It's not about Location... duh!

If I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned foursquare during a panel or keynote at SXSWi last week I would be super... Ok, maybe I'd have about 60 dollars. Which is a lot considering I only attended about 6 sessions in all (bah... and missed out on the "panel nerd" badge as a result... whaa!).

The point is that Foursquare's debut at SXSWi was simply put, a success. We all loved it and continue to love it!

The irony is that it is about the millionth LBS application to see the light of day. Worse yet, many of the check-ins were likely done over SMS given AT&T's stellar performance during the conference. Worse yet... it is a resurrection of Dodgeball.

The reality is that the majority of Foursquare's new fan base has tried many of its precursors (from the mobile operators' friend finders, to Loopt, to Dodgeball, to Brightkite). This explains how easily we adopted it - Yes, we got it. But the thing is that not only did we start using it right away without the need for a step by step explanation of why and how to use it, but we also could not stop ourselves. This never happened with any of Foursquare's predecesors.

So at last someone seems to have finally gotten it right.

First it's fun -

Foursquare is unique in that it turns the potentially cumbersome task of providing your location into something you actually want to, cannot wait to do. Why? Because it is a game! And as with games you earn points, you compete, you win prizes (badges), you get to PWN your friends by becoming "the mayor" of a bar. Next thing you know you can't stop yourself. Next thing you know you catch yourself having horrible dark thoughts about checking into a place you're not even at!

Second, it's useful -

Much like what Yelp, Rateitall, or Google Maps could do, foursquare gives you location based recommendations. The beauty of these recommendations from a contextual and cost perspectives is that they have been provided by the user community. What is even more beautiful is that from a monetization perspective this could be a very valuable capability. For years companies like Cellfire have been toiling with this concept. But again, what was missing was the fun part.

Back in September I summarized this teen survey which concluded with the very astonishing revelation that (gasp! OMG) generation-m did not care for friend-finder applications. I guess we'll just have to see if they change their mind once they PLAY foursquare.

63MM Mobile Web users in the U.S.

This comscore summary just came out this week. Here's a short recap:

* Number of Mobile Web users in the US is now 63MM (up from 40MM in mid last year)
* Fastest growing segment is still Social Networking (bundled w/ blogging)
* The majority of phones surfing the mobile web are still Feature (low end) phones (70%)

Other January stats:

* 22.3 MM users accessed info via a downloaded application
* 32.4 MM users accessed info via SMS

Is SMS dead?

Two weeks ago Google shut off its free SMS platform to 3rd parties (the one that powered Infinite SMS on the iphone). Days earlier Google had also shut down Dodgeball, the SMS powered location based social app. One might conclude from this that the services were unpopular. Instead, the real problem was just the opposite; and the fact that Google was paying for each tiny message.

Unfortunately, unlike with most technologies, when it comes to SMS the marginal costs do not necessarily shrink with higher usage. This economic problem is caused by the operators (outside of the US) and SMS aggregators (in the US) who can afford to demand applications to pay a price for reaching their subscribers.

With the rise of new open platforms the current SMS model will begin to deteriorate. Platforms such as the iPhone are paving the way for other means to reach users without having to pay a toll to the operator or aggregators. Another important trend is the growing popularity of flat data plans. These are gradually being adopted and marketed by operators to expand their more advanced premium services and content (ah, the irony).

But getting real... there is still a long way to go.

Today SMS is still the optimal way to reach a really wide mobile audience. In the US for example, mobile users with data plans who are able to reach their favorite applications via mobile web are just about 60 million. In contrast, almost all mobile users (over 200 million of them) can be reached via SMS. This gap is even greater in emerging markets, where Mobile Web penetration can be as low as 3%, while SMS is over 90%.

So to answer the question... it's getting closer and closer, but it has a long while to go.

Spoofing the iPhone using Firefox

For any of you kids out there wishing to hit a server with Firefox as if using an iPhone here's something that might come in handy.

Install this Firefox add-on:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

After you install the add-on:

Go to Tools in your browser
Select User Agent Switcher
Select Options
Select Options again
Select User Agents
Click on the Add button

Enter the following information in the box:

Description: iPhone
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en)
App Name: AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko)
App Version: Version/3.0
Platform: Mobile/1A543 Safari/419.3

Once you store the information you will be able to select iPhone from the User Agent Switcher under tools.

No abusing though...

SxSWi: major FAIL for AT&T

With hundreds of influential members of the tech and first adopter communities congregated at SXSWi, one would have expected the operator to step it up at least just enough to provide the same level of service its subscribers are accustomed to. During the past few days making a call using an iPhone has been pretty much impossible. The odds of getting a data connection on an iPhone have been lower than 30%. Even texting has become a challenge for the frustrated iPhone enthusiasts.

Operators can provide extra capacity to a network in an hour's notice. Forget doing any out of the ordinary network performance optimization or installation of additional hardware. There do exist so called mobile cell sites. These consist of scaled down versions of network centers antennas and all, hosted in fully conditioned trailers that can be easily mobilized and sent to areas where an operator may not necessarily want to add permanent capacity.

But one day away from the end of Interactive and here at the Austin Convention Center it feels as if AT&T couldn't care less about the loyal iPhone lovers. Only time will tell if this will in any way affect the nework or the phone's sales.

In the mean time, if you too are a frustrated iPhone owner you can voice your frustrations at http://pleasefixtheiphone.com.

Going Mobile the Easy Way

You can build your mobile web site, iphone application, and what not... But at the end of the day in order to reach the masses you will still need SMS.

The bad news is that it is a royal pain in the a##. In the US you are looking to pay a monthly fee for your shortcode (~1K), plus an aggregator set up fee (~2K+), and if you want your users not to pay a premium fee to stay connected, you have to pay for the messages yourself (anywhere from 2 - 5 cents per message). You can also expect anywhere from 2 to 3 months before the operators approve your campaing.

There are a few answers to this problem:

One way is to charge your users. Don't expect the majority to sign up for your service, though.

You can also subsidize via text based advertising. The problem is that there aren't enough advertisers who are pumping cash into this form of advertising yet. Companies that you can connect to are 4INFO or Textmarks.

The solution: outsource your integration and DON'T try to build it yourself! A few companies have already have gone through the troubles described above and expose API's that should make it easy for you to integrate. One such company is Unwired Nation. Some of Unwired Nation's customers boast a 3-4 week time period to get up and running. Other successful companies such as 3jam have gone through this trouble at a global scale. They might just be willing to allow your company to integrate into their network and leverage their relationships with aggregators and operators all over the globe.

Android Apps Lack Innovation

I agree with Andrew Seybold’s statement about Android developer challenge applications lacking innovation. It is true that even for mobile standards most of these applications are remakes of past attempts.

I believe, however, that the problem is not a lack of creativity. Many of the participants were not even aware of those past applications that never took off. And given what the developers do know (or don’t) their applications are creative and well designed. More importantly, their timing is more on target than any old-school mobile developers could have ever wished for.

To close this note, I extend my criticism to those “more experienced” in the mobile field, myself included. Given this much awaited opportunity to have direct access to a superior platform, it is really a shame we are much too jaded to participate. And instead, would rather sit back, observe, and criticize.

Oh, Verizon Stealing the Thunder from the G1... or Trying to

So much for the anticipation for the G1, which is due to be released tomorrow by T-Mobile. Today's big news, at least on my radar, is that Verizon is removing the long term contract requirement. Verizon now lets new subscribers sing up with just a month-to-month commitment. Even more surprising is that the operator will now accept any un-locked device.

There are obviously conditions for this to take effect. Customers must pay the actual cost of the device, which can amount to more than twice what customers are used to paying. Customers must also sign up for a Nationwide plan.

As expected, there is much speculation as to why Verizon would make this move. I do not buy the possibility that it was to prepare for 4G and the promise to attract AT&T subscribers then. It may be to deflect potential scrutiny from the FCC. One thing is for sure: given the high cost of devices and the fact that the only other CDMA network in the US is Sprint's month-to-month subscribers will have to think twice, and very hard, about bailing on Verizon.

Perhaps Android phones will be the reason. The iPhone on AT&T's slow and unreliable network is far from being it for me.

I want "Allstreaming" for my mobile

I just returned from VLAB's "Lifestreaming: The Real-time Web" event at Stanford. As usual, I have tried to conceptualize how such a significant Web 2.0 trend can transpire into mobile.

In mobile, where time and space are hot commodities, the ability to give users access to as much relevant content as possible, and as efficiently as possible poses a significant challenge.

However, the assumption that life-streams as we know them today are the key to this problem is as far stretched as the notion that that is the only way in which users want to consume content even on the Web. According to Bret Taylor the "your friends are your filter" concept is one of the foundations for FriendFeed. And that might work fine for an application whose sole purpose is to aggregate feeds from what one's friends are saying. In fact, this applies to all companies represented at the VLAB event tonight (Pownce and Seesmic were there too). But while one's friends' life activity may be entertaining for bits at a time, the majority of the media we consume still falls outside of this realm.

So what ever happened to the not so old, but almost unheard of today trend: the RSS feed? - (Mobile Bloglines being my personal fave). Could this trends possibly coexist with "lifestreaming", thus bringing users a more complete experience? This could be particularly interesting in mobile for all the reasons I keep mentioning. So I hope someone is looking into it.

The Long Tail: A Glimmer of Hope for Premium SMS

In a matter of just a few years premium content over SMS grew from nothing to a multi-billion dollar industry. In the US this growth has been losing momentum in the past year and a half. This would not come as a big surprise if it weren’t for the fact that in the rest of the world PSMS continues to grow.

The problem in the US could perhaps be attributed to the shortsightedness of some content providers who, so intent on making easy money, consistently delivered a poor and, in some cases, even deceptive user experience. Or perhaps the mobile operators are to blame for discouraging investment by content providers as a result of imposing controls that not only are demanding on content providers, but that also stifle user adoption.

From where I see it, however, where there is easy money there is little innovation. Many mobile content providers have settled for delivering the same user experience over and over again. The common recipe is a combination of uninspiring Web sites, cheap late night TV ads, and itty bitty print terms of service. So I’d be willing to bet that consumers also got bored, and smarter.

This is why it is so refreshing to see content providers delivering innovative ways to spread the adoption of mobile premium content. And more importantly, for delegating the discovery to parties better positioned to deliver a relevant and compelling user experience.

ThumbPlay’s Open Marketplace provides all the tools any independent Web publisher would need to distribute ThumbPlay’s vast library of digital content. By doing so distributors can partake in the revenue. Integration of the set of APIs and feeds promises to be not only easy, but also to provide a set of rich tracking and optimization tools.

Open Marketplace also allows independent artists and content creators to submit their content for distribution

Following this trend, FunMobility also announced MoMoney. MoMoney is a widget that allows any Web site or independent publisher to provide a storefront for mobile content by embedding simple code on their Web property.

I expect this is just the beginning of a trend that may result in users becoming more receptive to this type of product. When offered within the context of something else, these products should be less perceived as a hard sale. Another benefit could be that the cost of user acquisition will be reduced as these Web publishers already have a captive audience.

However, in order for this model to work well these content providers must ensure that the end user experience is preserved. Systems and processes for completing the transaction, splitting the revenue, reconciling, and reporting must be well implemented and supported.

If this model works it could mean a turn of tides for the troubled Premium SMS space.

Snippets from CTIA's "A Generation Unplugged" keynote

Harris Interactive presented the “A Generation Unplugged” study results at a keynote session at CTIA yesterday. For the survey Harris Interactive surveyed 2,089 teens ages 13-19 about their motivations, usage and behaviors towards mobile phones.

Harris hinted at making the presentation available for a price, so I thought I would post the following highlights:

• About half of teens interviewed say they would die without their mobile phone and ability to make calls. Texting was not far behind.

• The two biggest motivators of mobile usage for teens are: 1) staying in touch, and 2) (surprise) feeling safe

• Mobile gaming is not so important to teenagers. Self expression is much more important

• Status is first established by the clothes teens wear, and secondly by the phones they own

• What the phone does is more important than the way it looks

• Teens love ring tones, but they like texting and picture messaging, and more than surfing the web

• Teens like small phones but with a lot of features

• Teens text more than they talk on the phone

• Teens like text because they like that it allows them to multitask, that it's fast, easy, and cheap

• Loyalty for teens is driven by relevance of features, phone diversity, customization - in order of importance.

• Teens want to own multiple devices

• Most teens purchase at carrier brick and mortar
  

• Teens are most influenced by parents, then their friends, then their boyfriend or girlfriend, and last by celebrity endorsements

• When it comes to Games, teens want better selection, experience, and controls. However, overall teens care less about gaming than communication when it comes to mobile

• One in three teens browse the mobile web. Top apps are email and social networking. However, most social networking is taking place on the PC

• The biggest barrier to adoption of mobile video is cost

• Teens don't mind ads on mobile device

• The dream phone: water proof, endless power, scratch proof...

• Teens want from phones: emergency transmitter, translations, 3D, remote control, TV (in order of preference)

• "The phone of the future" according to teens: flexible material, just software, paper thin, appended to your eyes, wearable, projector screen

• Teens want a single device for all or their consumer electronics needs
  

• Teens dislike location applications, but they want GPS

Shameless Plug: hi5 mobile

Back in April while reading Danah Boyd’s blog I stumbled upon a research paper about mobile usage by Palestinian teenage girls. Given to these girls by their boyfriends, the mobile phone had become a symbol of relationship status, and no longer just a communication tool.

The authors’ quote “…the nature or the effect of technology is not inherent in the medium and cannot be presupposed.” captures the essence of that phenomenon. And it also sums up the key challenge of designing services for mobile.

Especially with mobile it is difficult to predict how users will welcome the application and interact with it, and what the social implications might be. In mobile the most seemingly cumbersome of activities turn out to be extremely popular, such as entering SMS messages. In contrast, the most obvious of use cases, such as mobile video or LBS, often times fail to capture the audience. In my experience, this challenge is exacerbated when trying to port an existing Web product to the mobile realm.

Little did I know at the time that soon I would face this challenge yet again, but on mass scale. I spent the past two months working on the mobile version of hi5, which is the 3rd largest social network in the world with 56 million active subscribers.

Context

During the process of coming up with hi5 mobile, at hi5 we avoided at all costs the temptation of simply trying to cram hi5 into the mobile device. The process involved really understanding the medium itself and the context in which this medium is used. As a result, hi5 mobile does not emulate the Web experience like other SN mobile services do. hi5 mobile really brings out what matters most when both the medium (screen, keypad) and time are limited.

Not a Utility

The mobile phone is the ultimate and most widely used communication tool in the world. In youth, in particular, mobiles are a tool for establishing and nurturing relationships. Much like hi5 itself, for youth the mobile is all but a utility. As a result hi5 mobile is a fun place for nurturing friendships through messaging, commenting, and updating status. It is very much about contributing and reciprocating. It is not a phonebook.

About status

Traditionally, the mobile phone has been a powerful tool for building status. Possession of a mobile phone signals to the world that one belongs to a social circle, has relationships; it also signals independence. According to Danah Boyd many of the activities that promote peer status in the real world also take place in social networks. With hi5 mobile we want to contribute to users’ ability to build status within hi5. Initially, this could be as simple as showing when someone is utilizing a mobile phone to access hi5. But over time this theme could expand to other users’ interactions within hi5.

It is quite possible that even in spite of the highly contextual design of hi5 mobile the net impact it could have on hi5’s users may surprise us. But in the mean time, all usage and feedback points to a good reception by our users.

To try out hi5 mobile, visit us at www.hi5.com.

> liliamcoburn.hi5.com

The Web on the palm of your hands… really

I asked Nitin Bhandari, CEO of Skyfire, how he had come up with “the idea”. His candid response was first that he and his co-founder had no previous experience in mobile. The he added that they had simply refused to conform to the way the traditional players in mobile have dictated how the end user experience should be for browsing the Web on a phone.

This is the kind of attitude that is often times most lacking in the mobile industry, unfortunately; the kind of attitude that results in approaching problems from a completely different angle.

The result is an amazing Internet browsing experience from your mobile. The kind of experience you could only expect on your PC until now.

Why? Most traditional mobile browsers are limited to HTML or xHTML. Skyfire, on the other hand, supports HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Flash, Ajax, and Java.

How? Skyfire is more than just a browser. Unlike traditional browsers, Skyfire is a client/server solution. This allows for optimization of the content before it reaches the device.

I was lucky enough to get a live demo (I am also on the Beta 2 waiting list apparently). If some of you folks haven’t yet had the experience, check this demo out:



It is no surprise to me then that Sky Fire announced closing their series B round of funding last week.

Oh, and did I mention this A team is looking for A team players? If interested please visit their website or shoot me a note.

What people do with cellphones these days

I have been quite busy making some fun discoveries I cannot wait to share. I have not had much time, however. So for the time being I leave you with this list of "Uses for Cell Phones" I created on RateItAll:

Check out RateItAll

First day @ I/O comes to an end

Here's to the Google folks for throwing a top notch event!!

The 1st day of Google I/O comes to a happy end with no other than... "Flight of the Conchords".

Thank's Google I/O team!

The Android Value Prop – live from Google I/O

This is a short excerpt of the value proposition of Android, as presented by Jason Chen at the "Introduction to Android" break-out session at Google I/O.

For the User:

The user “controls” the experience. Users will chose what applications to use, versus what is shoved down their throats by OEM’s and operators

For Developers:

1) Developers will be able to ship applications at will

2) All API’s are exposed

3) Integration/extension and even replacement into and of existing components:
- Integration across various applications
- Extending = customization of default applications
- Replacement = end-users could wind up replacing default applications for new cool apps developed by the community

My personal dilemmas with Android:

1) According to the presenter, discovery and distribution is left up to the community. This is nothing new to the mobile space. The problem is that operators not only want to, but NEED to control the distribution of applications. After all, it is they who issue the phone bill at the end of the month; it is they who have to answer customer calls and issue refunds to disgruntled end-users.

2) There doesn't seem to be much of a strategy around discovery of applications that are downloaded to device. After downloading an application it will reside in a subfolder that is accessible through the home UI. This is not different from today's semi-open platforms. Perhaps the Android marketing team has something in the works.

3) Hardware won’t be available to developers until 1st devices are shipped (1st handsets will ship during the 2nd half of 2008) – It seems that unless an application wins the Developer Challenge, there's little likelihood it would ship at the same time the device does. After all, applications should really be tested and re-tested on the physical device before being shipped.

4) Security questions were not thoroughly addressed during the session. I have confidence that Android is really paying attention to this, however.

Another question that did not come up but that keeps bugging me:

5) Who will address customer care once the applications ship? Operators? If so, does Google really expect operators to allow exposure of all APIs and for applications to simply ship without going through thorough certification operator-controlled processes?

Conclusion

Android will be a very sexy platform with great toolkits for developers. Graphics will be superior, guaranteeing applications to be equally sexy. Enticing API’s will be exposed (keep in mind that other mobile platforms already expose many of these API's). However, Android needs a solution to what I see as the key problem with existing platforms: discovery before and after download of applications. Also, at least in the short term, Android does aggravate the problem of fragmentation that developers face in mobile today.

I am hopeful that as these discussions with the community continue to take place Android will uncover more execution issues and work to resolve them.

More Movement towards Openness: Facebook & Open Social

Two days until Google’s I/O. While my primary reason for attending is to geek out on Android up close and personal, I may decide to spend some time attending OpenSocial discussions.

As it turns out Facebook just announced that it is making the Facebook platform open source. I have been reading up on OpenSocial only to come to the conclusion that it doesn’t have a mobile API. Now I’m wondering if Google may perhaps unveil some fancy mobile API’s for mobile.

Maximizing User Adoption during Phone Validation Process

Sometimes the most effective end-user experience can be counterintuitive.

Here is one example of how this can be true for even the simplest of processes. With the Internet crossing over into mobile more and more sites will require to authenticate the mobile number to ensure it truly belongs to the end-user providing it.

The right way:

A number of mobile content sites that have been in the space for years have perfected device authentication:

When adding the mobile device through the Web, the most effective way to validate the handset is to send the PIN to the phone and have the end users enter it on the PC.

Also, keep the PIN simple. This example "SHKCQWENLS" won’t do. Four digits is the ideal way to go, as long as security measures for generating the PIN are kept in mind. Avoid letters and numbers that resemble eachother, such as '1' and 'l', and '0' and 'o'.

The wrong way:

Getting this process wrong could mean up to a higher than 50% opportunity cost in terms of end-user adoption. Examples of this are:

1) Some sites send a text to the mobile phone and then require the end user to reply with a key word. While this seems might seem quite intuitive, studies have revealed that this will deter adoption by up to 80%

2) Others display a PIN on the PC and require end user to send the pin from their phone to a short code.

The worst way:

Some sites do not validate the device in the first place. This is not kosher at so many levels. A user could easily enter the wrong number accidentaly. This could result in spamming other end-users with text messages they will be charged for. Even worse, this could result in sensitive information being sent to the wrong person!

Can Drive for Twitter

I was thinking about organizing a Twitter boycott boycott. But at the advice of a certain blog whose name will go unmentioned, I decided we all need to get together and help Twitter out.

I give all you Twitter true loyals who think twit-out is simply not going to cut it the opportunity to do your part. So get in there!



On a serious note to all folks out there crazy enough to suggest Twitter needs our money (or our tough love) remember who they're backed by and who its founders are.

As for me, tomorrow I will be twittering like it is going out of style.

Free Long Distance Calls from your Phone

While I’ve got you folks on the voice bandwagon I just have to rave about yet another up-and-comer in the VoIP space: iSkoot.

I had a most pleasant conversation with Mark Jacobstein, CEO of iSkoot, a little while ago (you may recall Mark in relationship to Digital Chocolate. Yes?).

iSkoot’s value prop for the moment is Skype for the mobile phone. Through a downloadable client you can access all of your Skype contacts on your phone, and call or IM with other Skype users whether they’re on a PC or another mobile Skype phone. This is particularly enticing when it comes to making long distance calls.

iSkoot is not really worried about operator hostility out of concern for cannibalization of their Long Distance business. According to Mark the value prop for the operators is that, unlike some of its popular competitors such as JAJAH, iSkoot uses the circuit-switched data network. From the operator’s perspective it also eliminates long distance termination fees due to other operators. At the same time it is a very good way to drive data minutes of use; the argument being that people would rather wait to get home and make a free call on their PC using Skype than pay for a call right when they want to make one.

But the real problem is not with how sensible the arguments are, but with how rational the operators will be about this. For example, I’m currently lobbying operators to open their WAP environment to off-portal content and services. The reality, and operators know this well, is that the same off-portal content and services are already available through SMS. Yet they still refuse to open WAP out of fear of cannibalization. Hmm...

Execution: Despite of any potential roadblocks, iSkoot is already doing extremely well. It has successfully launched its client on a number of devices. Most include Blackberries and other smartphones; some feature phones, such as the extremely popular RAZR, are also supported.

Also iSkoot is has already received tons of good press and awards. Plus one thing I am certain of is that iSkoot has many other things cooking. An open platform to allow anyone to integrate iSkoot into various use of mobile VoIP would definitely get our attention :-).