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.

This has had significant success amongst business travelers who are looking for a familiar face in new surroundings. Nevertheless, the company also offers an iPhone Social Atlas service where users add reviews and tips to their favorite destinations. If this sounds familiar it's because services like Foursquare and most recently Gowalla have gotten iPhone users into the habit of checking in and leaving tips at their favorite haunts and watering holes.

Perhaps the latest Dopplr acquisition is just Nokia's effort to beef up the Plazes team and create the Ovi App Store version of an already growing trend towards location-based games and reviews.

Nokia released a video today that demonstrates how Augmented Reality could be served up using glasses and other fashion accessories. In the video embedded below you'll see a woman surf the web and post rudimentary IM replies all using her eyeballs. It's a cool video, but it does raise one big question about AR: how can AR apps best add value to the physical world around us? This Nokia video is eye catching, but it doesn't answer that question.

From the video's description on YouTube:

This concept allows to you to experience immersion and effortless navigation in an Augmented Reality environment. New types of interactions involving near-to-eye displays, gaze direction tracking, 3D audio, 3D video, gesture and touch. Through these new types of social linkages people will be connected in innovative ways between the physical and digital worlds.

It's hands-free and weightless compared to a tablet, no small screen problem as you have on a mobile phone - but is it truly useful? Unlike most other AR apps we've seen lately, where the physical world is referenced by the AR - the two seem unrelated here. It takes all kinds, though, and who's to say how AR will be used?

(Also, isn't this music a little creepy? It sounds bittersweet about the inevitable and yet slightly frightening future.)

None the less, we'd love to get our hands on a prototype of this technology to test it - just as soon as it becomes real.

Thanks to Rouli Nir for tweeting about this.

Mossinac describes the implementation of "Facebook Connect for Mobile Web" as simple. With only four lines of code, developers can add a Facebook Connect button to their app in order to make it more social. The only requirement for implementation is that the handset has to have a web browser. In other words, "any site, any application, and any platform" can now tap into Facebook's APIs.

During the speech, Mossinac revealed how successful mobilizing Facebook's website has been for the company. In the past month, Facebook saw 65 million visitors accessing the site from mobile phones. This includes access via the mobile website itself as well as from SMS and other specialized mobile applications. It also represents a dramatic increase from December when only 20 million mobile users were counted.

Currently, the company has deals with 180 mobile operators worldwide. The U.S., U.K., and Canada are the biggest markets. However, Mossinac said emerging markets are growing fast. For example, "Facebook Indonesia is on fire," he noted. "The metrics are amazing."

Facebook's Goals

The announcement of the new mobile platform isn't just a play by Facebook to get more users to visit their site. The company's overall goal is to make applications - both mobile and otherwise - more social. "What we did for photo sharing, we are going to do for mobile applications," said Mossinac. He's referring to how Facebook introduced a way to make sharing photos a more social process. No longer do you have to visit a separate website and plow through photo after photo to find the ones of you and your friends. Instead, with Facebook's ability to "tag" photos, the addition of new and interesting photos to the social network are announced via messages posted to your News Feed.

By socializing mobile applications, you'll be able to share more about your off-site activity with your friends in much of the same way. This will be especially helpful for the mobile games market, as it allows you to invite Facebook friends to play with you while also sharing scores, stats, and other information to your profile. For game developers, it means one person playing a mobile application can spread the word about it among hundreds of their friends. In addition, Facebook Connect eases the sign-in process for apps by using your Facebook identity instead of forcing you to create a new account.

"Facebook Connect for Mobile Web" is only one way the company is expanding to other platforms. They plan to integrate their technology on every screen, including that of your TV (already available thanks to Verizon FiOS's new widgets) and your game console (another new arrival via Xbox 360's recent update).

Mossinac also announced the introduction of a new Facebook app for Nokia's Series 40 devices. The app will allow for status updates from a homescreen widget.

Apple iPhone owners can choose to download approximately 65,000 services from the App Store, meanwhile Nokia's Ovi only offers 4,500 applications. According to the Financial Times, "While Apple has just one phone, Nokia is trying to put mobile applications on 75 of its handsets. It is a far more challenging task." Nevertheless, Nokia aims to level the playing field with web technologies.

One way the company is hoping to catch up to Apple across all its devices is by hosting competitions to encourage Flash Lite-based development. Most recently, Nokia announced the finalists in its "Calling All Innovators" global developer competition. Categories include web applications and runtime widgets, Adobe Flash Lite-based applications, emerging market services and location-aware services utilizing Ovi Maps. While each of the category winners will receive cash awards, the Flash Lite category winner will receive an additional prize of $10,000 from Nokia's Open Screen Project Fund. Nokia needs to fund efficient distribution across 75 devices and multiple platforms, and Adobe needs a mobile poster child to sing its deployment praises across mobile, desktop, and consumer electronics devices.

If Kallasvuo wants to increase Nokia's revenue, he needs mobile developers to choose to work on web based applications before building their services with the iPhone software development kit. From here, the application marketplace that offers the best revenue split and most downloads is certain to come out on top. While no individual Nokia handset will compete against Apple's iPhone or Research in Motion's Blackberry Curve, the number of devices sold might tempt developers to make the switch.

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.

With the N73 as the kernel, the team added a battery-powered LED lamp and a series of filters. The result is an extremely inexpensive portable microscope with the potential to detect malaria, sickle-cell anemia and tuberculosis from fluid smears.

Microscopy-based detection of malaria is possible by taking a pinprick from a patient, smearing their blood onto a treated glass slide, and examining it under a microscope. Malaria parasites are detectable when they react to the treatment on the glass (Giemsa stain). According to a New Scientist article published this morning, the modified phone or "CellScope" makes it possible for field doctors to test for the disease as well as send their images to labs via a wireless network.

If cell images are coupled with patient details and locations, the CellScope can help reduce disease-based death rates by guiding grassroots health workers in deploying resources, treating those affected and stopping the spread of disease across townships.

For more mobile phone based health solutions, check out NetSquared's list of projects.

Thanks to Nokia's partnership with Kring, their upcoming Ovi Store (aka the Nokia App Store) is going to kick off with some of the most innovative content that has ever come to the mobile platform. It's set to open in May soon after the store will feature Kring's new project and is code-named TEVA. As for what exactly TEVA will look like and what it will be about...well, details are still vague. Kring wants to make sure spoilers don't ruin the fun for the audience...or perhaps we should say "participants."

ARG Explained

What we do know, however, is that TEVA will be a combination of user-generated content and Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG). In you're unaware of what "ARG" means, it's when an interactive narrative is told using the real world as the platform. Instead of passively consuming this sort of entertainment, ARG players actively participate in it. A somewhat recent example of this is what ARG called the "Lost Experience," which launched back in 2008 as an online clue hunt developed by ABC for fans of the TV show "Lost." In this game, web sites across the net contained clues that when pieced together told a story that tied into and paralleled that of the show. Another example would be the ARG created for the band Nine Inch Nails to promote their "Year Zero" album. This time the adventure started when concert goers found thumb drives in the bathrooms that contained unreleased songs and clues.

TEVA is No Ordinary ARG

So the idea of an ARG isn't an entirely new one, but using the mobile platform to play the game is...at least like this. You see, TEVA isn't just a traditional ARG moved to the mobile platform - it only involves some elements of that type of story-telling mechanism. Another piece to this mobile experience is user-generation content. This is a new twist. In the past, ARG players would just interact with the story line - now they're going to help create it. And yet another aspect to this mobile experience will be local. Gameplay takes place in your city - not just in an application or just on the web. How exactly this happens, we don't know, but TEVA will use GPS and other location-based services in some way. 

So What Do We Call This?

When we asked if there was a name for this type of entertainment, Kring said perhaps we could call it a "mobile immersive experience." It's a bit long, but it works.

Since there aren't a ton of details about TEVA yet, we have to use our imaginations to guess at what sort of interactions might be included. Based on some of the other discussion topics that evening, one of the possibilities that may come into play in this new mobile experience is an augmented reality application.

At the dinner, one of the Nokia execs described how we could use our mobile phones to record geo-located images and videos and tag them with specific keywords. This media could then only be accessed when you arrived in the same geo-location with your mobile phone. For example, if you showed up at the local park, you could pull up a video of your friends playing Frisbee there last week. This "mirror world," as it is being called, isn't so much an "alternate" reality, but a real one...just one that's been recorded, tagged, and archived. With this, we sort of become the ghosts of ourselves.

The Possibilities are Endless

The TEVA project will initially launch in the Ovi Store while it's being developed for other mediums (iPhone? Web? This, too, is unknown.) What is known, though, is that Kring is extremely excited about the project. As a creative, he's less interested in the technical details of the technology itself - just what it can do and how he can use it to create an entirely new entertainment experience.

Kring noted that there are already mobile applications that allow you to go out into the real world and "collect clues, send things, create things, and share with other people nearby...using the locative qualities of the phone. Once you get the parameters of what these services can do," he continued, "then your imagination is the only thing that stops you...if you attach a narrative to that."

TEVA will launch this summer and will be rolled out regionally.

Above image is the TEVA logo.

There are other frameworks out there. Java, Adobe's Flex, the Linux Gnome framework, Dekoh, Curl, etc. And that's not really even looking hard at embedded frameworks, where there are just as many. But even with all this competition, Qt has made a name for itself by working with a lot of popular technologies, such as WebKit, the browser engine that Safari and Chrome are built on.

Improvements

• New Software Development Kit (SDK): Qt now includes an SDK in the install. This provides the developer with a robust set of tools, code libraries, and documentation to get started quickly.
• Qt Creator Cross-Platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Think of this as a really, really developer-friendly text editor. You can call libraries, compile code, and run tests all from within the IDE.
• LGPL 2.1 Licensing: Offering the ability to write your code under Gnu's Lesser General Public License goes a long way to making this framework the choice of open-source advocates and Linux developers everywhere.
• 64-bit Cocoa Support: While Mac users were able to use Qt applications on Mac OS X for a while now, this release has direct support for the Cocoa architecture and 64-bit address space.
• XSLT Support: This one is a bit esoteric, but it is becoming more and more necessary to translate XML into HTML or more readable text. For example, the way Safari shows an RSS Feed as a web page. Having XSLT support is a great bonus.

Summary

We think that Qt is setting a new benchmark for their competitors with this release. With their framework offering so much potential, you might soon see firmware updates to your Roku box supporting web browsing and Flash video, cell phones with browsers that have fast Javascript handling and the latest HTML specification support, increased Mac awareness to Qt, and already-great Qt apps being picked up on Windows and other operating systems.

What are activity streams all about? People are taking actions and publishing content on a wide variety of websites these days; pulling all that data together, with a variety of different permission levels for viewing and different types of data, is much easier said than done. Just like a standard size of railroad track helped the trains get across the US like they had never done before (thus opening a new era of commerce and communication) so to do all these social media signals need some common format standards to travel from one website to another. Thought leader Chris Messina explains it all quite succinctly in this video from a related meeting over the holidays.

For a detailed summary of last night's meeting on this topic and some good background links, see Comcast's John McCrea's liveblogging of the session.

The hot debates were how to handle media files in activity feed streams and some tension between the big, more proprietary social networks like Facebook and the small, radically open projects like DiSo, the Distributed Social Networking Project.

Any disagreement aside, though, we find it pretty remarkable that all these heavy hitters are sitting at the same table, along with a variety of small startups, to talk about the future of online community and conversation in the form of activity streams. Activity streams are already a big deal, but if these conversations can be fruitful, the results will be as big as the point in history when customers of different email providers became able to email each other or different telephone company customers became able to call each others' phones.

Unlike those historic transformations, though, much of the planning for this one is being done out in the open. Not just through open public meetings like last night's, but thanks to live mobile video, live blogging with comments and microblogging technologies, this conversation can include the participation of anyone in the world.

There was lots of activity in the digital lifestyle space in 2008, with new devices, services, and platforms being launched and some of our favorites from last year getting significant updates. One notable trend throughout the year was the way these products and services began to converge; not in the sense that they were becoming all-in-one devices, although some of that was happening, but rather by hardware, services, and content playing together nicely, often through open standards and platforms, with the Internet acting as a conduit. On that note, here are our picks of the 10 best digital lifestyle products of 2008.

• Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 International Products of 2008
• Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008
• Top 10 RSS and Syndication Products of 2008
• Top 10 Mobile Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 Enterprise Web Products of 2008
• Top 10 Real World Web Apps of 2008

1. The App Store

The real upgrade to the iPhone this year wasn't the iPhone 3G but the accompanying App Store. Launched just five months ago, the store now offers over 10,000 third-party apps, and Apple has seen over 300 million downloads. Part of that success can be attributed to the way in which the iPhone as a platform has galvanized developers; a second major factor is the simplicity of the App Store itself. As a result, lots of our other favorite digital lifestyle-related products and services wound up on the iPhone and iPod Touch, such as Pandora and Last.fm (digital music), Joost (Internet TV), Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter (social web), as well as location-based services, games, remotes (VLC Player and Sonos), and much, much more.

See also: The real surprise of the App Store isn't number of downloads or revenue

2. Netflix

When Netflix starting talking up plans to deliver its online streaming service, Watch Instantly, to "Internet-connected high-definition DVD players, Internet-connected game consoles, and dedicated Internet set-top boxes," we were a little skeptical, especially of the time frame. However, the company really delivered in 2008: Netflix streaming is now available on TiVo, the XBox 360, Internet-connected DVD players from LG and Samsung, along with the Roku Netflix Player set-top box.

3. Android

Our initial review of the first Google phone, T-Mobile's G1, was mixed, but the Android OS had us pretty excited. "Without a doubt, the Android operating system is spectacular," last100's Daniel Langendorf wrote at the time. "It's fast, with little or no lag time. It's responsive, fun to use, and full of promise." A few months on and we're still impressed. In particular, Android's mobile web browser is the best post-iPhone one yet. And likewise, the Android Market does a great job of copying the iPhone's App Store. Of course, the best thing about Android is that it's open source; as a result, we'll see it powering numerous new smartphones next year, along with other hardware, such as set-top boxes, MIDs, and GPS devices.

4. Nokia E71

In our extensive review, we described Nokia's E71 as our favorite smartphone yet. So, admittedly, this one is a very personal choice. The E71 is roughly the same size as the iPhone but has a completely different form-factor, omitting touch for a more traditional user interface and with enough room to pack in a compact but very usable QWERTY keyboard. Other pluses are the device's overall responsiveness, bundled applications, and a number of welcome improvements to the S60 line's user interface, along with decent web browsing and media playback, superb call quality, and extremely good battery life.

5. Hulu

Although online video site Hulu was available in private beta in 2007, it didn't launch publicly until March of this year. Our initial verdict was mixed, but since then the Fox and NBC joint venture has become the third biggest video destination in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Perhaps a testament to that success, a number of device makers have released set-top boxes marketed on their ability to put Hulu content on the TV, such as ZeeVee's recently announced PC-to-TV solution, the ZvBox, and the Neuros LINK. Now, if only Hulu would release an iPhone app or, like Netflix, form official partnerships with consumer electronics companies.

6. BBC iPlayer

Hulu could certainly learn a thing or two from the iPlayer, the BBC's TV catch-up service (UK only). Since its controversial Windows launch, when the public broadcaster was accused of getting too close to Microsoft, the iPlayer has added streaming for the Mac and Linux, a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch, numerous other portable media players, and support for the latest phones running Windows Mobile. There's also an iPlayer application for select Nokia phones and a browser-based version optimized for the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

7. PlayStation 3

Sony's PlayStation 3 wasn't launched in 2008, but it certainly came of age this year. The company has always pitched the PS3 as a device that goes far beyond gaming. Instead, like Microsoft's XBox 360, it's designed to be a trojan horse in the living room, delivering a range of non-gaming content and services through the television. On that front, Sony made significant progress in 2008 by winning the next-generation format war with Blu-ray, adding DVR functionality in the UK with PlayTV, launching a video download store in the U.S., adding support for DivX video, and, finally, rolling out its own virtual world called Home.

8. Songbird

After being in development for two years, the open-source desktop music player Songbird reached its 1.0 release this month. What sets Songbird apart from the likes of iTunes is the array of available plug-ins that extend the app's functionality. For example, mashTape, one of six default add-ons, let's you delve into artist info, discography, links, and news and scroll through Flickr photos and YouTube videos. Other add-on services that ship with the player out of the box are Last.fm, Concerts, and SHOUTcast radio. With these installed, you can sync your tracks to Last.fm's online service, check out upcoming concerts in the area, and stream music over the Internet using the player. As of publication, there are over 70 plug-ins available for Songbird.

See also: ReadWriteWeb's full Songbird review.

9. Wii Fit

Nintendo has long contended that "everyone's a gamer," and now the console giant wants everyone to get fit. Announced last year but released in 2008, the Wii Fit aims to improve the health of family members through the kind of active play first seen in Wii Sports. The "game" comes with a balance board that assists with aerobic, toning, and balancing activities. A neat feature is that household members can review each other's progress on a new Wii channel.

10. The Netbook

This isn't an individual product but a whole new product category that has really taken off in 2008. Initially targeted to the education market and those wanting a third machine, netbooks are resonating with a much broader market -- and not just because of their lower price point compared to more traditional, higher spec'ed sub-notebooks. Despite years of industry propaganda, consumers are wising up to the fact that they don't have to step on the processor upgrade treadmill. Instead, in an age when more and more of our applications and data reside in the cloud (on remote servers, rather than local computers), a machine with Internet connectivity and powerful enough to run a modern web browser (a netbook, in other words) is often all we need.

Web Trends

Facebook Connect vs. OpenID: Who Will Emerge Victorious?

Facebook Connect, the system the company has long discussed as "Facebook on sites all around the web," entered general availability this week and we had one big question - should website owners use Facebook or OpenID to authenticate and learn about their users? Will Facebook become a dominant identifier online? Will the OpenID community lose out to the company's proprietary system or will this challenge breathe new life into the movement for open source, standards based, federated user identity?

Open Source vs. Proprietary technology isn't just about desktop software anymore - now it's about our identities and social connections, all around the web. We published a mind map in our post, displaying our understanding of the contrasts between these two identity systems. If you'd like to add our thoughts to that map, you can.

See also: What if Amazon and iTunes Implemented Facebook Connect?

The Distributed Social Networking Puzzle: Putting The Pieces Together

Distributed social networking - where users can connect their profile, friends and other data across multiple sites - is still a relatively new concept and not fully developed. There are plenty of companies and projects vying to be a major piece of the distributed social networking puzzle. The big Internet companies have initiatives such as OpenSocial (Google), Facebook Connect, MySpace Data Availability, Yahoo! Open Strategy. There are also smaller company and open source projects such as DiSo and Noserub, which we explain in our post.

The End of Online Anonymity

It seems we're approaching a new age here on the Internet. Instead of being anonymous, faceless IP addresses; social computing and changing technologies have allowed the lines between the "real" world and the "virtual" world to blur. Web 2.0 helped create a world where your identity is revealed in bits and pieces as you share snippets of your life online - a photo here, a Stumble there, a tweet, a Digg, etc. However, the rise of social media is only one of the changes that is busy shaping the new web.

Education 2.0: Never Memorize Again?

Memorization is a waste of time when Google is only a a few clicks away. That's what Don Tapscott, author of the bestselling books Wikinomics and Growing Up Digital, believes. Tapscott, considered by many to be a leading commentator on our Internet age, believes the age of learning through the memorization of facts and figures is coming to an end. Instead, students should be taught to think creatively and better understand the knowledge that's available online.

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

A Word from Our Sponsors

We'd like to thank ReadWriteWeb's sponsors, without whom we couldn't bring you all these stories every week!

• Mashery is the leading provider of API management services.
• Pro Opinion allows you to get paid to take surveys.
• WildApricot is Membership Management Software.
• Crowd Science gives you detailed visitor demographics.
• Strands provides real-time recommendations of products.
• Direct Media Exchange is a solution for managing ad networks.
• Rackspace provides dedicated server hosting.
• VisualCV lets you stand out from the crowd when job-hunting.
• Quintura is a visual-based search engine.
• Eurekster is a custom social search portal.
• MediaTemple provides hosting for RWW.
• SixApart provides our publishing software MT4.

RWW Jobwire

Techmeme Hires Megan McCarthy to Edit Site

Freelance tech writer Megan McCarthy just landed one of the coolest jobs on the new web, editing semi-automated news aggregator Techmeme. The hire was made last month but just announced this week by site founder Gabe Rivera. Rivera explains in a post that Techmeme has always been the product of some human intervention, primarily on the part of the bloggers whose links power it, but that "interacting directly with an automated news engine makes it clear that the human+algorithm combo can curate news far more effectively that the individual human or algorithmic parts. It really feels like the age of the news cyborg has arrived."

SUBSCRIBE TO READWRITEWEB'S JOBWIRE FOR THE LATEST NEWS ON JOB HIRES IN TECH

Web Products

Top 10 Semantic Web Products of 2008

In 2008 we saw the Semantic Web gain traction, giving us plenty of choice when selecting the 10 best Semantic Web products of 2008.

This is the first in a series of posts we'll publish over December, listing our choices for the top web products of the year. Then at the end of December, we'll post a Top 100 list - which we'll be promoting over 2009 and opening up at some point for public voting. Check out our picks for the top 10 Semantic Web products of 2008, by clicking through to the post.

A Taste of Magic: The First Apps We Show New Users

Whether it's with your family, your co-workers or your clients - many of us like to share the excitement we have about the new, social web with others. What do you show other people to demonstrate how powerful, and yet easy to use, this new world of technology really is?

We asked our staff and a number of other advanced social web users what the one thing is that they like most to show people who are less experienced with the web than they are.

Nokia Challenges Apple and Google with New N97 Phone

This week Nokia unveiled its new flagship phone, the N97, which is clearly meant to compete with the iPhone and Google's Android platform. Unlike the iPhone, however, the N97 has a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In terms of its other hardware features, the N97 also clearly outperforms the iPhone. The N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including the 32 GB that are already built-in. The phone has a 5 megapixel camera and its GPS is capable of giving turn-by-turn directions. The resolution of the phone's 16:9 touchscreen is 640x360.

Join the YouTube Global Symphony, Play Carnegie Hall

Always wanted to play in a symphony? Here's your chance - without even leaving your living room. YouTube has announced the "world's first collaborative online orchestra" - the YouTube Symphony Orchestra - a one-of-a-kind experiment that provides individual musicians with an opportunity to collaborate with other musicians all over the world. But that's not all. If you play well enough, show some creativity, and exude passion, you may find yourself seated in the famed Carnegie Hall, performing live with other YouTube musicians.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

The phone will also be able to make use of Nokia's updated mapping product, which will feature 3D landmarks and, according to Nokia, is more versatile than Google Maps. These new maps themselves pose a major challenge to Google, as Nokia will, at some point in the near future, allow users to point their phones at a building and get relevant information (and presumably advertising) about that building on their phone.

Interface

Of course, the iPhone's real advantage (as well as that of any Android phone) was never its hardware, but its operating system and the overall elegance of its user interface. It is hard to say where the N97 falls here based on the videos we have seen so far. Earlier Nokia N-series phones also featured extremely capable hardware, but the operating system made it extremely hard to make good use of these features. In terms of software, Nokia does have one ace up its sleeve, and that is the N97's ability to play Flash videos and games. The OS also supports copy and paste, which is still sorely missing on the iPhone.

Widgets

The main feature of the phone's touch-enhanced Symbian OS is its support for widgets, which will be open for third-party developers and are available for download through an application on the phone itself. Nokia calls the N97 a 'mobile computer,' and a lot of its success will surely depend on the applications that third-party developers will develop for the phone. Apple's App store already features over 10,000 native applications, so Nokia definitely has to play catch-up here.

We have to say that the phone's hardware and user interface look extremely slick. Of course, we haven't been able to get our hands on one yet, and the demo video is nice, but as we know from Apple's ads, these videos can be quite deceptive as well.

Overall, the N97 looks like a formidable challenger (especially with regards to its hardware specs), but much of its success will depend on the quality and ease of use of its user interface.

Well, a lot has changed in the Mobile Web application world since then. The Apple App Store launched in July '08, prompting a wave of new third party iPhone apps. And we've seen innovation from Apple's mobile phone competitors: Google's Android (which has multiple app stores), Nokia, and Blackberry, and others. So what are your favorite Mobile Web apps and sites circa November 2008? The ReadWriteWeb authors list their faves below, plus we polled our friends in Twitter (subscribe to our Twitter account @rww).

Mobile Apps & Sites Favored by RWW Authors

Richard MacManus

iPhone apps:

• Last.fm - still my favorite music streaming app, and the iPhone version was upgraded in September
• YouNote - handy note-taking tool, multimedia
• Diamedic - iPhone app for diabetics that records my glucose levels and insulin shots
• Weight Tracker - enables me to keep track of my daily weight
• Groundwork - iPhone version of Basecamp, which works via 37Signals' API. Note there are another couple of third party Basecamp apps for iPhone: Minivan and Projects from appremix. Also see Jason Fried's comment here on RWW for suggestions for Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones.
• NYTimes - nice example of a native iPhone app for a media publication, although ironically it always seems to get stuck for me when I click to the Technology section!
• Gmail, via iPhone mail

Browser-based:

• ReadWriteWeb iPhone version (powered by MoFuse)
• Google Reader
• Mobile Twitter
• Mobile FriendFeed

Frederic Lardinois:

• Evernote - great for making a quick note of addresses or restaurant menus by just taking a pic of them
• Pandora - even better now that they added 'genre' stations
• Fring - having Skype on the iPhone has saved me a few times
• Google Reader
• FriendFeed mobile
• Google Earth - for the sheer beauty of it

Sarah Perez:

For iPod Touch:

• Twinkle
• Twitterifc
• mobile Facebook
• Byline for RSS (offline).
• mobile Google Reader
• mobile FriendFeed
• mobile Gmail

For Blackberry:

• mobile facebook
• mobile flickr app
• Live search
• twitterberry

Rick Turoczy:

• Shazam - "remains one of my favorites--and most often used. Admittedly, sometimes I simply use it to be mystified by the black magic of how it correctly identifies incredibly eclectic tunes."

Marshall Kirkpatrick:

• FFtoGo.com
• m.netvibes.com
• slandr.net
• Fring
• http://www.techmeme.com/mini

Nathan DiNiro, RWW Jobwire

• m.shizzow.com
• GMail for BB
• TwitterBerry
• Google Maps for BB
• Google Talk for BB
• Pocket Express for BB - Handmark, I think

Friends of RWW in Twitter

Rudy De Waele: facebook app, google maps, twitterrific, ocarina (all iphone) and QIK (Nokia N95)

Steve O'Hear, editor of last100: BBC iPlayer, Nokia Mail (push), Twitterific

Tom Tague, Calais: Remember the Milk (bbery & iphone), instapaper (let's me catch up on stuff I should read), twitterific

paulbradshaw: Shozu, JoikuSpot, Google Maps, Qik, ZoneTag

Chris Osborne: my top mob apps (symbian): fring, goog maps, shozu, nokia sports tracker, vodafone sat nav. in 'emerging' category: flyscreen

dekkerd: qik, brighkite, twinkle, ziibii apps, dropcard, friendfeed, greader. all iphone

Windows Observer: Tiny Twitter Google Maps

mobile jones: QIK, Google Maps, Sprint Backup Service, Mobile Gmail, Flyscreen - 5 is too short a list and these are not in order.

keithbohanna: NetnewsWire, Truphone, GMaps on iPhone, Twitterfon

Ginger Sorvari: Google Maps (#1 by far), WeightWatchers, Twitter, FB, SI.

David Owens: 1) Google Maps 2) Instapaper 3) Byline 4) GoConnect 5) London City #iphone

Pádraic Brady: Tweetie for iPhone is pretty good - splits up dm/replies/friends feeds separately and its performance is pretty good.

Aaron Grabein: Photoshop.com Mobile, http://is.gd/8ZC9, is great for photo uploads (Win Mo) and TwitterBerry, Facebook, Google Maps

Susan Puccinelli: My two faves are Google Maps for Mobile and CalTrain+ (though of course its only relevant to those of us in the Bay Area who use it)

janetleejohnson: Smub - http://smub.it (any smartphone), twitterrific, Google Maps (iPhone)

Matt Wiseley, EditMe: (Android) dgMoney http://is.gd/8ZzD/ BlueBrush http://is.gd/8ZA4/ QuickList http://is.gd/8ZAI

Conor O'Neill: Nokia Maps, Gmail Mobile, Twibble, Qik, eBuddy, Truphone, Shozu

Jajah: @twidroid (Android)/@twitterfon (iPhone), Facebook, @my6sense (iPhone), @strands, @jajah http://iphone.jajah.com

Sherry Main: for iphone: facebook, twitterific, wordpress, scribeshare, google maps

egrommet: still like shozu and sportstracker (nokia)

Duncan Heal: 1st gen iPod Touch 2.2: Twitteriffic, Facebook, Safari, iChalky, AIM

Jorge Escobar: Gmail (IMAP) and Google Maps on Windows Mobile 6

localinsurance: facebook app, blackbird, twitpic

Susan Beebe: 5 Favorite Mobile apps (iPhone): BeejiveIM, Evernote, Shazam, fftogo.com, RTM (remember the milk), YouNote, koi pond, camera bag

Stephane Delbecque: BlogIt for iPhone is very cool. TypePad web app for iPhone is not bad either. :-)

ChadHusseinCapellman: what about LEAST FAVORITE mobile web apps? I'd be speaking about the mandatory Verizon Wireless start screen instead of my favorites.

Sean Power: i would be considerably less productive without the Google mobile suite (reader, talk and mail)

davefleet: Google Maps; Google Talk; Jott

geoffmcqueen: I like Brightkite, but wish they'd use Gears GeoLoc info in PocketIE. Also, m.Facebook.com, Skype & SPB's Traffic Monitor app for WM6.

Tell Us Your Faves!

We hope that you spotted a few interesting sounding apps in the above list that you'd like to try out! Please list your favorites in the comments below, as well as your opinions about the state of Mobile Web applications and sites.

Top image credit: MichaelMarlatt

The series is based on a conversation I had with Gustav Praekelt, a mobile entrepreneur located in South Africa. Part 2 is here.

Africa: An Emerging Market?

Running Through the Numbers:

Africa is a continent which is inhabited by roughly 1 billion people. Astoundingly, the "Dark Continent" has been a fertile market for the mobile industry, with 300 million Africans currently carrying an active mobile account. This is an adoption rate of around 30% on a continent that is not known for having an affluent population.

In some African countries, mobile adoption nears 80-90%. Specifically in South Africa, which has a population of 47 million people, 42 million carry and use mobile networks.

Like the rest of the world, excluding North America, most African mobile customers opt for pre-paid mobile phone accounts. In South Africa, only 10% choose to have a service agreement with a specific mobile network operator. In some African countries, pre-paid customers account for 95-96% of the mobile customer base.

Going High Speed

More people in South Africa have 3G high speed-capable handsets than traditional wireline broadband. Praekelt says "traditional broadband is just not going to happen here." He also added that South Africa was the second place in the world to receive an HSDPA network following only Germany. Because a strong traditional broadband infrastructure doesn't exist in South Africa, there aren't many Wi-Fi hotspots to accommodate wireless consumer needs. HSDPA gives customers high speed capable networks that are highly practical and portable at the same time.

Only a few countries on the African continent have 3G including Nigeria, Tanzania, Ghana, Mauritius, South Africa, and Swaziland. In the next year however, many new countries will come on board with 3G data service. However, not all customers will be able to afford 3G handsets right away.

With adoption numbers around 30%, how many of these mobile customers are using the mobile Internet? According to Praekelt, only 1-2%. However, some mobile websites based in Nigeria are attracting up to 200,000 users. Praekelt noted that when he was recently in Lagos, he saw people with 3G handsets even though such a network has yet to be built.

Finally, I asked Praekelt how many African's have smartphones. He replied by saying adoption is very low at around 5% at best. In some demographics, as much as 10% of mobile handset sales are smartphones. For example. his company built a mobile advertising platform that required a smartphone. The campaign, featured on a local radio show as a trial, drew 10% of 18-24 year olds.

Even though smartphone adoption may be low, 50% of African mobile customers use WAP services. Even though smartphones feature rich internet applications, most modern cell phones have browsers in them that enable users to download ringtones and use WAP sites.

Africa as An Inviting Mobile Market

Almost every African country has at least three major mobile network operators. However, initially in the 1990's, none of the major international carriers thought Africa was worthwhile to explore as a potential market. A few key mobile network operators including Vodafone, Celltell (now called Zain), and MTN explored certain African geographies, selected markets and, as a result, cleaned up in terms of market share. In Africa, Vodafone network has 7 territories, Celltell has 10-15 territories and MTN has 21 territories. Local companies understood the emerging environment and the challenges ahead and built out wireless networks. Now they are benefiting from these early bets.

It is astounding how these mobile network operators are able to thrive in markets where average revenue per user (ARPU) is relatively low. For example, in the North American market, normal ARPU is around $60-$70 per month. But in markets such as Africa and India it is much less. AirTel in India has the world's lowest ARPU, however, they area able to turn a respectable profit by making it up in volume with massive subscriber counts.

According to Praekelt, an inviting regulatory environment makes it possible for mobile network operators to come in and do business in Africa. Also, traditional copper phone lines take so long to get that wireless is a no-brainer to most customers who need communications solutions. The long wait for a traditional phone line, combined with firece wireless competition caused wireless phone service prices to go down, leading to success for mobile network operators.

Regarding Open Source and Mobile Handset Adoption, and the iPhone

I asked Praekelt what impact the open source on mobile movement would have in Africa. With developments such as the LiMo Foundation pushing Linux on Mobile, Nokia buying and open sourcing Symbian, and Google's Android now on the market, how will this impact emerging markets? Prawkelt replied, "In a word: nothing".

He expanded by illustrating that Finnish handset maker Nokia has gained such a solid footing in the mobile handset market, "almost everyone is on Nokia."

Nokia is successful in markets such as Africa because they make such a wide array of handsets with a plethora of feature sets and price points. Nokia has a huge market share because they market cell phones that are cheap, expensive, and everywhere in between. Nokia has been able to be successful on both the high and low end of the price spectrum. Plus, Africans like Nokia handsets because they find them easy to use. Oddly enough, the Nokia E90 communicator is quite popular in Africa because it is the one phone that can do almost anything, as Praekelt points out. A very practical device, the E90 features 3G connectivity, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a large screen, adding to it's popularity.

Additionally, application developers are attracted to the Nokia/Symbian platform because of its "openness". For example, a programmer working on Symbian can release mobile applications and services in a non-walled garden environment, unlike Apple iPhone developers. Many African mobile users depend on functionality that is locked out by the iPhone, such as full access to the Bluetooth stack and MMS capabilities.

In Praekelt's opinion, no one will be able to afford an Android handset. An entry-level Android handset might appeal to some Africans, but only if it's offered at a low price but only time will tell, as Praekelt stated.

Also, looking at the iPhone, Praekelt doesn't anticipate these devices taking off in South Africa as purchasing the Apple mobile phone requires a contract with a specific mobile carrier. Plus, at present, South Africans are unable to access the iTunes store for purchasing music and media. The iPhone will likely appeal only to extremely rich persons who are willing to pay $500 for a mobile phone.

This mentality regarding the iPhone carries over to other emerging markets as well. In areas such as Africa, India, and China, iPhone sales are not strong. This means you have 3 billion people who are overlooking Apple's iPhone. The iPhone has been effective in advancing usability in the mobile phone industry through competitiveness, however, the platform is too closed off for many customers in emerging markets.

How Africans Use Their Mobiles: Making Easy Mobile Payments

Africa is home to the largest mobile-based payment network in the world, M-Pesa is a mobile payment system that allows users to exchange money via SMS. A cross between PayPal and Western Union, M-Pesa works with pre-paid mobile calling credit. If you wish to pay a friend or colleague, you can simply use SMS to transfer money his M-Pesa account, resulting in a credit to his calling balance. You can even go to an M-Pesa agent and get cash payments from your M-Pesa balance.

What makes Africa a great environment for a mobile payment system? It's a matter of their economic and societal make up. Most of the one billion people in Africa do not have bank accounts. For example in South Africa, only 13 million out of 47 million people have bank accounts. Of these, only 2 or 3 million have traditional internet access that would allow them to log in to their bank account online to transfer money. For a population who deals mostly in cash, being able to transfer money via a mobile phone payment system presents a huge opportunity to them.

Leapfrogging PC's and Going Mobile

If you look at South Africa's mobile adoption, virtually 100% of the population has a mobile phone (actual adoption is at roughly 91%, but excluding children, it's close to 100%). This drastic adoption has occurred just 10-15 years after the first GSM network was launched in South Africa.

Western based companies who are building their website and web presence tend to think of their mobile internet site as an afterthought. What is often forgot is formating and structuring the site to appeal to mobile internet users in addition to 'traditional' PC-based Internet users. Mobile websites, in Praekelt's experience, are referred to as "the same thing" when in reality the requirements for mobile are quite different. This mentality is not relevant in mobile-heavy populations such as Africa. In a society where virtually everyone is reachable by SMS, new marketing opportunities present themselves.

Mobile customers in Africa are leapfrogging the "traditional" web and going straight for massive WAP and mobile web adoption. 3G phones are available in countries such as Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa. Combine this capability with inexpensive 3G data rates and a fully-capable 3G phone such as the Nokia E90 Communicator, and you have a population of mobile consumers that sees the online world through an entirely new lens. As Praekelt stated, "with these capabilities, who needs a PC with web access?"

In the markets described above, traditional DSL or cable-modem based internet adoption is relatively flat and growth is linear. However, the mobile adoption is exponential year after year.

Conclusion

The adoption numbers and usage models found in Africa point to a population who has quickly taken an enabling technology and woven it into their daily lives. The next part of this series will illustrate how the Praekelt Foundation has teamed up with social organizations and NGOs to deliver mobile-based social marketing solutions for social good.

About the Author

Jason Harris is a technology and mobile enthusiast based in Portland, Oregon. To connect with Jason or read more of his posts, check out his blog at Techcraver.com.

Photo: Paul Watson

UPDATE: See also Africans and Their Mobiles, Part 2: Using Mobile Phones For Social Good