I got my first private mobile phone back in 1994. It was Nokia 2110, extremely small at that time. At that time you couldn’t get hold of wireless handsfree. Then a couple of years later I got my first Bluetooth enabled mobile. I can’t remember the brand but I do remember the first day I walked down a street in Stockholm and made a phone call on that thing. People looked at me suspiciously and I should probably be grateful that [click to continue…]
The first app that my mobile app start-up JAJDO released last sunday, Buildo Rescue Sticker book, suddenly turned up in the New and Noteworthy section in the Apple app store. This is off course great news! There’s more coming soon!
Obviously we’re not really there yet. But this spoof gives us a pretty good idea where technology is heading. On top of that I’m getting a smile for free! You will too.
I play golf. I enjoy watching golf tournaments. I’m spending the summer in the lovely Swedish archipelago….without any coverage of the British Open…so I turn to the iPhone app store.
There it is. The second big golf tournament iPhone application in a month. US open lead the way with their application. If you’re into sailing you might have noticed the Volvo Ocean Race application.
The British Open application is a regular news app with videos, timings, player profiles and a video based course guide. On top of that they’ve integrated a small part of their socialise section, the Open Twitter profile into it even though I wish they would have gone one step further and create a #theOpen tag or something where everyone could have interacted and contributed.
Some of the greatest sporting events in the world have already caught up with the trend but we’re still in the early stages. Any brand that has some sort of event based presence should look at creating mobile apps. The possibility to integrate advertising solutions, games, videos, news, schedules, GPS functionality and even the tickets creates huge possibilities for brands that want to stay in touch with their fan base 24/7. Brands that want to reach that fan base should look for unique partnerships and integrate themselves into these applications with exclusive material.
In the end I think these event based applications will end up becoming great best practice examples when it comes to mobile advertising and that will in it turn speed the fact that money will move from traditional media into digital ones.
Are you heading an event in 2010? What will you ad to the mobile map?
In 1996 I was very proud of my first Palm Pilot. You might recall them – grey little bastards with a pen so you could write the alphabet instead of typing it with your fingers. I was happy to transfer all my contacts and calendars to my Palm since that would hopefully lead to me not loosing them ever again. Today we’re all talking about iPhone and Android and how they have a bunch of applications that you can use in your phone. But back then in 1996 Palm was ahead of the game and multiple sites offered thousands of applications that you could easily download to your Palm
Well, today Palm, in front of their fans introduced the Palm Pre. Their latest phone with the new Palm Web OS that made their stock jump 35%. According to the company, anyone who knows CSS, HTML and XML will be able to develop for the new Web OS. The phone is of course packed with everything you expect including GPS and according to Engadget it will be available in the first half of 2009.
Where does this leave us?
Apple, Google and now Palm. Three companies that doesn’t have the mobile phone history Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola and Samsung has, have proven that they all understand the future business of mobile communication better than any of the old dragons.
The future of mobile communications is open source, usability, social communication and the players are new.
Oh, forgot. Not a word about Adobe Flash in this phone either. It’s all CSS, HTML, XML. All you digital advertising people out there – get on the boat, we’re changing direction!
Today I installed the new Joost iPhone app released this friday. I’m amazed beyond explanation. This single app will change mobile TV. It’s the first application for a mobile that lets you watch full length movies. And you get to choose from any of Joosts +46000 videos.
What strikes me is the fact that my iPhone is slowly turning into a wireless remote/tv unit. I have the channels (read apps) YouTube and Swedish Aftonbladet to choose from. And as of today I’ve added Joost. You can be sure that Hulu, Vimeo, Blip and the others will follow. Swedish SVT should have something coming up any day now. If you get the Apple Component AV Cable then soon you won’t need a DVD since everything will be accessible via your iPhone.
This also turn things up side down for the entire hotel industry that makes shit loads of money of in-room entertainment. Bring your cables and you got your full set of personalized entertainment in your pocket.
Another consequence might actually be that TV commercials strikes back. Think of it. iPhone makes it possible to geo position advertising. In other words, TVC’s can be better and more relevant than ever. Since the content is sent via IP then we can also know exactly how many people are really watching the TVC. Finally use the stabilizer in the phone to recognize if people are dropping the phone in any way while the TVC is on and you’ll know if people actually is watching. No room for strange measurements here. If we stand seeing it in our mobile, that’s another questions though.
Right now Joost has disabled 3G or Edge. You need a Wireless internet connection to view the content. The Joost people cannot be that stupid so this will of course be taken away in the next update.
Aha. So you’re still at home crying about that car you drove of the bridge while texting ‘Look, I can drive without holding the steering wheel’. Well, not to worry. Vlingo has got just the thing for you. These guys have launched an application that allows mobile phone users to speak and look-up information such as local restaurant listings to film schedules.
Personally however I do wonder why people don’t call instead. Talking brings you closer. Text does not. Anyway, here it is.
Caught this one on GigaOm after reading a post on Frogdesign, an old favorite of mine. By the way – check out Frogdesigns competence sharing place called Design Mind. A great read!
Richard Gatarski wrote on his blog earlier today about a new iPhone app called Sekai Camera. It’s so cool so I just had to spread the news.
The Sekai Camera was presented by TonchiDot on TechCrunch50 earlier in september. This new app makes it possible to combine online data with offline positions. Basically, if you turn the iPhone camera on you can start tagging GPS positions. A clean little user interface let’s you sort and view content on the live world the way you want it. This really shows what you can do with a mobile that is equipped with GPS, Motion sensors, camera, 3G connections. Most important however is the SDK that let’s people build whatever they want for the phone. I wrote a couple of month ago about Social Television. Some of you might have thought that that vision was far off? Well, now you see. Everything is possible.
Great. Finally you don’t need to wear a red rose when you’re on a blind date!
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I’m listening (reading) in on the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference 2008 Keynote Live Coverage over at Macrumours. Lot’s of goodies of course. But the news about the iPhone is stunning. 3G and GPS! among other things… Head over there and enjoy! Head over to Apple’s site on iPhone instead.
This blog is written by Johan Ronnestam. He's widely regarded as one of Sweden’s leading speakers and authorities in the field of modern creative and conceptual thinking and skill of innovating brands and their communication. The readers of Microsoft Indikat has named Johan Swedens most influential authority within digital communication