Facebook Kickoff Party @ I/O (Jillian's)
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:30

China Night @ Google IO
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:00 PM

WIP Democamp and Google IO Extended
Wednesday, May 15: 2013 9:00-5:00 PM

Demo & Mixer @ Google IO 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013 5:30 PM

#IOPitchNight w / Startup Weekend and Google
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Behind the scenes of HTC
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Geo Ignite Talks falling on Google IO
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:45 PM

Party with Pocket Gamer, Native X, iDream Sky and Immersion @ Google I/O
Thursday, May 16, 2013 6:00PM

Pitch & Demo Day - Google IO Special
Saturday, May 18, 2013 9:00 AM

If you can't make it to California, don't worry, there are a whole bunch of I/O extended events being held locally around the area! Hope to see you there!

Apptentive powers in-app feedback, ratings, and surveys for developers on iOS, Android and Mac OS X. Apptentive helps developers get the feedback they need to improve their apps, and intercept negative feedback from ending up in the app stores. Apptentive also helps developers get their loving fans to leave great reviews in the app stores.

Who should use your tool?

Anybody with a mobile app.

How much does it cost to use?

The cost depends on the number of monthly active users an app has. It is free for every app that has fewer than 5,000 monthly active users. To read more about our pricing check out our plans page.

How do developers implement it?

We have a SDK that is quick and easy to implement. It takes most developers less than 15 minutes before they’re off and running. All of our code is open source and available on Github, so feel free to check it out and play with it.

Who to contact for help?

ezra [@] apptentive.com

Please Introduce yourself!

I’m Ezra Siegel and I’ve only been involved in the mobile industry for a short time, but I worked with WIN (Washington Interactive Network) before joining Apptentive. Occasionally, I moonlight as a marketing consultant for mobile apps and I am working on bringing my first app to the market right now. My passions include travel, good music, and great food. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter.

How long have you worked at Apptentive?

I joined Apptentive in mid-september, halfway through our time with the TechStars accelerator.

What is your role there?

My title is VP of Community. I lead our marketing and community efforts on and offline.

What does 'a day in the life of Ezra' look like?

I start the day with e-mail, connecting with our current customers, reaching out to events for marketing opportunities, and following up with potential customers. I spend the rest of my day creating content for our blog, writing whitepapers & guides, working with the design team, handling our analytics & SEO, monitoring our social media channels, and just a tad bit of business development.

How big is your team now?

We just hit 10 deep. It’s exciting! We are currently looking for a talented iOS developer. We know you’re out there, so please send me a note!

What is your team hoping to achieve?

We’re based in Seattle and surrounded by some of the best companies in the world such as Starbucks and Nordstrom when it comes to creating a great customer experience. We are striving to give companies the tools that they need to create a great customer experience on the mobile level.

What are some examples of developers or apps that have had success with your offering?

We are helping companies such as Urbanspoon, Cheezburger, Intercontinental Hotels Group, and thousands more connect with their mobile customers. Our results have lead to higher ratings, better reviews, more downloads, and increased retention.

How do I sign up for Apptentive?

Just head to our website, and sign up! Follow our instructions and you’ll be up and running with Apptentive in less than 15 minutes.

My name is Erel Uziel. I’m the CEO and founder of Anywhere Software. I’m also the lead developer. During the day I’m writing code in three different languages: Basic4android, (examples, tests and support), Java (Android libraries) and C# (the IDE itself).

What does Anywhere Software do?

Anywhere Software specializes in mobile development tools. We started with Basic4PPC (Basic for Pocket PC) which was a Visual Basic-like tool for Windows Mobile. Later, as Android started to make some noise and we noticed that Windows Mobile was fading, we decided that it was a good time to switch to Android and now our core product is Basic4android. Basic4android is a complete development solution for native Android applications.

So far, Basic4android has been very successful. There are more than 40k developers registered in our community and the feedback has been really great. The community is actually one of the strongest aspects of Basic4android. It is a helpful, positive and sharing community. It is really great to be a part of it.

What was it like switching from Windows Mobile Development over to Android?

Switching from Windows Mobile to Android was a really interesting move because backwards compatibility is a huge issue for programming languages. There are design mistakes that you do in version 1.00 which you cannot fix later because of that.

When we switched to Android we took a lot of time to discuss all the lessons learned from developing Basic4ppc for over 5 years and started Basic4android with many fundamental improvements.

You touched on it a bit earlier, but why Android instead of other Operating Systems?

Android is a modern and open operating system. It has great features and power that allow you to create amazing applications. However, building real-world applications is not always the easiest thing. You need to have a good understanding of the OS and how it handles the activities and services (and other important components). Basic4android simplifies the process without posing any limits on the developer. All the “best practices” are already implemented inside the libraries and framework. I have heard a lot of stories from developers on how they tried to develop with Eclipse / Java and they got frustrated from the slow progress and the obstacles they encountered. Using our tool, they were able to build their applications in days.

What kind of phone are you currently using?

We test with many Android devices. My private phone, which I use the most is the Galaxy Nexus.

What is one development tool you couldn’t live without?

One development tool that I recommend any developer to use is Notepad++. It is a terrific text editor.

What does your desktop usually look like?

What mobile apps are you using the most these days?

I’m using Whatsapp a lot. I also use B4A-Bridge which is a tool written in Basic4android and allows you to connect the IDE to the device over wifi or Bluetooth:

If you had one piece of advice for aspiring developers, what would it be?

Selling software products is difficult. You need to give the customer a huge set of benefits; one or two cool ideas are not enough!

Complete the surveys at the links below.  Not only will you be helping the industry, you also have a chance to win a prize or two. 

Thanks for your help!  We will publish survey results/links once available. 

Developer Economic Survey Deadline: May 5, 2013

Take the new Developer Economics 10-minute survey and win prizes!   Be the first to get VisionMobile’s latest State of the Developer Nation report and enter a draw for great prizes: an iPhone 5, 2 x Samsung Galaxy SIII,  2 x Nokia Lumia 920, 2 x Blackberry 10 devices, an AR Drone, a Next thermostat and a Nike Fuel band.

App Developer Survey Deadline:  May 5, 2013

Calling all app publishers and developers. Last year, App Promo found that nearly 60% of app developers were not generating enough revenue to break even with development of their apps. This year we want to see where you are at with marketing and monetizing your app. Complete our annual developer survey to help us gather information on the business side of apps and be considered to win $1,500 in App Store Optimization Services (ASO).

One more Survey

This survey is part of a Master’s Thesis for Daria Koreniushkina, University of Amsterdam.  Please help him gather data. 
 

If you haven't heard of our previous democamps, they are a series of short demos showcasing talented mobile developers with great products. The objective of the democamp is to help these entrepreneurs find seed funding and support to help them succeed in their project. After London and Barcelona we were coming to Berlin!

For this democamp we had a selected bunch of applications from all over Germany (and beyond). The variety of the apps, the really great UI / UX and the quality of the teams was a credit to Berlin, a city which aims to become the new heartland of tech entrepreneurs in Europe :

• Pockets United: A Munich based mobile startup making it possible to share bills with friends through a banking integration that settles accounts automatically at the end of each month.
• Refreshme:  A mobile CRM for the non-techie crowd, from Koeln and Tel Aviv.
• Mobinco: A digital alternative to the receipts and invoice binder that helps businesses keep all the data they need for their accounts in digital form, from Berlin.
• Prime Guide TV: A popular German TV guide from Munich.
• Shoutr: a service to exchange files between devices from Berlin.
• Groove Grid: a successful app allowing its users to generate music through a fancy UI, the result of a collaboration between a music artist and a great UI from Berlin
• More Media: A beautiful concept app demonstrating a new UI for tablet media consumption.
• Gpease: A GPS tracking solution for small fleets.
• Footballtracker: A gamified social network for amateur football players from Madrid.
• Clixxie-Photobook: A solution to create physical photo albums on your phone and have them sent to friends and family from Berlin.
• Shirtagram: A solution to get t-shirts (or mugs, caps and other products) ordered from the pictures on your phone from Berlin.

The 3 winners of the democamp as elected by the industry experts were:

• Pockets United
• Groove Grid
• Shirtagram

With a special mention for More media for the amazing UI and work!

A majority of the startups listed here are looking for funding and mentoring, if you are interested just let us know!

• seeing the first ‘car phones’ in the mid 80s and how pretentious they looked
• the big bricks we used to take out to lake for our SCUBA weekends in the late 80s, for ‘emergency’ purposes, but they were usually used to order pizza on the way home (an expensive call!)
• working on the Iridium project in the mid 90s, and how soon everyone could be connected to anyone, anywhere
• funding companies in the early 90s for picture sharing, because cameras on phones were going to be big; and confirming that Java was the language of choice for mobile programming!
• some of my own first phones (see photo), the Samsung Flip phone (CDMA) and the Nokia lipstick phone were 2 favorites.

Which was the first mobile developer program – I am still trying to nail that one down. Sprint claims to have hosted the first app developer conference, back in 2001. According to Evans Data, 80% of developers belong to a developer program, so chances are you belong to more than one today. But who started the first official mobile developer program? Was it Symbian, Nokia, SUN? Which was the first one you joined? Let me know!

App Publish enables developers to publish their Android apps to 130+ app stores within a few clicks, and manage submissions, download tracking and revenue from a single dashboard.

Who should use your tool?

Android developers of all sizes should seriously consider using App Publish. Alternative app stores are an extremely valuable part of any distribution strategy, and App Publish completely takes away the nightmarish complexity associated with publishing to multiple stores

How much does it cost to use?

Submissions on App Publish are completely free. There is a nominal processing and invoicing fee charged on the developer revshare for paid apps at the time of settlements. There is no fee at all for free, freemium and ad-funded apps.

How do developers implement it?

There is no SDK or API integration to use App Publish. Developers can easily upload ready binaries for their apps that meet set criteria through our online portal, follow the 4 step wizard which enables developers to quickly complete submissions to app stores of their choice.

The process is that easy! We've had developers actually comple their first submission in just half an hour after logging in!

Who to contact for help?

AppPublish-Support[@]inmobi.com

We're also on facebook.

What is your team hoping to achieve?

We're looking to build long-term relationships with developers through products that drastically simplify app store submissions and other aspects of the app lifecycle.

What are some examples of developers or apps that have had success with your offering?

Several developers of all sizes have had successful submissions to a number of stores through App Publish. Some of our beta developers saw 30% additional downloads through 100+ app stores over the Google Play downloads for their app in the same week.

One of our beta customers, Matti Siedel of 5C-Basic GmbH & Co. KG had this to say: "Being a small, independent developer, App Publish enables us to reach out to customers around the world. It helps us focus our energies on creating compelling applications rather than having to deal with complex app store submission requirements"

How do I sign up for App Publish?

You can sign-up using the registration form. Registration is completely free, instant and you can begin submitting your apps immediately.

Please introduce yourself! 

My name is Charles McLeod and I have spent 18 years in sales and business development for internet and telecoms companies such as Ericsson, Nortel, elata and Tira Wireless before co-founding Metaflow in 2006 and Metaconnect content publishing in 2010.  Inmobi acquired both companies in August 2012 in order to drive their developer ecosystem. I bring with me a wealth of sales, marketing and legal experience to the App Store Distribution Technology and Publishing teams.

How long have you worked at inMobi?

I joined the InMobi team along with the rest of the metaflow team in July 2012.

What is your role there?

Business Development Director

What does 'a day in the life of Charles' look like?

A typical day involves connecting with a couple of new app stores, syncing with the engineers back in Bangalore, talking to old and new developers and ensuring support for our existing customers is on track. I might just find the time to grab a coffee and play a round of fussball! 

How big is your team now?

The app publish team currently has 5 members in London and 2 in Bangalore. Company wide, we have over 700 employees globally. InMobi is always hiring! Check out our jobs page for more information.

Demo Mobile,  April 17, San Francisco, CA; Join DEMO for a one-day event focused on mobile. Mobile is sweeping its way through industry after industry, and is starting to move beyond smartphones, tablets, and other touch devices into cars, homes, wearable computing, gesture-based interfaces, voice-controlled technologies and robotics.  The best product minds are focused on mobile right now and therefore so is DEMO. Discount for WIP Community.

Wireless Healthcare Asia Summit, April 22 & 23, Singapore; This Summit brings together leading healthcare providers, mobile operators, application & software developers, R&D professionals and more to discuss challenges and issues critical to the changing healthcare landscape.

Health: Refactored, May 13 & 14, San Francisco, CA: A 2-day conference for developers and designers to learn and share the latest hacks, hone their skills, and make the necessary connections to thrive in the health industry.
With the industry rapidly evolving, the potential to improve lives through health technology is limitless. Discount for WIP Community.

Mobile Gaming USA West, May 14 & 15, San Francisco, CA; The Two-Day Conference Includes: Presentations on the pressing issues facing the mobile gaming industry; Case Studies featuring both established names and fresh voices in mobile;  Panels - from cross-promotion to crowdfunding; and Exhibitions with leading technology and service providers to the mobile gaming industry. Discount for WIP Community.

APPNATION NYC, May 21 & 22,  New York City, NY; A unique and dynamic “two-in-one” conference event that includes the Third Annual APPNATION New York (all things mobile apps) combined with the launch of APPNATION Consumer Insights. Discount for WIP Community and a couple of FREE passes up for grabs.

Developer Economic Survey - I know that it isn't an event but it is valuable so please take the time to complete this survey by Vision Mobile.  The industry thanks you!  Some great prizes up for grabs too.

With Mobile World Congress quite possibly being the only time the entire team is together IRL, we took some time to do some team bonding. We headed over to Cook&Taste in the Gothic area of Barcelona to partake in a traditional Paella cooking class. When in Rome, right? Some of us cooked, some of us drank, and all of us ate. On the menu was:

• Calçots Con Salsa Romesco (Roasted Sweet Winter Onions w/ Romesco Sauce)
• Sopa De Pimiento Rojo Al Aroma De Azafran Tostado Con Bacalao (Red Bell Pepper Soup Flavoured w/ Toasted Saffron and Cod)
• Paella De Marisco (Seafood Paella)
• Mini Tarta De Boniato (Sweet Potato Mini Cake)

While we all come from different cultures with different taste buds, everyone had a good time and nobody got food poisoning and after 6 Mobile World Congresses, we can finally say we've done Barcelona properly.