A Mini Jam at IPTV World Forum… from mobile apps to IPTV apps!

Posted by ThibautR on 30 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories :

Last week was WIP’s first foray into the world of IPTV as we participated at the IPTV World Forum event in London by hosting the developer track.

The highlight of the day was tour Mini Jam unpanel, looking at differences between the mobile apps space and the IPTV space. Our speakers on the panel:

• Csaba Garay, Gravity RD
• Andrew Gayter, Ioko
• Simon Hanna, Microsoft
• Xavier Bringue, Orange
• Russel Johns, Targetwire

 

My personal “aha” moments that day :

• All our unpanelists agreed on the crucial importance of recommendation in the IPTV space to navigate the mass of content (something appstore should definitely improve on) however comments by Gravity RD (a recommendation engine provider for IPTV),  comparing recommendation in the mobile space and IPTV demonstrated 2 usage patterns, one very personal (mobile) and one multi-personal (TV). No one talked about people registering the fact they’re watching TV together and doing agglomerated recommendation based on personal preferences but this started being interesting

 

• All our unpanelists agreed on the need for more application stores in the IPTV space to boost content and application creation. However contrary to the mobile space which has is evolving from native to web technologies, the IPTV space comes from the widget space but eyes more and more towards native, with Orange talking of movement recognition built into the STB and of a possible appstore coming to IPTV ... now start thinking of potential applications. No wonder why vendors at IPTVWF were busy launching SDKs and appstores (SoftAtHome launching their appstore, )

 

Lester Madden (@augmented planet) who was running the show for WIP, reports about his "aha" moments:

Until the event I’ll be honest, I didn’t really understand the value that IPTV plays, like most of you, you probably have a cable or satellite box under your TV complete with hundreds of channels. Turn on the TV and you are bombarded with advertisements from broadcasters promoting their satellite or cable service. I remember very few advertisements for IPTV services.

So why the need for IPTV?The simple answer is convergence. Everyone is competing to be’the’ home media box that supplies all the services around the home. Take Microsoft for an example, with the xBox 360 you can play games, watch DVDs, listen to music and even watch live TV. IPTV set top box OEMS are looking at providing similar services, everything from playing games, home shopping, access to video libraries and beyond. Can you stream your Facebook pag e to the TV or get instant notifications of price changes on that bid you placed on eBay? Now imagine leaving the living room and going to watch TV in another room, or another device like a mobile phone and your viewing profile follows you. Well with IPTV these are just some of the solutions that are possible.

As part of the Developer Mini Jam our panel spoke about how their various platforms enable developers to build widgets. We asked the audience what kinds of widgets they wanted to see, weather widgets and twitter were pretty popular but the audience also spoke about highly integrated TV experiences.

Imagine you are watching the latest episode of CSI, clicking a button could bring up the IMDB widget so you’ll have a complete history of where the actors have starred in the past, with links to watch other programs starring the actors. Or maybe you are watching a program and see a product you like, wouldn’t it be great if at the click of a button you could find out more or even order it. Of course these are not solutions available today but could be the services we take for granted in the future.

These solutions are not possible on satellite, not only because most satellite providers wont let you install anything to their hardware, but because satellites only beam the signal down to the dish leaving no way for widgets or other applications to communicate back to a server.

I have a new appreciation for IPTV and no doubt that as broadband speeds get faster and are able to cope with HD streaming content, IPTV will become the dominant way to watch TV.

Carnival of Mobilists #216

Posted by Teresa on 25 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : Mobile Developer • News • App Stores • Carnival of the Mobilists • Opinions •

This weeks carnival is brought to us by Tamoggemon Content Network. As usual, there are many great blogs highlighted.  These include:  An App Store Analysis by Chetam Sharma, arjw pens a view to the future on Why Paypal on mobile devices may  replace Credit Cards, and a guest blogger on WIP Connector, Jennifer Byrne, discussing how Verizon is Investing in Developers.

Verizon @ WIPJam - Investing in Developers

Posted by Teresa on 19 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : News • API • App Stores • Carnival of the Mobilists • Opinions •

Our guest blogger this week is Jennifer Byrne, Director of Business Development and Partner Management at Verizon Wireless.  Verizon Wireless is a sponsor of our WIPJam Day for Developers, taking place on March 22, 2010 at CTIA.   Jennifer is leading a discussion group on Monday afternoon at WIPJam.

Verizon - Investing in Developers

Verizon is a proud sponsor of WIPJam 2010 at CTIA, and is interested in investing in the resources and partnerships that help developers grow their business. That is why we are so happy to take this opportunity to announce that you can now expand your market and reach an even larger user base through our V CAST Apps store. That’s because V CAST Apps will soon be available on Android devices, our fastest-growing smartphone platform. It will provide an easy, streamlined experience for users to find and purchase apps across Android devices.

Starting March 22, you can submit your Android app concepts for approval through the Verizon Developer Community portal. You’ll also find a number of tools and resources there that can help you develop on numerous platforms, so you can quickly get your app to market on V CAST Apps. It’s an easy way to reach the largest user base in the U.S. on the most advanced network. And with V CAST Apps available on Android and RIM, working with a single partner like Verizon makes it even simpler to take advantage of cross-platform development efficiencies.

You may have heard that we recently announced a relationship with a leading application provider with the largest web community in the world, Skype. Skype mobile on Verizon Wireless will be launching shortly, and will also be available on V CAST Apps. Skype will be one of the first to leverage the efficiency and scale that V CAST Apps has to offer.

Announcements like this get us excited to see even more innovative applications in the months to come, and about working with our developers in the Verizon Developer Community to offer high-quality apps to millions of users through the V CAST Apps Store.

Speaking of the Verizon Developer Community, I’d like to encourage you to visit us at http://developer.verizon.com and sign up to become a member today. It’s quick, easy, and—as far as these things go—relatively painless. Verizon Developer Community members are driving innovation and expanding their distribution opportunities through access to a developer program that is open to multiple devices and OS platforms. As a member, you’ll be able to simplify cross-platform development with fast and efficient processes that can help you get your application to market as quickly as possible.

With Verizon, you’ll be working with a company that offers a world-class user experience and has invested in the long-term evolution of the next-generation high-bandwidth, multimedia app support. And, you’ll be able to connect with a wide range of consumers and professional users through multiple distribution channels, expanding the reach of your application beyond a single device or platform. 

If you have any questions about working with Verizon, or application development, please don’t hesitate to contact our developer support group at developerrelations@verizonwireless.com. We have a team of dedicated representatives who can help you throughout the development process.

Must-read Report on the Mobile App Market

Posted by Carlo on 17 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : Mobile Developer • News • App Stores • Opinions • Predictions •

GetJar, one of the many app stores we track in the WIP App Store wiki, commissioned a really great report from well-known mobile analyst Chetan Sharma on the state of the mobile app market that’s a must read for anybody involved with mobile apps. It’s a free download, too, so there’s no excuse not to spend a few minutes with it.

Chetan says there were 7 billion apps downloaded in 2009, and he predicts this will boom to 50 billion downloads by 2012, including both paid and free apps. He says apps generated revenues of $4.1 billion from sales, advertising and virtual goods in 2009, and this will jump to $17.5 billion in 2012.

A few other choice bits in the comprehensive, 19-page report:
- More than a third of app downloads came from Asia, more than any other region.
- Paid apps are strongest in North America, with the continent generating more than half the global paid app revenues.
- Furthermore, the average paid app price in North America is $1.09, compared to just under 80 cents in Europe, and under 20 cents in South America, Asia and the Middle East and Africa.
- Advertising generated 12% of app revenue in 2009, and this will grow to 28% in 2012.
- However, the average ad revenue generated was 9 cents per app per user per year.
- Tomi Ahonen did some number-crunching of his own and determined that mobile apps have a global ARPU of $3.14 per year, or 26 cents per month. He notes that sounds small until you consider ringtones have an ARPU of 11 cents per month.

Special thanks to Chetan for referring to the App Store Wiki and using it as a resource, and great job on the report!

Carnival of Mobilists #215

Posted by Teresa on 15 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : News • Opinions • Interviews •

Another great carnival is hosted this week by Mobyaffiliates.  There is lots of good reading including two posts of the week: the first by Terence Eden, Voicemail to SMS service, a detailed review and the second by Tomi Ahohen, who brings a challenging and alternative perspective to the Silicon Valley, iphone dominated view of the mobile world.   Also included is the WIP post by Maryann Iannitti from Intel; Intel Atom Developer Program. Intel is a Lead Sponsor of WIPJam taking place March 22 at CTIA.

Intel Atom Developer program @ WIPJam

Posted by Teresa on 11 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : WIPjam • Mobile Developer • Opinions • Interviews •

We are pleased to introduce our guest blogger this week.  Maryann Iannitti is the Manager, Intel Developer & University Marketing at Intel.  Intel is a lead sponsor of our WIPJam Session coming up on March 22, 2010 at CTIA Wireless.

Meet the Intel Atom Developer Program team @ WIP JAM CTIA Wireless 2010

The Intel Atom developer program has been designed to provide you with everything you need to develop and sell netbook applications. So, the question I get most often from developers is why netbooks? The netbook market is growing fast at 35 million in 2009 to 139 million in 2013*. Now more than ever, there is a rising demand for applications that have been designed for the netbook form factor and for the mobile, on the go audience. This new program is designed to address this very challenge and to provide you with the support you need to build and sell these applications. The program also provides OEMs and the ecosystem a framework to deliver great new applications directly to consumers. It creates a whole new revenue channel for you. The way it works is that developers set the price for their applications and will receive up to 70% of the revenue from every sale from every store. Infrastructure operational expenses and partner revenue will be covered from the remaining portion. The program also provides a simple, transparent validation process to ensure a smooth validation process.

Components and the developer catalog: Our program also provides a developer catalog with a list of components available to help accelerate your development and to implement useful and innovative functionality. Each component includes its own API and documentation. When a developer uses your component in their application, you can receive a portion of their application revenue. In addition, having a catalog of reusable components helps speed up application development process and also provides component developers with a way to make money.

The Intel® Atom™ Developer Program Software Development Kit (SDK): All applications submitted to the program must use the the beta version of the Intel® Atom™ Developer Program SDK to take advantage of the program’s revenue opportunities. The SDK provides many developer benefits including authorization, crash reporting, and a consumer store client emulator for testing.

Still looking for more reasons to join the program? How about a million? We launched a new development fund just for you. The Intel Atom Developer Program Million Dollar Development Fund is a fund to help accelerate innovation in software applications for Intel® Atom™ processor-based products, starting with netbooks, and eventually supporting smartphones, consumer electronics and more devices.   Join at http://appdeveloper.intel.com

Come meet me and the Intel Atom Developer Program team at WIPJam on March 22 at CTIA Wireless 2010. Join us for an open discussion on the next stage of mobile development. We’ll walk through evolution of the mobile phone, new emerging usage models from an always connected, on-the-go consumer. We’ll look at a range of devices from ipads, medical devices, and various m2m opportunities as well as developing software for these opportunities. We’ll see you there!

How well do you know mobile users?

Posted by Carlo on 09 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories :

How much do you really know about mobile users? Often times we base development or marketing decisions on gut feelings, anecdotal evidence or widely held common beliefs, but how many of those are misconceptions. We Love Mobile, a marketing agency in the UK, has got an interesting post up highlighting 10 of the most common mobile misconceptions. While it’s fairly UK-centric, it’s worth a read wherever you are in the world to get you thinking about whether all the things you think you know about your user base are actually true.

Carnival of Mobilist #214

Posted by Teresa on 09 March 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : Mobile Developer • News • App Stores • Carnival of the Mobilists •

Carnival #214 from mobiThinking is jammed backed with great blog submissions this week.  Make sure to visit and check them out!  Here is just a small sampling of what you will find.  Are App developers getting a raw deal from App Stores?  What developers want and why by MSearchGroove’s Peggy Anne Salz considers how App Stores can provide a better service to developers, with a feedback mechanism, more say in how apps are marketed etc. This week at Communities Dominate Brands, Tomi Ahonen turns his attention to data and how much more mobile phones tell marketers about consumers than any other media. The interrelationship between mobile advertising and mobile payments is the subject of Raj Singh’s blog as he ponders cloud-based payment systems (such as PayPal), payment details on the device or the possibility that paid-for content providers, such as Apple’s iTunes, might want to become the next mobile wallet.

 

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