Jul 04

@MoMoLondon Living in a Multiplatform World (14/6/10)

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Microsoft hosted the event at their London offices in Victoria.

As our host, Alex Reeve, Director Mobile Business Group, Microsoft gave an opening address.

Opening comment “Microsoft are back in the mobile industry”

Windows Phone 7 experience is based on a seamless media, contacts and calendar experience. The UI is heavily influenced by the Microsoft Zune (media device) which Microsoft will be bringing to the UK at some point on the future. XNA ( Xbox developer platform) will be supported on the device allowing cross platform developments. Microsoft are committed to a three screen environment that includes games (Xbox, TV), web (PC) and mobile.

The chair of the panel was Marek Pawlowski, Founder of MEX. On the Panel were Oded Ran, Microsoft Consumer Marketing, Ilia Uvaroz, RG/A, Nick Lansley, Tesco IT and Mobile R&D Head, Tom Hume, MD Future Platforms and Jerry Ennis from Flirtomatic.

Marek started with some industry stats:

  • Current trend is 250M smartphones sold per year
  • Current Smartphone install base is 400M
  • Three quarters of mobile developers use an Android or Apple device <- Certainly the events that I go to this is true!

Which platform do you star with? How do you decide?

Nick (Tesco) – Draw big Venn diagram of handsets and online and where the intersection is that is your target. Tesco started on the iPhone because Nick was using one and regarded it as a hero device. Could the iPad be the next hero device?

Jerry (Flirtomatic) – Started with a Java app on Nokia devices. Found this was too difficult to produce across all platforms. Moved to mobile web which has been very successful. Have developed an iPhone app which has been very successful.

Tom (Future Platforms) – Would recommend web/Java in the first instance until audience has been confirmed. Suggested spending £50 on adwords to see who would click through to the service you were creating would be money well spent <- What a smart idea!!

Oded (MS) – Application has to look great. Platform should have great tools to ease development, don’t want to spend lots of time wrangling the development environment. In the end the application needs to be fun or make money.

Comment from the audience - Ed @touchnote discussed that they had developed for Nokia and the OVI store first. Really struggled to make money. Android/RIM/iPhone have been a much better experience. View was that OVI was letting the Nokia down.

Discussion moved to application updates. Given people have lots of applications could this lead to constant downloads/updates?

Jerry – Application uses a native iPhone wrapper. Core content of the application can be changed on the fly as long as the application itself is not changed i.e. application does not have to resubmitted to the app store.

Nick – Approach is to offer functionality updates when they  want to fix major bugs. Perceived that there is then a good reason to update the application.

Is current fragmentation sustainable?

View from the panel was that there is some consolidation going on around web/HTML5 etc. Developers should support platforms first and foremost where there are customers for their offerings. <- Not sure either of those comments answered the question. Is this falling into the iPhone/Android trap?

How can Microsoft best support application developers to make money?

These comments came from the crowd – Don’t force people to write applications in Silverlight. Reveal the numbers in the app store to give developers insight. 70/30 is the normal split for developers in the app stores, that is an opportunity for Microsoft to mix things up a bit and provide proper competition.

What about using tools for cross platform development?

Nick had some views on this, don’t choose mediocre tools to create cross platform applications, gives a poor experience. Lowest common denominator developments satisfy no one.

An interesting night, a good panel and a good Chair. Nice to see a bolder Microsoft with developers, more on Windows Phone 7 in my next post!

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Jun 18

M-Publishing (1/6/10 #mpubs10)

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I had high expectations for M-Publishing via the Camerjam guys as I had enjoyed their M-Football event in January so much.

Some highlights.

The keynote was given by the ever charismatic Jonathan Macdonald from This Fluid World. The presentation does not do the keynote justice, you need to hear Jonathan speak to get what I mean. Anyone that puts the South Park ‘Elephant tries to mount Pig’ sketch into a presentation and gets away with it must be a genius. Favourite quote “Just because it can doesn’t mean it should”.

Fireside Chat – Jonathan Macdonald and Richard Titus, CEO Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND)

AND is part of the Daily Mail Group. There is inherent value in mobile but as a business AND has to make money from it. Value = quality, engagement, loyalty, trust, identity. The Daily Mail has 40 million unique visitors a day – “data is the new oil”.

The group currently has two iPad apps, Metro and Prime Location. There are two other ‘mobile’ services, Teletext Mobile and Teletext Holidays. Teletext Mobile is is a web/sms based service and Teletext Holidays has an iPhone app. Because the current offering has been deemed a success there is a plan to produce 150 apps across multiple platforms in the next 12 months. iPad apps being developed internally currently. Costs per app range from £3k to £100K.

What about future proofing? Technology is an enabler so use it e.g. Jobsite, use Facebook as a distribution platform.

Models include free and transaction based. All apps have advertising.

Tim Smith – Evening Standard

Are applications the saviour of the publishing industry?

As an example of how hard it is in publishing Tim gave the following example:

In April 2009 the Telegraph had a circulation of 778K. When the Telegraph broke the MP expenses scandal in May the uplift was only 1.5% and 0.3% in June. It is very difficult to change readership even with huge stories.

According to Comscore (UK)

- 23% of total handset owners own Smartphones, 3.5% of handsets are iPhones.

- 56% of iPhone owners have downloaded apps, of the other Smartphone owners this drops to 22%.

- 80% of iPhone owners read news on their handsets, dropping to 48% for the rest

- Average app spend is £6/month

Guardian had 70,00 downloads in its first month of release. It has currently generated £170K in revenue.

Sky have been quoted as saying thy would rather have 1M free iPhone apps downloaded than 10K paid <- but isn’t this more to do with the app complementing broadcasting which is the core business? Revenue is made from app via advertising.

Evening Standard has apps for iPhone, Nokia, Android and RIM. The apps are free to the consumer and have been created by Handmark. Commercial model uses advertising and sponsorship. Social Networking is part of the experience.

Message – its not just about the iPhone!

Comment during Q&A:

- Free iPhone apps are translating to paid iPad apps (US)

Nick Malaperian – Nokia

Usual Nokia marketing OVI presentation but some good point were made during the Q&A:

- Android and iPhones are sold with unlimited data plans. Is this the case with Nokia handsets? i.e. is this why there are less people using internet and using services on Nokia phones. Interestingly nobody knew in the audience, probably because they all had iPhones or Android devices or were on corporate plans.

- UK (from Nokia’s stats) is the number one territory in Europe for app downloads followed by Italy and then Germany.

Comment

Another great event from the Camerjam guys. The room was probably split in two with those that ‘got mobile’ and those that think mobile is iPhone. To be fair I completely get that these guys need to make money and they can do that with iPhone. What we all have to do is take the next step and prove that the industry is more than a Jobsian utopia. Although some OEM’s need to pull their socks up, you know who you are!

I think we would all get so much more done if we all stopped bitching about the merits of iPhone and Android and which is ‘best’. Each has success in its own right and are great platforms. There is a big market for everyone, please lets focus our energies on innovating rather than moaning. Embrace the challenge don’t fight it ;-)

Jun 10

Notes from Monetising Mobile (26/5/10)

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Some stats from Stuart Dredge

Some Positives

Pizza Hut – iPhone app has generated $1M in sales (pizza). Drives traffic to website to create an account etc

Paper Toss – 10M+ downloads, $125K/month ad revenue, $1.25M in paid downloads

WSJ – 64K active users, $17.99/mth

Pandora – 30K users/day on iPhone, 25% of overall traffic is iPhone, $40M revenue

Doodle Jump – 4M since its launch in March ’09, 80K downloads on christmas day, 2.8M revenue ($0.99), Android app retails at $3.99

Red Laser – 2M downloads, 950K users/mth, $1.99 -> $2.25M revenue, 50M codes scanned

Flight Control – 2M downloads, 1.4M revenue

Ebay – $600M mobile revenue, $1.5B revenue overall 2010, 1.5M items sold over christmas 2009

Lessons (on how to be successful)

  • Application has to be excellent
  • Get people talking about you app in the pub etc
  • Mix and match streams
  • Free spawns premium
  • Help people buy things in the real world
  • Free apps are great for cross promotion
  • You have to be lucky!

@stuartdredge

Shazam

Andrew Fisher, CEO

  • 250 new users/week
  • 2M interactions/day

Considerations (when creating apps)

  • What is the proposition
  • Single v’s multi platform
  • Development (how much?)
  • Business model, free? Paid? Advertising?
  • Go to market strategy
  • Future opportunities <- See below re: TV advertising

Lesson – If you charge for the application do not include for advertising

Shazam

  • Built for mobile
  • Utility = longevity
  • Built for all platforms and application stores
  • Preload opportunity with operators and OEM’s <- holy grail
  • Available in 200 countries <- beware of localisation issues

New service – Tag a TV app to receive a promotion.

Admob

Russell Buckley, VP Global Alliances

Video will be big in app advertising.

AdWhirl – iPhone and Android open source ad platform

Costs around $15k in advertising to get your app into top 20 on app store.

Bango

Ray Anderson, CEO

2006 mobile apps were worth $3.1Bn

2009 mobile apps were worth $9.7Bn

How people buy apps:

Common – browse -> buy -> download

Freemium – browse -> download -> use -> buy

Freemium

  • App store wars
  • Customer care <- may not be the same in each region
  • Payment flexibility

The Opportunity

  • Ride the free app wave!
  • In app billing
  • Draw users to website

Comment

Some interesting perspectives on making money from applications and advertising from people that have experience. The above is not an exhaustive list of everyone that presented but just comments that stuck out for me. The panels whilst well presented did not talk about anything new. At least the messages are consistent which is always good to know.

There are lots of companies doing mobile. Some are making money, some are doing it because they have to (keeping up with the Jones’). What is clear is if you can get it right the potential audience is huge! However before you rush off and start coding that iPhone app you may be better of putting a £1 on the lottery.

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May 10

@mashupevent ‘The Internet of Things’, 04/05/10

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William Gibson – “The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet”.

The above was one of the very first quotes at the event. The ‘Internet of Things’ is based on the premise of machines connected wirelessly or wired to the Internet.

Another concept that was mentioned quite early on was a Spime, which is space + time. A Spime is a currently-theoretical object that can be tracked through space and time throughout the lifetime of the object. The name “spime” was coined by author Bruce Sterling.

It was noted that if you consider that there are theoretically or otherwise 10 exp 9 mobile phones on the planet then in the not too distant future there could be > 10 exp 12 spimes. The realtime web can be measured in Mb/s and 10% of this traffic is machine to machine (M2M). A spime network will be measured in Gb/s and 99% of this traffic will be M2M.

There are currently more military applications for this type of technology (think drones over Afghanistan) than consumer or domestic but it was noted by the panel that healthcare and energy (smart metering) were likely sectors that would benefit.

David Wood (@dw2) discussed that he suspected progress would be more Demi Moore’s law (disruptive change at half the speed of Moore’s law – Bhaskar Chakravorti’s) when in the marketplace, than Moore’s law. This is because of a) technical issues, b)ecosystem – which came first mobiles or the network? and c) business models .

It is likely that sensors will play an increasing part as technology develops as machines gather more information. You can see today the issues around location based services always knowing where we are. With more information being collected about where we are and what we are doing what are the privacy issues? Will this be acceptable to the general public? Will the benefits outweigh the perceived big brother issues? Another comment from the panel – “will you trust ‘things’ are who or what we think they are”, this is a consideration when considering today’s spoofing of websites and phishing attacks.

When you consider this in a health context there are obviously benefits to the individual. If someone is suffering from a heart condition and is monitored with data being stored in the cloud, the data could be analysed in real time and could trigger events that could inform the individual or GP if there is a problem that could then be acted upon. However what are the ramifications if insurances companies are granted access to this data? Would this increase premiums based on severity of condition or proof of congenital disease etc.

@dw2  raised an important point with respect privacy and health. Consider a group of people providing their data anonymously and this data being aggregated and analysed for the benefit of society. This could highlight trends or pockets of disease that could be studied with a view to prevention or even cure.

As the panel summed up someone mentioned (I can’t remember who) the concept of an augmented reality of things where each object has its attributes stored online for its lifetime including its history(including ownership), operation manual, specification warranty etc. Is this an extension to Flook or perhaps Layar? Whilst it makes less sense for something like a kettle, it certainly makes sense for a car. Imagine going to buy a second hand car and being able to get that sort of information just by your mobile device being in the proximity of it.

Another good Mashup discussion, but on a subject that I feel has still to breakthrough and is in its infancy. I wonder what the discussion will be in 1, 2 or 3 years time. Will we have accepted and be actively participating in the ‘Internet of Things’?

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Apr 01

@MoMoLondon Demo Night 30/03/10

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This was the second demo night at MoMoLo I had attended and it was a pleasant surprise. I was disappointed last year at the lack of ideas for monetisation with the fallback being ‘mobile advertising’. Thankfully this year the quality was good and hopefully the business models of these companies actually have some longevity. Sorry if I missed any of you, there were lots of people talking that night, maybe next time. Also I have seen some of these apps demoed before.

Orange – Orange Vallee Team – O(PE)N

A phonebook concept, ON, that enabled functionality for groups of people that you would speak to, think T-Mob’s ‘My Faves’ with social networking and presence thrown in. You can determine how groups can contact you depending on your status etc. How new is this stuff? More of a mash up of things that have been done before unless I missed the point.

Currently on Android with iPhone to follow. Interestingly they said that for them the economics of Android made sense with the number of OEM’s that would be releasing Android handsets in the (near) future.

Interestingly this was aimed at what they termed ‘digital adults’ – mobile centric 19-40 year olds, obviously only those with iPhones and Android handsets for now.

I have tried to look it up on the web since and cannot seem to find a thing?

Future Platforms – Guardian Anywhere

Unofficial Guardian app for Android devices that was born out of a research project. Works with RSS feeds (Guardians is quite rich) and can download content overnight on WiFi if you want to save on your data bill. Has SQL database for local storage. Guardian have written about it so have sort of given their blessing.

They have ported to 12 Android devices. Given all the stories about fragmentation you hear on Android they said it was easier than porting to J2ME devices.

No revenue model but will offer to other publications.

Hiplogic – Snaplife

A virtual runtime for Symbian and Windows Mobile devices that provides widgets, notifications and search. It also provides presence and location integration into the phonebook. It was termed a ‘rich phone top’ that is executed on startup. The application is also useful for application and service discovery. <- are they a bit of a mashup of Mippin and Surfkitchen or am I getting it wrong? Looking at their website they have secured a decent amount of funding so they must be doing something right.

Lastminute Labs – Topsee

This app provided you with info on places to ‘eat, drink, see, do or buy in London zone 1′. This was done with photo’s of said things to do laid out of the screen like Microsoft Surface. Photo’s can float around over and under one another etc. Currently runs on iPhone and Android devices. looking at getting other cities involved built from content provided by the public. Any content contributors would get a 50/50 share of any revenue made (through advertising??)

RIM – eBay Super App

RIM were showing off their eBay super app. What is a super app you say? Well its an app that ins integrated into the other functions of the handset. If you have a watch on an item on eBay it will automatically remind you via the calendar that the item is coming up to be sold etc. Another example was being able to find items within your own Zip/Postcode using location. I like the concept but how many apps is this truly relevant to? Also they have just released their notifications API that should be available to the public soon.This is push notifications done from the Blackberry server for apps not just for mail.

I am sure that someone asked the question of who did the app for the device and it was RIM themselves. Which I though was interesting that they were bothering with this sort of thing and not letting either eBay or a third party develop it for them. Another example is a Facebook app which will be released.

Ocasta Labs – Agora

Agora is a project being run in conjunction with Vodafone R&D. Mashup of mobile eBay, Swap Shop and location. It looked well implemented but I can’t help but think they are just a little bit behind the market leader. Another Android app. And…I learnt something, Agora is the middle eastern word for marketplace.

Qustodian

This was a platform for contextual applications. Context -> Awareness, Engagement, Transaction, Research (their terms). Two models B2B and B2C <- would sell content to advertisers and marketeers. So context could be an app triggered by location, an action (shake the phone), an incoming call etc. Custodian is an application of another technology ‘MoBots‘. When this part was demonstrated everyone ‘got it’. MoBots is the cool bit and has loads of scope.

Toytek – The Ultimate Alphabet

Toytek have produced an iPhone app of Mike Wilks’s ‘The Ultimate Alphabet’. Think intricate picture with lots of words hidden in it, one picture for each letter of the alphabet. The letter ‘A’ was demonstrated, with apparently 360 (I think I heard that right) objects hidden in it starting with the letter ‘A’. This was a gorgeous implementation, it was one of the apps that the iPhone was made for. I will not say any more, check it out when it appears on the app store, ‘A’ is free then you have to pay for the other letters. I will be purchasing.

Another two to mention are Touchnote and their cool postcard app (£1.50 from anywhere in the world!) and UsTwo, and their PositionApp, that lets you know where you are onthe app store (come on there is only one) by country etc.

On show were a group of innovative apps with a strategy and either making money or a realistic plan to do so. Obviously only time will tell. Shouldn’t there be a ‘where are they now?’ MoMo night to see how some of the ex-demoers are getting on? Wouldn’t that be good?

Best MoMo night I have attended.

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Feb 04

@mashupevent – Apps, whats your strategy? (28/1/10)

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“If you have a website you are going to need an apps strategy!!!!”

This event was aimed at people that are either doing apps or want to do apps. It was very well attended (packed even) and held in the Ogilvy building at Canary Wharf <- great venue!

Jon Moore - Mobile PM for the Guardian

Tasked with making an app for the Guardian that made money from the start. Has a P&L for his group. Before you create an app you need KPI’s, understand your audience and develop the business case around said audience. A great app is a thousand times better than a good app and will be remembered. Question when developing the business case – ‘would I use it for the purpose it is designed for?’

Two good quotes:

“top products = blood, sweat and tears”

“test, test, test”

Gerd Leonhard – Media Futurist

“It is not about technology, it is about emerging social practices and behaviour”

“iPad will be successful because it offers a fragmentation of money and existing business models” <- I think that is what he said, anyway I liked it ;-)

Applications and models that change behaviour and make life easier will be successful. Cited Instapaper, used to print out articles to take with him whilst traveling, this was cumbersome and wasteful. Instapaper has solved this issue as only needs a laptop to perform same function.

Lots of money to be made in mobile, mobile + social = collaboration.

Mark Curtis – Flirtomatic CEO

Deeply concerned about fragmentation in mobile. Previous platform used by Flirtomatic was Java “which was horrible”. Mobile Internet is great for Flirtomatic and has less issues with regards platforms and handsets. There is an iPhone app available, next platform likely to be RIM(Blackberry) due to the take up of Blackberry’s by the youth sector.

Later discussion was chaired by Vikki Chowney.

More quotes and comment during this discussion.

Gerd

“free ->paid will be a common model going forward”

“Value will be in aggregation and social/community”

Jon

Guardian strategy is to launch iPhone app, learn, and consider other platforms. Apps provide a route to market but not the only route and not the only market.

Reach – Apps give you reach, Guardian experience is that web has stayed  constant which was not what was expected. Thought that iPhone app would reduce web traffic. <- I am not sure whether he meant mobile web or straight web here.

A person from Ogilvy mentioned in one of the discussions that they would “always go for web first, apps are a nightmare”.

Unfortunately I could not stay for the demo’s. :-(

Comment

Apps, well people are obviously have their own views and are fairly passionate about what believe. HTML 5.0 was discussed with a view that applications days are numbered. I have since done some research and personally I am not convinced. Native apps with all the problems that come with them like number of platforms and fragmentation still provide the most compelling experience. That is not going to go away any time soon. Web technologies are likely to creep further in into every day development and I suspect a compromise between web and native apps will be the norm (look at WebOS).

I get frustrated at the focus on iPhone and Android but recognise where the developer money or at least buzz currently resides. How many development houses are truly making a living out of iPhone alone? I would like to hear your story if you are (seriously). The problem still lies in fragmentation and ease of deployment on the platforms and app stores. Also are there any truly carrier grade iPhone apps out there? Would they pass Operator/OEM testing especially if they have a connection to the network or are complex.

I was impressed with Jon Moore and his “test, test, test” mantra. You don’t hear that often and it is key to making a quality app.


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Jan 29

M:Football (21/1/10)

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M:Football was a conference based on the idea of bringing mobile to the 2010 South Africa World Cup, who was doing what and how it could be achieved. It was held at the Emirates Stadium (Arsenal’s ground for those not into football) which was a superb location for the event and had good facilities. It was an all day event so I will just mention some of the points that I picked up. The event was an eclectic mix of people which is what I was looking for, made up from developers, operators, retail, design agencies and social media guru’s.

The O2 Litmus guys were there and James Parton did his obligatory run down of what Litmus is. Lots on web about it and you can follow them here @o2_Litmus. I am a fan as I have mentioned before. James highlighted with an example the absurdity of the fragmentation in the industry with this “Glu created 25,000 spins of its Transformers game due to platform and operator related issues”.

Tomi Ahonen was up next, I was not sure whether I had heard Tomi speak before but his reputation had preceded him as there is always a lot of chatter on twitter about his blog etc. Good well balanced presentation from Tomi. Apparently in India 20M people listen to the radio over the mobile network because they are beyond the FM signal. Good stat but seemed a bit odd to me. So its more economically and or commercially viable to build a basestation than it is to put a FM transmitter up?

The Layar guys were there. Is Layar going to be the platform that makes augmented reality mass market? Their strategy is to be a platform and an enabler rather than creating apps. Lots of developers doing good things with it etc. Not enough devices support it at the moment for my liking i.e. you need GPS and a compass on the handset to make it work. Developers website is here if you want more info.

My highlight of the day was Real Madrid (RM) and its mobile case study. RM is a world wide brand. They currently have 3 people working on mobile marketing. Their objectives are:

  • Create services over and above those that than can already be found on the website
  • Provide a direct tool, club to fan
  • A mobile communication channel
  • A new channel for the sponsors

Content includes photos, audio/visual, RSS, licensing (of RM brand), music (including chants) and contests.

The Spanish part of the business is managed locally and the brand is licensed to agency partners globally.

With mobile they have generated 10 times the revenue (in 12 months) than in last 3 seasons via traditional means (I assume this means their web based activities).

They have 100,000 subscribers to their mobile service who pay 12€/mth. 1.5% leave the service monthly however they also have a 6% uptake.

Now that is what I call a mobile success story!

Some key lessons from Sponge Group 1) get budget 2) SMS is still very important(especially if you want to address the masses) 3) Engagement and dialogue. Dialogue is a two way process and should be relevant. Just churning out automated text does not engage the customer. However texts that are relevant to interests and context become more personal. This was iterated more than once during the day.

Andy Goodman from Fjord presented his 6 mobile contexts – cultural, snacking, location, motion, identity and limitations. I found this an interesting discussion on creating a relevant mobile experience. Apparently a great mobile experience can be summed with the following control+utility+bling = great mobile experience ;-)

Being an event that was exploring the South Africa World Cup it was good to have some people from Africa to talk about their experiences and what is going on on the ground. Voice and SMS are obviously still king in the region but mobile Internet is being consumed.  Subscribers are counted in the hundreds of millions. One of the African app developers said that they test on Nokia’s because that is what everyone uses and implied there was no point testing on anything else. Mobile is obviously important for any developing country or outlying region as it can provide an important information channel for many issues and areas that we take for granted in our everyday lives.

A good day.

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Jan 18

@mashupevent Mixer – Augmented Reality (14/1/10)

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The was my first ‘mixer’ event, more informal than the usual Mashup events. More emphasis on networking with a short talk on a particular subject, that subject being Augmented Reality. I had been to the full Augmented Reality Mashup in October and there were some great demo’s so I was looking forward to the guys from Total Immersion (TI) blowing my socks off. Unfortunately the guys from TI were held up and so did not make it :-(

We did have an interesting discussion from Nick Brown at Crossplatform (bio here). Nick talked about the practical side of AR, how to pitch it, get customers interested and ultimately pay for it. I did feel like I learnt something. It was a very practical presentation on the business of AR from start to finish, the challenges, implementation, technical hurdles and measurement (customer satisfaction and campaign success).

More cool demo’s please.

Is AR the next big thing – a view.

I like AR because it is cool, it makes me go ‘oo’ and ‘ah’ like I am at a fireworks display. Unfortunately that is not enough to make it a success.

Given what I do and the nature of this blog I am mainly interested in mobile. We shouldn’t forget that AR is not restricted to mobiles with camera’s. Campaigns include use of home computing with webcam’s and bespoke developments for shops, I am sure there are many more examples. Many people use AR everyday in the form of location based services and satellite navigation. Even a lowly cornflake box can be persuaded to be included in the process to trigger an event (Nick used an example of a £10 note to trigger a demo).

Mobile is an obvious choice for AR, mass market, camera on board, location aware and portable. We hear talk of 2010 being the year of mobile (when have we heard that before ;-) ) but could it truly be the year of AR as well? I think there is too much stacked against it. People like Layar have had success with their AR browser, this is one application of the technology, but it is likely to be the closest we get to mass market adoption (in the short term). Its the same old problems the industry always faces with a technology that is not standardised, not on all devices out of the box. What manufacturer? What platform? What UI? I could go on. Obviously being a browser Layar is less concerned about the latter and has more control over the application. It is hard enough to get people to think mobile outside of Apple. I think it will be doubly so for AR on a non-Apple device.

I look forward to the Applications @mashupevent on 24th.

Something to look at:

An example from Crossplatform

An example from Total Immersion

Avatar AR

Coke

Cool….

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Nov 13

Samsung Omnia II (i8000) Review

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I attended a Samsung Innovator event (2/11/09) that was promoting their application store and the new Omnia II. The idea was that those developers who attended would receive an Omnia II on condition that said developers supplied a Windows Mobile app on the app store by 10th December. I am representing a US company called ViaFo who have a WinMob app that they can put on the Omnia so I dutifully went along to pick up the handset for them. Samsung are only supporting a few handsets, mainly Symbian and WinMob devices, with their on device client for the store so it is very early days for them. Obviously the champagne reception at Samsung’s box at Chelsea had no bearing on my decision to attend!

In the past I have been a Nokia man (S60) and am now an avid iPhone owner (although I do carry at least 4 phones around in my bag, at any particular time, of varying flavours). I am not a WinMob user although I do have a HTC Diamond II for demo purposes. As far as I can tell WinMob 6.1 is a dog but have been pleasantly surprised by the 6.5 update. The Omnia is running 6.5, I have checked.

I like this phone. The OLED screen is great, it makes the iPhone screen look grainy. The colours and blacks are just awesome. Samsungs TouchWiz UI is so integrated to the phone that I have not come across a native WinMob screen in the week that I have been using it – this is a good thing. TouchWiz widget structure is good, you can see this down the side of the panes using a drawer mechanism. You can drag the widgets you want from the draw and let it live on the pane etc.

Main Pane with Widget Drawer

Main Pane with Widget Drawer

There are some nice touches like the Bluetooth/WiFi configuration apps. This is in the form of a radar like display with the handset in the middle, devices are shown at distances away via a number of concentric circles on the screen. If you want to connect you drag the device onto the phone icon in the middle (see the video). This is a nice way of doing things but does not add anything other than a graphical representation of doing things (I like it anyway).

Bluetooth Configuration

Bluetooth Configuration

Unfortunately the screen is resistive touch. Samsung has done a very good job of adding inertia to lists in a very iPhone like manner and it works pretty well. It is one of the best resistive touchscreens I have used. However it still has its challenges. When the screen has softkeys showing at the bottom of the screen they are very hard to make contact with, a hard push with a nail is required. The unlock function when the screen goes to sleep is another awkward touchscreen operation. It seems that the closer you get to the edge of the screen the more effort you need to actually make contact.

UI – This implementation of TouchWiz is great, I like the concepts, I like the way that Samsung has tried to get away from the norm with some of the more mundane operations. BUT why have TouchWiz with panes, app view with panes and the ‘Cube’. I could handle two of these types of UI together but why mix the three? The ‘Cube’ in my opinion is the weakest and looks like someone trying to add the wow factor and failing.

I challenge anyone that likes a resistive screen to use an iPhone for a month and then go back to resistive. Its like watching DVD’s and then going back to VHS. How many of you are using resistive trackpads on your laptops? None, there is a reason for that….

The video capabilities are very good in playback mode. I have not really had a chance to play with the camera or the video recording capabilities of the device but at first glance all the functions that you would expect are there from a 5 megapixel camera.

Conclusion

The Omnia II is a good phone (I did not ever think I would say that about a WinMob handset). I have not looked at this handset from its specification perspective but from its ease of use and usability. WinMob 6.5 is a step forward and TouchWiz on top gives this handset a fighting chance. The experience is better than any Nokia touch device I have used so far.

Love: OLED screen, TouchWiz, video playback, widgets

Hate: Resistive touchscreen, the ‘Cube’, too many UI styles

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Nov 08

MoMo London – Location Based Services

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Held at CBI offices in London 12th October 2009.

This event was VERY well attended, people were standing in the aisles which was, I hope, a good sign that a) mobile is getting a lot of attention and b) people may be starting to think about spending money again!

There was a great presentation from Kim Imbach of Skyhook Wireless (which was the highlight of the event for me). Guys at Skyhook are doing some great stuff with location using different sources like WiFi (access points), cell ID, and GPS (they are on the iPhone and provide location in Google maps). They have released an API for developers to integrate Skyhook into their apps.

The Vodafone 360 guys were there, did a demo one the location features in 360, as was Flook and Shazam to name a few.

LBS is one of those technologies that we all know (feel?) that it is going to be big but no one is sure quite how? I think it is going to be one of those things that creeps into our lives and one day we will wonder how we ever did without it!

As with a lot of mobile events that I attend the conversation turned towards business models and monetisation. Guess what? Mobile advertising is key (yawn – yeah right). This led to some heated conversations about whether the Minority Report type of location advertising would ever exist or ever be accepted by the public. I get the impression that those that know advertising and location get that this is not the way forward but are not quite sure what is. Only time will tell…..but there are some interesting ‘takes’ on location, look at Flook for an example and the new Tweetie app with its ‘nearby’ feature.

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