What’s That App Called? Foursquare for BlackBerry

By Matt Kapko | 03.2.10, 8:00 PM | (0)

**As published at digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: Foursquare Price: Free Platform: BlackBerry
Advertising: None as of yet
Functionality: B-
Fun Factor: B+
Overall: B+

Not exactly a new social networking phenomenon, but new to BlackBerry, foursquare is one of the best location-based services available to BlackBerry owners. That said, there are still some kinks that need to be worked out — which is likely why it’s still in beta (version 1.5.5).

After a couple weeks of use the app hasn’t lost its sense of cool. I held out against foursquare for what seemed like an eternity, but I still find myself wanting to “check-in” just as much as I did when I finally made the leap. The service has been making the high-profile rounds for at least a year, and with the BlackBerry capability finally on board, it’s sure to gain new users like me who held out until it reached their primary device of choice. Read more

The modern-day version of staking a claim

By Matt Kapko | 02.26.10, 8:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

Many talk about cellular towers as if each of them were equivalent to a claim for gold or oil. But in reality, towers are even better than gold (the black and gooey kind or shiny and gold kind).

For all intents and purposes, the ability for wireless towers to multiply from sea to shining sea isn’t at all hindered by the same resource requirements. In other words, a natural resource like gold isn’t finite in the same way space and the need for wireless towers flourishes – indeed their growth is only kept in check by man-made forces.

For the past 10 to 15 years, the tower industry has gone through waves of consolidation, periods of rampant growth and buildouts that were followed by equally rapid down turns. Generally, the cycle repeats. Read more

What’s That App Called? Redfin Real Estate

By Matt Kapko | 02.23.10, 6:03 PM | (0)

**As published at digiday:DAILY**

Publisher: Redfin  Price: Free  Platform: iPhone/iPod Touch
Advertising: None as of yet
Functionality: A
Fun Factor: B+, this is about as fun as home browsing gets.
Overall: A-

Checking out real estate online at home is one thing, but taking a GPS-equipped smartphone out for the proverbial scavenger hunt is entirely different. That’s what the Redfin Real Estate app allows you to do.

Seattle-based, VC-backed Redfin describes itself as the “first online brokerage for buying and selling homes,” sort of like a hybrid Century 21 and E-Trade. Once I registered as a “Redfinnian,” I was able to mark any available property I liked as a favorite, and then Redfin would send updates like price reductions and open-house times via email. Read more

@MWC: Brands, ad agencies suspicious of mobile marketing hype

By Matt Kapko | 02.18.10, 3:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA — “No doubt about it, to some extent we’re selling change,” Tim Sefton, customer director of Telefonica O2 UK, said today on a mobile marketing and advertising panel.

That fact more than anything may be why for nearly the past decade, executive after executive has defined this and each subsequent year as the year of mobile marketing and advertising — and been so very wrong.

Personifying the problem the mobile industry has when it comes to convincing marketers, media buyers and ad agencies to direct more of their spend to mobile wasn’t hard to find in the audience. When asked how many in attendance were advertisers, only one or two raised their hands. Equally troublesome for mobile advertising as a whole, only two or three people raised their hands to identify themselves as someone representing a brand or ad agency. Read more

@MWC: Making music simple and profitable on mobile

By Matt Kapko | 02.18.10, 1:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – “Any piece of content should be playable within five seconds.” That’s the goal Spotify is after with its hugely popular music service that barely anyone outside of Europe has ever heard of, CEO and Founder Daniel Ek said during a keynote.

In his elevator pitch, Ek described Spotify as an iTunes-like experience that allows users to access all of the world’s music.

The two-tiered platform is broken up into a free, ad-supported model and a premium model that allows users to access and cache their entire music library on their mobile device. Based on the latest exchange rates, the premium service costs $13.60 in Spain, France, Sweden, Norway and Finland; and $15.68 in the United Kingdom. For that price, users can download as many songs as they want every month. Read more

@MWC: BBC lays out plan for increased mobile play

By Matt Kapko | 02.18.10, 12:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – As BBC’s director of future media and technology announced the broadcaster’s latest plans for the mobile platform he did, frankly, what more media outlets should do: took the industry to task for its increasingly fragmented approach to content.

“We find it rather strange that the burden falls on us to reformat and repurpose our programming and content for every other platform and every device that comes out every six months,” Erik Huggers said in a brief keynote at Mobile World Congress. “Is it really necessary for us to have that fragmented of a market? Do we really all need our own app store?” Read more

@MWC: Bharti Airtel proves value of media in emerging markets

By Matt Kapko | 02.17.10, 1:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – In India today there are 500 million wireless subscribers spanning across 14 operators. Bharti Airtel, the third largest single-country operator in the world, controls a 30% market share with more than 120 million of those customers and 1.9 million retail locations.

The company’s CEO Sanjay Kapoor took his turn on the keynote stage this morning to offer examples of the carrier’s push into mobile content and explain how a penny-per-minute model and ARPU of $2 to $3 is rapidly changing the carrier’s user base.

With 560 million youths, 700 million people living rural areas and 70% of the population not having a bank account, Kapoor and his team are vying to leverage every partnership and asset possible to differentiate the operator’s services offering and continue to deliver incredible growth numbers. Read more

@MWC: Mobile as an artistic outlet

By Matt Kapko | 02.17.10, 12:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – For Nick Rhodes, the keyboardist in Duran Duran, technology has never been an afterthought, but rather something he’s tried to leverage every step of the way in the band’s 29-year career.

Whether its music videos, live show experiences or interactive engagement with fans, Rhodes has consistently tried to stay ahead of the curve, he said at a series of mini keynotes on mobile entertainment.

“When we’re making a new product, we first obviously create the songs and think about what visually we’re going to do, but then, you know, how do you get it out to people,” he said. Read more

@MWC: Google CEO outlines search giant’s mobile efforts

By Matt Kapko | 02.16.10, 4:00 PM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – As the second day of Mobile World Congress came to a close, the chairman and CEO of the seemingly dark horse not-so-long ago, Google, presented his thesis for why he thinks the ecosystem supporting mobility is coalescing around a point that will be “fundamental to human existence.”

Eric Schmidt outlined three factors – computing, connectivity and the cloud – that will be paramount to delivering a richer, more dynamic and personally fulfilling experience on mobile.

“It’s like magic. All of a sudden there are things you can do that you never thought were possible,” he said. Read more

@MWC: HTC launches three new smartphones and Sense update

By Matt Kapko | 02.16.10, 10:30 AM | (0)

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

BARCELONA – HTC showed no signs of slowing today as it announced a refresh to its HTC Sense user-interface overlay and a trio of new smartphones. Indeed, CEO Peter Chou said he expects the device maker to be among the top three smartphone suppliers by 2013.

While noting the difficulties the mobile industry went through as a whole last year, Chou boasted it “was the most significant year in our history.”

After raising the brand’s profile considerably during 2009, HTC is continuing to refine Sense and pursuing smartphone market share growth even more aggressively, he said during a morning press conference. Read more