The Video IQ Mobile app puts prevention into the palm of business owners who deploy Video IQ cameras and video analytics solution.  The app sends notifications when an incident has triggered an alarm via Video IQ’s video analytics cloud.  The notification takes the user into the app to a view of the video that triggered the alarm, and from there, the user can instantly flip to live video from the same camera, as well as nearby cameras.  Using the built in “Talk Down” feature, you can even use a walky-talky mode back to the speaker-equipped cameras to warn unsavory characters away.  Picture a car dealership, where the premises security can now be monitored in the palm of the owner or manager.

Very cool news, very deep technology.  Video IQ runs on iOS and Android, and utilizes a custom solution to penetrate firewalls with real-time, live audio talkback.   A stylish design coupled with a transformative business solution.

We are excited and honored to make it into the finals.

Google vs Apple

The feature reinforces how well Google+ is doing as a social platform and how it’s becoming an alternative or additional sign in mechanism to Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, in other interesting news last week, Facebook announced in their earnings call that Facebook ads have become a really significant driver of revenue for both the company and for app developers who are promoting through their platform. With 700 million plus active users, it’s a significant ad network, especially considering that so much of Facebook activity is through mobile these days.

So where does that leave Apple?  Well, they don’t really have a social network per se (anyone remember Ping?), but they do have a killer hardware network.  It’s interesting how rapidly Google has continued to evolve their software experience through their apps and search engine infrastructure relative to Apple.

Isaac Van Wesep and Walter Duncan are both educators who see a tremendous opportunity to innovate around mobile in the class room.  They are passionate, insightful, and two of the nicest clients you’ll ever want to meet.

So congrats QuickKey – keep it coming! You can find their website here.

Viral YouTube video (and a great example of the power of social meets shooting on a budget) here.

From the review: “Poem Flow features one well-chosen poem every day, presented using the app’s innovative animated typographical style. The technique was originally developed to enhance the readability of prose text, but it lends itself even better to poetry.”

Which leads naturally to the haiku:

Great to see PoemFlow,

One of our early clients,

Getting some good press.

Because we’re big fans of getting more smarter all the time and being, you know, cultured.  You know?

Apple kicked Google’s mapping data out of the iPhone’s Map app back in September with iOS 6 but now Google is back — this time with its own app. The two former partners have been rapidly drifting apart for years and Apple had long been preparing for the geo-data split, snapping up Placebase in 2009, Poly9 in 2010, and then last year C3 technologies, whose 3D mapping technology was called “Google Maps on steroids.”

But despite all the hot acquisitions, Apple fumbled the app development. The app had a new, cleaner interface and some cool features Google had never provided, like free turn-by-turn directions and a stunning 3D overhead view of major cities. Unfortunately, it was also quickly apparent that some of the maps were wrong, even dangerously wrong.   While comedians had a field day and we were amused by a cute Tumblr spoof of the worst mistakes, Apple CEO Tim Cook offered a full-out apology, promising to improve the app as soon as possible and actually recommending competing apps to use in the meantime. Within months, Richard Williamson, who headed the Maps team, was out the door.

Now that Google is back with its own iPhone app, including free turn-by-turn directions, too, the battle is on. Not that Google is perfect (see interesting view of my trip to Baltimore below).  New York Times reviewer David Pogue raved about the new Google app, so the other night I did my own version of the old Coke versus Pepsi challenge. I ran both apps to give me turn-by-turn directions while driving home from work with a buddy (don’t worry – he was driving).

Interesting Google View of the East (?) Coast

Here’s the best news: both apps are stunning in delivery of a clean display and great directions.  Both are unbelievably cool in presenting 3D views, especially as you navigate around the city.  Apple’s integration of the C3 technology is pretty impressive.  But Google does win out in subtle ways in their user experience, most importantly in how you break out of turn-by-turn mode to look around.  I will say both do take a little bit of learned behavior to master.

Now the pressure is on Apple to fix its map data and leapfrog Google, not to mention the couple of other iPhone map competitors like Waze and Mapquest that have jumped in popularity since Cook mentioned them. Maybe we iPhone users suffered for a few months there but with Google Maps back and the competition heating up, even better apps are still to come.

Here’s some supporting evidence, courtesy of a lot of smart people who have done a lot of smart modeling, surveying and projections.

1) First of all, mobile is a global phenomena.  

Mobile is without a doubt global.  Check out this chart about the growth of mobile globally.  The dark line at the top represents the growth in handsets globally.  The orange line represents the growth in smartphones globally.  Let’s be clear – smartphones are a) iPhones, b) Androids, or c) maybe Windows?  (Sidebar: the folks at the AT&T store I visited this past weekend said that Windows phones are indeed selling at a pretty brisk rate, so more to come on that front because it also depends on the developer community.  And we’ll see if BB can recover.)  So almost 2 billion smartphones today; some 5 billion predicted in 5 years.

Source: http://www.ericsson.com/ericsson-mobility-report

You can access every consumer in the world through a device that is always connected, has gobs of sensors, and amazing rendering capabilities visually and audibly.  Implications are and will continue to be staggering.

2) Mobile data traffic is exploding.  

The following graph (Figure 2 from here)  is Cisco’s projection of data traffic world wide from mobile.  It goes in one direction – up.  What’s remarkable about this is that it is consistent across all regions of the globe.  Consistently large.  What’s even more fascinating is that the growth is especially strong in areas other then the US.  Mobile is global – remember?

Source: Cisco Visual Networking Index

The second graph is even more remarkable – data traffic in India from mobile has already surpassed data traffic from laptops and desktops.  Let’s think about that.  India is skipping the need to wire all parts of its country with fixed landlines and going right to mobile.  So if you’ve read The World is Flat, what’s especially interesting is that outsourcing (at least from a US perspective) to India originally was made possible because of the tremendous capital outlays in fiber back in the Dot Com days.  Now, they’re skipping well past that in India to take advantage of the build out of infrastructure from mobile.  The world is quickly transitioning to source more and more communication of all kinds (voice, data, video, apps) via smartphones, not laptops or desktops.

Source: KPCB 2012 Internet Trends Report: http://kpcb.com/insights/2012-internet-trends

3) Mobile advertising is growing at a crazy rate

More data points – these following two graphs show the fast growth in mobile advertising and the projections looking forward.  It’s inevitable, as more and more people move their lives to #MobileOnly, the advertising is bound to follow.  In 2012 it’s looking to be a $1.2b industry.  The first chart shows the percentage of ad spend by format, with mobile being the fastest growing segment as detailed here.

Source: IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, October 2012

This following graph examines the forecast of mobile over the next 3 years, and clearly illustrates the tremendous growth that is yet to come.

Source: eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/forecast-mobile-ad-spending-soars-expectations

What is also interesting is that mobile ads, if done right, can be tremendously effective.  A great summary of Facebook’s experience and success in mobile ad serving can be found here.  Facebook has found that their ability to monetize via mobile is very strong, with mobile users 15x more likely to click and 22% more users likely to comment on an article.  And this article covers the top reasons why 2012 is seen as the year when mobile ads finally have taken off.

4) Mobile Revenue is really valuable

Mobile apps are projected to generate $38b by 2015.  The NY Times Bits blog from earlier this year has a story from earlier this year with these projections.

Source: NY Times Bits Blog & Forrester Research

And that revenue is continuing to grow at a remarkable clip.  Both Google Play and the Apple App Store are growing at consistently big rates:

Source: Business Insider

Here’s some more remarkable stats: check out this chart which shows that Apple now moving more apps then tunes.  The article this is taken from estimates that Apple is likely making more money from apps then tunes.

Source: InsideMobileApps

Of course that good news is majorly tempered by the recent report that half that revenue is going to just 25 developers, most of them game publishers: http://www.businessinsider.com/top-25-app-makers-revenue-share-2012-12

5) More time is now spent in apps then web browsing

Here’s the kicker: more time is being spent in Apps then in Browsers on Mobile.  This post from Flurry clearly illustrates where time is being spent by mobile users and the trend towards apps vs browsing:

Source: Flurry

Conclusions 

Build apps.  For B-B relationships, it’s obvious – your customers are on mobile.  For B-C relationships, it’s obvious, but clearly risky to assume you have a clear path to a top spot in any particular store.  It really does require a comprehensive plan for designing, building, marketing, and all the other countless things you have to do to make a business initiative a success.  Ultimately the catchy term B-E (where E = everywhere) does make sense, whether it’s another business, a consumer, or an internal enterprise app.

Keith Teare said it best in this amazing article:  “Any company that isn’t primarily delivering its service via mobile five years from now will probably be irrelevant.”

Whether it’s mobile first or #MobileOnly, the conclusions are pretty clear.

Passbook will live up to Apple’s reputation for user-friendly products because of its integration into already-existing iPhone features: the lock screen, notifications, calendars, and reminders.  When you enter the proximity of a Passbook-friendly store, Passbook will send you a notification on your lock screen, informing you of nearby deals.  This ensures you can’t miss out on a discount.  Passbook will also sync with calendar and reminders, pulling up your tickets when you have a movie or flight.  Interweaving Passbook with preexisting iPhone features will make it easier for iPhone carriers to grow accustomed to Passbook.

On Quora.com, a recent article suggested that Passbook’s first targets will be the loyalty of small businesses and startups.  These businesses can use Passbook as an advertising conduit.  By enabling Passbook for their stores, payments will be easier, and customers will receive coupons and deal notifications on their devices.  For those willing to incorporate it into their business plans, Passbook will provide the extra boost small companies need to compete with larger companies.  Apple continues to put loyalty as a high priority.  Passbook will make small businesses loyal to Apple as iOS has made developers loyal to Apple.

A recent article on Gizmodo details some of the changes Passbook will make to the marketplace.  When you go to a theater, you no longer need to worry about losing your small ticket stub or picking up tickets.  Passbook will hold your ticket for you and will send you a notification when you are close to the theater so you can scan the ticket easily.  The article also talks about Passbook as your boarding pass for your flights with real-time updates on delays and gate changes.  Passbook’s ability to bring up coupons and rewards cards in close proximity to stores is another feature not mentioned in the article.  You’ll never forget your CVS, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Rewards, or any other card again because Passbook organizes them all and activates them when necessary.

These features will all arrive with iOS 6, which is scheduled to come out this fall.  While these features will undoubtedly change the way we purchase goods, what are the limits of this new technology?  Could it eventually replace wallets altogether?  Instead of carrying around a wallet, filled to the brim with cards and cash, we may eventually just have an iPhone equipped with Passbook.  Keep in mind that Apple has 400 million credit cards on file in iTunes, meaning Apple’s exclusion of a payment system in the release is a conscious decision to focus more on user experience rather than an all-encompassing payments system.  Just another thing that makes an iPhone, an iPhone.

The rise of smartphones is pushing the media to be up to the minute with their news updates, to the point of careless mistakes.  When the Supreme Court ruled on Obamacare a few days ago, CNN broadcasted that the individual mandate had been struck down for fifteen minutes because they felt the need to be lightning-fast on the draw with their coverage of the landmark decision.  In the past, news seekers would need to wait for the evening news broadcast or for the morning paper to get the news of Obamacare, but mobile has pushed the media to the point at which they are making mistakes in an effort to stay up-to-date.

While we could fill a book with ways mobile has changed individual tasks throughout the day, a recent Lookout Security Survey provides the most telling stats on mobile dependency. According to the study, 58% of Americans cannot go an hour without checking their phone.  That stat is not drawn from the younger part of the population, but rather from every age group.  In addition, 54% of Americans check their phones in bed, 40% check them while in the restroom, and 24% check them while driving.  We are so connected to these devices that we have to check them no matter what we are doing.