James Parton of BlueVia and Andreas Constantinou Ph.D. of VisionMobile are discussing Developer Economics 2011.

Here is the video:

@jamesparton @bluevia @andreascon @visionmobile

You can find out more about the series in this introductory post.

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Our very first Mobile Developer Titan is AlwaysOnMessage, one of the leading mobile agencies in the United Kingdom.

Not for nothing does the company’s roster of clients boast luminary names such as Channel 4, BBC, Endemol, IPC, Universal and Glenfiddich. Remember the Jamie Oliver 30-minute-meals Egg Timer app that brought together television programming and practical usage? (you may have seen it on a billboard in the tube!) That was one of Peter’s. Do you remember the movie Bruno (featuring Sacha Baron-Cohen)? The Bruno app was one of the company’s first projects and it hit 400,000 downloads in days and went straight into the #1 slot on most App stores.

I first met the company’s CEO, Peter Swain, at The Big M event in Bath earlier this year. We had corresponded briefly beforehand and managed to take some time together at the event. I was struck by his fervour, excitement and experience in the mobile marketplace. He’s a true globe-trotting digital pioneer.

Right then, let’s get on with the questions.

1. Who are you and what’s your background?

My name is Peter Swain CEO of AlwaysOnMessage. I’ve spent my life running digital agencies and have been involved in digital since 1995 and specifically mobile since 2009.

My digital career has spanned the globe, with time in Dubai as the founder and MD of The Concept House, a specialist web and digital agency that helped facilitate the evolution of the digital industry in the UAE and earlier in London where I worked on the first Yell.com and web work for Sony, Williams F1 and The Cure (amongst others!)

2. What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?

As CEO and Co-Founder, I oversee strategy and direction with the goal of understanding where mobile is and where it may go. I specifically keep responsibility of user experience and app direction, both of internal apps and client offerings, as well as working closely with platforms, MNO’s, and certain clients in advising strategy and mobile roadmaps.

3. When did your organisation begin trading?

2009.

4. Why did you/your founder(s) start the company? To solve what problems?

We launched into mobile after I purchased an iPhone, “the iPhone represented the first paradigm shift since the Internet arrived in the early 90′s”. This was / is a fantastic time to be in mobile and watch how it affects each and every part of how we work, eat, sleep, play & consume.

5. How are you funded?

We are largely self-funded, although we did take a small loan from the EFLGS [Enterprise Finance Loan Guarantee] when we started trading.

6. How do you generate revenue? Who are your customers? Or do you sell directly via App Stores?

All of the above. We have 3 principal business lines:

• Client work: during the last 2 years we’ve worked with brands including the BBC, Jamie Oliver and Universal Pictures.
• Revenue Shares: we explore brands with great IP that we can utilise to generate revenue for both parties. We have 5 major apps due for release later this year across TV and Magazine IP.
• Handsets and Operators: We work with a fair few platforms and operators helping them ensure their app offerings are up to scratch. We find it amazing that more mobile agencies don’t focus resource at talking to the operators … They have a unique position of controlling distribution, even if they don’t realise it yet.

7. Who are your principal directors/team members? Could you give us a few sentences about each of their responsibilities and backgrounds?

Gideon Roberts is my Co-Founder and our Operations Director. Gideon’s main goals at AlwaysOnMessage (AoM) see him overseeing all aspects of production: from design to implementation and deployment, to the smooth-running of all in-office processes; including the daily operations associated with app development and in ensuring the company has access to cutting-edge solutions that deliver expert apps on time, and on budget.

Richard Collins is our Chairman. Richard’s main duties are to ensure the company remains on task. Working closely and openly with the CEO, Richard’s overarching goal is to ensure the company has a clear strategy that encompasses both style and tone, and promotes constructive debate and effective, commercial decision-making. Having been involved in the internet since 1995, Richard first started in digital marketing when he set up Tempest, one of the UK’s first digital media and search marketing agencies (which amongst other accolades was Google’s first European agency client). He sold the business to global giant WPP in 2001, and went on to run OgilvyOne and Mindshares’ digital media businesses in the UK, working with some of the world’s leading global brands.

Harlan Davis is our Commercial Director. He’s responsible for commercial strategy and development. His focus areas are marketing, sales, product development and customer service, to drive customer satisfaction, business growth and market share. Harlan’s knowledge of the mobile apps industry, along with strong marketing and business development skills enable him to take ownership of customer relationships to ensure that the organization is functioning in a way that will enable it to meet its short, and long-term goals.

8. Could you give us some key turning points or memorable moments from your perspective regarding the development of the mobile marketplace?

It has to be the iPhone release for me above any other moment in mobile. WAP and other mobile innovations were key to growth, but Apple redefined what mobile is.

9. Can you remember back to some of the first applications that caught your attention? What were they? How do you remember responding to them?

The iPint and Skype stick out … One showed a unique marketing opportunity, the other how “old” businesses could find a new home and revenue stream.

10. What was your first application launch? How was the development process? What was the biggest learning experience you derived from your first application build?

Our first app was for Bruno … It received 400,000 downloads within a few days and was #1 on most App stores (Austria weren’t too impressed!!)

Development wise we used our own methodology (SLIM) which allows us to scale up as and when required.

The lesson we learnt: Have the platform (in this case Apple) involved in the build as soon as possible.

11. At what point did you think ‘this mobile thing has legs’? Did you know from the inception of the business? Or did it take a little while before you felt confident with the marketplace?

We launched knowing mobile was about to change the world and we wanted to be one of the first there.  We were confident from day one and I would say our first app, Bruno, put us on the stage.

Profitability can’t be ignored as a success criteria, but the companies that trust us with their brands are validation that money can’t buy.

Operators and platforms that want to validate their businesses by working strategically with us speaks for itself as well.

12. Do you ever work directly with mobile operators?

Wherever possible … I’d go as far as to say we’re frustrated that some carriers don’t seem to understand the app economy and how big an impact it’s having / going to have on their business.

13.  What current or existing mobile operator capabilities would you like to see made accessible to app developers?

I’d like more carriers to follow BlueVia’s model and start interacting with their developer audience. We’re very impressed by BlueVia and firmly believe that initiatives such as this represent the future of how MNO’s shift from infrastructure to business partner.

14. What application platforms are you focusing your efforts upon? And why?

We’ve operated across most platforms and can’t perceive that changing anytime soon … AlwaysOnMessage is a mobile agency … How can we advise our client base if we don’t understand each and every competing technology?

15. Over the next few years, where do you think your focus will lie?

Broadly as it is now … The daily shift in mobile dominance will no doubt continue and we will adapt to fit. The only guarantee to some degree is the continual change and we for one intend to stay ahead of this.

16. What innovations are you most looking forward to in the mobile marketplace?

NFC and the further proliferation of QR Codes … Anything that can bind the real and mobile worlds together. We’re also excited by TV Apps and seeing how “second screen” approaches become a reality over the next few years.

17. What handset(s) do you use currently? What’s your primary mobile network of choice and why?

I’m on O2 and currently use an iPhone4 as my primary handset (although the company owns a host of handsets so we stay mobile aware across the full ecosystem)

18. Can you remember your first handset and network?

A Motorola Flare, although the network escapes me.

19. Could you highlight 3 mobile applications (and/or developers) that you seriously admire and explain why?

• Addison Lee – one of the best integrated experiences out there
• MPeso – Having given 24% of Kenya the ability to perform commerce is an amazing feat.
• Apple – if you want to see amazing user experience in play, Apple’s the place to look … I’m STILL bowled over by visual voicemail (I can’t believe I used to go through an IVR to get my voicemails!)

20. And now let’s talk BlueVia: Have you had a play with the API? What did you come up with?

We’ve had a look at the API and there are several things we’re interested in … the concept of both functionality and revenue is exciting.

21. What features of BlueVia are you most excited by?

That would be telling! We have some cool ideas we’re looking to build on the back of BlueVia and we’re looking to announce a fairly major project in the near future. So, watch this space!

22. How do you react to the revenue possibilities presented by BlueVia?

It’s exciting and shows that O2 have a genuinely different offering for the market. AoM has talked about the app economy and its affects on MNO’s for the last year and its good to see a viable roadmap being presented. If MNO’s want to move beyond being regarded as infrastructure they need to partner with developers … BlueVia does exactly that.

23. What’s missing from the BlueVia offering at the moment? What would you like to see?

The word “missing” seems harsh and pre-supposes that BlueVia is finished and (from our understanding) there is a roadmap of new functionality being delivered.

Our top 3 requested features would be:
- SMS / MMS refunds … user confidence will drop if charges are applied next to a service we can’t deliver.
- The ability to change settings as well as read them e.g. changing a voicemail recording or call forwarding rule, not just reading the rule
- Cross network support … I’m not even sure this is possible, but limiting features to O2 customers is a real hindrance to adoption.

24. Would you like to see more operators adopt a more open framework similar to Telefonica and BlueVia?

See above! MNO’s MUST evolve if they want to protect the customer base (and profits) they have. The prospect of developers being able to influence the entire ecosystem is very appealing. However, we’re concerned this will lead to another set of fragmented standards being applied vs. a cohesive approach across network.

25. Finally, let’s talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years of mobile application development?

We’ve long held the belief that the current state of mobile is very similar to the internet in the mid 90′s. We’re currently seeing platform wars (browser wars), native apps (flash, shockwave etc), a lack of analytics (a lack of analytics!), handset fragmentation (browser, monitor, PC proliferation) etc. If that holds true, we’re going to see plenty more change before things stabilise.

Specifically we think:
- Microsoft / Nokia will be the new Apple
- Blackberry will be the new Nokia
- Android will be hit by security and virus concerns due to fragmentation
- Several rival NFC programs will be launched to the utter confusion of the consumer
- The dotcom bubble will be back with us, with VC funding exploding quarter on quarter
- Apple will be Apple

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Peter, thank you very much for taking the time to answer the questions. I’m looking forward to hearing more about what you’re cooking up with BlueVia!

Standby for the next Mobile Developer Titan profile coming soon.

Continuing our BlueVia Introduction series, their top man, Jose Valles, is back — but this time in English! (I hope you enjoyed Jose’s brief Spanish video from Monday).

I asked Jose if he could give me an example of how BlueVia works with developers. He jumped straight into an answer so I’ve edited the video from there — I particularly like his ‘internet speed’ point. It is written in the annals of developer history that thou shalt not expect a mobile operator to move fast. This might well be true, but when it comes to BlueVia, Jose explains that they’re enabling developers to move at internet speed. I can well believe it. Have a watch..

For more information on BlueVia, Telefonica’s developer programme, please visit www.bluevia.com.

In the first of our new video series, we meet James Parton, Head of Marketing for Telefonica’s developer programme, BlueVia.

I asked James to introduce BlueVia to us and to highlight it’s key offerings for developers.

If you are working in mobile development, you should be intimately aware of what you can do with BlueVia. The team there have basically put an API in front of the Telefonica global network — which offers some phenomenal opportunities, in terms of user experience, market access and developer revenue potential. Their services are live and usable for 80 million Telefonica subscribers right now.

I will be going into a lot more detail with BlueVia, particularly on the revenue side, in the coming posts — but in the meantime, please do get a cup of coffee and watch this introduction from James.

For more information on BlueVia, Telefonica’s developer programme, please visit www.bluevia.com. Everything you need to get started with BlueVia is right there on the site including all the API documentation — however if you’d like an introduction to James and the team there, just drop me a note. I’m ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.

I’m not interested in featuring just any developer in the series, though. I’m looking for developers who’ve actually gone beyond the bog-standard iPhone app. I’m looking for developers with demonstrable vision, talent and serious capabilities. Fundamentally, I’m looking to profile developers who understand that whilst today might be all about the App Store, tomorrow is about delivering an interconnected experience, ideally built upon and using the whole power of the network.

For a long time now I’ve been a little frustrated with the current crop of point-and-click application interface layers that we see on today’s mobile phones. As I noted back in May, it’s just not good enough. I need things to be faster, more connected and more reliable. If anything, I need the network to do a lot of the basic thinking for me.

When you talk to developers, the idea of being able to control a mobile network — or at least influence it via a standard Twitter-like API is outrageously cool, but utterly impossible. So much so that most developers don’t actually think about this. They have sensibly stuck to the API documents for the handsets because working with operators is generally impossible. The holy grail with mobile development is the ability to connect your application (or service) to the mobile operator network layer(s) — allowing you to do all kinds of phenomenal things. The sad reality is that this kind of thing has been out of reach for far too long.

It was, therefore, rather exciting to hear what Telefonica is doing with BlueVia. Suffice to say that the mobile operator API I’ve been screaming about for some time has arrived. In the first instance, the BlueVia APIs allow for the ability to originate and receive SMS, include mobile advertising and query user context (e.g. handset, connection speed, parental controls). This is available for 80 million people right now, including the entire o2 UK customer base. Needless so say, given Telefonica’s huge worldwide footprint, there’s a lot more coming both in terms of market access and functionality.

I sat down with James Parton from BlueVia recently to fire a load of questions at him. During that meeting I remarked that I’d like to see how leading mobile developers would use the initial APIs available on BlueVia. I had all sorts of ideas. I am particularly enamoured by the revenue model. I’m going to be investigating this in a lot more depth but let me summarise it thus: You can monetise all the message traffic generated by your app and, at the same time, avoid having to pay an SMS aggregator to send messages! Plus, you can plug straight into the BlueVia mobile advertising system with just a few lines of code. By the end of the meeting we’d worked out a plan whereby BlueVia would sponsor a series of posts here on Mobile Industry Review.

Are you a Mobile Developer Titan?

Therefore I am now on the hunt for mobile developers who’d like to be profiled in this series. To qualify, you need to:

a) Have had at least 2 applications published on one of the mobile application stores (or have developed a rocking mobile web application)

b) Have the capabilities to integrate one of BlueVia’s standard APIs into a demo version of your app so we can see how you’ve interfaced with the network layer. Screenshots or a video is fine. This qualification sets the men from the boys. (Or the women from the girls.) If your programmers can’t handle BlueVia’s industry standard restful interface, you probably shouldn’t be featured as a ‘Titan’ anyway.

c) Demonstrate that you quality for Mobile Titan status. This is defined by you and then agreed with by me. Tell me why you’re good. (Please don’t be British and say you’re ‘ok’. If you’ve created a series of amazing apps and you think you should be profiled, say so.)

The profile piece will include background on your organisation, a focus on your app(s) along with your opinion on the marketplace plus a showcase of your hacking skills featuring some kind of BlueVia API integration. For those developers located in the UK, I’d like to film a video interview with you showing off your work.

To be clear though, the series is open to anyone, anywhere. It’s platform agnostic. Symbian, Samsung Bada, Vodafone 360/JIL, Apple, Android, the whole shebang. Plus mobile web application developers — I’m particularly keen to talk to some of them.

I’ve a few developers in mind already who I’d like to showcase, but I wanted to get this post up first before beginning to decide.

The resulting profile piece will be published on the frontpage of Mobile Industry Review in a dedicated section. The site gets some phenomenally influential readers normally — but I’ve agreed with James that each of the profile pieces from this series will be circulated around Telefonica’s senior management and syndicated on BlueVia’s online properties. So if you’d like to get on Telefonica’s radar with your application or service, this is quite possibly one of the best opportunities ever.

Logistics

- If you’re a public relations professional representing a mobile developer, please do check that your client can manage option ‘b’above before dropping me a note
- I’m aiming to begin publishing within a few weeks
- I’ll aim to showcase the first 10 developers who get in touch — however I reserve the right to say no if I don’t think you meet criteria A and C in the list above

If you’ve any questions, drop me a note. As always I’m ewan@mobileindustryreview.com.

BlueVia and BlackBerry Developer Programme have teamed up again to bring to you another webinar, this time exploring the BlackBerry 6 features and the use of network APIs.

The webinar is scheduled for 17th March 4pm – 5pm GMT.

Follow this link http://bit.ly/hru42c to register now.

We look forward to seeing you on the webinar.

Thanks,
The BlueVia Team

If you don’t know Cyber-Duck, they’re a pioneering digital agency that consults on and delivers a range of exciting web and mobile projects for their clients. I’ve also been told that they’ve got some big projects that they’ll be announcing soon.

But my interest was clearly on the iPad Web App, so I thought I’d get Khaled Weir, the Project Manager (I think his full title is Web Strategist) to tell us more.

Over to Khal.

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Apple’s iPad is an exciting new product, changing the way we use the web and think about computers. The device encourages casual browsing, has excellent support for emerging Web technologies and introduces novel interactions using the large touch screen. Cyber-Duck is at the forefront of web and App design and as soon as the iPad came out we wanted to create exciting new content that utilised the native qualities of the device.

However, it’s not just about the iPad, tablets are set to be a huge market with several major manufacturers releasing a number of different models across the main platforms in the coming months. The browsers included with Android, Blackberry and WebOS platforms currently use the same WebKit rendering engine as the iPad – meaning that any websites developed with the iPad in mind are likely to work well on these new tablets too.

So bearing all of this in mind, Cyber-Duck decided to develop a web app; a stripped- down version of our website serving as an interactive brochure, specifically suited for the iPad using HTML5, CSS3 and the latest JavaScript and SVG techniques … and to truly test ourselves, we decided to do it in just six weeks.

We also embarked upon documenting the development of this project with a Production Diary. Using Tumblr, we post regular, almost daily updates on our progress and the challenges we face creating our first iPad project. You can follow our progress here – http://theduckpad.tumblr.com.

All of this got us noticed by the organisers of C21 Media and we have been invited to present at the iPad Entertainment event on 1st October, where we will be talking about the technical challenge of developing for the iPad and discussing the future of the platform for content publishers and web developers.

It’s an exciting project and we hope to show you the finished results soon.

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Thanks Khal. It sounds exciting. I’m looking forward to seeing it completed.

I thought it was one of Sanyu’s first events for RIM so asked her about how her ‘first experience’ was in one of the questions below.  Turns out she’s an old hand.  How embarrassing.  When you get to it, please think of me squirming when I received her replies.  I decided to leave it in as Sanyu handled the response rather well.

Ok, let’s begin…

1. Could you introduce yourself — who are you, what’s your role at RIM?
My name is Sanyu Kiruluta and I am the team lead for developer relations EMEA at RIM. We work with RIM’s Alliance Partners and BlackBerry platform developers around the world (over a quarter of a million to date) to provide technical support and ensure that the application development process is as smooth as possible.

2. Describe the BlackBerry Developer day in more detail — what was the purpose of it?
The recent developer event was one of a series of days across Europe to help encourage innovation in the BlackBerry developer community. The event series is dedicated to finding and nurturing the very best new mobile, wireless and internet-enabled applications and services and providing the tools and know-how to create and market apps for BlackBerry smartphones.

3. What kind of topics did you cover?
Sessions on the day provided insight into our vision and commitment to third-party apps on the BlackBerry platform as well as offering practical ‘how-to’ information that we hope empowered attending developers to create compelling and user friendly mobile apps. After all, our aim is to ensure that the applications available on BlackBerry App World are fully integrated into the BlackBerry platform to deliver the best possible user experience.

4. What kind of people attended the event? Did you get a feel for whether they were coders, commercial people or a bit of both?
We had a complete mix of people come down to the London event. These ranged from software developers and traditional web designers, through to marketing and new media gurus, CTOs, business development leaders, consultants and even some students.

5. What feedback did you get from the audience?
Feedback was great and this is most definitely an event we’re looking to run again. Attendees were particularly enthusiastic about the upcoming Super App Challenge.

6. Given this is your first major event for RIM, how did you find it? What surprised you?
I’ve actually been involved in running developer focused events at RIM for quite a while (you must have just missed me ). This was the second in a series of regional events we’re running in countries across the world to locally bring BlackBerry developer content to developers in-person. Something we frequently see from developers who previously haven’t created an app on the BlackBerry platform is a realization of how powerful some of our APIs translate as a ‘sticky’ feature in an app. Take for example our free push-API. Developers can use this to keep content on their app fresh at all times – from an end-user perspective, over the past few weeks I’ve loved having the latest football scores & stats sent to my device in real-time.

7. What sections of the day appeared to get the most attention?
Definitely BlackBerry Widgets and Super Apps. The BlackBerry Widget platform provides Web developers with the tools and APIs to allow them to create feature rich super apps using the technologies they already know. Understanding the principles of Super Apps and realizing that they can be created both in native Java and in HTML/JavaScript/CSS were some of the key take-aways for the day.

8. For those developers that missed today, what 3 things should they know?
Firstly, get developing for the BlackBerry platform! There is a great opportunity for developers to get their apps in front of the growing 46+ million BlackBerry subscriber base who have an appetite for really useful apps. For those who want, we offer developer training and certification as well as offering a host of information via the blog, forum, issues tracker and resource centre.

App World 2.0 brings a number new features to make it easier for developers to monetize their applications. Users will be able to purchase applications though credit cards or have the cost directly added to their carrier bill in addition to the PayPal payment option. We are also working on several initiatives around in-app payment, in-app adverts that will increase the number of business models available to developers with just a few lines of code.

We acknowledge that the average smartphone user doesn’t regularly use a large number of apps, so those that they do use regularly need to be really good. The concept of Super Apps is our way of communicating this message and arming developers with all the tools and material they need to be able to create these type of apps on the BlackBerry Platform. The Super App Developer Challenge has recently been launched to inspire the development community to keep bringing applications to life.

9. Finally — what RIM device are you using and what applications have you been enjoying recently?

I am using a BlackBerry Bold 9700! The Facebook application for BlackBerry has many ‘Super App’ qualities, but the one great thing it does for me is put my friend’s birthdays directly into my calendar and as a result, I’d never get rid of it. It’s sticky and ultimately offers me a feature I couldn’t live without. Similarly, I love the Twitter application for seeing what people are up to and BlackBerry Messenger, of course, for keeping in touch with my family, friends and people at work.

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Thank you for taking the time Sanyu.  And sorry for question 6.  I seriously thought you were ‘new’.  I don’t know where I got that idea.

Sanyu mentioned quite a few resources like the developer blog/forums — instead of linking to each I thought it would be more helpful to point readers to the main BlackBerry Developer Zone site.   And if you’re wondering what a ‘super app’ is, check out this resource.

I had a note in from Tam Hanna of mobile developers, Tamoggemon, to tell me they’ve launched their first ever Qt-based Symbian game. This is one to remember — the first ever Qt-based game release that I’ve been sent. I hope it’ll be one of many.

The game is called BallZ and its a port of the evergreen JezzBall non-violent action game. It contains 30 levels and thanks to the UI, can be played without a stylus. Good, because I can’t stand using a stylus on anything.

What does Tam have to say? Here we go:

“We have always been strongly committed to Symbian as a platform. Working with Qt wasn’t always easy. Even though the development environment is fantastic, shipping apps was not possible so far.”

You’re not wrong Tam.

However Qt really promises a complete change for developers — if you haven’t checked it out, have a look at qt.nokia.com for more details.

BallZ has been submitted to the Ovi Store so you should expect to see it available for 3 Euro (or equivalent) soon. Also expect to see a free 5-level trial version.

Every success to the team at Tamoggemon!

His post is critical reading for anyone involved in mobile developer outreach. Mike points out that:

• You can’t have marketing people talking to engineers/developers. You need to have real, live, proper engineers conversing with engineers.
• You can’t fake it by sticking up a ‘community site’ and assuming everyone will pop along — see Mike’s excellent real life example of Vodafone’s Betavine not working very well at all for him
• Holding a hackathon just because you’ve got a platform launch coming up is a total waste of time

Nice post Mike!

By the way, Mike is a regular organiser of Mobile Monday Silicon Valley — I interviewed him in one of the very first Mobile Developer TV episodes.

Their website doesn’t seem to be working at the moment but I’m sure his email is operational.

(via MoMoLondon)

I checked-in to the event then headed straight over to Mr Smith to say hello. He was arsing around with his laptop. Looking up, he briefly said hi, before advising, “Never, ever get an integrated SIM module on a Dell, this thing never seems to work.”

The holding area began to fill up. A chap by the name of Gary Gale came by and handed me the obligatory sticker sheet.

“You might remember me,” says Gary, “We had a frank exchange of views over BlackBerry AppWorld on Twitter a while ago?”

“Shit!” I think, “Errr,” I say to Gary, “I… errr, was I a little bit direct?”

I began to remember the episode and actually, I think Gary did have a good point — I just disagreed. Turns out Gary was a speaker too. I hadn’t connected the Twitter name Vicchi with Gary Gale, top man at Yahoo Engineering for Geo Technologies. Gary’s presentation was all about WOEIDs, something I knew nothing about until he stood up and explained them. Fascinating — highly relevant to the Twitter developer audience and expertly delivered. You can catch Gary’s WOEID presentation here.

So Twitter developers — that’s what Devnest is all about — anyone who’s interested in creating services and mashups with Twitter would do well to go along. The Organisers had done a phenomenal job — the place was packed.

Michael Camilleri came bounding over to say hi. Michael is one of the chaps behind FooCall (See last week’s post: “International calling for… FooCall“). It was good to see him. As we were discussing the state of British Venture Capitalists (in the context of this post), Paul Webster of Critical Path arrived to give us a glimpse into what’s coming with ShoZu. I agreed not to spill the beans though. Steve Kennedy popped over to say hi and pointed out that he almost bought a ton of Critical Path email services when he was supervising business development for Demon back in the good old dotcom days. Steve presented his business, DBVU, to the audience later in the evening — the company provides centralised analytics and monitoring for MySQL database servers. Very smart indeed.

With oodles of pizza having arrived and been consumed along with a good amount of beers, we headed into the auditorium and got started. I was wondering precisely how my presentation would be received, given the copious amounts of iPhones on show.

Angus, one of the organisers, had asked me to give a kind of ‘state of the nation’ about mobile development, so I’d worked to create something like that, with due deference to the fact that most of the people in the room could write and deploy a desktop Twitter app in 180 seconds. Mobile might not be their forte, but I was working on the basis that they could easily adopt various mobile platforms with a low amount of friction, so I decided to keep it pretty high level.

The thrust of my argument was — yes, iPhone is great; Android..yeah… but please, please, please remember the fact that Nokia makes 1.4m handsets a day. A *DAY*. And don’t forget BlackBerry, either. And while you’re at it, a lot of the other platforms such as Vodafone 360 would be delighted to work with you.

Here’s the presentation:

The other presenter that evening, Paul Kinlan, was talking about Google Buzz. Paul is Developer Programmes Engineer at Google and, goodness me, he knew his stuff. I managed to keep up with most of the REST and CURL stuff — essentially he was outlining how Twitter developers could make use of the various Buzz APIs now becoming available. Very smart indeed.

I missed the majority of the buzzzy.com pitch, but essentially they’re providing a search interface for Google Buzz. I doubt it’ll be long before they’re snapped up.

Todd Chaffee delivered his pitch, “Social Media ROI in 140 seconds” and had me thinking carefully about the ROI issues with social media. Fascinating stuff. If you’re interested in the field, Todd’s presentation is here. Definitely talk to him.

There’s been some great feedback from the event — I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to write a tweet regarding the presentation. It’s very kind of you. Instead of flooding my Twitter feed with ‘thank you, thank you’ messages, I have decided to cut’n'paste your messages and put a link into your Twitter profiles here on the site:

bensmithuk @3mobilebuzz Yep. Listening to @ew4n now. #devnest

vicchi I want @ew4n‘s tee-shirt #devnest http://twitpic.com/17rh3j

chaffeet 30% of mobile apps are still developed for RIM according to @ew4n at #devnest 7.

richardBarley @ew4n banging the drum for Symbian at #devnest. Great stuff and good to hear

iamdanw Being pitched at to develop apps for symbian again. Shame symbian is an awful app environment, for both users and developers #devnest

(Dan, I agree, but do check out qt.nokia.com — Qt is really going to change things for the platform)

stevekennedyuk Great talk by @ew4n about mobile state of play – it’s all about Symbian #devnest

ketan @ew4n I would’ve stayed with nokia but ui and sync with my computer for email/music much easier on iPhone #devnest

(Fair point Ketan, but remember, you’re using the equivalent of a Fisher Price handset — capable, but the one-thing-at-a-time user model drives me nuts)

vicchi Just heard @ew4n equate Vodafone 360 with wife swapping. Never thought #devnest would be this much fun.

natts Amusing yet realistic talk by @ew4n at#devnest – iPhone only has 14% of world smartphone market in 2009 – http://bkite.com/3np10

michchapman At #devnest listening to @ew4n. Hmm when would be a good time to sneak out for more pizza?!

MarkABaker Fart apps is where its at. via @ew4n at #devnest

docstuart Enjoying first visit to #devnest, great first talk from @ew4n

ketan @ew4n great talk on mobile app development! Thanks. #devnest

MarkABaker missed recording @ew4n presentation at #devnest shame as execllent. Will ask him to do it again later on.

becva great first presentation from @ew4n #devnest

richardBarley Great talk from @ew4n on state of mobile development landscape. #devnest

nuxnix After @ew4n s talk at #devnest I am thinking the unthinkable – switching my iPhone. No not back to Symbian, but to give Android a try

@ew4n great presentation on #devnest yesterday

micrypt @ew4n Thanks for the splendid talk at #devnest yesterday. http://slidesha.re/9MRW10

Thank you everyone for your patience and attention — and thank you to the organisers for inviting me.

By the way: The organisers of Devnest have a 48-hour hackathon event coming soon, all focused on twitter. It’s called WarbleCamp and it’s on the 8th and 9th of May in London. Plus, it’s free. All the details you need are here: http://warblecamp.org/.

Finally, kudos to the sponsors of Devnest: PayPalX, Inuda, Sun Startup Essentials and Multizone Limited.

Hi

Does anyone have any expertise on this? I am looking to have a Performance Management App created and want to sub-contract the work. Unsure if Server or Client app is best – as I need the server to be able to recall them.

Anyone with skills and interested, please email me,

Thanks

Jim

I’ve been on to DeviceAnywhere and asked if they’d agree to cover the cost of producing a Mobile Industry Review mobile developer networking event both in London and in Paris. Based on good response we’ll aim to do this as part of our European Tour and take the events to other cities across the region.

The concept? I want to meet developers. And I want to put a huge big spotlight on them and their work. What’s more, I’ve decided to take it a bit further with these events. I’m aiming to profile every single attendee and put up a screenshot/overview of at least one of their applications with associated links and background. I think it’s doable.

So if you’re a mobile developer and you can get to London or Paris, you’re invited to feature.

BUT — and this is a key point — because I want to meet everyone personally (not just a handshake at the front door a la MIR Unlimited Drinks), I’m going to limit the number to 15 people. Possibly 20 if you’re going to bring a friend.

The deal I’ve done with DeviceAnywhere to cover the cost of hosting the events also includes a free time-limited account extended beyond the normal one they offer, for every developer. It took some wangling but I’m pleased — the service is shit hot, especially if you’re trying to develop on international devices that you don’t want to purchase. (Read my DeviceAnywhere overview here).

There’s no limit to your size. If you’re a one-man developer, or a 500+ organisation of mobile geniuses, no problem.

We’re aiming for the London event to take place toward the end of this month, with Paris in early February before the Mobile World Cup Congress.

So here’s the value proposition:

I want to profile mobile developers. I’d like to meet 15 or so in London and another 15 from the burgeoning Parisian mobile scene. 15 is the upper number I reckon I can handle as I need to write a profile on each for the site.

It will involve about 2 hours of your time in a centrally located hotel bar or club. I’m thinking of holding the London one at private members’ club, One Alfred Place, just off Tottenham Court Road in the West End. Nice and relaxed there. I could use some suggestions for Paris.

It will involve:

* Meeting and chatting with the Mobile Industry Review team including me, Dan Lane, Ben Smith and quite possibly the uber-effervescent James Whatley. We might even be able to get Jonathan Jensen along depending on schedules.

* Drinks on the house. Or, more accurately, drinks on my pocket. And a bit of food.

* Meeting with other mobile developers. Bring some cards.

* The opportunity to knock about with DeviceAnywhere and actually play with the service.

* A one-to-one with me on camera, telling us what you do. Each interview should take about 5 minutes.

We’ll then publish the videos and overviews here on Mobile Industry Review during the proceeding week after the event.

So if you’d like to come along, drop me an email with the subject ‘MIR Developer Event’ and we’ll get you on the list.

Yup, you read that right.

YES there is an LG Mobile Developer Network. Finally. Excellent.

Unfortunately it is stuck in the year 1997.

Yes indeed! If you’d like to get your application on to LG handsets, it’s as simple as:

1. Spend AGES writing a sodding proposal. (Ok so it’s only two pages…)

2. Formally submit the proposal to LG. (They do have an online system for this).

3. Submit a proposal and wait for fooking AGES. (I’m assuming)

4. The LG Business Proposal team spent AGES looking through your proposal. (I’m assuming)

5. Keep waiting for AGES. (I’m assuming)

6. If you are successful — that’s a big IF — you and LG’s Business Proposal team create a contract together.

7. Insert another few months of arsing about. (I’m assuming)

8. If you are LUCKY you will be able to distribute your software on the LG Mobile Developer Network, LG Mobile.com and MAYBE even get it pre-loaded.

Well that’s easy then.

Don’t hold your breath.

It looks rather complicated.

Has anyone you know been successful? If so, I’d like to know so we can shine some light on the process.

If you thought the Blackberry Developer’s Programme was a bit… rubbish, congratulations. You appear to have been correct:

When we launched Palringo on the Blackberry in May, we saw an equally impressive increase in downloads. But, developing applications for the Blackberry is really hard work. So we thought it would be advantageous to join the RIM Developer or Alliance Programme. Although they charge £1,200 to join, we thought this would be worthwhile, since it might help us deal with some of the technical issues in a more streamlined way and have access to some of the their less accessible API’s.

Believe it or not, we have found it extremely difficult to get RIM to generate an invoice. We have an account manager, but as of yet no contact from RIM.

If someone from RIM is reading this, PLEASE get in touch with us. We would really like to enhance Palringo functionality on the Blackberry. And, we really want to join your developer programme.

regards
Kerry

Kerry Ritz
CEO
Palringo
www.palringo.com

That’s absolutely ridiculous Kerry.

I’ve heard similar remarks from other mobile application developers talking about Blackberry.

Oh dear.

Voice and messaging provider, AQL, are staging a developer competition to both celebrate their 10th anniversary and to stimulate development across the industry. Always good news.

Dr Adam Beaumont, top chap at AQL, comments:

We’re seeing a host of applications crop up start to use our interfaces, from twitter-like applications and facebook plug-ins through to integration with legal software and CRM systems

Aye. There’s actually a lot of innovation going on in the marketplace — but it’s always useful to stimulate it. So if you think you’ve got a good idea that could make use of multiple APIs (e.g. SMS, MMS, Voice, Fax and Email), then you really should give a bit of attention to the AQL Developer Competition.

Stuart, their Biz Dev chap explains:

We’re specifically looking for clever use of multiple APIs together so any combination of SMS/MMS/Voice/Fax/Email. These can be either “self-contained” applications or websites, or they can be interfaces which “enable” third party applications (such as facebook) access to aql functionality. The winners will be notified on the 15th of November. It only remains for me to wish you all the best of luck and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to send me a private message [via the AQL developer forum].

The developer rules are right here.

I’m going to be judging along with Dr Mike Short of o2, Jay Daley (CTO of Nominet), Victor Keegan of The Guardian and Dr Adam himself.

I’m thinking of a few applications already. You’ve got a lot to play with there. Lots of APIs and possibilities. Conveniently, AQL will also provide text-in numbers free of charge to developers for the duration of the competition.

Our first featured developer is Mark Tynan of mobile travel experts, ShopQwik. The application is nothing short of a piece of genius and allows you to book a flight and/or hotel, anywhere on the planet, within about 60-90 seconds, direct from your mobile. What’s more, if you’re American (true paperless ticketing at just about every US airport), then the service really comes into it’s own. You don’t need to bother printing out nonsense. Just click, click and you’re done. You can get all your details at the touch of a button via the ShopQwik application.

In the video below, Mark talks about evolving ShopQwik along with the challenges they face developing for hundreds of handsets — and gives a perspective on how useful DeviceAnywhere would be in that process.

DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow: ShopQwik from Ewan MacLeod on Vimeo.

If you’d like to feature in the DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow, drop me a note. Provided you’re in the UK, we’ll do our best to try and feature you. That means a visit from me, bearing gifts in the form of an extended DeviceAnywhere trial. We’ll aim to profile your company and get your viewpoints on the DeviceAnywhere service.

The roadshow is kindly supported by DeviceAnywhere.

I was interviewing Mark for the DeviceAnywhere Developer Roadshow we’re doing here at SMS Text News. I tell you, it’s just brilliant. Brilliant. I’m thoroughly enjoying being able to show DeviceAnywhere to top quality developer/entrepreneurs like Mark.

I sat him down and flipped open the DeviceAnywhere Studio (check out the walk-through) and brought up a few devices.

“Awww, look at that!” he said, as I opened up a few handsets, “It’s like having the handset there in your hand!”

Mark went on to explain that he’s spent about 20,000 pounds or more on handsets over the last three years (including contracts). With burgeoning demand for ShopQwik on a whole load of different platforms, testing is a key issue for him — he reckons he’ll be able to get some excellent benefits from using DeviceAnywhere, although I’ll leave the specifics ’til the video.

We’ll have it cut and online next week.

Meantime I’m off now to catch my flight to Dublin for Unlimited Drinks tonight!

I decided we needed to do a roadshow a few months ago. Spread the word. The mobile industry is difficult enough (as per my piece on Monday) without adding even more arse in the form of development and testing woes.

(If, by the way, I was aware of any competitors with such a comprehensive offering, I’d also be including them too.)

I’ve already covered the basic proposition of DeviceAnywhere in a previous post so here’s a quick primer before we jump in:

You want to test your applications and services on hundreds of different devices on different networks, right? Don’t buy them all yourself, just log on to DeviceAnywhere’s site and, bish-bash-bosh, you’ll be using a real, live unit, remotely. Don’t mess around testing easily repeatable actions on a ton of different devices, DeviceAnywhere’ll do that.

Right.

I logged into DeviceAnywhere and added a few packages to my account. First off I chose 3UK. This really is a piece of genius, this service. With the 3UK package, you get to play with a total of 39 live devices. That is, 39 devices that you can remotely mess around with — each with it’s own sim card and account on 3UK. A quick glance down the list shows handsets from 3′s key suppliers — LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. They have, ready for me to play with (amongst others) the U-300 and U970 from LG, a horrifying RAZR 3x from Motorola, a veritable cacophony of Nokias (6000 series, E61, E65, N70, N73, N95) and a big showing of Sonys (K530 all the way up to the K850 and W950s).

I want a bit of variety with my testing.

I decided to add AT&T! Woo! I can actually check out American devices — all 158 of them!

And that’s only the first of four pages worth of devices, standing by for testing.

What about the Vodafone and o2 range of test units? Here’s Voda’s first page:

And o2′s first page:

(Interesting to see the “Helio Cocoon” — for a moment I thought that was referring to the US MVNO…)

Right, let’s have a play with one of the devices.

It’s quite simple. At the top of the DeviceAnywhere page, there’s a toolbar:

See the big orange button? Click it and then this pops up:

DeviceAnywhere’s Studio is java-based so it’ll work on whatever you’re using, provided you’ve got Java support (sometimes I use it via my Apple, other times via a nearby PC).

Here’s the login box via my Apple:

You need to allow the app to load it’s various datasets — perhaps a 2-3 minutes — and then you’re up and running.

Now, before we go there. I’ve actually uploaded Anthony Pranata’s brilliant ‘Screenshot’ application to my DeviceAnywhere library — the concept being that I’m pretending I’ve just made it and I’m going to demonstrate it working for you with DeviceAnywhere Studio. I thought it’d be neat to publish a screenshot I took on a remote device in this manner (Although you can take snapshots and video from the Studio easily).

Right! Let’s get the Studio up…

There’s my package — it’s defaulted to Vodafone UK. Scroll down and I can choose to visit and play about with any one of the devices that’s available. Sometimes you’ll see someone’s already working on one and it’ll be marked with a little no-entry sign. You can choose to hop on to it the moment they’ve finished work.

Let’s swap to my AT&T package:

Ok. Let’s have a look at the E61…

Click, click… woosh. It’s mine for the moment! See the locked icon?

Right. Let’s have a play!

It’s startling when the device pops up on your screen like this:

I’m hesitant for a moment then I decided to click about on the E61′s keypad…

The device wake’s up from standby:

Right, let’s get on the net, eh?

Before I know it I’m surfing AT&T’s homepage and trying to search for Anthony’s site:

I typed the URL incorrectly! So I thought I’d then try out a Nokia N95 from Vodafone:

See how you can run devices next to each other? Wicked! I typed in Anthony’s site URL and woosh:

A quick glance into the N95′s applications folder confirms the app installed:

.. and here it is running!

Then I installed Nimbuzz. Worked like a charm… and then I decided it was time to play with the iPhone! I wanted to give that a go…

I’m without my iPhone at the moment as I’ve given it to my other half… so let’s have a look at SMS Text News on the iPhone’s Safari browser:

Nice! Ok. Right. Now I want to add a bookmark on to the front screen… (I’m simply dragging my mouse over the iPhone as though I was tapping it with my finger)

And let’s see if the icon is there…

Ah, brilliant! There it is.

So that ends the walk-through.

If you’re a developer charged with making your service available to as many people as possible across this mobile industry of ours, I defy you not to get value from DeviceAnywhere. If you’d like a trial, you can get a few hours free with no commitments from their site at www.deviceanywhere.com with immediate activation. If you’d like a bit more time, drop me a mail (ewan@smstextnews.com) and I’ll get you double the time to play with. Once you’re out of trial, the cost starts at around $100/month per package (depending on promotions) and then around $16 an hour.

Interestingly, there’s a feature on the DeviceAnywhere site under your account that lists the most popular devices and operators being tested that day, by package. The winner today form the 3UK package? The E61. And the AT&T package? The Apple iPhone. No surprise, eh?

Back to the roadshow. We’re visiting ShopQwik soon and then Palringo. Standby!

If you’ve come across DeviceAnywhere before, then, you know what I’m talking about and can nod sagely with me.

If you haven’t, then just wait ’til you see it. It’s pure genius.

When I arrived at the briefing, I saw, on the table, a pizza-box-sized server — one of those that you’re used to seeing in a rack, in a data centre. Although this wasn’t just any 1U server. No, sir. There was a Blackberry inside it. Literally. I could see the Blackberry’s screen flashing away — the phone had been disassembled a little and plugged into the circuitry of the server. As though The Borg had interfaced with it.

I nodded to the DeviceAnywhere chaps, “So, you can actually control that?” I said, pointing to the Blackberry screen, “From here?” I said, pointing to the laptop they’d setup next to it.

“Yup!”

Wow. The implications of such a facility hit home immediately. If you’re a developer and you’d like immediate access to a Blackberry, a Nokia, an iPhone… I am not talking simulation or emulation — in fact, a whole range of mobile handsets (500+), working on veritable array of international networks, you can have it remotely over the internet. One or two clicks with the Mobile Complete client software and within seconds, you’re using a real device on, a live network of choice.

Want to upload an application? Go ahead. Want to send a text message? Sure. Go for it. Each phone has it’s own account on a mobile network (you pick what you want, e.g. Blackberry on Vodafone) and you can rent the phone exclusively or for a few hours to test with. You can do absolutely anything you want to the device — when your testing/tinkering session is finished, it’ll be reset to factory default. What’s more, the pricing is eminently affordable, whether you’re developing in your bedroom or a multi-national.

They don’t just offer easy access to a whole range of mobile devices — they also offer automation, scripting and monitoring: Absolutely invaluable for most developers. Just as an example, if you’re working away testing an application on a device and it freezes, well… not only is it a bit of an arse, you also want to know *what happened* to cause the freeze, e.g. a memory overload or the like. That’s where DeviceAnywhere really comes into its own. Plus, the automation tools can save you hours and hours of time — think, for example, trying to test out performance at peak network congestion times in different time zones (when you actually want to be asleep).

It’s a really, really useful offering, DeviceAnywhere. It’s exactly what developers need when they’re developing for international markets (and, let’s face it, if you’re not, there’s a problem). It’s all very well having a Sony handset on each domestic mobile network. That’s useful. But when you get an enquiry from someone using a Nokia N95 8GB wondering why your service isn’t working, device-specific bugs can be a real annoyance.

Clearly, anyone who’s doing any sort of mobile development or marketing needs access to DeviceAnywhere.

Which is why, when I talked to DeviceAnywhere again recently, I suggested they support a Mobile Complete roadshow here at SMS Text News. I was delighted when they readily agreed.

So where’s what we’re going to do. I’d like to spread the word about the service. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to four different mobile developers in the UK — large and small. We’re going to their offices (or, in some cases, they’ll be coming to SMS Text News towers) and we’re going to give them a demo DeviceAnywhere account and see what they make of the service. We’ll write each company up and do some videos too.

Standby! The first roadshow entry will be online shortly!

Opening up APIs is usually one of the smartest moves a software company can make: all sorts of creative people come up with all sorts of creative apps that get more people using your service, and you sit back and soak up the glory and extra users.

Alas, the APIs are only available for the fring client on the Symbian S60 9.2 at the moment, although Fring’s promising more platforms are on the way before too long.

Here’s Fring’s Roy and Sagi talking about the new APIs:

More information over at the developer site.

Next week, SMS Text News begins our UK mobile developer roadshow. This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I’m aiming to visit with four different mobile developers across the next few weeks to profile them and their applications on SMS Text News and get their opinions on DeviceAnywhere’s MobileComplete service. I’ve seen it demonstrated live and I know people who use it — it’s a regular piece of magic and, I reckon, an essential service for developers. So much so that I talked to DeviceAnywhere and I’ve asked them to give each developer that we showcase a free test account to play with and they’ve agreed to support the roadshow.

If you’re potentially interested, the only mandate is that you need to be UK based so I can easily visit you (or vice versa) for an interview. We’ll publish full details here on Monday. Please do drop me a mail (ewan@smstextnews.com) if you’d like to be profiled.

So far, says the magazine, 1,700 companies have applied for funding and just two have got it. The two in question are Pelago which makes a location-based app called Whrrl, which uses data from your social network to make recommendations and iControl “which makes a home automation application that would give iPhone users remote control over air conditioners, lighting, window shades, and so on”.

For a device that’s had the innovative label stuck to it far too often, you’d think that the iPhone would have inspired some unique applications – while these Pelago and iControl’s apps are doubtless clever, there are already shedloads of similar applications on the market. Apparently, the VCs behind the fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have also made one other offer to a start-up and are looking at 10 others seriously. Hopefully, the iPhone may inspire some inventive applications yet.

“Once you have devices out there from Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and so on, there’s a much larger potential market on Android than for the iPhone. There’s a single manufacturer, it’s targeted at a particular demographic, and it falls far short of the 1 billion mobile phones sold every year worldwide.”

Miner probably has a point here: the Android platform is going to be available to any number of device manufacturers making both high and low end devices. As a result, there’s definitely a far larger potential market for Android. But, that said, Apple’s iPhone was never a mass-market play – it was always going to be aimed at those with a bit of cash to spend – so the two aren’t necessarily rivals to start with.

As a footnote, it’s not all trash-talking: Miner also said if he were a developer, he’d be working on both platforms.