We got a lot of great comments on your favorite Mobile Web apps in the contest post, which we will analyze soon. Keep telling us the Mobile Web apps you use, e.g. in this comments thread too, because it's great to know.

Publishers can now use Zong apps to offer their customers polls, quizzes, alerts, RSS feeds and more via SMS shortcodes and responses. The company says its API also allows publishers to leverage web content, serve up and bill customers for a wide variety of applications beyond SMS interactions.

Publishers are expected to charge customers for use of the apps and billing functionality is built into Zong. The US carriers will take 40 to 60% of revenue from the apps, Zong will take less than 10% and the publishers can pocket the rest. That sounds like the kind of revenue split that could prove viable in the long run. While a lot of the apps we'll start seeing soon will probably be pretty corny, there will be some good ones too. Good mobile apps that work are something I'm willing to pay to use.

Competitor Golife Mobile just began offering limited Java application access last week. Some comparison to Google's Android Mobile OS can't help but come to mind - but Zong is a far more limited application framework, is explicitly commercial in its relationship to end users - and it's live now. While the Android SDK has been released - the Operating System isn't live on any phones yet.

Earlier today our resident Mobile Web expert Sarah Perez listed ReadWriteWeb's top 10 Mobile Web products of 2009. As for your choices, we discovered that you like social networking on the go (Facebook, Foursquare), Twitter clients (Tweetie, Twitterrific), Google (Google Maps, Google Mobile), and innovative mobile-focused apps (Evernote, Shazam). The top 16 is listed below, with commentary. Also at the bottom of the post you'll find a spreadsheet of the entire list.

Many of our readers use iPhones, so the above list features more iPhone apps than apps from Android, Blackberry, Nokia, or other phones.

Facebook was the most popular mobile app listed by you all. Facebook has been improving their iPhone app all year and this survey shows that our readers are liking those iterations. As Sarah Perez noted earlier today, "if any application deserves an "app of the year" award, it's Facebook 3.0 for iPhone."

Not far behind Facebook was Tweetie, a popular mobile Twitter client, which released a major new version of their app in September. Tweetie 2 introduced features like video tweets, offline mode, geolocation and more. Other mobile Twitter apps mentioned multiple times include Echofon, TweetDeck and Twitterific.

Google has always been popular in our Mobile apps surveys, since we began doing them in 2007. They're listed three times in the above list, including at number three with Google Maps.

Several mobile-centric apps (i.e. apps developed specifically for mobile, rather than the desktop computer) made our top 16 list. Foursquare is a trendy new mobile social network; Evernote is a great note-taking tool; Shazam is a head-scratchingly good app for identifying songs — to name just a few.

Click here to see a Google spreadsheet featuring the entire list of nearly 200 mobile apps listed by our readers.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2009

There are two ways to access real-time search results in the app. The homepage now displays the hottest trending topics, and a single click on one of these opens up OneRiot search results.

In addition, you can also do a normal search and then select "latest buzz" from the options menu right next to the search box. This same menu also allows you to restrict search to images, videos, blog or Wikipedia articles, as well as to sites and blogs about sports, news or apps.

For a closer look at Taptu's feature set, also have a look at our review of the service's web app.]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/taptu_brings_real-time_search_to_its_mobile_apps.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/taptu_brings_real-time_search_to_its_mobile_apps.php News Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:30:51 -0800 Frederic Lardinois IBM has a podcast with Tim Berners-Lee. In a conversation with Scott Laningham of IBM developerWorks, Sir Tim discusses his early history with the Web, opportunities and challenges of the present, emerging technologies, and of course the semantic web.

Reading news on your mobile device - Another Web inventor, Dave Winer of RSS fame, is now busy creating mobile versions of popular news sources and weblogs for reading on your BlackBerry, Treo, or web-enabled cell phone. Included in the first batch is a mobile version of Read/WriteWeb! Also available is mobile NY Times. When I hear Dave saying something like this, I always prick up my ears:

"I've not been so excited or so sure about a new direction for mobile technology since podcasting in June 2004. I'm sure we'll look back on this as a turning point for mobile news."

And speaking of the future of the Web... Read/WriteWeb is giving away two seats to The Future of Web Apps conference - courtesy of Carson Workshops. For a chance to win, answer this question: What is the name of the person speaking about Google Calendar at The Future of Web Apps?

Email readwriteweb [at] carsonworkshops [dot] com with your answer and the folks at Carson Workshops will choose the first two people with the right answer.

With Cascada Mobile's platform called Breeze, anyone can take their idea from thought to app in about fifteen minutes. Well, maybe not anyone - the apps are built using HTML, so you would have to have some rudimentary web programming knowledge to use their platform. Still, you have to admit, that's a lot easier than using a professional development platform.

With Breeze, you can build, test, and distribute mobile J2ME apps that run on hundreds and handsets. And these are "real" apps, too - fully integrated mobile applications with their own icon, not just mobile widgets.

The "Breeze Simulator" lets the novice developers test their app for hundreds of different handsets - a usually daunting task in the world of mobile web programming where apps that work on one model don't work on another, even if they're similar in design or from the same manufacturer.

Check out this video that shows Breeze in action:
Cascada Mobile Breeze from Cascada Mobile on Vimeo.

In addition, Breeze developers will receive a line of code they can put on their web sites, blogs, or social network profiles that let their visitors download the app by entering their mobile number. Breeze takes care of the distribution via SMS, WAP Push, and direct download. To subsidize the cost of distribution, the apps are ad-enabled. However, developers wanting to go ad-free can pay for the use of Breeze in order to do so.

Should Programming Be Left To the Professionals?

So, now we have an application that lets everyone program web apps (Iceberg) and a platform for building mobile J2ME apps, what's next? If this trend is to continue, the next big move would be to let novice developers build their own iPhone applications, you would think. But the real question is do we actually want amateurs building apps for our mobile devices? Or would you rather that was left to professionals?

You can try some Breeze applications for yourself from here. (Ooh, mobile Twitter!)

The iPhone has a ton of selling points. It sports an user interface that goes beyond anything ever seen on the Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Palm OS'. The performance is fast! The interface is intuitive and it sports an iPod. How many people have phones with music playback capabilities, yet don't transfer any songs to play on their phone? I'm one of those users and if you're one too, you know you'd use the iPod that's integrated with the iPhone with no hesitation. All in all, the iPhone is sleek, beautiful, and performs adequately. The biggest selling point though, is not necessarily the Safari browser, but the applications that have been developed to take advantage of Safari's functionality on the iPhone.

Why the Apps Make a Big Difference

Touchscreen phones are being snapped up left and right. More than enough are already available including the LG Voyager (Verizon), Samsung Instinct (Sprint), HTC Touch (Verizon, Sprint), LG Vu (AT&T), and Samsung Glyde (Verizon). While this is great for those who may want to go against the rising tide of the iPhone, these phones will not break the iPhone's stronghold. Why? Their browsers suck!

The biggest reason most people would like an iPhone is because of the Safari browser. However, it's not just the browser. It's the mobile applications that are accessible via the browser. Have you seen the user interfaces for mobile apps made for the iPhone? The functionality is splendid. The design is flawless just like the iPhone. Execution these applications is in strict accordance with Apple-like standards. There are tons of mobile applications already available that don't require you to download them. And after the WWDC, there are tons more on the way.

Reaching for Something Better

While it's nice to see more touchscreens on the market and phones that pick up where the iPhone natively slacks, meaning you don't need to "jailbreak" them just to do something, they just don't compare to what's available for the iPhone. Sure there are more Windows Mobile applications floating around than iPhone apps, but take a look at the design and execution difference. When it comes to mobile apps, it doesn't get any better than what the iPhone has at this point. However, I hope that mobile handset makers and carriers are striving for something better to break what is surely a monopoly that the iPhone will eventually hold on the mobile web.

Personally I don't read feeds in my mobile phone, although I would like to. I do download content from the Web onto my Palm PDA, for offline reading. So it makes sense to go the next step and read content online on my mobile device. Anyway Barb's readers recommended the following apps and services for mobile RSS reading, if you're interested:

- BuddyBuzz
- winksite.com
- LiteFeeds
- Bloglines mobile
- PHONifier
- iFeedYou
- FreeNews

One of the main problems in the mobile industry today is fragmentation. There are thousands of different handsets out there and multiple mobile platforms to code for, too. Sometimes, mobile applications for the same platform - like the Blackberry, for instance - don't even work on all Blackberry devices, only on certain ones. That makes it challenging for both the developers who have to write the various versions of their mobile apps and for the mobile users who want to install applications on their phones.

In many cases, consumers don't even know the model number of their phone - they may know the brand, but only because it's etched into the top of their handset. So when they happen across a mobile application on the mobile web, they're stumped as to whether their device is supported.

With GetJar's new service, that confusion could be a thing of the past. By automatically identifying a consumer's handset, the mobile App Download Page can point the end user to the correct download automatically. And if their phone isn't supported, the page can redirect the user to another mobile webpage of the application developer's choosing.

Developers who sign up with GetJar can manage all their mobile applications from the Developer Site, where they can also track download and performance analytics, sign up to advertise on GetJar sites and partner networks, and integrate in-app ads within their mobile software. 

Future Plans

Facebook was one of the first companies to use the new service and photo-sharing website Photobucket will roll out their GetJar integration later this fall.

Next year, GetJar will also launch a new version of their mobile application store which is currently available only as a traditional website and a mobile-ready WAP site. The future version, which will feature some 50,000+ mobile apps from GetJar's catalog, will more closely mimic the iTunes App Store mobile experience as it will be accessed via an icon placed on mobile phones' homescreens. The company is currently working on establishing partnerships with mobile carriers in order to prepare for the store's launch.

Size Doesn't Matter

According to Powers, asking how many apps exist for a given platform is now a moot question. All the major platforms now offer more than enough apps and as long as people can find the apps they are looking for - and as long as these apps are good - most consumers will be happy. Most users simply don't need 50 different apps to write their grocery lists.

Looking at Mplayit's list of the most popular apps across the top platforms, it also becomes clear that quite a few of these categories are being dominated by known brands like Shazam, Pandora, Evernote and Facebook. Mplayit, of course, is in the business of giving app recommendations across platforms and doesn't fail to note that it's own store is a good alternative for finding apps outside of the standard top 20 charts.

Or Does It?

To some degree, Powers' comments about the size of today's app stores rings true. Maybe it really doesn't matter that the Android store only features about 20,000 apps and that the Apple App Store now holds more than 100,000. Maybe it is true that consumers tend to gravitate towards the same brands on all platforms.

At the same time, though, having more apps in the store also means that there is a more active developer ecosystem around a given platform. While iPhone developers rightly gripe about Apple's approval process, we've seen a lot more innovative apps for the iPhone than for Android.

Is the size of the Android market holding you back from making the switch? Do you think Android has enough good apps that make up for the smaller app store? Do you think the quality of today's BlackBerry apps is good enough? Feel free to let us know in the comments.

With FriendMobilizer, you can view your friend's information and profiles, write on their walls, browse photo albums, approve friend requests, view group and event invites, read your new wall posts, read the messages in your inbox, update your status, and more.

Click Image to See Larger Version

The application is currently available for both Windows Mobile devices and Pocket PCs and can be downloaded from the web site at www.faceofmobile.com. However, according to the company, the generic software platform developed for FriendMobilizer will soon be ported to other mobile OS's as well. In addition, the company plans to build mobile apps for other social networks in the future.

For a set-up fee of $499 and a monthly management fee that starts at $29, Mobile Roadie allows users to create apps that include integration with third-party services like YouTube, Brightcove, Flickr, Ustream, Topspin Media, RSS feeds, Twitter and Facebook. Mobile Roadie also allows bands to integrate ticket sales through Ticketmaster and LiveNation.

Mobile Roadie will give a discount to publishers who choose to use the service for both their iPhone and Android apps. Customers can also choose to use the service to only create an Android app.

Vanity Apps for Android

While there are a quite a few DIY app-creation services (including MobileAppLoader, MobBase, Sweb Apps, App Breeder, etc.) for the iPhone on the market, this business hasn't really caught on in the Android world yet. AppLoop, one of the first app generators for Android, for example, isn't even in business anymore. Currently, iSites and MobileAppLoader are among the few app generators that allows users to create and manage both Android and iPhone apps.

As the market for Android apps continues to grow rapidly, however, it only makes sense for companies like Mobile Roadie to offer support for both platforms.

The advantage of using services like Mobile Roadie is that users can manage assets in both apps simultaneously. If bands want to highlight new videos or songs, for example, they don't have to make changes to two apps to send these updates to their fans.

But Really, What Does Dolly Parton Think?

Mobile Roadie's PR release also includes a great quote from Dolly Parton, who clearly prefers Mobile Roadie over smoke signals:

"My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good. But now you can watch TV, download music and surf the web from your phone. Sure beats smoke signals. I never thought in my lifetime, that you'd be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today. And to think that folks will be able to watch my Video Diaries and listen to my music on the go is just fantastic."

It would be nice if Apple gave us a better breakdown of the kinds of apps it actually delivers (free vs. paid, games vs. utilities, etc.). This kind of transparency is obviously not in Apple's DNA, so we depend on data from third-party services like AdMob for this information. According to AdMob, iPod touch and iPhone users are more likely to buy apps than users of any other mobile platform and are also more likely to interact with mobile ads.

For developers, no matter the grumblings about the App Store approval process, the App Store is simply the largest and most lucrative marketplace for their work right now.

Of course, this is only a first attempt and we laud the Wikipedia Mobile team for releasing this app as an open-source application. However, the fact that the search field is populated with "::Home" when you first open up the app shows that the app still needs a lot of polish before it can compete with the 'unofficial' apps. For now, if you just want a lightweight way of accessing Wikipedia articles from your phone and you don't want to install an app, just use the official mobile site.

The iPhone apps still have to go through Apple's approval process, which can take a while, but the Android apps will be available today and the Nokia apps should be available in about one week.

Pixelpipe's App Factory

As Butterfield told us, the company has automated most of the app development process, so whenever Pixelpipe adds a new service, a new mobile app can also be created with very little effort.

App Store SEO

Overall, this seems like a very smart move. The company started to experiment with co-branded Android apps for a few services like Facebook, Twitter, and Photobucket a few days ago. As these apps actually include the name of the service in their titles ("Twitter for Pixelpipe"), they are much easier to find for consumers who would otherwise never have heard of Pixelpipe. After all, as we pointed out earlier today, most users rely on Top 10 lists and browsing through categories to find interesting new mobile apps.

As Pixelpipe told us, these apps are already outselling the company's own app by a significant margin and Pixelpipe has heard from a number of services who would like to partner with the company and promote the apps.

We think this is an interesting story, as it points out some of the problems developers face when trying to market their apps. Also, while social media mavens love the fact that Pixelpipe Pro can send documents, audio, video, and pictures to 100 other social media services, for most users, this is simply overkill and just generates confusion.