In other comments at the conference, Verizon inidcated that tiered pricing for mobile data usage is coming within the next six months. With Sprint CEO Dan Hesse hinting at the same thing for his network, I am fearful that carrier greed could become the biggest impediment to mobile broadband adoption. I understand that the carriers need to make money, and that networks cost money to build, but if consumers start getting charged by the bit to download emails, access the web and watch streaming content, I suspect that mobile broadband adoption will slow – considerably. Lets face it, the internet as we know it today didn’t really take off until flat rate broadband pricing to the home was introduced. If the carriers begin metering users, many of the most innovative services that are being developed for mobile, like streaming content, will suffer and could die, killing innovation. In other words, the biggest impediment to carriers signing up more mobile broadband customers are most likely the carriers themselves.

Finally, I want to wrap up this week with another fun video featuring Dot, “the world’s smallest stop-motion animation character.” At first glance, this would appear off-topic on a blog focused on mobile, except for the fact that it was shot using a Nokia N8 cellphone equipped with a microscope attachment. I can still remember the days when my Dad had to carry around not only a TV studio-sized camera but also the entire VCR unit itself to shoot home movies. Now they can be shot on a device that not only produces better home movies than that old video camera but also takes pictures, plays music and lets you talk to anyone in the world at anytime. Truly amazing when you consider the progression of technology over the last 30 years!

Why did these catch my attention? Well, earlier this year, Opera created quite a stir when it released its Opera Mini browser for the iPhone and then goaded Apple into approving it. Tech punidits were certain that Apple would reject it, but they didn’t. In hindsight, I’m not surprised.

I’ve used the Opera Mini browser on Android and seen it on the iPhone, and while it’s capable, it is not a replacement for the built-in browser. Over the last year, the stock Android browser has come a long way, and Safari for the iPhone has always been a good browser. Opera Mini can’t compete with either of these, and neither will Fennec or Skyfire.

The opportunity for third party browsers has passed. Today’s problem is not compressing web content for the mobile environment. The issue is providing the user with a relevant user experience over the mobile web. What do I mean by a relevant user experience? I mean a mobile website that takes advantage of the features of a mobile phone, such as the touchscreen and location-based capabilities, to present information and content that a user cares about when they’re mobile. For a real estate mobilesite it is searching for properties, for retail it is nearest locations and coupons, for restaurants it is reservations, directions and special offers. The point I’m making is pretty obvious: it’s not about trying to cram a website designed for a 24″ screen onto a 3″ screen, it’s about presenting content relevant to the mobile consumer in a usable manner.

Put simply, it’s not about the browser, it’s about the presentation of the content.

So while I am sure that the mobile browser technology from Mozilla, Skyfire, and Opera is top notch, my advice would be to stick with the stock browsers on your smartphone with one caveat. If your using a BlackBerry other than the Torch, any one of these three browsers is a huge step up from the old BlackBerry browser. The old BlackBerry browser can be summed up in one word – AWEFUL!

OK, enough of the rant. On a lighter note, a new smartphone app caught my eye this week called Bartab. It allows you to send an actual drink to a friend for a $1. You spend $1 to send your friend a mobile coupon for a drink that they redeem at the participating bar you specify. Your friend then has to pay an additional $1 to redeem the coupon. It’s been launched in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has. In particular, does it work as advertised?

So do I plan to switch back to a BlackBerry?

No. Neither the device nor the OS offer compelling enough reasons.

Is this a bad thing? No it isn’t. RIM isn’t, and shouldn’t, be catering to my needs. I am not the big enterprise customer that needs the security and control functionality that RIM offers with its BlackBerry platform.

BlackBerry has foregone some of the features that make the iPhone and Android devices so popular among consumers, and they should. Many of these features create security issues and are not compatible with the goals of enterprise IT groups. Furthermore, RIM is not going to beat Android or Apple at the mass consumer market. They are wise to recognize this and focus on their strength - serving the enterprise.

The enterprise market is a large and profitable market. Sure, Apple and Android are trying to get a piece of it, but so long as RIM continues to provide the best security and control features, corporate IT groups will continue to embrace the platform, meaning that corporations will continue to buy BlackBerry devices for their employees. 

The media at large may claim that RIM is not adding features fast enough to win the consumer market, but they may be missing the big picture. It’s possible that RIM doesn’t want to win the consumer market and is not interested in going after consumers like me. RIM is adding new features, but in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the overall security and functionality of the BlackBerry platform.

On the other hand, if RIM does want to win the consumer market, they had better rethink their strategy. Creating a platform that serves both consumer and enterprise markets well is difficult, if not impossible. RIM needs to pick their path, and they should pick the path that they know best – the enterprise.

With the hot summer handset releases behind us, who is the worldwide leader in the market? According to Strategy Analytics, Nokia (remember them?) sold the greatest share of the 308M handsets sold in Q2. Nokia’s share was 36.1%, follwed by Samsung at 20.7%, and LG at 10%. RIM, the only dedicated smartphone maker in the top 5, came in fourth at 3.6%. So while smartphones grab all of the media attention, the low-end of the market accounts for all the volume. If the market is largest at the low end, then why are all the manufacturers chasing the smartphone market? Because that’s where all the profits are. For example, Apple is nowhere to be seen on the market share list, yet they are far and away the most profitable mobile phone company.

Speaking of market share, a report on mobile search was released by StatCounter last week. At the top of the heap was Google, with a whopping 98.29% share of the market. I’m not sure how accurate the numbers are, but even if they are off by 20%, that’s still a dominant share of the market. If that doesn’t convince you that you should have a mobile presence that Google can index, then you’re losing lots of business to your competitors who do have one - without even knowing about it! Both Yahoo! and Bing, the two other big mobile search providers, account for just 1.25% of the market. On the bright side, I guess Yahoo! and Bing’s share can only get bigger, because it certainly can’t get any smaller!

Finally, just to kick start everyone’s favorite rumor mill, I am going to jump on the bandwagon and say that AT&T’s iPhone exclusivity may be coming to an end this year. Why? Well, AT&T made a statement that they are going to be the premier vendor for Microsoft’s latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. I don’t understand why AT&T would back a competitor to the iPhone unless their exclusivity is coming to an end. It’s time to place your bets. I say that the iPhone is available on another carrier for the holidays, and I’ll predict T-mobile over Verizon since T-mobile’s GSM technology is the most compatible with AT&T and Apple, out of spite, wants to stick it to Verizon for their Android promoting, iPhone-bashing ads. What do you think? Feel free to sound off in the comments!

miniListings is a real estate listings search application that agents can personalize with their own branding and contact data. It is the easiest way for agents to go mobile and reach their clients anytime, anywhere, on any phone. Our goals are to provide agents with a mobile webapp that simplifies the home search process for their clients, differentiates them from other agents,  helps them grow their business, and allows them to take advantage of today’s fastest growing and most exciting marketing medium – mobile!

As you can tell from the lack of activity on our blog over the past month, we’ve been extremely busy with development and preparation for launch of the product. We’ve also been working hard to incorporate the feedback from the testers and users who participated in our beta program. I’d like to thank all those who participated in the beta test – their feedback has been invaluable in helping us fine tune the product and tighten up our messaging.

We hope that miniListings will be the first of many products that will use our automated mobile internet platform. Our vision is to develop webapps for other markets that will allow businesses to extend their online brand and presence to the mobile environment in a simple, relevant and effective manner. We believe we’ve successfully accomplished our objective for the real estate market with miniListings, although the release of the initial product is not a destination, but the first stop in a journey. miniListings will continue to advance and grow through the addition of new features made possible by mobile technology advancements. I am excited not only about today’s product but also about its future potential.

If you are interested in learning more and obtaining your personalized copy of miniListings, head over to the miniListings website at http://www.minilistings.com. You can also follow the latest miniListings developments on our Facebook fan page (facebook.minilistings.com) and on Twitter (@minilistings).

Combining those results with other reports from around the web has led me to the following conclusions:

1. For those who thought the desktop internet was huge, the mobile internet is going to blow it away.
   Mary Meeker and crew’s latest Internet Trends Report reinforced and built on the positive mobile internet outlook from their December mobile internet report. I recommend reading both reports if you are thinking about or doing anything mobile. My key takeaways from their latest report are
          1) mobile will be bigger than the desktop in five years,
          2) there will be 10x more mobile internet devices sold than desktop internet devices, and
          3) mobile usage is more about data (web usage, texting, etc.) than voice.
2. Websites will need to be not only accesible but also usable over mobile devices.
   Nielsen is one of my favorite research companies because their notes are concise and to the point. A recent Nielsen study looking at the penetration rates of smartphones versus feature phones projects that smartphone will overtake features phone by mid-2011. Why is this important? Smartphone users access data and the mobile internet a lot more than feature phone users.
3. While Apple still dominates mobile web traffic, your applications need to work across all platforms.
   Quantcast puts out a lot of great information on both desktop and mobile internet usage. They recently reported on mobile marketshare for both operating systems and handset manufacturers. Comparing the two reports against Apple’s results is interesting. In operating system market share, Apple has declined from a peak of over 75% in January 2009 to just over 60% in March 2010, while selling more units. Over the same period, Android’s market share has increased from under 8% to 17.1%. Android’s reach is expanding – rapidly.
4. RIM’s mobile web share will improve, and overall usage for the mobile web will follow.
   comScore’s February 2010 Mobile Market Share Report reinforced both Apple’s results and the Qunatcast numbers, with one major addition – BlackBerry maker RIM still leads the race with 42% of the market. Apple’s been holding steady at 25%, and Android is quickly gaining on both at the expense of Palm, Windows Mobile and others. RIM’s low mobile web share shows just how poor their platform is for web browsing, but rumor has it that BlackBerry 6.0 will sport an improved webKit-based browsing experience. When that occurs, more BlackBerry users will use the web, and there are a lot of them.
5. I expect growth rates in mobile internet usage to accelerate during the second half of this year. 
   Just like last quarter, the mobile web continues to grow with no signs of slowing. We’ve seen a better than 20% year-over-year increase in traffic to mobilesites that we host. All leading indicators, such as smartphone market share and shipments, point to increased usage of the mobile internet.

 If you haven’t put a mobile strategy in place for your marketing efforts, or worse yet, if you haven’t even looked at your web presence on a mobile phone, feel free to contact us. We’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have and help you develop an effective mobile presence for your service or business.

Follow us on Twitter (@aumnia) or like our Facebook Page for the latest news and updates from Aumnia.

Clearly, Apple’s biggest advantage with the iPhone is the App Store. Without a doubt, it attracts people.

Well, about a month ago, MG Siegler over at TechCrunch wrote an interesting piece entitled “The iPhone’s Peephole“. She wrote it in response to Apple’s new policy toward sexy apps in the App Store. Apple decided it was time to rid the App Store of so-called suggestive apps without providing any warning or notice to developers. Developers of those apps were miffed, and helpless.

Her underlying premise was that with the progress of HTML5, web apps have become viable - in some cases better than their desktop cousins, and that developers could avoid Apple’s whimsical and subjective App Store policies by designing in HTML5 for the mobile web. It got me thinking that Apple could eventually kill the App Store as developers frustrated over Apple’s App Store policies move their developments to web apps.

Fortunately for Apple, the lure of quick cash from the App Store is strong, and developers continue to develop for the iPhone. I almost forgot about the issue until Apple’s iPhone OS 4 announcement yesterday.

Overshadowed by the iPhone OS 4 accouncement is a statement Apple buried in the iPhone OS 4 developer’s agreement that prohibits you from developing apps “that link to documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool….” (more in-depth analyses can be found Engadget and TechCrunch).

A number of vendors, most notably Adobe, have developed tools to help developers build apps for multiple platforms: iPhone, Android, WebOS, etc. With this simple statement, Apple is effectively squashing these avenues that make it easier for developers to port their work across multiple platforms.

I expect this latest policy change to drive more developers to open platforms and web apps. As more and more people develop in HTML5, the apps will progress and get better. As more web apps become available,Apple’s advantage with the App Store will wane. In other words, is Apple slowly killing the biggest advantage they have over other mobile platforms today – their App Store?

My take is that the siren song of the App Store is still too strong, at least today. There are just too many iPhone users who are willing to pony up cash for apps. Developers would be foolish to walk away.

However, as Apple continues to strengthen its hold over the App Store and slowly suffocate its golden goose with more restrictive development policies, developers will walk. There have already been defections of high profile developers. And now that there are better mobile hardware options available, Apple could be heading toward repeating the same mistakes they made with the MacIntosh product line 25 years ago. It’s amazing how history repeats itself and how we are doomed to repeat our same mistakes….

The history of .mobi
Just as .gov indicates government sites, .edu indicates educational institutions, and .mil indicated military sites, .mobi was created to indicate sites that were optimized for viewing on mobile phones. The .mobi domain was approved as a top level domain in July, 2005, by ICANN, the official overseer and approver of top level domain names. Its inception was financed and backed by a number of major companies, including Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Vodafone, T-mobile and others. Registration of domain names using .mobi became available in September, 2006.

According to dotMobi, close to one million sites have been registered using the .mobi top level domain since its inception, but the .mobi domain has never really taken off amongst consumers. Most of the problem is timing related, as very few mobile consumers were accessing the web using their mobile devices in 2006. All of that changed with the release of the iPhone in 2007. The iPhone and subsequent smartphone platforms made the web usable on mobile devices. People bypassed .mobi sites because they were either not aware of a .mobi domain or not happy with the reduced functionality of the .mobi sites, which were built for the most basic mobile devices and did not take advantage of the improved functionality and touchscreen capabilities of the latest devices. 

The issues with .mobi
Using .mobi is not free and comes with many issues that you need to be aware of before jumping in.

1. Increased Cost
Costs for .mobi domains are usually more than 2x the cost of regular domains. A regular domain registration usually runs less than $10/mo. whereas a .mobi domain can run $20/mo. or more. Plus, while a standard domain can service both desktop and mobile clients, a .mobi domain exists only to serve mobile devices resulting in additional domain registration costs.

2. Maintenance Overhead
Since the .mobi domain is an additional domain on top of your regular site, you need to invest additional resources to maintain the content and site.

3. Lack of Awareness
The general public is not aware of the existence of the .mobi domain. In order to get the most out of a .mobi site, you need to spend additional resources and money marketing and promoting it.

4. Poor Functionality
.mobi sites need to be designed for the most basic web-enabled phones resulting in a sub-optimal experience for smartphone users. Since smartphone users are the overwhelming majority of mobile web traffic, your .mobi site ends up service an extremely small, if not non-existent, segment of the market.

A .mobi domain is unecessary
Given the tremendous advances in mobile over the last five years, there is no reason to secure a .mobi domain. When creating an on-line presence and mobile website, you are best advised to use a “OneURL” strategy. A OneURL strategy is easily implemented using device detection code on your existing web presence and allows you to simplify your marketing by promoting one domain for desktop and mobile and by saving money through reduced maintenance and domain registration costs.

So when considering your mobile presence, don’t  use a .mobi domain – you don’t need it. If you already have a .mobi domain, drop it and start using your existing url and device detection code to service mobile visitors.

By the way. if you’re considering mobile or have an existing .mobi site and would like help or advice on your mobile presence, feel free to contact us. We’d be more than happy to help.

What I’ve Liked
No contract: Owning a device without a contract is liberating. Knowing I can switch devices without worrying about a contract or termination fee is worth the extra up front money.

Google tool integration: If you’ve been captured by Google’s tractor beam like I have, then you’ll love the Google branded Android experience that exists on the Nexus One as well as the Droid and myTouch.

Navigation: This feature alone makes the device worth its weight in gold. It’s extremely easy to use and works. Best of all, there are no fees and no worry about having to update maps – it’s all done magically by Google.

Web experience: Incredible. With my BlackBerry Pearl, accessing the web was a means of last resort. Using the Nexus One to access the web is enjoyable. In fact, it makes me why I waited so long to have a mobile device that could access the web so easily.

Display: The resolution and vividness of the screen is great. It strains a bit while in the sun, but by adjusting the viewing angle, I’ve been able to use it with no problem. On the other hand, the touch screen needs work – more on that below.

Design: The device is very solid and has a great feel to it. I get an immediate “Wow!” reaction everytime I show the device to someone. While the iPhone was a looker in its time, the design has definitely aged and been surpassed by the Nexus One and others.

Phone quality: My first impressions weren’t great, but after 6 weeks, the phone quality is among the best I’ve ever used in a mobile phone.

Trackball: Many have panned the trackball, but I like it. It really helps to pick items out on a crowded website, particularly those that are crowded with lots of clickable links.

What I’ve hated
Lack of keyboard: I’m a tactile person. It’s gotten better, but using the on screen keyboard remains a chore.

Touchscreen: The touchscreen needs to be more accurate and responsive. There have been too many instances where either the screen has not responded or I’ve clicked on the wrong thing.

Comparisons to the incumbents
iPhone: Despite all my praise for the Nexus One, it doesn’t blow the iPhone out of the water. In fact, choosing the iPhone over the Nexus One/Android is a matter of preference. If you are interested in lots of apps and are bought into iTunes, then the iPhone is a better choice for you. On the other hand, if you are heavily invested in Google tools and want to stand out from the crowd, then the Nexus One is a must-have for you.

BlackBerry: Up until my experience with the Nexus One, I was a loyal BlackBerry user. The Nexus One clearly blows my Pearl away in all areas except for one – Exchange/corporate e-mail support. Until Android has enterprise-class Exchange support (or until we make the corporate switch to Gmail), I have to continue to carry my BlackBerry, but I never use it except to check e-mails. When Android gets reliable Exchange support, BlackBerry needs to be concerned.

Overall
I’m very satisfied with the Nexus One. I would definitely recommend it, especially for those heavily invested in Google’s tools. In the battle between my Nexus One and BlackBerry Pearl, the Nexus One is far and away the clear winner.

By the way, for Verizon users, a CDMA version of the Nexus One has cleared the FCC, so it should be available on Verizon soon.

Most noteworty announcement: Microsoft Windows Phone Series 7 was the biggest announcement of the show. They unveiled an OS architecture and UI based off the ZuneHD interface and talked a good game around mobile. The design of the OS is a winner, but the availability of late 2010 is a killer. It is all about execution now for Microsoft who can’t afford to fall any further behind Apple and Android for mobile mindshare.

Best handset announcements: HTC continues to design the best looking handsets. They unveiled three new handsets at the show: Desire, Legend and HD mini. I can’t wait to get my hands on these to try them out.

Attack of the OEMs: A new trend appears to be hardware OEMs making handsets. Acer, Dell, Huawei and ZTE all introduced or discussed handsets at the show. More consumer choice is always a good thing, but I wonder if these manufacturers can break the stranglehold that carriers have over handset manufacturers here in the US.

Most interesting phone announcement: Puma, yes the show company, announced a phone at the show. My first reaction was who cares, but after seeing the reviews, Puma may be onto something. Instead of trying to build a universal device, Puma has focused the phone on sports and leisure activites and included some fun and neat features, like a solar cell back for charging. I doubt the Puma phone will rival the iPhone, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it gain some traction among sporting enthusiasts. That’s the beauty of a market with billions of users, there are plenty of niches you can attack.

Most interesting product: SK Telecom has created a SIM card that holds a processor, memory, 1GB of flash storage, and the Android OS on it. Why do you care? You can store your entire mobile environment on the SIM card (contacts, customizations and OS) allowing you to switch phones as often as you like without having to set-up the phone each time you switch.

“I could have been a contender” product: The Samsung Wave received great reviews for its design, particularly its display which uses a new AMOLED technology from Samsung. Most AMOLED screens are unusable in outdoor lighting, but the Wave appears to fix that problem. Unfortunately, the Wave uses Samsung’s Bada operating system. Don’t be surprised if you don’t know what Bada is because I don’t either, except to tell you it will require you to learn a whole new operating system and hope that all of your favorite app developers are willing to support yet another platform.

Most hollow keynote: People expecting big things from Google’s keynote were severly disappointed. Outside of Eric Schmidt announcing a “mobile first” strategy and the fact that Android was shipping 60,000 units per day, nothing else was interesting.

“What took you so long” announcement: RIM finally demonstrated a usable browser for their loyal BlackBerry users. Unfortunately, it’s not available immediately, but for BlackBerry mobile web sufferers users, the new browser can’t come soon enough.

Most interesting mobile strategy: Facebook had an interesting announcement with their Mobile Zero web strategy. It is a stripped down mobile web version of the Facebook interface. It provides the advantage of offloading the strain on carriers networks and keeping costs down for people who pay by bit for mobile web surfing. It’s refreshing to see a company recognize that people do use the mobile internet on their phones and then spend the effort to optimize the experience.

“Maybe we should have done the Google phone” announcement: Sony Ericsson announced an impressive lineup of new phones (X10, X10 mini, Vivaz, Vivaz Pro) that are very consumer-oriented. The features are focused on camera quality and social networking integration with very little enterprise support. Personally, I don’t get Sony Ericsson’s strategy. If the rumor that they turned down the opportunity to build the first Android 2.1 phone is true, then they missed a huge opportunity. I can’t help but wonder how much longer these companies will continue to invest in this money losing venture.

“We had to announce something” announcement: Nokia and Intel made waves by announcing that they are going to combine their mobile OS efforts, Maemo and Moblin, into MeeGo. Nokia obviously needs to do something to head off the juggernaut that Apple and Android have become, and Intel needs to figure out a way to stem ARM’s microprocessor dominance in the mobile space. The announcement wasn’t meaty enough for me to decide if they have any chance of succeeding, but these two companies have access to way too many resources to count them out.

“What were they thinking” announcement: 24 wireless companies announced plans to create the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an open platform that lets developers build an application once, and then deploy it to work on any carrier, device and OS. A lofty goal, but as Jason Kincaid pointed out on Techcrunch, isn’t that the purpose of the mobile internet and web apps? The WAC is doomed (or whack), and I don’t expect we will see much of anything out of this group.

“Where’s Waldo” award: Apple continues to thumb its nose at the rest of the mobile industry and was noticeably absent from MWC, even though Steve Jobs won the GSMA award for mobile personality of the year. I could go off on my own personal rant, but Devesh took care of that for me earlier this week.

From 5,000+ miles away, MWC looked like a fun event to be at. Hopefully, I’ll get to go to it one of these days. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on the big announcements out of MWC last week, or if there was anything I missed.