As you may already be aware the Vodafone Foundation has set up the Smart Accessibility Awards which Mobile Monday London is actively supporting. These awards are to celebrate apps that help people in four key areas: Social participation, independent living, mobility and well-being. They are free to enter and there is a prize fund of ?200,000. The awards are now open for entries until 15 October 2011 so you have a month to go.
As part of this initiative, we've teamed up with the ICT KTN and Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards to bring you a series of half-day workshop looking specifically at this area. The goal of the workshops is to inspire and enable app developers and entrepreneurs to create useful tools for people who have visual, aural, cognitive or other impairments by helping you understand and empathize what life is like for people in this situation. This empathy and understanding is created by bringing together app developers, entrepreneurs and accessibility advocates and people with impairments to exchange information, and allowing developers to experience simulations of being impaired.
App developers who have had the opportunity to experience as directly as possible, first or second-hand, what it means to live with specific impairments, and have been put in touch with the larger community around accessibility, create more effective apps to better the quality of life for everyone. The result not only helps people with major disabilities, but also people with minor or temporary impairments, for example due to ageing or illness.
The format of the workshops will be discussion based with different speakers and contributors to reflect the local scene. Plenty of time will be allowed for discussion and networking and refreshments will be provided. These are different in style to our usual sessions and are more informal and much smaller to allow us to go more in-depth into the topic area.
We ran a successful workshop in Edinburgh last Friday and you can read about it here. There you’ll also find some useful links to the speakers and further resources.
We have two workshops happening on Monday 26 September in the afternoon in London at The IET and Belfast at The Black Box. Free to sign up and still a few places left if you’d like to attend.
A big thank you to all our speakers and fellow Mobile Monday chapter organisers for their support. And of course a big thank you to Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards and ICT KTN for helping us make these workshops happen.
What’s good about these awards then and should I bother entering?
Well, they reward campaigns and initiatives that have actually worked, have met campaign goals and delivered a return on investment (if indeed that was the goal). And we can all learn from that so it ends up being a great repository of case studies
They’re free to enter. Yes, that’s right, FREE to enter
There’s a great range of categories to enter – whether you’re into apps, advertising or mCommerce, there’ll be a category for you to enter if mobile is your thing. And if you’re reading this, then the chances are that mobile is indeed your thing.
The winners get lovely PR coverage in the magazine – both online and in print
The awards bash will be a treat if last year’s is anything to go by.
There are 17 categories, including several new ones, and entry is free. We also welcome multiple entries from the same company. The Awards will culminate in an Awards Ceremony at Delfina in London, on 3 November, 2011. The categories are below, and the deadline for entries is 5pm UK time, Friday, 26 August, 2011. So that’s a month to go, folks.
2011 Categories:
• Most Effective Mobile Application – b2c • Most Effective Mobile Application – b2b • Most Effective Tablet Application • Most Effective Mobile Advertising Campaign • Most Effective Mobile Advertising Platform/Network • Most Effective Mobile Sales Promotion/Direct Response Campaign • Most Effective Campaign from a Mobile Operator • Most Effective mCommerce Solution • Most Effective Mobile CRM/Enterprise Messaging Campaign • Most Effective Location-based Service/Campaign • Most Effective Mobile Couponing or Barcode Campaign • Most Effective Mobile Site • Most Effective Mobile Charity Campaign/Solution • Most Effective Mobile Ticketing Solution • Most Effective Mobile Payment Solution • Most Effective Mobile Publishing Solution • Most Effective Mobile Travel & Tourism Solution
Don't delay. Enter today. Go to the website for further details and to download the entry form.
Stop Press: Just a few tickets left so be quick if you’d like to attend as tickets are just £250 for the five days. For More info: Click Here and you can Book Now
Mobile Monday London is pleased to be associated with a unique event from University College London. This five-day bootcamp will provide entrepreneurs with the opportunity to design, develop and deploy their first apps and equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary to get apps into the Apple App Store.
iOS is a platform for iPhone and iPad application development that has seen large scale adoption in recent years. The bootcamp will breakdown the entry level knowledge barriers posed by the new platform and is of interest for both entry level developer and those wishing to learn more about the app development process.
The five day program will cover the basic technical skills involved in learning or adopting new programming languages and provide the resources to experiment and develop on a new device. Importantly, it will also cover financing and marketing new apps and educate entrepreneurs on possible business model, IP and app project management issues.
Each day will consist of an overview of a specific topic, break out workshops to discuss and develop new apps, a guest lecture from an industry expert and provide an opportunity to build new networks and business opportunities.
It’s just £250 for the full five days. For More info: Click Here and you can Book Now
Mobile Monday London is very pleased to be supporting NN4D with their upcoming developer day on 8 June in London. It’s free to attend, but registration is required: http://www.nn4d.com/site/global/market/developerday/p_devday.jsp/. This is a unique opportunity and the first time the NN4D team have brought developer days to Europe. They’ve just had a great developer day with Mobile Monday Tel Aviv so let’s make sure this is a great one too.
Why come?
Learn directly from NAVTEQ and our partners Nokia, Samsung, Orange, Blue Via, deCarta and more about their map data and partner APIs to quickly apply your skills to create the most compelling location-based mobile apps
Listen to developers share their lessons learned
Explore augmented reality and next-generation technologies for location-based 3D apps and games
Learn about free technical support, free marketing support and free business development opportunities to meet global channel partners (this is the most interesting bit for me – the opportunities are very real and are there for the asking and can make a real difference to your business)
Network with peers, meet experts and discover how to get your app in front of potential customers and industry influencers
Participate in a Lucky Draw to win an iPad and other prizes and giveaways
Learn about the latest developments and innovation in location through case studies, interactive panel discussions and unique networking opportunities. Meet the people who matter both on the business side and the technical side. They will be out in force to help you.
Find out what the global opportunity is for location-based applications and how NAVTEQ data can help you differentiate your applications. Discover how the NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) can assist you every step of the way, from building your app straight through to business development and marketing and help you meet global channel partners. And all this is offered free. They will never ask for a penny from you in fees or in revenue share. Ever.
The technical portions of the day focus on APIs and SDKs that enable both mainstream location-based apps and services, and next-generation technologies for location-based 3D apps and games.Learn how to get started creating location enabled mobile apps from partners, such as Nokia, Samsung and deCarta who will introduce you to their APIs.
The day is suitable for both business people making decisions about mobile apps and services and how they can be distributed and marketed and also developers and coders who need to know more about the nitty gritty of the technical detail. The full agenda is here: http://www.nn4d.com/site/global/market/developerday/agenda2/p_agenda2.jsp
Where is it?
Dexter House, 2 Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill, London EC3N 4QN – nearest tube is Tower Hill map.
The event is co-located with Mobile Apps World and there are discounts available to attend that if you wish.
When is it?
Wednesday 8 June 2011 – registration opens at 8.30am and the day will finish around 5.30pm.
Yes, it's the perennial debate. Should you place your bets on apps or the web? Which is better? Where will you make more money? Which do customers prefer? Do they even care? In what direction are we headed? Do we have to all bow at the altar of Jobs in order to make a meagre mobile buck?
These and more questions will be tackled at our upcoming debate on Monday 6 June sponsored by the lovely folks at BlackBerry. Venue tbc but likely to be the CBI at Centrepoint.
We're just finalising the teams but if you're interested to put yourself forward to be on one of the teams, then please drop Helen a line and tell her why you think you'd be good on one of the teams. And if you don't make the team, don't worry, there will be plenty opportunity to make your comment from the floor and to be an active participant.
Oh, and if anyone has a gavel they could lend us, that would be marvellous!
Registration will close at 10am on Sunday 5 June or whenever we're full - whichever comes first. Registration is required at http://momolo.org . All registration data will be shared with our sponsor BlackBerry.
Agenda:
Doors open at 6pm for a 6.30pm start
Each speaker gets 5 minutes to speak and 5 minutes for questions and discussion. Each team leader will have a few minutes to wrap up with their argument for or against the motion and then we will have an audience vote.
Networking and drinks from around 8pm.
Session closes at 9.30pm
Sponsors:
Our lovely sponsors for 6 June 2011 are BlackBerry and you might like to check out their BlackBerry Developer Zone and you may also be interested to take a look at this year's BlackBerry Developer Challenge... lots of categories and lots of prizes on offer. And also, don’t forget about BlackBerry DevCon Europe. There’s a call for speakers out at the moment but you need to get your application in before 24 June http://www.blackberrydevcon.com/europe.
What a great night. Loads of energy, a full-house, 16 demos, new devices to play with and free beer courtesy of IntelAppUp. What more could you ask for?!
Our regular columnist, Lauren McGregor has done a lovely round-up of the evening in case you missed it. Over to you Lauren…
Demo night graced us with its presence once again this Monday and it proved to not only be a popular one, but also one full of exciting new ventures. I have to admit that demo night is one of my favourites at Mobile Monday, an eclectic mix of start-ups and big mobile companies dabbling its toes in new and exciting areas. This week we had the very lovely Intel (also our sponsor for the night) telling us all about its app store, as well as some cool app developers and marketers delving in the world of NFC, geo-targeting, gaming, cloud computing and more. I have attached below a short summery of each of the three minute pitches, along with the all important links to their websites and the speakers details. As ever, if you have any questions send them over or post a comment and if you have any video clips then please let us know so we can see them.
Intel AppUphttp://appdeveloper.intel.com/en-us/join – it’s free to join and there are lots of benefits You are not anyone if you don't have an app store, or so it seems, and Intel are not one to be left out. Nena from Intel took to the stage to tell us a bit more. Intel's app store contains a core focus of apps, currently around 3,000, based around Windows architecture and directed towards netbooks/laptops and tablet devices. It contains many of the top charters including Tweetdeck and Angry Birds and developers enjoy a 70% revenue share and a less crowded app store. Intel has also a few partners within the OEM and retail space, including Dell, preloaded devices, and retailer Dixons, who co-market goods in-store, both in return for a revenue share. So what are the benefits to the consumers, well Intel allows its customers to download their apps on up to 5 devices, a try before you buy system and the security that comes with the brand.
Staying with Intel we had a brief intro to Meego from Sulamita, an open source Linux project sponsored by Intel. This multi-platform network allows developers create just one source of code. One of our audience members was quick to raise the question of Nokia's investment in this project (i.e. it's speculated they may not be very soon) and Intel jumped in and assured us that it is very focused on Meego.
Ribot, Anthony Ribot, co-founder. Ribot is all about customer experience and more specifically, the everyday customer, bringing them the small screen experience. Following research funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Ribot looked into needs for older generation and found that they in fact had just three core needs from a mobile device - independence, simplicity and connectivity. This led the team to develop the Threedom app, which contains these three needs via three on screen buttons. The app currently sits on Android, but the team are moving to multiple platforms and hope to partner with a handset manufacture to create a device based on Threedom - watch this space.
QRpedia and Terence Eden Mobile Monday regular Terence has teamed up with Wikipedia to create QRpedia - finally a QR code app that stands out from the crowd. Following a trip to the British Museum, Terence noticed that the information available on artefacts such as the Rosetta Stone where somewhat lacking in detail and left him with a thirst for more knowledge. So it came to him, if only there was a way of storing lots of information in a small space that can be transferred onto my mobile device….and so QRpedia was born. This mobile Wikipedia app, allows museum visitors to scan a QR code and receive full Wikipedia info on that item. It doesn't stop there though folks, the app also recognises the language of the phone and redirects to the correct Wikipedia page - thus no issues with tourists from multiple countries being able to use the app.
A member of the audience asked if NFC was on the roadmap to which Terence returned another question…How many of you own or think your next phone will have a camera? and; How many of you have a or think your next phone will have NFC? I think this visualised the answer well - NFC simply is not mass-market enough yet. Another question of roaming charges came up and Terence said that he hopes to work in conjunction with museums to provide wi-fi to alleviate any huge roaming bills.
You can see the video of Terence’s presentation here.
TouchType, SwiftKeyhttp://swiftkey.net/ and www.touchtype-online.com/apiJoe Braidwood, chief marketing officer. Swiftkey has for a while now provided Android smartphone owners with a predictive, personal and intelligent text service and the team came to tell us about the next step for SwiftKey. The version 2 scans your internet accounts (Facebook, email, tweets), analyses your conversations and uses this to provide advanced predictive capabilities for your message writing. They also announced that the service is coming to tablet devices soon and that advanced voice integration to the app is on the roadmap. The team is interested in tie-ups with OEMs and has opened up its APIs to other developers interested in taking advantage of the intelligent word prediction.
Poynthttp://www.poynt.com/ Poynt initially launched on BlackBerry App World and has since gone cross platform and boasts 7 million unique users, 1 billion interactions thus far and a growth rate of 30,000 users per day. Poynt provides local search functionality on your mobile device tightly linked to the users location, working with business and local amenities to provide special Groupon-esque deals on the go (soon to integrate Groupon and LivingSocial deals-of-the-day to location). The idea being, rather then having one search app for movies, one for restaurants and so on, you have all your searches in one app. Although the team is not looking at any check-in based integration, it does provide a share function for Facebook.
The Game Creatorshttp://www.thegamecreators.com/ with AppGameKit - Rick Vanner and Lee Bamber After 11 years working in the world of the PC, Rick and Lee decided it was time to move to mobile – and hence created the AppGameKit. During a very comical presentation the guys picked upon one of the most annoying parts of development - multiple platforms for your apps. Fear not, they said for they have a solution - write once and deploy anywhere with zero porting…too good to be true? After showing us a demo of a game written on this platform, Ninja Ski, on a netbook, iPhone, iPad and Nokia device, the audience was more convinced. The code is written once either in C++ or Basic and you need only deploy one time, any upgrades also sync across platform with no issues and changes sync across platform. It even automatically recognises the controller type e.g. your on an Xbox or a touchscreen tablet and reacts accordingly to your commands. The AppGameKit is to be released in June and free to try with various pricing models thereafter.
TweetaLondonCabhttp://tweetalondoncab.co.uk/default.aspx demonstrated by Richard Cudlip, a licensed cabbie. London cabbies have been using twitter to share information on traffic, jobs and general information for some time successfully, but the core idea behind TweetaLondonCab was to provide a real-time booking service via twitter. Now linked up with Taxi Spot, the team is looking to rollout a service where users can search on a map and view local cabs and be able to order the closest to them via twitter or the app. Behind the scenes there’s a complex system to manage the bookings and to allocate the right job to the right taxi driver. ‘Why not call a cab?’ asked one of the audience and the reply is that drivers are all self-employed and independent so this is a way of finding an independent black cab driver in your locality in London.
Local Social from Rococo http://www.rococosoft.com/, Sean O’Sullivan Rococo provides proximity marketing software using short-range location technologies like bluetooth, NFC and wifi to interact with its users - both person to person and person to business. It provides an open API and comes Android and J2ME supported, its partners create the apps and Rococo makes them ‘proximity aware’. Sean’s looking for partnerships that can make good use of their proximity aware technology.
Smart Wifi from Kinetohttp://www.kineto.com/, Mark Powell (co-founder) This app uses wifi to to run all your usual mobile functionality; calls, sms etc, - even when you don’t have your usual mobile signal. You also won't have to pay for roaming while you are abroad as you will use your home network on wifi and run your calls and messaging over this. The app is to come pre-loaded on all android T-Mobile (US and soon UK) and Orange (UK) - with more to be announced soon. It’s already preloaded on some devices and operators brand the name differently. From the operators perspective, it doesn't lose its customers due to lack of coverage and another huge plus is that it also alleviates capacity of data running on their networks. Impressive.
Nuance Mobilehttp://www.nuance.com/, Reimund Schmald Nuance gave us a quick intro to its latest creation Flex T9 – advanced text to speech with multi-lingual voice recognition (and Reimund proved this by speaking into various phones in various languages. Nuance is a large company and their system is already in use for games, coffee machines and cars. It is available to buy now in the Android Marketplace for £3.
Insiteohttp://www.insiteo.com/ , Tiago Mateus Insiteo is an indoor positioning system that incorporates dynamic mapping to guide users around for example a shopping centre, airport, hospital or an exhibition. The app works by triangulating the users position using wifi access points, with an impressive accuracy of 5m inside. The app can also deliver geo-targeted advertisements and is completely opt-in.
AiRaid – Rise of the Undead ,Keith Bauwise This Samsung Bada app is a first-person 360 degree augmented reality shooter game, there is just one goal to survive for a full 2 minutes - which is hard when ghosts are attacking you. The backdrop for the game is the area around you and so you can imagine people fighting imaginary ghouls with their phones thrust in front of them. The team has created a good online community of players sharing high scores and experiences. The game is open source to other developers and they are open for them to overlay graphics and expand on the app. In the future, the team is also looking at ways to integrate GPS to the game play.
NaturalMotion Games and, Torsten Reil, CEO and co-founder With a background in games and animation development (Grand Theft Auto, Backbreaker to name but a few), the team wanted to create a truly social game using the same realistic animation that drives their console games. They’ve now found a way to make that animation engine fast and responsive enough for mobile. And with this in mind they are working with game developers to do this. The Munkyfun app they demoed was one where you can own your own horse, feed it, play with it, tend to it, ride it and as one eagle eyed audience member spotted - it looks like race them too! Through the camera mode, you can view and interact with the horse and take pictures to share and these look incredibly life-like. The revenue streams are not just about paid-for downloads but also micro-transactions within the experience.
Torsten is a former Ted speaker so you might like to take a look at his video explaining how the study of biology can help make natural-looking animated people -- by building a human from the inside out, with bones, muscles and a nervous system.
Parcel Geniehttp://www.parcelgenie.com/, John Taylor CEO Parcel Genie claims to be the world’s first gift messaging service on mobile, you can send real little gifts without needing the recipients address. All gifts are below £5 for example a chocolate bar or a game and you can pay with either PayPal, premium SMS or a credit/debit card. The recipient receives a message asking where they would like their gift to be delivered and what it is. Once the location is confirmed (99% acceptance rate) the recipient receives the gift the next day with a personal message and the sender pays the P&P. The app is rolling out on Android and iPhone and is already available on Windows Phone 7.
Spark http://www.sparkinspires.com/ with Mindingshttp://www.mindings.com/main, Stuart Arnott The idea for this came up when Stuart’s mother was very ill. Stuart used to send her photos every day so that she didn’t miss out on seeing her new family and could keep her spirits up during a very difficult time. Sadly, Stuart’s Mum lost her life, but he thought that there must be a better way to do this. And as a geek, he was just the person to do this. And so he created version 1.0 of Mindings which was a picture frame with email upload. Next Stuart integrated flickr uploads for version 2. Now on version 3 the device adds captions for photographs, calendar integration iCal and Google Calendar for alerts, Facebook integration, medication reminders, in-built health devices e.g. blood, glucose, heart monitors. All this information is stored and can be shared with other family members/health care professionals remotely to monitor and interact with the user - a far cry from the original photo frame device. The cost of the device will be around £80 at launch (October 2011) and subscription to the services will cost an additional £5 per month.
LifeSort http://www.lifesort.com/, James Norris This cloud-based service offers one place to store, sort and share your documents within one unique infrastructure that is fully customisable giving more flexibility than the likes of Dropbox. The app can be viewed on an iPhone/iPad and via a desktop browser and all saved material is fully accessible across multiple devices and saved across device. As pointed out by an audience member, this does bear multiple similarities to Dropbox, but James assured us that it is different due to its unique infrastructure and customisation…we will have to try it for ourselves then, trials available.
We’re just experimenting with Lanyrd so if you’re on twitter and attended the event, feel free to add yourself. Equally, if you wrote a blogpost, took photos or video, or did an interview, please add it there too (and let us know in the comments). http://lanyrd.com/2011/momolo-april/ Thanks!
And finally, Daniel Appelquist took a whole bunch of photos on the evening which we’ve put into a slide show for your delectation.
A big thank you to IntelAppUp for sponsoring the event and thanks everyone for coming that made it such a success. Our next events are on 16 May (machine to machine and the internet of things) and 6 June (Web vs. Native debate). Register and RSVP at http://momolo.org
Stop Press:Closing date extended to Friday 6 May at 5pm.
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.
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.
Meffys Categories for 2011
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
You have to have been living under a rock if you haven't noticed the proliferation of announcements about everyone and her husband launching a tablet device of some description. Whether it's the BlackBerry Playbook, the Motorola Xoom, the iPad or one of the new Samsung devices, there's no getting away from it, the new category of tablet devices is taking off.
But what does this mean to the mobile world? It does feel like tablet devices are coming under the remit of the mobile teams - largely based on operating system knowledge and partly because of the whole apps thing that mobile teams are already familiar with. Media owners in particular appear to have embraced tablet devices with the FT being one of the first to launch their iPad app last May with other media owners in print and now TV, not that far behind launching. Hey, even EA games has produced a specific version of Need for Speed Undercover for the BlackBerry Playbook. The big guns are taking this seriously.
In this panel session, supported by BSkyB, we're going to explore the business models around tablet devices, what the opportunities and threats are specific to the device. Will we go beyond content consumption and move into content creation or enterprise apps. Will the new tablets make the mobile web stronger with HTML5 support or shift us deeper into the application ecosystem?
The panel will be led by Leila Makki of TelecomTV fame and she will be joined by David Gibbs, Director of Mobile Applications and Services, BSkyB and Mark Payton, Editorial Director, Haymarket Consumer Media. Further panellists to be confirmed.
We are also pleased to let you know that we will indeed have tablet devices available for you to have a look at and play with in both BlackBerry and Gingerbread flavours from our friends at RIM and Google. I daresay there may be a few iPads floating around too.
Photo credit: LoopZilla. Used under Creative Commons licence.
Agenda:
Doors open at 6pm for a prompt 6.30pm start.
Panel session 6.30pm until 7.45pm followed by networking and drinks.
Venue: CBI at Centrepoint – nearest tube is Tottenham Court Road. Centrepoint is directly above Tottenham Court Road tube station. Please use the entrance at street level.
One of the world's largest broadcasters, Sky, is driving a fresh and inspiring approach to entertainment - with over 10 million subscribers and 16,000 talented employees helping us to produce a wealth of outstanding content delivered to a variety of platforms and devices. At Sky, technology is the key to driving us forward and delivering ground-breaking innovations.
Sky’s interactive and mobile technology department is the power behind the biggest commercial mobile internet platform in the UK as well as many award winning applications and services. This includes the world's first subscription based live TV service on the iPhone and iPad as well as 5 of the all time top 100 most downloaded iPhone applications that are actively used by millions of people each week.
Looking to take advantage of the potential that the new generation of phones and particularly tablets offer, we are looking for mobile technologists who have a passion for pushing the boundaries to get the most out of these platforms. Working in a collaborative, agile way, we empower small, focused, cross-functional teams to deliver fantastic solutions that make the best out of the great Sky content. Successful people will have a real focus on quality and enjoy working in a team of other disciplined software engineers.
We are looking for people across all technical disciplines with specific interest in experts in the android and iOS platforms.
Our current openings include:
Developers
QA experts
Scrum Masters
Project Managers
System Administrators
Product Owners
We do all we can to make Sky a great place to work – as fun as it is fast-moving. Progression is such a vital part of life at Sky, so you’ll definitely find plenty of opportunity to stretch your talents.
We reward these talents with great benefits. Free Sky+ HD, broadband and our top viewing packages are the most popular, we’re happy to say. On top of that, there’s an excellent pension, share save scheme and private healthcare. And, because we’re going all out to be carbon neutral, we offer discounts on bikes and eco-friendly cars for getting to work.
A European call for proposals for innovative mobile applications called Proxima Mobile has just been launched. This is an opportunity to access a grant subsidy of up to 45% of total project costs covering R&D and innovation work expenses.
In order to foster the development of pan-European mobile services, and especially those related to “digital cities”, the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research and the Secretary of State for the Development of Digital Economy are launching the Proxima Mobile European call for proposals. This call for proposals will be coordinated by the Delegation for Internet Uses, and it aims to help create mobile applications and services useful for European citizens as well as tourists visiting the European Union.
Projects submitted to the call for proposals should be related to transportation, arts, travel and sustainable development. They should be geared toward the creation of accessible and user friendly mobile applications, especially for least experienced users.
Eligible applicants will be companies, associations, public institutions or territorial communities with registered offices in the European Union. Applicants may submit proposals individually or as part of a consortium. This call for proposals also aims at fostering cooperation between European companies in order to promote the cultural, geographical and environmental endowments of Europe.
The winning proposals of applications and services will be granted subsidies for their implementation. They will also be featured on www.proximamobile.eu, the European portal of mobile services for citizens, which promotes European general interest services on mobile devices.
Get those thinking caps on and act now if you wish to apply as the deadline is midnight (Central European Time) 30 November.
Those key points again:
projects submitted to the call should be related to transportation, arts, travel and sustainable development .
project should be geared towards the creation of accessible and user friendly mobile applications, especially for least experienced users .
you may submit proposals individually or as part of a consortium
eligible applicants are companies, associations, public institutions or territorial communities with registered offices in the EU
while this call is sponsored by the French government, it is open to all SMEs within the EU.
All details and applications forms at: http://www.proximamobile.eu/cfp Check there for any interim deadlines that may apply.
On offer are free places to showcase your solution or product on the UKTI stand, located on the Avenida at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona from 14 - 17 February 2011. This is your chance to introduce your high technology product to the more than 60,000 key industry decision makers that are expected to attend.
How to enter: If you would like to take part in this competition please summarise in no more than 500 words:
the nature of your new solution or product,
its value proposition and benefit to the customer,
and why you believe your company should be awarded a place to showcase it at next year’s Mobile World Congress.
Summaries should be sent to info@dcktn.org.uk and arrive no later than 5:00pm on Friday, 3 September 2010.
A panel representing the Digital Communications KTN and UKTI will assess all submissions received by this date. Up to twenty short listed companies will then be given the opportunity to present their products at finals held at locations determined by the geographic spread of the short-listed entries – and one of these finals will be in October in London, organised by Mobile Monday London.
Previous winners include Movirtu, Palringo, CuteCircuit and Touchtype.
Registration for these events will be free, and will be open to all members of the Digital Communications KTN on a first come first served basis. They will provide an excellent opportunity for the short-listed companies to draw their products to the attention of a wider audience. A panel of judges will select companies from those presenting at the finals to each be the recipient of a free place to showcase its product on the UKTI Stand at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Keep up to date with the work of the Digital Communications KTN by becoming a member. Membership of the Digital Communications KTN is free, and participants are encouraged to register as members at http://www.dcktn.org.uk . If you have any questions or comments please email us at info@dcktn.org.uk.
And if you’re entering this competition, and you’re a start-up from the UK, Portugal or the Netherlands, less than three years old, then don’t forget to enter the Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition too for a chance to win Euro 100,000 or Euro 50,000. More details about the competition here. Closing date 22 August 2010.
Wow. This was a busy one! We had about 225 people in the room from all parts of the mobile eco-system. We had a dozen students from the Arts Institutes in the US join us and they had a lot to take in in a very short space of time. They were spotted making copious notes. We had lots of folks attend from our lovely event sponsor, BlackBerry. And of course, we had a great panel and lots of lively debate – a lot of that in the networking afterwards. Thank you to everyone for coming. And also a thank you to the CBI for looking after us.
So, there was lot to take in and our regular reporter, Lauren McGregor from Hotwire PR, has given us her take on the event. Over to you Lauren.
Mobile Monday - 200,000 apps, where's mine? The relevance of this topic was shown in the huge turnout we had this week (200+) made up of application developers, handset manufactures and many from the full lifecycle of mobile. The panel reflected the diversity within the crowd, compiling a handset manufacturer, a mobile music app, a mobile app marketer, a mobile app discover site, a market analyst and an enterprise tech advisory company.
The prevalence of mobile applications touches just about every sector of the mobile ecosystem, from mobile advertising and marketing to mobile content … and we covered a lot of ground at the event. The reality of developing a mobile application has come to fruition for many developers and the technology available means that many of us can now do this in the comfort of our own home. However, when it comes to getting that app out there and gaining consumer interest, we enter a whole other ball game. Whether you are on a big or small budget, it feels like unless you have a well known and established brand behind you, reaching the top 25 in the App Store charts will feel like a very distant target. But how can app developers be heard through this ambient noise of over 200,000 applications?
The Panel - Chaired by Ben Scott-Robinson (Creative Director, We Love Mobile) … included: Chris Bourke (MD, Mobext), Dave Burrows (Director R&D, Interchange Group), Alyssa Tisne (VP Strategic Partnerships, 7Digital), Mike Kirkup (Head of Developer Relations at BlackBerry), Tony Pearce ( CEO Teepee Games), Eli Camilleri (Associate, Vision Mobile)
Why make a mobile app?
First things first, I want to target mobile … but do I go for a mobile app or mobile web? Many have combined the two and created a ‘wrapper’ app, which effectively is just a link on device home screen to the website. Alyssa made the point that by just using the web, you miss out on the functionality of an app - for example 7Digital integrates Last FM, something that would not be possible through mobile web. Although a ‘wrapper-app’ defeats the general purpose of an app, it has been shown to increase awareness and traffic by up to 30-40% - so worth a go if nothing else. Chris added that by investing in an app you better the user experience as, although it is improving, 3G coverage often means a slower experience on the mobile web … an issue that you do not face as much with an app.
Getting your app out there
When it comes to marketing, the identification of your audience is of utmost importance to ensure you maximize uptake … but is this the same for apps? Eli was the first to jump in with the very good point that in reality, developers are not really looking at demographics but more the all important numbers. The shop window no longer exists and content is now open to all, hence targeting a individual user is more difficult … user profiles are key to the development of targeted marketing and these can be obtained through, for example browsing behaviours. Chris mentioned that the trouble with using user data is that the data quickly becomes old, as consumers change their minds so much, e.g. who would have thought the demographic for £300-400 mobile phones would now be teens. Another thing to consider is that often the user of the app is not the one who actually purchases it; it is regularly the younger sibling or daughter that sits playing Angry Birds on another’s mobile phone. It is of course important to get a second, third or tenth opinion however, and Eli said that any market research is always important, even if that is just asking you nearest and dearest what they really think. Also, try to avoid listening to the press about what consumers want, as they are often reporting on ‘hype’ and not what consumers really think and want.
Although targeting to certain demographics can be difficult with mobile applications, we are seeing more and more examples of companies using them as a way to reach the mass market. Chris mentioned that much of this is brands hoping for some of the ‘Apple magic dust’ to rub off on them, and to the large part I think this is true. VW and Barclays are both great examples of how you can create a fun application that becomes very popular and increases brand awareness. This model is known as a ‘brand butler’, where another brand dines off another’s expertise … in this case a games developer with a bank/car manufacturer.
Ensuring your app is seen
So, you’ve made your app, identified your audience (well, as best you can) and now it’s time to put it out there. Fist issue – discovery. How do you make sure that your app can be found and downloaded? Tony asked the audience how many of the Facebook integrated applications they could name and although a few were mentioned, by in large we were at a loss to name more then 3 or 4. Apparently there are over 250,000 apps – just on Facebook - and no one knows what they are. Eli drew on the previous comments on marketing niche areas; word of mouth is integral to the success of any application. Many on the panel described the mobile app world as the ‘Wild West’ and Mike touched on the fact that there is a lot of luck when it comes to a successful app. He continued that a good marketing strategy is key to this and you need to identify your audience and the publications/blogs that they are reading … make sure consumers have somewhere that they can read about your app. Mike continued that it is important to build a conversation with your users, allow them to email/make a comment and respond to them as much you can. Consumers will remember a good experience and tell their friends about it … word of mouth is one of the best and cheapest forms of marketing. Chris’ top tips – cause some trouble, break from the norm and if you can … be sexy!
How much?
Another issue you are going to have to face is the cost of your app; do we go free or add a price tag? Tony commented that the perception of the cost of apps has changed so much over the years and this is largely down to Apple … many a gasp has been heard at the thought of paying 59p for an app. However, the amount of free apps mean that the ‘noise’ you receive when searching for say an app is so huge, largely down to the sheer number of free apps that many choose a small fee. 7Digital offer their users free content in addition to the paid for stuff - all via weekly free songs, a good idea to drive traffic and increase brand loyalty.
Reaching different platforms
During the Q&A session a very hot topic was raised by David Murphy, editor of Mobile Marketing Magazine, that of app porting technology. There are a number of companies offering brands the answer to porting apps for each mobile platform via this technology, but does it work and does it solve the problem of cross platform reach? Chris mentioned that often the fine detail is missing when this is done and the general consensus from the panel was that the process was costly and of relatively low quality.
Tips
So, app development and marketing is no easy task and the best thing to do is start simple, don't aim for a big audience as it is hard to reach them all ... target niches, communicate with them and sit where they can see you. It is a tough and crowded market out there and if you have a great app it is going to take a fair amount of work to make it a success. Once you make it to the all important top 25 though, the magic is going to start to happen … good luck!
And a last word from our sponsor about the BlackBerry 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge
All application developers are invited to enter this year’s Super-Apps challenge. Closing date is 6th September 2010 but you must have your mobile application approved and already live in the BlackBerry App World, so don’t leave it until the last minute to enter. There’s over $1.5m of prizes including developer services, featured placements, marketing support and more. There are also regional submissions and judging. We hope there’ll be a good contingent of folks from the Mobile Monday London community who enter and we wish you the best of luck. Find out more and how to enter over at the competition website.
Thanks Lauren.
We couldn’t cover everything in this post, and on reflection, this was a really big topic to cover in an hour or so. I expect we may well revisit this at Over The Air and beyond. This topic also proved popular with the bloggers in our midst and lots of folks wrote up their take on proceedings. There’s lots of good stuff here including marketing hints and tips so do take a look if this is an area of interest for you.
Over The Air is coming up. Registration will be open soon. Submissions are now open if you’d like to lead a session or would like to nominate someone to lead a session. More detail on that soon.
No event in August, but lots coming up in the Autumn and we need a bit of time to prepare for that.
Please get in touch with me, Helen Keegan, if you’d like to offer your services in some way to support the community, either by volunteering your time or sponsoring an event or advertising on our website.
Wow, this was a popular event and generated much discussion both at the event, and afterwards. A big thank you to Oded Ran and the Windows Phone team for sponsoring the event and hosting us in their wonderful offices in Victoria. It was great.
Our regular columnist, Lauren McGregor has given her take on the event. Over to you Lauren.
At the latest Mobile Monday London event, the panel dissected the issues surrounding the various platforms that are available to application developers … are there too many? Are multiple platforms a bad thing? What does multi platform mean for end users, industry stakeholders, developers and device manufactures? This is no longer just about mobile as there are many different platforms to be integrated into the customer experience including in-store and online. How can we make it easier?
Fragmentation within the mobile industry is a huge issue, made more complicated by the variety of new devices coming to market every week. We also have millions of mobile devices equipped to handle voice and messaging, many have browser functionality and are Java enabled. However, the smartphone market is much smaller in comparison with approximately 11% market share. Tesco recognise this as an issue when it comes to applications i.e. the majority of its customers would not use an app. Flirtomatic started off life as a Java app five years ago, but found the same issue which prevented them from reaching all its potential customers. It found a simple and clever way of doing this … the mobile internet – which proved highly successful.
The developers behind the apps have to stump up most of the frustration when it comes to multiple platforms for their apps … developing, marketing and managing for each platform ... a big headache. What can handset manufacturers do to help developers navigate the current platform landscape and make a profit from investing in them? The general consensus on the night was competitive pricing... so if the price is right!
When it comes to application updates from the developer, additional complications can arise. Many consumers just don’t update their apps, this is largely due to perceived benefits for the users, but also the experience that the app stores provide; not making it clear enough to the user as to when an update is needed or how to download it. Tesco pointed out that Apple is one with its finger on the pulse here … making it quick and easy to be alerted of an update and highlighting it's benefits. One of Tesco’s recent updates for its ‘Finder app’ received a 97% update response rate. It puts this down to the fact that the update benefits were clearly communicated to the user. Perhaps a traffic light system for updates could work to let the user know how urgent the update is, therefore ensuring more downloads?
The issue of virtual currency and in-app payments raised its head during the debate and Flirtomatic, which uses virtual currency, said that it was difficult to decide how to bill users – PayPal, credit card? The panel agreed that credit card payments were the most efficient and well received method of payment for their customers. The best user case when talking mobile money is the emerging markets, a segment that is growing fast largely due to lack of access to PCs and/or credit cards for payments.
It is not all about multi platform though, the multiple channels that companies can now reach the end user with is also very exciting. An example from Tesco was that while watching a cookery programme on your TV set and being able to order the ingredients directly via a web link. Fragmentation is a price we have we have to pay for the benefit of having such a wide array of devices available to us, but also an opportunity to make something different … grab the users attention and make some money!
And not only did Lauren do a write up, but quite a few in our audience did too and they’re all well worth a read.
That’s right, you heard me. I met with Robin Batt, who runs the Open Mobile Summit happening in London next month at the Hilton Tower Bridge, and she’s offering Mobile Monday London 10 tickets to the conference for £850 + VAT. (Regular price £1395). Register here with VIP Code “momo” – the 10 specially priced tickets will be allocated first come first served.
The Open Mobile Summit explores the convergence of Internet and mobile worlds at the strategic level and focuses on how we can all build and monetize an open mobile ecosystem. Now in its second year in London and with a very impressive line-up of over 60 speakers, in an intimate networking environment, this is a highly regarded event.
“I attend a lot of conferences around the world and this was one of the best I have attended in a long time. The OMS had a real CxO crowd, and unlike the big trade shows there was real networking” Pascal Lorne, CEO, Miyowa
It’s not often you get to rub shoulders with people like Olaf Swantee, group wide CEO of Orange at France Telecom, Alberto Torres EVP Nokia or US entrepreneurs like Josh Williams the CEO of Gowalla. So, if you have a great mobile idea, service or proposition, and are looking for some heavyweight partners to make it happen, the Open Mobile Summit might be just the forum for you.
This certainly isn’t your average crowd of mobile web enthusiasts and deserves to be differentiated as such. It’s been on our radar for a couple of years now and we think it’s important because it brings together the heavy hitters from the wireless establishment, together with the start-ups and innovators. That’s quite unusual but needs to happen if we are to drive real change and innovation in mobile markets and services…and open the mobile Internet ecosystem. And that’s why Mobile Monday London is pleased to be a supporting organisation to the event.
Lastly, if you’re the CEO of a start-up application publishing company then you may qualify for one of 5 fully sponsored passes. For more information, please email Robin to see if you qualify.
Well, it’s shaping up to be an interesting evening and it’ll be a busy one for sure judging by the registrations we’ve had. We have a variety of companies and individuals who will be showing you what they’re up to and we’re hoping for lots of discussion.
James Hugman from Future Platforms will be presenting the Guardian Anywhere, a free product we've released for Android devices which helps you read your daily newspaper (and which we're looking to license to other news properties).
Chetan Damani from Imano will be demonstrating the acrossair augmented reality browser to explain how it works and how potential partners can integrate with their platform.
Finbar Hawkins, HipLogic evangelist, will be showing everyone HipLogic Live, available now on Nokia and Windows Mobile and available soon for Android, which gives you a one-touch access point to your social networks, news stories and applications that is always on.
Marko Balabanovic is presenting from lastminute.com labs. What’s good around here? Mobile apps that recommend things to do in cities from lastminute.com labs, with some brand new launches.
Matt Pollitt will be joining us from ustwo to show us PositionApp - With over 200,000 downloads, nearly 1 million user sessions, PositionApp is the number one mobile app discovery and metrics tool in the iTunes store.
Katie Lips is coming from Little World Gifts and will show us their virtual gifts platform on next generation mobile devices.
Georgina Mackenzie from Toytek will be presenting their app, The Ultimate Alphabet, a puzzle-based word game using clues and anagrams to explore 26 realistic and surreal paintings; from basic to complex and even specialist words hidden within these images.
Giles Corbett from Orange Vallee will be showing us ON which makes phonebooks smarter by bringing together all users’ contacts and by helping manage user notifications across a range of different contact groups http://www.lifeisbetteron.com/
Sander Munsterman is from XS2TheWorld which is an award winning innovative mobile marketing company creating tailor made solutions for consumers and brands. They’re going to showcase their fuel checker application built for BP.
Martin Macmillan will be presenting from Bounce Mobile. They provide applications that give consumers new ways to interact with digital music via their mobile. The app they’ll be showing us is Fireplayer which is an app that allows you to remix and share your favourite music on your mobile.
Ed Moore from Ocasta Labs sharing what they’re doing with Agora which is a mobile optimised social marketplace that matches buyers & sellers of goods & services by interest, location & reputation.
John Roberts from Qustodian talking about mobile marketing
Exciting news! We're very pleased to announce that our next event is on Monday 29th March and will be kindly hosted by IPC Media at the Blue Fin Building on Southwark Street. And just like the last time we were there back in June, we're going to do a demo night. So we're after interesting mobile applications, services and products to present to our community. We have room for about 10 or so companies to demo their wares during the evening. The format is show 'n tell style of about 5 minutes (we'll be strict with the time) with a chance for questions, comments and constructive feedback from the audience. Want to know how it worked last time? Then take a look at our blog archive from last June - http://mobilemonday.org.uk/archive/2009_06_01_archive.html
So are you up for presenting on the 29th March? Is there something out there that you think deserves to see the light of day. Then we'd love to hear from you. If you'd like to be considered, please email helen@[removethis]mobilemonday.org.uk or alex@[removethis]mobilemonday.org.uk as we're coordinating this one. We also need to know how you need to demo whatever it is you'd like to demo (slides, visualiser, audio, wifi etc).
If anyone out there can also bring kit to help us for the evening - that would be fantastic. We need visualisers, femtocell kits, remote clickers - you get the idea. If anyone can help out with this kind of stuff, we'll be eternally grateful. Help boosting the mobile signal would be particularly helpful. We're on the top floor of a tall building and mobile reception can peter out the further up the building you go (although we will have wifi).
And on that note, we're still after a co-sponsor for the evening so we can have more beer and can cover the cost of hiring in any equipment that we need. If you're interested in supporting this one, please get in touch with Helen or Alex as above.
Stop Press: Just a few tickets left so be quick if you’d like to attend as tickets are just £250 for the five days. For More info: 
Mobile Monday London
When it comes to application updates from the developer, additional complications can arise. Many consumers just don’t update their apps, this is largely due to perceived benefits for the users, but also the experience that the app stores provide; not making it clear enough to the user as to when an update is needed or how to download it. Tesco pointed out that Apple is one with its finger on the pulse here … making it quick and easy to be alerted of an update and highlighting it's benefits. One of Tesco’s recent updates for its ‘Finder app’ received a 97% update response rate. It puts this down to the fact that the update benefits were clearly communicated to the user. Perhaps a traffic light system for updates could work to let the user know how urgent the update is, therefore ensuring more downloads? 
