Archive for August, 2008
by Paul Ruppert
August 19, 2008 at 7:42 am · Filed under MMS, Messaging, SMS
I’m looking for a few good mobile messaging companies (early stage) to present to conference producer friends of mine who have asked for my help in identifying ‘below the radar start ups’ in the mobile messaging segment.
I’m always looking for new topics to write about so when three producer friends asked for my help in the last 
month, their requests caught my interest and drove me to action.
If warranted I’ll blog about the company as part of our innovation identification effort here at MM2.
Consideration Criteria
Send a short making your case note, or power point, to me at pruppertMM2 at gmaildotcom if you are an angel funded or early stage (Series A or soon to be Series B) company and you think you should be part of my consideration and would be interesting to a mobile industry conference producer. We’re seeking intriguing messaging innovation as much as creative commercial plays–and I know that N. America is not the source of all things mobile.
Biased as a business centric more than creative type, my filters are about what’s the path to revenue, quality of a team, type of solution, competitive positioning, barriers to entry, access advantages, burn rate, etc., which start up companies offer. Eons ago I was a product developer identifying innovative mobile technology / solutions, and even then I preferred to focus on scalable revenue potential as opposed to cool technnology. I admit it, my filters might be a little askew for the developer crowd, yet I’m enlightened and experienced enough to see the combinatorial value of both in a fledgling firm.
Thanks and Good luck!
by Paul Ruppert
August 18, 2008 at 8:43 am · Filed under Mobile messaging 2.0
Telcordia provides tools for the mobile miners.
Just beneath the surface which most consumers experience and analysts attention stop, are a host of companies that manage the complexities within cellular operators. They manage the OSS, BSS, infrastructure interaction, and ensure that all of the processes are integrated benefiting the carrier / mobile network operator. This takes time, money, talent, resources. Consdier it and “integration tax” to ensure you can make your call, send your text, access a website and capture content of your liking.
Train’s on Time !
Telcordia is one of those companies which make the trains run on time. They provide a variety of solutions, often
murky and overlooked, which keeps things running. Think of them as innovation accelerators. They are the ones which the carrier turns to and says: “We want to do this, and have this vendor. Make it work across all our systems.”
Learn more about the critical contribution Telcordia. Take a listen to my podcast with Grant Lanahan, the VP of Strategy for Telcordia.
by Paul Ruppert
August 18, 2008 at 8:40 am · Filed under Advertising, Mobile Advertising, SMS
Mobile advertising is the fuel of arguments between mobile trend makers across the globe. An emerging traction point is the use of short codes for simple print and media extension into the mobile web.
In the states, ShopText, HipCricket and SnapTel are successfully developing the short code segment as mobile advertising enablers. They’ve captured a beach head through the use of short codes as a bridge between old and new advertising media. By including mobile short codes on fixed and print advertising they’ve carved out a solid position in a confused and crowded space by offering a low friction means for advertisers and agencies to capture the increasing power of context, immediacy and personalization offered via the mobile platform.
ShopText especially has been very successful leveraging their experience in advertising by enabling high profile campaigns by the likes of Hearst–Cosmopolitan and Esquire–Burger King, and P&G products such as Tampax to capture a solid “access advantage” with brands and agencies, making ShopText the clear leader in the developing short code enabling space.
Paradoxically these simple short code solutions may be both too early and too late. Regardless of how connected their client portfolio is today, unless short code enablers show they have the means to migrate up the technology value chain, short code simplicity will be quickly leapfrogged by the on-coming rush of technology which is quietly prevalent in Asia especially Japan, and is being swiftly adopted in Europe. The US will be next. The ripple effect through the short code ecosystem will be considerable jostling even larger public companies such as Neustar, which administers the short code distribution in N. America.
Most of these enabling companies have been started by advertising executives who have leveraged their understanding and experience with agencies and brands. They have provided a means to do things people couldn’t readily do before. However, their offerings are more point type solutions, “better, faster, cheaper,” than breath taking mobile innovation which will help define the mobile advertising space. Short code enablers have architected an easy means to extend media through a secure, off the shelf solution using accepted standard short code functionality. All good in jump starting traditional print and media into the mobile web world.
But, my biggest concern is there no identifiable defensibility against similar advertising or mobile savvy teams building short code solutions from entering the market. Anyone, anyone, can secure a short code contract, vary key words or text combinations, start selling to brands and advertisers and compete in the space. There’s no entry defensibility. With easy entry, scalable growth becomes an issue. You can see a glimpse of that already happening in the short code enabling business with the rush of providers using short codes for rental and real estate applications at the local market level.
Yea, yea, the simplicity of the short code solution has captured value in initially developing this space. But to gain “venture value,” up-starts need as much to manage complexity, and if the market remains the same, the short code enablers will be forced to compete on price alone as more enter the space. Low margin, low prices means highly efficient volume becoming the key driver. But with such intense competition, where are scale efficiencies achieved? Something else needs to be in the value mix. Knowing “mobility” within advertising won’t cut it. Access or relationships with brand and agency decision makers will not carry the load alone, and beyond speed to market what “efficiencies” can be captured with simple short codes? Additional reporting metrics might be only creative point to cash in on but what else is there with such limited functionality?
Unless short code enablers adapt to more powerful technology now just coming on line, these fledgling start ups plus the entire short code engagement business will find itself dying in the sun while the tide changes.
Check out Part 2 of “Short Code advertising: too early & too late?” to find out what this technology is. . . .
by Tarek Abu-Esber
August 16, 2008 at 8:29 am · Filed under Apple, Devices, iPhone 3G
It has been a month since the iPhone 3G hit stores worldwide to an eagerly awaiting crowd. It was the second coming of the Jesus-Phone and this one was going to be the phone we deserved the first time round. New Firmware, GPS, the App Store and of course the 3G support all built into a more curvaceous body.
Things didn’t get off to a perfect start on launch day with O2s systems going down in the UK and Apple having problems with iTunes activation and the freshly launched Mobile Me. But despite these issues Apple still managed to sell over a million iPhone 3Gs in its first weekend of release.
So how does the Jesus-Phone 2.0 shape up?
The Hardware
The original iPhone was extremely well built with a metal back-plate and a solid glass front and the iPhone 3G maintains that pedigree. The metal back-plate has been replaced by a more curvy plastic one but the device still feels reassuringly heavy, solid and is more pocketable.
Sadly that is where the praise ends because the iPhone 3G has to have some of the worst Hardware I’ve ever used in a high-end phone. It fails at even the most basic tasks and a lot of the features didn’t seem to work at all.
Let me start with the most basic of features: Making voice calls. The iPhone 3G (I shall refer to it as the iFail for the remainder of this post) would regularly refuse to initiate a phone call sometimes requiring me to try 7-8 times before it decided it would let me call someone. That is something I’ve never experienced even in the early days when I had my first mobile phone.
Of course I would only be able to try and make that call if I was actually lucky enough to be in an area where I could pick up reception. The iFail seems to maintain an average reception level of 2 bars and will also drop service all together at random intervals. 3G reception is just as dodgy.
And before you even mention O2, I always carry 2 phones with me, both on the O2 network. Whenever I’ve had these problems on the iFail the other phone (usually a Nokia) has worked perfectly and has maintained full reception in most cases. Can’t blame O2 at all, it’s all down to the iFail hardware.
And reception isn’t the only hardware issue, GPS is just as problematic. The first iFail I used flat-out refused to connect to GPS at all even when out in the open on a perfect clear day. The device even failed to give me a rough location based on Cell-ID or WiFi hotspots, something that the built in Skyhook software should be able to do. The second iFail proved to be a bit better and would actually lock onto a GPS location, however it seemed to have a mind of its own and would only connect when it felt like it. Admittedly when GPS worked it was great but it’s lack of reliability meant that I couldn’t trust that it would work when I needed it to.
However both these problems are trumped by the iFails worst feature: Battery Life. The iFail has the worst battery life of any device I’ve ever used, including the first-generation N95. Sure it will last all day if you turn 3G and WiFi off and don’t check your email too often but I’m a person who actually uses his phone.
Let me try and put this into perspective: After 2.5 hours of using the iFail as I would any other phone I had 20% battery left from a full charge. What was I doing? Checking email, taking pictures and uploading them to Moblog, making a phone call or two and using the browser to check and update Twitter. I wasn’t even listening to music while doing all that. So even if the iFail had no faults and had the most compelling features in the mobile world, I wouldn’t be able to use them as I’d run out of charge before my day had even begun.
Software
When it came to Software I wasn’t expecting any problems. Apples UI is fantastic and intuitive and had just been updated. Unfortunately the new updates seem to have slowed down the UI and OS. Applications (both native and installed) freeze when being opened, Safari stutters when you scroll round a page and I’ve experienced my first crashes on an iPhone. In a word, it’s Buggy.
More annoying than these minor speed issues are the limitations the device has when compared to other phones on the market. We all know that the iPhone can’t send MMS and can’t record video, which is a bad start. There really is no excuse for these basic features to be missing and I’d assume these would be more important to the average user than GPS or even HSDPA.
However power-users who are used to having smartphones will notice more limitations like the absence of an option to copy/paste text and, crucially, the inability to run non-native apps in the background. Before you start shouting, yes I get that most users wouldn’t miss either of those features but in my opinion it’s features like this that are crucial to making a phone a truly multi-purpose device.
The lack of background apps is particularly annoying, something I’ve become used to after years of S60 (and even WinMo) use. The last.fm application is useless to me as I can’t play the music in the background while doing other things. Shozu is also effected because I have to leave it open while it uploads a photo and if I exit it by mistake the data sent will be posted as half an image.
Apple tell us that this limitation is to preserve the battery life, and I can believe them given how anemic the iFails battery is. There are promises that some Apps will eventually be allowed to run in the background so we’ll have to see what future software updates bring.
However it isn’t all doom-and-gloom in terms of Software. The addition of the App Store to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform is a real triumph. Never has it been so easy to browse, download and install apps from on the device itself. Nokias Download! app pales in comparison and makes you wonder why Nokia haven’t ever had something as compelling as the App Store on their S60 phones.
It certainly helps that the App Store is already full of various applications a good proportion of which are free to download. My only issue is that some larger applications (over 10Mb) can’t be downloaded over 3G and require a WiFi connection if you want to download it on the device. This is the same limitation that makes the iTunes app totally useless to me, an artificial limitation being imposed by Apple this time on a data tariff that is supposed to allow unlimited use.
My final Software issue is to do with Geo-Tagging. The thing that really made the iPhone 3g appealing was that it would have GPS which would let me dive into the world of LBS. I was especially looking forward to Geo-Tagging my images and mapping various journeys and events using Moblogs new LBS features. However after finally getting GPS working on my iFail I noticed that none of the images I’d been uploading had any location information attached to them.
It turned out that the iFail can Geo-Tag images but the location information isn’t available to non-native apps. This mean when I use Shozu to upload my photos Apple doesn’t send through the location information that is attached to that image. Another needless limitation that defies common sense.
The iFail Experience
Having used the original iPhone and the iPod Touch I really had high expectations for the iPhone 3G. I knew it would have limitations because Apple like to keep tight control of the user experience but I wasn’t prepared for the experience to be quite this bad.
The thing is with some minor tweaks Apple could make the iPhone platform far more compelling. However that would mean loosening their grip on the overall user experience and that’s something we know they aren’t willing to do.
But I’m really just playing devils advocate with this “review”. Some of the issues I’ve talked about wouldn’t affect a casual user and the basic iPhone user experience is still very, very good. The iPhone 3G is a great device, I just think it could have been so much more. Hopefully the next version will live up to my high expectations and really shake up the industry the way the original iPhone did. For now we have a mediocre upgrade to a great device which will still win a lot of hearts and minds for Apple.
by Ewan Spence
August 15, 2008 at 6:16 am · Filed under Amazon, Development, Mobile Applications, MobileMe, Platforms
Where is your data’s weakest link? In the rush to return to mainframe like applications and dumb terminals accessing them… sorry I mean rich Web 2.0 sites running powerful applications on any platform via the web browser… it’s worth considering your worst case scenarios. While these services are run by large companies, with bundles of cash and servers, problems will happen…
Apple’s MobileMe service has had a rough launch, including loss of emails and access to many of its users.
Google’s Gmail service went down recently for a few hours not because of problems with the mail server, but because the Contacts app section was broken.
Amazon’s S3 storage had some server issues, which resulted in a number of sites loosing access to their files, Wordpress.com being one of them.
I’m not deliberately picking on these specific issues, but to use them to illustrate that… er… stuff happens. And if your strategy relies on these services, you’re passing over a vital part of your infrastructure to these third parties. Some form of back-up or second level that defaults back to your site or a reserve archive makes business sense.
So consider that, and ask yourself if you’re comfortable with the emerging way of mobile phone applications being built around the client/server model. Even though the power, capability and storage of modern handsets are in excess of the PC’s we were using a few years ago, there are more and more applications keeping the data on an external site.
Is this what you want for your personal data? For it to be held somewhere else, where anything could happen to it? And that’s not just loss of access or loss of data, but Amazon S3 comes under the jurisdiction of the US government – for UK users who are comfortable with something like the Data Protection act, those restrictions just aren’t in place in the US. Overtly paranoid maybe, but it’s one consideration. And there is always the nightmare of what happens if the company you are using goes bust (and that should be a primary concern with web 2.0 style start-ups!)
The solution, for me at least, is two fold,. The first is to only use applications that allow me local storage on my phone (and this they become part of my backup strategy for my phone); the second is if this isn’t possible, the web part of the app must allow me to ‘dump’ the data out to an archive file in some form, or let me get to the data.
It’s not perfect, but if I know I can reconstruct my data when the server of ‘cool idea’ goes boom, I’m happy. Can you say the same for your information?
by Ewan Spence
August 12, 2008 at 3:52 pm · Filed under Apple, Development, eCommerce, iPhone
The saga of the “I Am Rich” application in the Application Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch should be ringing alarm bells for developers involved in the platform.
For those not aware of the situation, an application was coded for the iPhone platform that simply displayed a glowing jewel on the screen of the iPhone. The reason for being called “I Am Rich” was the price of the application… some $999.99. All seems fine to me, after all the world of hardware is full of special editions, limited releases, and hardware that is priced way above the regular cost because it is perceived as a status symbol.
“I Am Rich” is certainly that now, as it has been removed from the App Store, and you can no longer buy it. So there are 8 rather exclusive (or should that be infamous) iPhones out there with this app installed, because Apple, apparently after community pressure about a ’stupid app,’ ‘a joke’ and ‘this is worthless,’ have removed the application from sale, with no official reason given to the developer.
Doesn’t this strike anyone as being odd? Actually more than odd, it’s almost Orwellian. To borrow a phrase, has this program been “mis-programmed” and now corrected in the cookie cutter story of the iStore?
By all means have peer reviews of applications, have users submitting their thoughts and star ratings, but to delete an application, and take away the only route it has to market is a dangerous game to start playing (I suspect it will put into question any DMCA protection Apple may want to invoke in the future). Any platform is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain – by taking out any third party distribution except their own, the Handango’s and PalmGear’s of the world aren’t there to serve the needs of the customer, or to provide options (which would help to create a genuine market with competitive pressures).
Far from being a great thing, I feel the Apple iStore is going to be a continuing achilies heel for Apple – acting as a lightning rod for hard luck and horror stories whenever there’s a slow news day. If it breaks, or get things wrong, there’s no recourse. If you’re uninvinted, you’re out the game. Would any developer put them at the mercy of a single point of failure that bows to external pressure when someone ironically ‘Thinks Different?’
The Application has ‘earned the developer some $5,600 after Apple has taken their cut. Payment is due out (as with all developers) at the end of the month.
by Darla Mack
August 12, 2008 at 2:50 pm · Filed under Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Mobile messaging 2.0
Text ads have creeped into the mobile market in a way that some might have assumed that there would be no take-off, but reports shown by the activity of US subscribers that they are in fact, accepted.
In looking at my own habits of clicking on mobile adverts I find that it’s agreeable that consumers are finding some of the content is in fact useful. In a report by the Direct Marketing Association, 7% of users say they are interested in receiving text ads while 24% have in fact responded to such ads.
I believe the key factor to be the arrangement of the sms plans that providers offer. The study also reveals that while most of the responsive users are both T-Mobile and AT&T customers, less activity is shown by Verizon customers. I’m certain that users with less fear of going over monthly message limits are more susceptible to clicking the ads because they can afford to be interested.
“It’s one of the hottest new channels available,” said Edward T. Manzitti, vice president for research of the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group that recently released a study of mobile users’ responses to unsolicited offers.
Mr. Manzitti blames the fact that recipients often have to pay for text-message ads for much of the opposition to them. “If the carriers offered marketers a different type of pricing, where the marketer paid the cost rather than the consumer, you’d see a different type of response,” he said.
via: New York Times
by Imran Ali
August 7, 2008 at 6:11 am · Filed under Conferences, Events, Events + Conferences, London
London continues to be a hotbed of mobile innovation with the announcement of Ryan Carson’s Future of Mobile conference, due to take place from 17-18th November later this year
The Carsonified crowd have quickly established themselves as running great, low cost, high value conferences in digital mobility, web, design and advertising.
The sessions are themed around openness, operating systems, launching apps, ‘ideas & tactics’ for breaking through industry barriers. It actually looks looks pretty pragmatic, rather than theorerical with a slight bias (and rightly so) towards entrepreneurs and hackers.
Early bird pricing still seems to be in effect, sodelegates can registered for as little as £145/$282. You can find out more about sessions, speakers and workshops at http://future-of-mobile.com/2008/london/
by Imran Ali
August 7, 2008 at 5:05 am · Filed under 12seconds, MMS, Twitter, Video
Following on from last week’s coverage of 12seconds, the service’s creators have been running a ’12second Challenge’, posing questions and setting challenges each day that users must respond to or answer in twelve second bursts. A great way of building enthusiasm and publicity for a service…and creating a generation of evangelists.
12seconds have also been talking about a bunch of upcoming enhancements and improvements that’re soon coming to the service. These include…
- Video replies and an improved recorder.
- Enhanced commenting, tagging, grouping & navigation.
- URL shortnening for posting to Twitter.
- Privacy controls.
- Support for third party services - perhaps Facebook and MySpace?
- Mobile integration - this already works well with MMS…perhaps they’re looking at installed apps? Video messaging finally comes to iPhone?
12seconds look like they’re being driven by the needs of their alpha testers, a great approach that’ll ensure they deliver the user experience and product that’s really in demand…now what could the business model be…?
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