Yes, it’s come around again and I’m this week’s curator of the Carnival of the Mobilists and what a week it has been. Plenty going on in the world of Nokia and RIM. Innovation is being supported with various awards and accelerator programs. And mobile is still most definitely big news. So here’s my round-up.
Awards and other Programs for Mobile Entrepreneurs
The Annual Effective Mobile Marketing Awards are open for entries until 10 August. There are 20 categories and they are free to enter and are global. Disclaimer, I’m a judge and I co-hosted the awards last year.
The 9th Annual Meffys are open for entries until 19 July. Just a few days to go so don’t delay. These are global awards with special categories and prices for start-ups. More details here. Disclaimer, I’m a judge.
Russell Buckley tells us about UK accelerator programme, Springboard, why he supports it (including investing in it) and what the opportunities are for mobile entrepreneurs this year with the very first mobile-focussed accelerator. Closing date to apply is 22 July so not long to go.
QPrize is now open for entries too. This is Qualcomm Ventures seed investment competition. I don’t know much about it yet (I’m doing a bit more research into it), but just highlighting it for reference.
Handset Wars
Goodness me, watching the demise of Nokia and now RIM is not a pleasant experience. The chatter about both is endless at the moment. How to you make head or tail of it? Are both dead in the water? Will we see them fight back? Will they be bought, die or rise from their ashes like a phoenix? …
Tomi Ahonen thinks Stephen Elop is the worst CEO of all time. With Nokia’s share price at an all time low of $1.92 at the time of writing, Elop and the Nokia board certainly have some serious questions to answer. This one isn’t so much as a blog post as an essay so don’t expect a quick read. Grab a cuppa and set aside some time to read this one and take in the comments too. I have friends at Nokia. I have friends who have been made redundant from Nokia. I have a drawer full of beloved Nokia phones. I like Windows Phone too. I don’t want to see Nokia die but there’s no denying they are in deep, deep trouble.
And then there’s RIM. Another one who has been in the wars lately. Delaying the BB10 launch is a bit of a nightmare. There were 5,000 enthusiastic developers who went home from BlackBerry World in Orlando and many hundreds, if not thousands returning home from various BB10Jam meet-ups globally with their prototype devices and told their friends and family they were excited about the upcoming launch of BB10 for Christmas. BlackBerry hasn’t just let down their developer community, they’ve let down their loyal customers who are desperate for an upgrade if they haven’t jumped ship already to Android or iOS. There are three articles of note I’d like to point you to on this one. First is untether.tv’s post which takes a look at the numbers and thinks RIM needs to focus on saving the company, Terence Eden ponders how to solve a problem like BlackBerry and Michael Selvidge thinks RIM can be saved in three easy steps. What do you think?
Then there’s the story of Maemo from Randall Arnold. Do any of you remember that OS? I do. I had a Nokia 770 and if I remember rightly, Rovio of Angry Birds fame was developing games on that platform. Is there hope for Maemo to come out smiling out of the Nokia warzone?
Mobile Marketing, Advertising and Commerce
For the first year at Cannes Lions, there was a section for mobile. Finally, advertising agencies are catching up with their clients and taking notice of mobile as an integral part of any marketing campaign. This is a major step forward. Hey, I may even be tempted to take a trip to Cannes next year to check it all out. In the meantime, Andy Favell from MobiThinking has done a very comprehensive round-up of the winning entries (including their videos and case studies) and also the stats behind the awards. Both make for a good read. Again, this is something worth setting aside some time for but if you’re in the mobile marketing game, this one is for you.
Global Mobile Commerce: Removing Payment Friction & Boosting Customer Engagement by Diarmuid Mallon is a guest post on Mobile Groove and is the first of a series of articles which will form part of the Mobile Commerce Guide 2012. Common sense tells us that by making it easier for customers to buy they will buy more. You wouldn’t have a front door to a shop that took five minutes to open so why would you make the payment options overly complicated? It’s very, very easy to click away from a purchase.
Mobile Apps and Games
Here are a couple of good articles that should get app developers thinking and help then on their way to making more money for them and their clients. First up is a piece from CodeNgo which looks at the opportunity of making sure your app is available in different languages. The stats make sense to me. Next is one from the mainstream Techcrunch, but it was a good one so I’ve included it: 8 Ways Mobile Developers can Make the Most Money on Apps. Sensible advice indeed.
Missed out on Google I/O? Never fear, Tom Hume was there and he’s got some thoughts about the new Google Nexus tablet and the role it will have. A game changer? Maybe… have a read.
Mobile Games has been a hot topic recently around Technokitten Towers, not least, because I was helping the Mobile Monday Shoreditch team get set up and their first event was the A to Z of Mobile Gaming. You can read a round-up of the evening here and it includes links to video vox pops from the night too. We also enjoyed some AR gaming on the night and playing games on BlackBerry Playbooks. Well, MobyAffiliate has gone the extra mile and taken a comprehensive look at the companies in the mobile and social gaming space and written it all up for you to create a guide to the sector ‘The World’s Top Mobile Social Games Developers, Publishers and Platforms’.
Further Food for Thought
A couple of podcasts you might be interested in having a listen to or watch are the Disruptive Social Care Podcast where I was a guest last week and talked about the role of mobile in healthcare and the importance of making websites and services accessible on mobile and accessible to those with disabilities or impairments amongst other things with Shirley Ayres and Stuart Arnott. Then there’s this one from Hashbang TV where Elizabeth Varley tells the TechHub story. OK, the latter isn’t mobile specific, but it’s still relevant inasmuch as it’s the story of an entrepreneur focussed on supporting tech start-ups. And both podcasts are about disruption in some shape or form.
And finally, some food for thought from Antoine RJ Wright. Were Mobile Phones the Wrong Turn? Antoine ponders if we haven’t missed the point with mobile technology and that perhaps it needs a rethink as we’re asking devices (read battery life and bandwidth) to do more than it can really deal with.
Post of the Week
My post of the week has to go to Andy Favell for such a comprehensive round-up of the Cannes Mobile Lions. It’s in my sweet spot of mobile marketing and it’s great to see it entering the mainstream in this way and it’s great to get up close and personal to such a variety of case studies. What’s your post of the week?
Next week
Next week’s Carnival will be hosted by Martin Wilson of Indigo 102. And you can also support the Carnival of the Mobilists by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter or sharing this post.
All photos sourced from Flickr and used under Creative Commons Licence.
I was very pleased to help organise and attend the very first Mobile Monday Shoreditch event at LBi on Brick Lane and sponsored by BlackBerry, Marmalade and We Love Mobile. I’ve captured it in storify form for your delectation. It includes video clips, photos, tweets and comments – enough to give you more than a little flavour of what went on.
Please also check out Simon Judge’s super round-up of the evening. As ever, he’s managed to succinctly capture the event on his blog – it’s well worth a read.
Doing something interesting in mobile apps and services? Got a cracking case study in mobile marketing? Innovating in mobile content? Then you should consider entering this year’s Meffys Awards which are now open for entries. These are one of the most prestigious global mobile awards and are definitely worth consideration.
This year’s Meffys categories span the entire mobile content & commerce ecosystem. Now in its 8th year, the Meffys honour achievements across mobile content and commerce and recognise the best innovation around the globe. Entries are judges by expert panels of leading journalists, analysts, academics and VCs. The winners will be announced at a Gala dinner attended by the industry’s most influential players on 7th July at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London’s famous Covent Garden.
Companies wishing to enter should visit: www.meffys.com and submit their entries by 26th April 2011.
For highlights from the 2010 awards ceremony and a list of 2010 winners, please visit: http://www.meffys.com/about/2010-highlights
Entering the 2011 Meffys
MEF will be accepting entries for the 2011 Meffys from today. Companies interested in entering the awards or nominating a candidate for the Outstanding Contribution Awards should go to the Meffys website at www.meffys.com for full details.
Entry prices for 2011 are as follows: £350 per entry; £150 for MEF Members. This year, MEF is also offering a special developer rate of £75 per entry (3 employees or less, no external funding and in business for no more than 1 year). Please see the http://www.meffys.com/enter/cost-of-entry for further information.
Best Game
Best Music Service
Best TV & Video Service
Best Content
Best Content Discovery & Personalisation Service
Best Social Media Service
Best Ad Campaign
new this year Best Brand on Mobile
new this year Best Mobile Website
Best Blockbuster App
Best Innovative App*
Best Technology Innovation*
Best Innovative Business Model*
Best Innovation in a Mobile First Market*
Best M-Commerce Service
Best Business Intelligence
Best Mobile Connected Device
Outstanding Contribution Award
*These categories qualify for the developer rates. See http://www.meffys.com/enter/cost-of-entry for more info.
So get those thinking caps on. With Easter looming, April 26 will come around really quickly so don’t leave it too late to get your entry in.
“Over the Air is a grass-roots mobile developer event that is completely unique in the mobile industry events calendar – it is free to attend, is hands-on in the style of hackdays and barcamps, covers the cutting edge of current mobile development (as opposed to glossy future-speak or sales-pitches), and features bean bags, a big party and an overnight sleep-over. There will also be a competition at the end of the event for the best categories of applications created during the event, with many great prizes.
This year’s programme is currently being put together, but will once again feature technical presentations, tutorials, workshops, and break-out rooms. Expect topics such as Open Source, Java, Symbian (Series-60), Mobile Web, Mobile Ajax, Android, Mobile Linux, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, etc. If you would like to run a session at Over the Air, please take moment to fill in our session suggestion form ( http://bit.ly/ota2009session ). (I believe there may be a couple of slots left if you’re quick - ed.) The sessions will be 55 minutes in length and while the focus of the event is on mobile development, we are also accepting sessions on user experience and design and we are putting together some sessions on mobile art including (hopefully) a mobile film festival.”
This year’s sponsors are Betavine, Lonely Planet, OMTP, Forum Nokia, Yahoo! Developer Network.
There are still places left so do sign up and join the fun with fellow mobilists from the UK, Spain and beyond.
Apologies for blog silence for the last few months. I’ve been busy twittering, but haven’t quite managed to write anything over 140 characters in length. Hopefully normal service will be resuming shortly.
Anyway, back to mobile business. My friends at Smaato have just announced their Mobile Advertising Awards and it looks pretty impressive to me. It’s the second year they’ve run it and entries are now open to find ‘the coolest ad-enabled mobile content on the planet.’
There are three categories – iPhone (inevitably), mobile website, and finally, mobile applications and games running on other platforms. It’s free to enter and there’s more info available on the Smaato website.
Smaato will invite the winners of each category to participate at next year’s Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona, Spain in February 2010. In addition, they will also make a number of introductions for winners to VC's at partner level.
Additional prizes are: a booth at M-Days in Munich, Germany in January 2010, free tickets for Mobile World Congress, and many more.
The jury features a plethora of experienced mobilists and I’m quite sure they’ll have their work cut out for them with 100 or so entries for the first year’s awards. They’ll be looking at unique approach, traction in the marketplace, the idea itself, originality, company positioning and more.
The main prize of a presence at Mobile World Congress is not to be sniffed at so if you’re working in this area, I suggest you seriously think about entering. And if you do, good luck!
"The survey, carried out by research company GfK NOP, found that 64 per cent of users admitted to being annoyed by marketing offers received from mobile service providers. The survey also found that 70 per cent of phone users found the offers irrelevant to them.
The strategy of texting or phoning users with unsolicited offers appears to be failing with only 11 per cent of the 752 respondents surveyed buying products as a result of receiving an offer from their operator."
Of course, what they're missing here, is that an eleven per cent response rate is very high compared with other marketing methods. And in fact, if a network operator is sending a message to their own customer it isn't *legally* spam although it may be perceived as spam by the recipient if it's unwanted.
I wonder how long it will be before we get these in the UK? In Japan, DoCoMo has released a handset on to the market with motion-senser gaming capability. Now that's very cool. I think.1. I sent my text message in and got a reply quickly with a URL to download a free mobile game.
2. I clicked through to a wap page with no branding from the entity or who it was or where I was but nevertheless, downloaded a few games pretty easily. There was a good choice of games available and some links at the bottom of the page to the games company's main pages where I could search and buy other games. It even recognised my handset type!
3. BUT I don't know whether or not I was charged the £1.50 as there was no evidence of that on the text message (note, I didn't get a wap push message - just a SMS - I should have got both).
4. AND I don't know what, if anything, both the nfp entity and the games company are going to do with my mobile number in the future. Nor was there any provision for STOP to unsubscribe.
5. MOREOVER there are no terms and conditions... at all... anywhere. I scoured their website, I scoured the wapsite (which isn't theirs anyway, just a page of free games already (?) available if you know where to look on the mobile internet). I have no idea who the promoter is, how long the promotion is on for, exactly what the prizes are, what the criteria for winning are, how I know if I've won etc etc. It's all a balls up.
