Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

Recently we discussed mobile web applications that enable airline travelers to share or tweet their in-flight status, this week Virgin Atlantic Airways has introduced an iPhone app for those preoccupied with a fear of flying. The app is derived from the original Virgin Atlantic Airways Flying Without Fear course which helps people cope with stressful situations. It even boasts a 98% success rate.  Fear of flying can range from anxiety at take-off to a complete inability to board an aircraft.  The app presents you with a series of question where you rate your feelings of discomfort in any of the stages before flight take-off.

As told by Mashable, Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic, claims “the app will put many travelers at ease and enable them to prepare for their first Virgin Atlantic flight.” Flying Without Fear was developed by Mental Workout, an agency that creates mobile applications devoted to helping people resolve issues and improve mental performance.

Janice Momoko Chow is a freelance strategist and writer in New York City.  She writes Momoko Mashups, a blog about ideas and inspiration for tomorrow.

At an exclusive preview last night, Ralph Lauren's Rugby brand revealed its new "Make Your Own" iPhone application. The app let's consumers create their own unique Rugby directly from their iPhone.

The user experience is quite slick and intuitive. First, you pick an avatar, which can be your own photo or a Rugby model. You can adjust the skintone and pick a new hairstyle by shaking phone. Next, you choose a short from the Rugby collection that they' like to customize. Drag and drop patches onto the shirt, add your name to the back, if you want, then rotate the model 360 degrees to "do a twirl" and check out the whole look. There are over 1 million potential unique styles you can make, pretty much ensuring that you'll have a one-of-a-kind shirt if you so desire.

The app then lets you name your style and create a crest by choosing a backdrop, inscription, and crown for your avatar. You can can submit your creation to their public gallery. If approved, your style will be posted for others to see and rate (you can do the same with theirs). You then have the option to buy your item, send it to a friend, post to Facebook, or just save it to your phone. Sticker shock? You can go back and edit as well. If you chose to buy it, your order is sent to their North Carolina-based fulfillment center then routed to a local store. A salesperson will call you within 72 hrs to make sure you reeeeeeally want that shirt with 50 ponies on it. If you do, you then give your credit card information and shipping address, etc.

In addition to the application, their will also be interactive store windows that let you do everything the app does just by touching the glass. RL actually launched these windows back in 2006 allowing consumers to shop 24/7. As David Lauren related, they were actually inspired by the computerized window in Minority Report. "We called Spielberg to find out how he did it," Lauren said. When the director said it was all movie magic, the RL team endeavored to make it reality. The interactive windows relaunch today in NYC and San Francisco Rugby Stores with the Make Your Own app, so you can create a shirt anytime, or just pull up your style for all passerby to see.

MYO joins Ralph Lauren's other iPhone app, which mimics all the functionality of the regular e-commerce website, plus a mobile-optimized site for non-iPhones.

Allison

Aardvark

Ranking at #42 on Time’s annual list of the best websites, Aardvark takes a new approach to online Q&A. To get answers and opinions, many people ask their own trusted networks. But the truth is, there’s only so many times you can go back to the well before you’re blocked. Aardvark lets you ask friends and friends of friends a question for objective opinions from presumably likeminded people. Just send Aardvark a message through IM, like you do when talking to a friend. Aardvark figures out who might be able to answer, and asks on your behalf. The incentive is karmic – you answer questions so you’ll get answers too. Plus, people love to dish out advice, it’s human nature—online and off.

Reming

Did You Know?

I don’t consider my dad the most technologically cutting-edge guy of the Baby Boomer generation, so when he sends me an email I tend to always give them special attention (mainly because I know how long it takes him to send them). So when he sent me this YouTube video yesterday, I was super impressed and surprised.

The video, Did You Know?, is a presentation that addresses the technological, educational and social changes my generation and future generations will face in the coming years. Apparently the presentation started out as a PowerPoint presentation for a faculty meeting in August 2006 at a high school (why weren’t my HS teachers this cool?). Soon the presentation spread virally on the web. And now, between original versions and updated versions, over 20 million people have viewed the presentation. Although it may be somewhat outdated (I think the last update was in 2008) and maybe some of you have already seen it, the themes still ring true and are more relevant today than ever.

If anything, it pushes the dialogue regarding how our generation is going to deal with the immediate and constant changes in business landscapes, technology and globalization and how we need to better educate future generations for an ever-changing world.

Mike

Go Postal "Print Your Life" App

You know those awful 80’s postcards you see at airports? Think swimsuits, big Wayfarer sunglasses, animals with quotes and big, bold copy. They’re classic. Every new city I’m in I’ll find the worst and exchange them with a friend. I’ve noted they’re becoming obsolete with the insertion of purely skyline postcards. Enough with the Space Needle already!

So, with the assistance of goPostal iPhone app, I’m turning my nose on airport postcard kiosks and recreating my own for only $1.29/each. Snap a pic (in your best 1983 pose and clothes), input some text and choose an address from your directory. You’re done in less than one minute, or however long it take to put on a Muscle Beach thong.

Amanda

Photo of Hong Kong

This is really cool: The picture of Hong Kong goes from sunrise to sunset by dragging your mouse from top to bottom of the picture. Photo technology at its best!

Matt

Mobile Mini Projectors

While the Optoma Pico, the first mobile mini projector hit the market last year, two new competing models will be entering the tech space in September. WowWee’s Cinemin Swivel and 3M’s MPro120 will be released at $350 apiece next month. Both gadgets are capable of plugging into an iPhone or many other smartphones and project video onto any surface, such as a wall or ceiling.

With battery life allowing for movie play over 2 hours, plug-in speaker capabilities through an audio jack, easy plug-and-play set up, and an ability to rotate the projection to many different angles, the Swivel appears the stronger of the two new models. However, the MPro’s battery lasts twice as long, comes with a tripod stand, and has sharper contrast in its projection. The MPro does not have an external speaker jack though, so it’s a matter of weighing preferences (video vs. audio).

Andrea F

In-Fusio Bites the Dust

Once an international leader in mobile games and applications, In-Fusio has officially shut down after fighting the last few years to stay afloat after raising funds and being acquired by Zenops…

Indie music label Ghostly International recently launched an iPhone app called "Discovery" that streams full songs from their catalog based on your mood. We spoke with Miguel Senquiz, Ghostly's Director of Strategy & Development, and Brian Hords, Founder & Executive Creative Director of o2 creative solutions, to hear more about the app and how mobile fits into Ghostly's overall strategy and vision for the future.

Miguel Senquiz, Director of Strategy & Development at Ghostly International

Apple’s iPhone app store has been around since last year. What was the tipping point that made you decide Ghostly needed an iPhone app?

Early in the process, we were collaborating with o2 on an unrelated project in which people would interact with music in a live setting. In the end, the idea ended up being shelved due to cost and timing. However, bits of it germinated with the o2 and Ghostly teams. Shortly thereafter, we realized we could accomplish much of what we had originally wanted to do, using the iPhone as a medium.

Explain how the Ghostly iPhone app fits into Ghostly’s overall distribution strategy. Do you push for distribution in as many places as possible, or is there a process of curation to where Ghostly chooses to distribute music?

Our goal is to reach as many interested individuals as possible with our music. However, there is definitely an element of curation in our decisions to ensure that we’re hitting the people who are most likely to be interested. The iPhone platform allowed us to offer a greater number of people access to our music with a very low barrier to entry (free). We’re taking advantage of the app store’s built-in audience; in a way, you could look at the app as an always-evolving, free sampler of great independent music.

How important is mobile to the future of independent music? Is it just one tool among many digital tools, or does it demand a unique strategy? Do you think it offers a playing field where smaller labels can compete with bigger ones?

Mobile is important to a company insofar as it enables them to offer something of value to the end user. To us, mobile is a communication channel with unique benefits, but we don’t see it as necessarily more important than other existing or yet-to-be-created channels.

There is an absolute need to strategize how to effectively utilize each of our communication channels. The content we provide for radio, and the way it’s consumed through that medium, is very different from how we communicate through video with YouTube and the like. We’re cognizant of how we consume media as individuals and therefore reflect that in our approach to each format.

Why did you decide to use mood- and style-based streaming?

For many people, their ability to hear and appreciate music is extremely dependent upon their awareness or knowledge of the artists and genres. We decided that contextualizing the listening experience through mood was one way to overcome that barrier, avoiding labeling the music or drawing specific comparisons and instead painting a much broader, more inclusive picture. Rather than relying on recognition or familiarity with an artist or sound, we’re inviting people to tell us how they feel in a very general way and curating sounds that support or reflect their response.

The curatorial aspect of how the app works is very important to us. We want people to think of Ghostly and the app as a very knowledgeable friend, to whom you can say “I’m happy and excited right now,” and they’ll suggest a song that perfectly fits your state of mind.

Are there any plans to extend Ghostly’s mobile efforts to other devices or operating systems like Android?

At this time, we’re focusing on the iPhone platform only. We haven’t ruled it out, but there are major benefits to Apples’s SDK and ecosystem that we’re intent on harnessing.

Brian Hords, Founder & Executive Creative Director at o2

As an experience design firm, how does o2 integrate, if at all, the mobile platform into its larger branding offering?

In the last year, mobile content has increased exponentially. The mobile platform extends the opportunity for brands to be more accessible in a rapidly growing market. For o2, we look at this in a variety of ways. We create mobile apps and strategies to extend dialog, further opportunities to take a brand along wherever you go and to provide a reciprocal experience that connects back to a brand’s core communication intent.

What was the central theme in designing this app?

The central theme for the Ghostly app was to keep the UI simple, inviting and intuitive. The overall focus was to discover music. It is, after all, called Discovery.

We would like to thank Miguel Senquiz, Brian Hords, and all the people at Ghostly International + 02 creative solutions for making this interview possible.

Laura

BurdaStyle

In a brilliant collision of old and new, sewing has gone open source! This is the social network for the Singer set - offering a ton of free patterns (simply print as .pdf files, cut and glue together) and a slick interface for the young and crafty to compare notes. But my favorite part is the site’s emphasis on original design: users are encouraged to share their interpretations of patterns in an effort to inspire fresh visions. From photo galleries to one-click Etsy store setup (they do share office space in Brooklyn, after all), Burda is the word-a when it comes to a smart idea, executed well. Here’s hoping my A- in eighth grade home ec lives on.

Reming

Exilim Mobile Pics

To introduce its new Exilim Mobile camera phone, Casio gave its phone to 14 different artists and asked them to chronicle a week in their lives. The photos were on view this week at the Stephen Weiss Studio in NYC and according to the review in the NY Times, these pics “highlighted the rise of the camera phone as a totem of cool.”

Regardless of if you care about being seen as “cool,” the artists cited the imperfections of the photos as part of their charm as well as the ability to capture intimate moments you would otherwise miss. To see pictures from Casio commissioned artists check out the review at NY Times.

Andrea

Pingwire

Pingwire is the newest procrastination tool this week and is aimed at, you guessed it, Twitterers. (What isn't these days, right?) In theory, Pingwire sounds incredibly boring but it had me hooked for at least a few minutes. The website pulls in a live feed of images being posted to Twitter with Twitpic, yfrog, and Twitgoo. It's a little hard on the eyes as pics are constantly moving but better than staring at real work during your lunch break.

David

Solar Phone

It seems that phones are just getting greener and greener by the week. Behold the latest from Japan’s uber-carrier NTT DoCoMo: Solar Hybrid –a phone that can be recharged by both electricity and sunlight. According to the press release, ten minutes of solar charging equates to a minute of talk time – a feature that would be great to have on the power-hungry iPhone. Of course, this being an NTT DoCoMo handset, it also comes equipped with a high-resolution LCD screen, an 8-megapixel CCD camera with face-detection auto-focus, digital TV, a WMA music player, a mobile wallet, and a 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connection! The Solar Hybrid tops a previous post of mine on self-charging phones for the simple reason that the phone has already launched them and in fact will start selling in Japan this September.

Valerie

Palm's Mojo SDK

While so much of the attention paid to apps has focused on their novelty (the "it's cool factor") or their brand associations, probably 99.9% of the discussion also has focused on apps for the iPhone. However, the majority of the population does not have an iPhone and can only wish to have enough apps available for their handset so as to be called "appnoxious". Thus, I welcomed Palm's news yesterday, announced via its blog, that its Mojo Software Development Kit is now available to any developer who wants it. Now I just wonder how long it will be before I get the chance to call a Palm-toting friend "appnoxious."

Tristan

Flychat

The original idea behind chat services (like AIM, MSN, Yahoo) was to connect you to people you knew, right? Well, not anymore. Flychat is an iPhone app that lets you attach a message to a "fly" (looks real on the iPhone) and send it to anyone, anywhere in the world. Your messages can carry certain themes (Sports, Travel, Music...) in order to narrow who they are sent to. Each profile has a picture, friend count, and a wall, so you know who you are communicating with. There are even awards depending on your number of friends. "It's like a party in your iPhone".

Matthew

Video Game Decline

When I was a kid, I played a lot of video games (from Mario and Sonic to WWE and Madden). However, I’ve noticed that my 11-year-old brother and his friends do not have the same affinity towards traditional video games that I once did.

This is a larger trend: Monthly sales for hardware and software have fallen 31% in the past year, while 4 million new gamers have entered the market place in the last year.

The problem may be  the widespread distribution of cheap and free games via the internet and mobile phone applications. Until the gaming industry can figure out a way to retain their loyal base and attract a new gaming generation, consoles across the country may continue to collect dust.

Jeremy

Lens Blog

Over the course of the last few weeks, the New York Times has been featuring galleries of user submitted photos taken on mobile phones, all part of a larger examination of the changing way digital and mobile
culture has been affecting the creation of art. Not only are the photos excellent, it's a great example of how media companies and brands are increasingly empowering the followers to interact with them using mobile devices, enabling lifestreaming in real time.

Michael

Food, Inc.

We all know Steve Ell’s mission to serve “Food With Integrity” at his founding company Chipotle Mexican Grill. Now, Chipotle has taken a more direct approach and sponsored a new film “Food, Inc” which poster you will notice on your next 40-minute wait for a burrito bowl. The company is also hosting free screenings of the film. A great promotion to reemphasize the passion point of this 16-year-old-looking CEO.

Marketers still miss the boat on why Chipotle is successful. They’re successful because they strip the consumer of concerns, anxiety and complexity. You have a simple menu choice, a simple yet ascetic retail design, a clean homepage, transparency in food preparation (just watch that chicken sizzle) as well as where it originated. This simplicity is exactly what consumers want.

Allison

Klickable Jay Z

Last week, Roc Nation / Roc4Life released a klickable Jay-Z video for Death of Autotune that's grabbing people's attention. The concept is like an interactive version of VH1's old Pop-Up Video show--click on the video to get more information and fun facts--but it also links to products. So, for example, you can buy Jay's Rocawear shoes straight from the video. According to Klickable, the average number of views per user is 2 (which means most people watched the video a second time) and the average number of klicks per view is 15 (out of 46 total). Check it out on ROC4Life.

Tangent Funding

Adam Quick of Wreck & Salvage has a new educational video series in development called Tangent that depicts how everything in life is connected and related, with a focus on history. It's written to attract a web audience, and watches the same way that someone might surf the web, following links to other bits of information, and eventually connecting everything together.

In an effort to fund the project, Quirk is appealing to the public for investment. Supporters can buy $10 shares to help Quirk raise money for the production budget. Investors receive a cut of all the revenue the show generates until December 2010, in direct correlation to the percentage of ownership.

This is a small example of micro-financing initiatives sprouting up on the web. Sites like Kickstarter, Popcuts, and Society6 are all founded on this idea that people will want to back smaller cultural/creative projects they are personally interested in. And given the lack of faith in investment banks and institutions right now, I think we'll continue to see this sort of microfinancing migrating towards personal networks.

An Increasing Number of Teenagers Are Enlisting the Help of Image Consultants [WashingtonPost]
As lifestreaming becomes a mainstream activity of teens with their photos and updates flooding the web, some are turning to professional image consultants to get a handle on their identities.

Life Is But A Stream [Ypulse]
New research out of the UK confirms what we've been noticing, that teens are moving away from downloading music in favor of streaming.  In this study, only 26% admitted to downloading at least once a month (down from 42% in 2008).

New York Nearest Subway AR App [Amit Gupta Likes You!]
The team that created the Nearest Tube augmented reality iPhone app we reported on the other week has now created on for New Yorkers called Nearest Subway (thanks!)

Mobile Ads Perform Better than Ads Online. For Now [Econsultancy]
can you make this one more of a list of the stats she mentions with a short lead in?

LG Kicks Off Mobile Worldcup 2009 for Fastest Texter [SlashPhone]
After launching their app store in Asia, LG is now hosting the World Cup of texters to debut in August.

India's Rural Mobile Phone Users Hit 100 Million [PC World]
India and China are poised to be the biggest cell phone markets in the near future, thanks largely to people in rural areas. India had 109.7 million rural mobile subscribers at the end of the first quarter, up by 18 percent from the previous year,

Facebook Driving Mobile Net Usage [BBC News]
According to CCS Insight, 1/3 of 16-35 year olds regularly access Twitter and Facebook on their mobile and social networking sites are driving data usage on mobile.

Students Hit With $15 Fine For Using Cells in School [ABC News]
From ringing in class, to spreading unflattering pictures on campus, the cell phone has raised red flags across U.S. schools. Now in Texas, by state law, administrators are now allowed to confiscate cell phones no matter how they are used, and students can be fined $15 to get it back.

The Evolution of Facebook's Mission Statement [The New York Observer]
From a Harvard-only network back in 2004 to over 60 million users today across the world, Facebook's mission statements reflect the brands growth. Michael Galpert does a good job tracing their taglines.

Why Teens Aren’t Using Twitter: It Doesn’t Feel Safe [TechCrunch]
We seem to really want teens to be on Twitter, it's always coming up in conversation: Are they or aren't they? If not, why?? This post hypothesizes that teens don't tweet due to the inability to control your network.

RIM Launching A BlackBerry Social Network For Venting [TechCrunch]
RIM is launching MyBlackBerry.com to help the launch of its application store. The site will act as a social networking tool where users can post their tips, favorite apps, or just any info about their BlackBerry.

Matthew

Facebook Lawsuit

A very interesting lawsuit will be filed today, possibly changing the social networking website landscape in the process. Power.com, which began in Brazil and has been in operation in the United States since December, will be responding to Facebook's suit which was filed in January, with a suit of their own.

Power.com built a portal that allowed users to access their various social network accounts from one location. When it launched, Power.com included sites such as MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin, Hi5, and Facebook. Due to Facebook's allegations of copyright and trademark infringement however, they have been removed from the portal.

Today, Power.com will allege that Facebook's prohibition of its users to access accounts from another site is an attempt to monopolize the social networking market. The suit will include formal charges such as unfair competition, restraint of trade, and monopolization. Although Power.com received a big spike in signups when they first launched, that number has dropped significantly. Last month, the site received only 14,000 American visitors...a number that is dwarfed by Facebook's traffic. Either way, this small and struggling company could very well pave an intriguing path towards challenging the social network giant's domination of the industry.

Allison

Tumblr Submissions

Thanks to simple, social blogging platforms like Tumblr, we’re seeing the rise of group blogs like Young Manhattanite, Eat Sleep Draw, This is why you’re fat, or Cute Overload.

These blogs, more about the community than a single author, encourage discussion around topics – kind of like a curated Twitter.

Tumblr is hoping to enable this sort of blogging genre, pointing out that six such sites have gone from Tumblr blog to book deal in the last year. To this end they released Submissions this week, a feature to streamline community-driven blogs that lets readers submit posts via web or email.

Jeremy

Nokia is Doomed

Ever since the iPhone, mobile device manufacturers have been heralding the arrival of a new generation of "game-changing" handsets, all meant to bring their devices up to par with Apple's gold-standard device. Some, like Palm's new Pre handset, have done an admirable job, playing on the company's historic strengths in mobile and smartphone OS design.

Others, like Blackberry's "game-changing" Storm handset have been met with indifference or plagued by bugs and upgrades. Recently mobile industry giant Nokia released their newest high-end smartphone, the N97. As this review from Gizmodo indicates, the reception has been mixed, with critiques of its slow CPU and dull Symbian operating system among the major concerns. Nearly 2 years after the iPhone was first released and its competitors still seem to be playing catch-up.

Michael

Photoswap iPhone App

Last night I had dessert at Café Lalo (you know, the place where Meg Ryan had to wait for her AOL guy to show up) and after uploading a pic of my Triple Fruit Loop Mousse Cake came the response pic from a guy in Sweden of what looked like a chicken casserole. This is a great app for experiencing a unique glimpse into someone else’s life through a real-time photo-based conversation. Now you’re saying to yourself, Mike, you sound so cultured going to fancy-schmancy dessert places. Well, just know this..look at the desserts name and take a stab at why I chose it. Bingo.

Laura

Napa Winery’s “Epic Fail”

A couple of months ago, Napa Valley wine empire Jackson Valley Wines posted a job opening that elicited as much PR buzz as it did applicants: online “lifestyle correspondent” for its Murphy-Goode brand. The gig? Blog, Tweet and, essentially, ingratiate the product to the social media set for $60K and free Wine Country housing.

Everyone from Matt Lauer to my mom took notice. 2,000 job-seekers created web videos as part of the application process, generating support through their respective social media channels. When all was said and done, Murphy-Goode ignored these factors, throwing a metaphorical “one finger salute” to the very community they claimed to court. The fallout has been nothing short of awesome to watch. Who doesn’t love a little Schadenfreude with their wine?

David

Self-Charging Phones

Looks like Nokia is bringing a new level of eco-friendliness to its handsets while giving users more juice for their power-hungry phones. According to the article from the UK's The Guardian, Nokia is working on prototype phones that charge themselves while on standby mode. The new technology allows a phone's battery to charge itself on ambient radiowaves - essentially the weak TV, radio and mobile phone signals that permanently surround us.

The prototypes are projected to harvest as much as a thousand times more power from these waves than existing ambient wave harvesters. Three to five years sounds like a pretty long time to wait for the first commercial handset, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it!

Valerie

Twilight App

While I have yet to read any of the books in the Twilight series, I’m somewhat of a pop culture junkie. Thus, I would have to be living off the grid to miss the enormous following this series, the movies and its newly minted stars have garnered. I read that the publisher behind these books, Little, Brown Book Group, recently announced it was launching an iPhone app reader for this series (as part of an experiment with a few of the publishing house’s titles being made available via such apps).

Initially I did not find the news too interesting, as anything and everything relating to Twilight and iPhone apps receive so much attention in the media I most often read (that is, news about the wireless industry and pop culture). However, once I remembered another recent post I was intrigued. A study sponsored by AdMob and comScore found that “more than 70% of users on both the iPhone and iPod touch are male” and that those 13-24 years of age account for “just 26% of iPhone users.”

While I have not seen any hard stats, as anyone who is familiar with Twilight has seen, its fans are largely female and younger, most likely largely falling into the 13-24 year-old age group. They are also a very enthusiastic group, closely following all products and news relating to Twilight. As evidence of this enthusiasm, I read that teen retailer Hot Topic’s relationship with Twilight has been credited with increasing the company’s sales over the course of several months. This is no small feat during an otherwise dismal retail economy. Thus, the news of this app made me think that it may not be the publishers of Twilight who benefit most from this app. An app that is targeted at the existing large, enthusiastic, young and female Twilight fan base could be more of a win for Apple and exclusive iPhone carrier AT&T.

Tristan

PeopleBrowsr

Now that the internet is about offering niche services that directly cater to specific needs, meet PeopleBrowsr. The search engine is the ultimate social network tracker, and has just launched a live search feature. On the main page of PeopleBrowsr, you get a choice of tools depending on what type of search you need, the choice varies from brand/buzz search, news search, conference search, and more. The interface is pretty sleek, and the service is available as a desktop app. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.