Rococo

We're users of the Zyb platform/service here at Rococo, and so we were tickled to see it make an acquisition which brought some Bluetooth location-awareness into the fold. Zyb has bought Imity, for an undisclosed amount. The key driver seems to have been to stitch the location-based awareness (aka Pocket Radar) that Imity had implemented in to the Zyb offering.

This usage scenario for Bluetooth (where Bluetooth's location-ness is connected to one or more social networks to tell you something about other people nearby) is now becoming very common, and I'd expect to see it as a standard element of any decent mobile social networking offering within 6-12 months. Imity also brings some very cool crowd-sensing stuff to the party (see their blog for examples).

Good news - we look forward to trying out the newly integrated service when it's been "Zyb'd" and wish everyone involved all the best.

Posted by Sean at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As discussed last year - mobile marketing with Bluetooth really seems to work, and the stats in terms on user-engagement, when it's implemented responsibly to the "right" target audience, are off the scale.

- Marketing targeted at men in clothes stores in India. Get them to play games while they shop. As they play and win, they get discounts.
- Football clubs using Bluetooth to market to fans in the UK. Free content and downloads for fans at the games. From BluePod Media.
- And another from the UK, posters that are "active". Particularly interesting as it's a local authority behind this (as opposed to a mega brand or marketing company).

Bluetooth is inherently local. As I have mentioned before here, there are some good angles to use Bluetooth to promote contextually relevant offers and information. By definition, when you connect to a Bluetooth service, to some extent, that service "knows" where you are ("in train station", "in football stadium", "in store") and can impute some things about what you're doing, or what you might be interested in. The benefits for marketing and promotions are obvious. Watch for Google to add some sizzle in this area as they get Android handsets out to market.

Posted by Sean at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nice summary list of the remaining Java Virtual Machine Companies in the market over at Mutant's Musings.

I make that 8 VM vendors (excluding Sun, and the ones that have folded). Still indicates (at a crude, high level), that there's a business in JVMs - especially for mobile/consumer products. I think Esmertec and Aplix are the leading lights here, revenue-and-market-share-wise, unless anyone can tell me better?

Posted by Sean at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Some more coverage on new Proximity marketing solutions rolling out in the UK this year. Interesting to see how these work out. Anecdotally, most people I've talked to who've experienced these kinds of things as pure "end users", have actually quite liked them!

Posted by Sean at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You may have heard about Wireless USB. If so - it can be tricky to figure out where it sits with regard to Bluetooth, Ultra Wideband (aka UWB) and other short range wireless technologies. The people behind Incisor Magazine, who are now increasingly doing short videos about wireless technologies, have a pretty good, up to date set of video discussions around Wireless USB.

Posted by Sean at 02:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There were many cool things on show at CTIA this week in New Orleans - but few gathered a crowd like the Samsung Fountain - a two story, computer controlled fountain that "writes" with water in a fashion similar to a dot matrix printer. Like me, many people wandered past it at first paying it no attention, assuming it was some usual light-projection affair. But something niggling brings them back to take a closer look. Did I hear water? Is that a fountain? How do they DO that?

Phone Scoop has a nice video of it here.

Posted by Sean at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good list of performance of mobile phones here ...quite a mix of results, even among the same brand names.

Posted by Sean at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently, tinsel is the enemy of WiFi - you have been warned!

Posted by Sean at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Slashdot recently posted a review of Wi-Fi Toys, a new book by Mike Outmesguine (one of the bloggers behind the excellent Wireless Weblog):

Overall the book reads great, even if you're not serious about doing some projects, it's still fun to follow photographs and see what Mike and the contributors have done in terms of wireless projects. Each chapter is presented as a single project, so with the exception of terminology knowledge there's no preceding knowledge that needs to be there, so one could theoretically start with a digital picture frame that hangs on the wall, downloading the pictures via the wireless link and playing occasional videos.

Seems like a pretty decent read, and Mr. Outmesguine has plenty of cred from his weblog.

Posted by Sean at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It strikes me that the "Mobile Solutions" industry is still underestimating the importance, and complexity, of successfully integrating handheld devices with existing "back-end" ERP systems. These systems range from tailored SAP or Siebel deployments, through ERP systems specific to an industry vertical, all the way to home-grown, evolved solutions used by individual companies. The goal of of a Mobile Solution is to put the power of these "back-end" systems in the hands of the mobile workers. But how?

Here are some things to consider when choosing a Mobile Solution...

Integrate, don't Aggregate. Many off-the-shelf Mobile Solutions mandate an architecture that may not suit your business or your IT systems. Why deploy Yet-Another-IT-System that wants to own your customer data / finance data / field service data etc.?

Design for Occasionally Connected clients. GPRS is not always on. Wireless networks are not always available. That's just how it is! Make sure your handheld application knows this and doesn't stop your mobile workers from doing their job when and where they need to. A web client connecting over wireless is usually not suitable.

Emphasise Data Integrity. Remember that your ERP system encapsulates the rules of how your business data behaves and changes over time. Some of this behaviour may be subtle and even undocumented in your organisation. Providing access to the ERP system via mobile devices must not lead to the business logic being bypassed for the expedient of a fast mobile solution.

Protect your Investment. IT Systems change with requirements. Don't choose the mobile solution that's provided as an add-on to your ERP system because (i) it locks you in and limits your choices and (ii) it may have been written by people that don't understand the complexities of mobile solutions.

Posted by Sean at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems there's a possible new gap in the handset market: phones with *less* features, not more!

Comments from Asian telecom executives at the 3G show in Asia this week echoes several conversations I heard at two different Wireless shows in London last week - the major handset manufacturers are missing a new emerging market gap: simple, effective, dumb phones. No cameras. No Java. Lightweight. Slim. Mildly stylish.

With the prevailing trend being to cram new bells, whistles and kitchen sinks into new phone models, it seems there's an emerging desire among users (especially business users) for basic, affordable, practical phones that fulfil the primary phone function - letting you talk (and maybe, text). The panel session I was on in London bemoaned the departure of the Classic Business Nokia (such as the 6310).

Sounds like an ideal market gap for the ODMs to chase.

Posted by Sean at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BAE announced wireless wallpaper today. See here for details. An interesting tack to take - limiting the "leakage" from wireless networks so organisations can control it, while most of the industry is focused on more power, more range, more bandwith.

A few months ago, one of the cinemas in Dublin got intro trouble when it tried out some technology that blocked phone calls in the cinema during a screening. It turns out that this is illegal - you can't just jam the frequency allocated for ther GSM networks. However, the spectrum that most Wifi gear lives in is free for all - microwaves, Bluetooth and 802.11b and g. I think we'll see more products designed to either limit the reach of Wifi networks, or jam them entirely.

Posted by Sean at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sony announced this week that it will stop selling new versions of the Clie PDA outside of its Japanese home market, where it has over 50% market share. This spells further trouble for PalmSource, from whom Sony licenses the PalmOS operating system for the devices, and in whom Sony has a 10% stake that it purchased a few years ago. PalmSource seems to be getting battered from all sides these days. Both Microsoft (with Windows Mobile) and IBM (with Linux on Zaurus) is putting a severe hurt on it in the mobile enterprise arena. Meanwhile, Nokia and Sony Ericsson are enticing traditional "professional" PDA users to their Symbian based SmartPhones. And phones in general are betting better at basic calendar, contacts, and "to do" functionality that used to be the PalmOS sweet spot.

Indeed, unless something dramatic happens for PalmSource in the next year or so, it's hard to see where the growth is going to be for the company.

As for the Clie's - they were interesting PDAs, and we had a soft spot for them. Sony's focus was always on the multimedia and gaming potential of the handhelds, which is why they were the first to ship with stereo headphones and built-in MP3 software, and the first with integrated cameras for both still and video imaging. We used them for demo'ing our Java/Bluetooth software, as they were always the coolest looking PDA around, obviously benefitting from Sony's consumer styling pedigree. Their wireless support for Bluetooth and 802.11 was also excellent.

However, outside their home market, their sales were disappointing, and indeed, sales of all PalmOS PDAs continue to struggle.

Posted by Sean at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A set of Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) APIs tailored for PDA devices have been a _long_ time coming. The standardisation process seems to have been fraught with setbacks and politics. The need for these APIs has long existed - it didn't make sense to have the same restricted Java features available on a PDA as were available on a mobile phone. However, time has moved on and the new generation of smartphones has brought mobile phone capabilities almost in line with PDAs. So, either the new Java PDA APIs are timely and will have appeal beyond PDAs, or they're too late because PDAs are on the decline. You choose!

You can download the new spec from here - it's structured as J2ME Optional Packages - one for file access and one for Personal Information Management

Posted by Sean at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With all the hype of 3G most people have heard about GPRS. Without delving into the world of GSM and telecoms - GPRS is just another transport. As far as the Application Programmer is concerned, once a GRPS connection is in place a mobile device is in effect connected to the net, it has an IP address and can open and accept socket connections. Obviously the same restrictions related to firewalls apply equally to mobile devices as they do to desktop clients. Another restriction which may apply is the Access Point Node or APN. An APN is the GPRS equivalent of a firewall or proxy which can limit or restrict the type of traffic that can be sent over a GPRS channel.

Most network operators also have an "open" APN which allows unrestricted traffic. Another feature of GPRS which can be problematic is the fact that mobile devices normally get a dynamically assigned IP address (i.e. DHCP). While this may be efficient for the network operator it can play havoc for Application Programmers as it may be impossible to accurately determine the mobile device's IP address. Due to the possibility of losing signal within GSM networks, there is the added headache that the IP address can also change unexpectedly. As long as the mobile device initiate connections (and reconnections) this should not cause problems however.

Finally some network operators often favour voice channels over data channels so be warned that you may have problems getting a GPRS connection in heavily loaded cells in the first place.

Posted by Sean at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In recent years the client side has been undergoing a second revolution. The technology front has been pushed further back into client territory. The mobile workforce, using small handheld mobile devices is for the first time interacting dynamically with backend systems, the effect of which is that there is little or no data latency and as a result data is always current and up to date.

The implications of this may seem minor, but the potential rate at which business can be conducted can no doubt increase several fold, reducing turnaround times and as a result improving the efficiency of a business e.g. orders taken on mobile devices can potentially be filled within minutes of the order actually been placed. Orders can be shipped and invoices printed even before the sales representative has actually left the building!

What is the cost of operating on stale or inconsistent data ? The right hand may not know what the left hand is doing. If information being gathered in the field is immediately available throughout an organisation, the implications should be profound in terms of organisational efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Posted by Sean at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've been doing a number of presentations over the last few months under the heading above. I thought it might be a good regular theme to report on the top DO's and DON'ts that we come across as we build mobile and wireless solutions. So here's one to kick us off.

The "soft stuff" will kill ya.

It's common when thinking about designing a new mobility solution to focus on the technology - what techies typically percieve as being both the "cool" stuff, and the hard stuff: GPRS, data rates, XML-RPC, device operating systems, synchronisation strategies, on-device security. It's often easy to forget that on any given project, it's probably the "soft" stuff will cause the most trouble.

Continue reading "The DO's and DON'Ts of mobile solutions" »

Posted by Sean at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)