Mobile Marketing Blog by Punchkick Interactive

Every once in a while—perhaps as often as the solar equinox or emergence of the breeding cicadas—I open my mouth and say something I later regret. And when I do so, I feel it is my duty to own up to my mistake. So, with my sneaker on my plate, I apologize to all of you about my July 5th rant, Why a True Apple Fan Would Never Buy an iPhone.

Why, you ask? Allow me to explain.

I decided that I needed a smart phone with true email capabilities about two months ago. Looking around at the options out there, I wasn’t particularly blown away by any of the smart phones I played around with at the Verizon store. On second look, the iPhone started to seem like a phone I could (*ahem) learn to live with.

Fast forward two months.

My iPhone and I are best friends, and in some countries, possibly married. I absolutely cannot live without it. The email software is incredible and syncs perfectly with my .Mac account and IMAP business account. The camera is beautiful and I find myself constantly taking pictures with my phone—something I’ve never done in the 11+ years I’ve been a cell phone user. I use the iPhone religiously for iPod purposes, and my video podcasts have never looked better. And the Safari browser has proven to be a mid-argument-dispute-resolution miracle on more than one occasion.

Sure, the iPhone has some problems. Edge isn’t too quick, and 8 gigs just isn’t enough memory. But the goods FAR outweigh the bad. Software updates have even fixed a number of the issues I once complained about. Reading through my previous post, I’ve had to ask myself: Am I so jaded that a technical marvel like the iPhone can elicit a complaint from me?

Mr. Jobs, if you’re reading this, please accept my apology. Please continue to deliver me gadgets like the iPhone. And please forgive us tech-geeks when we are overly critical. We don’t mean it.

*Sometimes.

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s iPhone software development capabilities.

Cameron Moll has just finished and released his book, Mobile Web Design.

Much has been written about mobile devices. Plenty has been written about developing websites for the so-called “standards era” of the web. However, little has been written about the two colliding. This resource aims to fill that void.

As a reviewer of the book, and more specifically the Flash Lite section, I have had a chance to read through the entire book and it is really a great piece of writing. It is certainly not written for the mobile Web expert, but rather, it speaks perfectly to anyone in a position to develop for, manage, or give advice regarding your organizations foray into a web strategy for mobile devices.

PDF copies can be purchased for $19. Well worth it for anyone interested in the mobile space. You can also download a preview sample.

Simple Spark catalog lists at least 165 mobile services in one well designed, easy to read page. The list ranges from Sonopia to WidSets, and everything in between. Anyone remotely interested in where mobile is going should really browse this list.

Via Simon

Via Gizmodo
South Korea’s Iljin Display has been crowing about its coin-sized laser projector module for more than a year with no haps, but now the company says it’s inked a deal with South Korea Telecom (SK Telecom) to mass-produce the projector for use inside cellphones. Is Iljin’s so-called Nano Projector finally for real? [more]

Via Bill, I recently learned that as of April 30 2007, 13 Flash Lite for BREW supported handsets represent 16 million active Verizon Wireless subscribers (reported by M:Metrics).

One of the many benefits with developing with Flash Lite is that you can target multiple devices with the same screen size using one FLA file. In the graphic below you can see how a developer would only need to create 3 FLA files to target all 13 supported Verizon Wireless handsets.

The phones that support the Flash Lite for BREW extension are: LG VX8100, LG VX8300, LG VX8500, LG VX8600, LG VX9800, LG VX9900, Motorola RAZR V3c, Motorola RAZR V3m, Motorola KRZR K1m, Samsung SCH-A930, Samsung SCH-A950, Samsung SCH-A970, and the Samsung SCH-A990.

The AmberWatch Foundation used QUALCOMM’s recent BREW 2007 conference to take the wraps off its latest initiative, AmberWatch Mobile GPS tracking service. Among other things, the new service will allow individuals to send alerts to family and friends when they’re in need of assistance (which will include their GPS location), allow chosen friends or family members to check on an individual’s location from their PC or cellphone, and give parents the ability to set up scheduled checkups with their kids.

[Read more at engadget]

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s mobile marketing capabilities.

The new Opera Mini 4 beta is out. Among a variety of new features, the most notable of these is content zooming—the ability to see an entire web page and zoom in or out (Does this remind you of anything—perhaps the iPhone?).

Here is a short video of the new browser installed on Cameron’s Sony Ericsson K750i showing nytimes.com:

Source: Cameron Moll

A recent article by Katie on NewTeeVee pointed out that according to data from Nielsen, middle-aged men with high incomes are the main demographic of Americans watching video on their cell phones. On the surface it may seem that this proves that the price point is still too high (which it is), but my theory is that the type of video programming also plays a part.

Nielsen is launching a mobile stat service called Nielsen Wireless, and has compiled some preliminary data. In the first quarter of 2007:

• Eight million persons 12 and older viewed video on their mobile phone (this excludes videos created with a phone’s camcorder function)
• The mobile video audience skewed somewhat older and male: 46 percent of the mobile video audience is 35 years or older and 54 percent of the audience is male.
• At least 7 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds viewed mobile video programming in the first quarter of 2007, while at least 25 percent used their mobile phone to connect to the Internet
• A total of 33 million people in the US used the mobile Web.
• As of May 31, more than half, 55 percent, of primary users of video-enabled mobile phones lived in households with total incomes of $75,000 or above

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s mobile video production capabilities.

fiercedeveloper.com wrote a short article about Flash Lite’s role in the BREW ecosystem citing the October 2006 deal between Verizon Wireless and Adobe. The article from fiercedeveloper.com can be seen as a sign that Flash Lite may be gaining more acceptance from the media, and that it may soon be seen as the standard for wireless development in the US and abroad.

“Verizon’s expanding selection of handsets, and Adobe’s support of Flash Lite for BREW, is a strong signal for developers considering Flash Lite.”

At the BREW 2007 conference, we expect Adobe and Verizon Wireless to be talking about Flash Lite’s impact on some 37.5 million Americans. Verizon Wireless was the first US operator to adopt Flash Lite to it’s network, and the first operator worldwide to offer Flash Lite for BREW.

If you have interest in developing Flash Lite for BREW for Verizon Wireless, you may want to read our Adobe.com article, Developing Flash Lite for BREW applications for Verizon Wireless

Punchkick Interactive has authored it’s first article for Adobe.com. Zak Dabbas and myself (Ryan Unger) co-authored Developing Flash Lite for BREW applications for Verizon Wireless. This article covers not only the technical side of developing applications for BREW for Verizon Wireless, but also the marketing aspects of distributing content directly to Verizon Wireless or to a content catalog partner such as Atom Entertainment, FunMobility, or Smashing Ideas.

The article has three main sections:
1. Understanding the Flash Lite for BREW marketplace
2. Becoming an authorized Qualcomm BREW developer
3. Testing content on a Verizon Wireless handset

Read the full article on Adobe.com

Introduction
At the October 2006 Adobe MAX conference, Adobe and Verizon Wireless announced a partnership that would make Flash Lite content available to over 37.5 million Verizon Wireless subscribers. Flash Lite developers were understandably excited about the announcement, and teaching developers how to create content for Verizon Wireless became a central focus of the MAX conference.

This article will teach you how to develop Flash Lite for BREW content directly for Verizon Wireless. It will detail the process of becoming an authorized Qualcomm BREW developer, testing your Flash Lite for BREW content on a Verizon Wireless handset, and selling your content through Verizon Wireless.

In addition to understanding the technical specifics of creating Flash Lite for BREW content, this article will also discuss the pros and cons of using the direct model for developing and distributing Flash Lite for BREW content—including the real costs and anticipated returns on your development investment. It will also briefly cover the process of selling content through an content catalog partner, and the pros and cons associated with doing so.

Also, we would like to thank Phil Pastore for helping out with the headshots.

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s Flash Lite development capabilities.

I am trying to get a feel of who actually uses the mobile Web and what your favorite mobile Web sites are. Some good ones that I have seen are mobile.google.com and mobile.nikebasketball.com.

Please don’t be shy—post your best and worst mobile Web site examples. If you vote on the poll, I’d love to hear why you do or don’t use the mobile Web. Also, what phones do you use to browse? If you don’t browse the mobile Web, what is stopping you?

This mobile marketing blog, Punchkick Interactive, is now available for download on EyeMags.com. I assume that most people reading this know what EyeMags.com is, but for those of you who don’t I’ll offer a brief description.

EyeMags is essentially a service that streamlines mobile blogging. With a simple download you can receive updated streams of any blog, or “mobile magazine” as they EyeMags would put it. The service does a pretty great job of presenting this content on a mobile device.

Learn more about Punchkick Interactive’s mobile Web site design capabilities.