For more information about this event: MLOVE Confestival USA

How many times have you received email on your phone and either been unable to access a document or unable to read it?  Or even if you can access it and read it, the formatting on the phone is so convoluted that it’s painful to read?  Or had the same thing happen with Dropbox?

Mobile Document Access (MDA) works to solve the problem, and it does, at least to some extent.  Documents will never be as easy to read on a phone as on a 19″ screen.  And if, like me, you wear glasses for reading, it’s even worse – either find the glasses while you’re sitting in a lobby waiting for a meeting or make the type so big that it takes days to scroll around the screen.  And then there are additional issues with mobile document access such as printing and security.

MDA generally includes several components – retrieval, conversion and integration.  One has to first be able to access documents on the mobile device.  Then, unless the documents have been converted to a mobile-friendly format, they will need to be converted on the phone.  And then, one has to be able to work with the documents – for example, minor modifications or printing. Vendors such as Cerience address the needs of enterprise users and IT managers with formatting and integration. Their RepliGo enables users to access, view, and manage documents and information — saving time and increasing productivity.

Retrieval and storage are critical factors; documents need to be stored in an accessible location for all users.  These days, that means in the cloud, somewhere.  While vendors of MDA solutions provide connections into software that allows cloud storage, storage providers are not sitting waiting but are now providing solutions for enterprises.  And these providers are coming from the consumer side, where so much of the innovation now takes place.  

At the simplest level, Google Drive is an open solution offering easy storage and access from desktop and mobile device.  Apps are available for smartphones that support Google Drive.

The downside of Google Drive is that it doesn’t offer enterprise security and features, and may not be suitable beyond small businesses.  Controlling documents with Google Drive in an enterprise environment takes a lot of time and awareness.   One recent announcement looks to solve a lot of the issues with an open solution, the new release of Dropbox for teams that incorporates IT control.  

It is in an enviable position – how many companies have released products saying they were “Dropbox for enterprise”?  With new features, Dropbox gives administrators a control panel and new sharing controls that simplify management of document access. Dropbox allows IT and other managers to both control and manage access.   This is just a start.  Next time out, we will take a look at document formats, conversion methodology, and integration with other apps on both the desktop back in the office and on the mobile device.

This post is sponsored the Enterprise Mobile Hub and BlackBerry

The arrival of Google Maps for iOS 6 a few days earlier led to the upgrade of my iPhone.  While there were a few changes that seemed annoying, particularly in the Mail app, I didn’t experience the wi-fi bug that has been reported and supposedly fixed in an update I haven’t downloaded.  In fact, I hadn’t experienced any bugs until I was in real need of my NextBus page.

So I clicked on the icon and got the screen here.  I’m standing on the corner knowing I have about two minutes to find out if the bus is coming or choose another way to get where I’m going.  And instead of finding out about the bus, I’m finding out about a bug in iOS6.  Now it doesn’t take long to do what they say, but I was in a hurry.  I just walked in the right direction until I found the bus stop, but ended up a few minutes late to my destination.

Later some doubt crept in.  Maybe this is a poorly designed app, it was early in the HTML 5 game.  The whole thing could just be an excuse for programmers that missed something in the documentation, and then their oversight was blamed on Apple.  Sitting in front of my computer, I searched the web for any information on a location bug, and, finding nothing, decided it must be a problem at NextBus.  I did what they said to do and it worked fine.

And then a few more hours passed and I remembered how OpenTable had not worked the day before.  I was sitting in a great restaurant in Napa and wondered if the restaurant took reservations through OpenTable.  I pulled out my phone, launched the app and couldn’t get location to work.  I closed it, re-launched, same thing.  I turned off my phone, turned on my phone, launched one more time, it happened again.  At the time, I chalked it up to a problem at OpenTable and didn’t think about it again until a few hours after my problem with NextBus.

I took the obvious, at this point, action – deleted the app and reinstalled.  And, just like with NextBus, it worked just fine.

It’s obvious to me now that there is some bug with location in iOS6.  It happened with the HTML5 app and it happened with the native app.  It doesn’t happen with any of my other location-based apps, but there are a lot of apps out there that are not on my phone.  It’s just another bug turning up on what appears to be a really messy software release.

As an executive who seems to make his office almost any where I travel, it often makes me wonder why I would ever need an IT Manager again? In my backpack and with the cloud, I am the mobile enterprise, an army of one. I have my laptop, my tablet and at least two mobile phones with me as I travel to and from the office, to meetings, cafes, restaurants, airports, anywhere. WiFi abounds, and so does power outlets, and tables and chairs. What I don’t carry with me, is in the cloud. And once my tools and services are setup, the low overhead of needed a dedicated IT staff seems to be afterthought. Here are some things to consider if you want to run an unstaffed IT department in your company.

Gmail for Business

Gmail for Business is probably one of the most essential tools to get started with. It’s easy to setup, you pay monthly based on the number of people you have in your organization and that’s it. Email, Calendar, Contact Lists, IM Chat, Groups, Docs and so much more. If you’re an Android user, setting it up with your smartphone, couldn’t be easier. While some of the apps that Google are still rough around the edges, setting up a new employee takes less than 5 minutes.

Box.net or Dropbox

Local storage on your device is great, but sharing is divine. Box.net or Dropbox are great to have so you can share tons of documents and files. Attachments via email is not reliable and a bit slow. Some companies even limit the size of attachments in order to pare down the size of email folders on the server.

YouSendIt

If you need to send a large file to someone, and you cannot share it through Dropbox or Box.net, try using YouSendIt. It’s a great way to send big presentations, graphic files for print or moving data. “Sneakernet in the Cloud” is great when you cannot email a large attachment due to server limitations.

Evernote

Evernote has gain a lot of success on the fact that it has created an uber-notepad application that helps your both get your ideas digitized and organized. In full disclosure, I am not a user of this app, but from what I hear from those who are, they really like it. Similar to Dropbox, Evernote also has a lot of features to tag and later search for all kinds of documents, notes, etc.

Skype

Nowadays, I cannot imagine anyone in business who does have Skype when calling someone Internationally. Skype has definitely made the world smaller and I’ve used it for everything from business negotiations, product demonstrations, to even video interviews. Without this, running a 24×7 business would be impossible. On average, in my current role at my company, I regularly chat with someone in at least six countries a week if not more. The costs using a traditional phone line would be astronomical. And even their mobile client has gotten significantly better, where I had a conference call from my car on US 101 to South Africa on the AT&T 3G network without any dropped packets.

Takeaways

While all of these great tools can enhance the workplace and make anyone productive from nearly anywhere with an Internet connection, we need to be careful about the power we have given to self-administer. If you’re a freelance consultant or working at a small startup, these tools are what helps drive and impact growth. But if you’re at a large company, these tools can present a lot of heartburn for the IT organization. The lack of control, the free distribution of data and information in the open can be extremely unsettling. But one this is true – the innovation will continue and people will have to adapt to all the innovate ways to conduct business, whenever and where ever they go.

This post is sponsored the Enterprise Mobile Hub and BlackBerry

So far, the discussion around enterprise users and mobile has been around “Bring Your Own Device.” As we discussed here before, software to control the devices is readily available, allowing IT to maintain a level of security for both usage such as email and for protection if the device is lost or stolen. The challenge facing organizations now centers around the use of software by enterprise users on their devices, which can be as problematic as the device security issues.

Quite a bit of the transfer of control to the users comes from cloud apps, such as Evernote and Dropbox. Instead of users being tied to Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and corporate servers, users move their busy lives, both personal and work, to the cloud, sometimes threatening corporate security while meeting a work ethic that expects continuous connection. And this is where the contradictions arise.

Employees are now expected to be always online, always available. Evenings, early mornings, weekends, and vacations – many employees no longer disconnect. The value to the company of a response to an email on Sunday can be critical. But the employee – out at their child’s ball game, at dinner with friends, or lounging at the beach in Costa Rica with a drink in their hand – can respond, through their mobile device, to a request for information. But that information can require access to documents that may be difficult to find or retrieve through a phone. The user may put important and potentially relevant documents into Dropbox and pick them up from the beach chair on the phone. Problem easily solved, but corporate security is compromised.

But Dropbox isn’t secure and it isn’t limited to corporate documents. From a consumer perspective, it’s a wide-open sharing service/app that can be used for business documents. And while companies can lock down the use of Dropbox at work, that only results in new services being developed that bypass security requirements. In the end, users will find a way to make their jobs easier, and that means less security.

Locking down users may very well be a no-win effort for IT departments. And the best strategy may be to accommodate the users in their usage of services that allow them to access cloud data on their phones and focus on training on security and usage.

Then there’s the next problem, apps that truly disrupt control of communications services. A good example is the conference calling features of an app such as CrowdCall. Conference calling matured years ago, and little has changed from the toll-free number plus PIN method of access. However, the old method is painful for mobile users. The mobile user needs to find the toll-free number, call in, and dial a PIN. This is not friction-less to the user in a car, an airport, or at the beach they shouldn’t be at. In a car it requires stopping. It may require several cut-and-paste operations. It’s too much trouble.

CrowdCall lets users initiate the conference call directly from a mobile phone and dials all the participants. There is no dial-in and no PIN. And the risk to IT is that users drop the corporate conference calling and use an external service like CrowdCall for needs that were previously met by the IT department. It’s a simple model that takes away centralized control yet meets the needs of users far better than what IT can offer.

At this point, it’s safe to assume that this is just one of many services that will accelerate the transfer of power from enterprise IT to the user due to the proliferation of mobile devices. The best strategy for IT is to help users with their job requirements and train them to use external devices, services and apps in the most secure way. This will ensure full-time productivity meshed with the best security possible in the new, always connected world.

This post is sponsored the Enterprise Mobile Hub and BlackBerry

It’s been a little more than 2 years since the Apple iPad launched and it’s been a winner. While the total tablet market is approaching 100M units shipped annually, Apple is closing in on selling 100M units itself (across all releases of iPad). While Apple’s iPad is not the only game in town, it seems that the Operating System War being waged in the Mobile Phone Theater, is also being fought in the Tablet Theater (see chart).


While it looks like the latest gadget that people need to have, let’s take a look to see if this is something that can be added to the tools of productivity in the workplace.

OBSERVATIONS

As I write this article sitting in a Peets coffee shop, looking around I see a few people clicking away on their laptops and a few folks with tablets. As far as I can tell by the hand and finger gestures, people are taking notes, reading email, surfing the web. More and more I see parents in restaurants using it as a babysitter, as kids watch videos, play games, or use it as an electronic drawing board to keep them quiet. On trains, planes and in stations and airports, I see people consuming content from their tablets. While I do a fair number of people tapping on the screen, presumably typing out emails, it’s really more of an index finger swiping motion that I most commonly see. Even if I look at how I use my tablets, I don’t think I input much more than a tweet or URL to a website.

UTILITY

Most of the scenarios that I have observed are about being entertained or participating in leisure activities. While I’m sure a fair amount of usage is reading documents and emails, I strongly believe that most people are consuming data and media, rather than generating it. If I translate this to the enterprise, this seems great for these types in an organization:

• Sales People: Giving presentation anywhere and everywhere, particularly when trying to demo complex concepts, animations and the quick instant on features make it a winner.
• Transactions: Taking orders that are form-based or Point of Sale systems, such as Square where there are limited items to sell.
• Computer Based Training: This is useful for an easy setup and teardown where a trainer can set up and educate materials, without the need to have a permanent computer room or laptop and projector setup
• Field Service Functions: Using it as a reference guide for assemblies, installations, repair and more. The screen real estate is far superior to even the largest smartphone screens.

WHAT’S MISSING?

In some of the scenarios mentioned above, I don’t mention anything where a lot of user generated content or data entry is required. This strikes me odd behavior since one of the ideas behind a tablet is to replace the pen and paper notepad! So what’s the problem? Unfortunately, one of the most important interfaces, yet overlooked is the keyboard interface. While it is possible to have a soft keyboard, it still seems very immature and an afterthought. The stylus input is an enhancement, but not quite available for all tablets, yet. Since this is a critical barrier, how do we address this? I remember the days when I had my first Palm Pilot and I learnt Grafiti. Within a few days, I was able to write as fast as I could to take notes and organize my life. I didn’t feel that it encumbered my user experience, but gratifying that it was predictable and extremely accurate. But fast forward to today’s tablets. There have been a few companies who, today, are trying to address this key issue. Some ISVs who are tackling this challenge are SwiftKey and Swype (acquired by Nuance). Both companies have understood that this small, but critical part needs to be examined and greatly improved, if we are to continue using tablets and squeeze out more productivity from this form factor. Impeding my ability to type or reducing the user experience to simple tasks will diminish my need for a tablet and I will just wait and resort to my laptop.

CONCLUSION

While it doesn’t look like the tablet market will end any time soon, before you rush out to get a tablet for work, think about how you will use it for productivity and work. It’s a great media consumption device, but it almost feels that cranking out emails or documents might be better off reaching for my laptop with a tactile keyboard.

This post is sponsored the Enterprise Mobile Hub and BlackBerry

• A6 Processor (double the CPU performance and two times faster graphics) – Speed and Feed
• 4″ Retina Display (1136 x 640) – Feed
• LTE Wireless Network – Speed and Feed
• Lightning dock interface – Speed and Feed
• 8MP Camera (3264×2448) – Feed

and the list goes on
and on
with the same theme.

Historically and even with this New Product Introduction, Apple is not a Leader, but a Follower. Few people remember the Diamond Rio PMP 300 which launched in September 1998, compared to Apple’s iPod, which launched three years later. Similar with the smartphone – the Nokia Communicator 9000, arguably one of the first on the market, was released in 1996, and the Palm Treo was released in 2002, 11 and 5 years, respectively, before the launch of the iPhone.

So will the iPhone 5 be a success? Yes. The following is too great. Millions will upgrade and millions more will get their first iPhone. But if you are looking for innovation or what the future might be, look to Samsung and Nokia. Things like wireless charging and NFC are just some of the future innovations coming to the handsets, now.

Four years ago, I went to a Microsoft conference emphasizing enterprise mobile phone applications. At the tables in the conference room, at least half the participants took out two phones and set them down. One phone was a business phone, and one a personal phone, and they were sometimes identical phone models.

There were a number of reasons for this, ranging from family plans driving personal purchases to game playing during downtime to obvious work security issues. It obviously demonstrated a sub-optimal strategy for dealing with the requirements at work, offering more confusion, learning curve time, and the possibility of losing two devices instead of one.

Unfortunately, that situation still exists; the numbers show many users still carrying two phones: a study by Kyle Lagunas of Software Advice shows about half the surveyed users carry two devices. Although many companies would like to continue to choose devices for their employees, history is working against them.

The device management issues are extensive, and many are obvious, such as security for enterprise database access. Other issues include the ability to manage passwords independently for personal and business use, remote wipe in the case of phone theft or employee separation, and time management. At the same time, use of the phone as a personal device needs to be permitted.

One big issue looms over mobile device management – the need for cross-platform and cross-operator support. It’s not that difficult to implement on a single platform, and there are single vendor solutions available, but isn’t a particularly useful solution since one of the motivations for mobile device management is the use of personal phones by employees.

The very first step to dealing with increasing device chaos is recognizing that mobile device management is a problem that will fester and grow over time. Companies in which mobile devices are critical for logistics implement quickly, but some others have moved very slowly, either requiring multiple devices or leaving it to users to sort it out and losing control.

Numerous decision factors confront the IT manager choosing a solution for mobile device management. There is a plethora of vendors to choose from with a variety of solutions, far too many to enumerate here. The most important criterion is that the solution supports the platforms commonly in use. It is unlikely that an obsolete platform like Symbian will be supported, but key platforms for corporate users such as Blackberry, IOS and Android should be supported. One issue with IOS is that Apple has to provide a certificate for SSL and this takes time. Apple has shortened the certification period, but it still is an implementation delay.

Once the right platforms are supported, other criteria need to be met. Ease of onboarding and offboarding devices is critical. Security may require company-specific capabilities. Cloud versus enterprise storage is another key choice. And speed and completeness of remote wipe is critical to any solution. There are over one hundred vendors to choose from, so every conceivable solution is out there.

It’s also critical to engage the users. Too many failures in enterprise mobile implementation come from a pure top-down approach. Instead, users should participate in the process from planning to deployment. One approach that can really help is “train the trainer,” with peers teaching users about the functionality and how it affects their phone usage.

Looking forward, every company will need to make sure that their enterprise is protected yet their users supported on any device. MDM is critical and the solutions are easily found.

This post is sponsored the Enterprise Mobile Hub and BlackBerry

Andre said during an interview: “We founded Findables out of inspiration to design higher quality smartphone cases to offer consumers a better user experience and to address our personal needs as well. While doing so, we thought it would be really cool to something none of the existing case brands are doing by offering useful features beyond protection and fashion.”

More information about the products and how to order them can be found at: www.findables.me.

Twitter

In looking up all the tweets that I have made (twitter limited my history look up to 3196), I joined twitter on December 14, 2007 – and it took me under 5 years to get 5000. Unfortunately, due to some API access limitations, I am unable to pull up my first tweet. Nevertheless, in reviewing the content that I generated about 12% of the posts were coming my blog and 32% were retweets (RT) from other people. There’s also a smattering of foursquare activity and comments about events that I was attending.

Interestingly, while I have generated over 5,000 tweets, how I create tweets vs. reading tweets has been an interesting evolution. In this post, I’ll just focus on how I use twitter. One policy I think I have tried to keep up is that when I retweet (RT) I always like to add some comments to further the conversation. Quite often I do get RTs but I would love the conversation to continue over a half-dozen tweets.

Perhaps what Twitter has taught me most is to be terse and precise when possible. I’m not quite sure if has carried over to changing my communication style in person, but when creating my digital exhaust (as Saad Khan put it) I find getting to the point quickly has merit and substance. Unfortunately what the medium has also taught me to do is make a lot of short hand that appears to be spelling mistakes and lots of grammar faux pas to fit my prose into 140 characters. For someone who has to do a lot of writing as part of their job, this comes back to bite me all the time. While spell check and grammar check are helping aids, they often are unable to resolve the various writing styles (tweets, reviews, emails, presentations and documents).

foursquare

For foursquare it took me less that 3 years to reach 5000 check-ins. Since joining on October 10, 2009, the recent analysis of where I have been has been entertaining, even if it was just for myself. According to my foursquare history, I’ve been to 51 Airports, and traveled over 200,000 miles in getting to 5,000 check-ins.

At the beginning of using it, I felt that it was certainly a competitive service to play among my 4sq friends to achieve top of the leaderboard status and amassing badges. However over time, as 4sq adjusted the game mechanics, it started to become a way to explore and make sure that I got out of the house as well as away from my desk to go for a walk.

One of the other reasons why I believe that I am still loyal to foursquare is because I like to travel. Judging by the map below and all the trips, there is certainly parts of the world that I did not check-in and journey to, but a lot of these trips were for work than pleasure.

A side effect that I noticed during all of my check-ins is that I started using foursquare as a location diary to remember people whom i met with and spoke to. I tend to review what I did during the day, using my check-ins as a reference and it helps me remember conversations, events, etc.

On the downside, one thing that I’ve tried, but don’t feel is quite useful are the Specials and Coupons offered through 4sq. I simply blame this on the broken marketing chain where the clerk at the register or the waiter at the restaurant simply did not know how to take action from seeing my phone with a Special displayed. While it will get better over time, it’s not trickling down all the way to the bottom.

Am I Smarter, Better?

While I am not a celebrity trying to get 1M followers, or always trying to be #1 on the Leaderboard among 4sq friends, I do think the positives have outweighed the negatives. Tweets and Check-ins are conversation starters. They are markers, footnotes and details that enhance my conversations with people as well as help me stay in touch with friends who are sprinkled throughout the world. I do think as a result of reading tweets, I am smarter, because I am more informed. I also think I am better than before. Creating a diary, however the final form is, is I think an important thing to do as I get older. It leaves a mark for others to see and hopefully build some conclusion about where I’ve gone and where I’m going.

That doesn’t mean it will sell well.  It takes more than some nice hardware and some upgraded software in these days, when consumers are cynical about almost any new technology product that doesn’t come from Apple.  The challenge for Google is to first of all, rise above the hardware, and second, have a dynamic channel.

Taking the channel issue first and looking at the two big competitors in the tablet market, we see that both Apple and Amazon have websites that prominently feature their products.  A simple trip to amazon.com and you see the Kindle Fire, along with the other Kindles, and you see their Android Appstore.  Take a trip to the Apple home page and you can watch the new iPad TV ad.  Visit google.com and there’s a search box.  There is a menu bar at the top, but it offers search choices and the option to go to my google apps, gmail, etc.  And if I choose to use that search box and type in “nexus tablet,” there isn’t a single google page listed.

Step two in the channel walk-through.  If I want to buy a Kindle Fire, I don’t have to look farther than the Amazon home page for a link.  If I want to buy an iPad, I can click on the iPad link on the Apple home page.  But if I want to find somewhere that will be selling the Nexus tablet, I search on “nexus tablet retail” and find out that Staples and GameStop are carrying the tablet and offer pre-sale reservations now.  Staples?  The last time I was in Staples, or Office Depot or Office Max, the store wasn’t packed with people looking for new technology.  There’s an Office Max across from one of the Best Buy location in San Francisco, and it doesn’t even get prices shoppers walking across the street.

I’m sure it will show up in Best Buy and maybe some of the phone stores.  That’s fine for phones, because you have to sign your carrier deal.  And it will be better than Staples and GameStop.  But it’s not the same as having a home page on the web that pitches your products, and either the biggest retail site on the web or a premier brand retailer is going to attract far more customers.

Then we have the product.  The problem, as I see it, is that it’s being pitched to hardware junkies, and that only goes so far.  Consumers like great hardware, especially great screens, but the lead in hardware can only last for so long.  The Kindle Fire 2, regardless of its real name, will be a major upgrade to the Fire and the comparisons with the Nexus now floating around the web will be of little use.  Trailing in hardware features has yet to hurt the iPhone or the iPad.

Amazon is very aware of this and tailored the product to make it more than the sum of its hardware parts.  This review from last year makes it clear what the pitch was.  Sure it was a smaller tablet (highly desirable to me and others, obviously) at a great price, but the review hardly mentions that.  It’s about the integration with existing Amazon services and payment.  It’s about media consumption from a source integrated into the base product.  It’s about a browser that offers significant advantages over other mobile browsers.  Have we heard anything this user-centric from Google?

Another prime example about thinking through the conundrum of how to position its tablet offering is the Barnes and Noble Nook. They actively decided that having the entire Google Play catalog is not the way to develop a positive and elegant media consumption experience. They also chose to lock down the device, remove the ability to change the settings on several characteristics on the device. You might say that it’s silly to do so, but for the target audience, simple is better. The results are starting to show the fruits of their labor. Developers *are* generating revenue from Nook devices and the average price points are doing quite well. But the Nook went one step even further, where Amazon and Google cannot compete. When you physically take the Nook into a Barnes and Noble store, the entire inventory of books “unlocks” on your Nook and you can read anything in the store from your device. That’s a pretty amazing experience no other tablet OEM is offering.

I’m not predicting a flop with the Nexus tablet, but google’s propensity for starting things, not putting the right resources on them, and then letting them die or directly killing them is strong.  There’s no evidence that google has put on a team of marketeers with strong consumer hard goods experience or channel managers who have a real handle on what it takes to drive business through retail.  While google has a strong brand name for web goodies, the consumer-less google TV kiosks  in Best Buy a couple years back show that it doesn’t pull in the retail environment.  Yet.

Let’s look at some of the key factors for successful games in today’s dynamic market. We recently spoke with Harri Myllylä, CEO of Star Arcade, a Finnish games company that offers seven games on their own social platform. We have used some of Harri’s insight in the discussion below.

Multiplayer

People enjoy playing games with other people, including friends and strangers. This isn’t news, console games have popular multiplayer capabilities, and before the arrival of electronic gaming, people played board and card games with others.

Social

In addition to allowing people to play each other, many recent games run on platforms that enable chat, Facebook reporting, and heightened competition via leaderboards. Mylalla points out that they see “users connecting on major social networks and some even meeting in person,” reversing the usual direction of interactions.

Cross-Platform

While there are still developers offering games on a single mobile platform, most are developing for multiple platforms to allow people to interact with friends and others regardless of what phone OS someone is using. The advantage is obvious – the base of available users is broadened, especially in International arenas. Star Arcade already sees significant business from the Kindle Fire, and it would be foolish to ignore a platform with so much momentum. Star Arcade also supports Facebook with some of its games, which allows them to compete with Facebook-only games.

Mobile Operators

Sitting here in the United States, it’s easy to believe mobile operator deals are close to dead. Operator Decks – do they still exist at all? Other than what an operatorcan pre-load on a non-iPhone, there isn’t much they can do, and a lot of the bloatware gets removed immediately. But the idea that operators cannot make an impact is relative to where you are looking. Many countries still restrict availability of apps, which means the operators have an opportunity to add products, and the game category is wide open. Star Arcade has a deal with STC in Saudi Arabia, running tournaments inside their covered area.

Monetization

Other than operator deals in the right locations, there are many ways to monetize games. Too many game developers (and other app developers) launch without a clear revenue strategy, thinking that amassing users will allow later monetization, but users often won’t go for the changes. Let’s take a look at some of the possible strategies for bringing in revenue. It cannot just be about monetizing from a few whales while the rest of the user base only generates data, but no revenue.

1. Virtual goods. This is a common way to get users to pay, and more avid users will often be happy to buy additional colors, characters, weapons, etc. Even if it brings in very little at the beginning, as users warm up to games, they will start thinking about enhancing their game play.
2. Premium version. The “freemium” model works well if there is sufficient differentiation between the free version and the premium version. Sometimes, this is a way to aggregate virtual goods into a one-time higher fee. However, there has to be enough benefit to the user and a reasonable upgrade free to convert users.
3. Cross-selling. Once a user likes a game, if there is another game in the same portfolio, marketing it to users is easy. “Like this game, try our others” is a great way to get users to try new games. This can also be useful if you are also thinking about a sequel.
4. Advertising. As discussed in other recent Mobileslate posts, advertising isn’t productive for effective monetization in its current implementation. As mobile advertising moves more towards location and relevance criteria, it will offer more opportunities for revenue generation for many sites, but it also takes users away from the game or platform they are in. Exit advertising is probably more effective than providing links at other points in a game. Also, display ads on the same page as a game, or embedded in a game, offer another possible option, but works better on tablets than on the limited screen of phones. Perhaps there is still some promise in interstitials, such as between levels or while the game is initializing.
5. Sponsorship. Closely related to advertising, obviously, sponsorship can employ display ads and regular logo placement in an app. Contests and tournaments are particularly good opportunities for sponsorship.
6. Merchandising. One goal is have in mind to focus on building a lasting brand around character development. Using sites like Cafe Press, could get you a start on T-Shirts and other easy start items. Angry Birds is the obvious example of successful licensing to third parties, which include everything from plush toys to food, paper goods, even jewelry.

Following a few basic guidelines will make games successful on mobile devices. In an upcoming post, we will discuss what features make a mobile game successful enough to build a great user base.

In order to be successful, mobile advertising has to accommodate the limitations of mobile devices.  The screen is small.  Data delivery can be slow.  Typing is slow and often error-prone.  And then there’s how people use the devices.  They can be away from computers, have limited attention span, and be in a hurry.

But there is one thing that is almost known about the mobile user now, and that’s location.  And it’s often information regarding location that the mobile user is looking for.  Directions.  Mass transit schedules.  A store that sells something.  A restaurant for dinner.  It’s not just that the location is known – that can be determined with a desktop computer  – it’s that the location is important to what the mobile user is doing with the phone.

I use a terrific “application,” it’s actually a web site that uses html5 to access the user’s location, and it gives me real-time data on the bus or trolley I’m waiting for in San Francisco.  The interesting thing about this is that it knows where I am and where I am headed.  It’s the ideal advertising opportunity and it isn’t being used at all.  If it’s 5PM and I’m headed downtown on a Saturday, why not advertise for restaurants along the way.

This is just one example, a wealth of applications depend on location – Yelp and Gas Buddy for example – yet don’t appear to be turning this into advertising.  It’s the most valuable information the phone gives about the user, and publishers don’t seem to get this yet.

And then there’s relevance.  What has made web advertising so effective is the connection to search and to the web pages on which advertising is delivered.  Many of the rotating non-relevant ads have disappeared, but not on mobile.  Pandora knows where I am and a lot about me through my musical tastes – why would I (or anyone else using Pandora) click on an ad for match.com?  I realize they are filling inventory, but the CPM has to be low and all it does is annoy.  The benefit is negative to Pandora, especially as there are other music services available.

That’s why people searching for something is so important – I want information, and if it can given to me in a way that incorporates advertising, I don’t care.  I use google on my phone at least a dozen times a day.  I use Yelp to search for businesses, mostly restaurants, whenever I am out.  I use Gas Buddy to find gas if I’m driving.  I use google maps to find a location I want to visit.  These are all opportunities to hit me up with advertising, and I have no problem if it helps with what I am looking for.

This points to what advertisers and publishers need to do.  Advertisers need to make the advertising relevant to what they user is doing and where they are.  For sites with logins, advertisers usually have more information, if the user is logged in.  Using this valuable data will make ads more likely to be clicked, or to leave an impression, and far less likely to annoy the user.

Another way the information can be used besides pure ads is couponing.  If I’m in the Safeway parking lot and I’m on the phone, why not push a coupon “book.”  Groupon’s app puts daily deals in front of me, but that doesn’t really help, and they’re not relevant, as all the deals for nail salons tell me.  If I’m at the ballpark, a coupon for a restaurant after the game would be welcome.  If it’s 11PM and Saturday night and I’m in an area with lots of clubs, a coupon for drinks at one of the clubs might entice me.  None of this is happening, from what I’ve seen.

I have ignored, until now in this post, cross-merchandising of apps.  From what I have seen, this works, but it’s fairly specific and doesn’t necessarily generate revenue.  If I’m playing Star Arcade’s Diamonds Paradise and at the end of the game get at ad for their Jelly Wars game, there’s a good chance I will take a look, if not the first time, then the second or third time I see the ad.

And this leads to my last point.  There is a naive perception that advertising is different on the web, that getting people to click is the primary objective.  I have heard this from Web 2.0-ers, even ones who talk about branding constantly.  It’s still the case that, whether viral, on the computer, on the phone, or just out and about, that advertising requires multiple hits for broad based effectiveness.  It takes a campaign for brands to be coupled to their value.  While I found some of the apps on my phone, others, like Evernote, required hearing about the product enough times to realize what its value would be.  When not searching for a specific product, service, or business, advertising still has to hit the user until it’s absorbed.

Summarizing, the recommendations to advertisers:

1)   Use the location information, it is incredibly valuable;
2)   Use relevance and advertise what someone is looking for;
3)   Use couponing and alerts to increase usage;
4)   Advertise over and over for branding.

I am optimistic that mobile advertising will become useful instead of annoying.  Apps and websites will become monetized more easily when this happens and users will be happier.