82% of Teens Watch TV Online. 48% Watch TV on Cell Phones.

On February 24, 2010, In New, By Tac Anderson

Teenagers watch TV online. No big shocker right? According to a Horrowitz Associates recent study, almost all teens watch TV online at least once a month. Half watch TV on their phones monthly. This study purposely excludes online only content.

Their parents and older siblings are much further behind. Almost half watch some news and sports (probably clips) online but very few watch any TV content on their phones.

The press release doesn’t share too much additional research and the report cost $8,500 but this is obviously a growing trend that’s only going to get even much, much bigger.

Social Media and Mobile Growth are Exponentially Symbiotic
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Geeks Tolerate Apple Hypocrisy Until They Mess with Porn

On February 24, 2010, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

I’ve posted  several times about Apple’s continued hypocrisy and my love/hate relationship with their products. Like most people, I love their design and I’m glad they’re pushing the industry but I have always hated their closed culture and hyper controlling attitude.

Full disclosure I used to work at HP (who is now a client). Microsoft, T-Mobile (who sells Google’s Android phones) and HTC are all clients. But my wary feelings towards Apple have been around long before I worked in tech. I’ll take choice and glitches over design and limitations.

MG Seigler, TechCrunch’s editor and self proclaimed Apple fanboi, has a post about Apple’s latest move to block porn from the app store. I think this is a fascinating move by Apple. My personal stance on morality is that first I believe everyone has their own free agency to do as they see fit and it’s not my business. Second I personally dislike anything that’s addicting. This goes for drugs, alcohol and pornography. (Yes porn’s addicting). So while I want to applaud Apple for this move, it’s not any type of moral victory, as MG points out.

Problem number one is that while Apple is removing most of these sexy apps from the App Store, it’s not removing all of them. So who gets to stay? Big publishers like Sports Illustrated and Playboy. In fact, not only is Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit 2010 app not being removed, it’s being featured in the App Store. Both it and the Playboy app clearly violate the new rules of the more prudish App Store, yet they get to stay.

The TechCrunch post has well over 100 comments as I write this and is trending on many news aggregation sites. Apple has struck a nerve. Now anyone who has studied technology adoption understands tech’s dirty little secret: Porn

VHS, BluRay, broadband adoption (what pictures and videos do you think people so desperately wanted to look at in the late 90’s), and search can all thank their success, in very large part, to the porn industry. That’s why Apple’s stance against porn seemed so interesting.

Google and Android have no such qualms about porn and several commenters to the opportunity to proclaim their “love” for Android. I also have to doubt Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace will follow Apple’s lead here. It is still in it’s infancy and won’t really see it’s potential until Windows Phone 7 comes out and Microsoft typically takes a hands off approach to content and partner development.

Ultimately I have to think this is a move towards Apple to placate publishers. As MG points out Apple hasn’t removed Apps with similar types of content from Sports Illustrated and Playboy.  Again from TechCrunch we see a hint at the future in Apple’s response?

As Apple VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller explained earlier to the New York Times, it’s because they’re well-known companies known for that content. Yet, he also cited women being upset about feeling degraded and parents being upset about kids having access to sexy apps as the main reason Apple is cracking down on them. The omission of the fact that parents probably also don’t want their kids downloading the Playboy app, or that some women might also find the Swimsuit app degrading is laughable.

I imagine that Apple users will get their porn, especially with the iPad coming out. It’s just going to come from established (and struggling) publishers.I just wonder how much longer developers and users will put up with Apple?

[UPDATE] Yep, thought so:  New “Explicit” Category in App Store Could Herald Return of Sexy Apps

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You Can’t Hide From the Web

On February 24, 2010, In New, By Tac Anderson

I know my friend Brian Sollom, is nodding his head and Mike “foleymo” Foley has probably already signed up. The Next Web is reporting about a new app that allows you to take a picture of someone and pull up all of their recent social activity. It’s not hard to let your imagination go from there.

Stalk a Stranger. Point Your Phone At Their Face.

Recognizr works when the user points the camera at another person. Inbuilt face recognition software maps a 3D model of the subject and transmits the information to a remote server where it is matched with an identity already present in the database. This information is then sent back to the handset along with any relevant social networking information associated to that person, conveniently displayed above the persons head using little social icons.

The service is opt in only (right now) but face recognition technology exists from companies like HP and Microsoft. There are even free versions out there. It’s only a matter of time before this capability is available without having to opt in.

This will scare the crap out of a large number of people. I understand but there’s no turning back.You can either try, unsuccessfully, to hide from it or you can take control of it and manage it.

Here are my 3 big takeaways for you:

  1. There are no back channels. Do not say anything on the Web you wouldn’t want everyone and anyone to see.
  2. Understand how to use the tools. Facebook and Google don’t make it easy to control your privacy (it’s in there best interest when more data is public) but understand how to use the privacy settings and use them as you see appropriate.
  3. There is no difference between online, offline and mobile realities.

I’ve long claimed that ther is no difference between online and offline. Augmented reality apps are another example of this.

As marketers we need to quit talking about online vs offline vs mobile. The form factor and user interface may be different but all three coexist and we need to be thinking about and using all three. We also need to act responsibly with customers best interest in mind.

Don’t sacrifice customer privacy and comfort for monetary gain. There is a backlash coming, it won’t be pretty and you don’t want to be on the wrong side of that fire storm.

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More Mobile Social Proof Points

On February 18, 2010, In New, By Tac Anderson
My Cyber Social Map
Image by frankdasilva via Flickr

Following yesterday’s post “Social Media and Mobile Growth are Exponentially Symbiotic” I wanted to post 2 quick links that emphasize the relationship between mobile and social.

Rohit has a good post detailing a milestone of sorts in mobile’s maturity.

Influential Marketing Blog: 5 Terms That Signify The Future Of Mobile Marketing

It’s hard to predict, but I can say that this year does represent a unique moment where all the different aspects of mobile marketing that have long been preached by believers as signifying a cultural shift that matters to marketers are coming together.

The Shortcode
LBS (Location Based Services)
APP(lications)
AR (Augmented Reality)
DMPs (Direct MobilePayments)

ReadWriteWeb reports on a recent study showing that mobile social networking is now more popular than desktop social networking.

Social Networking Now More Popular on Mobile than Desktop

During the 2.7 hours per day that people in the U.S. spending on the mobile web, 45% are posting comments on social networking sites, 43% are connecting with friends on social networking sites, 40% are sharing content with others and 38% are sharing photos. While those last two figures represent activities that can take place outside of a dedicated social networking service, like a Facebook app for example, they still are inherently social activities.

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Marketers are getting a little too excited over location based data

On December 4, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

There’s a lot of buzz around location based services. BrightKite, Google Latitude, Twitter’s new Geo data. But beyond the tech and marketing crowd there hasn’t been much acceptance.

The only service I’ve seen “normal” people get a little excited about is FourSquare but that’s because of the game play (everyone wants to be the mayor of somewhere). I also think that people are starting to get bored with it all (even FourSguare).

The main problem is that there’s no real value for the average user. We don’t really care where all of our friends are. If we want to know, we’ll text them. More than that we don’t really want everyone to know where we are all the time. Releasing your location based data has the highest personal risk for obvious reasons.

What do people really want? Location based search. This is why Yelp has been successful and something that Yahoo’s now dead mobile One Search did a really good job at.

Who really likes location based apps? Marketers. Marketers are going to have to come up with some really valuable reasons for me to care because I don’t care what you promise I know it’s all just going to turn into spam.

In theory it sounds nice to get alerted to deals from companies you like when you’re in the area but we all know that’s a bunch of crap. I don’t need the people behind me in traffic getting one more distraction.

I don’t need “special offers” pushed to me when I’m in the area. I need special offers presented to me when I’m searching for something in the area.

Until something better comes along I’m just not impressed.

BTW here’s the best argument I’ve heard for location based data: Location Is The Missing Link Between Social Networks And The Real World

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The SMB is Mobile, Wireless, Plugged In and Growing

On December 3, 2009, In New, By Tac Anderson
my real office
My Office as a Startup Tac Anderson via Flickr

I love the SMB market. Hell I was the SMB market (that’s a picture of my office). When clients tell me they want to reach the Small and Medium Business segment I start to drool.

Outside of the Consumer marker there is no larger segment than the SMB and I would argue that it’s the most complex.

SMB could mean anything from one guy at a coffee shop doing “consulting” or a stay at home mom running a blog, all the way up to a 800+ person multinational organization with offices around the globe and an internal IT department, like my employer Waggener Edstrom.

When doing some quick research recently I came across some excellent news for anyone in the mobile and wireless space.

Mobile tech is the hottest market and the SMB is the hottest segment.

Having the benefit of working with companies in mobile software, handset manufacturing, a carrier and PC manufacturing, means I have an excuse to play with lots of these gadgets. I’m currently running around with 3 phones a netbook (until I dropped it, but I will be replacing it) and a laptop.

Increasingly small and medium businesses are becoming more sophisticated and are adopting technology faster than their Medium Managed counterparts. This is the segment that is perfectly primed for disruption. The companies that can tap into this segment will do very well. They’ll have to be scrappy and have a killer value proposition but man it’s a fun market.

Included here are some ways to better understand the SMB market.

How to break out the SMB market:

  • 1-10 = Micro
  • 11-100 = Small
  • 101-999= Medium

But to break out small and medium you have to look at what’s called Managed and Un-managed. (How would you feel about your business being called a small un-managed business?)These are really more levels of technical sophistication but are also related somewhat to size.

Managed means you have your own internal IT staff. Un-managed means you outsource (or duct tape) your IT.

Micro Businesses typically buy like consumers. They purchase mostly at retail or online and purchase out of pocket.

Small and Medium Un-managed is a real hodgepodge, they’re not big enough to sell directly to, but is probably the largest total pool of money.

Managed Medium purchases much more like a traditional Enterprise but not at the volumes so typically don’t get the same level of service. Local reps love Managed Medium because with a little love they are very loyal customers the “big guys” can’t easily steal.

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Mobile App Blogging Thanks to Posterous: Regator vs MeeHive vs Byline

On August 19, 2009, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

If you haven’t noticed, I like Posterous. I think they may have single handedly made email relevant for me again. Here’s my Posterous blog. I also like using tools in ways they weren’t meant to be used. That’s the case with this post. Please note that none of these apps were designed for mobile blogging so my review of them is completely irrelevant to the real reason people made them.

The main way I use Posterous is for mobile blogging. If I’m at me desk I’d just as soon use Windows Live Writer with the Zemanta plugin. Most of my mobile blogging is done from Byline. Byline is an amazing app that synchs with Google Reader making my RSS feeds portable. Byline is my secret weapon for reading hundreds of blog posts a day. But Byline has another cool feature: Mail Link to this Page. The mail a link option in many mobile news readers turns them into a mobile blogging app thanks to Posterous.

Last night Louis Gray turned me on to two new apps. Regator and MeeHive.

My problem with Byline is that it’s a little ugly for blogging. Heck it’s even a little ugly for an email. The link it sends is the feed proxy link not the Web URL or permalink.

My typical process is to copy and paste a section of the post, then select the email a link option. This redirects me to the iPhone’s mail program which I have linked to my Gmail account. I then paste the pull quote, edit the message of the email, which is the title of post and usually add a sentence or two of my own thinking.

Bellow is a screen shots of a post I did with Byline. As you can see the link at the end of the article is kind of ugly.

Byline

Byline2

It’s a little dirty but it works. Posterous is even kind enough to convert wordpress.com into a link even though I didn’t send it over than way.

Next are two quick posts done with MeeHive and Regator:

MeeHive

MeeHive1

Regator

Regator2

Regator wins hands down for pretty links. Even if you’re only sending an email and not blogging it seems like a hyperlink would be nicer to get than a raw proxy link. Granted if they view email in plain text then it will separate the link out anyway but it can’t be any worse.

MeeHive did a cool thing though when I highlighted text it inserted that into the email. That was cool.

No real conclusion here, I’ll continue to use whatever app I’m in to do quick blogs but I have to wonder if, as blogging continues to get easier, this is something app builders will need to take into account.

Anyone else out there mobile blog? Any tips or tricks?

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A Twitaholic Gets in a Car Crash

On January 9, 2009, In Comm, By Tac Anderson

What would happen if a Twitaholic got in a car crash?

They would tweet the crash before you even get out to see if everyone is ok.

Their first thought is how to compose the details of the crash in 140.

You take pictures of the crash on your camera phone and upload them to Twitpic.

And of course you know it’s a true twitaholic if they got in the wreck while tweeting.

While I did get in a car crash (back in April of 08), and yes this is an actual photo from the wreck, it was not because of Twitter. I did tweet the crash but not until after we knew everyone was alright. However the irony is that the girl who hit us was texting.

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Using SMS to power the smart homes of the future

On September 1, 2008, In Biz, By Tac Anderson

Most common mobile keypad alphabet layout.Image via Wikipedia I had an epiphany on the way home from running errands. (I’m sure I’m not the only one to think of this but I haven’t heard of any application that works this way.) We picked up a take-n-bake pizza and Jen wished we could warm up the oven remotely.

One of the prohibiting cost, as I understand it, is that you have to build one box to manager all of your home devicices, and then an app to remotely manage that box. A lot of companies are working on how to crack the whole Smart Home thing. Once it’s solved it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a time where I could sink my mobile phone to my house and start my oven with an app on my phone.

Then the thought struck me that it would be easier and more widely adopted to SMS eneble your appliances. Let your phone act as that box and SMS to act as the network.

I could just send an SMS to my oven that recognizes my phone number and a simple command like: “450″. If I get delayed and am not going to make it when I planned a simple, “off” would turn it off or “pause 20m” would pause the oven for 20 minutes.

You could really apply this to any appliance/function in your house.

“DVR ch7 7-8″ would record channel 7 from the next 7:00 to 8:00 am or pm.
“Lights on” would turn on a predetermined set of lights like the main downstairs and outside lights.

I could go on but an open standards like this would do more to drive Smart Home adoption than any proprietary platform and would enable a wider economic base of people access to it.

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