Best of…Mobile News for Sept. 24-28

by Meghan Attreed on September 28, 2012 in The Mobile Beat with No comments

We’re all so busy these days, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the news and changes – especially when it comes to the warp speed of the mobile market.  So to help make it more simple for our Mobile Masters readers, I’ll be putting together a recap each Friday of some of the best mobile news stories from the week.  Let’s kick it off!

“Google Play celebrates 25 billion downloads with 25p apps & 99p films“

Google has announced that its Google Play app store has officially hit the 25 billion app download mark. The store is now home to 675,000 apps and games for Android devices.

“Mobile shopping bringing in $20 billion annually – study”

Shoppers spent $5 billion while using tablets over the past 12 months, a trend that’s going to keep growing, according to Javelin Strategy and Research.

“Samsung Sees Stronger Start for Note 2, Unfazed by iPhone”

Samsung expects sales of its new Galaxy Note 2 smartphone to get off to a stronger start than its predecessor even after Apple Inc. sold a record number of the latest iPhone in its debut weekend.

“RIM woos developers to AppWorld platform with $10,000 guarantee”

RIM has offered a $10,000 sales guarantee for developers after it claimed its AppWorld platform will generate them more sales and cost them less than using Apple’s iOS App Store.

“IDC: MEM market to hit $1.8bn in four years”

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A review of Samsung’s hero device – will the new iPhone steal its thunder?

by admin on September 14, 2012 in Intermittent Signal with No comments

By Mark Watson

Despite its recent, hugely damaging, defeat in the smartphone patent wars (to a jury made up of people living within 10 miles of Apple’s global HQ), Samsung has been riding high of late – thanks to the success of the Galaxy S3. Its new Android-powered handset has been purchased by more than 20 million consumers—including yours truly—in the past 100 days, and the South Korean company claims to be shifting 200,000 units a day at present. The question is, will it be able to keep the momentum going now that the new iPhone has launched? Based on my experience of switching from an iPhone 4S to an S3, I think the answer is…maybe. What? You weren’t really expecting me to risk making a concrete prediction, were you? 

The S3’s 4.8” HD screen is its best feature – it frees you up in a way that’s difficult to express. It’s so good I’ve been able to switch to using Flipboard to bring together my Twitter and Google+ streams, RSS feeds, and a number of other social channels. The handset’s screen is also just about suitable for reading Kindle books on, and certainly complements the device’s cameras (both of which are far superior to those on the iPhone 4S). The browsing experience on the S3 is also very good, provided you have Chrome, and all in all it feels more like a ‘data device’ than a glowing iPod, which is exactly what I want (if only because it makes me feel important).

On the flip side, the S3’s non-Gmail email client is a thing of extreme ugliness, not to mention buggy, and I have yet to find an alternative client that doesn’t give amateur a bad name. The speech recognition is as disappointingly unintelligent as Siri (the Galaxy actually allows you to use the same engine that Apple licenses for Siri if you want to) and is far less intuitive – e.g. if you ask it to call someone while you’re driving and it comes up with multiple matches from your address book, it’s difficult to confirm/clarify your request with another voice command – practically, you have to switch to the touchscreen. Frustratingly, the Samsung server is permanently overloaded for upgrade services, and often returns requests those services with a message which I can only translate as, “To get a software upgrade, you need to get in line. This upgrade service doesn’t support lines. Goodbye.” Worse still, Bluetooth on the S3 is either cripplingly buggy or impossible to configure correctly (I haven’t bothered to take the time to work out which it is) and often makes random connections to my in-car Bluetooth, interrupting music and news just to say…nothing in particular. I’ve got so used to hanging up on false positives that I occasionally hang up on legitimate callers. And the Galaxy is so bad at synchronising media with a Mac that it feels almost like deliberate sabotage on Samsung’s part. On a personal note, apps including Hipstamatic and Cardmunch are sorely missed – but these are small gripes which are certain to be rectified in time.

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Managing a Business from a Mobile Device

by Kevin Benedict on September 11, 2012 in Mobile Strategist with No comments

I milked cows on a commercial dairy farm from the ages of 16 through 21.  I not only milked the cows, but fed them, cleaned the barns, worked in the fields, helped breed them, treat them for illnesses, and birth them.  In addition, I set-up irrigation, drove tractors, and brought in hay.  The bottom line is there is a great deal of work and organization required to manage and operate a farm.  I learned a lot about responsibility, and it paid for my university education.

Many years later, as the CEO of a company that developed custom mobile field services applications, I was again on a dairy farm.  This time reviewing their need for lifecycle management of their herds.  Here’s a brief description of their need:

Couldn't you be doing that on an iPad?

A truck load of Holstein calves are brought to the “calf farm” and each calf is assigned a “hutch.” After each calf is placed in the hutch they are given both a visual ID tag and an RFID tag. Next, a farmer walks down the row of hutches with the handheld computer and takes a reading on each calf, links the RFID tag with the calf, visual ID, and hutch number and location. This information is wirelessly synchronized with a central database in the farm office. The ID information will stay with the animal for its entire life. This allows the animal, its health records and location records to always be traceable in the event of an illness or health concern.  

This is but one of hundreds of uses for mobile technology on the farm.  Large farms have many employees and assets (i.e. tractors, trucks, implements, gas tanks, oil tanks, buildings, fences, pipes, tools, herds, and thousands of parts) spread around large areas.  Just keeping track of projects, tasks, assets, materials, supplies and their locations and conditions is a monumental task.

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Goodbye Silly Season: The Best Puff Pieces of the Summer

by Meghan Attreed on September 7, 2012 in The Mobile Beat with No comments

It’s a badly kept secret that summer is a good time to get a bad news story into the technology press. And by bad I don’t mean negative, I mean silly. In fact, journalists get so many laughable press releases in July and August that they often refer to this period as ‘the silly season’. But that doesn’t mean they don’t write a lot of those press releases up, often with hilarious results. And now that summer has officially wrapped up I wanted to recap some of the best…

STUDY: Would you give up sex and coffee for the new iPhone?  

Are men obsessed with gadgets? Too right they are. But research released by RoxyPalace.com suggests that they’d be prepared to go to some extreme (and stereotypical) lengths just to get their hands on the new iPhone, which is (probably) being launched next week.

The study found that 22% of men would happily give up coffee, 14% would stop drinking alcohol and 9% would remain celibate for a whole month in order to get their hands on the iPhone 5 first. God forbid! Men living without alcohol or caffeine? As this article by ShinyShiny rightly suggests – women also like coffee, wine and some, yes, some of us do actually care about mobile phones and technology!

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App Developer Enhancements Made to AMPchromaTM

by admin on August 28, 2012 in Product News with No comments

Last week we announced some enhancements to the application development components of AMPchroma that will make app development for corporate developers faster and easier, specifically ensuring they can leverage  widely available HTML5, Javascript, and CSS skill-sets, without having to overcome the typical limitations of browser-based development, or recode them for different hardware or software platforms.

You can check out the full announcement here, but a few of the key enhancements include:

  • Integrated testing tools that enable developers to incorporate on-demand or automatic testing into the development lifecycle of their app, rather than having to install separate device-specific testing tools or simulators.
  • Offline synchronization capabilities – including guaranteed transaction delivery and auditing – to apps developed simply by selecting those capabilities from a library of pre-built application components.
  • An updated component library that includes a comprehensive range of plug-and-play user interface controls, which work in tandem with Antenna’s patented device database to ensure that apps incorporating the controls are rendered optimally on over 11,000 different devices, from feature phones to tablets.
  • Developers can also now design their own controls and add them to the suite’s library of pre-built components, enabling their colleagues to have access to them – accelerating the development process. App developers also have the ability to share code with one another on a more informal and collaborative basis via the AMP Builder interface.

The big benefit here are that not only does it speed the process of mobile app development, but in a way that’s ideal for enterprise developers.  Lately the mobile market has been flooded with offerings to allow developers to quickly build mobile app prototypes, but what’s been lacking is a full understanding of what it really takes to make those prototypes enterprise-ready and portable across different mobile platforms, which is important for the large organizations.  Security, reliability, and portability are non-negotiable notions for many enterprises, and as the growing BYOD trend continues to increase the number of phone and tablet platforms that must be addressed, cross-platform functionality is becoming yet another must-have.  And many of these quick-build solutions don’t account for ALL of these factors.  Conversely, AMPchroma’s AMP Builder lets developers build applications quickly and easily with the same skills they use with other open standard toolkits, while addressing the significant difference between generating a prototype app in a few days and creating a real, enterprise-ready, portable app in that same amount of time.

 

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Gartner Catalyst Event – It’s All About The Cloud

by Brian Philbin on August 24, 2012 in Mobile Futures Today with No comments

To borrow a line from the movie Fletch, “It’s all about ball bearings.” While the Gartner event wasn’t necessarily about ball bearings it was clear that the new world order is all about the Cloud.

Cloud computing and Cloud offerings are the wave of the future and are coming on stronger each day. This is the reality we live with and can be a challenge for a traditional IT organization that is used to being able to reach out and hug their hardware on a daily basis. The Cloud creates a host of opportunities that can only make life easier for the average IT organization but there is always a big’ol but at the end.

For mobility, Gartner clearly stated that security, data integrity and device, user, and application management are the key pieces that will make or break a mobility effort. Adding the less huggable hardware option of using the Cloud for your mobility processes can certainly drive the stress level up for IT management. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel (and its not an oncoming train).

You have long heard the bloggers here at Mobile Masters opine about the need for a mobility strategy and that strategy should start with a mobility platform. Nowhere is that more important than when you combine mobility with Cloud capabilities. The need to manage all the various moving mobility parts (data, apps, users, lost devices, etc.) could drive you crazy, but with the appropriate mobility platform most of the headache is eliminated.

Here’s a simple checklist to reduce the Mobile Cloud stress that emphasizes the value of a platform solution:

  • Data security (encryption at rest on the device and in transit, user authentication, etc.)and data integrity should be a known commodity and not left to the individual developer or application each time
  • Application management should be part of the overall solution and not an afterthought or bolt-on
  • Two words – User management. Need I say more?
  • Device management is the only safeguard you have for hardware that rarely enters your building (and can’t be hugged)
  • Integration!!!! The most often overlooked and underestimated aspect of your mobility effort can be and even bigger problem if not well addressed as part of your mobility platform and Cloud processes

While mobility in the Cloud can be challenging it will offer you the greatest flexibility to adapt to changing market dynamics, devices, and user needs. Choosing the right mobility platform, one that is designed to work in the the Cloud, will keep you on the path for greatest success.

 

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Gartner Catalyst – Day One Recap

by Meghan Attreed on August 21, 2012 in The Mobile Beat with No comments

We’re out in sunny San Diego this week for the Gartner Catalyst conference, focused on mobility, cloud and security, and so far the show has been great!  Antenna has both a kiosk and a Mobile Enterprise Learning Lab at the event, so we’ve had an opportunity to interface with a lot of interesting companies that are looking at mobility in a variety of different ways.  We’ve been showcase AMPchroma in our Learning Lab (the only lab or demo environment at the whole show) and the place has been packed!  Some of our smartest sales engineers have been demonstrating our AMP Builder product for designing and building mobile applications, as well as the AMP Management Center for publishing and managing applications.  As you can see from the pictures below, we’ve been presenting to a packed house and there’s been lots of excitement around AMPchroma here at the show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition, the show itself has some really interesting tracks and sessions, which CTO Dan Zeck has been attending (check back on Mobile Masters for more on his thoughts on some of those!), and building the mobile enterprise and mobile apps are two of the main focus areas for the conference. There are a slew of different industries represented here, including financial services, entertainment, government, and manufacturing.

Earlier this week we also announced some developer specific enhancements to our AMPchroma platform which we’ve spent some time discussing with folks at the show as well.  The enhancements, including an integrated testing tool, online/offline synchronization and ability to design custom code and share it with other developers have been positively received.

Stay tuned for more from the show and some thoughts from Antenna executives on the sessions, attendees and overall vibe here in San Diego!

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Could a mobile ticketing site have helped LOCOG’s ticketing woes?

by admin on August 6, 2012 in The Mobile Beat with No comments

By Clare Grant

OK, I’ll admit it. The hype has finally got to me. I’m one of those people chained to my laptop desperately trying to get my hands on some of the last minute Olympic tickets. But unfortunately I can’t spend the whole day glued to a screen. Meetings, the daily commute and other commitments are all getting in the way, which wouldn’t be a problem if there was a mobile website I could regularly track to see which tickets are available. But unfortunately, there isn’t. Not for tickets, anyway.

Here's what the ticket site looks like - clearly not built with mobile in mind.

While LOCOG has done a great job at promoting the importance of mobile – from the Opening Ceremony to apps that keep you updated on Olympic related news and medal counts – it seems to have missed a trick by not providing a dedicated mobile ticketing presence. What surprises me even more is the fact that LOCOG has clearly been thinking ‘mobile’ by developing a mobile optimized version of London2012.com. But when you click ‘ticket’ you’re taken through to tickets.london2012.com which looks exactly as it does on a PC (and for anyone who has tried ordering tickets, you’ll agree it’s not the most intuitive of processes, full of check boxes and complexities which are very difficult to navigate on a small screen!)

There’s no denying that even on fast 3G networks, the process is slow. And we all know that even a tenth of a second can make a difference when trying to purchase tickets for some of the most sought-after sporting events. This puts anyone trying to get tickets from their phone at a significant disadvantage, which seems to be a huge oversight to me. After all, a lot of people who are in a position to attend some of the last minute events may already be wandering around the Olympic Park when tickets become available.

Personal frustrations aside, from a business perspective it just doesn’t make sense to me to not have a fully comprehensive mobile strategy in place. So with public frustration mounting following empty seats and unsold tickets, I wonder whether having a mobile ticketing presence could have helped LOCOG avoid some of its ticketing woes, giving more people the opportunity to attend, regardless of whether they are trying to get tickets from a laptop, PC, smartphone, tablet or old mobile device?

Nevertheless, if you are out and about and are keen to keep up to date on Olympic news from your phone, do check out the BBC Sport mobile website. It’s fully optimized and provides great updates on the latest news, team GB updates and even has a handy medals table at the bottom. I’m also impressed by Olympic travel sites like www.getaheadofthegames.com which have been optimised for mobile, giving you the essential updates when you need them most.

In this day and age, let’s hope that future big events like this do give consumers the opportunity to easily get tickets from their phone. After all, smartphones sales are overtaking PCs and research suggests that more people now have internet capable phones than computers anyway.

 

Clare Grant served as Antenna’s VP of Marketing and Communications and noted Mobile Masters blogger. 

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Antenna Cares Update – Chalk Fest 2012

by admin on July 31, 2012 in Antenna Blogs, Antenna News with No comments

Giving back to the community is something that’s near and dear to our hearts here at Antenna.  One of the local organizations we’ve supported for years is the York Street Project, which helps women and children in need.  Each year one of our favorite activities the YSP puts on is Chalk Fest, where young kids and their parents from the Jersey City-area gather to draw chalk murals at Exchange Place. Not only does it support a great cause, but it’s a lot of fun, too.

Chalk Fest this year took place this past Friday, after getting rained out the day before, and it was a beautiful day!  We headed down to Exchange Place, set up our Antenna Software mural spot, and got right to work interacting with the kids and their parents while they drew, enjoyed games, a DJ, and food vendors.

Check out some of the great pictures from the event below. Companies can give back in so many ways, and we consider ourselves lucky that many of the Antenna Cares events are as much fun as this!

A beautiful day in Jersey City for Chalk Fest 2012

Inside Sales Rep, Sean Lydon, tries his best to chat up this new prospect, but she seems more interested in drawing than talking about mobility.

From start to finish, Chalk Fest 2012 was a blast!

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Guest Post: Peering Ahead – Mobile Trends and Cloud Adoption

by admin on July 25, 2012 in Guest Blogger with No comments

By Colin Knudsen  

As we know, the penetration and use of mobile devices has absolutely exploded.  In the U.S. alone there are approximately 320 million mobile subscriptions representing a penetration rate of approximately 102%.

Mobile devices are increasingly smart and powerful computers. This era of mobile computing is driving one of the largest shifts in consumer behavior in the last half century and this shift is occurring at a much faster pace than internet access and PC adoption.  In fact, the number of smartphones activated in the five years after the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 is two times the increase in the number of internet users after its first five years. According to Nielsen, smartphones now represent 55% of the U.S. handheld device market and growing rapidly. The adoption of tablets is even more impressive.  The Online Publishers Association just released a study citing 74 million tablet users in the U.S. after only two years, significantly outpacing smartphones which took seven years to reach the same level of adoption.

So the adoption and proliferation of affordable and powerful consumer devices is occurring at unprecedented rates.  The chart below shows the ownership penetration of consumer “gadgets” in the U.S. since 2006. At the beginning of 2102, 88% of American adults own a mobile phone, 57% have a laptop, 19% own an e-book reader, and 19% own a tablet while 13% of U.S. adults own a laptop, smartphone and tablet. Approximately six in 10 adults (63%) go online wirelessly with one of those devices.

Cisco estimates that by 2015 nearly 70% of internet users will use more than five network-connected devices, up from 44% at the end of 2011. The continued proliferation of new mobile devices and form factors, increases in computing power, longer battery life, improved screen resolution, and other quality enhancements, will drive mobile device penetration and usage, expectations and behavior.  Consumers already expect access to their content, applications and subscriptions anytime, from anywhere, over any device and from any network.  As both fixed and mobile devices and multiple device ownership proliferates consumer expectations for ubiquitous access to content will escalate.

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