Posted: July 31st, 2009 | Author: James Barnes | Filed under: blog | No Comments »
It might not be a long hot summer in the UK but it’s probably been a steamy week for James Whatley, the man who runs ‘Social Media’ at Spinvox, the nice speech-to-text service people.Putting News International’s cavalier attitude to privacy behind them, the BBC got stuck into Spinvox for alledged use of live call centre operators in transcribing speech-to-text. Whatley’s defence included the bizarre claim that the number of messages referred to live operators is some kind of trade secret, the revealing of which would compromise company security. The BBC hit back by revealing company salaries, then referring to patents that made mention of human intervention in the transcription service. Back and forth they went with their claims…
Perhaps the most suprising fact I learned was that the average annual salary at Spinvox is a phenomenal £96,369, this in a staff of just over 200. The highest paid director earns just over half a million a year. OK, it’s not quite boo.com but if any VCs are reading this: how can a shareholder director possibly justify that salary in this current economic climate? If I’d invested in Spinvox, I’d be asking for a quick look at the books and an AGM right about now.
Posted: July 24th, 2009 | Author: James Barnes | Filed under: blog | No Comments »
Dailywireless alerted me to an interesting story from Tech On, seems KDDI have been showing off a WiFi SD card for mobile, albeit with no release date. This might not be news to avid Japan watchers but I cannot help but hope that we are closer to the reality.
Mobile Operators have a worrying tendency to flex their muscle and request a WiFi rip-out at the drop of a 100K order with their vendor mobile manufacturers (Nokia and my local provider spring to mind).
Why do we put up with our Utility Vendors’ insistence on banning technology that benefits us?
Posted: July 20th, 2009 | Author: James Barnes | Filed under: blog | No Comments »
The simplistic aim for an application developer is to get a brand onto the device. For those selling applications as shrink-wrap software, this is a traditional needs-benefits sale which must be closed before the application is loaded.
It’s very simple to offer applications for free on the internet and enjoy many thousands of downloads – the iTunes iPhone App Store is full of one-chuckle show-your-mates apps. Installation numbers only become meaningful in context of conversion to a happy customer; one who regularly uses that application or, in gaming terms, uses that application until the enjoyment potential has expired.
For companies like Morodo, who offer service enabled by a free application, getting the brand onto the device is secondary to providing value in the service itself. Morodo’s MO-Call app is essentially a VoIP service. Our revenue stream is only realised when the customer uses that app, enjoys the convenient and relaible calling useful and pays for airtime (yes, you can try before you buy).
In fact, MO-Call is a case in point; the ethos of the app is that a customer should be able to make a phone call via an alternative network operator seamlessly, without having to interact with the software. The app itself (and the branding it carries) is invisble to the consumer.
Simply getting the brand on the mobile will bring you no value whatsoever unless the app sporting that brand provides a useful service to the consumer. Who wants to be an un-clicked icon buried deep in the user interface?
In mobile advertising, it’s not uncommon for campaigns to be based around a free app that provides content, updates or links to product information. Procter & Gamble’s mobile strategy sets very high store by such means of reaching the market and they are right to do so as their aim is to create recognition and presence; the brand-in-the- hand if you will. Again, without usage and interaction, such advertising becomes meaningless.
At present, the challenge lies with firstly the operating system owner and secondly, the application developer, to make it easier and more enjoyable to download all kinds of stuff to your mobile and play with it.
An edited version of this post was published in Mobile Business July 2009 in response to the question: what does mobile branding mean for your company?
