With millions of mobile apps out there, and (it seems) a decreasing number of mobile pre-load opportunities, it’s getting increasingly difficult for independent software vendors (ISVs) and web companies to gain traction with mobile operators and OEMs.  Beyond putting your on the app store and investing in adequate marketing to attract users to your app online, if you’re a serious mobile development company, one of the best ways to gain traction for your mobile application is to hire a well-connected, heavy hitting mobile business developer who can navigate the complex mobile ecosystem – driving distribution deals with mobile operators, OEMs, and other partners. (more…)

I am thrilled to be one of the five judges of the 2010 MEX User Experience Awards, the winners of which will be announced at the MEX Conference in London on May 19th.  This is the third year of the MEX User Experience Awards which seeks to recognize companies with the best user-centered design in mobile.  42 companies, freelancers, and students entered the competition this year, and today, MEX announced the shortlist of nominees up for the following Awards: (more…)

Today, my newest client, Face.com launched an new, open and free API and developer community for facial recognition and detection.  This is exciting news for developers that want to incorporate facial detection and recognition capabilities into their applications.  If you’re a developer, you can get started with the API and get involved with the community here. (more…)

Yesterday, veteran Internet industry analyst, Mary Meeker (who has been covering the Internet since Netscape days), and the team from Morgan Stanley published a new Internet Trends report.  The full report is well worth a read, and you can download all 87 pages here in .pdf.  In this post, I’ll review the highlights from this report and discuss what I think is missing – namely coverage of one of the key issues for the future of mobile Internet – native and web app discoverability.

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Today, I started a new consulting project with a mobile app discovery start-up called, Chomp, Inc.  I’m excited to be working with a team of smart, motivated, and fun people.  I’ll be leading mobile business development for Chomp – evaluating opportunities for growth.  I’d love to tell you about but can’t.  Here’s what I can tell you… (more…)

I just downloaded Sandvine’s 2010 Mobile Internet Phenomena(1) study, a whopping 35-page report that details data trends from more than 40 of the world’s leading mobile operators, who serve more than 200 million subscribers worldwide.  Sandvine is a bit of a ‘traffic cop’ on the figurative ‘mobile highway.’  It provides network policy control solutions to mobile operators around the globe.  Sandvine’s Mobile Internet Phenomena study is jam packed with good information about what consumers are doing online from their mobile devices around the world and plenty of reasons why mobile operators need help managing mobile traffic.  Intrigued by the findings in Sandvine’s report, I couldn’t help but think about what traffic on the mobile highway looks like today and wonder what the future holds for the mobile ecosystem amidst growing  congestion… (more…)

It’s the first day of CTIA Wireless 2010, and things are already buzzing here in Las Vegas.  One of the more interesting announcements this morning comes from Openwave Systems Inc. and Nielsen Company, who announced a collaboration, which should benefit both mobile operators and their consumers.

They’re rolling out what they’re calling an “insight engine”, that combines Openwave Analytics, a solution that helps mobile operators monitor data network traffic and trends in user behavior to diagnose and address bandwidth constraints with Nielsen PRIZM, a user segmentation solution that creates a common language to segment various types of users and helps marketers address different segments of users based on demographics, behavior, and geography.  (more…)

Last week, I wrote a post with tips on staying productive in the office. This week, a colleague sent me a 2009 Harvard Business Review article on another blight on office productivity… “mean girls” (meeoow!). That’s right, folks, the Harvard Business Review published a very serious article on the negative impact of “mean girls” in the workplace.  According to the article: (more…)

Today, Open Mobile Solutions (OMS) announced which mobile apps will be demoed at the four Developer Pitch Sessions at CTIA Wireless next week.  The line-up of developers and mobile applications/ products looks great: (more…)

Following up on my earlier post about the Developer Pitch Sessions at CTIA in Las Vegas, CTIA just added a second panel on”Gaining Distribution” to the official agenda.  I’m looking forward to moderating this new panel, “Gaining Distribution- Panel B” on Wednesday, March 24, 3-4pm.

So far, there is a great panel of experts confirmed for this session including: (more…)