The Narrative

Resurgence of mobile marketing?

Posted on by charlie

From the Boston area, no less.

This is following Neomedia’s various acquisitions, including 12snap (from Germany) and Mobot (from Boston area).

Eh, guess mobile marketing is alive and well on the East Coast.

Link: Business Filter – Business Weblog – The Boston Globe.

thirdscreenmedia.jpg

Another Boston-based provider of mobile advertising and marketing software and services, has closed its second round of funding, adding $5 million to its coffers. The software offered by Third Screen provides a system for managing and deploying advertising on mobile devices that enables advertising agencies, publishers and carriers to plan, buy and execute mobile-advertising campaigns. They’re chasing down larger competitor m-Qube, based in Watertown.

Strategy

gotomobile on: the mobile designer

Posted on by charlie

Great stuff by Kelly.

I think every product team should have their own designer embedded with them. I know it’s crazy, but that’s how I would like to make my products.

On the Lifeblog team, we had three resident designers. Boy, how you get hooked on the feedback loop and being able to mind-meld as needed with some amazing designer (thatks Jorma, Teemu, and boss Laura!).

Link: the mobile designer | gotomobile.

Mobile designers are the bridge between the end user and the engineering community.

The Narrative

gotomobile on: work life balance

Posted on by charlie

Link: work life balance | gotomobile.

At the 3GSM conference held in Barcelona this week, the results of a survey on work/life balance was released by Visto, a US mobile email company. The survey was conducted in three countries and was focused on how mobile is affecting the lifestyles of mobile professionals. The theme resonates closely with gotomedia’s mission statement "exeed expecations and take vacations."

Innovation

Innoblog on: All Good Things….

Posted on by charlie

Ah, the war between strategy planning and gut feeling, existing markets and unknown markets, your customers’ needs today and new customers’ needs tomorrow.

Boy, do I have a lot of stories here.

Link: All Good Things…. – Innoblog.

Disruption is hard. That’s why so many companies fall victim to the forces of disruption. The case of Western Union demonstrates just one reason why. When evaluating new and unknown markets, traditional methods of analysis fall short. Western Union’s evaluation of the telephone was perfectly logical. Their business model was built around long distance communication – reporting news and conducting business. In that model, there was no need for a technology that transmitted a very low quality voice signal over short distances. Even assuming some technological advances, the managers at Western Union could not envision business uses of the telephone.

Traditional analysis failed. An approach built around low risk market tests – planning to learn – was required. Such an approach allows for strategies to be developed and business models to be adjusted as more is learned about the market. When the market is unknown, the only guarantee is that initial models will be wrong. Adopting a process that recognizes this fact is one of the keys to being a good disruptor.

Strategy

Dave Harper on: Everyware : The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing

Posted on by charlie

Read the list of user-design suggestions.

Link: Different Things � Blog Archive � Everyware : The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing.

Adam Greenfield’s book “Everyware : The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing” is about to be released.

I’ve known Adam for a number of years (he was an early advisor of mine while WINKsite was being conceived), enjoying many engaging conversations over many a cup of coffee. “Everyware” is the culmination of his life experiences, thoughtful explorations, and beliefs. I for one can not wait to get my hands on my pre- ordered copy.