Textopoly Mobile Blog » Google

Eons Beyond Text

Naushad — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:50:47 +0000

While getting coffee I began chatting with some folks in the same building. As social norm dictate, we respectively inquired about what the other did. When I said “mobile marketing and engagement,” the immediate response was, “So you send out mass texts to everyone?” … Not exactly buddy.

Mobile marketing is still relatively new, and while people in the industry are talking about its evolution and how HTML5 and iAds allow for even more interaction with mobile users the rest of the world is still trying to get a grasp on what mobile marketing is at the most basic levels.

In a visual format, Google’s Mobile Marketing campaign for AdMob shows it best. Mobile marketing is much more a part of people’s lives than most realize. Every time an ad pops up when you’re playing Angry Birds, or when a redirect link appears in a text message, browser that pops up after you scan a QR code, or when you use a mobile site, you are using something created by a mobile marketing agencies like Textopoly. So what’s next?

Before I go on, I have a disclaimer: this blog is NOT about predictions, there are plenty of those out there. Nor will you hear me utter the now banal phrase “the year of mobile”. Instead, I’m just going to give a perspective on where I see a key area within the sphere of “mobile” going – the key area I speak of is mobile advertising.

Just the other week Google/AdMob released some staggering numbers. Google/AdMob is now receiving 2 billion ad requests per day, a data point which has quadrupled over the past year. With mobile impression numbers staggering to Everest heights, there has to be a way to stand out from the masses. And, there is.

Mobile sites and Mobile ad experiences are getting their sexy on. The graphics are top-tier, the information requested from the user is minimal and to the point, and the content is becoming more and more evolved. With platforms like iAd “you get access to the Apple audience, the world’s most engaged, passionate, and loyal consumer” who “engages with iAd ads for an average of 60 seconds per visit.” 60 seconds is a long time to capture someone’s attention. With technology like HTML5 it is easy to fill 60 seconds with multimedia and graphical content allowing for more advanced advertising on mobile devices including tablets all within a browser environment.

So where is mobile advertising going? To a world where the companies and customers can have a conversation through technology. A world where customers can directly give feedback through how far they are willing to engage in a company’s mobile advertisement. A world that’s eons beyond a text message.

Apple is breaking up with Quattro Wireless!

Kang — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:22:17 +0000

Apple is not accepting anymore mobile ad campaigns and are closing down current ad campaigns through the Quattro Wireless ad network. Back in January, Apple purchased Quattro Wireless for a cool $275 million and it seems like they are already over the ad network after 8 months. With so much money invested into their new mobile ad network, I have to wonder what the reasoning behind Apple closing shop on their new cross platform ad network to focus on the iAd network?

This is good news for mobile advertising companies that have clients looking to execute mobile advertising on Android and other non-Apple platforms. There will be more available inventory options for smaller mobile ad players. However it will be impossible to execute a iAd campaign for a medium to smaller brand since the minimum buy is $10 million to execute. So really it’s a double edge sword, Apple has brought the light of understanding to major brands that big mobile media buys will be a norm and happen frequently. The catch is that no one with less than a $10 million for their mobile media budget will be able to run ads on iAds network.

Apple has always developed all their products to exist in an Apple eco-system. I think when Apple purchased Quattro, it was a little bit of a shock that they were extending their reach beyond the eco-system of their products. Perhaps Apple felt pressure due to the highly popularized and drawn out Google and Admob acquisition? Or was it an attempt to maintain dominance, they purchased a massive ad network to gain more control over their inventory? One thing is for sure, Apple is casting off the non-Apple inventory and ceasing to run campaigns on Quattro’s network of publishers. So what gives Apple?! I understand that you have $40 Billion in cash alone and $275 million won’t break or make you; but what do you have up your sleeve?

Palm WebOS Designer Goes to Google Android

Shehzad — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:00:54 +0000

If there is one thing that all Palm WebOS user’s can agree on, its that the user experience is flawless. The OS is easy to navigate, intuitive and clean. These are all characteristics that Android users have complained about – even with Android Froyo 2.2.

Android users will be pleased to hear that Matias Duarte, who was the head of Palm’s WebOS team, has left Palm to work at Google. At Google, Matias will be the Director of User Experience for Android! Only good things can come from this…

Show ‘em what you got Matias – I’m rooting for ya!

Adobe Flashes Past Palm … onto Google

Shehzad — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:55:55 +0000

So I am sure you have all heard of the heated debate regarding Adobe Flash for mobile phones by now (see Apple’s homepage for Steve Job’s jabs at Flash). I think it is safe to say we won’t see Flash on the iPhone anytime soon…

But, forget about the iPhone – what about everyone else!? Adobe has presumably been working on a mobile-compatible version of Flash for years! As a Palm Pre user, I have been hearing rumors and seeing demos since last year. Adobe engineers have made references to Palm’s webOS to be the first mobile OS with Flash. Moreover, Palm’s CEO, Jon Rubinstein, promised in March 2010 at the Game Developer’s Conference that Flash would be available in the first-half of 2010 – with a beta version coming much before that.

Well… we’re only about a month from the first half of 2010, and no beta version… no new rumors… nothing. And to make the situation even worse, Google swoops in with their new dessert (froyo – version 2.2) and will now be the first mobile OS to support Adobe Flash (mentioned last week at the Google IO in San Francisco).

Sure, this is a great accomplishment for Google… but I am still bitter. From my point of view, there are two things that come from this announcement:

1. Palm’s list of “Missed Opportunities” just grew

2. Google’s list of “Who Needs Quality Control When You’ve Got…” just added yet another version of the OS.

Its sufficient to say that neither one of those is a good thing. Come on Palm & Google – let’s lock it up!

Google Smoogle…

Asif — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:53:49 +0000

This is going to be a ‘rant’ filled blog about how much I hate Google Maps. So, if you like Google Maps, sorry, bottom line it’s unreliable, and for god sake, blue dot? Come ON!

So, here is my tale… my co-work Karla and I are driving down Bristol in Costa Mesa because we were trying to get to Jo-Anna’s Fabric (don’t ask), and since I had no idea where one was, I opened up my Google Maps, clicked on search, and typed in Jo-Anna’s Fabric; within an instant I was given 10 optional locations. So, I picked the first one as it was the nearest to us. The directions clearly stated, head North on Bristol, turn Right on Warner, turn Left on Fairview, etc… well, we went North on Bristol, then turned Right on Warner, but were unable to turn Left on Fairview, want to know why…? Because it wasn’t there! I was supposed to turn LEFT on Warner not RIGHT! But, according to the blue dot, and the route summery, I was headed in the right direction! Then, all of a sudden I run into a dead end! *$&#*

I’ve always said, I hate Google Maps, it’s never right! I love Sprint Navigation. Truly if you are ever deciding what carrier to jump on, I would suggest Sprint. I’ve had their service for over 6 months now and I’ve had zero dropped calls, great customer service, very fast mobile browsing, an amazing Sprint Navigation System, and great television on Sprint TV! I’ve had AT&T, horrible reception, never got anyone nice on the phone, very slow 3G speed even when I had the iPhone 3GS, and way too pricey!

Getting back to Google Maps, what is the deal? Why can they not generate proper directions? I love the search functionality; however the map is so bogus! Are they not using an updated map? Sometimes they can’t even find addresses! What is up with that!? Don’t believe me? Try typing in 188 Cooper Creek, Dallas, GA doesn’t even show up! I know that house is there!

Google, please listen, the reason why Apple is so successful and hardly has any issues with any of their devices and/or products in general, is because they do one thing at a time. This allows them to perfect the product and or service allowing no room for competition. They have the perfect phone, they have the perfect music player, they have the perfect impractical (my opinion) device in the iPad, they have the best Apps (Android market is subpar), and on top of that, people always feel cooler and above the ‘rest’ when they own an Apple product! I really hope that Apple makes its own mapping system.

-Want to chat some more? Get at me at: asif[at]textopoly[dot]com-

Google’s got App Developers Crazy

Naushad — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:21:55 +0000

Yes, you read that right. Not app crazy or crazy for apps, but just plain old crazy. With the latest Android release, Google now has at least 4 different versions of the Android in the wild. With a variety of versions must come a variety of app releases. With each version, developers have to change/modify/adjust their apps accordingly, which is making everyone crazy.

How can Google fix this? Well they have some ideas in the future, but as for now they have created a site for developers where they show statistics about what version has visited the Android Market the most within the last 14 days. This is a good short term solution, but how can they fix the long term implications of having so many different versions? Turn everything into browser based web apps and rid themselves of apps all together. Browser based apps work cross platform, cross version, and cross handset. No longer would developers need to support each version, but one update to a version’s browser would support a bunch of new feature rich tools.

Another way Google plans on keeping all of their users up-to-date is by changing the way they update their proprietary apps – mail, contacts, etc. By adding those to the Android Market, Google can add new features and have them pushed out to all users regardless of their version – thus allowing developers one base feature list to work with.

All in all, it seems like a big headache. At least Apple has kept things consistent. Let’s just hope Google follows suit and makes all of our lives easier.

Apple… Do you feel threatened on your monopoly?

Kang — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:38:42 +0000

Ok… Before anyone hoots and hollers about how awesome Apple is… I want to set the record straight that I am a Mac owner! So please, no comments that Justin Long rules.

The news that Apple sued HTC is no big surprise. After all, HTC is a huge player in manufacturing high end android-based mobile devices. The suit claims infringement of 20 patents related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware. Is it possible that this suit is a subtle jab to the ribs to Google? HTC and Google have been in kahoots for some time, launching the G1, the myTouch, and the Nexus. These phones have proved to be a good competition against the iPhone, and surprisingly the lawsuit isn’t over the iPhone’s multi-touch screen.

So is this a taste of things to come? Is the natural progression of mobile phone innovation patented? Where would Coke be without it’s Pepsi? Dr. Pepper with Mr. Pibb? (Or in my case “Dr. Smooth”. It’s the generic version sold at my grocery store.) Doesn’t a being in competitive marketplace fuel new ideas and concepts to make consumer products better? In my opinion, if Apple is able to sue every phone that has elements similar to the iPhone then the mobile innovation has had it’s reins pulled!

$21 million for traditional and $0 for mobile

Naushad — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:40:30 +0000

Is this really the ‘year of mobile’ when you have a premiere brand like Kaplan set to spend over $21 million dollars this first quarter on Online, Print and TV – yet $0 on mobile? Did Kaplan think that Google and Apple dropped over 1 Billion dollars in one week in mobile because they had an untimely brain-freeze?

The full story was posted on Media Post last week (http://leep.it/cR). I won’t rant on and on about this. However, it is amazing that neither mobile nor social media made it into the final plans of how to spend $21 million dollars. They could have allocated less than 0.01% of that and created some truly engaging interactions with mobile to compliment their TV,print and online elements. Even if they didn’t want to expend the effort in creating original interactive mobile engagements, or placing ads on the mobile internet, or creating mobile landing pages where their target users (full-time workers) could get more information while they eat there $5 subway footlong, they could have at least added text call to actions on print & TV ads to get some measurement of the media spend!

If you’re interested in knowing how we would have used SMS/text, mobile ads, a mobile site and social media for Kaplan give me a holla’, we’ll chat over a footlong & a diet coke. Naushad out.

Android needs QT – Quality Control (… and Quality Time)

Shehzad — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:54:22 +0000

As of recent, it seems as though nearly every mobile phone manufacturer is coming out with Google Android enabled phone: HTC, Samsung, Motorola, LG, etc. There is no end in sight. The tech-community thinks that Android will be “taking over” as the most widely used OS on mobile phones very soon. Though this may be true, it scares me.

Google seems to have fallen into the same trap as Windows did many years ago: allowing any Tom/Dick/Harry that comes along to plug in to their OS and create applications with little to no limitations. And as a result, Google has lost sight of QT – Quality Control.

To date, there are 3 different versions of Android OS out in the public AND there is no certification process for apps – and Google has shown no motivation to create one.

In this post-Windows era, it is not enough to have wide scale use. Consumers want more. They need and deserve more. (Enter Mac OS X)

The trust that users once had in the uncomplicated, easy-to-use, junk-free company, will soon be demolished by the weight of virus-ridden applications and incompatibility issues between Android OS 1.5, 1.6. and 2.0. (See HERE for a great article on the pitfalls of Google Android)

Sure, Google may one day have the most widely used OS on mobile phones. But to what avail? A company that starts to skip QT, to disregard usability, and to brush-off consistency will pay for those mistakes.

Google – consider this my warning.

Gotta Get Me Those Goggles!

Naushad — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:39:01 +0000

Have you seen Google’s Goggles?

Mobile Visual Search Technology. Wow. We tried it out on Kang’s Andriod yesterday and let say for the record that it works just like you see in the video above and it’s outstandingly cool. This blue line scans the image, finds relevant data to use in its search, and displays its results in seconds. Pretty awesome.

The only problem with Google Goggles is that I have an iPhone, so it’s not available for people like me, however, PC World contacted Google this morning and confirmed that it will, indeed, be available for a variety of handsets soon. PC World stated:

“It is our intention to quickly develop Goggles for the most popular mobile handsets and platforms,” Google’s Katie Watson tells me. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a specific timeframe to share.”

I also completely agree with PC editor JR Raphael. Hopefully Apple won’t ban this application much like they banned Google Voice.

Come on Apple, don’t limit technological advances!