This week the Carnival stops at the new-look Mobileslate, where host Eric Chan takes the helm. The eclectic collection of posts includes a closer look at app stores (facts, figures and payment mechanisms) and a welcome deep-dive into key mobile market figures from Chetan Sharma.
Tag Archive for 'api'
Update as of: Wed. February 11:
View the Mobile Version here:
http://m.wipjam.com/2009/02/developer-survivor-guide-to-mwc09-update/ ; thanks to our friends at Mobify
And download the pdf version here - one double sided page is all you need to carry around to get you thru the week!
Booth Add: Intertek (NSTL) – 2.1D70
Events: Swedish Beers change to Wed.
Heading to a big show can be very overwhelming and very tiring. But if planned can turn out to be extrememly rewarding if connecting to the right people, finding out intelligence and even making some killer sales and partnerships.
WIP has put together a Developer Survival Guide to Mobile World Congress, in order to help make the best use if your time and resources. Included are suggested exhibits to visit, special activities, and some TIPs. This is our first cut, if you want to add something please let us know asap. Our intent is to have a pdf and mobile version for you prior to the show. And we will print some hard copies to share while we are there. it’s all you will need!
THE EXHIBITS
The first step is to review the booths/exhibitions stands. There are over 1300 booths at MWC09 in 8 different buildings, and several outdoor temporary structures such as in the Courtyard. We’ve narrowed it down to 44 for you. We’ve identified these specifically for developers, as these companies have developer programs or tools for mobile development.
Recommend Booths to visit:
(Have Developer Programs or tools for development)
ACCESS Co Ltd – CY10(3-0 Courtyard)
Acision-8A86(8), 8A93(8)
AdMob-7C70(7), 7HS09(7)
Adobe Systems Incorporated – 1E05(1-0)
Bharti Telesoft AV70(Avenue)
Device Anywhere 2A17(2-0)
Canadian Pavilion 2.158
Ericsson – 8A170(8), AV07(Avenue)
Fox Mobile/Jamster 7A86(7-0)
Garmin EUROPE – 7C37(7)
Handmark 2H13(2-0 )
HTC – 1B22(1-0)
Intel Corporation – 8B109(8)
Intertek (NSTL) – 2.1D70
LG 8B192(8) 8B197(8)
LiMO Foundation – 8A125(8-0), 8B135(8-0)
Microsoft - 1D19(1-0) & Avenue
Mobile Distillery 2F49(2-0)
Mob4Hire IZ4(7-0)
Motorola – 8A159(8), 8A152(8)
Navteq 1G45(1-0)
Netbiscuits 7A49(7)
Nokia 8C167(8), 8B177(8). 8B169(8)
NTT DoCoMo 8B117(8)
O2 Litmus (Telefonica) 8B178(8)
Opera 2B77(2)
Openwave Systems – AV97(Avenue)
Oracle - AV44(Avenue)
Orange – CY03(3-0 Courtyard)
Paca Mobile Centre 2F49(2-0)
Palm, Inc. – CY09(3-0 Courtyard)
Qualcomm Incorporated – 8B53(8), 8C44(8)
Research In Motion Limited – CY04(3-0 Courtyard), 8B91(8)
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd – CY01(3-0 Courtyard),
Sierra Wireless, Inc. – AV99(Avenue)
Smaato 7A38(7)
Sony Ericsson - 8A80(8), 8B56(8)
Sun Microsystems, Inc – 2C12(2-0)
Sybase 365 – 2A15(2-0)
Symbian Foundation – 8A77(8), AV91(Avenue)
Tele Atlas – 8C118(8)
Telefonica (O2 Litmus) 8B178(8)
8B185(8)
Toshiba 8A111(8), AV68(Avenue)
Yahoo! – 7B26(7)
ZED CY11(Courtyard)
Tip#1 Try and book your meetings before you arrive at the show. Most of these booth have staff on hand specifically to meet developers and ISVs. Don’t forget to bring tons of business cards.
Note: The Little Jamm’r indicates part of the Scavenger Hunt for Jam attendees.
http://www.showplans.co.uk/mwc09/
REGISTRATION
Tip#2 Pick up your badge Saturday or Sunday. Avoid long line ups on Monday morning. Bring your Bar code, it will save you time – like hours.
MWC 2009 Registration Times:
Saturday, February 14th 9:00AM – 6:00PM
Sunday, February 15th 9:00AM – 8:00PM
Monday, February 16th 7:00AM – 8:00PM
Tuesday, February 17th 7:30AM – 7:00PM
Wednesday, February 18th 7:30AM – 7:00PM
Thursday, February 19th 7:30AM – 5:00PM
DEVELOPER EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
SUNDAY (FEB 15)
Mobile Sunday Barcelona hosted by Dotopen (CLUB MIX)
7:00-Midnite: The fourth annual MobileSunday – an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums – will be taking place in Barcelona on the eve of this year’s Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) on Sunday, February 15, 2009. Want to be part of it? All you need to do is register. It’s FREE! http://www.amiando.com/mobilesunday.html
MONDAY (FEB 16)
TIP#3 The ‘Suits’ rule at this event. So ditch the jeans and t-shirts except for the parties, and don the suit and tie to impress. Oh yeah – there is lots of walking, so wear comfy shoes or bring an extra pair.
The GSMA Mobile Innovation Market: (Hall 5, Auditorium 2)
09:00 – 5:30 pm: Unique blend of elevator pitches, speed dating, thought-leading keynotes and provocative panel discussions. See developers compete for the accolade of best vertical and best consumer applications as they face the Dragon’s Den-style expert panel live on stage.
The Mobile Application Developer Garage (Hall 5, Auditorium 3)
9:30am Keynote – Jim Balsillie, RIM
1000-1045: Cross Platform Panel
11:45 to 12:30pm: Future of the App Environment
2:15 to 3:00pm Operator Developer Partnerships
4:30-5:15pm Taking Apps to Market
New event for 2009, includes a demo breakout area and reception. Requires a conference pass in order to attend. I am chairing the afternoon session.
Mobile Monday Mobile Peer Awards: (PALAU DE LA MÚSICA CATALANA)
4:00-8:00pm: The MobileMonday Mobile Peer Awards Barcelona are among the most influential events in the mobile industry and, with 1000 attendants, the point of reference in startup innovation during the MWC. . Registration required at http://www.amiando.com/mobilepeerawards .
TUESDAY (FEB 17)
Watch for some very cool developer announcements from ADOBE.
“Connect with Canada” (Hall 2, Room C)
9:00 – 10:30: Sparkling-wine Breakfast to meet cutting edge Canadian, government officials and representatives from key mobile firms from around the world
11:30- 13:30: Canada-Africa Forum the rapid growth of the mobile sector in Sub-Saharan Africa
Register http://www.canadawireless.org/MWC2009
I’m speaking at both of these events, and the Canadian government also helped us secure a room at the FIRA for JAM – so thanks!
OneAPI Seminar: (GSMA Seminar Theatre, GSMA Pavilion. Hall 7, Stand 7P01)
09:30–12:30: Find out the progress of the GSMA’s OneAPI project allowing developers to access multiple operators using a common set of APIs. The seminar is a FREE additional option with MWC registration. Acceptance will be confirmed by email.
The Mobile Innovation Market: (Hall 5,)
09:00am–5:30pm: See Monday.
Mobile Distillery – Hall 2, Stand 2F49
11:30am – Worldwide Preview Event
Forum Nokia & NAVTEQ : (Poble Espanyol)(Courtesy shuttle buses to/from Mobile World Congress will be provided)
3:30-4:00pm: Nokia Calling All Innovators awards
4:00-4:30pm: NAVTEQ LBS Challenge award
4:30-6:30pm: Reception
More info and register here: http://mktools.forum.nokia.com/invitation/callingallinnovators .
ACCESS Reception (ACCESS Hospitality Suite #CY10, Courtyard)
4:00 – 7:00pm Cocktails and Reception
RSVP www.access-company.com/news/events/mwc_2009/
TIP#4 It’s ok to nap between parties and dinner and parties. Most restaurants don’t open up til 10pm. A bit of rest is necessary to maximize networking! For the biggest listing of MWC parties go to: www.mobileslate.com
WEDNESDAY (FEB 18)
Yahoo! wil be demonstrating Blueprint, their new mobile development platform for building mobile sites, applications and widgets.
GoMo News Blender (Bella Chica Vilaruel)
18:00-22:00: GoMo News blenders are informal and!
Sign up on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=57398618712
WIP’s Pre-Jam Connecting Party (Bel Chica)
9:30pm – immediately following the GoMo Blender
Always known as the place to have fun and make good connections! Join us.
Swedish Beers
8pm to late
http://swedishbeers.blogspot.com
THURSDAY (FEB 19)
WIP Jam Session – (Hall 2, Room D)
10:15 – 16:30:
Join WIP for our popular Day for Developers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The best mobile developers meet key leaders of the mobile ecosystem in interactive sessions where we are serious about no panels, no ppt and no ties! The swag is looking really good. Just a few spots left.
Tip #5 Go Green if you can —bring your own refillable water bottle; use the subway, collect written collateral only if you are going to use it rather than it ending up in your hotel garbage.
TIP #6 Cut costs – bring an unlocked phone get a local sim card; ask the person in front of you if they are going to the same place; buy snacks at the grocery store and bring to MWC. We have booked a 5 bedroom apartment that gives us lots more room and also save us some money!
We hope you find this helpful! Again, let us know if you have any updates or comments. Follow us on Twitter for late minute updates, www.twitter.com/mobilejam
The WIP team of Caroline, Teresa, Arv and Ed looking forward to seeing you next week. If there is something we can help you with – make a connection or point you in the right direction – don’t hesitate to ask.
We’ve asked our discussion leaders for WIPJam session to share their insight of the mobile developer world. This post was penned by James Parton, Head of O2 Litmus, the mobile developer programme with a twist and a sponsor of the WIP Jam Session at Mobile World Congress 2009 (#MWC09). 
Open source, crowd sourcing, app stores, open networks, Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0, co-creation, user generated content. It’s clear that the future of application development is a hot industry topic.
Tip your hat to Apple. They have quickly transformed a cottage industry, struggling to find a poster child, into a serious business in a very short space of time. Through great end-to-end user experience – often overlooked by many in the area – we now have people buying apps on a regular basis. If you had asked those same people 6 months ago what kind of app they were interested in, they would have struggled to even define what an app was, let alone have a clear view on what was missing from their app life.
This wave has also beached in corporate boardrooms with many companies now launching or planning to launch app stores in reaction to the success of the Apple App Store. This leads us to ask where will the industry be in 6 months time?
Put yourself in the shoes of the customer for a second. They switch on their PCs and are be offered applications by their internet service provider. They then go to their favourite portal and may be offered applications, next they will see sponsored links for applications from their search engine.
Next they then pull their mobile phone out of their pocket and see an application store from their handset manufacturer, and sitting next that is the icon for their mobile network’s app store. Confused? Just imagine what the customer is thinking.
On the surface this explosion of app stores is a good thing for developers – more places to sell your apps means more people buying those apps, right
However, this could be misleading. Many of these app stores are using aggregators to fill them up. This may lead to the vast majority of stores containing identical catalogues.
I can see parallels between the growing app market and digital music. Research has shown that over 90% of digital music catalogues are never downloaded. It’s an extreme example of Prato’s law. Are App stores already following the same path?
If these stores are filled by aggregators, and managed by marketers believing it’s all about catalogue, how do you as a developer get noticed? You want your app to be Smells Like Teen Spirit, and avoid being the obscure Cat Stevens B side from 1967 that no one wants!
So how do you solve this problem?
Customers. They are out there. They have an opinion. They are potential consumers of your products. You should get to know them, and love them. If you want to be successful, you have to prioritise customer relationship and service. Don’t just focus on the next feature you can build into your software
Going back to my digital music analogy, we are going to see a huge attrition rate for apps. Thousands will never be downloaded or make profit. Can you afford to burn time and money speculating on what customers might want? Why not ask them before you commitment your engineering resource
How do you find and reach these customers?
You should be seeking out partners that provide the most important API going forward. The winner of the most important API of 2009? It’s the Customer API.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if a large organisation was willing to step out of the way and let you interact directly with its customers? You would be able to demonstrate, co-develop and refine your product directly with end users?
This has to be a win – win approach. You save time and effort by refining your ideas before commercially launching, the end user feels empowered by helping to improve the products they and their friends will end up using, plus they get to experience these apps before anyone else – very different to a traditional retail environment where you buy and either love or hate the app you get.
Come and check us out here and upload your apps: www.o2litmus.co.uk
or you can contact me directly via Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Have you registered for WIPJAM yet. Rumour has it there are 2 tickets to give-away to the O2-Telefoncia party on Tues nite…
How can you tell the holiday is over? Conferences have started again ala CES, and the phone and emails are on full throttle. Do any of you use the current thinking about only taking calls/emails at 2 designated times during the day? Does it really work?
January is traditionally a time for annual predictions. I have been on the fence whether to weigh in this year as there are many good predications around such as Rudy’s or from Carlo and Russell’s Mob Happy, and I didn’t want to repeat anything, but if there is something that needs to be emphasized, then that’s just the way it is! So here they are:
January is traditionally a time for annual predictions. I have been on the fence whether to weigh in this year as there are many good predications around such as Rudy’s or from Carlo and Russell’s Mob Happy, and I didn’t want to repeat anything, but if there is something that needs to be emphasized, then that’s just the way it is! So here they are:
1. Tough times ahead.
I reported in my June newsletter that VC’s weren’t funding, especially carrier related deals. Rutberg’s newsletter just came out and declared that the second half of 2008 was the lowest level of VC funding since 2003. I agree with Rudy that I too am going to see at least 10 companies that I know well go under. It started with Trutap, that I had the absolute pleasure of being on the board for the last year, and may end with the Motorola device group, which we all know has been struggling. Assume no one is immune.
NY’s Resolution for Developers: Those with low overhead will likely end up the winners when we come out of this economic wind tunnel. And absolutely those who are best connected get the furthest ahead (Hint: ask Arv about the WIP Connector Quiz to see how you fare).
2. ‘Access’ will be the new ‘Open’. (as Twitter is the new black)
The industry is tired of hearing about Open – it has caused confusion to what open source really is and what open is really not. There is no honour in claiming open any more. I think the industry finally understands that, so will talk about ‘access’; to more operator APIs, access to more customers through beta sandboxes, and app stores to make it easier for developers to innovate and sell.
NY’s Resolution for Developers: Follow the money. Make careful choices about working with new platforms with the end goal of being profitable, not just cool. But hey, if you can make $1M making a bodily function application – go for it!
3. Less US Centric
Perhaps it’s due to where I’m based, but my industry news and the focus of most developers I know is solidly the US as #1, with Europe slowly following behind and anything else a place only for exotic vacations. With the US reeling from the economic distress, Europe reaching mobile handset saturation, China and India finally turning on the 3G engines, eyes will turn to emerging markets for business. I sure saw a lot of great developes in Brazil last month. Of course, we all are in love with Obama, but it sounds like he too has a much broader perspective than previous administrations.
NY’s Resolution for Developers: Be smart about planning for and entering new markets. Plan ahead for obvious things like usability and language differences, but do your homework on market needs (enterprise is bigger in many of these markets) and distribution is different too.
4. Fragmentation by any other name is still…..
I’ve been commenting on fragmentation every year, and I only see signs of its increase. In addition to the major OS platforms, we now have more development platforms, more browsers, more app stores, and more devices (40+ Adroid devices alone coming this year, and the new Palm Pre just announced). Porting and backfilling is still wasting 40-50% of a developer’s time. Another 20-30% is going to be wasted in gaining access to app stores, which still have discovery issues. What’s left for innovation and development?
NY’s Resolution for Developers: Find positive ways to be vocal about how fragmentation is affecting your ability to be innovative such as contributing to OMTP’s BONDI initiative that is identifying standards for the mobile web. And don’t forget about marketing, more app stores does not mean you don’t have to do any work, in fact you should be honing up on your marketing.
Your comments or addition are always welcome!
Interested in 2008 predictions – find them here. I did pretty well, except predicting that someone will finally get local search right… perhaps this year. And 2007 which was really good, especially prediciting the rise in developers can be found here.
