Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

The Apple App Store appears to have got off to an incredible start.  In a few months there are several thousand applications available both free and for a minimal price, and consumers have responded.  In its first month alone, it generated around 60 million downloads and $30 million in revenue for Apple. Those are incredible numbers when you realize that 90% of the Apps are under $10, and on the applications side there have already been several that have had million+ downloads.  It is clearly a game changer and is going to redefine the nature of not just software distribution, but also software development. 

I however think the model is so much more than that; and that is where the concept of a Trojan horse comes to play.

Every day, the web sees the announcement of another avenue for communication. It could be a new social network, a new microblogging tool, or a new aggregation platform that allows you to start wrangling your social content stream into one space. Even with the move towards more aggregation, the sheer amount of information available is overwhelming. Just thinking about my own digital lifestream in the course of a year, the record of my activity, the content I as a single web user produces, can give me a headache.

It's only getting worse. It's not just the data. Now the tools themselves have become cluttered. I have Twine, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, and MySpace all supposedly providing me a useful feed of top level information, many with their own set of apps and tools to make creating content and sorting through information easier. It's too much. I'm fatigued and I don't think I'm the only one.

We need better social tools. We need applications based on user empathy, applications that understand the mindset we are in. They need to understand when we want to open the social floodgates and when we want to turn them off.

image credit gizmodo

The decision to get an iPhone might seem like an easy choice to most people. The fact that this decision has been so hard and so long coming (since February) has more to do with how much I use my phone, strangely, and not how little. I would rather hold out with my frustrating, but familiar Motorola Q for the right phone, than jump into another 2 year contract with the wrong one. My love for all things Google certainly hasn't helped in the matter. I had recently changed my mobile signature to say "still holding out for the Android", but with the Android release delays and developer drama, I just can't hold out any more.

I'm going to get an iPhone. When my current cell contract runs out (coincidentally on my birthday), there will be no more debating, I'm just going to do it.

Now that I'm convinced, I've already begun shopping what apps I'm going to fill my phone up with from the first day. The two I'm most excited about: Google Mobile and Where™. While I'm terribly frustrated that yet again Google did not integrate Google My Maps into their new app, the usefulness and intuitive interface cannot be denied. Google Maps is just meant for a fast touch screen interface. Where™ is another location-based application that delivers local information via Eventful, Yelp, GasBuddy, Zipcar, ShopLocal, Starbucks, Buddy Beacon® and more. While I am yet to find a mapping application that feeds in my custom GPX data, both of the options listed above are a great start in that direction. And, best of all, they are both free. Something I won't soon be taking for granted.

Marta Strickland

As an avid mobile web user, I can say that watching this year's news has been a rollercoaster ride with severe ups and downs. Not one month after posting a topic entitled "America's Mobile Story Is Finally Catching Up", I read a post entitled "Is the Mobile Web Dead?" over at ReadWriteWeb. The question is really not whether mobile web is dead or not, it clearly isn't, but when the mobile Renaissance is going to hit, and that is where things get somewhat depressing.

The Mobile Web is inevitable
Sure mobile web adoption isn't quite living up to some of the more generous predictions. Sure US mobile sales are down for the first time in years. But, let's take the numbers out of the equation. The mobile web is inevitable, isn't it?

The internet is growing increasingly decentralized, growing less dependent on "web pages" or even traditional web browsers. Instead, we are beginning to speak in terms of hubs, portals, and devices. We are seeing a move towards cloud-computing on many fronts, Google joining forces with IBM and Microsoft announcing Mesh. Ambient devices and widget platforms are getting a serious financial boost. And there is a daily battle going on between Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Netflix, and even Google, to bring IPTV to the mainstream.

What does this all have to do with Mobile Web? The point is that data is growing more loose and devices beyond the desktop are growing more capable. With the adoption of more capable phones, with the launch of iPhone 2.0, Android phones, and HTC Diamond later this year... it is a simple equation.

Rich data is portable +
portable devices handle rich data beautifully =
Mobile Web Renaissance.

So what's the hold up?
Unfortunately, you cannot ignore those pesky numbers. Many cell phone manufacturers are seeing losses. The economic slow-down is having a visible effect on both handset sales and mobile data revenues. Without the renewed growth in smartphone adoption, it doesn't look good for 2008 to be the year of mobile web as once thought. I myself am holding off to purchase a new phone until the Android models start coming on the market.

So, where I used to get really excited about reading reports that Mobile Web is the New Hangout or that Mobile Web Use is Growing Faster Than Ever!!! I am not going to hold my breath. It's coming, it's inevitable. But for ever week of "mobile web is hot" comes just as many stories of "mobile web is cold".

Marta Strickland

Crackberry.com has purchased a currently unreleased version of the Blackberry - the 9000.
RIM has given the Blackberry a huge facelift - the user interface is a slick black with white icons, similar to a PSP.

Of course the list of technological advancements are huge: 650mhz CPU, video playback, Wi-Fi, 3G network support, hi-res screen, video recording, the list goes on.
 
View part I and II of the review here:
http://crackberry.com/blackberry-9000-smartphone-hands-review
http://crackberry.com/blackberry-9000-smartphone-review-part-ii
 
Morgan Tiley

Spike Lee is teaming up with Nokia to direct a movie pieced together from user-generated cell phone video footage.

"You are seeing first hand the democratization of film," Lee said in a statement on Thursday. "Aspiring filmmakers no longer have to go to film school to make great work. With a simple mobile phone, almost anyone can now become a filmmaker."

It's an ambitious idea that ties together the classic elements of social media, (particularly public voting), with the stamp of celebrity.

Organic explored a Spike Lee mobile film festival several years ago, with Sprint as the sponsor. The idea was ahead of its time - pre-YouTube - and didn't include the element of shared media. We were going to call it "Fifteen Seconds of Fame"!  I think the social component is a big improvement and shows how fast we are moving in terms of the adoption of user-generated content.

http://www.nokiaproductions.com

Misha Cornes

It's about time. Recent research from PEW Internet & America Life Project is beginning to tell a compelling story for American mobile web adoption. For the past two or more years, I have been somewhat astounded at the continual higher mobile adoption rates found in other countries. However strange as it seemed, there was an interesting and unique story in each case to justify these statistics.

Japan
As of Q1 2007, half of Japanese mobile consumers use the mobile Internet, which contrasts 10% of Europeans and a significantly lower amount of Americans. Why? Japanese consumers tended to use mobile web to get information that was timely, location driven, and actionable for their life on the go. Japanese never had a highly adoptable SMS program, and so mobile web quickly took over the void. Things like ringtones and wallpapers were pushed using this method instead of SMS which was more popular in the US and Europe. Add that to lengthy train commutes into work, and you have fast mobile web adoption.