• Finding outstanding carrier sales/ business developments people is difficult…Your best bet is to poach someone from another company.   The best BD people in the mobile space are usually employed and well compensated with cash, equity, and benefits. Getting them to leave their current job is difficult, but worth it for the right fit.  Also, there are a lot of great BD consultants out there, but great BD consultants don’t come cheap.
• Many of the candidates out there that claim to be mobile “experts” aren’t… When screening candidates for mobile BD positions, look for specific examples of sales/BD success and specific carrier names
• When someone says they “drove deals with operators,” it can mean a lot of different things… At the interview stage, it’s important to assess how good the candidates relationships are with key decision makers. Get references.  Talk to those decision-makers, and ask them how they enjoyed working with the candidate and validate that the deal described in the resume was real.
• Relationships are the key to business development success in mobile. Hire someone who has an engaging demeanor and strong relationships with operators, OEMs, or your key partners.  In ISV / Operator / OEM business development, things get done more quickly between friends and/or colleagues that enjoy working with each other and there is a feeling that you’re driving mutual benefit/value for each other.  Be wary of candidates that can’t describe who they know at your key target companies and/or candidates that come from a company that has a bad reputation among your target audience (i.e. a failed start-up that left an OEM or operator stranded).
• If you’re unable to find a great candidate within a week or two, be prepared to pay for a seasoned contract recruiter with strong mobile experience to help you.  Find out who they’ve worked with, who they’ve placed, and talk to a few of their clients before agreeing to work together.

Since I know a handful of companies that are looking for full-time carrier sales/ business development talent at the moment, I thought it would be useful to poll my readers… Who is the best carrier sales/ business development person you’ve worked with and what makes them successful?  Post your thoughts as a comment below.

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:

• 2010 MEX User Experience Innovator of the Year
  • topsee london Designed by… lastminute.com labs
  • MX series Designed by… frog design
  • On – life is better on Designed by… Orange Vallee
• Professional category
  • Woobius eye – Real-time visual chat Designed by… Woobius
  • MX series Designed by… frog design
  • dxtr – 3 button mobile interface Designed by… Ribot
• Freelance category
  • BlazeBroker Designed by… Kai Brunner
  • Telepresent Robot Designed by… Vincent MK Lau
• Commercial category
  • On – life is better on Designed by… Orange Vallee
  • SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 Designed by… SPB Software
  • topsee london Designed by… lastminute.com labs
• Student category
  • ‘Freedom’ Interactive Map Designed by… Adrian Bliss
  • Pulse – Communication for Kids Designed by… Simon Smith
  • Viva: Stay connected Designed by… Heeral Roy Sharma

The announcement has received some great press so far.  If you’d like to read what the press thinks, check out these articles:

• Mashable: http://mashable.com/2010/05/03/facebook-photo-tagging/
• TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/03/7-billion-scanned-photos-later-face-com-opens-up-to-developers/
• VentureBeat: http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/05/03/face-com-takes-its-face-recognition-technology-beyond-facebook/
• CNET: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20003936-248.htmlhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20003936-248.html
• Techmeme:  http://www.techmeme.com/100503/p31#a100503p31
• Wireless Week: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2010/05/Mobile-Content-Facial-Recognition-API-Face-Mobile-Applications/
• Inet Evolution: http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=466&doc_id=191302&
• Wireless Week: http://www.wirelessweek.com/News/2010/05/Mobile-Content-Facial-Recognition-API-Face-Mobile-Applications/
• Peta Pixel:  http://www.petapixel.com/2010/05/03/face-com-launches-facial-recognition-api/
• WebProNews: http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/05/03/facebook-photo-tagging-goes-web-wide
• TheNextWeb: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2010/05/03/face-recognition-web-facecom-api/

There were several interesting predictions in the Morgan Stanley report:

• “Mobile Ramping Faster than Desktop Internet Did and Will Be Bigger Than Most Think.”
• “Mobile Will Be Bigger Than Desktop Internet in 5 Years.”
  
• “Rapid Ramp of Mobile Internet Usage Will be a Boon to Consumers and Some Companies Will Likely Win Big (Potentially Very Big) While Many Will Wonder What Just Happened.”

Meeker and her colleagues attribute the steep growth trajectory of the mobile Internet  to five converging trends: 3G, Social Networking, Video, VoIP, and so-called “Impressive Mobile Devices” (i.e. sophisticated smartphones like iPhone, etc.).  Another of  the reasons why Morgan Stanley believes mobile Internet is growing so quickly is because users are apparently more willing to pay for content on their mobile devices than on their desktop computers.  The Morgan Stanley report cites several reasons for this:

• “Easy-to-Use / Secure Payment Systems… (like carrier billing + iTunes)”
  
• “Small Price Tags – Most content / subscriptions carry sub-$5 price tags”
• “Walled Gardens Reduce Piracy – Content exists in proprietary environments, difficult to get pirated content onto mobile devices”
• “Established Store Fronts – Carrier decks / iTunes store allow easy discovery / purchase”
• “Personalization – More important on mobiles than desktops”

I agree that the mobile Internet is growing phenomenally quickly and that the convergence of all five of the trends that Morgan Stanley mentioned mentioned is critical.  I also believe that small price tags, established storefronts where it’s easy to pay, and users’ desire for personalization all play a role.  However, there are plenty of challenges.  As I discussed in an October 2009 post, creating virality and spreading content through mobile is more complex in mobile than web.  Likewise, so is the discovery of mobile apps and content.

I was surprised that the Morgan Stanley report didn’t site discoverability as a challenge to the growth of the mobile internet, much of which appears to be fueled by the growth of smartphone apps (both web and native).  As I pointed out in the aforementioned October 09 blog post on mobile virality, “the number of available apps for [Smartphones] is, in my opinion, outpacing demand, and app discoverability is a growing problem.”

In the same way that Yahoo listed web pages in a directory format in the early days of the web before they made things better with advanced search, mobile applications are currently being listed in app stores in a taxonomy-like format.  With the number of mobile apps – both native and web-based – skyrocketing, it is getting more and more difficult for app stores to index apps in a way that makes them easy for users to discover.  This is one of the reasons, why I’m really excited to be working with my latest client, mobile app discovery engine, Chomp.  Chomp is starting to solve the mobile app discoverability problem and fueling virality on iPhone by recommending apps to users based upon other apps they’ve reviewed and the people in their social network.

I predict social networking will play an enormous and continuously growing role in helping users discover and use content from the mobile Internet.  Social networking seems to play a large role in the escalating mobile Internet demand. Morgan Stanley says an increasing number of users expect to be able to access content from their social networks from their mobile devices.  The number of social networking users surpassed the number of email users in July 2009 (at the time, just over 800 Million users), and social networking usage surpassed email usage in November of 2007 (at just over 100 Billion minutes a month globally).  The report says that the following five countries make up 48% of social networking users including, in order of usage:

• China: 384MM users (up 29% year on year)
• USA: 238MM users (up 4% year on year)
• India: 130MM users (up 23% year on year)
• Brazil: 67MM users (up 14% year on year)
• Russia: 39MM users (up13% year on year)

As I read through this report from Morgan Stanley, I couldn’t help but be excited to hear that the opportunities between mobile and social web convergence that I’ve been exploring since my first post in November 2006 are alive and well.

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…

If you’re not familiar with Chomp, it’s a recommendation engine for mobile apps, which makes it easy to discover new apps you’ll love. Chomp is currently available for free on iPhone here. Chomp uses a proprietary algorithm to recommend apps based on your sentiment about other apps you’ve reviewed.  The more you “chomp” on apps, the better Chomp gets at recommending new applications to you.  To date, Chomp has had more than 1 million iPhone app reviews.  You can follow me on Chomp and see my app recommendations here.  You can see screen shots of Chomp’s iPhone app here:

In March, Chomp launched a developer program called “Chomp Connect,” which lets mobile app developers prompt their users to review their app on Chomp—all within one click, without leaving their app.  In contrast, Apple only prompts users to review an app on iTunes when they delete that app from their iPhone, which often creates a negative review bias on the iTunes app store.  With Chomp Connect, developers are able to leverage Chomp’s engaged community of users, who are more likely to review apps regardless of whether they love or hate them.  This reduces negative bias, making app reviews on Chomp more balanced and realistic.  With Chomp Connect, Developers can:

• Automatically prompt users to review an app after it launches a specific number of times, OR let users choose when they’d like to review the app.
  
• Drive positive reviews of their app from Chomp’s engaged users, rather than risking that the only people to review their app are those that delete it.
  
• Boost downloads of their app… The more reviews an app gets on Chomp, the more exposure it gets in the activity feed, which improves app discoverability.
  

As an Apple Affiliate, Chomp helps users discover the long tail of apps that are not in the Top 25 slots on the App Store, which benefits users and boosts app downloads and sales for Apple.  Chomp makes money by taking a percentage of the sale of every app its users discover through Chomp and purchase on the iTunes App store.

I’ve tweeted about Chomp before, and their history to-date has been well chronicled by TechCrunch, which describes it as “sort of like a Yelp for iPhone apps:“

• Chomp Closes In On 300,000 Users, Launches App Review Site And Chomp Connect (March 9, 2010)
• Chomp Now Live And Ready To Bite Into iPhone App Recommendations (January 11, 2010)
• Chomp Reveals Itself To Be A Yelp For iPhone Apps (January 6, 2010)
• Chomp Eats Up Some Seed Funding. Next, Will Bite Into The Mobile Space. (Nov 6, 2009)
• Chomp’s profile on CrunchBase
  

Since its public launch in January, 11 2010, Chomp has accumulated more than 300,000 users.  You can keep up-to-date with the latest information about Chomp:

• Follow Chomp on Twitter.
• Fan Chomp on Facebook.
• Read the Chomp Technology Blog.

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…

What is driving mobile traffic?!

Among the most interesting findings in Sandvine’s report is that mobile “social networking applications represent between 4 percent and 9 percent of the network’s peak bandwidth.“   For the purposes of the study, social networking is defined as “Websites and services focused on enabling interaction (chat, communication) and information sharing (photos, status, etc) between users.”  According to Sandvine’s research:

• Facebook accounts for 3 to 6 percent of peak period traffic, and nearly one out of every five mobile data subscribers accesses Facebook regularly.  (I suspect this number will grow further in 2010 as mobile data usage increases, since in 2009, Facebook’s site traffic equated to 1.5% of total Internet traffic on cable and DSL networks.)
• MySpace accounts for between 1.5 and 2.5 percent of peak period traffic on mobile networks.

In this report, Sandvine tracks social networking activity across networks including but not limited to sites like: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Habbo, and Bebo.  In the charts below, you’ll notice that social networking is among the top categories of mobile traffic among the normalized user profile in North America, Europe and the Caribbean and Latin America.  These figures validate my long-held perception that mobile social networking is important to mobile data consumers.  Surprisingly however, among all three regions covered in this study, the Caribbean and Latin America see the highest normalized level of Facebook and MySpace traffic.

Among “Top Subcribers” (most of whom are laptop users connecting via wireless aircards) in the three regions covered in Sandvine’s report, social networking is only a top mobile traffic driver in Europe.  Universally, across all three profiled regions, browsing and Peer to Peer (P2P) filesharing are the top wireless traffic categories for Top Subscribers, and these categories comprise nearly 2/3rds of all traffic among these users.  According to the report:

The Top Subscriber’s profile differs from the normalized average in one significant way – the high levels of P2P filesharing traffic.  Service providers who assume that subscribers will not use P2P applications on wireless networks will be dismayed to see that subscriber behavior is fairly consistent regardless of the network technology being used.

Further,

The devices that subscribers use to connect to the network exert a huge influence on the levels and make-up of traffic.  A single laptop can easily account for 100 times the byte usage of an average smartphone, and this reality has major implications for service providers.

What could all of this mean for the future of mobile?

Talk is cheap, but delivering heavy mobile data isn’t, and operator revenues are projected to decline…

According to Sandvine’s report:

It’s generally accepted that in 2009 there were between 300 million11 and 600 million(2) people experiencing the Internet on a mobile device, accounting for roughly $60 billion(3) in data revenues.  While significant, these numbers are dwarfed by projections suggesting between 1 billion(4) and 2 billion(5) users by 2014, and revenues well in excess of $100 billion(6).  And therein is one of the points of concern for wireless providers – while the number of users is expected to triple or even quadruple in the next five years, revenue is predicted to only double.

Check out declining the ARPU rates on voice vs. data in the US:

As a growing number of converged devices pull down more and more data over mobile networks, plenty of operators are concerned about the impact that increasing bandwidth demands has on both the reliability of their networks and their bottom line.

Last week, at CTIA, I had several conversations about the the future of mobile data – specifically – how mobile operators might combat the expense and network constraints of “bandwidth suck.”  Most of the people I talked to felt that the cost to access mobile data will rise for users as mobile data usage increases.  Others, surmised that operators will eventually phase out “all you can eat” mobile data plans.

If either scenario plays out, “Top Subscribers” will likely be the first to feel the pain – presumably around the launch of 4G devices and corresponding data plans. Why?  One of the biggest consumer benefits of 4G is the increased speed of downloads, and this speed will most likely appeal to heavy data users and come at increased cost.  It’s also conceivable that mobile operators could cap data usage and/or download speeds for 2G and 3G consumers in order to entice more subscribers to convert to 4G.

Opportunity knocks…

If consumer data costs rise, mobile developers may feel increased pressure from consumers to reduce “bandwidth suck” without hurting user experience.  If so, there will be an opportunity for developers to create tools to help app owners better understand user behavior and optimize a for better performance… Mobile analytics companies like Flurry, Motally, Medialets, Mobclix and others could evolve to service this need, or we may see new start-ups in this space.  Additionally, there may be an increased need for mobile apps and/or utilities that help mobile users manage their traffic usage (similar to those that existed in the early days of WAP).

There may also be increased opportunities for developers of “bandwidth sucking apps” to partner with operators on Software As A Service (SAAS) rev-share deals (i.e. $X a month for unlimited data usage of a specific app, etc.).  We’ve seen plenty of deals like this in the past – especially for services like mobile TV, but the appeal of this model may grow with both consumers and app developers if mobile data plans get more expensive and/or “all you can eat” data plans dissolve.

Regardless of what happens to the price of mobile data, the cost of increasing mobile data usage presents a growing opportunity for companies to help operators control data costs.  In particular, based on what I’m seeing, the market for customer insights, mobile traffic management/ policy control, mobile analytics, and mobile optimization products, etc. is heating up…

Early last week I talked a bit about how Openwave and Nielsen are working together to help mobile operators better segment and target their mobile data users.  Later last week, at CTIA Wireless 2010, I stopped by the Sandvine booth, and one of their employees told me that within the next couple of months, they’ll be launching a tool that helps mobile operators better determine the cost of supporting specific types of users.  These two companies aren’t alone. There are plenty of other companies trying to tackle mobile data/traffic issues for operators including:

• 724/ Mobixell
• Arantech
• Amdocs
• Ascision
• Bytemobile
• Camiant
• Cisco (who acquired Starent)
• Convergys
• Comverse
• Ericsson
• Flash Networks
• IBM
• Nokia Siemens Networks
• Openwave
• Openet
• Redknee
• Sandvine
• and others.

Opportunities to help mobile operators and developers manage data usage and better monetize users will likely grow as the mobile highway grows increasingly busy.  I’m looking forward to see what sort of new products, services, and companies emerge as operators and app developers look for more efficient ways to manage traffic and monetize users.

Sources:

1. All charts and stats come from Sandvine’s 2010 Mobile Internet Phenomena study and the following sources quoted within it:

2. Ross, Jamie. The Mobile Internet Is 10 Year Old: It’s Time for a Reality Check. Informa Telecoms & Media.

3. Ross, Jamie. The Mobile Internet Is 10 Year Old: It’s Time for a Reality Check. Informa Telecoms & Media.

4. Strategy Analytics. Connected Devices Fuel 1 Billion New Mobile Broadband Subs by 2014.

5. Ross, Jamie. The Mobile Internet Is 10 Year Old: It’s Time for a Reality Check. Informa Telecoms & Media.

6. Ross, Jamie. The Mobile Internet Is 10 Year Old: It’s Time for a Reality Check.

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. 

The combined product will allow mobile operators and other drivers of the mobile ecosystem to better understand, target and monetize their customers and the mobile internet more effectively.  It should also help advertisers better understand mobile user behavior and target that behavior more meaningfully with advertising.  And, lastly, for consumers it should ultimately mean that the marketing they see should be more relevant over time.

In order for mobile to become a long-term viable and profitable medium for marketing and advertising, the various players in the mobile ecosystem need to better understand mobile customer behavior.  Mark Nelson, senior vice president of the Nielsen Claritas Corporate Partner Program, described the benefits of the Openwave collaboration by saying:

By combining carrier-related mobile analytics with Nielsen’s PRIZM and ConneXions segmentation, carriers can analyze and measure mobile behaviors in terms that advertisers understand.  We believe this integrated approach will help drive adoption of mobile as a viable advertising platform.

The collaboration is certainly a good first step towards ensuring that there is a better common understanding of mobile consumers between various stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem.  By better recognizing consumer preferences and where they impact the network, mobile operators can begin to price services more effectively.  John Giere, senior vice president, products and marketing, Openwave pointed out:

The long standing belief within the advertising industry is that one half of the budget is generating results, but nobody knows which half.  We hope to arm the industry with actionable solutions which provide better response rates and more measurable mobile campaigns…We believe our collaboration with Nielsen will help improve the mobile operator’s understanding of their network usage and facilitate new revenue opportunities for ecosystem players.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of this collaboration and which operators engage with it longer term.

Woman-on-woman bullying, as women have officially become 50% of the workforce for the first time according to the Shriver Report issued last week. According to a 2007 Workplace Bullying Institute survey, though the majority of workplace bullies are men (60/40), female bullies target other women 71% of the time. Additionally, female bullies more frequently engaged in under-the-radar behaviors such as sabotage (53.7% of female vs. 39.9% of male bullies) and abuse of authority (50.2% vs. 44.7%), as compared to the more observable form of verbal abuse engaged in by more male (57.5%) than female bullies (47.1%).

It’s been at least a decade since I worked with someone I’d classify as a “mean girl”… This got me to wondering whether I’m lucky, or whether it has something to do with working in tech.  I think it’s probably a combination of both.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with smart, fun, and interesting people over the years- both men and women.  In my experience, the women in tech (particularly in mobile) are generally supportive of each other, not divisive.  I think this is partially because in technology, women are the minority… In major cities all over the world there are all sorts of great organizations supporting women in tech: Women 2.0, Girl Geek Dinners, She’s Geeky, etc… The list goes on.  The most successful women I know in tech, simultaneously take no prisoners and seek out ways to help their colleagues succeed, regardless of their sex.  Don’t get me wrong, I know there are mean girls out there, but I don’t often see them with their claws out in technology companies.

I suspect that the tech community may be at least a bit more accepting of differences and less tolerant of mean girls bullying than other industries.  If you want to build cool products, you need to collaborate with your peers and accept others’ ideas and viewpoints – even when they’re vastly different than your own.  Particularly in Silicon Valley, where so many of the most amazing technical innovations come from (what I jokingly refer to as) the ’socks and sandals’ crowd, you’d be a fool to bully someone that’s different than you are… At the end of the day, we’re all tech geeks.

I’d be curious to hear what other women in tech think…  Am I THAT lucky, or is the “mean girl” really as prevalent across industries as the Harvard Business Review article makes it sound?

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:

• Soundtrckr
• Mobisante
• TextArrest
• Nearbynow
• Anttenna
• Right Deal Right Now
• Caregive
• Live Colony
• Micello
• Lumosity
• Asurion Mobile Addressbook
• Glympse
• Rhythm New Media
• Yap
• Xtop
• Fring
• Flirtomatic
• Pageonce
• Snapfinger from Kudzu Interactive
• Inrix Traffic.

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’ll be moderating the second Developer Pitch Session on Distribution on Wednesday, March 24 from 3-4pm in the Las Vegas Convention Center − Apps World, North Hall – Innovation Hall.  The experts for this session are:

• Claudia Backus, Senior Director, Ecosystem Programs, Motorola
• Larry Berkin, Head of Global Alliances, Symbian Foundation
• Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement, Sony Ericsson
• Ian McDonald, Global Manager, BlackBerry Developer Program (UPDATED 3/19/10 – replacing Tyler Lessard)
  
• Asokan Thiyagarajan, Director – Platforms & Technology Strategy, Samsung Telecommunications America
  
• Patrick Mork, Vice President, Marketing, GetJar, Inc.

During this session, developers will pitch the following mobile products:

• Glympse
• Asurion Mobile Address Book
• Yap
• Rhythm New Media
• Xtop from IMS
  

If you still need a ticket to CTIA, here’s instructions on how to get one for free.

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

• Larry Berkin, Head of Global Alliances, Symbian Foundation
• Tyler Lessard, Vice President, Global Alliances and Developer Relations, RIM
• Asokan Thiyagarajan, Director – Platforms & Technology Strategy, Samsung Telecommunications America
• Patrick Mork, Vice President, Marketing, GetJar, Inc.
• Jai Jaisimha, CEO, Open Mobile Solutions, Inc.

Rumor has it that additional experts may be added to this esteemed panel in the coming days… I’ll update this post if/when that happens.

I’m pleased that Open Mobile Solutions (OMS) asked me to moderate this panel*. As I type, Mobile developers are applying online for an opportunity to pitch and demo their product to panels of experts at CTIA.  If you’d like to pitch your product to this panel, you can apply here.  The original “Distribution” panel that was organized (Panel A) proved so popular that a second session was added: “Gaining Distribution Panel B.”  In this session, pre-selected developers will pitch and demo their product for 5 minutes in front of a panel of experts on distribution (OEMs, major operators, etc.). The experts will provide feedback to the chosen developers in front of a live audience.

It should be an interesting event. I hope to see you there.

*Last week, I officially became an Advisor to OMS, which is in private beta.  It will soon launch publicly as THE place to find qualified mobile app development resources via a competitive, bidded marketplace.