Will WAC Unite Cellphones?

By Linda Broughton

The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) is an “open global alliance” that seeks to “unite a fragmented marketplace” through providing an open industry platform for developing applications for mobile devices. The platform would enable application developers to more easily write an application that could then be immediately distributed across a number of mobile devices, most obviously cellular phones.

In an analyst and journalist update, Tim Raby, WAC’s interim CEO, discusses how WAC will benefit the mobile device application ecosystem – made up of app developers, handset and hardware providers, users and operators. WAC aims to offer developers a common software development kit (SDK) for creating apps, along with network and device application programming interfaces (APIs) that will enable developers to “write and submit once, deploy and sell everywhere” rather than the more common “write once, debug everywhere”. Users of apps developed via the WAC platform will not only have more choices in apps, they’ll be able to access their favorite apps from different mobile devices. (At the moment users are normally limited to accessing apps according to their chosen mobile device’s current Operating System or OS – that is Google, Apple or Windows.) WAC claims that mobile device distributors using WAC-made apps will save money, benefitting from consistent operator requirements and specifications. Operators like Google, Apple and Windows will be able to offer more apps and still be able to customize apps for their customers.

Communication giants including AT&T, Telefonica, Vodafone, and Orange have already contributed their support and several resources to WAC. WAC plans to begin publishing documentation for developers and holding developer events in September and November 2010. WAC will be a non-profit, using all its revenues to cover its operational costs.

So why are some developers still skeptical?

Carl Corcoran, owner and operator of TridentLoop, LLC, a software consultation company operating in North America and the European Union, is skeptical of the initiative. He notes “Different technology platforms seem to do about the same thing, but crossing between them seems to be an enormous hurdle for developers. If you had to re-learn how to drive a car every time you switched makes, then the natural reaction is to wish for standardization.” However, Corcoran goes on to point out that while standardization of mobile device applications may increase the audience capable of accessing an app, standardization may also compromise the app’s sophistication. Standardization can limit the developer’s use of the unique features offered by the different platforms currently available. App developers select platforms in which to develop in order to create an app specifically geared towards users of that platform. Standardization would remove this customization.

Moreover, Corcoran notes that mobile devices are less powerful and less flexible than desktop computers, meaning that any extra platforms and services provided via a mobile device are thus more limited. Adding a layer of “translation” between a mobile device app and its hardware can reduce the app’s available functions.

Lastly, Corcoran calls into question the interest that mobile device developers have in standardization. Microsoft, Corcoran explains, is promoting their own platform (.NET) and would most likely prefer to highlight their platform’s special features rather than invest more in yet another standard.

Question for iPad Competitors: Now what?

By James Zipadelli

Now that it’s been a few weeks since the iPad has launched - and the numbers look good - two questions come to mind. First, how can this technology be used to benefit iPad’s competitors?

In this YouTube video, HP has a “Slate Device” concept. HP declined request for comment and would only say that they have “yet to announce pricing, specs, etc. for the device.” HP’s latest products can be seen on their blog. A spokesman from Dell says they have shown some prototypes “but there is nothing in market” that competes with the iPhone. Microsoft directs people to CEO Steve Ballmer’s remarks at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. A Microsoft spokesman says the company plans to release slates and touch screen computers later this year.

The iPad also has some kinks to work out. Israel banned imports of the iPad out of concerns that its network “could disrupt other devices” because local transmitters have a lower power than in the US. Some colleges and universities, such as Princeton and George Washington University, have raised similar concerns. Ashish Chordia, founder and CEO of  Appdiscover.com, thinks that Apple will fix the problem quickly.

“They have the ability to take what is already out there - in some ways they are groundbreaking innovations,” Chordia says, referring to Apple. “Nokia had 800 series device that you could argue was a souped up iPhone. Of course they have great marketing and cult following, but they make it a little bit better and useful for the user. And I’m sure they’ll do more of it in the future.”

Chordia says iPad’s competitors can compete, but they need to have an App store.

“We feel that Apple has a big head start with the apps and the content that is created,” Chordia says. ” HP acquiring Palm will create that competition. Smaller players can be big players by adopting the Android player. There is an India-based startup and their Android based device is called Adam.”

Gartner analyst Angela McIntyre says Apple took the existing technologies that were already out there and brought them together with the iPad.

“The iPad is in between the smartphone and a PC in terms of computing capability,” McIntyre says. “What Apple saw in the market was a gap in the computing spectrum between smartphones and PCs that was starting to close.  Connected consumer electronics, such as e-readers (Kindle) and portable media players, e.g. iPod Touch and Zune, were gaining traction with consumers to fill that gap.  Apple designed a product, the iPad, with a high quality user interface that can serve as a media player, e-reader and has many functions of a mini-notebook (netbook).”

“Their App store and itunes store is second to none,” McIntyre adds. “They have a strong ecosystem of developers and applications that can take advantage of touch.”

Is the iPad an “i-fad” or the future? Rick Singer, CEO of GreatStartups.com, says it remains to be seen, although he added, “I’m sure Apple has five or ten versions planned.”

“I just ordered my 13-year-old son an iPad and he’s fascinated by the latest technology,” Singer says. “The iPad is really in an unfamiliar territory in the sense that, I don’t personally see the fascination with it. It’s really an enlarged iPhone without the iPhone’s capabilities. You don’t even have the ability to connect to an Ethernet cable.”

To be competitive, Singer says that companies need a product with increased battery life over the iPad, less expensive apps, and a cost-effective 3G or 4G network.

Gartner’s McIntyre says that while the functionality of the iPad is high, its high price is a turnoff for some consumers.

“The iPad starts at $499 goes up to $900,” McIntyre says.  “In order for media tablets to be accepted and adopted, they are going to have a price comparable to mini notebooks, which often retail for around $300. The price for a media tablet needs to be low enough that consumers feel they can justify its purchase as another computing device as most would have already bought a PC and a smartphone.”

Sometimes, for business reasons, the alternative to the iPad, is, well, not purchasing the iPad.

Richard Seppala, founder of YourROIGuy.com, does trade shows. When the iPad launched, he thought it would be helpful for his booth. Seppala has an iPhone already, so when he went to CommXperts.com, an Orlando-based company who works with businesses, they suggested a PICO projector. Seppala says it worked very well.

“I plugged (my iPhone) into the PICO projector so I have a crowd of 10 people watching my presentation on the wall,” Seppala says. “I was able to sell 10 clients watching this thing. When the two people side by side are looking at the iPad, the people that can’t see would walk right by. Everyone can see the presentation on the wall with the PICO projector. It’s like speaking on stage in your booth. People from across the room that saw the movie playing walked by the booth and it was a great lead generator. I have the iPhone so I didn’t need something that was larger with the same features.”

Courtney Barnette, President at CommXperts.com, says the projectors are $550, about the same as an iPad, but clients can rent the projectors for the trade show - it costs $200 to rent with a $350 deposit, and clients are refunded the deposit after the show. Barnette says it’s a good value for clients.

“Most businesses have a device that has a video out, and you could just add the PICO projector to it and not purchase the iPad,” Barnette says. “Most people like the iPad because it has a larger service. But if you can connect a PICO projector to an iPhone you can have surface of 200 inches on a wall. It’s really amazing what this projector can do.”

New Web site WhatApp? tests apps for safety and security

By Rebecca Henely

As the number of mobile-based and Internet browser-based applications increases, many app review web sites have sprung up, trying to separate the good apps from the bad.

However, while sites like AppVee and AndroidTapp look at the quality of an app or how fun it is to use, Ryan Calo, one of the two creators of WhatApp? said those review sites do not look at whether an App is secure or protects a user’s privacy.

“We wanted to have one place where experts, users, and developers could discuss these aspects of the online and mobile apps we increasingly rely upon,” Calo stated.

Calo and Lauren Gelman, both of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, began the beta for WhatApp? in mid-March. Since then, Calo stated 250 apps for a myriad of different platforms – from the smart phone iPhone and the social networking-site Twitter to the web browser Firefox and web application Google Docs – have been submitted to WhatApp? for review.

Of those, one-third have been reviewed. Calo stated reviews come from a panel of 26 registered and approved experts. These experts use a survey of questions to rate the apps on a sliding scale of how each app protects the privacy of its users, its security and the openness of its source.

“Some joined at my invitation; others signed up and were approved,” he stated. “They have different expertise – there are computer scientists, lawyers and other privacy and security specialists.”

In judging how each app protects its users’ privacy, the experts judge whether the app makes it clear to the user what information it will collect and how it will use that information, if the information it collects is necessary for the app to function or if it is in excess, and if the users can control the data they provide to the app after it has been submitted.

“The most common [privacy] issues are apps that gather more information than they need to perform the service they offer,” Calo stated.

He stated the most common security issues are app creators neglecting to encrypt user data and anticipate well-known security problems. Thus, the experts look for potential security vulnerabilities, whether or not the app encrypts or protects its user data and if the app could perform with fewer security risks to the user when judging the security of an app.

The experts also judge if the app’s source code is closed or open, if the data can be migrated away from the application and if the app uses open standards and data formats.

“Some believe that if you can see and experiment with the source code, it is easier to anticipate and therefore combat security vulnerabilities,” Calo stated. “Also, the idea is that open source projects catch errors (for instance, around memory) that can lead to security problems.”

Calo stated these rating standards were formulated from consultations with various experts and WhatApp? is still taking experts’ comments on their survey questions.

He stated his advice for developers entering the marketplace is to make security and user privacy a priority from the beginning. “This is ‘good for business,’ as our friends at the ACLU of Northern California have written, because if users discover that an app is insecure or that a developer is abusing their information, they will not use the product,” Calo stated.

API Tricks and Tips: APIs Deliver Profits

By John Greaves

Application Programming Interfaces(API) used to be a means to market products, they were often free and served to drive traffic to a site or increase buzz around a company’s offering.  Now we’ve begun to see increasing numbers of companies built around monetizing APIs  rather than relegating them to marketing tools status.

While OneRiot’s success with Riotwise is well documented and DMB recently unpacked the potential behind geodata APIs in a March 2010 article, there are other areas from telecom to financial data management where API companies are pushing the boundaries of how APIs can be profitable.

Twilio
Twilio CEO and co founder Jeff Lawson describes their service as “Amazon Web Services meets telecom.”  Simply put Lawson says Twilio lets developers build applications that can make and receive phone calls and send and receive text messages.  Lawson says Twilio aimed to combine infrastructure web services with telecom in a new way.  “In the enterprise there have been application development platforms in the past. What we were trying to do is to change and bring the capabilities that enterprises have had for a while and really bring that to every developer.  And so making technology simpler was a major goal of ours but the good thing was that there was precedent people paying for not just telecom on a per use basis but also paying for infrastructure web services, so people were accustomed to if you want servers on demand paying Amazon for them.”  According to a Crunchbase company profile, “Before Twilio, you would have had to learn some foreign telecom programming languages, or set up an entire stack of PBX software … Twilio lets you use your existing web development skills, existing code, existing servers, existing databases and existing karma to solve problems quickly and reliably.”

Twilio“s list of customers includes web development shop 37signals which uses Twilio in their Campfire product and they also uses theme based contests to inspire aspiring developers.  “We have a developer contest every week and for over a year we’ve given away a Netbook every week to the developer who writes the best application with a certain theme.  We give developers a week, sometimes two to build something along the lines of the theme.  We’re getting developers involved in the brand and the company and also giving developers an extra incentive to build something that they’re thinking about building,” Lawson said.

Twistage
According to Twistage founder and CEO David Wadler, the company has “a rather extensive footprint in enterprise.”  Since 2007, they have gone from what blogger Liz Gannes referred to as “a stealthy newly funded video startup” to an industry leader that can boast partnerships with Jive Social Business Software.

The secret behind this rise is an easy to understand metering monetization model that allows their customers to purchase allocations in blocks of API components.  “It’s much easier for non technical people, and oftentimes those are the people who have control of the budget or have to make the case for the logistical spend.”  When overages occur, Wadler says Twistage works with the customer to address it.  “In general as a model we don’t like to penalize people for being successful so where possible we volume discount them,” Wadler said.

Twistage’s approach has led to a customer base which includes Mochila, PerezHilton.com, The New York Observer, Kidzbop, and Fast Company, is a technology partner with Jive, a Social Business Software leader and targets companies who already have an existing IT budget and infrastructure who need and want to use video for education and product marketing.

X Ignite
Pete Soderling, founder of Stratus Security Technologies an API monetization consultancy, calls XIgnite “one of the forerunners of this industry” for its use of APIs in financial information delivery and distribution.

X Ignite bills itself as the leading provider of financial web services for mission-critical corporate applications.  In fact, it claims XIgnite web services are used to power hundreds of mission-critical applications from proprietary systems handling hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate loans to applications trading gold, crude oil, or currencies around the clock and around the world.

“They have relationships with all of the major stock exchanges and they pull and suck in data from the exchanges, normalize it, sort of make it uniform and then basically act as a distribution channel and resell that data to other financial institutions, developers, investment banks, research firms what have you, so they’re like sort of a middle man in taking in that valuable data from the exchanges and then blasting it out,” Soderling said.

What Does It Mean?

As businesses try to ride out the economic storm, they are bailing unnecessary costs over the side and attempting to reef the sails with tech solutions that do the same things better, faster and cheaper.  API developers who can add value without overloading the bottom line may find that the recession cloud is lined with success.

Distimo Provides Insight & Analysis Across Top App Stores

By Ron Callari

Less than a week after Apple introduced its iPad, its app store was offering approximately 2,400 applications optimized for the tablet device and “games” represented 35 percent of all iPad titles. This analysis, coupled with comparison pricing, number of apps sold and the specific app store breakdowns by source is a small snapshot of the work that is done by Distimo, an innovative app store analytics company that addresses the widely fragmented app store marketplace.

Distimo, a privately held company based in the Netherlands provides in-depth reports and analytical monitoring for companies interested in how their apps are doing across the mobile application ecosystem. While the company competes with the traditional market analysis companies such as comScore, Forrester and Gartner, in stead of basing findings on panels and surveys, “Distimo Reports,” according to co-founder and VP of development Remco van del Elzen, “are more timely and accurate, covering the whole app store market based on factual information.”

Jan-Joost Rueb, CEO and co-founder of eBuddy, a Web based instant messaging service uses Distimo’s reports and monitoring analytics for his firm. Differing from some of the other research companies, he finds most useful, Distimo’s ability to not only track popularity of his app in other countries, but also to “compare the performance of competing applications with our own apps.”  The total cumulative download (to date) breakdown per source for eBuddy is shown here.

Interesting to note, eBuddy app is #2 most downloaded app on GetJar (behind Facebook).

Both Distimo Reports and Distimo Monitor are free to companies. The Monitor service offers mobile developers a free analytics tool to track their own and competitive applications across all app stores, without any adjustments needed to their application’s code. The company is monetized by selling their reports to device manufacturers, operators and large developers, with the future goal of “introducing premium features,” notes van del Elzen.

Companies can view daily downloads and revenue figures of all their applications and analyze their rankings, worldwide and compare these findings to how the competition is doing in terms of publicly available data, such as popularity, rankings and price changes.

The app stores currently analyzes findings from the six largest applications stores in existence today: the Apple App Store, Blackberry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.  According to an aggregate report of the number of applications available in the market for the month of March, it is clear that Apple’s App Store is by far the clear front-runner.

Book apps are proven to be lucrative for the eReader market. One of Distimo’s studies indicates that the highest percentage of apps in the Apple App Store is now paid book applications. For example, there are 27,0000 books in the store, and of those 92 percent are paid apps, according to Distimo’s data. When questioning van del Elzen why Kindle, Sony Reader and Barnes and Noble’s Nook were not included in their reports and monitoring, he indicated that Distimo currently focuses on the stores that provide applications. “The line between applications and books however is blurring and we will provide analytics on some of the eReader market as well,” he notes.

The different ratios of free apps versus paid were one of the findings that Distimo presented during MWC 2010. In the chart below you can see the percentage breakdowns per store. While Android has the most free applications, Nokia has the most paid.

Developers can use Distimo’s data-mining to adjust pricing and distribution channels to maximize growth and revenue streams of their apps.

Rueb finds Distimo’s analysis invaluable because of the changing competitive market his firm has to deal with on a daily basis.  Tracking eBuddy’s performance on a worldwide level with Distimo, Rueb sums up Distimo as a service that which “allows us to act fast, based on country level analyses, popularity of competing apps and competitor’s actions.”

Bandwidth to Boost M2M

By Barbara Gengler

Industry buzz is thriving about how machine-to-machine (M2M) technology will gain more and more significance in a variety of markets.

Some areas that will benefit from M2M include telecommunication, asset management, telemetry, security and surveillance and IP internetworking. M2M refers to data communications between machines.

More than 12.6 million of 4G M2M cellular modules, including LTE-compatible, (long term evolution) will be shipped worldwide in 2015, according to ABI Research, in contrast to just about 40,000 4G M2M cellular modules that will ship in 2010.

M2M technology takes in various components such as devices or sensors that collect data and monitor changes and a central server that sends and receives data. It may also include a modem, an application and database to manage the data sent and received as well as a security application.

ABI Research predicts applications, such as telematics (distributing multimedia content to vehicles), fixed terminals (distributing a broadband connection) and industrial PDAs, using either WiMAX or LTE technology, will benefit from 4G capabilities. The research firm predicts secondary applications that will also benefit include digital signage and video surveillance networks.

ABI Research M2M practice director Sam Lucero says 4G offers several benefits for M2M.

“The first, of course, is sheer bandwidth. 4G networks are also more spectrally efficient than 3G,” he says. “And there is the question of future-roofing: 4G networks are going to be around for quite a long time.”

He also points out Cinteron has led the M2M module market in overall shipment volume for a number of years. ABI Research anticipates the global market for M2M modules will rise from roughly 30 million units shipped in 2009 to about 88 million units shipped in 2014.

Then again, Lucero maintains 4G modules cost more because they contain more RF chains and larger processors. Price is also based on demand and many M2M applications do only require low data rates.

“Low data rate applications won’t migrate to 4G in the next five years,” he says, “though towards the end of the decade they may, as 3G networks start to wind down. And network coverage issues will also inhibit uptake for some time.”

Sierra Wireless and Ericsson are two more companies tracking the M2M market. Last month, Digi International announced its intent to collaborate with Ericsson to provide 3G cellular connectivity for M2M applications. Digi will use Ericsson’s HSPA modules to enable high-speed cellular connectivity across select Digi Connect and Digi TransPort cellular gateways.

What’s more, Gartner reports many network service providers increased their commitment to M2M in 2009, so a good range of both national and multinational M2M service options will be available in mature markets during 2010 and 2011.

“Although the M2M market is very fragmented, it’s growing at over 30 percent per year,” Gartner analyst Nick Jones, wrote in the report. “Low-cost M2M modules will enable a wide range of new networked devices and business models and key applications include smart grid, meter reading, security/surveillance, automotive systems, vending and point of sale, remote monitoring and track and trace.”

According to Jones, consolidation and growing interest from larger companies and operators are among the M2M trends. Many traditional M2M service providers were small companies, but Gartner says major network operators like AT&T, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have started to take M2M more seriously. Many of these large operators have roaming agreements they can leverage to provide services like multinational M2M.

The size of the potential M2M opportunity will also attract new vendors, for example, the recent joint venture between Verizon and Qualcomm, which combines an operator and a technology supplier. And Gartner points out as the scale of M2M deployments grow, “management and services will become more important differentiators.”

“Most of the revenue from M2M will be made from services, including data transport services from operators and a wide range of other services, such as device management, data collection, aggregation and presentation, software integration, hosting and others,” Jones wrote.

Experts go along with M2M technology gaining more and more in markets that are recognizing the cost and process efficiencies only M2M can provide. Industries such as the energy sector, transportation and healthcare are being transformed by the introduction of connectivity in their processes.

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