Rumored ZunePhone Surfaces: Four Secret Vids!

White Paper Wednesdays: iPhone Apps For Brands

An interesting deck on the importance of iPhone apps and some prelim ideas on how to!

Branded iPhone Apps - the next generation of immersive mobile branding

View more presentations from Marta Kagan. (tags: iphone marketing)

Digital Marketing Factoid Of The Day: iPhone Submissions By Month

From 148Apps.com.

PixelPipe: Upload Content Once, Get It Practically Everywhere!

We all have distributed social presences online -- photo sites, video sites, social nets, blogs, vlogs, etc., and it can be rather cumbersome to upload content to relevant locations. What do you do when you want to add a new photo to Flickr, MySpace, Bebo, FaceBook, and Blogger?

Well, most of us visit the relevant sites and manually upload to each.

That is, until we get started with Pixelpipe.

Here's how CrunchBase describes what they do:

A service that allows users to publish media once through the Pixelpipe gateway and have it published out to over 45 online destinations. Choices of media include photos, video and audio files. Destinations include most of the popular social networks, micro-blogs, photo/video sites, blogs from around the globe as well as online storage as well as a few generic interfaces like Atom, FTP and email to allow the user to publish to their personal destinations.

It works on PCs, natch, but also iPhones, Android, and some other smart phones.

It can deliver content to a huge range of social media and other sites -- let me say that again, a HUGE range. And more are being added constantly.

Here's a video about the iPhone app. but the service works the same on other phones as well.



Pixelpipe is a great app whose time has definitely come. Download it today and get started!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone App Lifestylin'

Feeling iPhone app dissonance? Having trouble picking which ligher flash animation to download and hold up during concerts?

Take heart, Apple feels your pain. That's why they created iPhone Your Life, a special section that offers hand selected bundles of what they consider the best apps. The bundles are designed to fit into five different lifestyles:

Around town
World travel
At home
Getting things done
Fun and games

They made some nice thematic choices, and generally stay away from some of the absurdest of the lot. And I like the idea of giving people info that will help them make the app phenomenon a real productivity aid.

Check it out over at the Apple Store.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone v. G-1

Cory has a thought provoking post on the iPhone and the G-1 here. Check it out!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Apple Q4: Looking Good!

Apple turned in another good quarter, which appeared to surprise some financial pundits who feared that the super premium priced offerings of Cupertino would get hit on the chin given the economic slowdown. Not so.



But the different readings of product sales charts like the above, to me, show how any chart can be interpreted in diametrically opposite ways. Case in point is the one above.

What I see, and remember that i am no great Apple lover, is growth across the board, in PCs, iPods, and of course iPhones. Apple PC sales are up despite their universally higher price points. What is it? Cool factor? Design? Whatever it is, to eke out growth in this environment seems impressive. And it also causes me to reinterpret the ad campaign that they have been running for so long. I used to think it was about PCs, but now what I really think it is about is Apple the company.

iPod sales are also up, if modestly. But I am surprised they can continue to grow that business now that the memories on the iPhones are getting larger.

And of course the explosive growth of iPhone proves the underlying principle of Apple's product diversification strategy.

Others have looked at the chart and seen basically unimpressive numbers for computers and iPods. Who's right? Well, that really depends upon what YOU see in the chart.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Medialets Goes Android: iTastic!

As you know I have a lot of heart for what the people at Medialets, the iPhone ad network specializing in deeper and more engaging marketing experiences in apps are doing. Well, as you can tell from the headline, it is no longer appropriate to call them an iPhone Ad Network, because they are quickly broadening their offerings. Their announcement last week of a beta test of new Android analytics and ad offerings is big news for both the company and the Android initiative.

I was fortunate enough to meet two of the founders two weeks ago at their offices in NYC. CEO Eric Litman and VP Marketing Rana Sobhany were kind enough to tell me about the short and remarkable history of this outfit, which went from that metaphorical back of a cocktail napkin concept to a broad array of analytics and offerings in about a month. Their passion is infectious, and it was very clear to me that their vision was a lot larger than being one of the six or so ad networks for iPhone apps.



Medialets Chairman and CEO Eric Litman


Medialets VP Marketing Rana Sobhany

The announcement of Android analytics and ad offerings must be welcome news to every carrier but ATT. The iPhone is really a transformative device that positioned ATT at the center of what may well become a revolution in how, when, and why we use phones. It does so, ironically, by essentially allowing developers to sidestep that absurdly draconian development and approval process that has historically limited innovations in cellular. Here's an excerpt from Eric Litman's blog post on this topic:

The world of mobile changed when Apple introduced the App Store. Historically, developers have had to contend with lengthy, often expensive negotiations and certification procedures with carriers to bring their applications to market, and more often than not, the challenges of working in that environment have limited the number and quality of developers willing to undertake the effort. With the App Store, the process has been reduced to a simple submission and review cycle.

Combining that with centralized discovery, distribution and payments for applications has led to a new model for mobile app developers that significantly opens up the possibility of building sustainable - even venture scale - businesses around mobile applications. But the App Store is just the beginning. Google was quick to recognize the power of this distribution model and earlier this year announced their own App Marketplace, which like Apple’s App Store, bypasses carriers and lets developers market directly to consumers through the Marketplace.

Android offers similar opportunities for other carriers. It'll get the carriers out of their own way in the race to drive innovation and differentiation in the category. More from Litman's blog post:

Mobile operators not selling the iPhone today need strong, competitive offerings to convince consumers to buy something other than the iPhone. Much like we’ve seen historically on game consoles, many future mobile phone purchases will likely be influenced by the applications available for the platform. Android and the App Marketplace give carriers a potentially viable alternative to the explosive application market for the iPhone, and with the might of Google behind the platform, we may see development activity that equals or even surpasses that of iPhone developers.

It is naturally welcome news for developers as well, because they will be able to make things for Android, and indeed port their current iPhone offerings to Android. More installs means more use occasions means more money through ad support! Means more development, natch.

I am inspired to see how rapidly this company is making moves and getting things done. We need drivers like Eric and Rany in mobile so that perhaps...just perhaps...we will finally have that year of mobile marketing that the industry has been promising since about the time that the Constitution was signed in 1789.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

Reportedly Magical Android G1 Phone Turns Out To Actually Be...Just a Pretty Cool Phone

I am tired of breathlessness on new phone announcements. C'mon people, they're just phones. They can be cool, they can be eminently useful, but ultimately, they are phones. Well, perhaps that is not exactly correct. They are actually a cross between a phone and a PC. But you get the point.

We've lived through a couple of months of iPhone 3G mania, and now here's Google's answer to it.

So just to clarify a couple of things, this is an android and is magically remarkable:



And this is the Android phone (photo from this ReadWriteWeb post.) which is a pretty cool phone.



(Note, the icons don't actually float out of the phone. THAT would be pretty magical. But it doesn't happen, so we are back to pretty cool.)

RWW points to the following feature set:

Features Demoed In The Promo Video:

Touchscreen - You can swipe across the screen, use a long press to access more features, drag-and-drop
Music - one-click ordering from Amazon confirmed
Music player is built in - one long press lets you access more features, like song options
Gtalk IM included
Address book can take you right into Google Maps
Google Maps: Directions/Traffic View/Street View; can do panning in Street View thanks to the touch screen
In "Compass Mode" the scene moves as you do
In the web browser, there are onscreen controls to zoom in
You can open multiple web pages in Google's browser
There's a search button on keyboard
A long press lets you share a link (URL) from within the web browser
For apps, there's the Android Market, complete with user ratings and OTA downloads
Pacman!



It's a TMobile phone, so the 3-G footprint is less developed than ATT's for iPhone.

Hey, I am not rapping the phone. But I do want to gently point out that it is just a cool phone. Just like iPhone 3G was a cool phone. Choose your flava, people, because from where I sit they seem pretty similar! Though I do like the bona fide qwerty keyboard. Bona fide meaning actual keys. I don't like the iPhone one.

And at $179, it's a bit cheaper with that 2 year contract. Preorders have begun!

Oh wait, you better read this first, from the TMobile site:

"If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less. Your data session, plan, or service may be suspended, terminated, or restricted for significant roaming or if you use your service in a way that interferes with our network or ability to provide quality service to other users."

So you can watch A LITTLE BIT of YouTube, but don't expect to actually...entertain yourself every day... ;-)

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhoo Search Debuts

ReadWriteWeb has reported that Yahoo now offers a search application optimized for the iPhone. They are a late arrival to this having lagged behind Google by over a year.

RWW's reaction? It's nice. Very nice. Great if you're a Yahoo user, but nothing to drive Google users to switch.

As much as I love Yahoo, I have to agree with their assessment. A nice offering. But nothing to shake the barn down. That's what I expected though, so I am not disappointed. Any Yahoo effort to convert Gooeys has to start with the web product to really make a difference.

Thanks for rerading, and don't forget to write.

AKQA/.Mobi Study Provides Additional Insight on the iPhone 3G Phenomenon

Sales of the iPhone 3G have been nothing short of remarkable, and of course the key driver is the ability to access the mobile web – for downloading apps, for acquiring content, and for entertaining oneself.

Whenever I see something take off like this, I like to consider whether the device solved a problem or created a new need. For example, I’d say iPod created a new need (a desire of a musical world on one’s own terms), while Diet Coke solved a problem back when it was launched (until DC, diet colas tasted lousy.)

A recent study jointly produced by AKQA Mobile and dotMOBI seems to indicate that iPhone 3G solves a problem – the need for a more positive mobile web experience. Now, the desire for a better mobile web experience should come as no surprise – it is the logical progression and expression of the consumer desire to get more faster.

But the data from this study point to some areas of dissatisfaction that a great number of consumers were experiencing before iPhone 3G launched. Let’s have a look at some highlights.

The data indicate that while the mobile web is very important to users, especially below 35s, it also says 44% of US users had a very disappointing first experience. The figures were even higher for UK users, which showed a 51% dissatisfaction rate with their first experience.

This is just one of the interesting bits of info in this study. Download it for free today.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone Success Comes From Palm Hide

Yep, as iPhone has increased share, it's not Blackberry that's suffering. Not one bit. It's Palm. Check out this data from Changewave:



Natch the most interesting bit is that despite the iPhone noise, Blackberry continues to reign supreme.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 6 AdMob, AdInfuse, Millenial, Ringleader, Quattro, and Third Screen

If you want ads on iPhone apps, you don't have to go to a new provider. The leading ad networks for mobile are also offering to deliver ads on them.

AdMob is offering $1Million in ad credits to developers if they sign up to use the AdMob platform. This clear effort at a landgrab could be higly compelling to a number of players, especially smaller players. The program offers up to 200 developers $5K each in credits. Certainly AdMob has deeper pockets than many of the startups, which could make a difference in the effort to attract the best developers quickly.



I haven't heard of any iPhone App speciifc activity from AdInfuse, but they have been at the forefront of iPhone advertising for awhile so I would imagine something will be publicized in the near future. Similarly, Third Screen has been quiet about their plans as well. Ditto Quattro and Ringleader.

Millenial Media announced an iPhone app ad offering on July 9 -- a bit ahead of some of the others in the space. CHeck out the press release here.

iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 5 PurpleTalk

A very different, developer centric model is PurpleTalk, which offers an ad exchange model. Basically, when apps are launched, splash screens feature a banner ad for another app, encouraging cross trial. Here's how they explain it:

The AdShare program developed by PurpleTalk is the most cost effective way to promote your iPhone Apps. PurpleTalk partners that participate in AdShare will include a small PurpleTalk module into the applications they’ve developed. Then, each time a user launches an application that has this PurpleTalk module, a brief splash screen appears that promotes a different application on an embedded banner. Through these splash screen promotions, users will become aware of many different applications, including yours.

There's very little other info on their site in terms of revenue model. Models like this are fairly common in the blogger world, where apps promote one blog on another, with a ratio of 9 exposures on other blogs for every ten on yours. That enables the company to sell exposures on the remaining inventory. I tried one, and got lots of exposures, though relatively few clicks. But that experience may well be very different because of the more focused viewing area on an iPhone and the fact that the ads appear on a splash screen versus in what (on my blog at least) is a rather busy sidebar. With this model you are certainly reaching an audience predisposed to downlaoding apps. I mean, they already did by definition!

I don't know if that is their model. Their pages explain that developer do not earn money for the ads but rather points that entitle them to ad exposures on other apps.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 4 Medialets

A key part of the differentiating message of Medialets is that they develop creative experiences that enhance consumer experience rather than offering up ad formats people tolerate to get their free app.
This is what ReadWriteWeb had to say about this aspect of their business:

Medialets is being careful to make sure that their advertisements don't mar the otherwise unique and innovative user experience of the iPhone. While developers don't necessarily need to have their apps approved to work with Meidalets, the company will help them design ads that remain unique and beautiful, too. Medialets provides a supportive developer community and will offer demos and code examples for the developers to use.

What makes this level of creativity and customization possible is their team, which they report has members who have been working with the iPhone OS since its beginnings at NeXT twenty years ago.



That's a long time, indeed.

My inference here is that this custom approach is aimed at the inevitable convergence between content and brands. That this offering can cover much deeper consumer experiences and interactions than just text ads or banners. The benefit of this approach is that they can focus sales efforts on innovator advertisers, who likely have a greater predispostion to try things now. The drawback might be that some advertisers will find the custom idea too much work. This is the classic push me pull you of digital marketing right now -- I want deep, broad reach, and easy.

Fortunately, they are offering a development team that can make the process of developing such apps easy for the agency. That's absolutely essential with this model.

With the deeper kinds of interactions they offer, it's important to have a solid reporting and analytics platform, and their site outlines this in some detail. That'll make agency learning curves shorter, and potentially provide the sort of case studies that can get them real publicity and sales traction.

Deep experience may also broaden the appeal of this ad channel from primarily
geographically sensitive advertisers to more national and global brands with bigger budgets and comprehensive brand goals.

Anyway. What is clear is that Medialets is quite different from other offerings, and that difference may well be relevant for you.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 3 Pinch Media

Offering a broader range of ad units than AppLoop, Pinch Media uses the JumpTap mobile ad platform to field ads

Their search offering uses an auction based ad system just like Google AdWords, so the highest bid gets the placement. One advantage over Google's operation, though, is that geotargeting is based upon actual versus surmised location. Their text ads are sold CPC, which is really the most sensible way to do so because that is what the market wants and expects.

The graphic ads use standard mobile banner and interstitial sizes, which makes sense given that advertisers do NOT need another creative loop to jump through. because their offering is iPhone specific, the creative specs will offer a bit more creative freedom than mobile campaigns developed for the lowest common denominator phone. Graphical ads are sold CPM, which lets them charge more for more immersive or intrusive experiences.

These guys have resources from a variety of sources:

Pinch Media’s seed funding comes from Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, and several strategic angels - Dave Morgan, Jerry Neumann, Mike Yavonditte, and Sharkey Goldstein Capital.

The reporting isn't outlined on their site, but presumably it offers the expected metrics -- after all it's on the Jumptap platform.

Obviously a more robust solution than AppLoop, Pinch Media clearly has the money and platform to make a serious run for this market. They feature dozens of apps on their site, so their developer acceptance must be pretty strong thus far.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 2 AppLoop

So, I have a big soft spot for the "two guys in a garage" sort of start-ups -- companies led by people with vision, commitment, and a belief in themselves and what they are doing.

BTW, the garage part is optional in my idyllic daydreams, and I have no illusion that in AppLoop's case there are two Eames chairs and drafting tables sitting next to a 74 Pontiac FireBird (with decal.) But founders Eric Kerr and Jacob Eiting are going it alone, and seem to be rightly proud of that. They are, in their own words not looking for venture.

They also both look smart, which of course is neither here nor there, but there ya go. Importantly, they have much better haircuts than Jobs and Wozniak had when they got their start. So years from now when they are millionaires there won't be any embarrassing pics to make them cringe. These two guys clearly have got it together. I am quite impressed by their offering and the way they present it and themselves on their site. Based upon their profiles, they are also very likable.

See their demo here:


AppLoop Demo from AppLoop on Vimeo.

Their focus appears to be geography, as in targeting ads by location, which also supports a DIY advertising model that can be appealing to local as well as distributed national businesses. As their site explains,

AppLoop connects your business with early-adopting, wealthy, and active consumers while they're on the go and looking to spend money. iPhone users are market mavens - will they drive their peers to your brand?

There's is a self service model for developers, and the documentation is so simple and easy to understand even I could understand it.

For developers they offer an analytics package outlining:

Installs
New Installs
Engagement (Usage)
Georgraphy (Nation, State, City)
Revenue Earned

For advertisers, they offer an easy to use DIY model that lets you track individual ads and set targeting geographies quickly and easily. Their's is a CPC model a la Google AdWords. that at least takes the risk out of advertising in this nascent media area.

Naturally, two guys running a business are focusing on DIY, and have wisely built their business around geography and local advertising, where DIY text ads have been demonstrated to be both popular with advertisers and acceptable to consumers.

The ad biz is a tough one, and it remains to be seen whether a bootstrap business like this can win the game. But perhaps winning in their case will be in selling their system to another ad network relatively quickly - having a small advertiser DIY solution could be of significant benefit for many ad networks struggling to achieve their own forms of critical mass.

I genuinely wish them all the best. They are EXACTLY the sort of people that move digital forward faster.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.

iPhone App Ad Networks: Post 1

Well, that was fast, it's been like, days since the iPhone App store goes big, and there's already talk about having an ad network sell ads on free and paid apps.

Well, there ISN'T an iPhone app ad network now. No, there are at least four. And in the next few posts I am going to tell you what I know about them and how (if) they are different from one another. And that doesn't include the add-ons in existence from mobile and widget networks.

You know, the NYT says there are at least 200 ad networks currently in operation, and the key growth sector in terms of both launches and in revenue growth (if perhaps not in total revenue) are vertical ad networks - offerings that focus on a key demo, target, or platform. Well, here are super verticals -- no, no, let's coin a term, hyper verticals -- a specialty area within a platform.

We have to ask ourselves why does a new ad network exist before we draw a conclusion about whether it (in this case they) should.

For any vertical, I ask the following questions:

1. Is there a way for a vertical to provide unique value to publishers and or advertisers that couldn't be provided by a more general network?
2. Is there a market in terms of advertisers ready to advertise? Trailblazing ad dollar categories is a tough way to generate a return in 2008.
3. Is the ad product itself advertiser valuable?
4. Is there specialty IP that the network can bring to the party to help advertisers and publishers better reach their targets and persuade them?
5. Do they have the bucks to fight the hard scrap to establish themselves enough to get bought or be viable businesses on their own?
6. Do they have the tech necessary to deliver a decent viewing experience?
7. Will Apple allow this? There is a more general way to ask this, but I thought I'd be clear.
8. Will consumers accept the model?

The answer, BTW, doesn't need to be yes to all. But most would be a good thing.

I started this analysis a little dubious. I mean, mobile advertising has been a toughish slog for the existing ad networks in the space. But one always needs to remember that mobile is definitely a category in which there are cathartic consumer moments -- those American Idol events that get people adopting new data services technologies that are important growth engines for the category and, by inference, the ad biz generatable in it.

Well, let's talk about mobile for a minute. The very generous people at Nielsen Mobile have made a white paper available entitled Critical Mass: The Worldwide State of the Mobile Web. In it are loads of tasty data treats, of which some of the topliniest ones are summarized in a press release Nielsen issued in support of the paper:

The US mobile Internet market, with 40 million active users, has reached a critical mass for mobile Internet marketing

The Motorola RAZR phones are the most popular phones among US mobile Internet users, while Nokia handsets lead the market in Europe and Asia

Unlimited data packages are increasingly popular with mobile Internet users. Today 14 percent of US subscribers access the mobile Internet with an unlimited data package, and 50 percent of data users say that they prefer the unlimited pricing model.

3G networks drive user satisfaction with mobile Internet, and these networks improve data throughput speeds as much as six times, compared with 2 and 2.5G networks

Advertising is becoming a common part of the mobile Internet experience. Today 26 percent of mobile Internet users view ads while using the mobile Internet.

Mobile Internet users are more receptive to mobile advertising than average data users

By all accounts, iPhone users are more likely to use the web than other phone users. This comes, I think from two key factors:

1. iPhone attracts exactly the sort of gadget geek that likes to experiment and is more likely to use her phone for more than just tawking.
2. iPhone is just so darned easy to access the mobile web with.

Lots of estimates are flying about on how many iPhone will be in use by year end. I like the number 20 million. It's aggressive but I think eminently achievable given the new price point and the coolness of the device itself, coupled with the dearth of equivalent devices (at least in terms of user experience.)

20 million is nothing to sneeze at, and given that the AppStore at Apple is already downloading bajillions of apps, there is ample evidence in strong consumer interest.

So here are what I think are the answers to my eight questions:

1. No.
2. Maybe. The ad biz is very trend driven, and I can see advertisers wanting to be active in mobile finding this model -- captive audience, graphic ad, good audience demos, reasonable entry price -- a great way to get started.
3. Yes. Graphical, attractive, captive audience.
4. Maybe. By providing deep insights into these users, these networks may offer a way to reach that elusive innovator/early adopter that is so critical to many advertisers. But interest is going to be very category specific I think - electronics, entertainment, perhaps auto, retail for GPSy apps. The challenge will be how to make it worth an advertisers while to deal with them for some mobile ad spend and to a more general mobile network for other mobile efforts they may want.
5. Dunno. Some may.
6. I think one can. Perhaps two, Not four. And not ten.
7. Not sure, but I think they're gonna want a cut before long.
8. I think yes as long as we don't get all ridiculous about how the ad works and how long they last. Consumers have been shown in a variety of research studies to be willing to trade ads for free access to mobile utilities and applications.

In the next few posts I'll be looking at several of these companies as well as exploring how the mobile ad networks already out there are addressing this opp.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.