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Mobileapps2.0 : Sam Pickard talks about Datilo
Posted by ThibautR on 03 September 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : Opinions • mobileapps2.0 •


 

DatiloAt our WIPjam in Barcelona Mark Curtis from Flirtomatic spoke about his "new feature introduction" routine... not quoting him in his exact terms it sounded a bit like this:

"Launch the feature on the site; wait 1 day, look at the response rates; IF very positive THEN keep; IF very negative THEN remove; if marginal THEN expand trial period;" 

Not the type of words you would typically associate with mobile apps.. yet mobile app development practices are changing, frequent updates distributed by the appstore, hybrid apps, cross-platform apps, absence of certification... 

And what a great subject for the opening  un-panel of our WIPJam @ OSIM!

To get ready for the event we'll publish interviews of developers talking about their development process for the next few weeks.

Enough of me, here's Sam Pickard from Datilo!

T : What is your latest app you wanted to talk to us about?

S :  The app, like the company is called Datilo.  It’s a contraction of date, time and location.

What does it do?

It’s a travel app.  When you book your holiday or business trip, it can download and cache all the details of your trip on the phone.  Then, whilst you are away, you don’t have to use expensive roaming data to find out where your hotel is.

 What's your business model?

It’s a white label application.  We are in discussion with several travel companies, and even tourist boards, about trials and requirements.  The application will then be branded as the travel company, and provided free to the end user

What platform(s) did you decide to target and why?

We’re pretty platform agnostic.  We made a decision very early on that development was always going to be cross platform.  We evaluated several options, and select MoSync as our tools partner, so now we build to Symbian, J2ME, Android, and Windows Mobile from the same source code.  We’re looking forward to testing the iPhone version in September.

How much work / time was that?

There was a lot of time up front, gathering some of the right skills.  We had a really clear vision of how the application should work from the beginning, so we’ve not wasted too much time building code we don’t need.  A lot of the code is really reusable, and the Datilo application is so flexible we can take it into different markets without any re-engineering.

How would you describe your development process? (waterfall / agile / ...)

Hack.  Personally, I’m not against the waterfall process in the way that many developers are now.  Waterfall is fine when you’ve got a clear vision.  I would have to say that our processes are more agile though, with short term targets, maybe even daily targets, rather than long sprints.

Why this choice?

We’ve learnt over the years to develop from front to back.  Received wisdom is that you start with the riskiest code first.  You start with this so you can find any potential pitfalls and deal with them early in the problem.  To developers, this normally means some difficult piece of back-end integration or new components which need to be developed, so we used to start there. 

What we now realise is that our system for identifying the riskiest piece was flawed.  We thought that the riskiest piece was the same as ‘the most technically difficult’ piece, but we now know that the riskiest piece is the user interface.  It’s not even customers changing their minds about it, it’s about being able to evolve the application onto new platforms and to new users.  Those complex pieces of code won’t evolve so much, but you’ve got to release the user interface as early as possible and get as much feedback as possible, even if you’re just stopping people in the corridor or showing it to your family.

How do you plan to develop future enhancements / bug fixes / releases?

The app is really in continuous development.  Even when we’re not adding new features, we’re thinking about how to lower the memory footprint or how to streamline code.  Customers will get the latest version when they sign up, and enhancements can be offered.  It is a serious problem though.  Our end-users aren’t risk-taking iPhone users who live to update their apps all the time.  For a lot of our end users, Datilo is the only app they’ve ever installed.  They’ve probably got a J2ME or Symbian S60 phone, and are not used to using data.  This means that we have to carefully control releases and updates as these users are probably not going to update their app.

How do you plan to monitor the success of your application?

In a word, financially.  We’re not about world domination or having the coolest app on the iTunes store.  We’re about providing sensible applications to corporate companies.

 

 

If you want to share your thoughts feel free to comment or to get in touch if you'd like us to give us your thoughts!



WIP and Friends at SXSW—Vote For Us Now!
Posted by Carlo on 18 August 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : Events •


While the SXSW Interactive Festival isn't until March, the process of picking panels and speakers has already begun! SXSW relies on attendees and others to help determine the content they feature, and WIP and several of its pals have submitted panel ideas and need your help! It's simple -- all you have to do is follow the links below and give a thumbs up to the panel ideas you like, and add a comment in support if you're so inclined.

First up is a panel I (Carlo) submitted, titled User Experience and Cross-Platform App Development. It's going to take a look at developing for different device types and form factors, such as phones, tablets, netbooks, TVs and other connected devices. I've got several great panelists lined up to cover this important and interesting topic.

Ben Jacobsen from Mobspot submitted Driving App Discovery In An Overcrowded Marketplace, which will delve into the pressing developer issue of making sure people can find your app. As an added bonus, he asked me to moderate :)

Our good friend Volker Hirsch from Scoreloop is looking into the social mobile gaming space, with Mobile Social Gaming: The Next Frontier.

GetJar is looking to settle an age-old debate that's still relevant: Apps vs. Mobile Web: Which to reach consumers?

Our friends at Little Springs Design are looking to keep themselves busy during SXSW, and have submitted three ideas:

Also check out entries from folks at Vodafone and Symbian, as well as Crowdscanner on Hacking Socialization: Designing Technology for Real Social Environments, and Vikki Chowney's Twitter Killed Christmas & Other Social Media Myths Dispelled.

See you here in Austin in March!



Fun With App Stores: Bad Forms and Error Messages
Posted by ThibautR on 13 August 2010 - 1 Comments Categories : News • App Stores •


A few months ago, I went on an app store placement spree in preparation for the Android App Store Competition in Berlin (promise I won't mention it anymore!). The results were telling, in terms of the variance of the usability between stores, and some of the rather uninspired error messages they returned:

  • "Please provide an interesting and accurate description" -- Isn't it my right to putt something dull if I do not want people to spend time reading the description and download the app instead?
  • "Illegal characters in description! Use English and numbers only" -- Something any person with a sense of logic and group theory awareness will object to.
  • "Upload a jpg legend..." -- Which is a nice error when, in reality, the site only accepts PNGs.

I'm just finishing a new placement spree today, and when I started, I was full of hopes that things had changed. Judge for yourself by these messages I got:

  • "Password Must contain both letters and numerals" -- What if I want to use letters & symbols?
  • "I am on vacation till August 16th and won’t have access to my emails" -- So is there just one person to approve apps?
  • "Cannot publish, application name already used"-- You would think that a search for that name in the store would find you an app... think again!
  • The following 3 questions in succession on an international developer portal were somewhat puzzling:
    • "If you’re submitting an app for our new on-device App Shop client, does your app cover all of the relevant devices featuring the new client?"
    • "If you’re submitting a Java app, does it cover 80% of the ‘Top 50’ devices for the appropriate country?"
    • "If you’re submitting an app for another OS, does it cover all of the relevant devices for the appropriate country?"
  • Do you see a *  in the image below? (promise it's an exact copy paste!) All this to put your app in ...a roadmap.

Marketing assets

I already feel better :)

Feel free to share your experiences too -- where are app stores causing problems with error messages and unclear wording in their submission processes?



Comments:

Caroline on WAC for FierceWireless
Posted by campbieil on 06 August 2010 - 0 Comments Categories :


Caroline was interviewed this week by Fiercewireless Editor in Chief Sue Marek.

The interview covers a lot of points around the activites of operators in the mobile development space. From network API project such as OneAPI, to the raison d'etre of mobile operator developer program and the viablity of WAC as an initiative (a few days after they announced their new CEO and their merging with JIL).

For the complete interview, visit Fiercewireless.



August App Store Report Now Available
Posted by Carlo on 05 August 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : News • App Stores •


The latest edition of the WIP App Store Report is now available for download. It's a PDF version of our App Store Wiki, the most comprehensive listing of mobile app stores available. This month, the report takes a look at the various end-user payment methods supported by stores in the wiki, and some of the issues they present to mobile developers. While there is a lot of buzz surrounding operator billing and BOBO, credit cards still lead the way, despite the shortcomings in user experience they can create.

Be sure to download the August report for more info, and to check out the details of the 6 new stores that were added over the past month, bringing the total number to 85.



The 5 slides of convergence
Posted by ThibautR on 04 August 2010 - 2 Comments Categories :


I was asked lately to talk about fixed/mobile internet convergence as part of the July Momo Munich focusing on "One internet – convergence of the mobile and fixed interwebs" ...

Obviously a topic quite far from my usual appstore comparison pitches and other developer advocacy... but it stroke a chord. Maybe because the first marketing words I heard at engineering school were "fixed / mobile convergence is going to revolutionize the world"  ...

Anyway I used the occasion to rant "slightly" about how every time someone tries to sell a new convergence of some form they always use the same 5 slides: Wake Up, Go to Work, Have a meeting, socialize, Relax... And at each stage explaining why their version of convergence would change your life...  Concluding with a call to convergence marketers to think a bit more about their messaging and value prop, and give us something a bit different.

The slide pack might be a bit arcane without the voice-over but you should get the gist of it. If you don't just let me know and I''ll explain in more details!

The 5 slides of convergence

View more presentations from Thibaut Rouffineau.


Comments:

Carnival of the Mobilists 232 Up At Little Springs Design
Posted by Carlo on 26 July 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : News • Carnival of the Mobilists •


Mobile design stalwarts Little Springs Design have this week's installment of the Carnival of the Mobilists up at their site, so be sure to check it out for the week's best mobile blogging. This edition features topics such as mobile advertising, app stores, open source in mobile, the future of devices and more.



Carnival of the Mobilists #231 Comes To WIP
Posted by Carlo on 19 July 2010 - 0 Comments Categories : News • Carnival of the Mobilists •


It's time for another installment of the Carnival of the Mobilists, this time hosted right here on the WIP blog. A big thanks to all the mobilists who sent in their posts this week, and a big welcome to everybody visiting our site for the first time. After you're done checking out the week's best blogging about mobile, be sure to take a look at our Events Wiki, a comprehensive listing of mobile events and conferences, as well as our App Store Wiki, the most complete listing of mobile app stores -- currently tracking 84 -- on the web.

But let's get on with the Carnival!

Windows Phone 7, the latest work from Microsoft, was a popular topic this week, with both Terence Eden and Tam Hanna taking it on. Terence has a solid list of pros and cons about the new OS, with quite a few problems but a lot he likes about it as well, while Tam features an interview with a Microsoft evangelist for the corporate line on what to expect from WP7. Another emerging technology that's been getting a lot of hype lately is HTML5, but Carl Martin at Mobsessed says it will be a while before it's ready for prime time (or the mass market) on mobile.

Elsewhere:

Once again, thanks to all the contributors and visitors! Next week, the Carnival visits Little Springs Design's blog, so keep an eye out for it.