money, mobile payments and mobile banking and often find there is some confusion over this new development in mobile.

I first posted an entry on this blog on mobile money in January 2008, when things were beginning to take shape, at least on paper. Now, with smartphone penetration approaching 30% in mature markets, interest in mobile money is picking up.

First, let's clarify some terminology.

Mobile Commerce, also known as M-commerce, means carrying out a wide range of commercial transactions on mobile, whether it is purchasing digital goods or physical goods (like train tickets) or carrying out mobile banking.

Mobile money refers to either transfers of cash through mobile payments systems, like Mobile Money Transfer service M-PESA (a popular money transfer method in countries with limited banking infrastructure like in certain countries in Africa) or to actual Mobile Payments to purchase items. This means using the mobile device as a kind of mobile wallet.Some operators, under the umbrella of the GSMA, refer to this as Pay-Buy-Mobile.

Pay-Buy-Mobile is now being trialled by 52 mobile operators worldwide and works by effectively using the mobile device's SIM card as a 'credit card within the phone'. It combines the secure encryption of the SIM card with an embedded NFC chip in the device to act as a touchless payment system. In reality, each payment has to be authorised by inserting a PIN code (though this may change in future).

The advantage is that the mobile device can hold several credit and debit cards at the same time.

While this is all relatively new, acceptance of the technology is pretty high. Studies by the GSMA show that over 70% of interviewees would use the mobile to pay for their weekly supermarket shop. In countries like Japan, NFC-enabled mobile payments are already a standard way for travellers to purchase train tickets amongst other things.

To be continued...

MoMo Malta -Video of the session on Location Awareness in Mobile

2010-10-28T07:27:00.000-07:00

I had the real pleasure of being invited by Rene' at MomoMalta to give a presentation on Location Awareness Apps and share the ideas from my recently published book on the subject (see link on right side bar).

Malta is set to see growth in its mobile sector, with increasing competition amongst operators set to drive data tariffs down and greater demand for smartphones. Location based services are relatively new (apparently I was the first to present on the subject in Malta in its history!) but the use cases are growing. One of the examples of location apps which was experiencing phenomenal growth was the Groupon app (I will share the entire presentation shortly).

They made an excellent video of the event, which I am sharing here. Enjoy!

RIP Dot Mobi -and why four letter domain names don't work

2010-10-22T09:55:00.000-07:00

I first wrote about the battle between the dot mobi (mTLD) standard and the m.dot standard back in January 2008, suggesting that:

"dot.mobi is struggling to communicate its added value, namely that it has defined (and offers as a framework) a set of development standards to improve the user experience of web on mobile"

Well, today I think we can safely conclude that dot.mobi has failed in its mission to create value from its proposition as most of the mobile sector brushes aside any notion it may have had about creating a dot.mobi site and opts for the safe m.dot option (such as m.facebook.com).

Numbers coming through from the dot mobi consortium, suggest they made of loss of €3.5m in the last full financial year (2010) and the situation is likely to get worse.

As The Register reported in June this year:

The problem is that not many companies bother (with dot mobi) these days: even Google, which helped create the domain, now redirects “www.google.mobi” to a page telling users to go to “m.google.com” instead. That lack of interest leaves dotMobi with a lot of virtual real estate to shift.

So, farewell dot mobi-may you rest in peace. To those who invested in the four letter dot mobi domain name, you had good intentions, but when you buy on the hype, be prepared for a sharp fall. And as URL shortening companies like bit.ly have shown, every character counts. Frankly, a four character domain seeemed like an overkill from the start. The 'm' has won.

BLOG POST UPDATE

Vance Hedderel, from dotmobi, sent me a response to the blog post that I publish below:

"As a side note to dotMobi's recently recently report of mobile Web trends, which you can find at http://dotmobi.mobi/node/1857, we found that leading brands have taken dotMobi’s advice to use multiple entry points to label mobile-friendly content. That means leading brands currently use .mobi as well as m.brandname.com and brandname.com/mobile simultaneously.

While .mobi remains the only ICANN-approved naming convention to identify mobile content as well as to offer unique search-engine optimization benefits, dotMobi is also aware that the most important aspect of the mobile Web is to offer end users a good experience, no matter how they get to that content.

That said, the dotMobi company is closing in on one million .mobi domains registered with that number continuing to grow. We’re now at our highest-ever number in the name base and we’re poised to be only the sixth gTLD to reach one million domains under management. Further, many brands are promoting their use of the .mobi domain, including AT&T, Blackberry, Five Guys restaurants, JCPenney, Simon and Schuster, even the city of London with its special mylomo.mobi initiative.

Vance P. Hedderel
Director, PR and Communications
dotMobi"

Le Web'10 Paris-Last call for discounted tickets

2010-10-21T04:55:00.000-07:00

LeWeb is the #1 European Internet event, where 2500 entrepreneurs, leaders, investors, bloggers, journalists gather together for 2 days in Paris.

LeWeb brings together the most influential audience in the Internet ecosystem. Top industry entrepreneurs, executives, investors, senior press & bloggers gather for 2 days in Paris to focus on the key issues and opportunities in the web marketplace.

Over the years, the LeWeb program has featured such industry luminaries as Jack Dorsey and Niklas Zennstrom, some of this year’s speakers include: Carlos Ghosn, Marissa Mayer, Sebastien de Halleux and Michael Arrington to name a few.

I have attended the last two editions (last year as Official Blogger) and can honestly say that in terms of European tech events, LeWeb tops the charts in getting the 'creme de la creme' together under one roof.

So, to ensure you get a place at this stellar event (and benefit from final early-bird prices) click on the title of this post or on the banner to the right.See you there!

Location, Mobile App Monetization and Mobile Entrepreneurship

2010-10-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

I recently gave a video-interview to Rene' of Mobile Monday Malta ahead of my talk there in early October on the ideas from my book on Location Aware Applications.

The vidcast covers the areas of Location, monetization of the mobile channel, entrepreneurship and the specific opportunities and challenges in Malta.

You can take a look at the interview here:

The Contextual Holy Grail of Location -WHERE Inc moves us one step closer

2010-10-13T02:19:00.000-07:00

I have been presenting my ideas on Location-Aware services for some time now, and a key idea I originally presented is that of a 'Contextual Holy Grail'. This is the idea that location on its own is useful but that 'location+context' is the future for these services. If I am travelling to a ski resort and check my weather forecast app, I would like it to recognise where I am heading to automatically and (again automatically) provide latest snow condition reports.

Yesterday, WHERE Inc, one of the early location pioneers based in the US, obtained a patent that could take us one step closer to fulfilling at least part of this contextual requirement. Their Auto-Snap technology allows location relevancy and intent to be detected. While this patent is, admittedly, designed for delivering more targeted ads, it also opens up the possibility of other targeted services to be delivered.

You can read the full press release below:

WHERE AWARDED AUTO-SNAP™ PATENT

Patent Improves the Relevancy of Place Recommendation to a User on a Mobile Phone

BOSTON, MA – October 12th, 2010 – Where, Inc., North America’s largest location-based media company, today announced that the Company has received approval from the U.S. Patent Trademark Office for their Auto-Snap™ patent. Where’s Auto-Snap technology creates an association between a person and a place, which enhances the ability to derive intent resulting in improved relevance of place recommendations.

Auto-Snap uses distance tolerances, landmark patterns, temporal patterns, knowledge of business attributes, knowledge of event occurrences, season or weather knowledge, common place names, user saved places and other types of factors and techniques.

“With Auto-Snap we are able to determine location relevancy and intent of a consumer,” said Walt Doyle, CEO of Where, Inc. “With this technology, we can better understand the context of a person’s location and improve the match rate for content and ads delivered on our network. Auto-Snap lets us know if a user is at home, in the office or at a favorite restaurant giving us the unique ability to improve the overall WHERE consumer experience and better align the relevance of the WHERE Ads we deliver.”

Auto-Snap is also being used in WHERE Ads to improve the relevance of display advertisements and search results, including offers and discounts, creating a better experience for the consumer and optimized yield for publishers.

“Enhancing the relevancy of advertisements is one of the top priorities in the mobile ecosystem. WHERE has proven their ability to deliver great results for a strong pool of advertisers, and we count them among the best ad networks in the space. We look forward to learning more about Auto-Snap—an exciting new technical innovation,” said Marc Theermann, Vice President Mobile, AdMeld.

MHealth-Mobile Health, Body Area Networks (BANs)-How to SMS from your vital organs

2010-10-08T04:24:00.000-07:00

MHealth, or Mobile Health, is not a new area of mobile development but, since it first gained prominence five years ago, is making some significant strides in being adopted to improve health monitoring around the world.

Today, the New Scientist, reported how Dutch research company IMEC demonstrated a new type of Body Area Network (BAN) that allows a heart monitor to send ECG information wirelessly to a patients' mobile device (so that they can then be forwarded to doctors).

You can see a model of a BAN below (courtesy of Md.Asdaque Hussain and Kyung Sup Kwak):

The interesting development is that the software for the BAN runs on an Android operating system, proof of greater integration between medical sensors and machines and mobile devices. Also interesting is the fact that IMEC ditched Bluetooth for a different communications standard (my personal view on Bluetooth remains that it can be great for tethering devices but not very useful for pretty much anything else).

As developments such as this move MHealth forward, there are great opportunities remaining for mobile developers to provide apps that can deliver medical data in a secure and standardised format to medical professionals. Key challenges to address will be power usage (to extend the time range of medical data transmissions) and convicing patients to adopt their mobile device as an everyday tool for monitoring their health.

Articulated Naturality (AN) vs Augmented Reality (AR) -the new frontier of Mobile 2.0

2010-09-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

QPC - Articulated Naturality Web from Justin Montgomery on Vimeo.

Special thanks to the great team at The Where Business who alerted me to this video about the fresh new notion of Articulated Naturality or AN.

AN is set to take Augmented Reality (AR) to a whole new level. With an AN app, you could point at a hotel building, zoom in on a particular room, and find out whether it is available for that night or not. The company pitching AN widely is QPC, who particpated in the recent Summer Davos Conference.

Check out the video, where Matt Trubow, QPC CIO, explains why AN is set to give a 'flat' AR a much richer three dimensional element or a 'virtual universe'...inspriring stuff...

The Keys to Great App Discoverability-App Store Tricks for Mobile 2.0 (PART II)

2010-09-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Getting your app to be discovered amongst a galaxy of options out there in the mobile 'appspace' is rapidly becoming the key to success or failure for new services (as well as for existing brands).

One of the key decisions developers, entrepreneurs and companies alike need to make is whether their app should be free or whether it should be premium.

There are good reasons to go down either path. Consumers love free apps, so if you are looking principally for volume of downloads, it is the way to go.However, there is no such thing as a free lunch -someone, somewhere down the line has to pay. Step in 'freemium models', allowing 'free-sounding' apps to actually generate revenues at some point.

App Store Discoverability rests on four cardinal points:

1. App Reviews
2. App Rankings
3. App Analytics
4. App Discoverability Services

You can find more detail as well as some great examples in Chapter 11 of my book.

The key message is that you can significantly increase the odds of becoming a popular app by understanding the dynamics of how App Stores work. To avoid getting lost in this murky world of App Stores, developers should never lose sight of their prime objective: to get the wider public to discover, examine and download your app. This means experimenting with different approaches, and tracking the impact of these different tactics on app downloads over a period of time.

The Keys to Great App Discoverability-App Store Tricks for Mobile 2.0 (PART I)

2010-09-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

I will be presenting some ideas from my book, Location Aware Applications, next week in Malta, which made me think about an issue that keeps popping up time and again in mobile development: how to get a great app downloaded by thousands of users.

With an 'app universe' of over 300,000 applications, over 8 mobile development platforms and over 50 app stores to choose from, it is has never been this tough to pick the right distribution option(s). And if you zoom into individual App Stores, the level of detail becomes even more mind-boggling: the iTunes Store has over 200,000 apps available in more than 30 individual country stores, with over 20 different App Categories!

First, a disclaimer: there is no one method that guarantees a successful distribution and discovery of your app.

However, there are some tips and good practice that you can follow to boost your chances of succeeding.

The first step to get you on the right track is to answer five fundamental questions:

The iPad Tablet Revolution-Three Reasons that Explain Why it is the Future

2010-09-21T02:10:00.000-07:00

These days, it is very difficult to filter real news from the substantial amount of 'digital media noise' created on the web. This is even more the case, when it comes to new gadgets and technology. And no gadget caused more noise and expectation than the iPad, when it was launched to a global fanfare in April this year.

I will not review the iPad's hardware and technical capabilities-enough has been said already and you can easily read this up elsewhere. I just want to make one point that is getting lost in the media hype -the iPad is the most revolutionary device type that has been rolled out this millenium.It is not a fad, it is not a toy and most definitely not merely a giant-sized iPhone.

It is the exquisite execution of the tablet computing concept that others before, including Microsoft, tried and failed.But let me say this again, the iPad is a revolutionary device. It is set to change mobile media forever. Here are three reasons why:

1. The iPad introduces a totally new way to consume mobile media, especially newspapers and magazines.Its screen size achieves a happy medium between readibility and portability. Again, something that is easily overlooked by reviewers is its landscape mode. Turn the iPad on its side from its vertical position and it automatically switches to landscape reading mode.This makes it ideal for newspaper and magazine browsing (Kindle take note).It also makes using those wonderful apps an even better experience.

2.The iPad is the first device of its size and weight to truly enable computing to be carried out. You can actually create and work on a Powerpoint presentation on an iPad. Yes, processing power needs to be upgraded, but then Apple is not perfect.

3. The iPad is designed to be a connected device. With 3G capability designed into the device (unlike a netbook which relies on a dongle or WiFi), data exchange and sharing comes as standard. Forget the WiFi-only version of the iPad, I am sure it will be phased out in due course.(Significantly, the iPad was conceived before the iPhone was, but put on hold to prioritise launching the smaller 3G iPhone device).

The iPad is an inspirational product, like many Apple creations before it. But don't take my word for it. You can check out many videos of how it was used as different musical instruments to create compositions. You'll find one in the title link. Enjoy!

Turning Yellow Pages into Gold: Making Money from Mobile Search.

2010-08-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

CHANGE IS COMING TO BUSINESS SEARCH:

That we are about to witness a sea of change in the traditionally tranquil waters of business directories was made patently clear at a recent meeting of key Yellow Page businesses at the EADP Conference in Mallorca. In mature European markets like the UK, printed directory revenues are declining by approximately 12% year on year.

Meantime, digital revenues (PC web and mobile) have been growing year after year, and on a global basis, account for more than 20% of total business directory revenues. But the web growth story is one that dates from the ‘noughties’, the decade spanning 2000-2009. Today in the ‘teenies’, the decade started this year; mobile is the key engine of growth.

In fact, already 30-40% of Europeans access web services more regularly from a mobile device than from a PC. This means that the ability for business directories to deliver a personalised experience on mobile is more important than ever before.

HOW DO YOU MAKE MONEY FROM MOBILE SEARCH?

The big question is: how do you make money by letting business directory users access the service on mobile?

Firstly, a quick explanatory note on the mobile channel, as this can mean two things: the Mobile Web and Mobile Apps.

This can seem obvious, but the distinction is important. With a mobile website, a business directory can deliver an improved experience for those users browsing through the directory’s website on a mobile device. It is a good starting point. But to make the most out of the mobile device’s capabilities (especially those of smartphone devices) mobile apps are the key.

Here, the app can make full use of the positioning, touch screen and other Smartphone gizmos (like the accelerometer that detects handset motion). By doing so, a much more unique, interactive and engaging experience can be delivered to mobile users.

Business directories with a good set of mobile apps and a mobile website can not only deliver extra value to existing directory users. They can also open up the service accessible to new groups of users (for example, teenagers with iPhones, who may have never opened a printed Yellow Page book in their lives). Business directories have the possibility of charging their customers (advertisers who list in their directories, not the end user) for this new mobile channel.

Business listings on mobile are also the perfect route towards order fulfilment –as the mobile is also the most common way of getting in touch with the business that is listed. Take the example, if you will, of a stranded person in an unfamiliar part of town that needs a taxi to get home. A search for ‘taxis’ within the Yellow Page app is the quickest way to get the number of a taxi company. And by having a ‘click-to-call’ button next to the company name, the user can dial straight through and order a taxi. This can be through a premium number that can generate shared revenues for both the Yellow Page Company and the advertiser.

RFQ-REQUEST FOR QUOTES

Another exciting development is the up-and-coming RFQ, or Request-for-Quote model on mobile. Here, the realisation is that business directories can add most value by linking specific advertisers with specific user requests.

For example, a plumber participating in the scheme would receive real-time requests for his services obtained by users searching within the plumbing category of the business directory. Monetising the service is carried out by charging a commission for each fulfilled order. Quotify, based in San Francisco, have already rolled out this service using web platforms, but are seeing increasing demand for delivering the solution on mobile.

Mobile OS Platforms-Which horse should you bet on?

2010-08-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here is an extract from Golden Gekko's view of the mobile platform landscape today with an insight into likely losers and gainers going forwards:

The mobile ecosystem keeps on evolving faster than ever and it's often difficult to see the macro trends with all the day to day announcements and comments about winners and losers. One of the most exciting things is that nothing is certain.

Here's a short summary of the trends that we are seeing and longer term impact:

Handset Operating Systems and Development Platforms

iPhone - Continues to evolve with OS4 being a great leap forward and with the best UI and SDK for developers but overall market share is stablising at about 13.5% of smartphones globally and with only one new device release per year growth is likely to be tempered going forward
Android - Outsold iPhone in Q2 and increased their market share by 886% since last year with more handset manufacturers continuing to launch devices and competing against each other with vastly improved hardware including QWERTY keyboards, better cameras as well as very competitive prices and is expected by most to be the nr 1 smartphone OS in 2011
RIM continues to hold on to a big share of the smartphone market with 18% based on a wide range of communication and utility focused devices for business users as well as the youth market with an amazing usage adaption among teenagers in the UK thanks to Blackberry Messenger but market share is expected to decline unless Blackberry 6 delivers improved app support and user interface
Nokia has gone from the undisputed leader to an underdog despite still being the global leader in overall market share (36% in Q2) and smartphones (43% in Q2) due to lack of great new devices and unclear strategy of Symbian and MeeGo but we would definitely not rule them out as they still have deep pockets and a very loyal base in emerging markets and a partnership with Intel with even deeper pockets and long term bets riding on the success of MeeGo
Palm WebOS went from being a dead horse to a joker when HP acquired Palm earlier this year thanks to having developed the 2nd best OS to iPhone in terms of user experience and based on open standards and as the largest PC manufacturer worldwide HP won't give up in the first place
Microsoft Mobile has constantly failed to deliver a really appealing user experience since they first launched the SPV in 2002 and although they undoubtedly provide the best PC - Mobile integration it hasn't been enough but with Windows Mobile 7, the biggest development community in the world and a track record of not giving up they might still have a chance to find a market and slowly grow over the next couple of years from 5% of the smartphone market in Q2
Samsung Bada Wave is another unexpected player in the smartphone OS space as they also deliver devices with Android and Windows Mobile but Bada has outperformed most people’s expectations in terms of user experience although it essentially is a Android copycat based on Linux and Java and won’t have much chance in the high-end smartphone segment
Webruntime Widgets are not really a OS or a platform but with the popularity of webkit based mobile browsers and the push for standardisation among carriers the widget standard (also referred to as JIL by Vodafone, webruntime by Nokia and WebOS by Palm) it's becoming an important platform and might actually have a good chance of establishing a standard for apps that don't require the latest and greatest from each of the individual platforms.
Java ME continues to be the leading platform in terms of installed base and handset sales supported by Symbian, Samsung Bada, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and most proprietary OS from Nokia (e.g. S40), Sony-Ericsson, LG and Samsung with well over 2 billion devices worldwide and over 0.4 billion downloads per month with majority of Java downloads now in emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, Brazil and China

In conclusion
The media and financial community seems to believe that there can only be two or maybe three winners in the smartphone space like in the PC world with Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX and various Linux versions. What if it’s possible with more? Maybe the market is so big, the technology development so fast and customer preferences so different that there is room for more than three? Google Android definitely looks like the favorite of the day but we don’t think the battle is close to being over. Like we said in a previous update. “In mobile fragmentation is forever. Deal with it.”

Element Youth Mobile Marketing Campaign including Crowdharnessing

2010-08-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Element - Claim it! from Morten Halvorsen on Vimeo.

A friend and former colleague in the US shared this mobile marketing campaign with me several months ago and it provided such a perfect (and rare) example of how to bridge the gap between the real and virtual world, that I have been using it continuously since then.

The campaign for sporting goods/Sporting brand Elements manages to pull off creating a well-targeted app (just for urban skaters), with a strong viral element (competition for the best skating stunt allowing skaters to ‘claim their spot’), an integrated digital experience (a customised website linking to the mobile site) and rich mobile features (location plus video) as well as social media/crowd harnessing (the best skater videos were uploaded to the official Elements website).

The promotional side involved giveaways of branded gear at ‘on-the-spot’ competitions, the cherry on the cake for what was undoubtedly one of the most complete, well thought out mobile campaigns I’ve witnessed in the last couple of years.

You can see the explanatory video above which illustrates clearly how all the various elements of the campaign fit together. Special thanks to Ed o’Meara and Josh Dhaliwal.

Golden Gekko's expands Asian operations-adds app developers

2010-07-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

PHNOM PEHN-Leading mobile application developer Golden Gekko has been at the forefront of mobile marketing since 2005 and, building on its success, is now planning further expansion.

Golden Gekko is currently expanding operations in Cambodia, Spain, Sweden and UK with an announcement on entry in new markets soon to be announced, says the company. With 65 employees and plans to reach 100 by the end of 2010, Asia already represents a key development hub for Golden Gekko.

Since 2009, Golden Gekko has been adding new solutions to its product portfolio, key amongst which is the Mobile Directory Solution, designed to put Yellow Page and other Business Directory sites onto mobile. Golden Gekko now delivers the full range of mobile apps and mobile websites to European Directories, Europe's biggest Yellow Page operator.

The company also says that it plans to launch its iAds for the iPhone platform within apps developed and so deliver more exciting and appealing ads while still remaining within the application environment.

Metaio, Augmented Reality and E-commerce - Retail Use Cases

2010-06-20T13:50:00.000-07:00

San Francisco/Atlanta -The following is the press release from Metaio relating to their e-commerce Augmented Reality product that helps consumers see products in their own space (akin to the IKEA AR application in a previous blog post). It represents one more step towards AR becoming a mainstream technology.

The Internet changed how people shop. Now, YOUReality LLC and metaio Inc. are changing how people will shop online. With the introduction of its Online Retail Visualization 3D tool, YOUReality is making it possible for consumers to see products in their own space before they purchase them by integrating Augmented Reality into a suite of commerce applications. The new services allow shoppers to make more confident buying decisions, deliver retailers a higher sales conversion rate, and significantly lower product return costs.

Online shopping is attractive to an increasing number of consumers for its convenience, speed, product selection and other benefits. To make the shopping experience even more engaging and informative, many retailers are enhancing their websites with multimedia features such as video clips, virtual visualization or slide shows so that shoppers can better understand product features. With YOUReality, customers can even "bring it home" and try before they buy, allowing consumers to visualize context sensitive products with life-like 3D models in a photo of their own home environment. The resulting image provides a realistic view of what the object will look like in that space with the ability to move the item around (maintaining correct dimension and perspective) and change colors, styles, sizes and textures of the 3D object while viewing it in the photo.

By pioneering the concept of Retail Visualization using the metaio platform, YOUReality has harnessed the power of 3D for a practical purpose. "YOUReality gives a cool technology relevance in the world of commerce by driving retail sales through increased conversion rate," says YOUReality Founder, Michelle Fallon. "Retail Visualization takes the guesswork out of the visual aspects of shopping, such as selecting fabric choices, textures and colors, making the buying decision faster and easier because consumers can literally see furniture, electronics, appliances, even accessories, in their own space at the point of sale. Retail Visualization for e-commerce allows the user to visualize products in a web store and then add the selected items directly to the shopping cart to complete the transaction online," she says.

Geo-Fencing, Location Privacy & Other Animals

2010-05-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

Privacy has been, is and will remain one of the most hotly debated issues within both the web and mobile domains for time to come. Only last week, a probe by German, French, Spanish and Italian authorities gathered steam as fears of Google's Streetview data-gathering exercise appeared to have breached several national privacy rules.

The debate has many dimensions: what should be in the 'public' domain? Where does the trade-off lie between the benefits of increased sharing of information and the risks of over-sharing?

Erick Schonfeld writing in TechCrunch today provides an interesting summary of what Google's, Foursquare's and Facebook's take on the location privacy issue is.

I completely agree with Facebook's VP of Product, Chris Cox, who described a future where phones are "contextually aware" so that they can "check into flights, find deals at gorcery stores and do other things for us at that right place, at the right time". Importantly “The phone should know what we want.”

In my book on Building Location-Aware Applications (with co-author Murat Aktihanoglu), I describe this as the 'Contextual Holy Grail', with context providing the 'intelligent' added element to Presence and Location.

As handsets get smarter, the whole area of 'sensory perception' will also allow predictive services to be delivered to the handset -for example, a handset that can detect your stress levels and location, will be able to recommend an Aromatherapy store nearby.

Geo-fencing allows users to draw virtual fences around neighbourhoods or locations that either you want to maintain as private or public. This helps give users control over the location service and set their desired privacy levels. As greater automation of location services come on stream (checking-in your location really is too cumbersome for most people), geo-fencing will provide a useful way to strike the right privacy balance in a smarter way.

App Store Rankings–Distribution Strategies for iPhone and Mobile Apps

2010-05-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

The following is a short extract from chapter 11 on 'Distributing your Application' within Part III 'Creating Winning LBS Businesses' in my forthcoming book, Location Based Services (written with co-author Murat Atkihanoglu), available for pre-order here.

“There is a certain shroud of mystery surrounding exactly how App Stores work, with the various players involved guarding most of their cards close to their chest. And while there may have been 3 billion reported downloads from Apple's iTunes store, it is anyone's guess how many of the apps downloaded were later removed from the device.

First, the bad news: getting your consumer to discover or find your app within an App Store is difficult. The iTunes Store is a case in point: with over 140,000 apps available in over 30 individual country stores, finding an app you don't know the name of is extremely difficult.

Now, the good news! You can significantly increase the odds of becoming a popular app by understanding the dynamics of how App Stores work.

A good 'discoverability' strategy will consider the following:

App Rankings
App Reviews
App Analytics
App Discoverability Services

Let’s take the first item, App Rankings. What exactly do we mean by App Rankings and how are they measured? Rankings work by taking the most downloaded apps within a short space of time, typically 24 hours. As they are regularly updated, there is a lot of upwards and downwards movement within the list, but entering the list as a newbie app requires considerable effort.

Some App Stores, like iTunes and Android Market, publish rankings within the store itself and there are tools such as App Gems (pictured above) that allow you to monitor global rankings for Top 300 iPhone apps.

Why are rankings important? The simple answer is, the better the ranking, the greater the downloads your app will receive, as it gives your app greater exposure.”

Mobile Web and Mobile Apps Monetization Strategies

2010-04-22T02:00:00.000-07:00

Faced with a prevailing culture where consumers expect web services and digital content to be free, mobile app and mobile web developers need to adopt the right strategy in order to monetize their efforts.

The Freemium model is a classic marketing tool available to mobile app developers to maintain the perception of a free service, while attempting to lock-in customers into some type of charging mechanism. (And I recommend reading Chris Anderson's 'Free: The Future of a Radical Price' book for further insights into this).

But many of the decisions around charging will stem from a look at the value that the mobile consumer perceives he/she is getting from the app in question. Apps with a low perceived value will struggle to charge anything at all, no matter the charging mechanism.

I presented a basic introduction to monetization of mobile apps to the EAE Business School this week. This intro is based on a wider discussion included in the chapter of the same name in my new book on Location Based Services (for early access to the book, click here). In the same chapter, I include a toolkit for deciding how and what to charge for mobile apps and present some success examples of companies that cracked the key to generating recurring revenues.

I took a quick survey of the class (highly educated, international, 20-25 year olds) to see how many had smartphones and what type. About 25% had a smartphone, equally split between iphone and Blackberry. 0% had an Android device (which goes to show that Android still has some way to go in Europe...)

As part of the Q&A, one of the questions that struck me the most was along these lines:

"We hear a lot about mobile apps and the gold rush taking place, but is any app developer actually turning a profit from this activity?"

The answer is, of course, yes, though only those developers with the right combination of an attractive value proposition and the right charging mechanisms are able to succeed in an increasingly crowded marketplace. The potential, with 500+ million apps downloaded to date from the iTunes Store, remains huge. But it pays to have the right monetization strategy in place.

You can see the presentation below:

Mobile Web Monetization Strategy

View more presentations from Ric Ferraro.

Start-up Funding in times of crisis

2010-04-20T03:02:00.000-07:00

As a follow on to the previous post on 'V is for Vulture Capital', here is a short article I submitted to a local business magazine about funding start-ups in times of crisis, based on personal experience in Europe.

"Whether in a boom or bust part of the economic cycle, obtaining funding carries a health warning for innovative start-ups. It can involve an enormous amount of effort for little (or no) return. This is particularly the case when seeking Venture Capital.

The matching of VC funds to start-ups is an imperfect market. The money will not flow to innovative start-ups unless they have the potential of being ‘the next Netscape’ –no matter how world-changing their inventions are.

Plus, there is the funding paradox –it is easier to obtain €20 million of VC money than €1 million. Many VCs will not even look at making investments below €5 million.

In Europe, we still witness a ‘funding gap’ left by Business Angel investment and VC investment. Few investors feel confident enough to sit in between the two and pump in investment amounts of under €1 million. This forces many European start-ups to grow organically and limit international expansion –allowing competitors from outside Europe to catch up all too quickly.

In times of crisis, the funding gap is compounded by the banking sector tightening the screws on their lending procedures. Without the ability to fund working capital using bank overdrafts, loans and credit lines, a larger number of start-ups seek private investment to prop up their balance sheets. As cash is king, these private investors will in turn limit their investments to those start-ups which are themselves cash generating. This compounds the problem and creates a financing vicious circle that is difficult to break unless economic growth resumes."

Foursquare vs Gowalla -the battle of the check-in at SXSW ( a video comparison)

2010-04-08T03:10:00.000-07:00

AUSTIN- SXSW has come and gone, but it has left an important mark on the social networking scene by making location-aware apps core to the participants' experience of the event.

It also raised the profile of the location 'check-in' feature, as popular Location Based Social Networks like Gowalla and Foursquare competed for the hearts and minds of those present at SXSW.Google's VP of Geo Products, John Hanke, said:

"the check-in had energized the conference."

Who was the winner of the ' mobile check-in' at SXSW, then? Apparently, there wasn't one, though this video produced by SimpleGeo gives you a good feel of how the different services were used (thanks to Troy for bringing this to my attention).

SXSW Interactive Checkin Visualization from SimpleGeo Inc. on Vimeo.

HTML5 on iPhone and Offline Web Apps

2010-04-06T03:59:00.001-07:00

Making iPhone Web Apps continue to run after they went offline used to be an uphill struggle. However, with the specification of up-and-coming HTML5, you can now load a web app just once and then let it run offline. All this, without a need for a continuous internet connection, giving it the feel of a locally installed native iPhone app.

In his recent post on Mobiforge, Wei-Meng Lee explains how to use Dashcode to write offline iPhone web apps. His article gives you a great step-by-step explanation, from the Configuration of Apache for Web Publishing to Session- and Client-side Storage.

If you are about to develop an app with offline mode, I recommend you read through Wei-Meng's article for further insights. You can find it by clicking here.

Apple to launch iCar Prototype with total customisation through App Store

2010-04-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

It was only a question of time till Apple decided to venture into new segments by extending its powerful branding franchise. Swiss-watch maker Swatch was the first to foray into the car sector with its successful Smart car model joint venture with Mercedes. Now Apple is looking to replicate this success with its own vision of an 'iCar', combining the latest clean fuel technology with its famous App Store concept.

Full details haven't been revealed, but official sources close to the company state that the iCar will 'integrate Apple's leading iTunes app download technology to provide customisation capabilities never seen before in a car model'.

What this means is that buyers of the iCar will be able to download the entire car specification options one-by-one from a special iCar App Store -from the accelerator display app, to the colour scheme app, rearview camera app etc, effectively 'building' their own electronic display features from scratch. Needless to say, the iCar will come with a WiFi booster, 6-speaker stereo and 9-inch screen and iPad/iPhone dock to also benefit from all the communication and multimedia features loved by Apple fans worldwide.

VC is for Vulture Capital-"Show me the big money"

2010-03-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

As a business owner or entrepreneur, one of your main objectives will be to make money. So, relating to Venture Capitalists should be easy. Except, that what they are after is 'big money' and this means saying 'no' a great deal more times than 'yes'.

If you plan to pitch a VC firm, a useful starting point is Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule of Powerpoint pitches: A powerpoint presentation should have 10 slides, last 20 minutes and contain no font smaller than 30 points. Guy Kawasaki goes on to state that:

“The closest real-world analogy to raising money, whether you are seeking it from venture capitalists, angel investors, or the three Fs (friends, fools, and family), is speed dating. That’s right: In five minutes, people decide if they are interested in you, just as in bars and nightclubs. This isn’t right, and it isn’t fair, but it’s reality.”

The MaRS Initiative in Toronto (an Innovation Park connecting entrepreneurs, businesses and investors) published a set of entrepreneur tools to help with the challenge of raising finance. The presentation, titled 'What VC's want and why they call it Vulture Capital', is shown below. It gives you a good feel for what VCs look for, what it looks like to get an investment and the strings that the money tends to be attached to.

The morale: think big and start honing those negotiation skills.

What VCs Want (and why they call it 'Vulture Capital')

View more presentations from MaRS Discovery District.

Mobile World Congress 2010-#mwc10 Summary Part 2

2010-03-11T03:21:00.001-08:00

Time precludes me from going into more detail about my Mobile World Congress experience, but as a second part of my earlier post, here are some observations about the past event:

NOTABLE ABSENCES

It was widely announced prior to the Congress that Nokia (and later LG) would be absent as exhibitors at the event. Nokia's cheeky move was to locate their Barcelona event HQ 100m from the entrance to the show at the ONCE Building on Gran Via. It is anyone's guess whether this actually was a money-saver (hiring a whole building is not cheap) but perhaps the bigger irony of the location was lost on others. In fact, the ONCE building is the Spanish Association for the Blind. Given Nokia's loss of traction in the key smartphone market, it was perhaps apt that they should be headquartered in a 'blind spot'.

LG's absence was hard to understand, but allowed Samsung to take all the glory from fans of Korean technology. Their App Store strategy is even more baffling, as LG launched a LiMo App Store (in some countries) but is looking to scrap that for a more generic store.

Another notable absentee was Palm.Those present last year, will have witnessed a great hoo-hah over their Palm Pre..clearly, all is not well at Palm, as they were near-invisible at this year's event

IT'S GOOGLE TIME!

It was to be expected. Google stole a great deal of the limelight at the show. Partly, it was the excitement caused by the NexusOne giveway (want to get developers frothing with excitement for hours?Give them a new bit of hardware to play with!). Partly, it was Eric Schmidt's captivating keynote speech, where he laid a clear stake in the ground (and is continuing to do so in Abu Dhabi at the Abu Dhabi Media Show) when it comes to mobile. Simply put, Google is now placing mobile at the centre of its strategy.Could not be clearer than that. Everyone else playing in the yard has been warned!

XConnect looking to dominate IP Interconnectivity

2010-03-03T02:58:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA -I met Eli Katz, XConnect CEO, during the Mobile World Congress two weeks ago, for a priviliged insight into the VOIP star that is looking to shine bright in the new universe of digital voice and IP communications.

Eli discussed some of the XConnect's innovative products and enthused over HD voice. Today's analogue calls lead to a deterioration of sound quality which is notable to VOIP users when they make peer-to-peer calls (as on Skype, for example). With HD voice, intonations are much clearer and the jump from analogue to HD voice can be compared to that between mono- and stereo- sound: once you upgrade, you don't feel like going back.

XConnect also signed a deal last year under the GSMA Pathfinder initiative to enable interoperability between mobile operators and fixed telephony registries. This basically opens up next generation IP networks to telcos with legacy network infrastructure.

With Tier 1 VC funding of $22m, XConnect is well positioned for further growth as it seeks to out-compete companies like Synverse in its key markets of South Korea, Netherlands, USA and South Africa.

Mobile Solutions @ the NAB Show in Las Vegas

2010-02-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

There have been some rapid changes over the last few years that those in the digital broadcasting community face. The 2010 NAB Show is the place to discover new opportunities for all those in the broadcaster world.

The NAB Show is coming up on April 10-15 in Las Vegas.

For a taste of what the 2010 NAB Show has to offer, check out what Destination Broadband and the Broader casting Conference has to offer in 2010 and discover the latest trends and gadgets in broadband technology.

In particular, Destination Broadband will feature the latest in mobile technologies, including mobile video, networks, and content delivery.A must for anyone in the mobile media distribution space.

Destination Broadband: See site here
Broader-casting Conference: See site here

Oh, and just because you are reading my blog, I’m giving out a code for FREE ACCESS to the exhibit floor at the show. This free Exhibits Only pass includes:

- Access to the Opening Keynote and State of the Industry Address
- Info Sessions
- Content Theater & Destination Broadband Theater

Visit here to redeem or register here with the code A913 (and feel free to pass this along).

You can check out more information and register on the official show website here

Mobile World Congress 2010 (#mwc10) Summary

2010-02-22T02:31:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA-With the MWC maelstrom over, now is a good time for me to reflect on last week's show and share my thoughts about the experience.

This was my fourth Mobile World Congress and while it may not put me in the Veterans Club (and my repeated meetings with mobilists from the 'Cannes days' made me keenly aware of this), it does give me some insight into how the mobile ecosystem is evolving, at least since the dawn of the 'Mobile 2.0' days.

Overall, attendance was probably lower than last year and the fill-rate of the trade floor was below 100%, but this was no surprise. What surprised me was the general positive feeling (especially compared to last year) amongst participants that 'the worst was over'. In fact, the show was buzzier than many people had expected and there was clear evidence that while some incumbents were still in the doldrums (read mobile operators), newcomers were seeing decent growth (read content developers).

The App Planet may have been physically located at the far end of the show but in terms of buzz, it sat squarely in the centre of the show. Ok, there were some companies in Hall 7 that could only loosely be associated with Apps, but it was here that the various developer conferences took place and that the smaller, innovative content companies were to be found.

The WipJam event on the last day of the show tackled many of the challenges facing developers in the increasingly competitive world of apps (kudos to Caroline & the team for a great event):

-how do you get your app to be discovered
- how do you monetize your apps
- how do you create addictive apps
-how do you sell cross-platform

and many more issues.

I took part in two discussion groups on ‘Marketing Apps’ and ‘Features of Addictive Apps’. Both were extremely valuable. From the first one, I took away some interesting points on 'app discoverability' using Pinch/Flurry tools as well as a pointer to the presentation below from Mobile Monday Silicon Valley:

Mobile Monday Silicon Valley App Store Secrets Increasing Sales Feb 8 2010

View more presentations from mario tapia.

...to be continued...

Mobile World Congress 2010 Agenda Planning in Barcelona

2010-02-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

BARCELONA -The coming week in Barcelona is set to be as buzzing and intense as ever during Mobile World Congress time, with an agenda packed chock-full of seminars, development days, meetings, parties, PR stunts and more.

The key to success as always will be to pre-select and prioritise carefully which events to attend (there are simply too many good ones to attend, unless you happen to have a body clone out there!) . This will depend on personal and company preferences and your specific objectives for the event. I recommend jotting down between 3-5 things you want to take away from the show (and side-events) and then matching that to your planned timetable. Is your key objective to learn about open development environments but have no time booked in to learn about Android? It could be worth re-jigging your agenda.

A few events on my agenda so far:

Innovation Exchange 2010

I've been invited to take part in a Panel Discussion at the Innovation Exchange 2010 (Applications & Monetization) event hosted by Qtel with support from the GSMA and MEF on the 13th\14th of February at the Hotel Skipper.

Social Media Round Table

I'll also be taking part in a Social Media Round Table discussion on Monday 15th February hosted by ACS at the Gran Marina to talk about "Capturing the Power of Social Media to Revolutionize the Customer Experience"

App Planet

I'm looking forward to the App Planet event in Hall 7 at the Mobile World Congress on Weds February 17th where SonyEricsson will have a 'Creation Day' for developers. The Xperia X10 Android device has had some rave reviews, so I'm interested to see whether developers are excited about generating content for it.

WIP Jam

The WIP Jam session at the Congress (registration now closed) on the 18th will feature a discussion panel on Augmented Reality applications and will help answer the question of whether the hype is justified. As AR is a hot topic, this is an unmissable session (more info here).

TechCrunch Europe

Finally, there is the Techcrunch event on the 17th Feb (offsite from the Congress) featuring Ilja Laurs of GetJar amongst others, and bringing investors and start-ups together (more info here).

I'll also be exhibiting in the Innovation Zone of the MWC at the GeoMe Stand: if you're a blog reader and you're at the fair or one of the other events, come and say hello! If you can't find me, send me a tweet @ricferraro.

Social Media Global Trends -Impact of Time Spent on Social Media Campaigns

2010-01-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

Nielsen recently published some interesting statistics on the growth of different social media sites across the globe.You can see the main chart above.

They show the unstoppable rise and rise of Facebook, to over 100m monthly visitors, though Twitter's rate of growth is now higher than Facebook's. Twitter saw growth of 579% year-on-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009.MySpace's decline also continues unabated.

Interestingly, the time per person dedicated to visiting social media sites shows the US, UK and Australia leading the way (Canada is not included in the data, but presumably would be amongst the leading group too). You can see this in the table below from the Nielsen study.

Any social media campaign would do well to take the time per person factor into account, as this will impact the degree of penetration of the campaign. Social media users in countries with higher time spent per user can be enagaged at a deeper level with both the social media campaign and its message. Conversely, if a country has a lower time spent per user (like Switzerland), this would indicate that campaign 'bursts' with shorter engagement times would be more effective.

Mobile World Congress 2010 –Rumours and Expectations

2010-01-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of the year again when mobilists around the world prick their ears to detect the crescendo of rumours concerning the 2010 edition of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Changing times

Globally, mobile is growing at a steady pace, with emerging economies taking the slack from mature ones, smarter phones encouraging greater use of data connections over the 3G and 4G networks and new services (like mobile money) coming on stream to create more captivating services on mobile.

So, why the gloomy faces on the mobile operators’ executives? Because times are a changin'. What began as an easily shrugged-off trend, ‘openness’, has seriously destabilised the comfortable world mobile operators were operating in. Threats of ‘dumb pipes’ loom large on the horizon. What I’ve referred to as ‘Open Playgrounds’ back in 2008 are now becoming the norm. Increasingly, operators find themselves at a loss to come up with a compelling consumer proposition that they can control (control being the key to monetisation). Meantime, that much loved measure, ARPU, continues on its gradual downward decline. Not the best situation to be in if you need to upgrade creaking 3G infrastructure to ‘gold standard’ 4G or LTE architecture by investing billions of euros.

Much more than hardware

Where exactly is the light at the end of the tunnel? No-one is sure, but increasingly operators think they can see an Apple silhouette against that light. Because no-one has been able to engage consumers in a controlled or closed environment quite the way Apple has done with the iPhone. Hence the launch of the GSMA App Planet (it’s all about the apps) during the Congress –which is great in a kind of ‘let’s jump on the bandwagon’ sort of way, but not so great when you notice that Apple isn’t in the GSMA’s App Planet (presumably Apple’s planet orbits within a different galaxy). Still, Google will be there to let everyone know that they are serious about mobile.

Google’s presence will loom large

In fact, Google will have the biggest profile ever at the Mobile World Congress, following its NexusOne launch and also with the much anticipated Key Note by CEO Eric Schmidt. Without a doubt, Google will shake up the industry and create (as well as destroy) new market segments –what I’m not sure about, is how much they will tread on the toes of operators in doing so.

Nokia and LG absent

Even for market leaders, this is a dangerous strategy –despite agreeing with Nokia’s strategy to re-invent itself into a de-facto software provider, their manner of doing so has also meant they have eroded their market leadership in the hardware/handset market. Partly so, by annoying operators with an attempt to create their own controlled system (remember, this is what operators consider part of their territory). It should come as no surprise therefore, that Nokia will be absent from the show,as is the case with LG. They too plan to create their own controlled App store and ecosystem.

Let Innovation Take Centre Stage

When the going gets tough, the tough start innovating! Now is a great moment for new services and companies to test out new concepts and shake up the industry at the grass-roots. We already saw at the CES Show last month some great innovations in the area of 3D technology. I expect Augmented Reality to be one of the key innovations buzzed about at the MWC (if it isn’t, something will be amiss!). If you are visiting the show, I recommend you check out the Innovation Zone and see where the services of tomorrow will be born.

Task.ly- Adding semantics to Task Management

2010-01-15T08:11:00.001-08:00

I was introduced to Moscow-based Task.ly at the LeWeb09 Techcrunch Start-up Contest in Paris in December last year when I met co-founder Dmitry Gorshkov.

Dmitry is an experienced UI and UX developer, and while the 'engine' of task.ly is still under wraps (though you can get hold of a private beta invite) expectations are high.

If you stopped loving Outlook a while back, get frustrated with trying to manage your tasks effectively across multiple platforms, and are looking for the ultimate collaboration tool, task.ly could be a godsend for you.

You can get a short preview of what's to come in the presentation here:

Task.ly Overview

View more documents from Ric Ferraro.

Nexus One vs iPhone 3GS Challenge-A Video Comparison

2010-01-11T03:33:00.000-08:00

TechnoBuffalo.com has created a great video illustrating the differences between the iPhone 3GS and the Google NexusOne phone in terms of design spec, speed and functionality (click here to see it).

In terms of browsing, one of the differences iPhone users will notice is the absence of 'pinch and zoom' on the Nexus. Other features are more in line -the hasidic keyboard is in portrait and landscape on both devices but the bigger screen on the Nexus certainly helps with typing.

Users will also appreciate the higher degree of customisation possible on the Nexus, from wallpapers to shortcuts as well as the multi-tasking capability and greater speed.