Really?

If you're an iPhone owner yourself, you're probably going to be taken a bit aback by these findings. For example, the study claims that "cool gadgets" make a person three times more attractive to an iPhone owner than a college degree. Meanwhile "old" gadgets are a turnoff to one in three iPhone users. And yet, if that person spends a little too much time with said gadgets, one in four iPhone owners will break up with them. One in three will do it via email or text message.

Taken on their own, it's hard to say whether these stats are indicative of anything about iPhone owners specifically, or if they could apply to any group of smartphone-owning mobile users. That's why the report compares the iPhone and Blackberry owners on each topic. When studied this way, iPhone owners beat Blackberry owners in every category where "winning" is actually the equivalent of being a materialistic, flaky, fickle dolt...well, at least in our opinion.

To spin the findings even further in Blackberry's favor, one of the questions involved asking the mobile users how they "see" themselves. 40% of the iPhone owners claimed they were an "intellectual" while only 36% of Blackberry users said the same. Propped up against the other results, it's an almost laughable claim.

Don't Buy this Hype

Clearly, this survey wasn't meant to be an in-depth examination of the smartphone toting population - in fact, it's more likely just a publicity stunt to generate talk about Retrevo. Given the questions asked, there were bound to be some "rather interesting" findings, no matter how the respondents answered. And by keeping the sample size to a low number - only 445 individuals - there's no guarantee that these folks are representative of the population at large in any way. After all, who signs up for online surveys anyway? While the panel of participants was distributed across gender, age, income and location in the U.S., what's undisclosed is how the questions were asked - was this done scientifically or were they leading questions designed to generate these sorts of results?  We'd bet on the latter.

Still, you have to wonder if there isn't a tiny bit of truth hiding in these numbers somewhere. Could it be that those who buy Apple's smartphone are a little more wrapped up in mobile life than those whose smartphone purchase probably had more to do with accessing company email in a timely fashion? That may be possible, but that wouldn't exactly be an incredible reveal if so, now would it?

Mobile phone backup services are par for the course these days. Several vendors offer their own version: for example, Apple has MobileMe, Microsoft has My Phone and Nokia has Ovi. Despite this fact, a lot of users aren't taking advantage of these solutions for one of two reasons: either their phone isn't supported or they simply don't want to pay for the service. Case in point, Apple's MobileMe starts at a hefty $99 per year. After already blowing hundreds on the handset alone, that extra fee often proves to be too much for some users.

That's why Best Buy mIQ has appeal. Although the service maxes out at 1 GB of storage, it's enough for the average mobile phone user to backup everything on their phone with room to spare (well, except for iPhone users, but they're not supported at this time. Guess they have to pony up the $99 after all). 

In addition to providing online storage, the new service also provides a web site where users can access their online account, even reading and responding to incoming SMS messages from their PC. From the website, mIQ users can share photos and videos to popular social networks, too, including Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed and Twitter. And all changes made from the web instantly sync back to the mobile phone and vice versa.

Officially launching on Monday October 12th, mIQ will be pre-installed on any supported phone sold at Best Buy. In addition, other users, even those who bought their phone elsewhere, can sign up to use the service too from miqlive.com. Currently the system, built by Seattle-based Dashwire, supports smartphones running BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 operating systems like the BlackBerry 9700, Bold, Tour, Nokia E71 and N97, HTC Pro 2, Samsung Omnia II and T-Mobile Dash 3G.

But you don't have to wait until Monday to sign up. The site is accepting registrations as of now.

What's the Catch? Why is mIQ Free?

If you're wondering why Best Buy would offer a valuable backup service like this for free when so many others force you to pay, it's because the company is busy rebranding themselves as more than just a place to buy phones and accessories. They want to be an end-to-end mobile solutions provider - a place where you can shop for phones from multiple carriers, get advice, and receive support for your handset throughout the life of the phone.

To accomplish this goal, the company has been busy ramping up new offerings like a dedicated Best Buy Mobile site, a revamped Facebook page with new applications, and of course, a partnership with Google for exclusive Best Buy apps, including some designed just for Android phones. ]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/best_buy_announces_mobileme_competitor_miq.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/best_buy_announces_mobileme_competitor_miq.php Mobile Services Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:16:36 -0800 Sarah Perez According to a new report from web analytics firm Compete, 1 in 3 smartphone users use a location based service at least once a month. Weather and navigation apps are currently the most popular location based services, followed by apps that provide store locations, movie showtimes, and local news. Interestingly, there also seem to be a number of highly underserved markets. According to Compete's research, users also want to be able to receive local alerts about topics like traffic jams and gas sales.

Currently, there are still a number of technical and privacy issues that are holding back some of the most interesting services. Due to the absence of background processing, the current generation iPhone, for example, can't regularly ping a server with a user's location and then send alerts to the phone based on this information. Alerts you have to actively pull up are, after all, not nearly as compelling as automated messages that tell you that you are heading right for a major traffic jam.

Underserved Markets: Local Alerts, Special Offers

Advertisers will also be happy to hear that a large number of consumers would like to receive special offers tailored to their current location, but only a very small number of current smartphone users are actually aware or able to use these services.

According to Compete's Andy deGaravilla, this means that companies that manage to provide users with more compelling and relevant ads based on their location will "likely see higher clickthrough rates and subsequent engagement." At the same time, though, we can't help but wonder if at least some users would also like to simply receive a text message or another kind of alert on their phones if, for example, a nearby store has an offer for them.

User Initiated vs. Background Services

The current generation of location based apps mostly relies on users to initiate the process. It would be interesting to see how consumers would react to a background service that actively monitors a person's location and sends out alerts when a user enters a certain location, for example. Of course, this could get highly annoying quickly, but there is no reason to believe that it couldn't be done right.

So, what defines a smartphone as all phones become smarter? What is the exact trajectory of the mobile learning curve?

Second, competition with Apple's iPhone has prompted OS innovation in a trickle-down effect. Google's Android, the Blackberry Storm (which sounds like some kind of Blizzard flavor but is actually a full touchscreen device without the mobile manufacturer's signature-if-clunky QWERTY keyboard), Palm's competitively priced Pre, and devices from HTC and Nokia have all garnered well-deserved interest in recent months. And though the iPhone still holds a significant amount of the high-end mobile market share, the number of devices sold still pales in comparison to the number of Blackberry users, for example, which leaves lots of room for smartphone competitors.

Third, devices that were once top-of-the-line are now moving toward mid-range prices, meaning that more and more consumers will have access to smartphone technology. This poses a significant threat to GPS systems, low-end video cameras, and MP3 players, all of which can look to pagers and PDAs as the ghosts of Christmas yet to come.

These "adjacent sectors," as they're termed in the Forrester report, can also prepare for the mobile future by offering services and content on mobile devices, licensing technologies to hardware manufacturers, improve their own devices to be a couple steps ahead of mobile handsets, and minimize any possible future overlap with mobile offerings.

Finally, the report sees major and minor feature sets across all "smart" mobile devices (e.g., Kindle 2 is a poor music player, and the PlayStation Portable is multidimensional but best at games), but the folks at Forrester don't see all the competition as heading toward convergence. "No device," it reads, "is best in breed for everything - and nor will it ever be." Rather, devices will be (or ought to be) classified in the near future based on whether devices/operating systems are primarily extensible through apps (think iPhone) or fundamentally "open" (think Android), whether they are best used to create or consume content, and whether they are more suited to utility or entertainment.

Another prediction is that of continuing fragmentation in mobile software offerings. Apple devices will continue to run on Apple software; HTC, however, creates handsets for Android and Windows. Sony needs a replacement for Symbian's UIQ; and Palm, Samsung, LG, Nokia, and Motorola need to develop winning strategies for the smartphone game. Microsoft and Google each need to work to improve their offerings and increase adoption rates. None of these facts points to a winner-takes-all conclusion, or even a two-party system such as we now see with personal computers (sorry, Linux - you're still our favorite hobby OS).

In a word, there will be plenty of healthy variety and a device and OS for every kind of mobile user in Forrester's version of the future of mobile.

The Official Store: Google Android Market

Of course, the main source for finding new Android apps is the official Google Android Market. Similar to Apple's App Store, this site currently features around 50 applications for Android phones. We've written about a few of these already, including BooRah (restaurant search), imeem (streaming music), and MySpace's mobile app. We're also fans of WikiMobile (a Wikipedia app), iSkoot (Skype VoIP calls), Shazam (media player), ShopSavvy (barcode scanner/shopping assistant), TuneWiki (media player), iMap (weather maps), and wertago (for finding stuff to do). And pre-launch, we picked out some early favorites when we listed 10 Android apps we would actually use.

Handango's Shop

Compared to the clean, minimalist look of the Android Market, the Handango Android app site is downright ugly. Most of the apps here aren't free, but you still might find something you'll want to try. Some that look interesting include the GoogHelper which helps you launch various types of internet searches, the Fast Food Calorie Counter, for healthy eating on the go, or the an all-in-one IM app for instant messaging via AIM, iChat, MSN/Live Messenger, ICQ, Yahoo!, Jabber, and Google Talk.

MobiHand Launches OnlyAndroid

Also launched yesterday was the MobiHand Android app store called OnlyAndroid.com. This store features both free and paid applications. OnlyAndroid is available both on the desktop and from the mobile phone itself in order to support OTA installation of their apps. Some of the featured applications at launch include games like Freecell and Par 72 Golf II and FotMob, an app for sports scores.

With Google Apps, You Have To Shop Around

We noticed that the MobiHand store features some apps that were also found on Handango's site, like the GoogHelper app and the FotMob app, for example. However, on OnlyAndroid, GoogHelper was $3.95 whereas Handango sold it for $4.95. FotMob, on the other hand, was free on Handango but was $7.99 on OnlyAndroid.

Uh-oh! It's only one day into Android being publicly available and already there are three different places to shop for apps? Google's Android Market will feature free apps at first, with paid apps not being included until next year. Meanwhile, paid applications today are found in two non-official stores, each with different pricing for the exact same apps.

Say whatever you want about Apple's locked-down ecosystem, but there is simplicity in knowing there's only one place to get apps (well, unless you're voiding your warranty through jailbreaking, that is). What will people think of all these Android stores? We're worried that these parallel marketplaces could lead to consumer confusion. We love that Google has gone the open route with Android, but Apple has been successful doing just the opposite. That makes us wonder: is "open" still a way to compete? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Together, entertainment and gaming apps account for 42% of unit sales of the top ten categories. Meanwhile, business and professional apps rank third with 15% and Productivity applications (e.g. address book and calendar) fourth with 9%. Note that these are similar trends to the iPhone App Store, where gaming also dominates. Handango also reported that the Blackberry had the most app sales. Below are the top 10 lists for each major smart phone that Handango covers, courtesy of the Yardstick report:

1. Ringtone Megaplex (ringtones)

2. Colour Your Trackball (trackball customizer)

3. VoiceControl (voice command)

4. BBSmart Email Viewer (email enhancement)

5. SplashID for BlackBerry (information security)

6. Ringphonic Lite (ringtones)

7. Pimp My Pearl (customization)

8. IM+ (instant messenger consolidator)

9. eOffice (productivity suite)

10. IM+ for Skype (instant messenger consolidator)

The top 10 best-selling applications for Palm OS in First Half 2008 were:

1. SplashID for Palm (information security)

2. VoiceControl (voice command)

3. PocketMirror Standard (personal information management)

4. Agendus Professional Edition (personal information management)

5. Agendus Desktop Edition (Outlook synchronization)

6. Traffic - One City (traffic)

7. SplashID for Desktop (information security)

8. Ringo Pro (ringtones)

9. eWallet for PCs (information security)

10. PocketMirror Standard Upgrade (personal information management)

The top 10 best-selling applications for Windows Mobile Standard in First Half 2008 were:

1. MobiTV (streaming television)

2. Ringtone Megaplex (ringtones)

3. SBSH Facade (home screen plug in)

4. eWallet Professional Edition (personal information management)

5. Documents To Go Premium Edition (productivity suite)

6. PocketStreamer Deluxe (streaming media)

7. Agenda One (calendar manager)

8. SmartphoneNotes (note manager)

9. Jeyo Mobile Extender for Outlook (text messaging)

10. Photo Contacts Pro (phone features)

The top 10 best-selling applications for Windows Mobile Professional in First Half 2008 were:

1. Spb Mobile Shell (today screen plug in)

2. MobiTV (streaming television)

3. Spb Pocket Plus (today screen plug in)

4. Pocket Informant 8 (today screen plug in)

5. Spb Backup (file backup)

6. eWallet (personal information management)

7. Spb Phone Suite (phone features)

8. Ringo Mobile (ringtones)

9. Spb Time (clock)

10. SOTI Pocket Controller-Pro (desktop synchronization)

The top 10 best-selling Symbian OS applications in First Half 2008 include:

1. Quickoffice Premier (document manager)

2. ProfiMail (email viewer)

3. Handy Weather (weather)

4. Advanced Call Manager (call manager)

5. X-plore (file management)

6. WorldMate Professional (travel assistant)

7. IM+ for Skype (instant messenger consolidator)

8. LCG Jukebox (music player)

9. Advanced Device Locks (security)

10. Ultimate Voice Recorder (voice recorder)

The SkyData application is designed specifically for smartphones, as its target demographic is the traveling business user, not the consumer. At the moment, the app works on Windows Mobile and Blackberry, but an iPhone version will be ready by year-end, they say. At DEMO, the app was shown on Windows Mobile, but they did give a quick peek at both the Blackberry app and iPhone version, too.

The idea with SkyData is that you now have one screen from which you can easily access all the data and info you need. But it's more than just ease-of-access that makes SkyData interesting - it also integrates with your phone, too. For example, you can add your LinkedIn contacts to your phone's contacts from the app's menu.

Social Network Integration

From the SkyData application, you can dive into your contacts, no matter where you have them stored. You can access email contacts like those you have in Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail, but you can also access social network contacts like those on Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, or Jigsaw.

CRM Integration

At the moment, SkyData integrates with Salesforce.com, but NetSuite and SugarCRM will be coming soon. They will then be followed by Microsoft and Siebel. What's unique about SkyData is, again, the app/phone integration. As you view emails, calls, and text messages, you can access all the info stored in SkyData with only a couple of clicks from within those messages. That adds a new layer of contextual information to the day-to-day communications that you recieve on your mobile device.

Pricing

The SkyData Personal Edition is free to use and combines social networks, Facebook, and related news. The Business Edition offers the CRM integration for $9.95 per month. Both editions are in private beta.

Too Much?

The scenario envisioned for using SkyData involves a traveling business person, such as someone who does sales, preparing for a meeting with a client. From this one app, they can quickly get a refresher on all the relevant information they have access to about that person, the company, and the market in general. They can even find a nearby restaurant where they can wine and dine them later after the meeting has concluded.

However, with the vast number of services and networks supported, it's possible that instead of being a convenient one-stop-shop, it's mashup overload.

Would you want all your networks mashed into one and available on your smartphone? Or would that be too confusing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

There's only one iPhone, and in the smartphone market, one size doesn't fit all.

(Left to right: Palm Treo 650, HTC Touch Diamond, Nokia E61, Nokia E71, Samsung Tocco)

The iPhone's camera is nothing to call home about too, and there's no video recording capability either. Enter Nokia's N95 which excels at media production. On the other hand, if you want a real choice of third-party apps, Windows Mobile and now the iPhone is where the action is at.

I'm also noticing a blurring of the lines between so-called smartphones - once the realm of business or power users only - and what are termed 'feature phones', which often focus on either music, video playback, photography or gaming.

Smartphones are getting more consumer friendly, and feature phones are getting smarter. As an example, just yesterday I took loan of a Samsung Tocco. Along with its iPhone-like finger friendly interface, it offers 'smart' features such as email, full web browsing, an RSS reader, calendar etc, along with a generous 5 megapixel camera, the standard music and video playback functionality, and even a basic video editor. The only thing that stops it from being classified as a smart phone in our eyes is the lack of third-party applications aside from Java games (as far as I could tell), and perhaps the omission of Wi-Fi.

In the next few weeks, at last100 we'll publish reviews of Nokia's new 'Blackberry killer' the E71, the Samsung Tocco (mentioned above), and the successor to the N95, Nokia's soon-to-be released N96. We're also trying to source a Blackberry Bold. All very different devices, and proof that one size doesn't fit all.

Now, where's my iPhone nano with a slide out QWERTY thumboard?

This post is syndicated from last100, our digital lifestyle blog covering Internet TV, digital music, Mobile Web and more. You can subscribe to last100 here.