Companies like Google and Wikipedia have taken a strong stance around stopping SOPA with petition movements and site blackouts

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is a bill that was introduced in US House of Representatives in late October last year. The bill seeks to protect copywritten material internationally.  It seeks to do so by going after parties that support sites that distribute copywritten material illegally. In concept this sounds like a great goal: protect US intellectual property (IP)  through third-party enforcement. Said another way, it’s difficult to control sites in other countries many times, but Google and many other significant companies in the US can be controlled.

When thought through there are some problems. The internet boomed because of the freedom it created. This freedom includes everything from horrible YouTube music videos to editorials that are shared the world over instantly. This has changed the nature of news and entertainment fundamentally. Isn’t the issue really that these industries have not kept up?

New digital business models need to be created that work. I’ve worked with several companies that are pioneers in taking on the challenge. Rather than looking at digital content as too portable, they are creating distribution channels that make legal consumption so easy and readily available that a consumer doesn’t look for the PirateBays of the world. iTunes and YouTube have done this well with very different models. There will always be the grainy illegal copies of a movie with peoples heads in them that someone gets to DVD or digital download somewhere. With globalization the only way to really control illegal content distribution is through laws common with other nations and enforcement. Embracing mobile channels puts content directly into a consumers hand in a very personal way.The companies that win in that space will drive the future of the news and entertainment industries.

Depending on the outcome, SOPA could have a major impact on many of us, so it’s certainly something to watch.

The Chinese New Year doesn’t start until January 23rd (technically February 4th), but already in 2012 in the mobility space we are seeing quite a bit of energy and unbridled enthusiasm. Less than two weeks into 2012 we have already seen three acquisitions: one by WalmartLabs buying up Small Society, another was Deloitte scooping up Ubermind, and the third was Financial Times acquiring Assanka. These are small acquisitions by multinational companies, so it’s not exactly “throwing all caution to the wind,” but the common thread is that companies are clearly showing enthusiasm for mobility and looking for talent.

Let’s face it, mobile technology has come a long way in just a few years, but the technology itself — in terms of the mobile OSes and browsers — will probably not change all that much over the next 3-5 years (have you seen all the “new” gadgets announced at CES 2012?). Sure there will be more devices and cooler features, but the basics of mobility are set in a pretty firm place. An iPhone 10 will probably have a traceable lineage to iPhone 4S, rather than the difference between the original Moto Razr and the new Moto Droid Razr. That’s why in 2012, businesses, agencies, SI’s and ISV’s will make a big push to get the talent they need to build out their mobile strategy to both compete and differentiate.

Up until recently, mobile development required specialists with knowledge of native languages. But with web technologies (HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript) playing a more prominent role on more mobile devices, mobility is now open to a wider playing field of web developers. Plus, with companies having dabbled in their first generation of mobile apps or web, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal and accelerate their mobile presence beyond apps.

Let’s unleash the mobility Dragon!

Mention innovation and most people will immediately think of high-tech companies. In today’s mobile environment I’m sure many immediately think of Apple; it’s so common its almost cliche’. I would argue that all successful companies in all industries innovate in some fashion in order to survive.

Most businesses have been innovative at some point in their existence… Most industries do not allow companies to survive in perpetuity by following status quo. I’m sure someone will point out examples which refute this point, but I would say those are few and far between.

Think of your own organization. Are you interacting with your customers and prospects in the same manner as you did 2 or 3 years ago? I would guess not, and if you are I would assume you have customers,prospective customers and employees asking why.

The funny thing about expectations is that they rarely go down. Your customers are always expecting more. They want to work with companies that are innovating, always striving to better themselves.

For example, consider Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately-held commercial real estate services firm; operating 235 offices in 60 countries with more than 14,000 employees Cushman thrives in highly competitive real estate markets such as New York City, London & Tokyo. Their customers have high expectations and little patience for dealing with poorly equipped brokers.

As a leader in their space, Cushman is always striving to better its approach, improve service and differentiate its customer experience. The company’s cross-functional team quickly identified mobility as a key component to their strategies.

Cushman engaged Antenna Software and AT&T to brainstorm a comprehensive mobility strategy for changing the way its brokers interact with customers at the most crucial points of the selling cycle, including on-site tours of commercial properties. 

The result is CWMobile, a mobile application which provides the brokers direct access to in house proprietary systems. The app enables brokers to share various data, images and video with the prospective tenant while they tour various properties. This could be on any Cushman issued or personal device that the broker may choose – iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.

The end result is a greatly improved customer experience, brokers who are more knowledgable about the properties they present and what should culminate in faster closing of sales.

Think about what Cushman has done and then ask yourself: What can my company be doing to rethink customer interactions?

To learn more about the CWMobile Project, check it out on YouTube:

I wanted to bring that discussion onto this forum because I think she raises a very interesting point: while much has been said of the value of mobile websites and apps for consumer-centric businesses, the majority of B2B companies are not capitalizing on the web opportunities that mobile also offers them.

After all, the rapid adoption of smartphones coupled with a rise in remote working means that more and more people are searching for information from their phones. And if research conducted by Google/Forbes earlier this year is anything to go by, 59% of business executives would rather make a business-related purchase over the mobile web than by phone, 65% are comfortable making a business-related purchase on a mobile device and crucially, 44% expect a smartphone or a tablet to be their primary device for business by 2013.

From a business marketing perspective, having a mobile website means that not only could potential customers use their mobile devices to investigate (and eventually make) purchases, but investors could look up company information and job seekers could search for new positions. It sounds obvious, but 70% of businesses still don’t have a mobile website!

The business case for mobile is clear. But smart B2B marketers looking to really benefit from mobile need to understand it’s not just a matter of porting over your traditional website to fit the small screen. Those businesses that will really take advantage of mobile are those that use everything the platform has to offer – from ‘click-to-call’ functionality to GPS.

Clare’s article delves into these issues in more depth and looks at why we are seeing this shift in the way people are doing business. To find out more, check out the original piece here or look out for another article coming out in the New Year on top tips for developing a mobile website.

Who am I kidding? You’re not going to turn it off! So since you won’t, I thought I’d  put together a rundown of some of the best (and most frivolous) Christmas apps that you can use this holiday season. Enjoy!

Santa GPS 2.0 

Santa’s obviously a fan of Google Latitude – he’s taken the concept to new heights with this app which lets you track his progress across the globe on Christmas Eve. If the screenshots are anything to go by, it’s pretty well put together too. One for the kids and that pedantic scientist who worked out that the poor chap has to visit 1,398 homes a second if he’s going to complete his rounds in time.

Turkey Timer

Cooking the turkey. You’ve been dreading doing it again since Thanksgiving was over. Needlessly, as it turns out – because this app makes it as simple as ordering it pre-cooked from your grandmother. Enter the weight of the bird and it tells you how long you need to cook it for. Looks sleek too. Get it here.

Talking Santa

An app which makes you grateful for the human race. At least 80,000 of us have downloaded this gem for the purposes of hearing Santa Clause repeat whatever we say in an authentically bass-y manner. You can also throw snowballs at the big man and create and share 3D video animation greetings and Christmas cards. Probably available cross-platform (but I couldn’t be bothered to search for it on iTunes).

Christmas Countdown 2011

Advent calendars are great, aren’t they? Not just the counting-down part, the eating-the-chocolate-part too. So why wouldn’t you want a version for your phone which dispenses…music and an image of a Christmas Tree which gets bigger with every passing day (presumably it eventually consumers your phone and swallows the world, too). Still, it made us smile.

Doodle Jump Christmas Tie-in Version (bandwagon not included)

One of the most popular apps of all time has been given an opportunistic re-skin. Cha-ching! Link here.

Merry Christmas!

• Mobile commerce and m-payments represent a hot but fragmented space, with a slew of the new tech innovations for these areas being incorporated into mobile devices. NFC chips are part of it, but further down the road we can expect to see Micro-SD proximity solutions, which are being trialed in devices now, as well as enhanced bump capabilities and new kinds of bar code scanning and shopping solutions. Mobile wallets will also be continuing to make a big show as companies across the spectrum – including Google, Apple, banks, credit card companies and even carriers – try to figure out how they will solve the problem best and create new revenue streams from innovative payment services.  

• Sensors and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication are also growing rapidly and a killer application we expect to see here will be mobile point-of-sale.  M2M capabilities will be increasingly incorporated into devices as they follow the standard evolution of new technologies – starting as peripherals and now starting to be incorporated directly into the hardware of mobile devices.  Sensors will be used for some interesting security functionality as well, making it easier to lock down phones in the event they are lost or compromised.  Think biometrics with finger swipe technology and voice recognition that can be used to lock and unlock a device and device-resident data.

• Speech recognition has piqued consumer interest with the release of Siri in the iPhone 4S.  We can expect to see speech recognition and virtual assistants being used in many mobile apps and integrated with mobile search for powerful mobile web and application capabilities. The technology has already come a long way in overcoming challenges of dialects, accents, and speaking styles, and will continue to be a growth area and drive mobile adoption.

• Many companies have a mobile strategy and many more realize they need one.  However, as the demand for mobile content shows no sign of slowing down, many organizations have missed one key aspect in their mobile strategy — mobile content distribution. The challenge many businesses will face is how to get content AND apps to customers AND employees on a myriad of devices, something beyond the capabilities of many traditional CMS’. The importance of mobile search and the growth of mobile web are changing how people interact with brands and shifting their content expectations, which in turn are changing the way businesses must solve this problem.  Mobile content hubs, with capabilities beyond a traditional CMS, will provide a single channel for making content available and help make distribution strategies a reality.  Furthermore, content distribution should take user information and context into account to tune content to the user at the right time and place to have optimal impact.  Certainly consumer and customer opt-in programs can enrich this user experience.  Both classes of users – those that have registered for specialized content and those that have not need to be considered in a comprehensive mobile strategy.

• Enterprise social will also make a major showing in 2012. The recent successful IPO of Jive, and market movement by other enterprise social companies like Yammer and Spigit will continue to drum up interest in these segments, and you can expect that some of the big players will start making acquisitions in this space to compete and gain market share. As companies strive to help employees collaborate better internally offerings in this space will improve and start to gain significant traction.

On the food predictions, Richard Blais did win Top Chef All-Stars (pretty easily I thought) and Korean food was “killin’ it” on the Great Food Truck Race show on Food Network (until they were accused of cheating and got kicked off), but David Chang alas did not enter the Next Iron Chef competition (he’s probably spending too much time counting his money).

On the mobile predictions, it was more of  mixed bag. Microsoft did not buy Nokia but Nokia did go “all in” on Windows Phone 7 – success still TBD. My Playbook prediction was DOA, but my HP webOS prognostication was spot on. My HTML5 prediction was pure clairvoyance (it’s everywhere now – even Adobe has relented); mobile malware is certainly on the rise (especially for Android); NFC is still in early days; and finally Angry Birds didn’t quite make it to a billion dollars for apps, but have you seen all the licensed merchandise people are buying?!

So what’s in line for 2012? I’ll make it a shorter list of five predictions and keep it to mobile topics.

1. RIM’s BB 10 will underwhelm. It’s not about the hardware or the software any more. It’s about the ecosystem. And RIM just doesn’t have the developers, content and apps to compete any more. Their BES paradigm seems antiquated (did you hear about the outage?)and their value prop is just not relevant in 2012.

2. Facebook phone (if all the rumors are true) will be a dud. Facebook is useful and even fun for many people, but do you really want it to be your phone provider? Carrier IQ has gotten so much backlash, what will Facebook face in terms of the stuff they are capturing from your Facebook phone? Just say no.

Facebook phone won't socialize...

 

But Amazon phone could be a success

3. Amazon phone (again if the rumors are true) will be a success. Why? because the Kindle Fire is selling briskly and Amazon has the ecosystem to sustain a real mobile strategy (see RIM above). They have an app store, they have content, they have commerce and they have the new Steve Jobs in Jeff Bezos.

4. Microsoft will exceed RIM for smartphone and tablet market share. Windows Phone devices and Windows tablets will be embraced mostly by businesses and this will directly cut into RIM’s target market. Microsoft is an aircraft carrier that is slowly turning to get back into the mobility game. HTML5 and time will be its two biggest allies to help it catch up to Android and iOS.

5. Oracle will make their move and start buying mobile vendors to catch up to SAP and Saleforce.com, both of which are betting big on mobile as the new UI for their apps. If 2012 is really the year when mobility breaks through to the big time, you can be sure Larry Ellison won’t want to miss out.

I remember, as a boy, sitting on the floor in my parent’s living room watching the Apollo 11 Lunar Module land on the moon and two astronauts wandering around on the surface of the moon. My grandmother was sitting with us and with a tear in her eye remarked that she had now seen everything. I didn’t realize at the time how profound this experience was for her (after all, I was only 7 years old).

Years later I asked my grandmother what she meant and she explained that she was born when many houses didn’t have electricity, indoor plumbing wasn’t widespread and there was no such thing as a TV. Radio was in its infancy and telephones for homes were unheard of. Horses still pulled the wagons that people used to buy ice from to keep their food cold. Cars were around but rare and highways were non-existent. Now she sat watching a man walk on the surface of the moon some 238,856 miles from Earth. The fact that we put men on the moon AND the common folk were able to watch it on a box in our living room was almost too much for her to comprehend in the span of her lifetime. It was the first time in my life that I experienced a true generation gap.

As 2011 rapidly comes to an end and we hurl forward toward 2012, technology is changing in leaps and bounds. Landing on the moon (or watching it on TV in our living room) seems blasé compared to a Smartphone that we can’t live without (and could now watch the lunar landing live video feed on while away from home). There really isn’t a comparison in my lifetime that I can gauge my grandmother’s awe against. Partly because I have been in the technology space since graduating high school and partly because all these changes have been evolutionary steps on a series of related fronts.

The biggest change I have seen in my time on the blue marble is the convergence of various communications, photography and entertainment capabilities into a single device. These devices are now small enough to be held in your hand and have enough horsepower to do practically anything (and not require a tripod or a trailer full of batteries to support). That alone should inspire awe, but it seems we take it for granted.

I often tell people that I started in the communications industry back when we used to call it two-way radio (people who called it “wireless” back in those days actually knew Marconi), or as I like to call it BC: Before Cellular. When I started playing with cellular technology it seemed like a logical progression of the existing radio systems I was used to. As we transitioned to digital cellular, again, it was a logical progression. Phones that started with the ability to only store ~20 phone numbers (without a name attached) progressed to alpha-numeric phone books and then to caller ID and texting. Now we have the convergence of phone, text, contacts, e-mail, calendars, photo albums and cameras, video capture and view, etc. Where does it end?

I think we are a few years away from “beam me up Scotty” capabilities in a Smartphone but that would probably be an awe-inspiring experience for me that equates to my grandmother’s lunar landing experience. I’m not holding my breath but I’m sure Gink (as my dad and uncles used to call my grandma) never imagined men in spacesuits leaving footprints on the moon so, at this point, I’d be happy to be awe-struck. Wishing you all a happy and prosperous New Year in 2012.

It’s that time of year again, when the leaves have fallen, the air gets crisp and television ads are dominated with toys that every kid will want in their home.  It’s the holidays!  And it’s also the end of the year and a time to reflect on all of the great things that have happened in 2011 and to predict the wonderful things that will come in 2012. This year we’re doing the predictions thing a little bit differently.  We’re going to get thoughts from several different Mobile Masters bloggers and let you vote on whose predictions you think ring the most true, or who just made you laugh out loud.

And I’m the lucky man who gets to go first!

I’ll start by saying, we’re fortunate to be a part of a very exciting wireless industry.  Mobile experienced tremendous growth this past year and we expect even more next year.  Strangely, one of our predictions from last year’s blog-o-tainment was nearly correct.  As predicted, Motorola spun off two units, the mobility arm was purchased, and the RAZR returned to life.  Moto, are you serious?  We were joking when we said we wanted to see the RAZR brought back from the dead.

With no intention of actually repeating last year’s prediction success, here’s a glimpse of some of the possibilities for 2012.  From our family to yours, Happy Holidays!

Top Five 2012 Predictions for the Wireless Industry

#5) iCook – Apple does a major overhaul of iTunes and its focus on content.  The top applications in the store are no longer titles such as “Angry Birds”, “Tetris” and “Bejeweled”.  Under the old Apple, the Jobs mentality was to create an ecosystem of content, employing others to build content for the popular iPhone.  Now, with a Cook at the helm, the application focus does a tremendous shift.  The new popular titles in the store are: “iBaking”, “Grilling Shish-Ka-Pods” and “Cook-ing with Apples”.  Sorry Apple… you did that one to yourself when you hired a CEO with the last name of Cook to manage a company named after a fruit.

#4) DeviceOS – After Steve Ballmer finally recognizes that the majority of his employees at Microsoft are using iPhones, he concedes defeat.  At one of his infamous pep rallies at an employee meeting, he screams the new motto, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” Microsoft approaches Apple and seals a deal to license iOS, under the condition that they rebrand it.  Of course, the typical Microsoft touch is put on the operating system to ensure backwards compatibility with old phone and PC hardware, spending billions of dollars to effectively support the one guy in Halifax, Nova Scotia who wants to run iOS on a 1987 IBM PS/2.  Microsoft’s marketing team changes the “i” in iOS to “D”, for Device.  No one realizes the new acronym until after it ships – DOS.  Oh no!  DOS is back and it runs on a 1987 IBM PC!

#3) China T-Mobile – AT&T’s failed merger with T-Mobile leaves Deutsche Telekom with $4 billion in cash and spectrum, but it lacks a strategy for the future.  After a board meeting in Germany, Deutsche Telekom has the answer.  $4B per year in failed mergers!  The world’s largest carrier, China Mobile, is eager to expand beyond China into the United States.  So, Deutsche Telekom sells off T-Mobile to China Mobile, with another $4B in fees if the merger fails.  Then, secret lobbyists for Deutsche Telekom work their contacts in Congress to veto the transaction, spreading fears of Chinese spying via U.S. telecom networks.  The plan nearly succeeds before China threatens to dump their massive U.S. bond holdings onto the market, sparking widespread inflation fears.  Congress surrenders and allows the transaction to proceed.  China T-Mobile is formed.

#2 – The Gates of RIM – Blackberry’s smartphone market share continues to decline.  RIM acknowledges that its co-CEO arrangement of Balsillie and Lazaridis is not working.  The problem?  They need more CEOs to handle the load.  Two is not enough.  So they add a third CEO, bringing Bill Gates out of retirement.  Gates has spent most of his time on his charitable foundation, but after looking at RIM, he concludes that it fits his charitable requirements – thousands of Canadians are at risk of starvation if RIM collapses.  Gates, now at the helm with two other CEOs, concludes that licensing iOS from Apple is the best direction for RIM.  The problem is that Ballmer has beaten him to Apple and has already licensed iOS.  Gates has to settle for acquiring the Windows Phone assets from Microsoft, who is no longer using it.  Bill Gates is once again in charge of Windows.

#1 – Newt 5 – Newt Gingrich is losing his momentum in the race for the U.S. presidency in 2012.  November is quickly approaching, but his ratings in the polls have taken a hit.  He decides to switch his political platform to HTML 5, believing that it will solve all the world’s problems.  “Newt, how will you fix the economy?” “HTML 5,” is his answer.  “Newt, how will you combat global warming?”  “HMTL5” is his answer, once again.  The Newt 5 strategy fails.  While the strategy might have worked in 2011, HTML5 is so yesteryear of an answer by 2012.  To the dismay of the W3C, all vendors in the mobile industry have already begun work on the new answer to solve the world’s issues – HTML6.  All vendors except one.  The lone exception is Kony Solutions, who is still trying to figure out HTML5.

There isn’t a week that goes by when I don’t have one of many conversations with customers and prospects who are asking what the next platform will be for rugged devices. Many of these same customers express frustration with the lack of available alternatives to the Windows-based handheld devices. Some have gone as far as saying that if there was ANY alternative they would jump ship immediately because they are tired of being held hostage to the Windows Mobile platform.

With the advent of iPhone and Android phones, and the proliferation of apps for these devices, “good enough” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Having a Windows Mobile rugged device that has a dim outlook for future enhancements isn’t new, but it continues to trouble companies that want to future-proof their investments. On the flip side of that coin, product cycles for rugged devices tend to be very long, making it easy for a company to commit to a hardware platform that they know won’t be obsolete before they deploy it. The dilemma comes when companies have no alternative and no solid assurance that the rest of the industry advancements will not be lost on users due to limited OS support.

Contrary to popular belief, there are still situations that require a rugged device and an iPhone with a “sleeve or cover” won’t cut it. Imagine mining, oil and gas exploration, trucking, warehouse or other users trying to do their job in a “hostile environment” with a less-than-durable device. Better yet, what if they need high-volume bar code scanning under any lighting conditions? And don’t get me started about intrinsically safe device requirements for the oil refining and delivery industries. These users groups do exist.

One of the attractions of rugged devices is the simplified support processes they offer a company. I’ve heard hundreds of people say, “For the price of a rugged device I can buy four consumer devices.” The problem is that they don’t actually buy the extra devices and with a consumer product life cycle of only a few months for most phones, you quickly can’t find replacement devices, batteries or accessories and are forced to deploy multiple devices. The iPhone is a bit of an exception to the life cycle woes but it also isn’t exactly cheap or rugged.

Android would seem to be the choice for folks that want to build the next generation of rugged devices. It’s an open standard, multiple manufacturers are building them, there is healthy competition, etc. The problem is that the OS also has a rapid life cycle of evolution making it a moving target. Any device manufacturer considering Android as the alternative to Windows Mobile-based rugged devices will need to address the future proof concerns of the customer prior to pushing their wares. It only makes good sense.

In this day and age of rapid change and ever evolving requirements it seems odd that a device OS that seems to have stalled has become the poster child for long-term stability. How did we get here? And more importantly, how do we get past this point and look to the future?