Mobilestead Blog » Blackberry

Smartphone applications to go, on the go

Marina Slavina — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 20:08:39 +0000

No doubt that the smartphone, whether it’s an iPhone or the Blackberry, is a revolutionary device with limitless potential. Marc Andreessen, in an interview with Charlie Rose, acknowledged that the iPhone is a first cell-phone that is truly a computer which will create and encourage new ventures, and that “mobile has arrived.”

The article, Smartphones to go: Five apps you’ll want to pack illustrates just that. The new applications, both free and paid versions, offer to a traveler valuable, convenient, and on-the-go services all from one device – the traveler’s phone. For example, digital books and magazines through the Stanza application, or the Pocket Express “mobile concierge.”

I don’t want to undermine these “cool” and useful applications under any circumstances, because if one had a smartphone, they would surely be using them when traveling. However, I do have a concern: the fact that all these applications are developed individually, also means that they are unique and may be hard to access or figure out. I personally like extremely “user friendly” computer/cell-phone (which may soon become an interchangeable term!) devices, and would think that a group of useful applications, especially for one purpose, i.e. traveling, should be built under one umbrella. I think that if there was a standard, master application that offers a variety of options for any service, and is in the same format and style, that such a device would catch on faster and to a greater market range. Nowadays, simplicity attracts clientele, and I’m in front of the line waiting patiently for an umbrella of such applications.

Universal Phone Charger Finally – But only in 2012?

Ilya Zatulovskiy — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 12:13:57 +0000

GSM Association just announced a standardized charger for all mobile phones. Consumers have been demanding this for a while now. But before we all get excited, the target date for this is Jan. 1, 2012 – 3 years away!

This makes perfect sense and I would imagine that this would have been introduced a lot sooner as there are obvious advantages to both consumers and manufacturers. This new charger should also be a bit more energy efficient. There are 17 companies involved in this, including AT&T Inc., Motorola Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Samsung Electronics. T-Mobile.

I instantly noticed that two of the major players are not involved in this initiative: Apple and RIM.
Apple iPhone doesn’t surprise me as their adapter comes from the iPod ecosystem. RIM devices already use a standard MiniUSB adapter. Manufacturers of mobile phones, and most of them will be “smart phones” should embrace the miniUSB form factor.

MiniUSB is already widely used for small devices such as PDAs, digital cameras and mobile phones. Since most of my friends have a Blackberry, even though each one is a different flavor or carrier there never a shortage of charging stations, even when you visit a home of someone who doesn’t have one. A computer or even a Playstation 3 guarantees that there is a source of energy anywhere you go (assuming they have a miniUSB cable which most do). Additionally the miniUSB acts as a universal syncing cable. If other manufacturers followed this lead, the wait would not have to be 3 years.

Share your location with friends using Google Latitude – what about Facebook, Loopt and other startups?

Ilya Zatulovskiy — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:24:36 +0000

Today is a major day for Location-based Social Networking. Google has just launched Latitude, which probably should have been called Location for simplicity. Now your friends can see exactly where you are. More info on TechCrunch. Google Mobile Blog has the official announcement.

This means trouble for startups in this space, as none really got significant traction.
In our opinion, mobile social networking space will eventually be won by the likes of Facebook which already know all your friends and can easily turn location features on at any time they want.

Loopt had some traction but not too significant as their applications could not update the status in the background (on iPhone). This is a problem for all LBSs. Latitude faces the same challenge, but people use Google Maps a lot more frequently than launching the Loopt app.

Highlighted TechCrunch comment by Original Sin I agree with:

I just installed it on my BB. It’s not apparent from the article, but this is actually just a feature of Google Maps 3.0. A pretty sweet feature, because I use Google maps all the time, but only a feature non-the-less. I believe this was one of the big gripes about Loopt et al, they were trying to make a service out what is merely a service of a greater location product. In this case, that product is GMaps.

I didn’t have a chance to play with Google Latitude as their app is not yet available for the iPhone. Something tells me they rushed to launch and there may be more news coming from other major players?

The fact that many developers use Google Maps within their site is also an interesting variable. I wonder how Google will make this data available outside their systems (with user privacy settings of course) via oAuth (similar to Yahoo’s FireEagle) It is only a matter of time before this location information is made available to other developers for free via something like Google Friend Connect.

There is a huge demand for companies to provide LBS infrastructure & frameworks – from players like DeCarta (powers Loopt) & Navteq / TeleAtlas (used by Google Maps)

Google is known to open up its services to developers (App Engine, Friend Connect, Maps). Google Maps API is the most used API on the web, which makes me think it’s only a matter of time when Google does similar with Latitude. Think of Twitter with Google Latitude!

Google has the power to create and transform existing industries. I think the area of LBS social networking had very few potential candidates to begin with – similar to the Data Portability segment. Facebook and Google are the names that come to mind. Both already have millions or users making use social graphs.

Relevant example: MapQuest vs. Google Maps – MapQuest is still successful – but Google def came out as the big winner.

There are many areas were Google did fail, and then acquired competitors or simply exited the space. But in this arena mindshare and user community are key!
To use the Google Latitude you will simply use: Maps 3.0 (that will come with your new smartphone) and your Google Account. For Loopt it’s a challenge:
- Market the brand
- User Downloads App
- Creates Account
- Launches app to update status

One thing this announcement will certainly do is speed up innovation from Facebook, Loopt etc which is a good thing.