Money in Mobile Contest
From our good friend Andy at mobiThinking, we’ve just been made aware of a contest that is “ridiculously easy” for UK Mobile people. Hurry, though – the deadline is 31 May 2011:
BLN Money in Mobile Award: it’s free and ridiculously easy to enter, deadline for entry May, 31 2011
Here’s a great opportunity for a young UK mobile company to get some free exposure and see how you measure up to your contemporaries. As part of the Money in Mobile Forum (London, June 14 2011), 10 companies will given the platform to pitch their companies in front of the conference audience and the competition judges (who include 16 venture capitalists). These pitches will also be recorded and posted on the Web. The winner will be the company that the judges conclude will be the one that is most likely to make money in mobile for its clients.
The frustrating thing about most competitions is that the judging usually takes place behind closed doors so the only people that get to hear your pitch are the judges (some competition organizers don’t even bother to publish details on their Websites of why the winners won), so this is an attractive format.
This has also got to be the easiest competition to enter. All you have to do is fill out your details and explain in 100 words how your business uses mobile to make money for other companies. Any mobile company can enter as long as they are a) privately held and b) have paying customers.
If you are one of the 10 short-listed companies you receive a free pass for the Money in Mobile Forum. What do you have to lose? Plus you have the chance to win the best-in-show award, an iPad and lot’s of exposure for your company.
Nominate your company by 12 noon GMT, May 31, 2001.
The competition judges include: Balderton Capital, DFJ Esprit, Fidelity Growth Partners, Octopus Ventures, Advent Ventures, Highland Capital, Accel Partners, Fidelity Growth Partners, Angels Seed Fund, Intel Capital, Vodafone Ventures, Balderton Capital, m8 Capital, Pentech Ventures, PROfounders Fund, MMC Ventures, Doughty Hanson, The BLN, NextWomen.com, Mobile Marketing Magazine and mobiThinking.
Speakers at the Money in Mobile Forum include: Tesco.com, Out There Media, comScore, Handmade Mobile, Snaptu, Amobee Media Systems, Mobile Interactive Group, Golden Gekko, INQ Mobile, InMobi, GetJar, GAMESbrief, Volume, Groupon, Ixonos, BOKU, Eagle Eye Solutions and eBay Classifieds.
Closer to the time mobiThinking will be running a competition to win free tickets for Money in Mobile Forum, so stay tuned.
Welcome to this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists #221. It’s my first time hosting, and I’m glad to have this opportunity to showcase the best and brightest bloggers covering the mobile space. Thank you to all of the dedicated people who not only blog, but connect with one another to share ideas and introduce their readers to the work of our esteemed colleagues. Without further ado, here we go…
A new Mobile OS from Japan? It looks like it, according to Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens. Read more at Good news for Japan but bad news for LiMo? Japanese phone makers to develop new operating system AND open it to the world.
Readers are given a cultural lesson on Chinese New Year gift-giving customs as the backdrop for the ‘missing million’ in iPhone sales. Tomi Ahonen explains, “Forecasters predicted over 1 million less iPhone sales (some even 2 million below) what actually happened. I was also wrong obviously as nobody saw the increase in sales for the after-Christmas quarter.” The mystery is solved, along with a lively debate in the comments section in Apple to thank Year of Tiger for China Surprise in iPhone strong quarterly sales on Communities Dominate Brands.
Payment via mobile phone are headed to countries that don’t already have it, and Simon Judge gives his top observations of the Mobile Monday London’s treatment of the subject in Mobile Money on MobilePhoneDevelopment.com. It looks like operators are concerned about liability while third party developers lead the way.
It’s clear from a number of posts this week that many mobile developers and mobile marketers are still coming to grips with mobile, especially when it comes to deciding whether to create apps for particular smartphones vs. mobile websites that can be viewed regardless of which phone or mobile device the audience is likely to have.
A shattered iPhone graces Mobsessed.co.uk‘s Carl Martin’s post Evidence against the iPhone Mobsession. He argues that since there is a scant 4% iPhone ownership in the UK, money spent marketing iPhone apps would be put to better use on a mobile website. He backs up his rationale with a presentation by Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review. Elsewhere on his site this week, he marvels at a University student’s use of an iPhone adapted via WiFi to run a remote controlled car. Perhaps that iPhone money should go to R&D then, Carl? iPhone + Virtual Reality Headset + Wifi + REMOTE CONTROLLED CAR = WIN
The Carnival welcomes newcomer Helen Lynch of with a pair of articles with a corporate perspective from Amdocs. Are service providers ready for the smartphone revolution? and So Many Devices, So Little Time by Mike Couture. The articles are two sides of the same issue: people who buy smartphones and don’t know how to use them, and the difficulty companies have in supporting smartphone users in their call centers.
When considering mobile design, “accessible” needs to mean more than just accomodations for physical handicaps. Economic and technological differences must also figure into the equation. Belen Pena reminds us that most people accessing the internet – as much as 87% globally – are not using smartphones. There is a distinction between inclusive design and accessible design in Narrow mobile strategies are a terrible form of exclusive design.
James Coop details the difficulty of apps marketing in an ever-changing environment in Mobile marketing for the online casino industry – iphone, ipad or i dont know?. The article is focused on the casino industry, but the struggle to keep up with technology upgrades will be familiar to all.
Andy Favell of mobiThinking.com gives us the numbers on mobile this week, and ought to be required reading for all mobile marketers and decision-makers: Global mobile stats: all latest quality research on mobile Web and marketing in one place. Andy, too, reminds us that the mobile web is not just for smartphones:
Beware: there is a lot of misinformation about the market share of smartphones and some handsets in particular. This doesn’t matter if your mobile strategy targets all phone users equally, but if you are prioritizing one handset, you must know the facts.
Here’s the thumbnail version of this in-depth report:
- Mobile subscribers will surpass 5 billion in 2010
- Half a billion people accessed mobile Internet worldwide in 2009
- By 2011, over 85 percent of new handsets will be able to access the mobile Web
- The number of 3G handsets is growing fast
- Mobile devices sales fell slightly in 2009, while smartphone sales showed strong growth albeit from a small base
- Estimates for expenditure on mobile advertising and marketing worldwide ranged from US$1.4 billion to $7.5 billion in 2009, all analysts forecast rapid growth
- How will consumers use their mobiles?
- The top five mobile network operators worldwide that derive more of their revenue from data than other operators are all Asian
I throw my hat into the ring with Social Media: Playtime is Officially Over. Since social media is mobile, and concerns mobile marketers, brands and developers, the YouTube video is a very enlightening two minutes for people who think Twitter is just to tell people what you had for lunch. (It’s a little loud, you might like it better with the sound off.)
Finally, this week’s Carnival post of the week is awarded to a post with heart, announcing an initiative that will undoubtably change many lives for the better. Carnival of the Mobilists’ very own Peggy Anne Salz of MSearchGroove.com presents THE MOBILE MOVEMENT Launches, Brings Mobile To Non-Profits; MSG Joins Advisory Board. Here’s what the new initiative will do:
Our mission is to support non-profits by bringing mobile capabilities to non-profits, helping them to reach millions more people in need by leveraging mobile devices, networks and innovative applications they will create in partnership with social entrepreneurs.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to visit the links of our contributors to expand your knowledge of what’s going on in mobile today. To see a complete list of archives, or to submit your site in the future, please visit Mobili.st (not .com).
All the Best,
Holly Kolman
Founder, Editor & Publisher,
mobiEnthusiast.mobi
Holly Kolman on LinkedIn
@mobiEnthusiast on Twitter
mobiEnthusiast’s Facebook Page
Have you done a mobile search for Olympics results and been disappointed with the number of sites you could access on a mobile phone? Are most of the results for full pc sites? What did you see, and did you see the same thing as everyone else? That’s what we’d like to know.
You’re Invited to the Experiment
This is a pretty easy experiment. Here’s how to participate:
- Type the following into your browser: Winter + Olympics + mobile
- Tell us what search engine you used
- Tell us what city/country you were in at the time of the search
- Indicate whether you used a computer or a mobile phone to get the results
- Provide the top ten results
- Post your findings in either the comments, below (moderated) or in an email to information [at] mobiEnthusiast.mobi (subject line: experiment)
Mobile Search Experiment Background
At least one prominent mobile blogger was disappointed with the small number of mobile sites that came back from his search on a mobile handset. So he did what most bloggers would do: He asked his readers to help him find out the answer.
Andy Favell, the Editor of mobiThinking asked the question, “Why are many great mobile Olympics sites not found by mobile search engines?”
This made me curious, too. Some of the people answered that mobile SEO (search engine optimization) in general is lacking. I weighed in and hypothesized that one’s location and browser type would define, in large part, which results were returned by search engines, as well as the age of the domain name and the ever-changing nature of search engine algorithms.
This morphed into a larger question about who gets to see what from mobile search. If you have a moment and want to participate, please join us.
