Do you have an idea for a mobile project but don’t have the cash to pull it off? Try crowdfunding. You may have heard of Kickstarter.com, which funds your project if you reach your fundraising goal, BUT you get nada (nothing) if you miss the goal. Enter IndieGoGo.com. IndieGogo awards an extra 5% for projects that reach their financial goals, but doesn’t take the pledged money away if you miss.

Unlike traditional avenues for investment startup capital, Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have no requirements to pay back the money you’ve raised. To entice people to fund projects, applicants offer creative perks in lieu of repayment. If you are in the United States, perhaps you are familiar with PBS (public television) fundraisers where you can choose from a selection of “thank you gifts” for your donation.

But wait, it gets better: MTV is looking for mobile content on their New Media platform. If you have a crowdfunding project on IndieGogo that fits the MTV demographic, you can apply to have the network view your project with a chance to have it added to their programming lineup. Apply here: MTV New Media Platform.

This could be the break your startup needs, so don’t delay. Your mobile startup could be funded this month!

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Hi Friends,

A colleague and friend who recently guest posted on my blog said “You can’t put mobile in a silo.” Mobile is now huge. But, it needs to be part of an overall marketing plan. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

At this stage of the game, most small business people in my circle of influence do not have standard desktop sites that perform properly, nor do they have the understanding of social media to harness it effectively to grow revenue – prerequisites to a mobile presence, in my opinion. I have inadvertently left my friends behind in my race to know all there is to know about mobile. Now, it’s time to help them learn to take the baby steps they need to get to get them up to speed on the basics of internet marketing so they can become known by more people who will become their prospects and customers. As the saying goes, it’s not who you know, it’s who knows YOU. I’m off to help people get known online, either on social media, in the local paper, in the email in boxes of people who need what they have, and whatever it takes to make these small business owners and solopreneurs into stars in their niche.

Therefore, effective today, I will be moving away from mobiEnthusiast.mobi to have more time to devote to this new venture.

Your readership and support has allowed mobiEnthusiast^TM to reach some big wins: Thanks to you, I won the popular vote for Blogger of the Year and was an overall finalist in the InfluenceSD Champions of Social Media Award, three of my sites won the prestigious “Mobi of the Month” Award from the international mobile developer and domain investor forum Mobility.mobi, the site has readers in over 90 countries, a Google PageRank 5, an Alexa rank of 99,714 in the US and 361,974 worldwide, and host of Carnival of the Mobilists twice. I hit the front page of Google almost every time I post, and I am sure I am leaving something out. So, for this, I am grateful, and I thank you very much. These are the things that make moving on so difficult.

If you would like to reach me as a consultant or to do a critique for your blog, social media, desktop website, and yes, mobile strategy, if you’d like to be a star in your niche, or if you would like to hire me to freelance write for your website, you may find me on LinkedIn.

I thank you for your support and readership these last three years. This feels a bit like “So long, and thanks for all the fish.” However, I still own the site, so you may hear from me here from time to time, but for the most part, it’s time to move into the bigger picture.

With Appreciation and Gratitude,
Holly
 
Holly Kolman
Founder, Editor & Publisher
mobiEnthusiast^TM Magazine

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Welcome back to mobiEnthusiast^TM Magazine in sunny Southern California for another exciting edition of Carnival of the Mobilists #225. Carnival of the Mobilists is a roundup of the best and brightest bloggers who write about mobile technologies and news. So, what’s new this week on the mobile web?

Mobile finance takes center stage this week on two of our contributors’ blogs:

• Andy Favell at mobiThinking.com – Mobile money will make the world go round – It’s packed with statistics, as we’ve come to expect from Andy for the mobile marketing professionals.
• Carl Martin of Mobsessed- A Pitch to Financial Institutions: You need to GET mobile

In developer news:

• Volker Hirsch from Volker on Mobile (who has excellent taste in Wordpress themes) asks: “Has Android Got Game?“
• Tam Hanna ofTamsS60 – the Symbian Blog alerts developers to a bug in rendering graphics on particular phones in Sony Ericsson Vivaz distorts bitmap application icons
• Tsahi Levent-Levi of VOIP Survivor writes about the main challenges of integrating mobile video telephony into the Android OS by handset vendors in The 3 Biggest Challenges of Integrating 3G-324M into Android
• Google, Apple and the Internet OS from Andrea Trasatti’s tech notes and more. Andrea doesn’t know I’m including his work, but I find his technical knowledge to be an important piece of the mobile landscape and added him as a write-in entry.

Net neutrality

• Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens takes the bull by the horns (sorry, couldn’t resist) in The holy cow of net neutrality: Should Operators be the only ones feeling guilty about net neutrality and are we confusing net neutrality with tiered pricing?Among other considerations, Ajit states that there is no such thing as net neutrality on platforms like Twitter and Facebook when they make the transition from platform to service provider, and it’s the developers of games and apps on these platforms who bear the brunt of the lack of transparency. Thank you for standing up for developers, Ajit – you have the post of the week.

The iPad is still capturing the attention of bloggers:

• Antoine RJ Wright calls his iPad a “spoke in the wheel” of mobile, and not the showstopper he expected in Living with an iPad, or How My Smartphone Gets Smarter

In light of the recent FTC decision to allow the Google/Admob merger to stand, this article is another write-in entry I found this week:

• Going Mobile: How iAd and AdMob Move Apple vs. Google to a New Playing Field from Knowledge@Wharton

Mobile Publishing

For your listening pleasure, Peggy Ann Salz of mSearchGroove presents two podcasts about mPublishing:
• Thomson Reuters SVP Plea To Publishers: Go Mobile, But Focus On Companion Products & Mobile Commerce including “the pivotal importance of iPhone and iPad apps and the business imperative to pursue monetization models beyond ad-funded and freemium.”

and

• Another reason for companies to think bigger than apps: M-PUBLISHING PODCAST: Handmark CEO Tells Why ‘Good Brands & Great Apps’ May Not Cut It

Finally, for a fairly thorough history of mobile and mobile considerations, pour yourself a giant cup of coffee or tea and plan an extra twenty minutes or so to visit with Tomi Ahonen of Communities Dominate Brands. He wrote Everything you ever wanted to know about mobile, but were afraid to ask. For our small business owners, mobile marketers, students and mobile newbies reading today, this puts a great deal of where we are today into perspective.
 

Thanks for reading, and remember, if you write about mobile, you can be part of the next Carnival. Please visit Mobili.st for further details.

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Today the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously not to block Google’s acquisition of the popular mobile advertising network Admob.

The following media release was issued today by the FTC regarding the Google Admob deal and the reasoning behind the FTC’s decision to let the deal stand:

After Thorough Review, Agency Finds Transaction Not Likely to Harm Competition

The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of Google’s proposed acquisition of mobile advertising network company AdMob after thoroughly reviewing the deal and concluding that it is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks.

In a statement issued today, the Commission said that although the combination of the two leading mobile advertising networks raised serious antitrust issues, the agency’s concerns ultimately were overshadowed by recent developments in the market, most notably a move by Apple Computer Inc. – the maker of the iPhone – to launch its own, competing mobile ad network. In addition, a number of firms appear to be developing or acquiring smartphone platforms to better compete against Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android, and these firms would have a strong incentive to facilitate competition among mobile advertising networks.

“As a result of Apple’s entry (into the market), AdMob’s success to date on the iPhone platform is unlikely to be an accurate predictor of AdMob’s competitive significance going forward, whether AdMob is owned by Google or not,” the Commission’s statement explains.

The Commission stressed that mergers in fast-growing new markets like mobile advertising should get the same level of antitrust scrutiny as those in other markets. The statement goes on to note that, “Though we have determined not to take action today, the Commission will continue to monitor the mobile marketplace to ensure a competitive environment and to protect the interests of consumers.”

Mobile ad networks, such as those provided by Google and AdMob, sell advertising space for mobile publishers, who create applications and content for websites configured for mobile devices, primarily Apple’s iPhone and devices that run Google’s Android operating system. By “monetizing” mobile publishers’ content through the sale of advertising space, mobile ad networks play a vital role in fueling the rapid expansion of mobile applications and Internet content.

According to the FTC’s statement, evidence gathered by the agency raised important questions about the transaction. Google and AdMob have competed head-to-head for the past few years, with a notable increase in intensity during the past year. This competition has spurred innovation and allowed mobile publishers to keep a large share of the revenue generated from the sale of their ad space. The companies also have economies of scale that give them a major advantage over smaller rivals in the business, the statement says.

These concerns, however, were outweighed by recent evidence that Apple is poised to become a strong competitor in the mobile advertising market, the FTC’s statement says. Apple recently acquired Quattro Wireless and used it to launch its own iAd service. In addition, Apple can leverage its close relationships with application developers and users, its access to a large amount of proprietary user data, and its ownership of iPhone software development tools and control over the iPhone developers’ license agreement.

The Commission vote to close the investigation was 5-0.

Copies of the Commission’s statement can be found at www.ftc.gov. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition works with the Bureau of Economics to investigate alleged anticompetitive business practices and, when appropriate, recommends that the Commission take law enforcement action. To inform the Bureau about particular business practices, call 202-326-3300, send an e-mail to antitrust@ftc.gov, or write to the Office of Policy and Coordination, Room 383, Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. To learn more about the Bureau of Competition, read “Competition Counts” at http://www.ftc.gov/competitioncounts.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2180

For further information about the FTC decision to approve the Google Admob deal, you can download the following letters from the attorneys involved from the FTC website:

• Statement of the Commission Concerning Google/AdMob
• Closing Letter To Counsel For Google, Inc.
• Closing Letter To Counsel For AdMob, Inc.

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If you want something done, go to LinkedIn.

Earlier this week, a fellow mobile marketer, Aurélien Fonteneau, asked for help with his dissertation:

Hi all,

I am currently a business school student and I’m writing a thesis about mobile marketing, the exact management issue being “The added value of mobile marketing compared to internet and traditional marketing for brand’s customer relationship management”.

My theoretical part is now done, and I have to deal with the empirical one now. I made a qualitative study with some mobile users and mobile industry professionals and I’m now working on my quantitative study, which aim is to understand customers behaviour toward mobile web advertising.

The study is here.

It is really short and it shouldn’t take you more than 2 minutes I’ll share with you the results of the study and the conclusion of my report.

Thanks!
Aurelien

If you can, take a moment and help him out, especially if you’re a mobile marketer. The survey takes about two minutes. Participants must own a smartphone.

And, if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn to talk about your project, you’ll find me here: LinkedIn.com/in/HollyKolman.

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Attention Mobile Developers, Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

As the mobiEnthusiast, I purchased my first mobile (.mobi) domain name in 2007. It was an exciting day, and I had a vision for how the world would be able to access the internet from their phone and not be tied to a computer. I thought hard about the kinds of sites that would be worthwhile for people, and what kind of information they would need. Then I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t have the technical skills to pursue my passion for the mobile web.

Flash forward to 2010. I have more development skills, but my design skills are still lacking. My favorite development platform is Wordpress, and yet, the options for mobile web have still been limited for most people by a brick wall of a learning curve for xhtml, php and css. Wordpress is first and foremost a blogging platform, and so by definition, it is going to show dates for updates and require constant attention to keep it fresh for the search engines.

Finally, last month, I found a developer who has the experience to use device detection and the design skills to make the site look current. As of April 2010, there is a new Wordpress Mobile Theme that will allow you to make a full mobile site without the constant updates required for blog posts. If you are a mobile domain name investor, this is a no-brainer. Yes, this is an affiliate link, because I believe so strongly in the product that I think my readers ought to have it, too. If you know me, I am very picky about what I will promote and make sure it works.

I worked very closely with the developer and have tested it myself on one of my sites that is in development. This is a very exciting day for people who want to build full websites for phones who are short in the technical and design skills department.

I’ll keep you posted.

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Carnival of the Mobilists #222 is now posted at Volker Hirsh’s blog. This is a weekly writeup of the best and brightest mobile blog posts of the week. If you are a mobile blogger and wish to be included in future editions, please send an email with a link to your story to mobilists [at] gmail.com on Friday for inclusion in the following Monday’s Carnival. You can also follow @COTMobilists on Twitter or view the home page at Mobili.st

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According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the $750 million AdMob acquisition by Google could be headed to antitrust court:

Google’s purchase of AdMob would form the largest mobile-advertising company. The companies combined had 21 percent of the U.S. market in 2009, according to Karsten Weide, an analyst with researcher IDC in San Mateo. The market has been doubling or more in size annually, Weide said.

The measure to investigate further has bipartisan support with three democratic and two republican Congressmen.

“The need for a thorough review is particularly pressing given Google’s dominant position in search advertising” and “its growing influence over other forms of online advertising,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman.

We’ll be watching this story as it develops. Personally, I don’t think anything is going to happen. What do you think?

Thanks to Dr. Steven White for the tip via Twitter.

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Like most marketers, I’ve been watching the mobile industry for the past few years, waiting for it to gain traction as a marketing discipline. This week my patience led me to Mobile University 101 in Chicago; a one-day dive into the basics of mobile and its potential for marketing. The question on the minds of the well-dressed crowd of marketers attending was: “Is this finally the year of mobile?” The answer is both yes, and no. Here’s what I think has been holding mobile back from being adopted as a wide-spread marketing tactic: perspective.

Note: For additional insights, take some time to read the tweet stream from Mobile University.

What Mobile is Not

If you hang around advertising agency and corporate types (not that there’s anything wrong with that) it won’t be long before you hear the word ‘silo.’ In the real world, a silo is where you store stuff, like grain. In the marketing world, silo is a metaphor for separating things into self-contained units. In silos, things don’t get mixed up. They stand alone and separate. There are company silos, likes sales, marketing and manufacturing all operating independently from each other. There are marketing silos, like online and offline, broadcast and print, TV and Cable. And here’s where mobile doesn’t belong; in a silo.

It’s very tempting to separate mobile from the other marketing storehouses into its own silo, because it mostly all takes place on a mobile device. But mobile marketing is not a silo like television or newspaper. Think of mobile more like a landscape, with several mobile floras combining into a diverse marketing panorama.

How can you possibly stick all these things into the same silo?

• Short Codes
• SMS
• Mobile websites
• Apps
• Location based search
• Location based social media
• Mobile coupons and offers
• Mobile loyalty programs
• Mobile wallets
• Mobile Commerce

And Now, for the Good News

First, let me break the bad news: the mobile picture will not get any clearer for a while. The landscape is evolving. The floras are still maturing. New species are being developed. The picture remains blurry. And really, that’s good for you.

Because where there is obscurity and confusion, there is hesitancy. That’s what’s happening right now. A wait-and-see attitude proliferate the general business population because things are difficult to understand. “Let’s just wait until this picture clears up.” “Let’s wait until we understand this better.” But that’s just like saying, “Let’s just wait until we have no tactical advantage.”

The Time for Mobile is Now

The joke in marketing for the past 4-5 years is that we keep waiting for “The Year of Mobile.” What we’re really looking for is permission to move forward into this mysterious new country. “Is it safe yet?” We’re looking for safety in numbers so that our mistakes aren’t so clearly evident. Let someone else be Lewis and Clark, we’ll take the wagon train later.

But Andrew Koven gave us the right perspective on the final panel of the day at Mobile University 101. Koven is the President of E-Commerce and Customer Experience at Steve Madden Shoes. He said that “There is no year of mobile. But it’s time for mobile.”

And it is time. Time for you to jump in. The barriers to entry are minimal, and the cost can be surprisingly low. There are some small business applications available for as little as $20 a month. Don’t just admire the landscape, be the landscaper.

Are you ready to try mobile? What’s your perspective?

About the Author

Jay Ehret is Chief Officer of Awesomeness at The Marketing Spot, a marketing consulting firm in Waco, Texas. He turns entrepreneurs into marketers and transforms businesses in to brands. He blogs at The Marketing Spot Blog.

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Registration is open for the next MoMoLo (Mobile Monday London) event on 24 May. The topic is: Where Mobile meets Media #2. Free to attend. Info & RSVP at MoMoLo.org.

Read the rest of this entry »

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