For starters, it it ingests your communication logs, address book, emails, etc. and builds a screen of tiles featuring the top 30 people that you contact most, a feature they call your “pop faves”.  To create your pop faves, Poptuit leaves your data on the phone but it uses an algorithm to look at recency, frequency of conversations. This algorithm also processes the duration of your call, conversational reciprocity, and more.  You can re-order the tiles as you see fit.  The app also lets you know which of your friends are also on Poptuit (green star = on Poptuit and available to talk, red star= on Poptuit but not free to talk).

It does a similar thing with the merchants you contact most. Apptera has a background in mobile yellow pages, so they’re able to seamlessly match the phone numbers you call with the merchant information in their database to assemble a list of the top 30 merchants you contact most.  They have partnerships with AT&T Interactive, CityGrid, Yelp to pull in information about companies: pictures, store hours, etc.  Today, phone calls and emails connect you to companies through Poptuit. Vogel tells me in the future, they’ll likely help you connect to Merchants through “Likes” and check-ins on social networks as well.

Another cool Poptuit feature is location sharing.  Much like Glympse and the new “Family and Friends” app Apple announced today for the iPhone, with Poptuit, you can share your location with friends/family for a specific period of time.  If your friend is not on Poptuit, (s)he’ll get a text message that you’re trying to share your location. These features are all opt in, and you can control how long you want to share your location for with a particular contact.

As you can see below, Poptuit also threads conversations, which makes it easier to track your conversations with friends, regardless of whether on phone, email, or text.

It does a similar thing with your favorite merchants:

I asked Vogel about how Poptuit plans to make money with this app.  He comes from an advertising background and feels that personal/ smarter yellow pages will be valuable real estate. Though Poptuit doesn’t want to be a conventional deals app. It aims to be a personal network app connecting users’s favorite people and places. Their plan is to allow merchants to target users. They want to catch people at the golden moment when they’re interested in getting something.  As opposed to spamming people with irrelevant coupons (what man doesn’t love getting all of those Brazilian waxing coupons from Groupon?!), Poptuit wants to connect users with merchants in a more meaningful, helpful, non spammy way.  Ultimately, Vogel says they’ll monetize in several ways:

• A featured merchant slot (though they don’t just yet).
• Ingesting 3^rd party ads from companies like Groupon, Living Social, Att Interactive, Citysearch, Valpack, etc. and targeting those ads towards a user’s favorite places
• Enabeling merchants to use Poptuit as a platform – i.e. CRM in a box.

The only way Poptuit will be able to make this business model work is by attracting a ton of users, and ensuring that ads and targeting enhance, rather than detract from the user experience. Vogel is aware of this, and he’s confident that Poptuit will do just that.  Poptuit is currently in private beta with several hundred users, and Vogel says that beta customers are using it to replace sevearal other apps, on average using it 10 times a day. They hope to be out of beta and launch live to the public in Q4.  In the meantime, if you’d like to try it, you can sign up for a free beta account using the word “pop” here.

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

Amazon already sells tons of digital books, movies, music, and more, and since the Kindle Fire is so cheap, there’s only a few plausible reasons why someone wouldn’t want to buy one:

• For users that own an existing Kindle, the Kindle Fire screen may not appeal. The screen looks good, but it’ll be harder to read in bright sunlight than the existing black and white Kindle.
• Battery life With the old Kindle, a single charge lasts up to two months with wireless off.  In contrast, the Amazon Kindle Fire only gets up to 8 hours of continuous reading or 7.5 hours of video playback, with wireless off.
• Power tablet users including existing iPad and Galaxy Tab 10.1 users probably won’t be tempted to buy a Kindle Fire.  Either they’ve spent a ton of money on a high end piece of hardware that does similar things and lasts a bit longer than the Kindle Fire, or they may be turned off by the modified version of Android offered on the Kindle Fire.

Overall, the Amazon Kindle Fire looks like a great piece of hardware, and the Amazon Appstore is a great place to get digital content…. So, at $199, it’ll be hard for many tech-savvy consumers to resist.

In 2009 I wrote an article on how virality is broken in mobile and what to do to fix it.  A lot has changed since then including that creating virality in mobile is getting easier. As more people adopt iOS, Android, and HTML5, fragmentation appears to be less of a problem (although it still is one).  It’s getting easier to find ways to create virality in apps, and developers are getting more and more creative in the ways that they engage users – particularly through the introduction of gaming mechanics.

There are many dynamics that drive game play, but these four appear to me to be the most effective in non-gaming settings, like mobile:

1. Appointment: This is enticing someone to be at a specific place at a specific time.  All of the “ville” games by Zynga do this… Farmville, Cityville, etc.  They require users to complete a certain task at a specific time or risk losing something (i.e. water your plants now, or they’ll wilt).  Groupon Now is also a good example of this… Users must act quickly, or they’ll lose out on an opportunity. Scarcity is a great motivator. This works not only with games and offers, but also with things like medical apps. I’ve heard of several apps that are either out there or coming soon that remind users to take their medicine on time, or test their blood sugar on time (for diabetics), using this mechanic.

2. Influence and status: As much I wish we weren’t, people are inherently status driven. This gaming mechanic works by giving users some level of status to aspire to. FourSquare’s badging concept is a good example of this dynamic… If you visit a specific venue more than anyone else, you become “The Mayor,” which encourages repeat check-ins, and users are encouraged to participate in quests that can earn them other status badges.  Retailers do this too… Sephora, for example, offers VIB (Very Important Beauty Insider) status to shoppers that spend more than $350 in a calendar year, which entitles those users to perks like product discounts, early access to new products, invitations to exclusive shopping events, and more.  Users should be able to earn status by buying it, or investing enough time in a game that they earn it (while the developer earns user loyalty and revenue from advertising).

3. Progression: People are motivated by the desire to move ahead. This gaming mechanic seeks to motivate to get through a certain number of steps.  Companies like LinkedIn use this mechanic to encourage people to complete their online profile by showing an incomplete status bar.  The concept of “leveling up” in a game is standard practice… From the early days of Super Mario Brothers to the more modern MMPOGs like World of Warcraft, giving people the feeling that they’ve progressed/ achieved something gives them a reason to come back. These “epic” or “achievement” moments encourage users to keep coming back

4. Communal discovery/ shared experience: Most people are generally motivated by shared social experiences. Giving people a common goal and asking them to work together to achieve it often brings that group closer together.  Similarly when users see their friends doing something that looks like fun, they want to try it.  #4 can be used really effectively with #2 (Influence and Status) to drive users in social groups towards a desired action like regular visits, buying virtual goods, etc.

Seth Priebatsch did a great presentation touching on all of these mechanics at TED last year, but there are a ton of others out there that can successfully be incorporated into mobile.  Companies like OpenFeint (Gree), Beintoo, Kiip, and others are trying to drive these and other gaming mechanics into mobile experiences. So, while “gaming mechanics” and “gamification” have become THE buzzword bingo words of 2011, in talking to many of the mobile app developers i know, it appears to be for good reason. These techniques are working to successfully drive repeat and increased usage of mobile apps for many developers.

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

Brad Green from Visa thinks that 2012 will be a “transitional year for mobile payments where we move from pilots and trials to real, full blown deployments, but we still think it’s going to take several years before we see critical mass adoption.” The key to getting mass adoption is going to be getting retailers on board. For merchants who upgrade their infrastructure to enable mobile payments, Visa is going to waive the PCI compliance audit for retailers. This is an expensive and time consuming process, so this will be a great incentive for merchants to upgrade. In 2015, for merchants who don’t upgrade to mobile payments, they’re going to do a liability shift, where merchants will hold the liability from the bank to the merchant… Another “strong incentive” to get merchants to upgrade…The crowd laughs.

Chris Hylen from Intuit feels “Incredibly good in its ability to lead in payments.”

Laura Chambers from Paypal says that Paypal started re-investing in mobile about 5 years ago.  Paypal says that offline merchants have approached them to help them get into mobile payments.

Dave Talach from VeriFone says that the lack of expectation at the brick and mortar stores for mobile vouchers has fueled the lack of consumer and retailer adoption. Verifone has historically provided many point of sale devices, but it’s a “green field” for mobile payments. The company that builds relationships with retailers is going to succeed. Where you’ve come from isn’t exactly where you’re going. Talach believes that with NFC – A certain amount of experimentation is useful. “Success lies with simplicity…I personally believe in NFC because I believe that it’s the ultimate personal technology.”

Chambers Paypal will do $3B in payments this year, and not a penny of it will be NFC. “I would agree NFC is a great techology… I think it’s going to take a while…. We’re talking about a 3-5 year window.”  There’s a lot that needs to get sorted out around who is owed what when NFC is used, and it’s a lot to work out. “Merchants won’t invest until they see it going to happen.” “At paypal, we’re not going to wait 3-5 years,” which is why Paypal announced some other mobile payments

Greene says Visa is going to be supporting Google Wallet and ISIS.

When asked about what they think of Google Wallet… There was no consensus… Hylen thinks that it’s Google’s “Plan B” to Google Checkout. Talach thinks Google Wallet is going to be a catalyst. Chambers feels that it is “narrow.”

Hylen says that Intuit is placing a series of bets, of which NFC is one. They’re focused on embracing the current enviroment and “being on the forefront of change.”

Greene from Visa says they’re focusing on “Trust, reliability, ubiquity, and merchant acceptance” while layering on new features/value adds, and he’s confident consumers will adopt it. Visa’s existing business mitigates this. If things move quickly, great. If not, they’re still operating a thriving business.

VeriFone is implementing NFC and Google Wallet initiatives. NFC is nice because it leverages proven security standards that the big card processors have used in the past. Most if VeriFone’s IP is in security systems. They ship 3.5 million devices a year, and their goal is to make sure fraud is limited.They want mobile interaction to blossom.

Chambers views the biggest challenge in mobile payments is “the hammer syndrome…When you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail.” Paypal is trying to build a system that is broad but flexible. Pushing something new onto merchants won’t work, so Paypal is trying to introduce changes that appeal to merchant’s existing behavior, while bringing value to merchants and consumers.

There’s a question from the audience… “How do you view peer to peer payments?”  Chambers says that Paypal is finding that people are using peer to peer transactions as a way to substitute cash. It’s a big market. Mobile is a great use case for peer to peer. Hylen agrees with Chambers. Peer to peer is important. “To ignore it would be a big mistake… And, it’s growing.”

Second question from the audience… “How are you going to transition the consumer. It’s got to be about adoption from the consumers, not pushing it.” Chambers says it’s “not about just payments.” Paypal is thinking more about the end-to-end solution. Paypal finds that for consumers the digitalization of coupons is important, but people will need a reason to change their behavior.  Talach believes that paper receipts and coupons is a problem. He wants to see consistency to the consumer. One company may be a single tap, one double… Confusion is a bad thing.” Green says “In this country, payments work pretty darn well.” To get into a new value proposition, you need to add value. That’s why Visa is also looking at emerging countries to add value to unbanked consumers to “provide for the first time basic financial services to people have been previously restricted to cash.”

Another question from the audience…In other countries, mobile payments have taken off, but we don’t seem to be pushing consumers like they are in Asia. Chambers says that Asia, Australia, and Europe are growing strong, but there are also a lot of people doing mobile shopping in America. “I wouldn’t underestimate the appetite of Americans to do mobile shopping.”  Innovative merchants know that people are price comparing and buying on mobile in bricks and mortar stores. Talach says that US is under pressure to go beyond payments – to add value. The international community enables mobile payments, but the pressure is on for US entrepreneurs to

Final question from Webster…Is 2012 going to be THE year of mobile payments?

Chambers says no. 2012 is going to be an important year in the growth curve of mobile payments. We’ll see experimentation, pilots, etc. In 2013 and 2014, we’ll see mainstream adoption.

Green believes its more true than false, but we’ll still be a few years off from ubiquity.

Hylen says it’s false. The 2010s are the years of mobile payments. “We’re not quite there yet. It’s all about innovation, but it’s going to happen over many years.”

Talach says, “Success lays in years of hard work, not in a year of magical work.”

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.

In the ten months since Zeewe launched, a robust community of users and developers has embraced it as the best place to discover, share and recommend cross-platform, HTML5-based mobile apps including games, music and videos, books, entertainment, business and more.

Eduardo Lins Henrique, Head of Innovations at Movile and Zeewe Product Lead describes Zeewe’s viral growth:
Since Zeewe’s launch last December, many well-respected companies have developed cross-platform HTML5 web apps including: The Financial Times (ft.com), Google (plus.google.com and Chrome Store), Pandora (Pandora.com), and others. Many more companies, including Facebook, are rumored to be next. Movile is accelerating its leadership position in Smartphone, Tablet and converged web applications by investing in Zeewe and other products that leverage HTML5.

Zeewe 2.0 uses HTML5 offline resources based on cache features to enable a seamless offline HTML5 app browsing experience, initially for iOS Safari users with support for Android users coming soon. Zeewe also now supports HTML5 apps designed to work offline like Block Dream, Blast Effect, Checklist, Card Flip. Movile expects this enhancement will significantly improve the Zeewe experience. Henrique continues:

Zeewe users will interact more with our application because the time to load each page in the system is 10 times faster than before. In user tests, this dramatically improved the Zeewe navigation experience and click through rates.

Dario Sciacca, DS Effect´s CEO says,

This announcement is very important for the HTML5 market. We tried Zeewe 2.0 and we agreed that the user experience is much better than the first iteration. About billing, all developers are interested in monetizing their business. At DS Effect, this is not different and we will certainly use Zeewe payments APIs soon.

Zeewe 2.0’s new billing APIs, which launched today using Movile´s own connections and Zong, a PayPal service and a leading provider of payments through mobile carrier billing. It is initially available in the United States of America and Brazil and will roll out to additional countries including the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, India, and Mexico in the coming months.

According to PayPal’s Senior Director of Mobile Stephane Kasriel, “It´s fantastic to have an App Store based on HTML5 technology in Zong´s portfolio. HTML5 web apps are a growing trend amongst mobile developers and they are being widely adopted in the market. We’re excited to to be Zeewe’s exclusive in-app payments solution.”

Movile believes that the future of mobile apps is based on the open web standards of HTML5 and driving cross-platform mobile experiences that leverage the social graph. Zeewe is boosting the discovery and usage of HTML5 apps and enabling mobile users to share and pay for experiences seamlessly across OSes.

Zeewe by Movile is a cross-platform mobile app store based on the open web standards of HTML5. Zeewe is the best place to discover and share cross-platform mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Any mobile user with an HTML5-enabled browser can visit: http://zeewe.com and start using free apps in seconds, without registration or credit cards.
Zeewe’s “FriendZee” feature provides push notifications and social discovery through Facebook and Twitter, so users can easily see which apps their friends are using and try them out.
Zeewe launched in late December, 2010 and just achieved 1.5 million users worldwide, with most users in the US, UK, Mexico, China, and Brazil. Zeewe was developed by Movile, the leading mobile services company based in Latin America.
Zeewe is simple to use:

• Visit Zeewe.com from an iOS or Android device, and discover tons of free apps.
• Click on an app that sounds interesting and see ratings and comments from other users.
• Download apps in seconds.
• Share apps with friends, and invite them to play games with you.

Mozca is the leading mPayments platform and #1 processor of virtual goods payments on mobile in Latin America. Mozca powers mobile payments for a ton of social app developers who want to monetize their users in a new way. About 80% of people in Latin America don’t have credit cards, but most have mobile phones. This means that American social games companies that try to charge Latin American users by credit card alone, don’t convert very well.  Mozca converts many times better than credit cards for that reason.  You can check out a video on Mozca and the opportunity to monetize users in Latin America here.

Zeewe is a cross-platform mobile app store based on the open web standards of HTML5.  Zeewe is a great place to discover and share cross-platform mobile apps for smartphones and tablets. Any mobile user with an HTML5-enabled browser can visit: http://go.zeewe.com and start using free apps in seconds, without registration or credit cards. Using Zeewe is easy:

• Visit Zeewe from an iOS or Android device, and discover tons of free apps.
• Click on an app that sounds interesting and see ratings and comments from other users.
• Download apps in seconds.
• Share apps with friends, and invite them to play games with you.

Zeewe showcases a ton of great HTML5 apps that will work seamlessly across iOS or Android.   Zeewe’s “FriendZee” feature provides push notifications and social discovery through Facebook and Twitter, so users can easily see which apps their friends are using and try them out.  Zeewe launched in late December, 2010 and just achieved 1.5 million users worldwide, with most users in the US, UK, Mexico, China, and Brazil.

For those who read this blog, you know that I’m a big proponent of HTML5.  It is fast becoming one of the most important development technologies, not just for web sites and applications, but across every screen – mobiles, tablets, TVs and more. The games industry is far from untouched, with casual and social games from the likes of Disney and Zynga, and right across the spectrum being developed with these technologies.

Web Directions Unplugged will focus specifically on designing and developing games and apps using HTML5 and related web technologies.  The fun will continue in Seattle with Amped a great free hack event, Amped, May 14th.  Here’s more about these events from the organizers:

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

A three track, in depth, fluff free conference, Unplugged is for

* Game developers and designers, looking to investigate how to best use a new generation of web technologies to target a wide array of platforms
* Web designers and developers looking to bring their skills to app development
* Mobile developers looking to widen the range of platforms they can target
* Decision makers looking to make strategic decisions about platforms to target, and the tools and solutions to help best get their apps and games to market

WHAT’S COVERED:

Among the many topic covered are

• Developing with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript
• Touch based interaction design
• Geolocation
• Graphics and game programming with HTML5
• Realistic UI design
• Quality Assurance and testing techniques for web apps
• Mobile content strategy
• JavaScript libraries like SenchaTouch, Sproutcore, JQuery Mobile
• Bridging technologies like phoneGap, AIR, and Rhomobile
• Platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, webOS and Playbook
• and much more. All in depth sessions, from leading experts around the world.

GREAT DISCOUNTS FOR THE SOCIALIZE MOBILIZE COMMUNITY:

We’re excited to have SocializeMobilize as a media partner for this first-of-its-kind event, and to be coming to Seattle with Unplugged, long an important hub for mobile, web and game development.

Members of the IGDA community can receive a further $100 off the discounted price for the conference, using the code “socialize”
That makes this 2 day, three track, fully catered conference just $695!

And don’t forget Amped – a free, “lean forward” day for you to showcase your skills, try something new, and win great prizes, on Saturday May 14th

At Web Directions we aim to have:

• The best, most engaging content
• A great, campus like atmosphere
• fantastic social events
• to create events quite unlike your usual conference – educational, inspirational, and fun.

We look forward to seeing you at Unplugged and Amped in May in Seattle.

Homescreen replacement apps allow users to customize the icons and content on their homescreen.  Apps like this are launching all over the place, and competition is fierce.  Homescreen real estate is valuable, and the companies that can influence it are well positioned for success.  In the last few months alone, I’ve read dozens of articles  on homescreen replacement apps – Spark, LauncherPro Plus, SlideScreen, HelixLauncher, Panda Home, Open Home, dx Top, aHome, GDE… The list goes on.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with HipLogic one of the companies that’s on a mission to make Android devices more highly personalized and easier to use through their homescreen replacement app, *Spark.  Mark Anderson, the CEO of HipLogic is passionate about making better experiences for Android users.  You can see *Spark in action in the video below:

Last month weighed in on the war over your homescreen on a guest post for Android Guys.  Anderson knows the competition is fierce, and his team isn’t wasting time in trying to launch new, meaningful features users will love.  As far as homescreen replacement options go, Spark is a good option, and they’re partnering with big names to execute their vision.  Most recently, Spark partnered with CBS sports to launch its new Sports module, which allows you to follow your favorite sports results from your home screen:

It goes one step further, letting you dive into more details on each of your favorite sports in one click:

It also allows you to read the latest sports news:

and share that news with your friends…

and social networks…

Overall, I like *Spark. If you’re looking for a way to customize your homescreen, *Spark offers some great features.  You can give the new and improved *Spark a try by downloading the app on Android Market here.

Here are the details of each summit:

Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit – San Francisco April 26-28th 2011

GSMI has diligently worked to find the best, brightest and most distinct speakers in the Mobile Marketing industry. Our 2011 Mobile Marketing Summit will provide valuable information, through case studies, presentations and hands on workshops. Attendee’s will leave the conference with the tools and knowledge needed to keep their brands competitive in the Mobile Marketing industry. Use discount code MikeSM to get 10% off ticket price.

The Social Media Strategies Summit – Boston September 20-22nd 2011

GSMI is bringing the 2011 Social Media Strategies Summit to the East Coast. We have gathered more of the best and brightest speakers in the social media marketing arena to present emerging strategies, tactics and case studies in the successful use of social media. Unlike traditional conferences, Social Media Marketing Strategies and Tactics – 2011 Summit reveals how leading brands use social media to consolidate and expand their market share, as well as, gain valuable market data.

During this 3 day summit attendee’s will learn how to best utilize and integrate the myriad social media platforms to engage customers directly at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. Through the intelligent use of social media marketing you can, in house, have continuous direct contact with your customers.

Use discount code MikeSM to get 10% off ticket price.

The Social Media Strategies Summit – London October 25-27th 2011 SAVE-THE-DATE!

Mark your calendars! Oct 25th The Social Media Strategies Summit comes to London! Please check back often as we will be updating the website with agenda and speaker information soon.

Use discount code MikeSM to get 10% off ticket price.