Mostly Mobile Related Stuff From Week 30

It should be noted before I continue that these are my views on what I have found interesting in the mobile world in the past week and not necessarily anybody else’s! These stories may actually only be of interest to me!

I decided to write a weekly review of the links that I have posted to LinkedIn at the end of the week. Personally, I guess, I will use it as a review over time of what the heck is going on in the world I work in, and how things are dramatically changing. Every other day someone seems to be trumping someone else in the mobile technology world. So it’s not particularly a personal diary, but perhaps a professional one. Not that I actually work on any of the things that will be presented each week! Anyway here goes for what might be the first of many end of week reviews.

• With almost half your countries population on Facebook you'd be made not to get on the wave, or at least the ripple http://awe.sm/58cij - simple graphs that plot the ups and downs of the users of Social Networks. Facebook announced that they now have 500 million users this week. Facebook is a platform that allows others to integrate with it such that the users of Facebook can share their experiences from other sites on their Facebook account. I like what Yahoo have done with their integration with Facebook for example. With access to 500 million Customers, in my view, you would be mad not to be able to allow your Customers to share experience of your service on Facebook. It’s all about distribution.
• Despite shipping 111 million devices Nokia Q2 earnings drop 40% http://awe.sm/58cva . Time to start releasing Android handsets ;-) I used to really like Nokia phones. I used to work for them and the Nokia 5110 was my first mobile! They have taken a beating though from the iPhone and Android phones in recent times. They need to respond and respond quickly. I really think that there is a huge opportunity for Nokia to fight back if they go about it the right way. They need to respond now though, not tomorrow. Will be really interesting to see how they do fight. I would love to be a fly on the wall!
• Windows Phone 7 OEM launch partners http://awe.sm/58ejd . I don't understand why 25% of the home screen isn't used. Is it just me? – Looking at WP7, in the screen shots that have been provided, it seems that they waste huge amounts of space on the screen. There seems to be acres of space that are empty! On devices with limited screen size this seems to be a complete waste. I reserve judgement for when I actually get to play with a handset though. Maybe the design has its users in mind and is not just minimalistic pretty-ness that adds no value. Have they followed the look good first, run well second design principal? ;-)
• RT @mashable Android Versus iPhone: The OSes By the Numbers - http://ow.ly/2fpQL -> Do you think Android could overtake iOS – Yes – a simple review of the numbers of smart phones out there. I do think, simply via the vast numbers of different Android handsets available, that Android will zoom past iPhone in terms of numbers. In terms of style, consumer usability and fanboi god like worship that remains to be seen.
• An interesting opinion about what it will take to rescue Nokia from an ex Nokian http://awe.sm/58esT - an ex Nokia manager tells it like it is (in his view) apparently this has been about, in Finnish, for some time. Translated into English it makes for some interesting reading. Again I hope Nokia rise to the fight, if only to foster further and faster innovation in the smart phone market!
• The secret of Amazon’s $1 billion sales over mobile per year http://awe.sm/58f69 - 1 Billion a year in mobile payments? Thank you very much! Think this clearly demonstrates that if you make a mobile app simple to use, people will use it. Amazon do have some very cool features that allow for easy price comparison in their applications though which also encourage users to price compare in the real world and then buy online! I am a heavy user of their iPhone application!
• Another release for Google Maps on Android brings 'Places' to the idle screen http://awe.sm/58kyC Not as good as Local Mall app ;-) – Another release of Maps for Android! They are so frequent and the new features each release make the offering more complete and interesting to use. When you continually roll out new features Customers will continue to explore your product. Google are great at doing this with their successful products. Other companies would do well to follow their development ethos!
• Android UK sales quadruple in the past quarter http://awe.sm/58kz1 Helps when you have cracking phones come out and AAPL gets bad press – speaking to a customer care agent of one of the networks they mentioned that HTC Desire’s were still selling like hotcakes which was causing shortages in supply! He mentioned that the iPhone 4 receiving bad press was probably throwing lighter fluid on the sales fire as well. Android handsets are now really becoming a real Consumer alternative to iPhone, as opposed to a geek alternative. I look forward to each Android release to see the advances. Still in the end Consumer numbers pick which is the best phone. In the end the phone specification is not the final measure!
• WAC SDK will be available in Nov 2010 http://awe.sm/58lG5 and WAC are still asking devs what they would like in it http://awe.sm/58lGC - WAC, or the Wholesale Application Community, is an attempt by Mobile phone networks and device manufacturers to claw back some of the mobile application store markets that have been created, to a massive scale, by the likes of Apple, Google and Blackberry, amongst others. (Lets not forget the 2^nd largest app store GetJar in the equation who are delivering content to 2000 different devices and now handling 3 million downloads a day! http://awe.sm/58pZf) Lets see what happens in this space. I hope the carriers make a go of it, but again lets see.
• The time for foursquare targeted marketing might be now http://awe.sm/58mwH - This article is really about the fact that very few folks on the internet use applications like foursquare and that currently as a mainstream advertising source they are currently probably not your best bet for marketing. I would argue otherwise. Currently these services are heavily used by people who are actively interested in them. There is high concentration of a single demographic that leads to the possibility of highly targeted advertising, without potentially having access to targeting tools. Marketers who embrace these new check-in services in their infancy, in my view, will reap reward in the long run.
• Amazon recommendations based on your Facebook activity ... scary! http://awe.sm/58mwO But you have nothing to hide right ;-) – In an era of increasing concern about privacy this is a little bit of a worry. Amazon scraping your Facebook data to provide even better recommendations? Amazon are the masters of recommendations. I don’t know how much money I have wasted over the years based on there pesky recommendations! Damn you Amazon! ;-) These were made though on your previous activity and purchases on their site. To now be able to do this based on your lifestyle? A bit of a concern and worth checking your privacy settings on Facebook. As yet I am not deleting my Facebook account but lets see.
• Vodafone are stopping making Voda 360 phones http://awe.sm/58nPJ More surprisingly there are 7000 apps in the 360 download store! – So Vodafone are stopping making their Social phones and concentrating on making social services. These will be able to be used across any handset so probably a good direction change. It is so damned difficult to make improvements on the UI provided by device manufacturers. I don’t know how they go about doing this at Voda but from personal experience I know it’s a challenge. It is a far better idea, in my view, to develop services that are accessible across every handset, i.e. web services. This potentially allows your entire Customer base to access your content as opposed to a lucky few.
• RT @MarkIAllison Android Market Woes Spill Over to Developer http://bit.ly/aNBM0D - A demonstration of why Google might need to rethink their Customer service? They had issues with respect to Customer Service when they tried to sell their Nexus One handset. Now it seems that this has spilled over into developer relations. Developers are becoming the lifeblood of the device eco system so would be a good thing for them to get issues like this sorted, or at least more transparency between the relationship between Customer, Market Place and Developer.
• Good news for online gaming companies http://awe.sm/58p0a Google in the market to make another SN to peddle their products? - Online gaming companies are quickly becoming the darlings of the media world. Companies like Zynga who produce Farmville and others. More platforms to distribute their games can only be a good thing! Distribution is on of the keys to success in this industry (great content also helps ;-)) so the more platforms to hit potential Customers potentially the better, or does this dilute the active Customer pool?
• Voda running Mobile Clicks competition again. 100K€ to the best mobile startup. Start writing your business cases http://awe.sm/58p1G - I like the concept of a carrier attempting to promote innovation. May long competitions like this exist. The promotion alone for winning an event like this is probably even better than the cash! Then again 100K Euros is better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.
• For those of you with check in fatigue might be worth checking out m.check.in . Nice HTML 5 app to aggregate multiple accounts – I am an active user of Foursquare and Gowalla. Sometimes it’s simply a hassle to try and check in using both applications on your mobile. People who don’t play the games inevitably get annoyed with you as you fumble with your iPhone with every new place you go to! ;-) Here is a HTML 5 solution to the problem that provides an aggregation of check in services. I like the fact that it is also HTML 5 as increasingly I think app developers who want to be easily able to distribute their services across many handset Operating Systems will develop this way. To be fair when I used this app on my HTC Desire it was slow to lock on to my location. These are things that can be potentially fixed though.
• The reality of augmented reality in mobile - http://awe.sm/58pCN - Augmented Reality, in my view, at the moment is simply a novelty to get you engaged with an application. You use it, see stuff around you on a camera view of your handset, have a giggle and then access the data. Would I use my handset in this way on a street in London? No. It’s simply not a quick way to access data about the area you are in, and wandering around in circles on a busy sidewalk in any city is not realistic. It is a selling point to draw attention to your application though. Still AR is new on the block and I still expect the next thing we will see will be heads up displays in your glasses that are connected to your handset via Bluetooth. I fully expect the line at the iPhone 6 launch to be filled with Fanbois wearing thick rimmed spectacles looking at the virtual graffiti slamming Microsoft that some Fanboi left on the front of the Apple store at the iPhone 5 launch. They will all be laughing, not only at the virtual graffiti, but also at the losers who don’t have the AR thick rimmed spectacles who cannot see the graffiti. Oh how they will laugh. Normal people won’t see the funny side of it.
• JIL’s slow progress doesn’t bode well for WAC http://awe.sm/58pIs I hope he is wrong and the networks actually make a go of it – there is a healthy cynicism amongst developer circles about the potential success of WAC. This article presents one person’s opinion. I hope that the carrier/device partnership can make a go of WAC. They have a good deadline to work to, September 2010 and the 3GSM at Barcelona in February in 2011. Let’s see what the developers make of the announcements at this time. There will clearly be more comment about this moving forward.
• Opera Mini now serving 1 billion pages daily http://awe.sm/58pYC - I am a fan of Opera Mini. It does provide a great internet experience no matter what supported mobile you are running it on. On high-end phones it is less useful although the data compression still helps if you aren’t on a great network. But as a leveller across all phones it does provide a great mechanism to get on the internet and have a PC like experience on your handset. It’s not perfect but it does have its benefits. It reminds me of heavy traffic and crawling along at the same speed as the Ferrari driver next to me. Traffic is the great leveller of almost all cars. Opera Mini is a great leveller of the internet experience on mobiles.

That’s it. Thank God I hear you say! Well if you got to reading this last bit congratulations. Pat yourself on the back and reward yourself with a chocolate bar. Lets see how this format goes. Maybe I will change it to be a top ten for the past week, I think there are 20 up there ;-). Maybe I will post more regularly on a story by story basis. Maybe I should do a mid week chart and an end of week chart ;-). Who knows!

Now to make an Android application to test out mobile ads and distribution ;-). Well let’s see if I have time for that! After all gardening awaits and that should wait for no person! Maybe next week I will do a top 20 gardening tips that I have learnt since inheriting the garden? Hmmm that could be dangerous! Just wait for the product review of my push lawn mower though. This will be a doozy ;-)

Have fun