MobileBizBuzz

March 17, 2009

Blackberry: Rockin’ the Smartphone Market

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , , — Clint @ 8:18 am

Blackberry SmartphoneThe Smartphone market is one of the areas we closely watch as it serves as a bellweather for trends on how businesses are adopting mobility.  Within this market is Nokia, RIM/Blackberry, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices, HTC, Palm and others.  What makes these devices ‘smart’ as compared to a cell phone?  In simple terms they have an operating system that allows applications to be downloaded, a wireless data connection and usually a keyboard that accomodates a lot of typing.

A leading research firm, Gartner, just released its annual report on this market.  Of the 138 million devices sold in 2008, Nokia owns 40% of the market, followed by Blackberry (~20%) and then iPhone (~10%).  Nokia is losing market share, Blackberry is up 84% (quarter over quarter) and iPhone, a new entrant, is up 111%.   What is interesting here is that Blackberry is now a $12Billion company and this growth rate is incredible for a company that size.  Blackberry’s niche is serving the business customer, which are typically email fanatics.  iPhone serves a completely different segment, entertainment driven customers.

My take on this development is that businesses can cost justify a Blackberry as a business tool.  With a new application store called App World, we will likely see this trend continue.

If you would like more detailed information on the subject, Michael Mace’s blog has some very good statitistics and observations.

March 3, 2009

App Store Analysis

Filed under: Mobile Apps,Mobile in SMB — Tags: , , , , , , , — Mike @ 3:37 pm

Global Intelligence Alliance Group has just released an analysis of several app stores for mobile applications.  By this time we are all very familiar with the iPhone App Store, and the fact we are so familiar with it is pretty amazing.  It was launched only eight months ago, but currently boasts over 15,000 applications and surpassed 500 million downloads back in January of this year.  About all you can say is “Wow!”  But since that isn’t very enlightening, I’ll try to provide some observations on app stores in general. 

app-storeFirst of all it’s important to remember that only two app stores actually exist.  These are the iPhone App Store and the Android Marketplace.  All the others you may have heard about like Ovi from Nokia, Skymarket from Microsoft, BlackBerry Apps Storefront, and the webOS Software Store from Palm are all just announcements right now.  That’s right.  You can buy any software you want from an app store as long as your smartphone is an iPhone or the G1 phone.  That’s it.  There are not any other choices right now today.

So why all the noise about what are essentially download sites for only two devices?  Because until the iPhone App Store, if you wanted a mobile application for your smartphone, you had to either go through a carrier storefront (which tend to be limited and difficult to navigate) or hunt around the Internet for software to download from sites that may or may not be legitimate.  So being able to go one trusted place for software for your device is a big deal.  Add to that the fact that one of the devices has sold like no other mobile device before and you see why app stores are getting so much press.

But for all the positive press, and it is certainly well-deserved positive press, there are still some issues that need to be addressed to really free users.  In no particular order some of the biggest issues are:

  1. Searching has to be improved – In some cases even if you know the name of the application it can be difficult to find in the iPhone App Store.  This problem will only get worse as the number of applications grows, and as business applications begin to populate the store.
  2. Many more devices must be supported – With the announcement of several new app stores this problem should improve over time.  I still wonder how useful it will be if you are a small business and have to go to the iPhone App Store for one person, the BlackBerry Apps Storefront for another, and the webOS Software Store for another.  That’s not a very effective way for a small business user to find what they need for their business.  And that brings me to the third point.
  3. Business applications have to be supported – Right now all of the app stores that exist, and the ones that are coming all cater to consumer applications.  There is nothing wrong with providing consumer applications, but who is going to provide applications for small and medium business personnel?  After all, there are over 120,000,000 of them in the US alone.

We are early on in this new world of app stores, and we are off to a great start.  But to really unlock the potential of mobility for business users, the app store landscape will need to change to address these and other issues.

March 2, 2009

WinMo & RIM Hit 50MM in Device Sales

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , — Chris @ 10:44 am

SourceL Tjeerd

At the recent World Mobile Congress, Microsoft rather quietly announced that the company has sold more than 50MM Windows Mobile devices (the operating system) over it’s 10 year lifetime.  RIM also recently announced achieving a 50MM in BlackBerry device sales milestone over the same 10 year timeframe.

In comparison, Apple has sold a total of 17MM iPhone as of January 2009. But to put that in perspective, the milestone was achieved in only two years. Projections for iPhone sales have been trending downward for the past several months, but (depending on the source) could still go as high as 30MM units in 2009.

Can it be possible that the iPhone can reach the same 50MM milestone in less than 3 years? The smartphone market is only now becoming mainstream, and overall sales have been increasing around 40% a year. This opens the field for hundreds of millions of new smartphone sales, from iPhone, WinMo, RIM, Palm, Android, etc., etc.

In fact, the third largest phone maker in the world, LG, which sells about 20x times as many handsets a day as iPhone, has just signed a deal with Microsoft to put Windows Mobile on 50 LG phones over the next 5 years. I have to believe that’s going to have a big boost for WinMo. And whatever you do, don’t forget about the new Pre – now scheduled for a May-June launch.

These sales milestones are impressive, but they will pale in comparison to what the next couple of years brings.

February 26, 2009

No Microsoft Smartphone Coming

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile App Dev,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Chris @ 2:24 pm
2009 Mobile World Congress

Steve Ballmer

After months of speculation and rumors about a new Microsoft smartphone, and months of Microsoft denying said speculation and rumors, Steve Ballmer finally made it clear that Microsoft will not release a smartphone.

Seems like a smart move as I really don’t hear a lot of people clamoring for one. Even so, many analysts and bloggers expected a 2009 release to compete with RIM/BlackBerry and Apple/iPhone.

Apple still has the device to beat and Ballmer seems to be happy to let them keep the current “mojo” in the consumer market. Ballmer’s strategy is to continue to build upon the Windows Mobile (actually now Windows Phones) platform and make it as compatible with as many devices as possible. Though not unique, this strategy is very different from Apple’s and RIM’s, whereby they both have a proprietary device and proprietary operating system. Stirring it up even more, Palm recently announced the Pre as well as a new mobile platform called webOS.

Historically, the proprietary device/OS strategy has worked for many mobile phone providers, but I believe this may be changing. From a business user’s perspective (me), the real value in “smartdevices” comes from the business applications (increasing productivity and reducing costs) that run on it. Highly restrictive access to the OS or having to develop across an endless sea of proprietary platforms makes it difficult for mobile application companies to create solutions that can run on every device. 

I would personally like to see a handful of the best OS platforms be able to run across all the devices – and carrier networks. But I won’t hold my breath just yet.

January 29, 2009

Presidential Smartphones

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile Devices,Mobile in Social — Tags: , , , , , , — Mike @ 8:52 am
Barack Obama - Barack Obama 'to be allowed to continue using BlackBerry in White House'

Photo: AP

I’m sure you’ve all read it, or seen it, or heard it by now. That’s right; President Obama gets to keep his BlackBerry. The latest story I read yesterday is right here. Being in the mobile business, I’ve probably heard this story from more angles than your average bear. But with all the angles I have heard, I think most folks are missing the point. The point isn’t that the president has chosen a BlackBerry (which obviously thrills RIM), nor that they are changing presidential procedures to deal with his mobile addiction, nor that the device will require some “super spy” type of security. The point is that the president can’t do without his smartphone.

In this aspect he really is a reflection of what is going on in our society. Even during a huge economic slowdown (or recession, or depression, or whatever you call it), mobile phones continue to become a part of the very fabric of our lives. In a story yesterday from RCR Wireless news, AT&T said it added 2.1 million new customers in the fourth quarter of last year. Verizon added 1.4 million new customers during the same time frame. That’s 3.5 million new subscribers with those two carriers alone, in 3 months, during the middle of some of the worst economic conditions in a very long time.

My kids reflect this same addiction. About a year ago I was looking at our family mobile phone bill, because of some additional charge that appeared. I’ll have to admit I rarely look it over as long as it is within normal operating parameters, but somebody had gone over on some service. I don’t even recall what the deal was now. Anyway, while I was looking into the detail I noticed my then 16-year-old son had sent about 7500 text messages for the month. My then 15-year-old daughter was not far behind with about 6000. I brought up the rear with about 700. As I recall my daughter said “That’s really weak, Dad.”

So what? What’s the big deal? I’ll tell you what the big deal is: we are changing the way we communicate as a society. First it was the land line telephone, then it was the cell phone, then it was email, then instant messaging, then social networking and text messaging. The point is that our society is increasingly communicating via mobile devices for their personal lives. The teens and 20-somethings of today are immersed in a mobile world. As more of them infiltrate the work force, more of how we communicate in business will change. And we won’t be able to pull out the old lines that we can’t do it that way because it isn’t professional, or it’s not secure, or it doesn’t leave the right type of audit trail. After all, the president is using it now, and to a certain extent that changes everything.

January 26, 2009

Online App Stores are Booming – What it means to Business

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps,Mobile Devices,Mobile in SMB — Tags: , , , , , , — Chris @ 5:37 pm

For those of us that eat and sleep mobile (that’s our job, right?), it’s been interesting to follow how the big industry players are rushing to create online mobile application “stores”. Riding on the coattails of the successful iPhone App Store, Microsoft, Google, RIM and others are all jumping into the ring to compete head-to-head with Apple.

These industry behemoths are launching their online stores so end users/customers can find, buy and download applications and other content for their mobile devices. Plus, it provides a marketing outlet for the growing developer community to showcase and sell their wares. That’s great news for our industry as it shows strong interest and continued growth in mobility. Loosening carrier restrictions and opening platforms means just about anyone can develop, upload and sell a mobile solution to this growing market. Of course, if you’ve been paying attention you know that you’re not likely to find many strategic business applications on these sites.

iBeer ApplicationIt’s one thing to hack out some code utilizing the iPhone’s accelerometer to mimic a pint of beer and upload it to the App Store, but developing and successfully marketing a strategic business application (one that provides clear value and a quick return on investment) requires a different kind of business model. For many small and medium sized developers a great product is enough to build a list of local clients. But extending their product’s reach to the regional or national stage can be overwhelming due to prohibitive marketing and advertising costs, product support and training issues, sales channel complexities, mounting fees, distribution issues and more. Unfortunately, these big online stores don’t help with those issues because they simply aren’t designed to offer any more than just the application.

Since many business application developers struggle to effectively market their apps, potential customers have difficulty finding their products. The major search engines are too broad to be effective and most online sites are consumer-focused or too narrow. So where does Joe the Electrician (just couldn’t bring myself to say ‘plumber’!) go to find a bundled solution for inventory management, vehicle tracking and m-commerce for his business? Well, it’s not the iTunes App Store. Microsoft’s upcoming “Skymarket” store has potential, but only if the software is written for Windows Mobile  (it was going to be for version but maybe now for version 6.5 – which isn’t even out yet??). What about RIM’s new BlackBerry store (once it opens, of course)? Possibly, but Joe may need something more rugged than a shiny new BlackBerry Storm.

It’s obvious that this book is still being written – in fact, I think we’re only looking at chapter 1. And of course, as the next chapters come together, you’ll read about it here.

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