GVSU Mobile Applications and Services Lab

Droid application downloads increased by 93 percent over previous Fridays in December. Droid accounted for 48 percent of download volume across the leading Android handsets (Droid, myTouch 3G, G1 and HTC Hero).

Material wealth creation / destruction should surpass earlier computing cycles. The mobile Internet cycle, the 5th cycle in 50 years, is just starting. Winners in each cycle often create more market capitalization than in the last. New winners emerge, some incumbents survive – or thrive – while many past winners falter. The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did, and we believe more users may connect to the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within 5 years. Five IP-based products / services are growing / converging and providing the underpinnings for dramatic growth in mobile Internet usage – 3G adoption + social networking + video + VoIP + impressive mobile devices. Apple + Facebook platforms serving to raise the bar for how users connect / communicate – their respective ramps in user and developer engagement may be unprecedented. Decade-plus Internet usage / monetization ramps for mobile Internet in Japan plus desktop Internet in developed markets provide roadmaps for global ramp and monetization. Massive mobile data growth is driving transitions for carriers and equipment providers. Emerging markets have material potential for mobile Internet user growth. Low penetration of fixed-line telephone and already vibrant mobile value-added services mean that for many EM users and SMEs, the Internet will be mobile.

In large stores, such as Apple’s App Store, it is easy for an application to get lost in the crowd. To avoid that problem, brands and agencies should develop strategies for increasing discoverability, such as using other mobile or non-mobile channels to build awareness of the application so that consumers will seek it out.

This may pale in comparison to the number of applications available for the iPhone / iPod Touch (100,000), but the real battle for mobile OS dominion isn’t fought between Google and Apple, who are increasingly distancing themselves from more established players in terms of mobile Web usage and together are creating a whole new mobile advertising micro-economy.

How do you educate a generation of students eternally distracted by the internet, cellphones and video games? Easy. You enable them by handing out free iPhones — and then integrating the gadget into your curriculum.

The mobile phone is another emerging digital tool for the holidays and is expected to be used by nearly one in five consumers (19 percent) to assist with their holiday shopping. Those consumers plan to find store locations (55 percent), research prices (45 percent), find product information (40 percent), get discounts and coupons (32 percent) and read reviews (31 percent). One in four (25 percent) even expect to make a holiday purchase with their phone.

Reviews have become another key online source of information, with nearly four in 10 consumers (39 percent) indicating they often read consumer-generated reviews of stores or products online, and one-quarter (25 percent) saying they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation. More than a third (34 percent) say that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than advertising.

Here are some miscellaneous notes on Android

As the social economy swells and continues to flourish, many of us are abandoning the forums and systems where businesses held the illusion of control in favor of communities where we dictate the level of value we give and take. Accordingly, brands are turning in our direction. We are, after all, the keepers of social capital and with it, we make valuable decisions and also impact and influence the decisions of others.

At PDC 2009, Microsoft demonstrated Silverlight video streaming to an iPhone.

Last week, Six Voices released Discover Rockford Michigan, the first of what it hopes will be a series of city-themed apps that provide maps, business directories, history, points of interest and other functions. The app was developed in conjunction with marketing and advertising firm Fluis Inc.

The promise here is simply massive. The peril comes in alienating people from the concept of free-form visual search because the engine is running only on one cylinder.  

Nearly 20 percent of retailers plan to at least pilot an M-commerce project by the end of 2009, according to an RIS study published in May 2009 called "M-Commerce: Retail in Motion." This finding and others in the study were referenced by many media outlets and retail sources at the time, because it showed a surprisingly high level of interest among retailers for an emerging channel.

Google showed off on December 7 a prototype of its mobile tagging technology. The company is “QR” barcodes to more than 100,000 local businesses in the U.S. Mobile users can snap a picture of the bar codes and obtain information about that business — including reviews, coupons, and other information. (Smartphone users need an app on their phones that can read the QR codes.) In January 2009, Microsoft launched a beta of its own bar-code search technology, known as Microsoft Tag. It also introduced a free mobile tag reader. Microsoft, being Microsoft, couldn’t simply rely on the QR standard. Instead, it announed it was creating its own bar code technology that stores more information, more dynamically, offering more user choice. It’s cool that Microsoft Tag allows developers to determine the content and experience users will have by allowing choices of text, video, maps, discounts, promotions. But the lack of QR support is a deal breaker for some.

Google introduced several other products at its event on Monday. The most ambitious, called Google Goggles, allows people to send Google a cellphone photograph of, say, a landmark or a book, and have information about the contents of the image returned to them instantly.

Store revival in retail will require a monumental shift in the retailer’s mindset for overhauling customer’s destination shopping experience, personalized marketing, and even personalized merchandise mix.

About 72 hours ago, the RedLaser 2.5 update was published to the App Store.  It was a soft-launch with our new partner, TheFind, which is the fastest growing search engine for shopping in the US with over 400 million products in its search index.  In the 2.5 release we also improved our scanning speed (6% faster), and made a handful of interface improvements.

is this the DROID you've been looking for?

This project is a port of Facebook Connect for iPhone to Android platform.

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