MomoLondon: Mobile, Maps & Geolocation — so much more than “Where am I?”

This Monday’s session was a little less lively than the previous session on mobile marketing. I expected the panel to violently disagree with each other on licensing, data costs and providing data to the public… but they were all far too polite!

The panel discussion covered a wide variety of subjects, fulfilling the session’s premise: geocoding, open data, data quality, visualisation, alternative methods of navigation, indoor location… It was a huge area to cover in a couple of hours.

For me, the main change in the last year or two has been the opening up of data sets. Open Street Map has gone from strength to strength and can now be linked up with live transport information and other citywide data sets.

As Jeni Tennison remarked, the most exciting area at the moment is putting all this data together in innovative ways. More than the Google Maps mashups of earlier years, we can now experience 3D immersive visualisations of cities, with real-time data pulsing through the streets and under the ground — like ViziCities, for example.

Panel

• Gary Gale @vicchi
  • Director of Global Community Programs for Nokia’s HERE
• Christopher Osborne @osbornec
  • Currently at AlertMe, and founder and organiser of GeoMob
• Jeni Tennison @JeniT
  • Technical Director at the Open Data Institute and member of the W3C TAG
• Ian Holt @IanHolt
  • Head of Developer Outreach at Ordnance Survey
  • just launched their new OS OpenSpace SDK for iOS
  • offline maps really useful
• Harry Wood @harry_wood
  • Currently at http://placr.co.uk and OpenStreetMap volunteer

How easy is it for devs to turn lat/longs into human-readable info?

• HW: hard work to go to postcode or nearest POIs
  • getting hold of open data is important
  • is displaying the map the best thing?
  • FourSquare did really well with a location-based app that didn’t show a map
• GG: location powered by FourSquare has become a heavily used API
  • it’s free to access but large amounts of usage lead to business negotiations
  • similar for other geocoding APIs
• JT: Open Street Map allows us to choose what we want to mark on the map
  • Ordnance Survey was mainly restricted to Churches and Pubs…
  • Open Street Map has shops (and pubs!)
• IH: how do you ensure that all the data is there?
• HW: it’s a problem that goes away with time
  • always find your nearest pub? getting there in the UK, but some patches in the north with less coverage
  • but the map gets built out on an interest-first basis, so better coverage in more interesting/populated areas

How much do we trust what we see on our mobiles?

• GG: in US a woman sued Google ‘cos the walking maps told her to walk across all 16 lanes of a superhighway…
• HW: we trust it too much in some cases
  • OS really shines with quality of data
• IH: Google & Apple’s branding has gone a long way to encourage trust in map data
• CO: Apple chose not to visualise lots of data on the map, but they got panned for it
• HW: there’s an active market in insuring map makers against maritime mapping mistakes
  • it’s an expensive mistake when a supertanker runs aground…
• GG: people have been hauled before the coastguards for using consumer mapping systems to navigate ships
• GG: people tend to accept what they have on their phones

Should map data producers make end-user systems? Or leave it up to smaller companies?

• IH: paper-based maps couldn’t change, so had to make one-off presentation decisions
  • now the data can change for the user context
• CO: routing is hard - still dominated by big companies with background with navigation
  • but lots of space for smaller companies in other areas
• IH: huge explosion of neo-geographers a few years ago
  • lots of mash ups and visualisations using geo data

What’s next in display? Will wearables move away from the concept of maps?

• IH: we’ve always been shifting display methods…
• Jo Rabin: years ago, a taxi driver in Chicago had a book of turn by turn directions but no map
• HW: a large proportion of people get rather upset when they see a map (including Harry’s girlfriend…!)
• Audience: worth thinking about how blind people navigate
• IH: navigating a city by sound — turn away from the areas that sound threatening
  • Ed.: this is not new — there was an MIT project in this vein in 1999!!
• HW: Google Street View seems a useful addition at the moment, but not a replacement for basic navigation
• CO: 3D mapping is a bit gimmicky at the moment, but the data gathering behind it is massively useful
• GG: for every mapping service, you only ever see less than 5% of the underlying data
• CO: one of the best designed apps for mapping was an app for blind people on old Nokia phones — vibrate once for left, twice for right

What’s new and exciting in the next 3 years?

• GG: indoor navigation
  • multiple companies working on it
  • but all currently incompatible
  • holy grail: directions from your house, through the tube to the exact exhibit in the V&A Museum
• JT: putting open data together, e.g. being able to know when you’re in an area with a high risk of flooding after rain
  • 3D sim city-style simulation of London, with data such as crime rates superimposed
  • how can we bring in time-based information to our space-based navigation?
• IH: early years education
  • inherent part of the general data structure
  • Ed.: Scratch, a programming environment for children, is working on integrating Google Maps
• IW: Ed Parsons (Maps @ Google) — “geospatial will no longer be geo-special”
  • not just a map screen in the app, but mixed throughout the app
  • promise of access to raw data
• GG: NOAA have produced a low-power app which warns you about tornados, just using cell tower data
  • another innovative location-based service which doesn’t require a map…
• CO: massive growth in transactional apps, e.g. Hailo & YPlan
  • also Google etc building an ecosystem e.g. their purchase of Waze
• GG: wearables: I wouldn’t buy Google Glass, but I would buy a smart watch
• GG: hospitals making savings by tracking their equipment locations (and stopping it sprouting legs)

Licensing

• GG: businesses scared of using OSM data due to fear that they will have to share their private data
• HW: share-a-like license aims to ensure that data is not taken and locked away
• JT: OpenCorporates make company data available for free on a share-a-like license, but also offer a paid license with less viral terms
• HW: OSM can’t do that — would have to agree with all contributors…

What about mobile operators? Indoor location?

• GG: cell tower location works well in urban areas
  • less so in countryside…
  • and mobile operators in Germany are restricted to telling you only two of the nearby cell towers (not enough to get a fix)
  • mobile operators had their chance 8-10 years ago when they tried to sell their data to marketing companies
• CO: starting to see traction in government
  • e.g. who’s moved on what roads at what speed
  • useful for real-time traffic management
  • high value areas: marketing & business intelligence

Coping with geospam…?

• HW: Google are already dipping their toes in the water there (Ed: e.g. the map tiles have advertising built-in)
• IH: walking past a shop and being offered a service
• GG: been proved to be pretty worthless — you’ve already past when the message comes through
  • data of where you are not so valuable
  • where you’ve been is more valuable
  • where you will be is where the money will be made

Apple iBeacons — Bluetooth LE with an ID

• CO: one inspiration for that comes from certain countries with restrictive regimes
  • walk into a bar and turn bluetooth on — get offered services that are normally not available
  • need a strong well-designed way to broker your data

Where are you failed by current map services?

• HW: developing world — none of existing providers have coverage
  • Google Map Makers pushing hard
  • Open Street Map
• Dan Appelquist: cycle maps for London
  • Google maps keeps on directing me through routes on Hampstead Heath that are not passable by bike
  • http://cyclestreets.net routing for bikes based on OpenStreetMap data
• CO: pedestrian mapping
  • most of the data has come from driving cars around
  • huge value as people much more likely to make a purchase when they are walking
• GG: but getting data is hard as many areas are private
  • no public right of way
  • hard for commercial companies to map
  • OSM has an advantage here — can’t really sue OpenStreetMap for trespass

How long rather than how far away?

• IH: common GIS function, but doesn’t crop up in consumer stuff
• JT: mapumental by mysociety — where should I live so that I can commute to work?

Royal Mail PAF file restrictions

big database of postcodes & business locations for the UK — really valuable and the Royal Mail are holding tight…

• JT: campaigning to open it, but it seems extremely unlikely
  • would have to create an open street gazetteer
  • if someone would like to sponsor it — please see Jeni!

Linking to map model data

• HW: most OSM data has a URL
• GG: for roads — Nokia has Routing Segments, OSM has Ways, OS has ITN (Integrated Transport Network)

Summary

• JT: collaboration is the most interesting area
• IH: everybody should edit something on OpenStreetMap.org
• GG: expected a question on location & privacy, Facebook & Google…
  • “I now trust big internet companies more than I do the government”

Next session

• July 15th: Mobile Operating Systems — with Ubuntu from Canonical

MomoLondon: HTML vs Native

A lively and exciting debate (despite the old material!), well-run by Ewan MacLeod, Editor, Mobile Industry Review @ew4n

Panel

Team HTML5

• Andrew Betts @triblondon
  
  • HTML5 apps for FT
• Simon Arora, Biz Dev Mgr, Keynote DeviceAnywhere @devanywhere
  
  • Initially all about native
  • More and more customers asking for HTML5
  • More platforms with a single codebase
  • No need for appstore or marketplace certification
  • Wider reach to monetise services
• Jose Valles, Head of Bluevia @josevalles49
  
  • Been an HTML5 supporter for a long time
  • Launching FirefoxOS device

Team Native

• Alex Caccia, President, Marmalade @marmaladeapps
  
  • one of the leading cross-platform build platforms
  • take advantage of ARM instruction set…
  • two of top three games in US app store built using marmalade
  • HTML5 just doesn’t provide enough power - need native for performance
  • HTML5 does not solve fragmentation
• Chris Book, Bardowl @bookmeister
  
  • native gives close access to device APIs
  • deal with different network situations
  • HTML5 doesn’t work for audio streaming and caching
• Nick Barnett, CEO, Mippin @docnickb
  
  • make app builders for operators and manufacturers
  • provide both HTML5 and native app builders
  • it’s more about the business model and distribution
    
    • if you want to be in the app store, you have to be native

Last app you paid for?

• AB: Open House London
  
  • because their website is appalling and doesn’t work
• SA: Travel Deluxe
  
  • native london travel
• JV: probably a skateboarding app, or tripit or spotify
• AC: Expense Calculator
• CB: New Star Soccer
  
  • 10 games free, then in-app purchases
• NB: International Rules of Yacht Racing
  
  • native

All native apps. If you want to buy an app, it has to be in an app store…

What about Facebook?

• AC: Hardware platform is moving faster than anything else
  
  • If you come up against an issue, you’re against the browser
  • The only way past is to know the details of the insides of the browser
  • Can’t solve it by logic (terrible for project management!)

FT web app UX

• EM: FT webapp has to go through local cache expanding step before starting
• AB: equivalent to installing an app from the store
  
  • if you say no, it still works; but in a potentially limited way
  • actually a benefit: allows levels of access

Stats from deviceanywhere

• SA: out of 100 customers, top 25 are looking at HTML5
  
  • have a lot of enterprise customers
  • looking to increase their reach
• NB: these customers already have iOS and Android apps?
• SA: yes, looking to extend reach across devices without decent appstores

HSBC Business Banking

• EM: it’s an utterly crap HTML5 experience
  
  • banks say they’d love to do HTML5, but security say no!
• JV: why then do they have online banking?
  
  • want to keep customer experience
• CB: native NatWest app is better than web experience…
  
  • haven’t been able to update their website in 12 years!
  • loads of apps where you use native app first rather than web site
    
    • e.g. Hailo, National Rail Enquiries
• NB: cross-platform HTML5 is a nonsense
  
  • at Mippin, we build web app builders for each platform separately
• AB: that’s just ‘cos you’re not doing it very well!
  
  • FT use same codebase for Android, iPhone, iPad
• NB: but Windows Phone 7 UX is completely different from iOS
  
  • customers expect something different
  • so you need to write your UI differently anyway
  • may as well write it natively each time

How do we resolve vested interests? And designing for format?

• AB: each format and each channel will have differing expectations
  
  • if you define your constraints narrowly enough, natively will always be better
  • if you have a broad strategy and vision, then web technology will win
  • what about TV? what about kiosks?
  • a single web technology solution will adapt to those situations
  • single code base works with touch, keyboard and gestures too!
  • at a recent hackday, FT Labs connected a Kinect and controlled the app without touching the screen
  • the FT webapp works in the way that the people reading the paper are used to — independent of device expectations
• AC: want a fine degree of control over what it looks like and how it behaves
  
  • in gaming environment, you really want to make the app shine
• CB: isn’t this all about the 30% that Apple want to take out of the subscription?
• AB: it’s not (exclusively) about the 30% — it’s more about a direct relationship with the customer
  
  • enables customers to switch devices without losing their subscription
• CB: but Spotify have native apps and still go cross platform whilst keeping relationship with customers
• AB: if Apple changed their rules to say that Spotify would have to give a percentage of their revenue, then Spotify would be stuffed
• NB: if the Daily Mail went the FT route would people get their news elsewhere?

Is it fair to say that HTML5 is destroying usability of mobile platforms?

• JV: no, it’s building something
• CB: Google Maps browser version just not as good as previous native version

Hybrids?

• NB: mippin use unique per platform wrappers
  
  • PhoneGap works well for iOS, not so well for Android
  • BlackBerry has WebWorks
  • hardcore gaming is a pretty specialist use case
• CA: use the right tool for the right job
  
  • SDK supports HTML5 content within an app
  • and then you can switch out and use the native with ease
• Audience: built a PhoneGap app and was appalled by performance
  
  • scrolling 50-100 names was just not good enough

Native provides consistent experience?

• Spotify on some platforms lets you order playlist, Android doesn’t
• if been written on HTML5, then would have worked fine
• AB: people put 70% of budget into iOS
  
  • then 20% into Android
  • then 5% into Windows and Blackberry…
  • not surprising that non-iOS apps are crap

Discovery…

• JV: 700K apps in Apple appstore, so discovery there is hard too
  
  • don’t see a difference
• AB: FT not in a unique position – shared by lots of big brands
  
  • for small companies, app store is probably a good thing
  • FT have specialist native apps in the store which point users in the direction of the web app

Prisoners of the market owners?

• NB: usual retail model: retailer takes 30-40% of revenue
  
  • and benefits can be considerable!
  • if you’re in Brazil in 2 years time with Boot2Gecko devices, then the mindset could be completely different
• Dan Appelquist: isn’t that the issue — app stores are dragging us back into the old model that the open internet is breaking us out of
• CB: yes, the dominance is worrying
  
  • but it’s a business making opportunity for startups
• CA: native is not closed
  
  • hardware manufacturers trying to make best user experience

Security in native?

• CB: difficult to securely store offline data
  
  • premium audio streaming is not yet possible in HTML5
• EM: a bank developer said “the security people want a native app for encryption reasons”
• AB: why does the online banking not just work on the phone?
  
  • yes, you can have encrypted storage, but do you need it

Best way in for mobile development

• NB: use an app template toolkit for a size that fits
  
  • learn to be a mobile developer…
• what if you just want to see your idea?
• CA: most dangerous word when you start is “just”…
• AB: the reason for the standard layouts on web is ads
  
  • have to build the design to fit the adverts
  • there’s been a boost in design creativity from moving to new formats
  • you can take that newfound focus on user experience and bring it back to the desktop
  • you’d never expect a mobile app to have big gutters down the side
  • unless it’s an iOS 5 app on an iPhone 5…

Notifications

• NB: issue for HTML5 apps
• AB: W3C working on notifications as a spec…

New users from India, China & Brazil won’t be in Apple or Google’s ecosystem

• NB: won’t be a technology decision — more of a distribution

Javascript libraries?

• NB: 85% of development in HTML5 apps goes into javascript

Great new debugging suites for Android Chrome and iOS Safari

• Dominic Travers: great time to develop HTML5 apps!

Will we still be arguing in 5 years’ time?

• AB: native will always be able to innovate faster
  
  • web will be behind, but standardised
  • FT’s Android app is partly native for performance
  • as soon as the browser catches up, they’ll remove the native part

---

Announcements

• W3C coremob.org community group
• UKTI Competition Final 29th October
• 7th Anniversary in November

MomoLondon: Mobile Payments

I arrived a few minutes late and missed the beginning of Dave Birch’s introduction, but I gather it involved Star Trek and early Visa commercials…

Dave has posted his own summary of his introduction which was all about needing a better story to tell about mobile payments. He reckons we don’t have a really good narrative to get people excited about the subject, and that makes it harder to get the future technologies more widespread.

Some other points he raised were:

• Keuffel & Esser (world’s largest manufacturer of slide rules) commissioned a report about the future in 1967. It was amazingly accurate apart for the bit where they went out of business 5 years later due to the invention of the calculator…
• Facebook have money transmitter licenses in 38 out of 50 states — a good start, but not really useful if you need to pay someone and they go on holiday to a state that’s not covered…
• In EU there was a regulatory barrier and now there isn’t — arrival of non-banks will be a big game change
• UK Universal Credit system — payments won’t be by cheque any more
  • going for prepaid accounts
  • £2bn per month will be going through the new system
  • a big opportunity…

He then challenged the panel to come up with some good narratives for digital, mobile money. My usual summarised notes are below. Dave did a good job of making the evening interesting to listen to, but we didn’t really come away with any new stories to tell. As Margaret Gold tweeted later, the most we talked about was buying coffee…

Panel

• Dave Birch, Director, Consult Hyperion @dgwbirch
• Jennifer Payne, Ponti’s Group @pontisgroup
• Russell Sheffield, paythru @russsheffield
• Iain Herd, PayPal Mobile @iainherd
• Nathan Cushnie, O2 Money @gncushnie

Nathan Cushnie: O2’s Mobile Money

• what is the user case?
• just payment as utility is not very exciting
• discovering deals, then paying directly
• consolidating payments with other financial things — the rest of the wallet

Iain Herd: PayPal

• what is the value for the merchants?

Russell Sheffield: paythru

• has to be seamless, global & ubiquitous
• fit the nuances of different cultures
• Turkey have 10-12 merchant accounts for each merchant — they choose which to use
  • in Turkey, terminals are provided by the banks for free so this is possible

Jennifer Payne: Ponti’s (retailer)

• not enough benefits for the retailer
• want the experience to be user friendly, social, tie in to marketing
• want a little hub and want it to be handed to us

Masabi - train tickets

• merchants are terrified that they’ll install the wrong hardware (betamax)
• masabi trying to provide several different versions all the time
• what about a platform that will support multiple systems?

Are we just waiting to clear the logjams before Apple tells us what to do?

• RS: it is complex - have to make sure it’s secure and keeps customer confidence
  • better not to let the consumer decide
• IH: most players not looking at the whole journey
  • Apple good at making things work end to end
  • good at simplicity
• JP: so many people creating different wallets
  • do I wait for them? do I make my own app?
• NC: don’t want the consumer to have to choose technology

Audience experiences of purchasing on a phone?

• used an SMS to buy using a local currency (Brixton pounds)
  • strong community narrative which was nothing to do with payment
• starbucks app — did what it needed to do
  • very simple
• been in a shop and got pissed off: used Amazon to buy direct
• IH: used Pizza Express payment app
  • audience: fairly simple
  • retailer had no difficulty using it
• audience: bought something in Macy’s
  • frustrated that had to take the phone out of his pocket
• audience: paid with NFC on iPhone at Starbucks
• RS: all down to the customer — the moment they have to think about the transaction, the interruption can stop the payment
• DGW: the goal with the phone is to make things better
• DGW: no good experiences involved PayPal, Barclays, etc
• IH: need big companies involved to get reach — all previous mentions were small scale

Wandering through the building and paying

Do we even need to get our phone out of our pocket? Is it better just to walk around and have things credited to our account automatically?

• Ben Whitaker, Masabi: femto cells on trains/buses… could just pick up people on the journey by being there
  • what about people on the bus stop?
  • track people across the journey…
• PayPal Here/Square: check in to a merchant
  • next time you’re in the shop, the POS terminal shows your face
  • you can pay just by walking up to the till and talking
  • loyalty scheme — offers targeted at retail customers
  • POS machine shows how many times you’ve been in the store, what your last purchase was…
• what does the mobile channel deliver?
• is just leaving your wallet behind enough of a change?
• JP: people go to a restaurant for the customer experience
  • just ordering on your phone is a lonely experience…
  • want engagement as opposed to payment
  • if it comes to payment later then that’s good

mobile should do more

• payments going through to expenses automatically?
• want someone to help me budget & track my spending…
• NC: narrative needs to be bigger than just a transaction
  • accounts departments won’t accept electronic receipts at the moment…
• RS: NatWest doing moneyless accounts in last couple of months
  • been that way for 15 years in South Africa because banks & mobile operators working together
• DGW: Orange & NatWest did a trial in 1996… unfortunately not much has happened since then

Is it really just a squabble about who owns the customer?

• IH: when working at a mobile operator, looking far too much at the commercial model than at what the consumer actually wanted

Risk - mobile payments should be more secure, and therefore cheaper?

• IH: very large percentage of PayPal is risk management
  • when talking with partners, that’s one of the main things they bring to the table
• however, PayPal’s risk management seems to involve offloading a load of risk onto the merchant — see the various articles about PayPal seizing and freezing accounts

What about identity on mobile?

• RS: single sign-on
• NC: not really looked at identity
• IH: PayPal has less accounts than Facebook, but they’re all verified
• DGW: if you figure out identity, then payment falls out in the wash…

What about payment with non-currency, e.g. selling personal information?

• despite the promise of a new idea, this question didn’t get much of an answer…

Why can’t I take the phone round a supermarket and scan products as I go myself?

• NC: O2 Wallet does include a bar-code scanner
  • can scan a virtual/digital barcode poster shop
  • next step would be paying for real things

Don’t want Starbucks & McDonalds — I want independent merchants

• Not just taking the payment utility, want community and local interest

Replicating existing stories hasn’t worked - successes are those that create new markets

• “What frustrates me is that those electronic, mobile transactions don’t appear any different in my bank statement”

Working backwards from the future

• NC: consumer makes a gesture; consolidate offer & loyalty points; merchant gathers data

Payment of medium sized amounts between people (e.g. £600 for doing something)

• PayPal is not legal tender — cannot force someone to be paid by PayPal…
• the revolution is on the customer acquisition side, never on the usage
• IH: PayPal focused on getting to Facebook size
• it’s only a matter of time until you can send money via Facebook
• audience: if you get a parking ticket, pay it by PayPal — it totally confuses them!
• want to pay a builder, who pays his contractors, who use the money immediately to go down to the pub — cash is the only accepted mechanism right now
• DGW: refuses to pay cash as he refuses to take part in the black economy!
  • part of the story could be that you’ll pay less tax if you pay by mobile :-)
• IH: can give people prepaid PayPal credit cards — they can withdraw cash from an ATM

What about beggars? Small transactions to unknown people

• DGW: contactless terminals by busker pitches in the underground set at £1
• DGW: Not a problem he’s trying to solve…

Should I have the right to make an anonymous payment?

• IH: that’s where PayPal came from
• Data that goes with the payment that seems to the root of the business models we were talking about earlier…

Would it be good for Ponti’s to get rid of cash?

• JP: it’s not on our radar — all that matters is that we get paid and the customer is happy

What is the market asking PayPal for?

• in UK fashion group pay by barcode
• all German shops close on a Sunday, but can put panels (with QR codes) in windows so people can shop online when you’re closed

Is showrooming a problem for retail (comparison shop and then buy online)?

• JP: Not particularly true in a restaurant…

Wrap up:

• need to look bigger than just replicating credit cards
• In 1967 the USA banks thought it would take at least until the 1980s to get rid of cheques… Money changes very slowly

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Announcements

• Samsung Smart App Challenge - $4m worth of prizes
• 19th July — Smart Accessibility Workshop: 4-7pm
  • what to think about when designing apps on mobile
  • already a third full
• 24th July — Mobile Apps Marketing

MomoLondon: Tablets Come of Age

The B&N NOOK Developer Workshop was followed by a panel session. I found the discussion interesting in confirming my experience of tablets being used in a completely different way to laptops or smart phones. The hardware format is ideal for families and children to share the device, and apps and services that make use of this multi-user perspective are faring well. The conversation was peppered with stats from both Marek and Hesham (of MEX and comScore)

• Chair: Marek Pawlowski @marekpawlowski — Founder & Organiser, MEX
• Stuart Dredge @stuartdredge — Freelance Journalist
  • writes various apps columns, including apps playground kids apps review site and the Guardian apps blog
• Hesham Al-Jehani — Product Manager, Mobile, comScore
• Ben Scott Robinson @bcsr — Creative Director, We Love Mobile
• Claudia Romanini — Director, Developer Relations, Barnes & Noble

Why tablets? User stories

• BSR: Ben’s mum (70+) was not comfortable with touch-screen phones — the interface was too small for her. An iPad was much more comfortable — she was much happier to play with it
• CR: is a mum of a 7yo. This year she asked for a tablet for Xmas… As a parent CR was nervous, but has been happy since Nook is focussed on reading. Nook feels safe.
  • most time is shared with parent, but as getting older and able to read by herself, more time by herself
• SD: collaborative shopping for presents — on the tablet on the sofa
  • every night we have half an hour of iPad time
  • Peppa Me Books: peppa pig but you can re-record all the voices
  • kids insist that someone joins in with them
• HAJ: has an 18 mth old daughter - she finds it and sits on dad’s lap and says “entertain me!”
  • watches “In the night garden” videos
  • mother also engages much more with tablet
• MP: 21% of US tablet use is lying horizontally in bed (considerably higher than smartphones)
  • more acceptable in a family context…

Is the original Kindle a tablet? e-Ink versus colour display?

• Audience member reading more due to Kindle
• CR: Nook Colour positioned as a reader’s tablet
  • Android transformed into a reading experience
  • consumers want an undisturbed, dedicated reading experience
  • reading long-form novels (don’t want to be bothered charging)
  • colour device allows people to read magazines
• HAJ: 92% of tablet usage is over wifi
  • indicated sedentary (stationary) usage
  • 75% of Android access over 3G compared to 70% of iOS access on WiFi
  • perhaps indicates iOS users are data-hungry
  • peak around 12pm where PC traffic eclipses everything else
  • around the evening (9-11pm) tablet traffic takes over
  • weight of the iPad is an issue when lying down
  • people are complaining about neck & shoulder injuries from iPad use…
• BSR: still stuck with finger on glass; thinner and lighter screens will be welcome
  • Morris Lessmore won an Oscar — being taken seriously but a long way to go

Content types: what’s working well?

• CR: B&N customers are predominantly “moms” aged 25-45
  • B&N stores have Nook tables
  • in the US target audience doesn’t really buy apps
  • approaches device from a content perspective
  • children & education are key categories (and under-developed in Android world)
  • 1/3rd apps in B&N catalogue are children’s apps (other 2/3rds split between games and lifestyle)

Where’s the web on tablets?

Dan Appelquist @torgo

• BSR: for news, no reason why you can’t create these experiences through HTML
• MP: disney started to take their apps in a different direction from content — see AppMAtes
• SD: HTML5 being used for content, possibly wrapped in native container for discovery & sales
• CR: magazines

Why limit tablet to magazines? Extend to movies? Compete or complement current entertainment?

• CR: entry point is digital books, but certainly buying other entertainment products
  • especially for Nook Tablet
  • think it complements & extends entertainment experience
  • entertainment content is huge for our customers
• BSR: tablets are the saviour of TV ads — intent to purchase, etc
  • tablets used in conjunction with TV (see zeebox et al)
  • radio is still a growing medium, despite the introduction of the TV and the internet
• MP: 30% of tablet usage in US is in front of TV (cf. 20% of smartphone usage)
  • people watch longer form videos on tablets than on their computers

When are we going to see some genuine competition for the iPad?

• HAJ: market segment dominated by Apple
  • 40m iPads sold in 2011, 15m in last quarter
  • 40m installed based in US
  • took 7 years for smartphones to reach 40m in US market; iPads took 2 years…
  • if there was no iPad we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about tablets
  • iPad dominates revenue, number of units (over 70%), usage (90%)
  • Kindle Fire has already sold 10m units in US
  • Apple’s share of market will shrink in 2013/14
  • tablets will eclipse PCs in the next few years
  • areas where Apple is weak: more PC-style — USB, filesystem
• CR: have sold millions of Nooks
  • many customers can’t afford an iPad
  • Nook Colour is $169 and prices go up, but still less than an iPad
• Audience: Dell have abandoned Android but have said they can see a place for themselves with a Windows 8 tablet

What about pens instead of fingers?

David Wood @dw2

• HAJ: welcome development that pens are making a comeback
  • writing your signature
• SD: crayola did an app and sold a big fat crayon with it
  • felt like it was getting the wrong end of the stick…
  • other than signing things, what’s the killer app for a stylus
• HAJ: scribbling notes?
• SD: but I much prefer to type!
• BSR: David Hockney using an iPad to paint (often using Brushes for iPad)
  • using styli (bits of wood at different sizes)
• MP: actually capacitative touch screens are worse at figuring out handwriting than resistive screens
  • seeing new stylus development to fix this

post-PC?

• SD: for some older people who never got used to PCs, tablets are a way in
• CR: not there yet, but using tablet more and more for non-PC things
  • still using laptop for email (prefer keyboard)
• MP: more comfortable taking a tablet into the kitchen
  • what kinds of things make things move from one device to another?
  • tends to be security and reliability concerns that shift people up in size & established reputation

keyboard + tablet form factor?

• CR: on-screen keyboards not good enough
• BSR: problem is carrying keyboard around
  • fold it up — back to a laptop!
• HAJ: ASUS Tranformer is a great idea
• SD: iMac is already a giant tablet with a wireless keyboard…
  • voice is coming soon…
• MP: keyboard starts becoming important when people spend more time creating rather than consuming
  • tends to be a 90/10 split at the moment…

tablets tend to get shared a lot more than phones…

• board games — multiple users at once
• BSR: looking at things then passing it over and sharing it
• SD: split screen iPad app — Pinterest for her, reddit for him!
• CR: see a lot of Nooks shared in the family
  • reading can be a personal experience
  • sharing a reading tablet could be odd
  • but in a family it’s a common thing
• SD: would be good to have a locked down mode
  • no in-app purchases,
• HAJ: screen lock — avoiding kids pressing home button to exit the app
• SD: Famigo Sandbox: android app that sets permitted app list & behaviour

what tablet would you be using in 3 years?

• CR: focus on content rather than the device
  • would love to see content become transparent — shouldn’t matter if it’s a book or a magazine or an app
• BSR: would like a piece of paper!
  • get away from the “finger on glass”
  • need 3D & haptics for a more tactile experience
• HAJ: windows 8 tablet — dragging & dropping content to and from PC
  • Nokia tablet?
• SD: don’t want skeuomorphs of what went before
  • no d-pads on the screen, or page turning

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Upcoming Events

• next Mobile Monday London: Demo Night! — 2nd April
• MEX 2012 — 9th & 10th May
• Over The Air — 1st & 2nd June at Bletchley Park

MomoLondon: 200,000 apps - where's mine?

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---

200,000 Apps — Where’s mine?

A busy Mobile Monday tonight — perhaps sparked by the twin pull of the “marketing” and “apps” tags in the event description!

It was a good panel with a fair spread of perspective: Eli from Vision Mobile provided a lot of useful information, based on research with mobile developers as to what works and what doesn’t; Dave Burrows talked about the traditional BlackBerry corporate apps; and Alyssa Tisne understood how to get people to buy things amongst 10 million different audio tracks.

There was a good mix of people afterwards as well — not just the usual suspects, but some design and marketing students on a 3 month course at Birkbeck and a load of BlackBerry developers too.

Anyway, on to my notes, typed at speed as usual. If you’d like to add anything or correct something I thought you said, please add a comment or contact me on twitter at adamcohenrose.

Keynote — Mike Kirkup, Director, Developer Relations, BlackBerry

• BB introducing lots of ways to pay
• enabling in-app payments
• running a Super-App Developer Challenge at the moment (ends Sept 6th)
  • focussed on “super-apps”: tightly integrated, efficient apps
  • apps need to be in Developer World to be entered

Panel

• Chair: Ben Scott-Robinson - Creative Director, We Love Mobile
• Chris Bourke - MD, Mobext
• Dave Burrows - Director of R&D Interchange Group
• Alyssa Tisne - VP Strategic Partnerships, 7Digital
• Tony Pearce - CEO and co-founder, TeePee Games
• Eli Camilleri - Asssociate, Vision Mobie
• Mike Kirkup - BlackBerry

Why apps rather than mobile internet?

• CB: speed. Apps compensate for the lack of speed across mobile internet
  • speed will gradually improve over years
  • but apps provide clean, sophisticated, richer user experience
  • but can have local storage & javascript in browser apps…
• AT: Apple has set gold standard for music apps
  • 7digital’s iPhone presence is web-only as can’t compete with Apple
  • however, can integrate with last.fm and built-in player on BB
• MK: BB6 web platform has been optimised to ensure that it gives a great experience
  • 30-50% increase in traffic just by having an app icon (on home screen and app store), even if the app just launches the browser
• EC: user experience is much better, but ubiquity is much harder
  • if you want to target a market rather than a technology then you have to strike a balance

Demographics & handsets: which demographics on which handsets?

• EC: most people are not looking at demographics…
  • when asked devs where they were getting market information, they said mates, colleagues… not really the people actually using the app!
  • survey sponsored by Telefonica — they have more experience understanding the demographics
• TP: hardest thing for any publisher is to get their app discovered
  • need to peel back the profile of the user
  • find out what they actually like
• DB: we do a lot of B2B work — boss buys app and imposes on staff
  • don’t have a high curve of under 25s
  • instead have a large number of users all the way to 60+
  • most people want to do one thing on the device and that one thing well
  • amongst first feedback: “yes, but can we take the phone away please” !?!?
• CB: mobile is moving too fast. although they’re tracking analytics, the market changes continually
  • seeing 13 year olds with iPhones purchased by their parents
  • they’re probably hand-me-downs as the parent gets the next version…
  • have run campaigns which were more successful with younger brother or sister of target audience — other family members were grabbing phone

BB has become a youth device — was this deliberate?

• MK: partially driven by people transitioning from SMS, but also by other capabilities
  • not a concerted strategy, unfortunately :-)
  • were surprised at take up of BlackBerry Messager (BBM)
  • people walk into shops and say “I want BBM”, “Oh, that’s for BlackBerry”, “so that’s what I want”

Apps as marketing tools & marketing for apps

• CB: iPhone apps may be a case of the CEO’s wife…
  • but also association with a cool company may rub off
  • launched a campaign for EBLEX: responsible for promoting beef & lamb in UK
  • made an app to help you BBQ better (iBBQ)
• TP: no-one knows the apps on facebook
  • top few games are there because the publishers have the money to keep investing in advertising
  • http://teepeegames.com is a discovery site for mobile & social media apps
• EC: market towards niches
  • these are services — can learn from old industries how to get to individuals who need them
  • even games are entertainment services
  • seeing links between old platforms (e.g. magazine) & new (digital) ones
  • can do guerilla marketing
  • need to take responsibility for own marketing
  • get association with a brand that’s trusted & known
• AT: 7digital want to integrate with other music apps
  • esp. streaming apps — “now buy the music you’ve just heard”
• MK: seems like a new problem but it’s a new set of people encountering the problem
  • if you convince crackberry.com blog to feature your app then downloads go through the roof… (email: kevin@crackberry.com)
• DB: the real estate is on the device
  • when first buy a PC, first thing I do is remove the ISP adverts
  • there will be a time that this will happen on mobile

Apps are pushed through other media. How?

• CB: need to have significant budget and use it wisely
  • for BBQ app, targeted mobile ad networks & aggregators
  • initially ran an explosive campaign to push app into top 25
  • then get organic usage and get talked about
  • when start to fall out of top 25, need to give app another push — a bit more budget
  • BBQ app relied exclusively on mobile media
• CE: Royal Academy of Arts app — all users had downloaded it when they visited the museum
  • front desk had told them about it
  • still don’t know why they’re not promoting retail apps in retail stores (e.g. Selfridges app)

Is it worth plugging a free app?

• EC: yes, if it’s extending services for a segment they want to own
  • again, BBQ example fits well
  • but not if it’s your core product
  • freemium works if the extra functionality is worth something and has clear value
  • bad free apps create noise — destroy space and time for apps that people will really value
• TP: Nokia users are used to paying £5 for an app, whereas iPhone users are shocked at 59p
  • unless you have a freemium model and can get existing users to give you money
• EC: ad-funded apps were not making money they expected
  • ones that were working were
  • maybe because of numbers
• TP: content is key
• DB: have to monetise somewhere?
  • sometimes get the money paid as development
  • marketing done by somewhere else
  • ad-funded market is in its infancy
  • have to have consolidated advertising mechanisms to provide content
• AT: can send push message to get people to interact with app
  • get free releases and browse associated paid ones
  • since 7digital is a store, the app is always free

Is sponsorship a realistic model for launching an app?

• CB: absolutely (see above)
  • actively looking for sponsorship opportunities
  • white labelling apps (esp. games)
• BSR: lots of useful case studies
  • e.g. VW approached a specific game, stripped it down just to show VW car and released it for free
• CB: Brand Butler idea
  • releasing services and games to consumers is a great way to get brand awareness & engagement

Andrew Scott (Rummble): discoverability should be about word of mouth but some operators still have a rate sheet for their promoted places

• BSR: in theory app stores provide word of mouth
• MK: BB twitter app has a load of feedback comments which are attempted first tweets… (is that a problem with the BB store?)
• TP: teepeegames.com will have a combination of user recommendation & editorial control
  • putting a social network behind each product
• AT: with 10 million audio tracks available, discoverability is about genre, really good meta-data (which is not always available from the item itself), friends recommendations, …

Fragmentation: has anyone used an app-porting mechanism, and how did it work?

• CB: they tend to break down at the edges
  • a bit like decorating your house — it’s only beautiful at the end when the details have been completed
  • app-porting tech tend to deal with heavy lifting well, but don’t deal with the polish
• Charles McCloud from metaflow: have sent roughly 50 million SKUs to market
  • there are a few porting technologies out there
  • it’s tough, complicated & costly
  • it comes down to what user experience you want to deliver
• BSR: if you want to deal with extra percentages covering the market, it gets more and more expensive
  • fragmentation is getting worse from an agency perspective
• when porting, you want to take advantage of the new platform — not just port the app
  • e.g. to port an iPhone app to iPad — a day or so
  • but to take advantage of the iPad and make a good iPad app — a couple of months

How can apps modify people’s behaviour? e.g. foursquare

• DB: “mission critical” apps need to modify behaviour or won’t get ROI
  • BBM is changing his behaviour
  • carriers want stickiness

How do small new companies get market knowledge?

• EC: talk to the people who you think are your real customers
  • mobile metrics are mostly irrelevant — they come from technology point of view
  • even talking to 30 people who you believe you want to use your service
  • also want to test apps with people who will actually use it
• CB: can also do croudsource-based testing (e.g. mob4hire)
  • can target individual segments or geographic regions
• BSR: avoid listening to the press!

Helen Keegan: where does a small development house start with marketing, PR, branding?

• MK: have a very popular “Marketing for Developers” session at BlackBerry World — can send slides
  • simple things: start a blog
  • respond to complaints — the faster the better
  • BB recommend mob4hire
  • get ideas from professionals giving a quote
• CB: only way to get noticed is to cause trouble!
  • have something in your app that people will talk about
  • do something that will upset somebody
  • or start saving and then come to us :-)
• BSR: don’t target a big audience — target a niche
  • communicate to people in context
  • if you’re in a niche, you probably know the people already

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Notices

• Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition launching this week
• nothing in August
• Over The Air 10/11th September
  • need volunteers to help
  • and sponsorship money
• Demo night on Monday following
• October — Design for Accessibility
• October — DCKTN/UKTI competition for dev places to Mobile World Congress

MomoLondon: Living in a Multi-Platform World

Another Mobile Monday on fragmentation of platforms, but this time hosted by a big company just about to launch yet another platform… The Microsoft reps seemed to come on a little strong tonight. So much so that I started to tune out when it was their turn to talk.

Nick Lansley from Tesco.com was a new face at Mobile Monday — and had some good things to say. He seems to have his head screwed on right about where to take Tesco.com in the face of multiple platforms and a wide spread of consumers (it’s the API, stoopid).

Tom Hume of Future Platforms also gave some interesting insights — I like his idea of using an AdWords campaign to figure out the target platforms for a new product. It’s always better to measure than to guess — and the internet lets you measure everything.

Alex Reeve - Director of Mobile Business Group, MSFT UK

• it’s fair to say that MS have had their challenges in the mobile industry
• they’re fully aware of that and they’re aware that “a new dawn is coming”
• mobile is enormously important to MS
• Windows 7 coming this side of Xmas
  • integrating contact details & social connections
  • options to show thing separately or together
  • keeping pictures together (including Facebook, etc)
  • “people want Internet Explorer on their phone”
  • do they really? don’t they just want Facebook/Yahoo/BBC, etc
  • fully-editable Word documents
  • email works the same as Outlook
  • I hope not… that would be horrible
  • “Zune is mainly a product in the US only”

Panel session

Panel (and their phones):

• Chair: Marek Pawlowski
  • this is no longer just about mobile — platforms to support now extend to TVs, games consoles, etc…
  • nearly all devices can do voice
  • most can do SMS, and a lot have browsers and Java
  • Q1 this year about 18% of mobile sales were smartphones
  • 11% of market by end of this year will be smartphones
  • 3/4 of developers use an Android or an iPhone as their primary device…
• Oded Ran - Windows Phone in the UK
  • Windows Phone - HDT HD2
• Tom Hume - MD of Future Platforms
  • Nexus One
• Nick Lansley - Head of R&D at Tesco.com
  • iPhone, Nexus One (which crashes 3 times a day)
• Jerry Ennis: CEO at Flirtomatic
  • #1 mobile social network in UK, if not in Europe, according to Comscore
  • though I guess it’s dwarfed by Facebook & twitter, which are social networks that people access on mobile…
  • iPhone
• Ilio Uvarov - lead UX practice at RG/A London
  • clients such as Nike, Nokia
  • iPhone

Which mobile platform would you develop for first and why?

• NL: probably give a different answer every couple of months
  • would like to choose most common in Tesco customer base, but that would mean a phone that’s incapable
  • started with iPhone “because I had one”
  • iPhone is a “hero device” — you get much more marketing for your buck
  • but need to balance with what devices customers are using
• JE: started believing they could use downloadable Java apps
  • but wasn’t really possible
  • target market are not using Java apps, even if their phone is capable
  • have instead gone to mobile web
  • also seeing some startling usage growth from iPhone (Flirtomatic have an iPhone app that wraps a browser)
• TH: would probably cheat and spend £50 on an Adwords marketing campaign to see who was interested…
• IU: depends on target
  • business people in NYC — Blackberry
  • teenagers in middle east — Blackberry
  • hipsters in London — iPhone

What can platform providers provide to developers to attract them?

• OR: don’t want to write once, debug across multiple hardware
  • want to make money
  • choose to piggyback on a platform launching (someone else’s marketing muscle)
• NL: iPhone and Android offer push update notifications
  • really important — bug fixes are v. important to customer experience
  • Ovi falling down massively here
  • Apple also making things difficult by making updates take up to two weeks
• JE: Flirtomatic app is just a wrapper around mobile web app
  • can’t take advantage of native aspects
  • but changes can be deployed very quickly without going through Apple

Who in the audience had a bad experience of starting out on a mobile platform?

• TouchNote: went for Nokia 3rd edition (Symbian) & Ovi store
  • just not a lucid, easy experience for customers, even in comparison to Blackberry, let alone iPhone & Android

Who’s had a good experience?

• No one put up their hands!!

Do customers really take updates?

• TH: 60-70% take updates for android
  • would imagine iPhones are about the same
  • Java apps are almost impossible to get customers to update
• NL: always offer new features with bug fixes
  • every time Tesco update the Tesco Finder app, they see 99.9% of new version by the end of that day!
• IU: have about 100 pending updates on his iPhone
  • end up not using 90% of apps that you’ve downloaded
• MP: 70% of mobile web users went to 10 major brands

MS have developer lock-in for tools, will they lock-in legally like Apple?

• Silverlight & XNA plus mobile web are main ways to market on Windows Phone 7
• Haven’t finished Ts&Cs yet

Is it sustainable to support so many platforms, or will we see consolidation?

• TH: we are seeing consolidation around the web
  • don’t feel intimidated by number of platforms, as only have to deal with those that provide an audience
  • feel locked in to Apple not by legal language, but by the audience that they provide

What can platform providers do to make a new platform attractive?

• don’t make us write the app in Silverlight — let us write it in C#
• reveal the number of apps in the store — no hype
• charge less than Android & Apple (30%)
• make it easy for customers to buy cheap things with enough money going to developers

Which platform gives the best ROI? How does mobile web compare?

• JE: make money with virtual currency (80% revenues), rest from advertising
  • how do we bill people to buy virtual currency?
  • operator billing (reverse SMS), credit card, paypal
  • still 60/40, 70/30 — not so good
  • credit card still cheapest for business
  • Apple don’t let you use in-app purchases for virtual currency…
• TH: not sure that there’s a link
  • look to introduce customers with operator billing and then convert repeat customers to credit card later
• JE: operator billing is a terrible UX — sometimes a 12-step process
  • not as bad in UK, but US can be really bad

What about emerging markets? What are platforms doing?

• OR: active in two sides, services (Hotmail, etc) & devices
  • phone becomes 1st screen
  • exploring new ways of getting hold of the phone, since Windows Phone is not targeted at emerging markets
• NL: when Tesco arrives in a market, it could be said to have “emerged” already…
  • “Tesco in a box” — all systems for a new country shipped out
• MP: discussing India with major internet brand, responsible for UX
  • because device is becoming primary, there are increasing number of smartphones
  • also multiple SIM cards for each user (up to 12!!)
  • Italians have 1.77 SIM cards per subscriber, cf. 1.4 UK & 1.3 in US

Multiple platforms outside of mobile

• IU: depends on the use-case
  • things that work nicely across channels: e.g. instapaper
  • boxee: combining web, mobile & TV (can use mobile as remote)
• NL: did ethnographic research in people’s homes as to how they shop
  • calling on phones, SMS, writing messages on paper
  • wanting to allow people to add things little and often throughout the week
  • have cheated by building an API to get other people to create apps
  • e.g. Yahoo widgets on TV: watch cooking show, and add ingredients while you watch
• TH: big fan of opening up API, but how does that work as a provider? are you worried about the customer contact being mediated via a third party?
• NL: grocery shopping is not really exciting to customers
  • would rather get great ideas in front of customers
  • customers still have to login and checkout on Tesco site

What about voice as a platform?

• TH: Google introduced voice search and changed his behaviour
• MP: need to be very careful about experience:
  • experience was significantly enhanced when interacting with an avatar
• JE: tried out a voice part of app a year or two ago
  • watched my teenage daughter who never talks to people, but uses text & facebook instead
• MP: is that an opportunity? getting people to use their unused minutes!

How do you handle that your app is living on a phone with others?

• NL: Nexus One had an app using up all his minutes when in US
  • data hogging apps rapidly become unpopular
• TH: it’s one of the important things that makes the difference between mobile and desktop
  • number one feature on the iPad is battery life

What about upcoming standards: JIL, BONDI?

• NL: if you don’t make your app the best it can possibly be for that device then don’t bother
• MP: customers have one device — they’re not bothered by fragmentation

Brief summary

• IU: kept going back to UX
  • do you want to be good enough or delightfully different
• JE: all about UX — the best possible UX is using the latest features of any platform, rather than going cross-platform
  • payment is crucial, runs across different platforms
  • needs to be improved, simplified and cheaper for business
• NL: has to be relentlessly good design for every make and model of handset
  • gives you brand consistency
• TH: root causes of fragmentation are a good thing
  • mass market (2/3rds of world’s population) and extremely fast rate of change
  • developers have to get used to it
• OR: successful developers are embracing the fact that fragmentation is here to stay
• MP: “can economise on plumbing but make sure your bathroom is pretty bling”

Announcements

• Microsoft BizSparkCamp: June 22nd 9.30-5.30
  • “they want to give you things…”
• July - MomoLondon: Marketing your mobile app
• August - MomoLondon break
• September 10th & 11th - OverTheAir 2010

MomoLondon: Where Mobile Meets Media

My first Mobile Monday for a while — I’ve been kind of busy with my second child, Oren, born on 7th April.

I arrived late for the presentation by Hugh Griffiths, though what I caught was a bit slow and plodding. However, Helen Keegan did a good job getting an interesting panel of content providers and advertising services together.

Nothing much new was discussed, but it was interesting to hear how the media producers are dealing with the massive skew in the market of the iPhone. Various people are quite rightly saying that targeting the iPhone leaves 90% of your audience feeling left out, but then the percentage of traffic from only those devices indicates that the rest of the market are just so much harder to reach. The iPhone (and hopefully Android too!) makes it easy to interact with digital media when you’re out and about. You didn’t necessarily know you wanted to beforehand, but once you start using it you get hooked.

Panel discussion

Here’s my notes on the panel discussion. I definitely missed various comments from some people, so if you want something corrected or added please leave a comment or @me on twitter.

• Chair: Russell Buckley @russellbuckley — Admob
• Jason Daponte @jasondaponte — managing editor of mobile for BBC
• David Gibb @dgibbs72 — mobile content @ Sky
• Neil Johnson — Teletext Mobile
  • digital publishing arm of Daily Mail group
  • apps been downloaded about 500k times
• Helen Keegan @technokitten — mobile media consultant
• Dave Gwozdz @gwozdz/@mojiva — mojiva
  • serve ads on mobile (motion mobile)

What’s the difference between print & digital?

• DGz: digital won’t perform the same — different
• HK: reading more news articles — friends tweet the links
  • concentration span gone down, but media consumption gone up
  • not so much context, just an interesting article
  • not as much brand loyalty

What’s specific about mobile digital?

• NJ: location
  • length & tone
  • iPhone has been sold with flat rate — key driver
• HK: using NexusOne primarily at home, when can’t be bothered to get laptop out
  • less adverts on mobile web — can focus on what I want!
• DGz: maybe you don’t notice the ads ‘cos they’re more relevant - part of the content
  • because it’s a small space, publishers think more carefully about what they place
• JD: give consumers as much choice as possible
  • BBC have adopted strategy of customisation — allow user to say what their context is
  • short form is a bit of a myth — average viewing time is about 23 mins
  • definitely see people using full fat stuff when the device is capable
  • don’t use location that much — only for people customising content by saying what their local setting is (e.g. roads, weather)
• DGi: have found that people want to get at the questions of the moment
• RB: over 50% of pages on iPhone are accessed over WiFi rather then 3G

What about content behind the paywall?

• HK: have to look at multiple niche revenue streams
  • need to be able to experiment
  • sponsored apps, micropayments, etc
  • lots of people don’t want big brands to experiment, and will crow when they fail
• DGi: subscription business already…
  • web service is free
  • looking to add value to subscription
  • advertising is one part of our business but not the only part
  • I believe that people will pay for content — as long as it’s integrated
• JD: not going to be putting up paywalls on the BBC anytime soon!
  • previous job was an editor at economist.com
  • had a subscription model that provided access to the whole brand: web, print, mobile
• NJ: euromoney has been behind a paywall for a long time, mail & metro free on the web
  • paywalls need content that is valuable enough to pay for — the user can’t get that information elsewhere
• DGz: question not whether people will pay for content, but how?

Why is the iPhone making such a noise when it has such a small market share?

• JD: generates 80-85% of traffic
• DGi: easiest thing to show a manager is to show them an iPhone — but then it can be hard to convince them
  • it has changed our business — that’s where the audience is
• NJ: application platform
  • all you can eat data plans
  • frictionless payment system
  • all come together to make it many times more popular
  • would love another platform to get such an audience
• HK: how do we convert this whole other audience to data using in the same way as the iPhone users?
• DGz: seeing similar 80% of page views from iPhone — totally out of whack with market share
  • but Android is catching up very fast
• JD: when started, people thought his job was driving around in a truck… now they say “oh iPhones”!
• HK: still only small percentage of consumers — if advertise an iPhone app, then immediately alienate a large percentage of customers
• NJ: can you get ROI from anything other than an iPhone app?

Is RSS a new platform for mobile?

• NO
• twitter has replaced it completely

Are we going to see traditional media companies failing like bookshops?

• DGi: customers of tomorrow are on youtube and mobile
• NJ: seems to be more of a willingness (and ability) to pay
• HK: media owners have to innovate or die
• RB: a big time lag between advertising agencies and reality…

Will iPhone-only dev mean another IE6 legacy…?

• HK: already having legacy handsets — two year contracts and unwillingness to lose data
• NJ: relatively new platform — actually quite cheap to develop compared to a fully-featured mobile site
• JD: keep working with open standards on mobile web as well
  • BBC gets an incredible amount of traffic from Africa — pretty sure they’re not using iPhones
• NJ: apps will remain part of the mix
• JD: apps will be around for functional stuff — Shazam etc
  • content will move more to the web
• DGz: the ultimate winner will be eBay — people will sell their apps that aren’t getting any money
• HK: search & discovery is the issue
  • hard enough to find apps on Nexus One…
  • end up reverting to mobile web
• RB: seeing increasing use of app providers using advertising to increase search & discovery

How will bi-directionality of mobile media affect things?

• DGz: click to call
  • but when phones start ringing, they don’t know what to do
  • “that’s what you want to do, no? call, order”
• HK: sms, email, IM, voice
  • customers should be allowed to give their feedback
  • but can’t assume that all your customers want to have a relationship with you
  • most don’t have time to interact
  • though social media allows sharing and selling on your behalf
• JD: starting to include “share this” buttons on BBC mobile (facebook, etc)
• DGi: how do we take calls out of the call centre?
  • customer service apps
• NJ: a classified business fits perfectly — call to contact & buy
  • 35% of facebook visits came through mobile in March

Is the iPad niche, or a saviour?

• HK: niche. have played with one and thought “hmm, so what”
  • at this point the Tom Hume said: @technokitten in shock “hard to impress” on stage confession…
  • some things will look amazing, e.g. toytek’s Ultimate Alphabet
  • iPad will reach maybe the same number of customers as the iPhone, but no more
• DGi: “what do I need it for?”, but then what did you need an iPhone for before?
• JD: coffee table device — my mum is the perfect consumer
  • want something to show friends on the table
  • content looks better than it does on some people’s TVs
  • it’s nice to sit on the couch and read the newspaper
• NJ: when you start living with it…
• JD: when we launched BBC iPlayer on mobile, peak time viewing has been after BBC primetime
  • think that people are watching shows in bed

What does the panel think of Android fragmentation?

• JD: have a very big cupboard with lots of devices… it’s a risk
• DGi: have to focus on the ones that you think will do well
• HK: that’s where mobile web comes into its own
  • fragmentation won’t go away
  • not all customers will buy iPhones

How will people pay for content on mobile? @edent

• HK: paywalls using traditional methods at the moment (i.e. credit card)
  • payment mechanisms as fragmented as platforms
• DGi: require credit cards at the moment, but using other mechanisms (e.g. Apple)

Appetite — research at Yahoo by Laura Chaibi

• See teaser on slideshare
• 55% of people in UK don’t care if it’s an app or a website
• 44% of people now blame brand if the experience is bad — no longer the operator!
• “stop building vanity apps and having a one-night stand with your customers”
• M&S going for mobile web, but with microsites and micro-apps to support
  • e.g. app to create labels for your kid’s school clothes
• the touch revolution is coming — web site needs to be touch-enabled (and you might as well make it mobile friendly while you’re at it)

Why build an app when you can build it with a web app?

• NJ: discovery — it’s more difficult to find a mobile web site
• DGi: easiest way to market is an app store

This seems bizarre to me — surely it’s just as easy to search the web as it is to search the app store? I think it’s more awareness than discovery that’s the issue: iPhone users don’t search Google for a new icon on their device, even though lots of websites will make nice home screen bookmarks

What can happen to move us more towards 3 or 4 screen model (continuing access onto multiple devices)?

• JD: have to relate to customer on the terms that they understand you, but move them into the digital world
• NJ: some usage is substitutional to PC and some supplemental
  • e.g. “I saw this great house today — here, what do you think?”
• DGi: with iPhone, finally have a direct channel to the customer without the operator getting in the way
  • previously, this has been hard
• HK: phone usage survey
  • do you use the mobile web? No
  • but use facebook & email…

What’s the future of newspapers?

• DGz: it’ll be here forever
• HK: will decline, but not completely
  • if media owners can reduce their cost of producing
  • another 50 years
• NJ: if it does die, the last paper sold will be a copy of the Daily Mail…
• JD: will reduce to one or two titles
  • the ones to survive will be the ones that innovate and invest in journalism

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Announcements

• Open Mobile Summit: code MOMO gives reduction to £850
• Coming soon in MomoLondon:
  • June 14th: Mobile Fragmentation
  • July: Marketing Your Mobile App
  • Sept 10th/11th: OverTheAir
  • Sept 13th: Demo Night

Apple iPhone Tech Talk London 2009: Overview

Apparently I can blog about this year’s Apple iPhone Tech Talk World Tour, so here’s my notes.

This was a much larger event than last year — and I wasn’t the only person surprised by how many developers turned up. Since the registration process involved entering an iTunes URL, most of the people present must have written an app and got it into the store. However, the gender balance was even worse some recent developer events I’ve attended — it looked like there were more women on the Apple team than in the whole audience…

The kickoff session was a quick rundown of where iPhone development has got to since it launched only 15 months ago (seems like longer, possibly because the jailbreakers got there a fair amount earlier…), and the rest of the day was spent going into details (I'll cover the sessions I attended in later posts). I really hope the Apple guys put their presentations up soon, as there was a lot of great detail that I couldn’t type fast enough to get down :-)

stats

• only 15 months since App Store launched (though an extra year of iPhone)
  • 2 Billion apps, means 180,000 apps an hour…
  • 100,000 apps in app store
• more than 50 million devices
• 81 countries
• 125,000 registered developers
  • so at least 25,000 who paid money but haven’t put anything in the store yet!

timeline

• jun 08: seeding SDK & emulator to all devs
• jul 08: app store live
• sep 08: customer reviews only by purchasers & versions
• oct 08: crash reporter & logs
• mar 09: developer discussion forum (still beta), more customer service agents
• jun 09: quick reference guides
• jul 09: news & announcements + better developer support
• sep 09: new app store categories (genius, essentials), top grossing lists, app store resource centre
• oct 09: in-app purchase available to free apps

the best apps are…

• simple or sophisticated (hiding complexity)
• lightweight
• intuitive
• small pieces loosely joined
  • lots of separate features
  • what about feature interaction? is that going to be a problem?

iPhone users have changed

• not necessarily technically savvy
• bringing technology into new places

specific examples of innovative apps

• each app has 5-7 seconds to sell itself to the user
  • it helps to have a memorable aspect
• use the latest technologies
• go the extra mile

• keep it fresh

• urbanspoon

  • shake to randomly choose a restaurant in the style of a fruit machine
• peaks
  • Augmented Reality (AR) for mountains
• car finder
  • AR for finding car
• zipcar
  • book and find cars
  • unlock the car over network, when you’re close to it
• snaptell
  • picture identification
• postage ~ postcards
  • take a picture and send an electronic postcard
  • can apply simple visual effects
  • visually interesting error messages (look like envelopes with postmarks)
• timetuner
  • bedside radio
  • location aware — will take timezone into account
  • can set up custom alerts — different radio stations on different days
  • simple sleep timer on main screen
• weightbot
  • way over the top UI polish…
  • real sounds
  • makes it fun to enter your weight
• tweetie 2
  • only presents UI when you need it
  • swipe down to refresh at top
  • swipe across a tweet to see options
• guitartoolkit
  • swipe across to play strings for a selected chord
  • has tuner
  • has metronome that keeps playing when screen goes dark
  • can do this by setting app type — determines what happens when
• 1112
  • exploration game with lots of extra touches
• ocarina
  • with worldwide
  • and sonic lighter — added messages for choice of flame to mean something
• roambi
  • data interaction with data from SAP, Salesforce etc.
  • lots of visual interaction with data
  • pull through folders, seeing preview of front one
  • pie chart can swivel round to see details of the one on the bottom
  • charts can
• things
  • auto synchronized when iPhone comes into same WiFi network
• MLB.com At Bat
• Flick Fishing
  • using GameKit to hook up to other iPhones
• myStarbucks
  • can send your standard order to someone else so they can order for you
  • (not currently available in UK store)
• ramp champ
  • in-app purchases
  • shows preview, details and price
  • very good catalogue implementation
• iceberg reader
  • iTunes puts up a confirmation dialog of purchase as well
  • shows progress of download in-app
  • (again, not yet available in the UK store — though individual books are)

Apple iPhone Tech Talk London 2009: Networking: From Sockets to GameKit

Paul Danbold danbold@apple.com — Evangelist

This was another really fast presentation with loads of detail. I look forward to grabbing the presentation from the iPhone dev site.

• don’t want to use CFSocket or BSD Socket
  • don’t let you bring up wireless, or involve security
• service discovery:
  • NSNetServices, CFNetServices, dns-sd, BSD Sockets
  • dns-sd is Bonjour or Zeroconf

URL Loading system

• NSURLRequest, NSURLConnection & about 10 other classes (also mutable ones)
• there’s sample code for validating URLs
• recommend to use asynchronous API style:
  • use delegate mechanism — calls connection:didReceiveResponse:
• also connection:didReceiveAuthenticationChallenge:
• finally connectionDidFinishLoading:
• default behaviours should work fine

Local area networking — service discovery

• kick off NSNetServiceBrowser in asynchronous mode, w/delegation
• browser searchForServicesOfType:inDomain:
  • e.g. type _http._tcp in domain local. — don’t go beyond any routers
  • can look for your own types too such as _foo._tcp
• then get myServiceBrowser:didFindService:moreComing:
• call NSNetworkService getInputStream:outputStream to resolve
  • this takes time (many seconds)
  • wait for the user to choose before resolving
  • and let the user decide when to cancel
  • resolveWithTimeout:0.0
• must release input & output stream objects returned by NSNetService
  • bug in Apple’s code — doesn’t obey normal Cocoa behaviour

OutputStream & InputStream

• NSStreamEventHasSpaceAvailable is probably the interesting one
• though you want to handle the errors too…

advertising & publishing

• advertise service with NSNetService initWithDomain:type:name:port
  • domain can be empty — means local
  • name can be blank too — will use device’s iTunes name
• then call publish on service

stop when you’re done

• browsing is fairly lightweight on the network, but you should stop anyway
• the same goes for publishing, when you’ve got all your connected clients

register types & ports

• to register a service type:
  • http://www.dns-sd.org/ServiceTypes.html
  • send them an email, no money changes hands
  • and http://www.iana.org/assignments/port-numbers for one further

game kit — peer to peer

• 3.1 adds WiFi support as well as Bluetooth
• GKSession initWithSessionID:displayName:sessionMode
  • session ID is your Bonjour service type — how you advertise yourself
  • again, can leave displayName as nil for iTunes name
  • sessionMode can be peer to peer (1 to 1) or client/server (multiple clients)
• can’t physically go over 10-20 clients with Bluetooth
  • 3.1 and later is a lot better, but still no more than 3-4 clients
  • Bluetooth also has low bandwidth
• set up delegate and set available to YES
• check other peers with peersWithConnectionState:
  • can be available, already connected, in the process of getting connected
• connectToPeer:withTimeout:
  • generally set timeout to zero to let user cancel if they want
• actual connection made with session:didReceiveConnectionRequestFromPeer: and acceptConnectionFromPeer:error:
• must monitor the network using session:peer:didChangeState:
  • other players can drop out, so you’d have to tear down your session
• send data with sendDataToAllPeers:withDataMode:error: and sendDataToPeers:...
  • can choose unreliable (UDP) or reliable (TCP) data modes
  • as always TCP imposes a performance cost so use sparingly
• receive data with setDataReceiveHandler:withContext: and receiveData:fromPeer:inSession:context:
• always check for errors — buffers fill up on low bandwidth networks
  • check it by using a slow network
• when you’re finished, tear down with disconnectFromAllPeers:
• there’s a GKPeerPickerController for setting up Bluetooth peers
  • doesn’t work for client/server or WiFi
• the only way to find out if Bluetooth is turned on is to use the GKPeerPickerController (it uses private APIs…)
• all data sent & received is NSData-wrapped — design your packaging for network efficiency first and coding efficiency second

Voice chat

• GKVoiceChatClient and ~Service
• sets up socket interface
• handles microphone, echo suppression, etc

network challenges

scoped routing and reachability

• iphone 3.0 and later provides scoped routing
  • keeps both cellular and wifi up at the same time — so cellular connections keep going when you enter a wifi hotspot
  • but this puts a toll on the battery, so you should behave and check for networking changes
• use SystemConfiguration APIs to monitor network state
  • Am I on the network and what kind of network is it?
  • cannot tell you that packets will arrive…
  • if network changes, finish what you’re doing, close connection and start a new one
• use SCNetworkReachabilityRef and check for flags
  • but again use callback APIs since the calls take about 30 seconds
• no point using this to pre-flight as things may change
  • just use to monitor
• can set UIRequiresPersistentWiFi key
  • keeps WiFi live while your app is live
  • shows up UI elements automatically (like offering to turn off Airplane mode)
  • but if the device sleeps, you still lose your WiFi connection

battery use

• listening is cheap, transmitting is expensive
• 3GS sending leaves the antenna in high powered state for 5 seconds
  • so don’t send every 5 seconds — it will leave it in high power continuously
• compress data, send large chunks
• tear down connections when reachability changes

other tips

• try to use the cache as much as possible
• try to resume downloads rather than restart
• use pipelining if poss.
  • ask for lots of things at once and be careful about return order
  • some web proxies and apache configs just break pipelining
• also use multiple connections
• but different network conditions and different servers require different tuning
• test in areas where you know the network is flaky!
• use a packet analyzer — see QA1176
• try to isolate the user from network problems
  • often there’s a transient glitch — try again before alerting the user
• see also Technote TN2152
• look for developer forum postings by eskimo1 :-)

there’s some new sample code available:

• SimpleNetworkStreams
• SimpleURLConnection
• SimpleFTPSample
• Reachability — there’s a new version! The old version had bad code :-)
• BonjourWeb
• WiTap — peer to peer, but doesn’t use GameKit
• GKTank
• GKRocket — work in progress, with voice chat too