Business News Holding

Category: smartphone

  • A New Vision of Mobile Social Networking: Interview with Olivier Chouraki, Mobiluck

    Mobiluck is another company that has rapidly realized the need for mobile information and mobile geo-locating people and places.

    Many companies are moving to the mobile space for a variety of reasons, but businesses that make the jump sooner tend to see the benefits much earlier and the relationships between users and companies tends to be stronger.

    Companies providing mobile web content, mobile media, mobile conversation tools, and mobile entertainment are finding themselves ahead of the curve and supplying their audiences with exactly what they need.

    Specifically, Mobiluck is a mobile service that allows users to find friends, places, and even people nearby with their smartphone. If you’ve got an account on Skype, AIM, or MSN for example, those friends can be included on the Mobiluck system, and their locations relative to yours will be shared and if they are nearby, what a great way to notify them.

    When asked if importing of contacts is remainst strictly to chat clients, Oliver Chouraki, CEO of Mobiluck says, “Yes at the moment you can import your MSN and other chat client contacts and we are working on Facebook and Twitter.”

    The service offered by Mobiluck is a location based service that is a more real life social network, allowing users to connect no matter where they are. Many will relate it to the online site, FriendFinder, but Mobiluck specializes in using the contacts you have on your programs and sharing just how far they are away from you.

    Oliver Chouraki

    Currently the service has 1.2 million people worldwide. “Our first place country is India, followed by the United States with rising numbers in Europe and the Middle East,” states Olivier on the rising popularity of the service.

    The Importance of Location Technology

    The concept of location technology is nothing new, we’ve been using these types of services on our GPS systems and on our cell phones with apps like FourSquare. Mobiluck is a social system that goes beyond connecting people with businesses, they look to connect people with people.

    If you look at the homepage on Mobiluck you will see simple text boxes where you can enter a keyword and you have ready buttons to search for places, friends, or people.

    “It’s not just tied to people you know, you can also search for people you don’t know so that you can meet new people who are at the same conference or in the same restaurant or at the same show and so on,” details Olivier.

    “We think that mobile social networks are extremely popular but today it is difficult to monetize and to create a profitable social network. On the other hand, the business model for yellow pages services, business directories, restaurant directories is very clear and can be very profitable. So what we are trying to do is combine the volumes of power of social networking with the profitability of yellow pages,” he continues sharing the business model for the company.

    It’s an interesting model considering that many social networks out there are still struggling with ways to monetize their efforts. Twitter for example has struggled with how to turn the millions and millions of users into a profitable community. Mobiluck offers up a business model that future social networks may emulate.

    Relationships with Businesses

    The vision of many mobile companies is that the mobile will be used for finding and being found. Many companies have an online presence, whether they own their website or just listed in directories, but due to the lack of understanding, very few of these sites are accessible on personal mobile devices. It’s not an uncommon thing since development for the mobile web is significantly different then general web site design.

    More often than not a company may not even be aware of their online presence, and if they do now they don’t know the difference between a standard website and a mobile site.

    As more and more people turn to mobile devices for information and interaction, companies that fail to realize the difference will be on the losing end of this turn in culture trends.

    “With Mobiluck companies can create their webpage in one minute for free. If you have a shop or a restaurant for example, you add a new place by filling out a form, and in a minute you have your own mobile page with a static web address that will be indexed by mobile search engines that not only Mobiluck users will be able to find your page, but anyone searching Google mobile or yellowpages mobile can still find your page and it will show what a lot of mobile users want to know: a shop description, name, the address of your place with a map, your phone number with a click to call, a price range and operation hours,” Olivier states.

    This type of return on information is what users are looking for when they are looking for informaiton on their mobile. Data consistently shows that users become frustrated and move on if there are barriers to getting this information. But aside from just receiving the information, users want to engage with that information and interact with others.

    Next Generation Search

    The next generation of search is more than just finding information, but what do people do with it? Mobiluck has seen the light, and many others in the mobile market are seeing the light too.

    Users feel more comfortable when they can interact with the information they are given by being able to rate something, comment on something, and share other people’s ratin gand coments. Favoriting and bookmarking are hot items right now and this type of information sharing is what has made the Web 2.0 era so dynamic.

    Businesses will not have a direct way to communicate with users, and users will have a new way to connect with their friends. With Mobiluck specifically, companies will be able to manage an internal mobile newsletter that keeps visitors and searchers informed on specials, events, and other important information related to the business. This information can be shared and responded to creating a two way street for information.

    Mobiluck will be speaking at Mobile Monday in Zurich, Switzerland on December 7, 2009. Be sure to pay special attention to the companies in the mobile space as they will collectively define the future of how we interact with data, businesses, and with one another.

  • It’s Our Year, Says Solar Power Mobile Phone Giants Intivation

    Intivation has declared 2009 a breakthrough year and the solar power mobile phone technology giant is not about to rest on its laurels.

    Paul Naastepad, chief executive officer of Intivation, says GSM Association award the Netherlands based company won early this year is clear testimony that they are moving in the right direction in technology advancement.

    “Intivation today is the biggest supplier of solar power conversion chip technology used in mobile phones in the world.

    “What we believe is more important though – that since we won the GSM Association’s Major Innovation Award in early 2009, the whole industry seems to be more and more interested in the idea of using solar powered phones to enable people living in electricity grid deprived areas make telephone calls now!

    “The year 2009 is definitely the breakthrough for our SunBoost technology, as it is currently deployed in solar phones made by ZTE and Commtiva,” said Naastepad.

    He believes the world has wasted no time in embracing their products, born out of proprietary technology which enables the development of highly efficient and reliable solar powered handsets, chargers and battery packs.

    Paul Naastepad

    “In less than six months after we launched, solar phones ‘with Intivation inside’ are now sold in eight countries by 10 operators already, both in Africa and Latin America.

    “The Commtiva phone is aimed largely at the more data intensive users as it operates in GPRS, while the ZTE phone caters for the buyers seeking the lowest price,” he said.

    Naastepad was clear about the advantages of the solar powered phones in a world with millions of people without access to electricity, especially in rural areas.

    “Intivation’s SunBoost technology ensures that phone batteries are charged much faster than with any other solar technology.

    “Phones with our technology also charge the battery in fully cloudy conditions, in which case others would not charge at all.

    “In the future, many more devices will be brought to the market in Africa and beyond, some of which are high performance universal chargers that can be used with any existing phone,” he said.

    Intivations’ target market, says Naastepad, is easy to identify.

    “First of all it’s people living in areas without electricity, unreliable electricity or who cannot afford the electricity charges.

    “And when you know that there are 1.6 billion people in the world who do not have electricity, 640 million of whom do have GSM coverage, that is quite a lot.

    “Secondly, environmentally conscious people who want to take their responsibility for CO2 emission reduction.

    “And thirdly, all those people who simply enjoy the comfort of a phone that never runs out of power,” he said.

    Naastepad said the solar phones had made a huge impact on people.

    “It brings communication to them, enabling both better trade and social welfare,” he noted.

    Environmentalists, says Naastepad, have warmly received the new technology.

    “Even in places where we did not expect the ‘green’ feature of solar phones to matter that much, we are surprised by how much attention the environmentalists are giving this issue.

    “Of course, with a solar phone you never produce any CO2 anymore since you are using the sun to charge your phone. And the sun is even free of charge,” he said.

    The Intivation CEO said they were looking forward to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, which he said would be a perfect platform to market their products where around 500 000 visitors from all over the world are expected to converge.

    “We will continue to develop our technology to enable solar phones charge yet faster, become smaller and cheaper so that more people can benefit from our invention,” promised Naastepad.

    Intivation was founded in 2003 as True Solar Autonomy, after inventor Anne Osinga found a new way to boost output voltages.

  • Canalys Mobility Forum: Interview with Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook Wireless

    The Canalys Mobility Forum EMEA 2009 took place in London on the 17th of November.

    A highly informative event which gave industry experts insights into the evolution of the pc and phone industries for the coming years, it specifically developed a discussion around the dynamics of the netbook and smartphone sectors.

    Great relevance was given to the smartphone sector, focusing on the various existing operating platforms and making special emphasis on Andriod as the platform to watch out for. As a special note attendants were told to look towards Asia, this is where most of the innovation is coming from.

    The event also covered the evolution of the netbook market, questioning its margins which are very low when compared to Notebooks and specially when compared to the smartpone sector. The recent introduction into the market of the Google Navigator and the effect it has had in the PND market was also discussed, something to keep an eye on as Google expands its service to more cities.

    Smartphone.Biz-News.com spoke to Ted Morgan, CEO of Skyhook Wireless, an American based company that has great passion for its developed iPhone App, a location based app which has been used to develop most extraordinary and original apps. Watch our video interview to find out more.

  • U.S. Smartphone Market – Only the Strong Will Survive

    According to the recent Canalys Smartphone Analysis, the smart phone market continues to increase as a proportion of the overall mobile phone market in the US.

    Despite a drop in market growth to 6% in Q3 2009, down from 37% in Q2 2009, smart phones represented 26% of all mobile phones shipped in Q3 2009. This is up from 24% in Q2 2009 and will continue to rise in coming quarters.

    The top two smart phone vendors increased their combined market share in Q3 to 76.3%. Research in Motion (RIM) held 48.1% while Apple held 28.2%.

    “Despite what looks like a ‘closed shop’, with continued growth expected in the US smart phone market there is still plenty to play for, and new products are coming thick and fast from the competition,” the report says.

    Four other smartphone platforms in the US market today – Android, Symbian S60, webOS and Windows Mobile – represented only 23.7% of the market in Q3.

    Canalys claims the challenge for the handset vendors on the multivendor platforms is to “differentiate their products, especially as the market gets busier, while also providing competition to Apple and RIM and choice to the consumer.”

    Canalys also thinks that with an increasing number of Android and Windows Mobile devices launching, there can be little, by looking at the specifications, to choose between one and another on the same platform. “A key product differentiator will be seen in the software and the user interface. In short it is all about the user experience, particularly how the user organises their favourite applications, content, messages, people and places,” analysts say.

    Canalys says Verizon needs to fight back against the iPhone’s tremendous success and will be hoping the new Android devices (Motorola’s Droid and HTC’s Droid Eris) will “light up its somewhat uninspiring consumer device portfolio.” Demand for Android devices will be helped by the addition of Google Maps Navigation on Android 2.0.

    Analysts reminds us of the fact that AT&T is the only one of the big four US mobile operators not yet to range an Android device.

    RIM’s US device shipments were up 27.5% in Q3. Around 3.8 million net new subscriber accounts were added worldwide in its fiscal quarter and profits beat analyst expectations. According to Canalys estimates, RIM, with only the Storm, held a 2.2% share of US touch-screen smart phones in Q3 2009. As its entry-level and mid-range (mostly keyboard-based) devices increasingly come up against new touchscreen Android devices, buyers’ appetite for BlackBerry devices will be tested.

    The iPhone remains the leading consumer smart phone in the US. The response to the iPhone 3G S was ‘tremendous’ and ‘very surprising’ according to Apple, so much so that many international markets had limited supply for several weeks.

    Canalys says with each software release the iPhone gets more ‘CIO friendly’. According to Apple, the iPhone is being ‘deployed or piloted’ at more than 50% of Fortune 100 companies and is doing well in higher education institutions and government agencies, though increased device security will still be needed for broad deployment to be considered in government.

    The report shows that US smart phone share of HTC, the leading worldwide manufacturer of Android smart phones, supplying T-Mobile and Vodafone (in EMEA) as well as selling under the HTC brand, has hovered around the 5-7% mark for five quarters.

    “HTC devices are ranged by the big four US mobile operators. These relationships and the installed base of customers it has are crucial to HTC, and Microsoft. From being the first, HTC is now one of many Android device vendors,” says Canalys.

    According to the research group, Motorola “rose from the ashes” of the smart phone market recently with the announcement of the new Android-based smart phones, the CLIQ with T-Mobile and the Droid with Verizon.

    “If the CLIQ and the Droid do anything like as well as the RAZR did it will give Motorola a solid base for 2010. Working on Android means that building its own app store need not be a top priority for Motorola.,” according to Canalys.

    They also think Nokia really needs a big hit in the US (“It has failed to get its most popular Nseries devices ranged by the leading US mobile operators and it has thus far failed to make a significant impression with its Ovi services in the US”), Palm needs the old volumes back (“Mobile operators must be convinced that they can profit from ranging Palm webOS devices. Palm needs their commitment”), and Samsung has lagged in smart phones, although it still leads the overall US mobile phone market and continues to roll out new handsets with all leading mobile operators at a “blistering pace.”

    Canalys notices that there are more vendors planning to launch smart phones in the US in the next few months: Dell, Kyocera Wireless, LG (Android handsets) and Acer (Android and Windows phones).

    “They will all be faced with the same challenges: getting their smart phones ranged by the mobile operators and capturing the imagination of consumers. The mobile operators can only range, subsidise and promote a certain number of devices. As Apple did, new entrants need to come up with something special, and that is no easy feat,” the report concludes.

  • bnetTV.com to Continue Covering Emerging Technologies Conferences

    INTERVIEW. Leading online broadcasting company bnetTV.com (Business Network Television) will continue taking the most of the events such as conferences to reach out to its focus market of emerging technologies.

    bnetTV.com will also keep to its mission to deliver compelling and insightful content, says Michelle Sklar, vice-president of Programming and Content Management.

    She said this they would achieve through “working with industry associations and event organizers to extend reach and add value to events; expanding our coverage line up; and launching a cool new Mobile site and app in Q1 2010”.

    bnetTV.com took part in a three-day Mobile 2.0 Conference in Berlin, Germany, which ended on November 25.

    “We conducted interviews with numerous speakers giving them the opportunity to share their experiences, successes and challenges. The interviews are posted at www.bnettv.com under Mobile 2.0 Content and Services,” said Sklar.

    Michelle Sklar

    Emerging Technologies

    “We are an online broadcast company with a niche market focus on emerging technologies.

    “We cover events in the wireless industry such as CTIA, Mobile World Congress, Mobile Marketing Association events, Informa events, Under the Radar Mobile, etc.

    ‘Over the last five years we have met with over 6 000 companies and told their stories – from start-ups to the power brokers of the industry,” she said.

    Sklar said they would not allow technology to overtake them as they seek to remain on top in online broadcasting.

    “We keep our thumb on the pulse by being event driven in our strategy to provide insightful and compelling coverage.

    ‘We aggregate to over 150 websites and social media sites and optimize the searchability of our content by using the latest in SEO and Social Media communication techniques,” said Sklar, whose company has reached over 3,5 million viewers a month.

    She said they were playing their part in helping other players in the industry grow.

    “We not only provide media coverage at industry events but we work with industry associations such as the MMA and leading event producers such as Informa to help extend their audience reach through Live broadcast programmes as well as extend to value of events to participants through premium content and DVD programmes,” said Sklar.

    Cyber Crime

    Cyber crime is increasingly becoming an issue worldwide. bnetTV.com is however, not losing sleep over this as it has systems in place to safeguard its products and programmes.

    ‘We control all aspects of our content production and delivery, that is we host all of our content and pay close attention to our analytics reporting,” said Sklar.

    As at June 2008, Australia had the highest incidence of cyber crime in the world, according to a global survey of nine countries by software security vendor, AVG.

    The study, which canvassed 1 000 users each in Australia, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Brazil, and the Czech Republic, found that more than 39 percent of Australians had been the victim of cyber crime, compared to 32 percent in Italy, 28 percent of Americans, and just 14 percent in Sweden and Spain.

    Challenges

    The online broadcasting industry is not without its challenges. Sklar says these are the need to continue to find new ways of delivering and monetizing content and creating tools that will help the industry better serve itself.

    ‘Our (bnetTV.com) target audiences are industry professionals. They use our site as a means to keep up to date on the various companies and issues facing emerging technology businesses today,’ she said.

    Sklar still gave the industry thumbs up when asked if the world was ready to embrace online broadcasting. “Oh yes… the world already has! Online content is easy to access; video on demand and broadcast enable the timely delivery of important and relevant content.

    ‘Globally people are online or on mobile for their daily news, weather and sports,” she said.

    bnetTV.com produces both in-house and client-commissioned videos. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Winmax Trading Group, Inc. with offices in New York, San Jose, California, Orlando, Florida and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

  • First Else Unveiled – Is The Revolution Coming?

    Previewed in October at ACCESS Day in Japan, the First Else, the first mobile device deploying the ELSE INTUITION platform, was unveiled yesterday in London.

    ELSE INTUITION is a new and, as the companies claim “groundbreaking” mobile platform jointly developed by ACCESS, Tokyo-based provider of software technologies to the mobile and beyond-PC markets, and Emblaze Mobile – Israeli technology design house for mobile devices.

    ELSE INTUITION combines ACCESS Linux Platform v3.0, ACCESS’ flagship mobile Linux platform, with innovative user interface and a suite of services provided by Emblaze.

    Thanks to the combination of ACCESS Linux Platform v3.0 and an advanced user interface engine, the platform delivers “a highly compelling and differentiated user experience, coupled with state-of-the-art hardware, accelerated 2D/3D graphics and elegant transition effects,” as the companies say.

    They also assure that all data and content, including contacts, appointments, videos and photos can be rendered anywhere, not just within a single dedicated application. That gives users “faster, easier and more consistent access to their information.”

    Coming in Q2 next year, the First Else is a first device that deploys the new platform.

    The companies say “the device actually becomes the application”, which means that First Else would focus on applications rather than standard mobile phone functions, according to Amir Kupervas’, CEO of Emblaze explanation.

    The device provides functionality that for the first time is able to match that of standalone off-the-shelf dedicated devices, such as digital cameras, top-ranked MP3 players, best-in-class GPS devices, and more, “while maintaining an exceptional ease and simplicity of use.”

    First Else comes with TI OMAP 3430 processor, 3.5" FWVGA 480×854 capacitive touch screen, microSD slot that will allow for a 32GB storage capacity, 5 MP camera with auto-focus and advanced stabilization technology, Bluetooth, HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, standalone GPS and A-GPS, tilt, proximity and light sensors with adaptive handling and 1450mA battery.

    "Our vision is to create a revolutionary mobile solution that will change users’ experience in the mobile arena. Imagine a device that is not a phone surrounded by gimmicks you will not use; where the camera literally replaces your digital camera; you get real-time push email wherever you are on the globe; almost every song and film in the world is one click away; and any one of its multitude of features is reached with no more than one light gesture of your finger and not buried deep inside folders within folders. If you imagine this, you imagine the first ELSE and the capabilities created with ELSE INTUITION. And yes – it is definitely something ELSE," Kupervas said.

    According to Tomihisa Kamada, president of ACCESS, Emblaze came to them with a “thought-provoking” concept to “shake up” the mobile industry. “I am delighted that ACCESS has been able to provide the software to make it happen," he said.

    The ACCESS Linux Platform v3.0 is compliant with LiMo Foundation specifications and employs ACCESS’ NetFront Browser. The company says its Advanced UI Engine enables development of state-of-the-art user interfaces with advanced graphical effects, and allows complete modification of applications’ "look and feel" without requiring changes to the applications’ code. It also supports full hardware graphics acceleration via OpenGL ES 2.0.

  • Web & Mobility Summit: European Startups in the Time of Crisis

    The second Web & Mobility Summit, the event that aims to bring together Europe’s most innovative web & mobility start-ups, venture capitalists and industry professionals, took place last week in Montreux, Switzerland.

    The committee consisting of business angels, venture capitalists and industry specialists has named Europe’s most promising web & mobility start-ups – the CEOs and VPs of 25 companies selected from a pool of over 400(!) had an opportunity to present to an international delegation of more than 100 influential investors, technology industry leaders, service providers and academics.

    The selected companies come from some of the strongholds of the European scene, such as mobile social networks, mobile publishing, adserving and gaming, as well as ecommerce, e-business, payment and billing.

    Although it was hard to find any big innovation listening to the presentations of the selected start-ups (they presented rather proven and well-tested ideas), it was noticeable that all of the companies are doing well, moneywise, even during the crisis, and it seems that this was a primary criteria for the selection.

    “In the time of crisis, I’m looking forward to seeing well trained, well disciplined companies who have not gotten any funding for a while that are going to be more fine tuned and well developed, ” Robert Lang, President of the Summit, said Biz-News.com in the earlier interview, and it seems to be the confirmation of our observations.

    Biz-News.com liked the idea of Madvertise – an internet-based mobile advertising network and online market place. The easy-to-use online auction system allows advertisers and agencies to quickly set-up cost effective mobile ad campaigns with a broad reach.

    Aloqa, other interesting, Munich-based start-up, has developed an application that proactively notifies mobile users of social opportunities, such as Facebook friends close by, and recommends interesting places, services and events in their vicinity.

    Path Intelligence’s FootPath product is “Google Analytics for the real world”, as this Portsmouth-based company calls it. FootPath detects anonymous data is broadcast by shopper’s phones and uses that data to provide aggregated and automated market research to mall owners.

    Another interesting start-up, Apprupt aims to become an internationally wide reaching cross platform mobile application affiliate network and to brong relevance and addicional monetization opportunities to a non-transparent market environment.

    Whereas Stockholm-based Videoplaza aims at becoming the number one platform globally for monetizing IP delivered video. The company develops and commercializes advanced web video advertising platform providing media owners a way to monetize IP delivered videos.

    “Many of today’s big businesses come from the insane ideas that ware born in the heads of young entrepreneurs. And the most insane, but at the same time brave and successful ideas are born in the time of crisis,” said Martin Varsavsky, CEO of FON, trying to mobilize but also appreciate the start-ups during the gala dinner that took place in the Olympic Museum in Geneva.

    “It’s important to note that the combo of doing great business and dealings mixed with the fine dining and mingling at a great venue is a surre fire way to keep the interest,” Lang noticed.

    Sven Lingjaerde, Founder and President of European Tech Tour, said, “Getting access to venture financing in the current market situation is still tough for young companies, but the number of investment are increasing again.”

    He thinks that great companies have often been built in times like these, when resources are scarce.

    “Currently, there are many healthy, active companies out in the market with experienced management that could propel their development to the next level, with the appropriate amount of support from sophisticated investors. Since valuations are improving and cash itself is still a scarce resource, the second half of 2009 is going to be very interesting and will lay the foundation for the further development of a whole industry sector,” Lingjaerde added.

  • Biz-News.com “Product of the Year Award 2009”

    2009 is coming to a close, a difficult year for many and an opportunity for others.

    With a recession lurching over world economic growth we have seen some companies that have continued betting on innovation and development and have launched some amazing products into the market.

    Last year Biz-News.com celebrated the “Product of the Year Awards 2008”. Nominations where received from all parts of the globe. First hand users explained their experiences and recommended best practices for the most innovative products out there.

    Honouring those who have fought to make the most of this year, Biz-News.com again wishes to call upon its readers to nominate their favourite product of the year.

    Nominations will begin on November 19th and will close on February 15th 2010. Runner ups will be featured in our editorial and winners will have an exclusive interview complete with user reviews and photographic backup published on Biz-News.com.

    To make your vote on the Product of the Year for 2009 please fill in the following form.

    Product of the Year Winners in 2008

    VoIP.biz-news.com
    – MyGlobalTalk by i2Telecom
    – IPsmarx

    Storage.biz-news.com
    – RestorePoint by Tadasoft

    Smartphone.biz-news.com
    – AmAze

  • Bringing the Best of the Web to the Phone: Interview with David Mannl, Mippin

    As society becomes more mobile, publishers are looking for ways to make their content accessible to as many people as possible.

    While there are still some that have barely recognized the web as a viable marketplace for their audience, those that have adopted the mobile trends are quickly seeing changes in how their customer base interacts with the products/services offered and shared both on the standard web, and thru mobile technologies.

    Mippin is one such company that specializes in helping users attain access to mobile content, and helping publishers mobilize their content for easy access for their audience.

    Mippin, backed by Refresh Mobile, came to life in 2007. David Mannl, Head of Creative and co-founder of Mippin, states that he and his partner said, "let’s ditch the whole client business for the time being’ and focus only on mobile apps and that’s when Mippin got started and launched as a product."

    He also notes that when they started back in 2007 there were hardly any mobile internet sites around, and left a huge need for publishers and users to have mobile versions of all the web content they could.

    How large is Mippin? "We have 76,000 sites in our system, all of them categorized into various levels of interest," answers co-founder of Mippin David Mannl.

    David Mannl

    Currently there are two ways to mobilize your content via Mippin. The first one is on your mobile phone; just enter the URL into the search box and on the fly Mippin will go out to that website, looks for a RSS content feed, and then creates a mobile version of it which works perfectly across 3,000 devices.

    As for the second option, if you do the same on your computer over at mippin.com, under publisher or blogger tab you go into a flow where the user can do the same thing. Mippin will basically find the RSS feed and then the user can upload their logo, define a color scheme and enter their ad mobile ID. It’s a fairly simple and streamlined process and Mippin has seen much success with.

    TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN

    Mippin for publishers

    For a publisher the approach is a simple solution. The publisher comes to the site to mobilize their web content, does not have to have any program skills whatsoever because its a one size fits all solution. You typically will find two types of publishers the first one is where we are the primary mobile solution.

    This means Mippin will work with a lot of blog networks that want to have a wide variety of blogs over 30 to 40 sites and for them its a complete and total package. Each site takes about five minutes to set up and that’s mainly uploading the colors, defining the branding and then they have this huge array of mobile sites. We also have publishers that use Mippin like an additional distribution channel.

    David Mannl shares an example, "we have an agreement with the New York Times and we are allowed to republish their content as well, but of course they already have their own mobile site. For them they have their own platform, they use us as an additional distribution mechanism and then some publishers use us as their only mobile solution."

    Mippin for advertisers

    There are two tiers for advertisers. If you host your ad on Mippin, you keep 100% of the ad revenue and that solution is offered with Ad More because it’s the easiest to implement. An advertiser goes in, there’s a little monetize tab in that mobilization’s log, you put in your own AdMore information and from that moment on Ad More send you money every month as soon as you are over a certain threshold.

    Alternatively, we have what is called Mippin Premium Publishers. For these more premium advertising, Mippin will actually take a little cut from the ad revenue because they have to interact with the ad providers and make sure they always get the best campaigns.

    They also make sure there is more targeted advertising so they will give a lot of information about the site to the advertising network so they can insert more relevant ads into the system or into the partners’ site as well.

    Demographic of users

    The majority of users on the Mippin network are in America, followed by the UK. Demographic wise Mippin does not collect any data with regards to gender or age or income. What we do see are the devices the user is using and the location where they are coming from. Mippin tracks how long users are staying on the system, but they do not collect any more data from the user because its just a mobile internet site and they don’t think its really necessary to register this service.

    "They just want to quickly access every time they have spare time," David Mannl responds with regard to what the end user is looking for.

    What’s interesting about what Mippin can see is what sites are more popular in each country. Mippin has a full time editorial staff that picks the best sites and puts them into categories based on popularity in the country you live in. So if you go to a category on Mippin in America, you will see different sites and different ordering then if you would do the same in the UK.

    Mippin uses a crowd source approach for editorial ordering of content. David notes that one of our biggest successes in America is wrestling, which they were completely surprised about. While in the UK, it’s a lot of tabloids and gossip and of course football (soccer).

    Mippin replacing traditional computing?

    David notes that especially in developing markets where they don’t have access to a laptop, growth has exploded. In Saudi Arabia the average time a user is on Mippin is as high as 20 minutes and that’s just the average. So it’s easy to see, for them, it’s the only way to access the internet. Compared to the UK, where a user will spend 8 minutes on average, and America, 7 to 9 minutes.

    It may be also because Mippin has one of the biggest selection of mobilized content out there. They’ve also built in recommendations into the system which will regularly recommend new content. You can connect with other users on the service, they can recommend you new content, so there are many ways to discover content on Mippin.

    In cultures where desktops and laptops are scarce, services like Mippin seem prime for growth. In cities where many of the populace are constantly on the go, David sees explosive growth continuing, hoping that their service reach more and more people every year. It should be noted that competition in the mobile space is not as it was back in 2007.

    Today competition or attention is fierce and the market is quickly growing. Mippin is now just one of many services that offer mobilized content, but so far David sees the growth of his network remaining strong.

    You can follow David on Twitter @flashy1980. More specifically if you are a user of Mippin, David prides himself on the face that users can always submit feedback to the company for future improvements.

    "Every page on Mippin has a feedback box and we actually read that feedback everyday because that’s part of our company DNA. We listen to our users because we want to keep them entertained and they are what help to make this service better and if we make the service better, we can entertain them better. So there’s a lot of really great dialogue we’re seeing. We are also getting a lot of feedback through the ad store. Its really good to now have the tools to stay in contact with your users and not just be a faceless company," David says proudly.

  • iSuppli: Does Google’s PND App Signal the Swan Song of Dedicated Devices?

    For European Portable Navigation Device (PND) manufacturer TomTom and U.S.-based Garmin, Oct. 29, 2009 will indeed be remembered as the day everything changed.

    “Google’s announcement that it plans to launch turn-by-turn navigation on the Android platform would be enough of a headache in itself, but giving it away for free? Sound the alarm!,” says Richard Robinson, iSuppli analyst.

    There has to be some sympathy for PND and navigation device vendors that have spent the last year redefining their businesses in the light of the economic shock that crunched the world economy beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008.

    “But clearly, the announcement from Google is a bit like arriving at work one day to find one of the biggest brands in the world has moved in next door, and is offering a version of your product to consumers—for free,” Robinson says.

    According to him, what is concerning is that TomTom and other EU-based navigation providers are heavily dependant on the success of their hardware and software products, while for Google, this product will represent yet another very small cog in a much more complex machine that is being built to increase the footfall to their paid advertising.

    “Ironically – he continues – the hang over that awaits existing navigation providers is a slice of history repeating itself. Back in 2004, when TomTom released the first PND into the European market, heads were bowed; particularly in the boardrooms of the Japanese electronics manufacturers that dominated the in-dash navigation market.”

    He claims Japanese Tier-1 companies such as Alpine, Panasonic and Pioneer, as well as Harman Becker in Europe, were simply not able to counter the threat from the much cheaper and more flexible portable device sector that was taking hold in Europe. “While the rest of the world looked on, these new kids on the block cleaned up during the next two to three years, with triple-digit growth the norm for all PND suppliers.”

    “So here we are again, but this time the game has changed for good. Clearly, the take-it-or-leave-it nature of free application downloads will do nothing to boost the image of navigation as a smart product. So it’s no surprise that both TomTom and Garmin’s shares have been badly hit since the announcement on October 28th,” Robinson adds.

    iSuppli analyst thinks both companies during 2009 have indeed staged good recoveries in their fortunes—and share prices—but this is move by Google such a disrupter, that it is difficult to see how these device vendors can add real value in the face of the launch of a free app. “No doubt the initial experience will be less rich compared to a dedicated device, but this will change. And it’s not as though Google will be overloaded with complaints about a free app”.

    According to Robinson, the question now is: Will the PND platform become a footnote in history—a one-hit-wonder?

    “Clearly the PND vendors would like us to think there is more in the locker, but it’s difficult to see the next steps for this dedicated device, particularly in the maturing markets of Europe and the United States,” he concludes.