Tag Archives: Windows Mobile

MultiScreen not Omniscreens or Second-Screen

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I strongly believe that the space between the screens that allows the brand to connect their consumer experience is critical. I call this “digital Velcro”.  Connecting your consumer screens seamlessly throughout their day is one of the most important challenges we face.

Additionally, one media experience plus other media screen experience equals a multiple of value to the brand: “1+1=3”  This is not a second screen debate. It is a consumer journey challenge that impacts all brands and retailers in their media buying and engaging. That is why we focus on the MultiScreen not the Omniscreens or Second-Screen discussion.

Next week on Tuesday and Wednesday in NYC I will be hosting the MultiScreen Summit. We incubated this event concept in Los Angeles, last year and have expanded the MultiScreen Summit to include Abu Dhabi and Berlin (which will be held in October). Our goal is to establish a global platform to address the growing needs of business to create a seamless digital experiences across their customers, fans, audiences, shoppers . . . screens.

So who owns this? CIO, CMO and CDO? CIO needs to get together with the CMO and the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) needs to become the Chief Disruptive Office (CDO) making backend process screens work with marketing engagement on the consumer screens.

Data has always been important. In a connect device world with location and behavioral
MultiScreen economy and media strategy will become the most important element tying a brands strategy in place.

The question is: How can buyers think horizontally across their consumer screens and add value to their vertical investments? We need to buy media both vertically and horizontally. Small screen buys need to have native mobile strategy attached that go beyond CPMs and drive mobile conversion goal into the cloud and into the mall.data, this consumer journey is more complex than we had assumed. We now know that we need to work harder to drive real shopper insights and shopper marketing goals. Data tools we can use now include location, screen insights and digital relationship building.

As the MultiScreen Summit Chair, I am so grateful to have such an remarkable group of media thought leaders onstage next week at the MultiScreen Summit, June 11th and 12th.  www.thescreensummit.com.

Samsung Abandoning Android? Tis Tizen?

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The elephant in the room at the Galaxy S4 launch in New York last week was Android. Not one word about the Google OS. Is all well in Camelot?

Some industry pundits such as ABI Research analyst Aapo Markkanen say there is a clear and intentional distancing of Samsung from its existing OS partner, Android.  Does Samsung want to reduce its almost total dependence on the platform over the next few years? Samsung seems to quietly be building independently on top of the Android OS and may make a jump to a more neutral industry partner by 2016.

Window’s has not offered a compelling alternative to Android. What are other options?

Mozilla (Firefox) and Linux (Tizen) are going head to head to capture next generation developers with their web-based operating system. The Firefox and Tizen SDK and API allow developers to use web-based HTML5.

Tis Tizen

Tizen (a Linux Foundation initiative) may have the edge. Tizen is an open source, standards-based software platform for multiscreen devices (smartphones, tablets, netbooks, in-vehicle devices, and smart TVs). Like Firefox, it provides a cross-screen environment for application developers, based on HTML5.

Samsung abandoned its homegrown smartphone OS,  Bada, early this year and announced that it would start developing Tizen-based devices: ”We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions.”

The implications are significant to the connected screen economy and place application development in a more mature web main-frame on the device. The application store now can exist in a more manageable web environment with bookmark apps and not get lost in widget-design interface promoted by Apple.

Interview: 10 Mobile Big Things in 2012 (BNN)

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Business News Network 7.5 mins: 10 Mobile Big Things in 2012 Gary Schwartz, CEO, Impact Mobile, joins BNN to speak about the 10 big mobile things in 2012.

2012 “Top 10″ MOBILE trends & rankings

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In a season where every second tweet and Google+ post is a look-back or forward at the “mobile” year, it is sometimes difficult to navigate all the insights. Just Google “Mobile Top 10 . . .” and you will find every blogger, publication and pundit providing their vision of what is newsworthy, trendworthy or simply rankable in mobile.

The proliferation of mobile “Top 10s” is a good thing. It is proof of all the many verticals areas that mobile has intersected. Health, IT, gaming, banking, retail, social, payment, fraud, security, privacy, patent trolling – all now have some form of a top 10 mobile list.

The explosion of the Mobile Top Ten list shows both how disruptive mobile has become and, also, what a massive audience it commands. Top 10-related news headlines seem to drive more hits and be retweeted more than other items.

(Twitter even tweets its top 10 most retweeted tweets. No. 2 being @LilTunechi Lil Wayne WEEZY F “aaaaaaahhhhhhmmmmm baaaaakkkkkkkkkk.” The 2011 top of the top 10 retweets was by Wendy’s restaurants “RT for a good cause. Each retweet sends 50c to help kids in foster care. #TreatItFwd.” Wendy’s raised $1.8 million.)

We seem to all need, what Perry Hoekstra in his blog calls an “Obligatory 2011 Top Ten Mobile Story List.” I presume it helps us simplify this expanding, complex world of mobile. If we can prioritize importance and cut off the discussion at ten, the list can help us make sense of mobile.

Lists also keep us honest. We never are right on half our predictions. Remember our 2010 trends and forecasts? They are out there in the blogosphere for all those with 20/20 hindsight to chuckle.

In December 2010, we all had an opinion on HP webOS-powered tablet plans – that never happened. And where on the list was Google’s purchase of Motorola, ostensibly as fodder for their IP wars against Apple? Missed that one.

But the biggest problem with these lists is their length. In the wasteland of eggnog and turkey dinners, I ask, where are the mobile Clifs Notes? Where is the super-list? Where is the list of lists?

Steve Yankovich, head of mobile for eBay, tells us that the mobile consumer’s attention span is roughly 15 seconds, nose-to-phone. EBay designs its mobile pages for the dwell time at an elevator or the time idling at the red light. Perhaps, in the spirit of mobile efficiency, we better design our year-end prognostications for this small attention-deficit window.

This holiday season, I add to the litany of lists my retrospect and forecast of mobile, but below in 100 words or less.

2011

  1. Facebook timeline set it back in history
  2. Google+ builds circle of trust
  3. Symbian sang swansong
  4. Apple continued to make data a free commodity
  5. Spectrum war showed its dark side
  6. All screens called mobile
  7. Amazon cloud disrupts the mall
  8. Consumer data became jewel in the crown
  9. CarrierIQ poster-child of privacy angst
  10. NFC wallet traded press, not payment

2012

  1. NFC proximity marketing, not proximity payment – yet
  2. X9 (ISO) delivers mobile security recommendations
  3. Apple says “I Do” to NFC
  4. Research In Motion exits stage right
  5. Cloud checkout is optimized and mainstream
  6. Super App = HTML5 browser
  7. Focus on prepaid market services
  8. LTE networks and spectrum become big issues
  9. Mobile privacy hype continues
  10. Microsoft and Nokia enter stage left

Not quite 100 words, but near enough.

Happy Mobile New Year.

Thank Google-ness, it’s Windows?

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Mobility is a treacherous business. Cell phones are only used for an average of 18 months before dropping down toilets, falling off tables and general m-wear and tear drives the consumer back into the buyers’ market. For fashion and trend conscious consumer this cycle is probably shorter.

And mobile folk are a fickle bunch. While some may be diehard Apple or Android loyalist, the masses swap out the old for the new in rapid succession. Every time a screen smashes, a phone drops down a manhole or domiciles in a taxi (without you), there is a fresh opportunity for a handset manufacturer and an operating platform to woo the new shopper.

Of course, there is some stickiness. Consumers may be faithful to their Blackberry Messenger group, or the slick screen design of their iPhone, or the price point of their Android.

But when shoppers are back on the market they tend to be unchaste.

It is not just the device. Apple has made sure that the consumer is well aware that if you want APPs there is only one show in town. Developers worldwide are working hard to make sure that Apple and Android operating systems can market themselves and sell based on access to this wealth of content. RIM’s Playbook and Hewlett-Packard’s webOS never stood a chance without a preexisting content library.

Apple’s marketing genius continues to position the iPhone as the aspirational handheld, while Google’s open-android operating system on Samsung, HTC and Motorola continues to drive the bulk of smartphone sales. With Hewlett-Packard declaring defeat and Blackberry (RIM) and Nokia under siege, it looks like a two-horse race.

But recently things have become a little difficult to track.

Apple starts an IP war, litigating against Samsung and winning a stay of the release of its new TAB in Europe. Google’s purchase of Motorola, ostensibly for IP, suddenly makes the giant of the cloud a retail-bound cell phone manufacture.  This forces Samsung and HTC Android loyal hardware partners to reevaluate their strategy and possibly further diversify their operating systems.

The pressure of the looming patent war and Google’s unsettling role in the device market is opening the door for Windows reenter the market.

With the salvo of recent litigation, the Android operating system is turning into a liability.  Open-Android does not come bundled with an indemnification for the hardware vendors. Windows Phone’s does! This is becoming an expensive problem for handset manufacturers. Samsung and HTC have found themselves paying for their own legal defense and paying on any ensuing royalty settlement.

In the background, Windows has been quietly enforcing its IP rights globally. Goldman Sachs analysts estimated that Microsoft will make nearly half a billion dollars in 2012 on royalties of $3 to $6 per Android device from vendors like Samsung and HTC.

Microsoft’s “Android” royalties is estimated to be TRIPLE the revenue earned on Windows Phone licenses.

With all these mobile machinations, Windows 8 may be powering your new device pick on the shelf next year. Microsoft may allow for light computing with more robust utility than Apple or Android.

Next time your phone-du-jour falls down the stairwell or is left at the bus station, a phone powered by a Windows operating system maybe the new flavor of the day.