The Mobile Developer Journey

November 6, 2010 • Mobile, Technology • by
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I have not abandoned this blog. I have in fact been helping a local company here with their product development. I’ll write further about them in the future, but for now, let’s just say I’m on what Vision Mobile would call the Mobile Developer Journey. The graphic summary of this journey was good enough for me to share.  I wish they had spent a bit more time discussing the monetization challenges, but maybe that’s just my fault for not yet reading their report.

I’ll be back soon with more about my work. In the meantime, enjoy the pretty pictures.

The Mobile Developer Journey

Where’s Ovi?

July 31, 2010 • Mobile, Technology • by
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It’s one thing to be lagging behind certain competitors, it’s a completely other thing not to be even mentioned. So when Gizmodo did their Detailed State of the Apps report, one major vendor’s app store was missing. Worse, Palm was listed twice, once under the HP brand.

I love you Nokia, you paid my bills for many years. I can wax nostalgic on your great North American past. I can make an argument that your current state is due to the rise of operator brands. I can even still believe you have the best interests of your consumer in mind.

What I can’t do is justify how you lost so much mindshare…

So I wonder, how does any company, especially one with the marketing resources of Nokia re-build a relationship with its lost consumers?

Links for July 23, 2010

July 23, 2010 • Jeremy, Links • by
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The links that grabbed my attention this week.

  • Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview: Lots of eye candy, but what I’ve seen still feels a little stale to me. It’s definitely a significant upgrade versus the past and at least their attempting to move forward versus some unnamed companies whose CEO is on the hotseat. I don’t need to go over pros/cons, the article does a good enough job. I just have to wonder if iOS and Android haven’t already sucked out the oxygen from the room…
  • 40 Elegant, Minimal And Clean WordPress Themes For Free Download: I’m still learning about WordPress capabilities and how to make this site better, so it’s easy to get distracted by some “minimalist” eye-candy.
  • 5 Things to Consider When Designing Your Mobile App: Just thinking about something of my own, so this makes good food for thought.
  • Cow Clicker, The Making of Obsession: Sometimes, you just have to create the thing you hate in order to explain it. Great little piece about how one person’s distaste with some aspects of social gaming ended up with him creating his own satirical version of one. You will click the cow and like it.
  • An 8 Segment Model to Analyze Smartphone Market, Consumers and Handsets: This is a hard one for me. The word-barrage almost bullies you into belief, but I walk away from this feeling unsatisfied. It has a euro-centric view of the world (IMHO) that turns off my Sino-US experience. There are some good nuggets in there though, but the math just seems suspect and some of his qualitative positions seem suspect to me. I would definitely love to hear other thoughts on this.

We Love to Talk

July 12, 2010 • Mobile • by
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There’s more to be done with voice.

That was said by Nokia’s former CEO, Jorma Ollila. In 2006.

Apple and HTC+Android are getting steady reminders lately about why they are still called phones, and an even bigger reminder that Americans still love to talk more than anything.

But seriously, did anyone else scratch their heads when Jobs explained the new iPhone antenna? While not an antenna engineer, I still know enough of this black magic to wonder, “What happens when you touch the metal?” Sadly, it appears as though I might have a future in the dark arts. Considering the amount of testing that ATT requires, this must have been a known issue prior to market launch. So what happened?  Was this design taking priority over performance at Apple? Was ATT seeing market pressure from Verizon-Android offerings that pushed them to rush this through? Did Apple just succumb to hitting a date expected by the market?

I’m curious. If anyone has some insider info here, please let me know…