Under The Radar Mobile Wrap Up

by Eric / November 21st, 2009

Under The Radar Mobility
Here is my wrap-up from the Under the Radar Mobile event from my tweets. You can follow me (@mobileslate)

#UTR #Mobile (@ Microsoft SVC in Mountain View) http://bit.ly/pnX2f
#UTR getting started. Packed house, but smaller than last year.
#UTR Over 50% of Presenting Companies get Funded or Acquired (really?)
#UTR Opening Keynote: Peter Hirshberg … opens up with a movie clip
#UTR Cool visualization of real-time global IP traffic flow from NYC to the rest of the world.
#UTR Using mobile to show real-time data, such as communications, traffic, & even human prediction (based on pattern recognition w/big data)
#UTR Mobile allows a Participatory Culture (UGC, stats, monitoring, sharing, etc)
#UTR Talking about “The Global Village” where everyone is on diff levels, involved with everyone else lives
#UTR – Peter Hirshberg – 2009: Battle of the API Wars; governments, private companies, buying behavior; lots of Developer Challenges
#UTR Showing a video from 1950s on IBM FORTRAN! Proving the theory of write once, run everywhere is a long standing fallacy
#UTR 2-Min Fast Pitch – Must Have Apps by App-Addicts getting started for 7 Companies
#UTR #BottleRocket presenting #iPhone app: #Voxie Pro Recorder – voice recorder plugged into other apps
#UTR #BottleRocket gets rated a 6 from the 3 panel judges (3 is best)
#UTR #FidoFactor – #iPhone app for taking your dog around #SanFrancisco; restaurants, cafe, parks, hotels, etc.
#UTR #FidoFactor gets a 6 from the 3 Panel of Judges
#UTR #GendaiGames – The iMovie app for Games: GameSalad. Build your own game as easy as making your own movie. The next interactive media?
#UTR #GendaiGames gets a 4 from the 3 Panel of Judges
#UTR #iBrightStudios – TightWire #iPhone game – 1M downloads worldwide already!
#UTR #iBrightStudios gets a 7 from the 3 Panel of Judges
#UTR #QipIt – image processing for #iPhone; take whiteboard stuff and turn it into readable, printable images to share.
#UTR #QipIt gets a 7 from the 3 Panel of Judges
#UTR #ShopSavvy – Bar code scanner to find products and price comparison; #iPhone app launched yesterday, #Android launched 1st 1.1M d/ls
#UTR #ShopSavvy gets a 9/9 from 3 Panel of Judges
#UTR #ZoomSafer – BB, WinMo & Android app to be safe while driving with your mobile. Enhance your safety while driving and using mobile
#UTR #ZoomSafer gets a 7 from the 3 Panel of Judges
#UTR #ShopSavvy wins the 2-Min Fast Pitch
RT @lisawhelan @TWELPFORCE All good! (Tons of #BestBuy employees helping Customers! – Great Customer Service)
#UTR #MobilePayment session. You can vote, txt 66937 for “blingnation” “mviaco” “payfone”
#UTR #BlingNation presenting: Pay with your phone at the Point of Sale. Use NFC tag and SMS approval for feedback loop
#UTR #BlingNation might need a lot of partners/resources to deploy their infrastructure
#UTR #BlingNation – name came from playing Super Mario Bros?!?
#UTR #mVia presenting Global Remittance for unbanked consumers.
#UTR #payfone presenting Direct Operator Billing for App Stores.
#UTR #Payfone limit to virtual goods and app stores today. Claims 10-20% better payout over PSMS
#UTR #Boku presenting [Grad Circle] pay by phone.
#UTR #Boku buy stuff on Amazon and iTunes using them. Real-world goods next.
#UTR #HopePhones In USA throw away 500k phones/day; could use them for social impact healthcare in developing nations; donate phones
#UTR Consumer Apps panel starting…
#UTR #FlightTracker presenting – predicts flight delays based on historical data
#UTR #Flightcaster 75% of major flight delays are less than 30 minutes before departure time
#UTR #Flightcaster available for #iPhone #BB and soon #Android
#UTR #Flightcaster US Real-Time Travel management is $1.3B/year $3B in commissions!
#UTR #Flightcaster “We have raised money, so it’s best time to talk about fundraising!” (Agreed.)
#UTR #Flightcaster Our $8 app vs. $35 Corporate Travel customer service call is well worth the price
#UTR #melodis #MidomiMobile music and voice search services
#UTR #Melodis gives #Shazam a run for their money…
#UTR #Melodis Affiliate-model based on sale of music for revenue…and Paid App licenses
RT @lisawhelan: Wow- #Melodis’ CEO says #Midomi is the only app that can search & find a song based on you humming it. #UTR (hum baby hum)
#UTR OH: @flytip I just deleted #Shazam and replaced it with #Midomi after listening to your presentation.
#UTR #socialscope unified social networking app for ur #iPhone supports FB, twitter, MySpace, FourSquare, LinkedIn and the list continues…
#UTR #mpayit presenting 90% of subscribers have yet to buy an app. Mpayit wants to help fix that.
#UTR #mpayit 1 in 9 clicks to buy a mobile app (same stats, fix and address this problem can grow mobile content sales in a big way)
@alasaarela They don’t support iPhone yet. Blackberry first, looking at Palm and Android clients too.
@alasaarela Funny that unified messaging was a negative thing…it takes social networking to bring it back into fashion
#UTR #ShoZu presenting uploading photos across social platforms.
#UTR #ShoZu 100M photos uploaded since Sept 09!!!
#UTR #CardStar presenting about #loyalty program in one central place
#UTR @MyCardStar combines a loyalty program and couponing all on #iPhone
#UTR @MyCardStar admits to being device dependent because they need to be pixel perfect.
#UTR @TapJoy presenting, helping people to monetize #iPhone and #Android apps. Over 8M downloads, 1000 publishers.
#UTR #TapJoy Best-of-Breed Ad Platform. SDK plugs into existing ad networks and publishers
#UTR #Tapjoy benefits publishers most, not necessarily the brand or the ad network per se.
#UTR @yowza @greggrunberg presenting LBS mobile coupons.
#UTR @yowza @august now presenting…they have 10k locations for their coupons
@yowza #UTR deals with Wheel of Fortune and Price is Right – Shopping Sprees

Some Thoughts from Under the Radar

The iPhone is still the “IT” phone when it comes to demos and screenshots in presentations. Several, if not all of the companies who presented mentioned Bllackberry and Android as other platforms to expand their reach.

Based on the presentations, those who had a client-side application were exploring how to create a scalable business, instead of simply one-hit wonders. Lifestyle applications while interesting, should not be pitching at this type of event. Several folks in Venture whom I’ve spoken with have the same comments about iPhone app developers: Unless they are creating some unique value and a scalable business, they simply won’t produce the return on investment that we want to see from a company we’re are going to invest in.

Those that had some interesting technology or concepts, didn’t necessarily have the business plan well thought out. But the same themes of generating revenue remain the same: advertising, revenue share, license fees, and transaction fees. While I’m glad to hear there are multiple paths to making money, I perhaps think about the problem differently. Accessility and Connectivity is the path to think through. Making it available on the iPhone is all well and good, but realistically, that is such a small part of the global market. Expanding your reach to Blackberry and Android moves to needle by a few percentage points, but a mobile web solution, if possible, would really start to push market penetration into the high double-digit growth potential. It also makes me wonder, about a large TAM (Total Available Market) with mobile subscribers, but a small SAM (Serviceable Available Market) is a losing proposition. Most of the brief roadmaps given make no mention about mobile web as a viable option which again, severely limits the larger global mobile play. Lastly, companies need to be very cognizant of the fact that not everyone has unlimited data plans to consume rich user interfaces or even ad-subsidized applications/serivces. There are many times where the subscriber needs to bear the cost of all activities/events related to interacting the with the application. This is even more the case outside the US, where All-You-Can-Eat Data Plans have yet to emerge in a big way.