Showing posts with label o2 litmus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label o2 litmus. Show all posts
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
New survey on mobile operator developer communities
New survey on mobile operator developer communities . Let us know what you think http://bit.ly/Lw2gR
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
Changes to the O2 Litmus App Showdown
Last week, we launched the O2 Litmus App Showdown, with a prize of £10,000. Whilst we had a very positive response from the community, there was also some constructive feedback on how to make the competition better.
When we were planning the competition, we were keen to ensure we could involve as many O2 customers in the judging process as possible. This caused a problem for developers though, as they would have to give up 95 of their slots required to test apps – slots that as any iPhone app developer knows are extremely valuable.
We listened to the community for guidance on the optimum number of slots reserved for the developer and have subsequently had a chat about structuring things to make sure it works for the developer community.
These are the slight changes we're proposing:
· The panel of judges will be made up of 20 app-loving iPhone users
· Developers will now only need to keep 20 of their 100 slots free for the Showdown
We put this to the O2 Litmus community and received positive feedback on the forums. Hopefully this amendment to the rules means that there is now no reason for you not to enter the App Showdown.
That £10,000 is one step closer!
When we were planning the competition, we were keen to ensure we could involve as many O2 customers in the judging process as possible. This caused a problem for developers though, as they would have to give up 95 of their slots required to test apps – slots that as any iPhone app developer knows are extremely valuable.
We listened to the community for guidance on the optimum number of slots reserved for the developer and have subsequently had a chat about structuring things to make sure it works for the developer community.
These are the slight changes we're proposing:
· The panel of judges will be made up of 20 app-loving iPhone users
· Developers will now only need to keep 20 of their 100 slots free for the Showdown
We put this to the O2 Litmus community and received positive feedback on the forums. Hopefully this amendment to the rules means that there is now no reason for you not to enter the App Showdown.
That £10,000 is one step closer!
Monday, 20 July 2009
O2 App Showdown
It's been a while since I have had a chance to post here, although I'm doing better with the old Twitter updates!
It may have looked quiet from the outside for a few weeks, but believe me its been 100mph behind the scenes.
This morning the O2 App Showdown went live - a two month competition to find a great iPhone App for O2, with a £10,000 prize and great publicity for the winning developer. You can find out more here: www.o2litmus.co.uk/appshowdown
Along with the competition, I'm pleased to announce that O2 Litmus now supports the promotion of iPhone App's hosted within the iTunes App Store. This means developers can now promote their apps via O2 Litmus, helping address a common complaint amongst developers - "With the thousands of apps inside the App Store, just how do I get visibility?"
Today's announcement is just the first of few we have lined up, so stay tuned ;-)
Thursday, 11 June 2009
New O2 Litmus Software Release Live, 11th June 09
The team has been busy beavering away behind the scenes to bring you the latest O2 Litmus release which went live today.
Firstly O2 Litmus is now connected into O2 UK’s shiny new infrastructure. This should be invisible to you, but it means that we are now super cool and future proofed! We can also start exposing more functionality from inside O2, enabling Developers to make better and more intelligent apps, meaning O2 Litmus members get more functional and personalised services.
If you have heard me speaking at a recent conference or have attended one of our developer days you will know this area is of particular interest.
This new release contains updates of our previous API’s, plus no less than four new API’s providing a rich set of functionality, allowing you to query everything from the users location, through to what type of device a customer is using, down to they have an all you can eat mobile data bolt on provisioned on their account.
Note we have updated the Developer & Member terms and conditions to take into account this new functionality - please review and ensure you understand them, here.
Finally have also updated the O2 Litmus FAQ’s, where you can find out more information on the new API set
I hope you enjoy these new features, and as every please tell us what you think, or would like to see next via the forums.
Have fun!
Firstly O2 Litmus is now connected into O2 UK’s shiny new infrastructure. This should be invisible to you, but it means that we are now super cool and future proofed! We can also start exposing more functionality from inside O2, enabling Developers to make better and more intelligent apps, meaning O2 Litmus members get more functional and personalised services.
If you have heard me speaking at a recent conference or have attended one of our developer days you will know this area is of particular interest.
This new release contains updates of our previous API’s, plus no less than four new API’s providing a rich set of functionality, allowing you to query everything from the users location, through to what type of device a customer is using, down to they have an all you can eat mobile data bolt on provisioned on their account.
Note we have updated the Developer & Member terms and conditions to take into account this new functionality - please review and ensure you understand them, here.
Finally have also updated the O2 Litmus FAQ’s, where you can find out more information on the new API set
I hope you enjoy these new features, and as every please tell us what you think, or would like to see next via the forums.
Have fun!
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Win the chance to go to the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit!
Win the chance to go to the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit!
We’re giving five developers the chance to go to the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit, which takes place on Wednesday 3rd June 2009 to Thursday 4th June 2009 at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in Knightsbridge, London
I’ll be speaking on the Wednesday on ‘Mobile Operator 2.0’ and the changing the business model and strategy of operators. That’s followed by a roundtable and panel discussion on the development of operator strategies in relation to increasing mobile user engagement and new approaches to working. The two days brings together some fantastic speakers and panellists, so it should be a great event.
To be in with a chance of winning one of the five passes to Mobile Web 2.0 Summit, just complete the following steps:
1. Register on O2 Litmus at www.o2litmus.co.uk
2. Send an email to james@o2litmus.info with the subject line ‘Contest‘ and the following:
We’re giving five developers the chance to go to the Mobile Web 2.0 Summit, which takes place on Wednesday 3rd June 2009 to Thursday 4th June 2009 at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in Knightsbridge, London
I’ll be speaking on the Wednesday on ‘Mobile Operator 2.0’ and the changing the business model and strategy of operators. That’s followed by a roundtable and panel discussion on the development of operator strategies in relation to increasing mobile user engagement and new approaches to working. The two days brings together some fantastic speakers and panellists, so it should be a great event.
To be in with a chance of winning one of the five passes to Mobile Web 2.0 Summit, just complete the following steps:
1. Register on O2 Litmus at www.o2litmus.co.uk
2. Send an email to james@o2litmus.info with the subject line ‘Contest‘ and the following:
- Your O2 Litmus username
- A 140 character twitter-style sentence explaining why you should be one of the developers to go to the Mobile 2.0 Summit with O2 Litmus.
The competition ends at midnight on Thursday 28th May 2009. Winners will be announced on Friday 29th May 2009 on the O2 Litmus site, with the five winning developers being contacted by email after the competition closes with further details on how to get their passes.
Best of luck and don’t forget – our latest marketing campaign is due to go out to hundreds of thousands of O2 customers, so get uploading your applications to O2 Litmus now!
James
www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Countdown to O2 Litmus Marketing Campaign
I'd like to give you a heads up that O2 Litmus is about to launch its largest marketing campaign to date.
In a few days time we'll contact hundreds of thousands of O2 customers by email, inviting them to join O2 Litmus. We're offering incentives for sign up with 20 Sony Ericsson handsets and ten PlayStation 3s on offer as prizes. I wanted to give you a heads up so you can get the apps you'd like to test, premium test or sell uploaded in advance.
These customers have been carefully targeted based on the phone they own, their usage of mobile data services, and the marketing segment they represent, so we're confident they will be fans of what you are doing.
This campaign will help O2 Litmus to grow and provide momentum. I'm keen to get your feedback on how it goes, and any other marketing ideas you may have to boost O2 Litmus. I've opened up a new thread in the forums for you to comment and chat. (May customer campaign)
In a few days time we'll contact hundreds of thousands of O2 customers by email, inviting them to join O2 Litmus. We're offering incentives for sign up with 20 Sony Ericsson handsets and ten PlayStation 3s on offer as prizes. I wanted to give you a heads up so you can get the apps you'd like to test, premium test or sell uploaded in advance.
These customers have been carefully targeted based on the phone they own, their usage of mobile data services, and the marketing segment they represent, so we're confident they will be fans of what you are doing.
This campaign will help O2 Litmus to grow and provide momentum. I'm keen to get your feedback on how it goes, and any other marketing ideas you may have to boost O2 Litmus. I've opened up a new thread in the forums for you to comment and chat. (May customer campaign)
Friday, 1 May 2009
O2 Litmus Roadmap Developer Session
O2 Litmus held its first "Live Road Mapping" event on Wednesday this week where we had a good dialogue with some of our member Developers. A big thank you for Elayne and Graham for running to the shops to buy a VGA cable for the projector to avoid a disaster!
You can find the topics covered by visiting the Developer Day thread in the Roadmap section of the O2 Litmus forum. Please be sure to give us your views on the debate.
Next up, O2 has also just announced its X Prize competition. If you are a UK entrepreneur be sure to check it out here: http://www.o2.co.uk/xawards
Finally the next of our marketing campaigns to the O2 customer base begins shortly, so make sure you are uploading your applications to O2 Litmus in anticipation of a larger and fresh audience.
Monday, 20 April 2009
O2 Litmus Update
Hello All,
Lots to update you regarding O2 Litmus.
We have delivered a couple of new software releases in the past week, bringing some great new functionality to O2 Litmus. First was the introduction of "Premium Testing" powered by our partner Mob4Hire. You can read the press release from Mobile World Congress here.
Next up, in response to Developer demand, we have introduced support for web based services. So now a developer is not forced to offer a downloadable application when they publish a new project. Now the offer can simply be a URL based service consumed via the mobile phone or PC web browser. We hope this move opens up a rich vein of creativity and starts to move O2 Litmus into catering for PC as well as mobile users.
We have our "Live Road Mapping" session coming up next week which we are all excited about. The original allocation of tickets was quickly snapped up so we added a few more. Be sure to register asap. It will be a great opportunity to meet the team behind O2 Litmus, network with likeminded people, and most importantly tell us how you want O2 Litmus to develop over the coming months. You can get all the details here.
Before we know it the Summer conference season will be upon us and after the stir we have created since launch, O2 Litmus is in demand!!
Here is my current 2009 "fixture list", I hope to see you at one of these events:
Mobile Operator Smart Pipes & Applications, London, 19-20th May, 2009
Mobile Web 2.0 Summit, London, 3rd - 4th June, 2009
Being Digital 2009, London, 9th - 10th June, 2009
Mobile 2.0 Europe, Barcelona, 18th - 19th June, 2009
Mobile Entertainment Market (MeM), London, 23rd - 24th June, 2009
Until next time,
James
www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Lots to update you regarding O2 Litmus.
We have delivered a couple of new software releases in the past week, bringing some great new functionality to O2 Litmus. First was the introduction of "Premium Testing" powered by our partner Mob4Hire. You can read the press release from Mobile World Congress here.
Next up, in response to Developer demand, we have introduced support for web based services. So now a developer is not forced to offer a downloadable application when they publish a new project. Now the offer can simply be a URL based service consumed via the mobile phone or PC web browser. We hope this move opens up a rich vein of creativity and starts to move O2 Litmus into catering for PC as well as mobile users.
We have our "Live Road Mapping" session coming up next week which we are all excited about. The original allocation of tickets was quickly snapped up so we added a few more. Be sure to register asap. It will be a great opportunity to meet the team behind O2 Litmus, network with likeminded people, and most importantly tell us how you want O2 Litmus to develop over the coming months. You can get all the details here.
Before we know it the Summer conference season will be upon us and after the stir we have created since launch, O2 Litmus is in demand!!
Here is my current 2009 "fixture list", I hope to see you at one of these events:
Mobile Operator Smart Pipes & Applications, London, 19-20th May, 2009
Mobile Web 2.0 Summit, London, 3rd - 4th June, 2009
Being Digital 2009, London, 9th - 10th June, 2009
Mobile 2.0 Europe, Barcelona, 18th - 19th June, 2009
Mobile Entertainment Market (MeM), London, 23rd - 24th June, 2009
Until next time,
James
www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Thursday, 9 April 2009
"Official" O2 Innovation Day Video
A little late, but here is the video created by the O2 team capturing the essence of the day:
Also thanks for all the interest in the O2 Litmus Roadmapping event. We sold out the initial 40 tickets, but have just added another 20, so get 'em while they are hot ;-)
Also thanks for all the interest in the O2 Litmus Roadmapping event. We sold out the initial 40 tickets, but have just added another 20, so get 'em while they are hot ;-)
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
O2 Litmus Live Road Mapping
Come join us for a few drinks, some food, some networking, and to hear about some ideas we have for O2 Litmus. More importantly you tell us what you want to see in it, hence the title - live road mapping!
For more info and sign up visit: http://o2litmus.eventbrite.com/
Look forward to seeing you there.
For more info and sign up visit: http://o2litmus.eventbrite.com/
Look forward to seeing you there.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
O2 Innovation Day
I was hoping to write this up sooner, but just a few thoughts on the recent O2 Innovation Day that was held at the rather nice Matter Club inside The O2 complex in London on the 16th March 2009.
This was the second year in a row that my team had organised the Innovation Day.
The idea behind the day is to get O2 people out of their day to day working environment. Bring in leading companies that are shaping the agenda of ours and adjacent industries, share knowledge, make connections and stimulate the creative juices.
We learnt a lot from last year's event, and judging from the feedback I have seen I think we successfully applied a lot of the learning's. We brutally chopped the Powerpoint, we focused on panel debate and interactivity, and most importantly we opened up.
This year saw a number of companies invited in to demo and network with O2's senior leadership team. O2 Litmus played its role, with two competition winners (Ribot and Fring) taking their place alongside more established O2 partners like Microsoft & Nokia. I hope this provided some interesting conversation and business development opportunities.
You can read the thoughts of Antony from Ribot here.
You can also watch a couple of Antony's video's:
O2 Innovation Day - morning hello part 1 from ribot on Vimeo.
O2 business strategy innovation from ribot on Vimeo.
James Parton introduces O2 Litmus from ribot on Vimeo.
James Parton on O2 Litmus part II from ribot on Vimeo.
James Parton on O2 Litmus part III from ribot on Vimeo.
O2 Innovation Day - Sesson 1, Mobile application and services from ribot on Vimeo.
O2 Innovation day - session 1, Mobile application and services part 2 from ribot on Vimeo.
Hopefully events like this reinforce that O2 Litmus is helping to drive cultural change inside an Operator like O2, and shows we are willing to air our dirty laundry, wrestling with key challenges in an open and collaborative way.
It also tangibly demonstrates we don't know all the answers, but by using vehicles like O2 Litmus we are genuinely looking to the market and our customers to help shape the future.
This was the second year in a row that my team had organised the Innovation Day.
The idea behind the day is to get O2 people out of their day to day working environment. Bring in leading companies that are shaping the agenda of ours and adjacent industries, share knowledge, make connections and stimulate the creative juices.
We learnt a lot from last year's event, and judging from the feedback I have seen I think we successfully applied a lot of the learning's. We brutally chopped the Powerpoint, we focused on panel debate and interactivity, and most importantly we opened up.
This year saw a number of companies invited in to demo and network with O2's senior leadership team. O2 Litmus played its role, with two competition winners (Ribot and Fring) taking their place alongside more established O2 partners like Microsoft & Nokia. I hope this provided some interesting conversation and business development opportunities.
You can read the thoughts of Antony from Ribot here.
You can also watch a couple of Antony's video's:
O2 Innovation Day - morning hello part 1 from ribot on Vimeo.
O2 business strategy innovation from ribot on Vimeo.
James Parton introduces O2 Litmus from ribot on Vimeo.
James Parton on O2 Litmus part II from ribot on Vimeo.
James Parton on O2 Litmus part III from ribot on Vimeo.
O2 Innovation Day - Sesson 1, Mobile application and services from ribot on Vimeo.
O2 Innovation day - session 1, Mobile application and services part 2 from ribot on Vimeo.
Hopefully events like this reinforce that O2 Litmus is helping to drive cultural change inside an Operator like O2, and shows we are willing to air our dirty laundry, wrestling with key challenges in an open and collaborative way.
It also tangibly demonstrates we don't know all the answers, but by using vehicles like O2 Litmus we are genuinely looking to the market and our customers to help shape the future.
Monday, 23 March 2009
O2 Litmus Video Tour
Here is a world exclusive :-)
Before it even makes it onto http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/ itself, below you can finally watch the long awaited O2 Litmus Video Tour, let me know what you think...
O2 Litmus Video Tour from O2 Litmus on Vimeo.
Before it even makes it onto http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/ itself, below you can finally watch the long awaited O2 Litmus Video Tour, let me know what you think...
O2 Litmus Video Tour from O2 Litmus on Vimeo.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Mobile Monday London, 9th March, Write Up
A quick wrap from last night Mobile Monday London Event, which posed the question “What have Mobile Operators done for us?”
As I was speaking and on the panel I didn’t have a chance to write many notes, but thankfully a few audience members did, and @ribot recorded the presentations for prosperity.
James Parton presents O2 Litmus at Momo London from ribot on Vimeo.
Terence Eden of Vodaone on Operators and Operands, a Love Story - MoMoLondon from ribot on Vimeo.
Check these out for reviews of the evening:
Pudding Relations
Expanding Horizons
You can view my extended 12” remix O2 Litmus presentation here
I felt the evening went well.
There is always a degree of frustration in the room when the Operators get up on stage, and I totally understand why. In the past we haven’t done enough to help the developer community, and it is understandable there is a healthy dose of cynicism when Operators claim they are listening and trying to change for the better.
You can read some of that sentiment here.
I certainly welcome the opportunity to have a more open dialogue between Operators and the Mobile Monday community, and I think we should have a follow up session including some of the other Mobile Operators, especially Orange who invest heavily in Orange Partner.
I think in the main the O2 Litmus message was well received, but you tell me ;-)
When I set out with the concept we deliberately spent a lot of time researching what was wrong with existing Operator developer communities, trying to get under the hood of the frustrations of trying to work with us.
The fact that I was getting similar questions, and may be a sense that the O2 Litmus story was too good to be true, reinforced to me that the insight we gained must have been on the money, because I genuinely believe O2 Litmus can be the breath of fresh air the community has been crying out for.
However O2 Litmus is not the silver bullet to all the problems the world has to offer. We need Developers to join to tell us how O2 Litmus should develop. We can’t hope to get it right without the community taking an ownership role. As I mentioned last night, our thoughts on the O2 Litmus roadmap and API evolution are all public domain in the forums, so please feel free to join and engage in the debate.
My key take out from last night was there is still much to do to reduce the fragmentation in the mobile industry. We as Operators need to do much more to collaborate more closely and reduce the complexity and pain of creating successful mobile applications, and successful businesses.
The green shoots of this new thinking are appearing in initiatives like the GSMA OneAPI project and I will be taking a proactive stance with my colleagues at the other Mobile Operators to put some energy in bringing us closer together. The days of wall gardens are gone, and I don’t intend to be competing with other Mobile Operators for Developers, O2 Litmus is not about that.
It was great to hear Betavine is now promoted from Vodafone Live, I think that is a big step forward, and you should check out their Widget competition where £20,000 is up for grabs.
So a positive evening I felt, and hopefully a platform to build an ongoing dialogue with the Mobile Monday Community.
What did you think of the event?
If you have any questions that didn’t get answered last night, feel free to contact me via Twitter, LinkedIn or james@o2litmus.info
As I was speaking and on the panel I didn’t have a chance to write many notes, but thankfully a few audience members did, and @ribot recorded the presentations for prosperity.
James Parton presents O2 Litmus at Momo London from ribot on Vimeo.
Terence Eden of Vodaone on Operators and Operands, a Love Story - MoMoLondon from ribot on Vimeo.
Check these out for reviews of the evening:
Pudding Relations
Expanding Horizons
You can view my extended 12” remix O2 Litmus presentation here
I felt the evening went well.
There is always a degree of frustration in the room when the Operators get up on stage, and I totally understand why. In the past we haven’t done enough to help the developer community, and it is understandable there is a healthy dose of cynicism when Operators claim they are listening and trying to change for the better.
You can read some of that sentiment here.
I certainly welcome the opportunity to have a more open dialogue between Operators and the Mobile Monday community, and I think we should have a follow up session including some of the other Mobile Operators, especially Orange who invest heavily in Orange Partner.
I think in the main the O2 Litmus message was well received, but you tell me ;-)
When I set out with the concept we deliberately spent a lot of time researching what was wrong with existing Operator developer communities, trying to get under the hood of the frustrations of trying to work with us.
The fact that I was getting similar questions, and may be a sense that the O2 Litmus story was too good to be true, reinforced to me that the insight we gained must have been on the money, because I genuinely believe O2 Litmus can be the breath of fresh air the community has been crying out for.
However O2 Litmus is not the silver bullet to all the problems the world has to offer. We need Developers to join to tell us how O2 Litmus should develop. We can’t hope to get it right without the community taking an ownership role. As I mentioned last night, our thoughts on the O2 Litmus roadmap and API evolution are all public domain in the forums, so please feel free to join and engage in the debate.
My key take out from last night was there is still much to do to reduce the fragmentation in the mobile industry. We as Operators need to do much more to collaborate more closely and reduce the complexity and pain of creating successful mobile applications, and successful businesses.
The green shoots of this new thinking are appearing in initiatives like the GSMA OneAPI project and I will be taking a proactive stance with my colleagues at the other Mobile Operators to put some energy in bringing us closer together. The days of wall gardens are gone, and I don’t intend to be competing with other Mobile Operators for Developers, O2 Litmus is not about that.
It was great to hear Betavine is now promoted from Vodafone Live, I think that is a big step forward, and you should check out their Widget competition where £20,000 is up for grabs.
So a positive evening I felt, and hopefully a platform to build an ongoing dialogue with the Mobile Monday Community.
What did you think of the event?
If you have any questions that didn’t get answered last night, feel free to contact me via Twitter, LinkedIn or james@o2litmus.info
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Photo's from MWC 2009
Presenting in the Business Models of Mobile 2.0
Chilling with our buddies from Mob4Hire...
Chilling with our buddies from Mob4Hire...
Saturday, 21 February 2009
O2 Litmus Deck for Mobile World Congress 2009
Here is the deck I used during MWC 2009.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
New Developer Competition on O2 Litmus
Orginally posted on http://www.o2litmus.co.uk, 4th Feb 2009
Win the chance to exhibit at the O2 Innovation Day!
O2 is holding an Innovation Day on March 16th 2009 at The O2.
The day centres on creating a platform between O2 UK and a select number of technology partners, highlighted by key note speakers, focused discussions and knowledge sharing on innovation in the mobile industry.
We’re giving two developers the chance to exhibit at The O2 on the day, giving them unparalleled access to senior O2 decision makers and our industry partners. This is a great chance to raise awareness of the applications you’re developing and get in front of the people that matter the most at O2.
To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic competition, just complete the following steps:
Best of luck and we look forward to receiving your entries!
James
www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Win the chance to exhibit at the O2 Innovation Day!
O2 is holding an Innovation Day on March 16th 2009 at The O2.
The day centres on creating a platform between O2 UK and a select number of technology partners, highlighted by key note speakers, focused discussions and knowledge sharing on innovation in the mobile industry.
We’re giving two developers the chance to exhibit at The O2 on the day, giving them unparalleled access to senior O2 decision makers and our industry partners. This is a great chance to raise awareness of the applications you’re developing and get in front of the people that matter the most at O2.
To be in with a chance of winning this fantastic competition, just complete the following steps:
- Register on O2 Litmus at http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/
- Upload an application to the O2 Litmus site
- Send an email to james@o2litmus.info with the subject line ‘Contest‘ and the following:
- Your O2 Litmus username
- The name of the application you have uploaded
- A 140 character twitter-style sentence explaining why you should be one of the developers to exhibit at the O2 Innovation Day
Best of luck and we look forward to receiving your entries!
James
www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Saturday, 31 January 2009
February Going's On...
Firstly thanks for stopping by. I've finally got a round to setting up a personal blog to try and aggragrate stuff I'm guest writing on other sites, and to provide a home to various personal ramblings and nuggets I pick up along the way.
For those of you that don't know me I'm the creative force behind O2 Litmus and as such I have spent the last 18 months talking to, and working with, some great people. Now we have the thing built and launched, 2009 is going to be busy spreading the word and helping the developer community make some money, good news huh? :-)
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona dominates the month, and O2 Litmus will have a visible presence down there, below is my upcoming schedule so it would be great to meet and chat...
February 2009:
2nd: Mobile Monday, London
16th - 19th: Mobile World Congress, O2 Litmus on Telefonica stand (Hall 8 stand 8B185)
16th: O2 Litmus sponsors Mobile Monday Peer Awards
17th: Speaking at the The Business of Mobile 2.0 Conference (14:40)
18th: Speaking at an Oracle Breakfast Briefing, RSVP by e-mail to anders.lundell@oracle.com
19th: O2 Litmus sponsors WIP Jam
26th: Oracle Webinar (details tbc)
March 2009:
5th: NavTeq Webinar
More soon...
For those of you that don't know me I'm the creative force behind O2 Litmus and as such I have spent the last 18 months talking to, and working with, some great people. Now we have the thing built and launched, 2009 is going to be busy spreading the word and helping the developer community make some money, good news huh? :-)
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona dominates the month, and O2 Litmus will have a visible presence down there, below is my upcoming schedule so it would be great to meet and chat...
February 2009:
2nd: Mobile Monday, London
16th - 19th: Mobile World Congress, O2 Litmus on Telefonica stand (Hall 8 stand 8B185)
16th: O2 Litmus sponsors Mobile Monday Peer Awards
17th: Speaking at the The Business of Mobile 2.0 Conference (14:40)
18th: Speaking at an Oracle Breakfast Briefing, RSVP by e-mail to anders.lundell@oracle.com
19th: O2 Litmus sponsors WIP Jam
26th: Oracle Webinar (details tbc)
March 2009:
5th: NavTeq Webinar
More soon...
And the winner of the most important API of 2009 is...
Orginally published at http://www.wipjam.com/ on 30th January 2009
We’ve asked our discussion leaders for WIPJam session to share their insight of the mobile developer world. This post was penned by James Parton, Head of O2 Litmus, the mobile developer programme with a twist and a sponsor of the WIP Jam Session at Mobile World Congress 2009 (#MWC09).
Open source, crowd sourcing, app stores, open networks, Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0, co-creation, user generated content. It’s clear that the future of application development is a hot industry topic.
Tip your hat to Apple. They have quickly transformed a cottage industry, struggling to find a poster child, into a serious business in a very short space of time. Through great end-to-end user experience – often overlooked by many in the area - we now have people buying apps on a regular basis. If you had asked those same people 6 months ago what kind of app they were interested in, they would have struggled to even define what an app was, let alone have a clear view on what was missing from their app life.
This wave has also beached in corporate boardrooms with many companies now launching or planning to launch app stores in reaction to the success of the Apple App Store. This leads us to ask where will the industry be in 6 months time?
Put yourself in the shoes of the customer for a second. They switch on their PCs and are be offered applications by their internet service provider. They then go to their favourite portal and may be offered applications, next they will see sponsored links for applications from their search engine.
Next they then pull their mobile phone out of their pocket and see an application store from their handset manufacturer, and sitting next that is the icon for their mobile network’s app store. Confused? Just imagine what the customer is thinking.
On the surface this explosion of app stores is a good thing for developers – more places to sell your apps means more people buying those apps, right?
However, this could be misleading. Many of these app stores are using aggregators to fill them up. This may lead to the vast majority of stores containing identical catalogues.
I can see parallels between the growing app market and digital music. Research has shown that over 90% of digital music catalogues are never downloaded. It’s an extreme example of Prato’s law. Are App stores already following the same path?
If these stores are filled by aggregators, and managed by marketers believing it’s all about catalogue, how do you as a developer get noticed? You want your app to be Smells Like Teen Spirit, and avoid being the obscure Cat Stevens B side from 1967 that no one wants!
So how do you solve this problem?
Customers. They are out there. They have an opinion. They are potential consumers of your products. You should get to know them, and love them. If you want to be successful, you have to prioritise customer relationship and service. Don’t just focus on the next feature you can build into your software.
Going back to my digital music analogy, we are going to see a huge attrition rate for apps. Thousands will never be downloaded or make profit. Can you afford to burn time and money speculating on what customers might want? Why not ask them before you commitment your engineering resource.
How do you find and reach these customers?
You should be seeking out partners that provide the most important API going forward. The winner of the most important API of 2009? It’s the Customer API.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if a large organisation was willing to step out of the way and let you interact directly with its customers? You would be able to demonstrate, co-develop and refine your product directly with end users?
This has to be a win – win approach. You save time and effort by refining your ideas before commercially launching, the end user feels empowered by helping to improve the products they and their friends will end up using, plus they get to experience these apps before anyone else – very different to a traditional retail environment where you buy and either love or hate the app you get.
Come and check us out here and upload your apps: http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/ or you can contact me directly via Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Have you registered for WIPJAM yet. Rumour has it there are 2 tickets to give-away to the O2-Telefoncia party on Tues nite…
We’ve asked our discussion leaders for WIPJam session to share their insight of the mobile developer world. This post was penned by James Parton, Head of O2 Litmus, the mobile developer programme with a twist and a sponsor of the WIP Jam Session at Mobile World Congress 2009 (#MWC09).
Open source, crowd sourcing, app stores, open networks, Web 2.0, Mobile 2.0, co-creation, user generated content. It’s clear that the future of application development is a hot industry topic.
Tip your hat to Apple. They have quickly transformed a cottage industry, struggling to find a poster child, into a serious business in a very short space of time. Through great end-to-end user experience – often overlooked by many in the area - we now have people buying apps on a regular basis. If you had asked those same people 6 months ago what kind of app they were interested in, they would have struggled to even define what an app was, let alone have a clear view on what was missing from their app life.
This wave has also beached in corporate boardrooms with many companies now launching or planning to launch app stores in reaction to the success of the Apple App Store. This leads us to ask where will the industry be in 6 months time?
Put yourself in the shoes of the customer for a second. They switch on their PCs and are be offered applications by their internet service provider. They then go to their favourite portal and may be offered applications, next they will see sponsored links for applications from their search engine.
Next they then pull their mobile phone out of their pocket and see an application store from their handset manufacturer, and sitting next that is the icon for their mobile network’s app store. Confused? Just imagine what the customer is thinking.
On the surface this explosion of app stores is a good thing for developers – more places to sell your apps means more people buying those apps, right?
However, this could be misleading. Many of these app stores are using aggregators to fill them up. This may lead to the vast majority of stores containing identical catalogues.
I can see parallels between the growing app market and digital music. Research has shown that over 90% of digital music catalogues are never downloaded. It’s an extreme example of Prato’s law. Are App stores already following the same path?
If these stores are filled by aggregators, and managed by marketers believing it’s all about catalogue, how do you as a developer get noticed? You want your app to be Smells Like Teen Spirit, and avoid being the obscure Cat Stevens B side from 1967 that no one wants!
So how do you solve this problem?
Customers. They are out there. They have an opinion. They are potential consumers of your products. You should get to know them, and love them. If you want to be successful, you have to prioritise customer relationship and service. Don’t just focus on the next feature you can build into your software.
Going back to my digital music analogy, we are going to see a huge attrition rate for apps. Thousands will never be downloaded or make profit. Can you afford to burn time and money speculating on what customers might want? Why not ask them before you commitment your engineering resource.
How do you find and reach these customers?
You should be seeking out partners that provide the most important API going forward. The winner of the most important API of 2009? It’s the Customer API.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if a large organisation was willing to step out of the way and let you interact directly with its customers? You would be able to demonstrate, co-develop and refine your product directly with end users?
This has to be a win – win approach. You save time and effort by refining your ideas before commercially launching, the end user feels empowered by helping to improve the products they and their friends will end up using, plus they get to experience these apps before anyone else – very different to a traditional retail environment where you buy and either love or hate the app you get.
Come and check us out here and upload your apps: http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/ or you can contact me directly via Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesparton
Have you registered for WIPJAM yet. Rumour has it there are 2 tickets to give-away to the O2-Telefoncia party on Tues nite…
Mobile 2.0 San Francisco
Orginally published at www.bima.co.uk on 8th November 2008
This week I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend the annual Mobile 2.0 conference in San Francisco, on behalf of O2 Litmus. The one-day event took place on 3rd November at the Hyatt and was a sell-out, with over 300 people in packed into the venue. What was interesting to see was not only the international outlook on the mobile 2.0 scene, but that the mobile application developer ecosystem is rapidly building in size and credibility.
Venture capitalists, start up’s, operators and established application developers sat closely alongside one another in San Francisco. I was one of a relatively small number of Europeans at the event, and it was clear to see the benefits of such a closely knit community both in terms ofcollaboration and ideas.
The topic talked about the most at Mobile 2.0 was what gives mobile applications the ‘X Factor’.
Many of the questions from the floor insinuated that many developers were still working hard to find sustainable business models for mobile. Many were looking at ad funded as the potential solution to their problem.
However the view from the VC panel was as clear as it was stark. Mobile applications which solely rely on advertising revenue are consistently failing to attract any interest from the Bay Area VC community. This is due to high levels of cynicism that mobile will be able to generate the CPM rates & volumes required to sustain a VC investable business.
“VC investable” is the key term here. All on the panel were at pains to state that many app developers will be able to create a business in Mobile via Ad funded, with the potential to scale to single figure millions of dollars per year. However, of course, the VC community are looking for exits of substantially more than that, and you got the sense everyone is still searching for the Mobile poster child company to emerge.
Secondly there was a detectable frustration with a lack of innovation coming through. Too many ideas being presented to the VC community were seen as line extensions, simply taking an existing concept and adding one or two new features - not breaking fresh ground or coming up with differentiated & unique propositions. This view was backed up by Sarah Lacey in her talk entitled “Secrets from Silicon Valley” held in London on 7th November.
An great tip for anyone going in front of these guys was be prepared for the “why now?” question. In these increasingly tough times the entrepreneur must be ready to convince the VC that they can’t afford to just sit back and let some other guy take the risk on their idea.
The theme of negativity on ad funded models was articulated by Tim Chang from Norwest Venture Partners, citing companies like GetJar who are building a sustainable business in Mobile. In anticipation of this focus on monitisable transactions, Tim was particularly supportive of micropayments and companies in the payments space.
I’m not an application developer though, so although the sweet spot for hot applications right now was compelling to see, what I found more insightful was the appetite for the industry to collaborate to create better things in the mobile 2.0 era.
I can see too that it will be important for Mobile operators like us to help bring customers and application developers together and step out of their way to let both parties get the most out of one another.
Consumers want cutting edge apps and developers want to reach an audience more easily. I see no reason why this won’t be the future model, and we will all be able to learn a lot from the journey.
This week I was fortunate enough to have been able to attend the annual Mobile 2.0 conference in San Francisco, on behalf of O2 Litmus. The one-day event took place on 3rd November at the Hyatt and was a sell-out, with over 300 people in packed into the venue. What was interesting to see was not only the international outlook on the mobile 2.0 scene, but that the mobile application developer ecosystem is rapidly building in size and credibility.
Venture capitalists, start up’s, operators and established application developers sat closely alongside one another in San Francisco. I was one of a relatively small number of Europeans at the event, and it was clear to see the benefits of such a closely knit community both in terms ofcollaboration and ideas.
The topic talked about the most at Mobile 2.0 was what gives mobile applications the ‘X Factor’.
Many of the questions from the floor insinuated that many developers were still working hard to find sustainable business models for mobile. Many were looking at ad funded as the potential solution to their problem.
However the view from the VC panel was as clear as it was stark. Mobile applications which solely rely on advertising revenue are consistently failing to attract any interest from the Bay Area VC community. This is due to high levels of cynicism that mobile will be able to generate the CPM rates & volumes required to sustain a VC investable business.
“VC investable” is the key term here. All on the panel were at pains to state that many app developers will be able to create a business in Mobile via Ad funded, with the potential to scale to single figure millions of dollars per year. However, of course, the VC community are looking for exits of substantially more than that, and you got the sense everyone is still searching for the Mobile poster child company to emerge.
Secondly there was a detectable frustration with a lack of innovation coming through. Too many ideas being presented to the VC community were seen as line extensions, simply taking an existing concept and adding one or two new features - not breaking fresh ground or coming up with differentiated & unique propositions. This view was backed up by Sarah Lacey in her talk entitled “Secrets from Silicon Valley” held in London on 7th November.
An great tip for anyone going in front of these guys was be prepared for the “why now?” question. In these increasingly tough times the entrepreneur must be ready to convince the VC that they can’t afford to just sit back and let some other guy take the risk on their idea.
The theme of negativity on ad funded models was articulated by Tim Chang from Norwest Venture Partners, citing companies like GetJar who are building a sustainable business in Mobile. In anticipation of this focus on monitisable transactions, Tim was particularly supportive of micropayments and companies in the payments space.
I’m not an application developer though, so although the sweet spot for hot applications right now was compelling to see, what I found more insightful was the appetite for the industry to collaborate to create better things in the mobile 2.0 era.
I can see too that it will be important for Mobile operators like us to help bring customers and application developers together and step out of their way to let both parties get the most out of one another.
Consumers want cutting edge apps and developers want to reach an audience more easily. I see no reason why this won’t be the future model, and we will all be able to learn a lot from the journey.
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