Mobile World Congress is coming up in Barcelona, Spain February 27-March 1, 2012.  Below is my annual list of public parties/networking events at Mobile World Congress… So many networking events, so little time! I’ll be updating this post regularly between now and MWC. Check out the “agenda” view on the SocializeMobilize “Events” calendar to add these events to your calendar.  If you have a party or event you’d like me to add to this list, please send me the details and RSVP requirements.

I’ll be representing my client, Telesocial, at Mobile World Congress this year. Telesocial brings mobile voice to the social web.  If you’d like to learn more about Telesocial, the only free API for making mobile calls AND safely enabling mobile to mobile voice calls via social apps and the web, and please contact me.

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The annual AT&T Developer Summit at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas kicks off next Sunday with a hackathon on Sunday and a series of keynotes and smaller speakers sessions on Monday. If you’re heading to Las Vegas for CES, it’s worth checking out the AT&T Devcon beforehand.  Register here.  If you’d like to meet me at the show, ping me.

Did you know that:

• A typical US mobile device contains 18 apps?
• 10% of adult cell phone users have downloaded an app within thepast week, 20% of those under age 30?
• 8 in 10 Americans own two or more mobile devices?
• Mobile advertising will cross the $1B mark in 2011 on its way to $2.5B in 2014s?

With staggering stats like that, it should come as no surprise that the App Economy is changing the world. Come to APPNATION III November 30-December 1, 2011 at the San Francisco Design Center in San Francisco and find out what’s next and how you can profit from this burgeoning marketplace.  Socialize Mobilize is a media sponsor of APPNATION again this year, and you’ll save 30% off registration when you use the code “SOCIALIZEMOBILIZE”
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I’m at Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA today to hear about Facebook’s new HTML5 platform… I’ll be updating my notes from the event throughout the day, below. Refresh regularly:

First up… Mark Zuckerberg.

• 350,000,000 people monthly are touching Facebook’s mobile apps. Facebook is pushing on mobile and thinks it’s going to be a big opportunity for developers.
• On mobile apps, social infrastructure has been missing. The app store model is a good way to get distribution, but developing your apps so that they’re fundamentally social will also give you better distribution through the social graph.
• The vision for Facebook’s mobile apps. Facebook thinks that all apps will eventually become social. Mark says he wants Facebook to be on every phone and as deeply integrated into many devices as possible. (more…)

I’ve never been more excited to be working at the forefront of mobile and social convergence than right now.  With every week that passes, my work gets more and more interesting. I’m particularly excited about what’s happening today, as my newest client, Telesocial, launches their social to mobile calling solution – the world’s only free API for initiating mobile calls combined with a secure social to mobile cloud directory.  This is one of the coolest innovations in mobile and social convergence, and I’m not just saying that because Telesocial is my client…Telesocial’s platform is an industry first, and it is great for users, developers, and mobile operators. (more…)

I recently sat down with Henry Vogel, the President and CEO of Apptera to talk about their new Android app, Poptuit.  Poptuit is a multi-faceted consumer-focused app that brings together your favorite people and merchants together with your phone’s dialer, SMS messenger, email client, camera, maps, social apps and more into one easy to use interface.  This app packs a punch and does a ton of things that normally would require several apps to do… It reminds me of a mobile version of Xobni mixed with a social address book, smarter Yellow Pages, Glympse and the new “Family and Friends” app Apple announced today for the iPhone 4s. (more…)

I was excited to hear about the launch of the new Amazon Kindle Fire last week… Who wouldn’t love a $199 tablet, except for the executives at Apple, Samsung, and Barnes & Noble?!  In launching the Kindle Fire, Amazon proves their validation that content is king… By offering this device at lower price point than any of its competitors (and likely not much more than cost of goods sold), Amazon is betting on  selling a TON of content to make up for its low hardware price.  It’s a smart strategy.

Here’s how Amazon’s Kindle Fire stacks up to its competitors from a hardware perspective: (more…)

In 2010, the most over-used buzz words in my more mobile-focused circles were “monetization” and “virality”. This year’s buzz word bingo winners are  “gamification” and “gaming mechanics,” which encompass both “monetization” and creating “virality.”  The mobile world is quickly catching on to what the gamers and social web folks have known for a long time – one of the best ways to get people to use your app is to improve engagement through gamification. While these two words are often over-used, it’s with good reason. Introducing gaming mechanics into your app can help drive usage in the short, medium, and long term. (more…)

I’m at Mobilize 2011 in San Francisco, and the “Mobile Payments 2012: Will This Be The Year?” is kicking off.  I share my notes below…

Karen Webster, CEO of Market Platform Dynamics is the moderator. Panelists are:

• Brad Greene – Senior Business Leader, Visa
• Chris Hylen – VP and GM, Payment Solutions Division, Intuit
• Dave Talich – VP, Global Product Management, Verifone
• Laura Chambers – Senior Director of PayPal Mobile, Paypal (more…)

As I mentioned in my post over the weekend, I’ve been doing business development consulting for a cool company based in Latin America called Movile, and today, they’re launching something pretty cool…Zeewe 2.0.  Here’s the press release:

Today Movile, the leading mobile services company, announces Zeewe 2.0 (go.zeewe.com), the new version of the pioneering HTML5 app store and directory for smartphones and tablets. Zeewe has more than 1.5 million users worldwide, and these users typically use at least 5 web apps that they discover on Zeewe.  Movile also announces the launch of several exciting new features for Zeewe including off-line mode which enables users to use the Zeewe store and select apps without an internet connection on iOS devices. Beside this, Zeewe also now offers developers a payment API that enables them to charge for Apps and transact in-app purchases. (more…)