Textopoly Mobile Blog » Guest

Social Media: Are You In or Are You Out?

Guest — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 19:05:03 +0000

As I think back to the ancient days of MySpace and how far social media and social networking have come since then, I realize that the future only holds greater and more advanced outlets for communicating, advertising, and relaying information. The most popular form of social media at this moment continues to be Facebook but it is followed closely behind by a vast number of social media sites including Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Renren, and Flickr.

Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics, put it best when he said that, “we don’t have a choice of whether we do social media, the question is how well we do it.” This is why companies such as our very own Textopoly are exploding into the social media world with full force. Facebook users, bloggers, and video downloaders have the ability to control how the world thinks about brands and their products. “Do you like what they are saying about your brand?”

Because brands are asking this question, companies such as Textopoly are leading the industry with their ability to use these social networks and other forms of social media to capture consumers and promote products. This industry is growing faster than seems possible yet the innovative minds that are powering these companies continue to challenge its speed. Can it be possible that social media is just a fad? Only time with tell. However, until the day that MySpace, Facebook, and upcoming social networks no longer exist, I highly recommend that brands take the leap into the social media world.

To see more about just how influential social media has become, check out the video below. (From where else but the social media site, YouTube)

Social Media Revolution

Mobile: Changing Faster Than You Can Say iPho—Nope, Too Slow!

Guest — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 16:13:35 +0000

As a devout user of my iPhone and someone who frequently purchases things via my mobile device, I find it interesting to dig into what motivates companies to advertise and sell their goods online. These statistics may have something to do with it…

eMarketer estimates that mobile use in the United States is at a remarkable 80%. With this large number of mobile users and the sophistication and variety of phones available to them, marketers have been given the opportunity to reach out to their audiences everywhere they go. What better motivation than to know that any alerts or updates on consumer products will go directly to the hand of the consumer wherever they are?

Also, the rise in smartphone use is one of the leading motivators behind marketers reaching out via mobile. Nielson expects that smartphones will be in the hands of half of US mobile users by the end of 2011. That is a huge rise in smartphone use and marketers should be eager to take advantage of the endless capabilities on smartphones.

While social networks are not the first thing that come to mind when thinking of mobile marketing, comScore’s statistic that the use of social networking applications has increased by 240% between April 2009 and April 2010, gives us a good idea as to why it is a popular method. Social networking is rapidly becoming one of the most prominent ways in which mobile users exchange information. Therefore, mobile marketers must take advantage of the expanding technology and reach out to their customers through the most popular and used trends.

If you have any thoughts on the upcoming mobile trends for marketers, please drop me an email at katie[at]textopoly.com! Also, feel free to check this article and the statistics out for yourself by clicking the link below…

http://leep.it/p0

Movin’ On Up, Smartphone Usage Rises

Guest — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:05:53 +0000

As most people in the United States know, mobile phones are no longer used simply for calling someone for a piece of quick information or directions from A to B. Mobile phones have become our lifelines.

If you’re anything like me, which probably 80% of the people I interact with on a daily basis are, we would be unable to function without the use of our handy (no pun intended) mobile phones with their ever-expanding capabilities. Whether it be the iPhone, Android, or Blackberry, users have become infatuated by the unlimited number of games, messaging applications, and internet use that are available with one touch of a finger.

To support my belief that mobile phone users are becoming more and more addicted to the multiple capabilities of a smartphone is a statistic showing that between the months of March and May 2010, smartphone usage has increased by 8.1%.

A few statistics that should have companies who want to sell their products salivating;

Nearly a third (31.9%) used their smartphones for web browsing
30% used downloaded applications
20.8% used their phones to access social networking sites or blogs

This is great news for companies who are hoping to expand their products and advertise in the mobile world. With the rise of smartphone usage, and overall web browsing on any mobile phone; companies and agencies are now given the opportunity to reach out to their audiences and give them the information they are seeking through WAP/mobile sites (which in my opinion are brilliant), text messages, and applications. These tactics just make things that much easier for their consumers to devour whatever their hearts desires!

If you feel like your brain just hasn’t taken in enough to convince you, feel free to check out the article yourself and let me know your thoughts!

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=131673&nid=116386

Mobile Intelligence – Mobile Barcodes

Guest — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:08:22 +0000

**This post is courtesy of Ben Tannenbaum from MX Telecom.

Mobile barcodes are experiencing a rise in visibility as of late. 57 percent of respondents to a recent Mobile Trends survey believe that mobile coupons and campaigns involving 2D barcodes will generate sales in 2010. There are all sorts of examples of mobile barcodes in the news, including JAGTAG for Sports Illustrated and ScanBuy for Esquire.

At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Neustar announced the first clearinghouse for barcodes, which allows barcodes from any advertiser or brand to be linked to web content independently of the barcode reader or service provider being used.

Great, but what exactly are they?

We’re all familiar with 1D (or linear) barcodes like the one above. You’ve seen them scanned at the supermarket checkout. They comprise a sequence of vertical black lines and white spaces of variable width, representing numbers. They are decoded by a reader to extract the information they contain. One problem is that the amount of data which a 1D barcode can carry is quite limited.

Fast-forward to 2D (or matrix) barcodes, like the one above, which are more robust and can hold a much higher density of information. They are formed by patterns of black and white squares, usually arranged on a square grid, and can encode thousands of alphanumeric and other characters.

Barcodes can be printed on product packaging, print advertising, and even posters. Many mobile phones can also display a barcode, allowing a reader to identify it. Phones can now be enabled to read a variety of 2D mobile barcodes, such as QR codes (currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes in Japan). The combination of camera phones and MMS allow users to transmit images via Short Code for decoding by the service provider, usually triggering a response.

Some of the most common uses of mobile barcodes are to request information, a service, or content from a Web site. It might be details of a promotion, or a discount voucher via SMS or MMS, or to activate a download of content (such as a video).

There are many types of 2D mobile barcodes. Some are in the public domain, meaning that they can be used by anyone without restriction or payment. Other developers have chosen to create proprietary bar codes that they alone control. One perceived benefit of public codes is that they promote recognized standards and interoperability. We’ll have to see how the Neustar’s barcode clearinghouse influences this effort.

-Ben Tannenbaum is the Communications Manager for MX Telecom and is really excited about the potential of mobile barcodes! Follow Ben on Twitter.

In Which I Am A Luddite

Guest — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:55:33 +0000

**This post is courtesy of Brian Leubitz and was original posted on Calitics entitled “In Which I Am a Luddite”

I love technology. Love, love, love. Gadgets, computers, phones, all of it. If it has electrons powering its innards, I’m probably going to like it.

Yet, this video chills me to the core. Probably not for its technological aspects so much as for what it portends. In it, a company called VeraFirma shows off its method of signing petitions via the iPhone. In the abstract and in principle, it’s a pretty neat idea. Verafirma has done a bunch of research, and thinks these signatures should be valid. Sec. of State Bowen has not yet commented on the issue, so nobody knows for sure.

However, one thing that is certain? If this method of signing a petition is upheld, the current requirements for getting something on the ballot are far too low. If this method is allowed, we will see a free for all of initiatives over the next few years until we finally do something about the initiative system. Think you’ve seen a lot of parental notification measures? Expect them on every ballot. Likewise for marriage equality and other gay rights issues. As soon as marriage equality passes, the LGBT community will be expected to defend that right at every election. The labor movement will see constant ballot attacks, as will consumers.

In fact, where this is getting its first go? Well, with an initiative to ban public employee unions from using dues money for politics. The measure is being pushed by the state’s many right-wing anti-tax “tea party” fringe. It is certainly an interesting choice for a company that is run by three Democrats with a history in state politics. Most notably, Jude Barry became very prominent with his role in the Dean campaign, and then ran Steve Westly’s 2006 campaign for governor.

Sure, there will be some progressive measures, but a system that lessens the cost of ballot access to something any two-bit organization with an email list can accomplish? Well, let’s face it folks, we’re not Athens, we’re too big, we have far too many voters for us all to properly consider each issue. We can’t handle that much direct democracy.

I love the spirit of innovation, and the excitement that future holds. Yet, we must also look at the bigger questions of why and why now?

- Brian Leubitz is a recovering attorney, and just completed his master’s degree in public policy at the Goldman School of Public policy at UC-Berkeley.

Evolution of Mobile Location Based Services

Guest — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:10:11 +0000

**This post is courtesy of Aalok Jariwala. Check out his site @ http://www.alokj.com.

The synergy of mobile technologies such as short messaging service (SMS), browsing internet (GPRS/Edge/3G), multimedia messaging service (MMS), accelerometers, location based services, microphones for voice recognition, and cameras provide more functionality for mobile device users than ever before. It is observed that more and more technology has been embedded in the reasonable packet device called a cell phone. The cell phone has become a basic necessity of people of different ages, social and economic classes, regions, and professions.

My guest posts will discuss about location-based services, uses of local mobile search, and how mobile devices could help in other areas of business such as customer relationship management, transaction management, loyalty return, and social media. These services have led to pervasive computing, (also called as ubiquitous computing), is a seamlessly connected environment of different technologies such as internet, Wi-Fi, GSM/CDMA/WiMAX, GPS, and sensors. This paradigm is also called ambient intelligence, or ’every ware.’ This is a post-desktop model where human-computer interaction for information processing is done in such a way that people will not realize they use computers in their day-to-day lives.

- Aalok Jariwala
“I believe ‘location’ plays a very important role in our day-to-day life and the synergy of location, mobile, telecommunication, and internet is going to revolutionize the way we think, search, learn, and navigate. I research how Micro-Finance with mobile technology is going to help uplift poor from poverty, and evolve mobile money or branchless banking. I have diverse educational degrees, a M.S. in Computer Science from San Jose State University, a Bachelors in Computer Engineering, and Diploma’s in Business Management and Mechanical Engineering. I have one patent pending and have published, “LandMark Based Context-Aware Mobile Application” under my name. The extensive 3 years research opened avenues in the Mobile Location-Based Service (LBS) industry. Additionally, I have a couple of years’ experience working as Enterprise Infrastructure Monitoring engineer and 5 years experience working in India for a family owned startup company. Besides focusing on my education and career, I grew up in Mumbai, India, also known as the ‘city of dreams’ and the ‘city that never sleeps.’ This is the same city where the 8 Oscar winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire” was filmed. Mumbai is also the financial hub of India, similar to New York. For brainstorming mobile ideas and consultation in Mobile LBS feel free to contact me on: email[at]alokj[dot]com”

Mobile Cloud Computing

Guest — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:35:31 +0000

**This post is courtesy of Raj Singh. Check out his blog @ http://www.rajansingh.com

Earlier this week, Google made a disruptive but expected announcement showcasing their new version of Google Maps – now supporting turn-by-turn, voice output, re-routing, etc. What’s more interesting was found in the details of the announcement; Google basically said that they are at an advantage since they can leverage the cloud to do so many cool things with their mapping application that TomTom, TeleNav, or Garmin would never be able to do.

As an example, Google said you could do limited natural language voice searches into the mapping app (ie asking for “take me to the king tut exhibit in San Francisco”). Google would send this query to the cloud, and determine that you were referring to the de Young museum in Golden Gate Park and then route it. Interestingly, the computation required to execute such a query is too heavy for a mobile device and thus, leveraging the cloud makes a ton of sense.

Take this concept and extend it further and you are beginning to see an emerging trend in the mobile industry – cloud-enabled services attached to every application on your phone. The recently announced Moto Cliq has cloud-enabled the address book. Contacts are meshed with their Facebook and Twitter profiles – soon they may be meshed with other interests (ie a meta profile against a variety of popular services). These sorts of mashups are much too difficult to do on the phone and thus are perfect for cloud-enablement.

Going forward, it’ll be interesting to see how other applications on the phone leverage the cloud. What does a cloud-based SMSapplication look like – is it similar to Yahoo OneConnect where an SMS could end-up as a Facebook message for the recipient. What does a cloud-enabled photo application look like? Does it show you related images to the image you just took? Maybe, it does simple facial recognition and detection – again, services that are much too heavy to do on the phone. Now that we finally have always-on mobile networks, the cloud can finally assist – the “going through the tunnel” problem may no longer exist.

-Raj Singh
Raj has been living, breathing and working in mobile for the past 10 years. You can read more about him and mobile at his personal blog.