Tuesday I was invited for the local HTC Wildfire launch event on a special location, Circuit Park Zandvoort. Circuit Park Zandvoort is one of the few car-race tracks in the Netherlands with a rich race history, several race klasses and even Formula 1.

This is a special location to introduce a new product like the HTC Wildfire, right ?

Introduction HTC Wildfire by Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux

Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux, kicks off the first part of the HTC Wildfire launch event with a general introduction of  the current HTC position in the Benelux (= Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) market.

HTC in the Benelux – Position and Trends

HTC grows in the Benelux market, (1) in terms of company, and (2) in terms of brand. HTC has a growing marketshare in the Netherlands, which is a trend I could follow over past events (for example Android Experience 2010 – Great Dutch event around the Android Ecosystem, and HTC HD2 locally announced by Mark Moons (HTC Benelux).

Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux, raises a few highly interesting points about dynamics in the market.

1. The smartphone is becoming more mainstream, which means for the HTC brand a shift from technology brand to a more lifestyle position.
2. Furthermore there is a clear impact of social media on the use of smartphones, share your life always and everywhere. People who are engaging in social networks from a smartphone are more active/involved compared to traditional use behind the screen of a notebook.

To wrap-up this section HTC is the market leader on the Windows Mobile- and the Android operating system, and as an example don’t forget the huge success of the HTC Hero !

Meet the HTC Wildfire

In the picture above you can see that Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux shows the HTC Wildfire in front of an aerial photograph of Circuit Park Zandvoort. On MobilityMinded I have published an article ”HTC Wildfire preview – Android & HTC Sense for the masses” that covers a preview of the HTC Wildfire hardware, and hopefully a thorough and in-depth review can be performed later.

In this section I will provide additional background information, underlying some of the key features of the HTC Wildfire. However I will start with the following summary of the HTC Wildfire on the HTC website:

“You have lots of friends in lots of different place. Why not bring them to you? See everyone’s Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates, all in one feed. Share your favourite apps, because your mates will love them too. And get everything from texts, to photo’s organized by the friend that sent it – not to mention their latest Facebook status when they call. HTC Wildfire. Your friends have never been closer to you.”

Social networks take over the world

As mentioned before by Mark Moons, social networks are a catalyst for smartphones and their use.

• Facebook:  500 mln users;
• Twitter:  40 mln users;
• Flickr: 32 mln users;

The numbers from the presentation don’t need much of an explenation, social networks take over the world.

Android Market – An explosion of applications

The second set of statistics provided by Mark Moons, Regional Manager of HTC Benelux is about the Android Market.

• There are more than 54.000 applications in the Android Market and counting;
• Forecast:  150.000 applications in the Android Market by Q4 2010;
• Android users download -on average- 8.7 applications per month;
• 60% of the applications in the Android Market are free;

While in my honest opinion the number off applications doesn’t tell anything about the quality of the applications, these statiscs do show that there is a clear momentum for developers to jump on the Android train. However it is interesting to see the explosive growth of an open source based mobile operating system like Android, compared to the closed mobile operating system of the Apple iPhone.

Google Maps Navigation will become available in the Netherlands this month, and combined with Android 2.1 and the option to share applications with your friends, brings this the best of Android to the HTC Wildfire. If you add 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen supporting multi-touch, the HTC Sense GUI and an excellent 5.0 megapixel camera to this, you can only conclude that the HTC Wildefire is ready to target the segment “between” the feature phone and the smartphone. Given the price point of E259,- (including VAT and excluding a subscription) HTC is clearly comitted to play a tough retail game !

Paul van Splunteren, Dutch GT4-teamowner Porsche Eindhoven provides tips and tricks about Circuit- and F1 racing

Paul van Splunteren, Dutch GT4-teamowner Porsche Eindhoven, delivers the second session of the HTC Wildfire launch event in which he shares his tips and tricks about racing on Circuit Park Zandvoort combined with his own car-racing-experience. Paul van Splunteren, will compete in the legendary 24 hours race of Le Mans upcoming June, and has a well established track record in car racing.

• Circuit Park Zandvoort, and how to race on a track like this;
• A well balanced curve technique on race circuit is extremely important;
• Physical health of drivers, heart rates and g-forces;
• A thorough comparision between GT3 / GT4 and F1, differences in speed and power;
• Don’t forget to enjoy the race experience !!

In think Paul van Splunteren, shared quite some interesting facts about car-racing ! Being an active road cyclist I could grasp a feeling about the heart rates and physical health of the drivers, which is highly underestimated.

Do you also remember that HTC Benelux is the main sponosor of the Dutch GT4 championship and the sponsor of Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven ?

“The partnership of HTC and Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven is a strong combination of companies driven by values like innovation, design and speed. In addition to extensive relationshop marketing closely tied to the Porsche brand, HTC and Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven work together on new mobile applications for car-race enthusiasts and Porsche drivers to get the most out of their HTC Smartphones!”

Picture used with permision of Chris Schotanus, Essay Producties

Porsche Carrera GT3 race-experience on Circuit Park Zandvoort

With all the tips, tricks and shared experience of Paul van Splunteren, Dutch GT4-teamowner Porsche Eindhoven, it was time for our own race experience on Circuit Park Zandvoort in a Porsche Carerra GT3 !

In the group photograph above I’m on the 6th position from the left, next to Mark Moons, Regional Manager of HTC Benelux (wearing a black blouse and holding the helmet in front of me). While at the picture you see the Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven Porsche GT4 car, we were able to drive a Porsche Carrera GT3 on Circuit Park Zandvoort.

I must admit this was my first drive on a race track, so this was an exciting experience. Amazing to feel the power and acceleration of the Porsche Carrera GT3, and the stability riding curves is simply awesome. After a few laps you really start to feel the car and get a good flow in the curves, and you really enjoy the ride. On the straight line to the finish you get a speed of about 200 km/h, but inside the Porsche you simply don’t have the feeling driving that fast. Also the roll cage, race seats and helmet give a nice touch of a real race and get the adrenaline flowing !

I started with the first group of six cars, so I was able to see the other two groups race as well. The experience from the pit lane is different, mainly because it looks so much faster as a spectator. However it was extreme fun to see the others race, while I also enjoyed the other race cars on the track like a Corvette C6 and even a Radical S3, which was also on the track when I raced !! Impressive to hear the torque and mussle from these race cars.

Final thoughts and conclusion

I would like to thank HTC Benelux and Whizpr for the invitation to this special HTC Wildfire product launch on a very interesting location.

Everyone present at the launch event could really experience the results of “a strong combination of companies driven by values like innovation, design and speed“. The synergy and similar mindset of HTC and Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven resulted in a great race experience on Circuit Park Zandvoort. Two great brands with a drive to be a leader come together on the same place: the race track !

Like I mentione before it was my first time riding on a circuit, and the driving behavior and power of the Porsche Carrera GT3 really made it an exciting experience. In order to get an additional idea of the day you might want to check out the set of pictures on my Flickr-account, or the imagebank of Chris Schotanus, Essay Producties.

Finally I do believe that with the HTC Wildfire, HTC has an interesting device  to play the retail-game to win and bring both HTC Sense and Android to the masses !

I was fortunate being invited to attend the highly succesful first edition of the Android Experience, an event that adresses the Android ecosystem from different perspectives.

In this article I will briefly summarize some of the highlights of Android Experience 2010 @ the Amsterdam Convention Factory.

On the MobilityMinded website I have written an extensive event report, inline with the following structure:

1. The importance of openness for innovation – Vincent Everts, trendwatcher;
2. The mobile future is bright and open, the impact of Android – Ed Achterberg, founder, CEO  and senior research analyst at Telecompaper;
3. The power of Android:  User experience is key – Mark Moons, Regional Director Benelux HTC;
4. Developing Apps: Doing business making money – Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar;
5. Banking with apps – David-Jan Janse, Manager of Rabo Mobile, Rabobank Netherlands;

The highlights of Android Experience 2010, in my personal opinion, are marked in itallic in the list structure above.

The mobile future is bright and open, the impact of Android – Ed Achterberg, founder, CEO  and senior research analyst at Telecompaper;

I really liked the objective scientific approach of Ed Achterberg, founder, CEO  and senior research analyst at Telecompaper. While some very interesting facts about the competitive mobile landscape were presented, Ed Achterberg also made some points that really make you think.

• The misuse of the term personal computer for a desktop computer at home, while you take your smartphone with you all the time. A smartphone, which has taken over a lot of computer capabilities, is probably the most personal electronic device. Also the impact of other devices, like the netbook, e-book readers and devices like the Apple iPad will change the landscape;
• Ed Achterberg presented a graph with the indexed results of the simplicity of device configuration at first use. Honestly I didn’t expect this measurements. However with the average age of the Dutch society rising, fast and easy configuration for the Joe Average end-user becomes critical, with increase of complexity among mobile electronic devices;
• The Android operating system has got a very explosive growth curve with rapid development cycles. From the launch of the HTC Dream, which was the first Android device several versions of the Android OS have been released, 1.5 , 1.6 , 2.0 , 2.1 and a variety of handset manufacturer customizations. The open source nature has driven the growth of the platform, but it also fragments to Android OS at a fast rate. An interesting question is if Google should step up and close the open source model a little. Ed Achterberg suggests that a more uniform quality and user exprience could help the Android OS.

Especially about this last bullet I had some discussion about, among mobile friends and on Twitter with for example JeanPaul Horn (Planet Android / iPhoneclub) and Arnoud Wokke (Tweakers). I’m also curious if and how Google tries to manage the Android Marketplace with an explosive growth of developed applications (indexing and categorizing applications vs. sending in new applications) ?

The power of Android:  User experience is key – Mark Moons, Regional Director Benelux HTC;

Mark Moons, Regional Director Benelux HTC, builds further on the market figures from the previous session of Ed Achterberg by sharing the HTC marketshares and the position of the Android OS in the Dutch mobile market.

A significant part of the session is about the Android ecosystem. Mark Moons explains the necessity of a healthy ecosystem in which the different players challenge each other and drive true innocation. In this light both open- and closed ecosystem are addressed, as well as the opportunity to educate end-users and create a competitive advantage for retailers.

The main conclusion is that an operating system with a healty ecosystem and an excellent user experience will be sustainable on the long term. According to Mark Moons, “Android will become the second operating system in the Netherlands within two years“.

Picture used with permission of Daphne Channa Horn, Independent Photographer

Developing Apps: Doing business making money – Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar;

Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar, is the fourth speaker on the Android Experience, and shares the challenges, opportunities and reconfigurations of business model and strategy in time of Layar.

Layar now aimes at becoming a platform (in contrast with the initial content focus) on top of which other developers can build their services, and in which Layar more or less takes care of a stable platform/environment, the distribution, the installed userbase and pre-installation on Android smartphones, for example the Samsung Galaxy S.

Raimo van der Klein explains the different business models and some specific business details in an interview with Vincent Everts (in Dutch and remark that Android World = Android Experience, Ed Achterberg is from Telecompaper not from Telecomworld)

THE FACTS

• Layar had 3-5 business models from the start about a year ago and now;
• Layar was one of five concepts the Layar team planned to do, however now there is fulltime focus on Layar only;
• 32 people are working on Layar;
• Layar is funded (with venture capital) for E2.5 milion euro;
• 2700 Layar developers worldwide;
• 450 Layars published already and 1700 Layars in development;

THE BUSINESS MODELS

1. Content Layars, payment for hosting;
2. Opening the platform, payment when content is published, for example with a monthly fee;
3. Analytics, premium payments for advanced analytics;
4. Currently Layar focusses on building and expanding the brand, distribution and things like the pre-installation deal with Samsung;

AND ALSO

• Games and tourists guides will become available in Layar in the near future (remark business model 2 in the list above);
• Currently Layar has more end-users on Android devices than on the Apple iPhone devices;
• The release of every Android device caused some change in the Layar code. Upcoming year about 90 handsets, and 2 people working fulltime on a stable Layar experience on all these devices;
• Looking at a collaboration with Nokia (Symbian, Meamo). Nokia is stil the largest handset manufacturer that ships 400 milion handset per year;
• Nokia plays the retail game very strong and pushing the distribution among stores;

Raimo van der Klein illustrates the Layar platform startegy with a new venture: TAB worldmedia, who connect augmented reality with outdoor advertising. I was fortunate to talk with Remco Vroom and Johannes la Poutre in the late afternoon, which was highly interesting.

At first I’m glad that Raimo van der Klein is willing to share these details on a business model level. It is very interesting, and these facts simply illustrate that business model innovation and the constant search for new strategic opportunities and exapnding competitive advantage are a necessity for every entrepreneur.

I’m curious if the Layar team used a business model design tool, like the business model canvas proposed by business model expert Alexander Osterwalder.

Final thoughts and wrap-up

I would like to compliment everyone who has been involved with the organization of the first edition of the Android Experience.  The great industrial atmosphere of the Amsterdam Convention Factory was excellent for a technology event like this.

In addition to the excellent presentations above, Android Experience was also about meeting old friends (developers, press, bloggers, handset manufacturers, distributors) and meeting new friends. During and after the Planet Android App Challenge 2010, I had a few drinks with Patrick de Laive of the Next Web. A great guy with an exceptional entrepreneurial drive.

Other examples of this creativity and entrepreneurship are my discussion with the guys from TAB Worldmedia, or the described presentation of Raimo van der Klein, Chief Exectutive Officer of Layar, and Koen Krijns of Hardware.info with the barcode scanning application for Android.

The conclusion is simple, first edition of the Android Experience was a huge success !!

Dynamic Content Gallery Picture used with permission of Daphne Channa Horn, Independent Photographer

Yesterday I received some interesting news about HTC, which for a change isn’t about one of their latest devices, like the sponsorship announcement of Team Columbia-HTC just before the start of the Tour de France 2009 earlier this year.

However HTC now teams-up with Wallpaper* and sponsors the Wallpaper* design awards 2010, as you can read on the Wallpaper* website. An intersting move since Wallpaper* isn’t about mobile technology, but about design interiors fashion art and lifestyle as you can read in the subtitle of the Wallpaper* logo.

Perhaps this collaboration isn’t as strange as it seem to be at first sight, since the common denominator is design and functionality. You all probably know examples like the eye catching design of the “chin” on the HTC Dream and HTC Hero devices, or HTC is the first to use capacitive screen technology on Windows Phones with the HTC HD2.

“We all enjoy a bit of flash and flamboyance now and then but we reserve our highest praise for design that does something truly useful and does it beautifully. We go ga-ga for elegant solutions and functional punch. HTC, world leaders in communications technology, are of a similar mind and operate under the banner ‘quietly brilliant’. Who better then to partner up with to present this year’s Readers’ Choice award, a celebration of the beautifully useful.”

The nominations for the HTC Reader’s Choice (Design) Awards 2010 are:

1. Bullfrog LED front bike lights by Knog;
2. Air Multiplier fan by Dyson;
3. W+W toilet and sink by Roca;
4. Up street furniture by Ewo and Norway Says;
5. The 3rd person archive book by artist John Stezaker;

This list clearly shows a great variety of products, which really makes it an interesting “competititon”. Furthermore it is very intersting to check out additional pictures and art in a gallery of the five nominations.

Concluding thoughts

In ordre to wrap this is a very interesting collaboration, and it might sound strange when you first read about it. However according to the press release the partnership expresses HTC’s focus on design and innovation.

Strategically it might even be an interesting opportunity for HTC to tap into a “new” network of fresh designers guided by great out-of-the box thinking and who are able to come-up with new designs.

If you are interested in design, which I am as a mechnical engineer, you should certainly check out the five nominations with the additional pictures and bring out your vote. I’m very curious which design will be the winner of the HTC Reader’s Choice Awards 2010 !!

In November it was time for the annual invitation-only Möbius conference, and I was one of the very fortunate ones to be invited for this great event. The Möbius conference 2009  was held in Seattle, and I was very excited about my first visit to one of the top 10 tech cities in the world.   

In this article I will provide a short section with background information about Möbius, and than focus on this year’s Möbius conference and the discussed contents (which I’m allowed to share).  

What is Möbius ?

 For those of you who don’t have a clue what Möbius is about, there is a pretty nice definition on the Möbius website:   

“Möbius is an invitation-only community of the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers. The collective insights, opinions and influence of Möbius drives market trends, industry buzz and the buying behavior of people worldwide. Möbians interact behind the scenes with companies big and small to shape the direction of devices, services, pricing, design and the culture of consumer technology.”  

You can furthermore read that Mobius is about a never ending conversation, which is to some extent a reflection of the word Möbius (strip) and its mathematical properties. However open dicussions and ongoing conversations about mobile technology and closely related topics are the essence of the Möbius group.

Möbius Conference 2009

Arne Hess, Windows Mobile MVP and Editor in Chief of the::unwired describes a Möbius conference in an article on his website as:

“Möbius isn’t just another blogger, press or analysts briefing but the main part of the whole conference it is the vital interaction and discussion between the attendees, Microsoft and its partners. It’s 48 hours of discussions, sharing information and thoughts about the mobile and wireless future.”  

In order to give you an idea about who is taking part in these discussions I would like to start with providing an overview of the attendees of the 2009 Möbius conference in Seattle:

• Alex Gay, Akihabara News
• Arne Hess, the::unwired
• Chris Ziegler, Engadget Mobile
• Dieter Bohn, Smartphone Experts
• Gianni Carfagno, SoloPalmari.com
• Jenneth Orantia, freelance writer
• Jerome Tranie, MobiFrance
• Derrick Ngan, Pocket PC Channel
• Joel Evans, Geek.com
• Judie Lipsett, Gear Diary
• Leigh Geary, Cool Smartphone
• Lisa Gade, MobileTechReview
• Matt Miller, ZDNet Smartphones & Cell Phones
• Michael Gartenberg, Gartenblog
• Paul O’Brien, MoDaCo.com
• Philip Berne, InfoSync World
• Rafe Blandford, All About Symbian
• Remo Knops, MobilityMinded
• Rich Brome, PhoneScoop
• Ryan Block, GDGT
• Sacha Fuentes, Xataka.com
• Sascha Segan, Gear Log
• Shane Chiang, Mobinauts
• Vincent Nguyen, Slash Gear

As you can see this is a great group of people, and I’m very fortunate to have met the probably smartest people in the mobile sector. Not only in terms of geographical location, but also in terms of formal education, type of website and even mobile platform it is a very diverse group. You can imagine that this adds some great value to the discussions. For example it is great to hear Rafe Blandford share his thoughts about the Symbian platform and the latest Symbian devices.

As you can read in the reports of the Mobius conference 2007 in Amsterdam (report day 1, report day 2, report day 3) there is always a great mix of sessions, about which we can write and sessions that are under the Mobius NDA handshake. Unfortunately this year the almost complete conference were NDA sessions, so I won’t be able to share reports like back in 2007.

However Jason Dunn, Windows Mobile- & Zune MVP and Editor in Chief of ThoughtsMedia, has written an excellent article (page 1, page 2) on the Windows Phone Thoughts website, which I would highly recommend you to read. Also Jenneth Orantia, freelance writer, has managed to write a trip report on the Gadget Monkeys blog. I think both these article should give you an idea about the Mobius 2009 conference.

Conclusive thoughts

I would like to start the concluding section with the fact that I really love Seattle as a city. Despite it was pretty cold and rainy (even for a Dutch guy), it is such a great city where you can really feel the creative city approach, which in concept has been described by visionary Charles Landry. It was for example great fun to visit the first Starbucks ever, and Pike Place Market together with Shane Chiang and Sacha Fuentes. I will definitely visite Seattle again in the future, it really felt like home there !

Furthermore the Mobius Conference 2009 was -in my perception- very successful. It is such a privelege to meet such smart and creative people from all over the world and engage in discussions with them about the future of (windows) mobile. Honestly the Mobius Conference has really given me a creative boost, and kept me going back home !!

I would really like to explicitly thank Microsoft for the inviting me to the event, I have been in a very fortunate position ! An addtional great many thanks to Microsoft for hooking all of us up with a Zune HD 32GB, which is an amazing device and much more than a mediaplayer. The Zune HD isn’t for sale in the Netherlands, so that makes it really special. Furthermore a great many thanks to HTC for giving us an HTC HD2, the most powerful Windows Phone on the market. Amazing, and blazing fast !

To wrap up I really had an amazing time in Seattle, it was great to catch-up with old friends, meet new friends and I finally would like to thank everyone again who contributed to the great conference !!

During Mobile Monday Amsterdam #11 Robert Rice and Joe Pine II, two excellent speakers, addressed the very interesting topic of Augmented Reality. Both speakers had different approaches and views on addressing the topic, but it resulted in a great event and perception on Augmented reality.

This article will show a YouTube video titled: “TNT Post goes mobile with Layar” and it certainly is cool to see a combination of two worlds ! We can’t deny that TNT Mail has suffered from modern technologies like e-mail, which had a large impact on the number of sent “physical” letters. Therefore it’s especially cool to see both -seemingly contradicting- worlds combined into this YouTube video.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Bae7LwgSc

What is Layar ?

On the Layar product website a product description is available, which clearly outlines the purpose and concept of Layar:

“Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone. Layar is a global application, available for the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic and other Android phones in all Android Markets. It also comes pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy in the Netherlands.”

Layar is a combination of the words layer and augmented reality, so it probably isn’t a big surprise that several layers are “projected” on top of the real world.

“View all 87 layers that are now live (or almost) all over the world in the Layar 2.0 Content Catalog.”

Thoughts and Wrap-up

While currently this application is only developed for the free Google Android platform, it certainly is cool to see such new applications as a result of cleverly combining different existing technologies currently available in a mobile phone.

Also comparing the old TNT Mail business model with the business model of a company like Layar, would be an interesting and insighful case study to conduct. It might result in a clash of both the Augmented Reality and “real” worlds, but it also shows advancement in technology- and application development.

I’m sure that a company like TNT Mail certainly has intered the online- and mobile domain is well, searching for new opportunities and challenges. Question however will be if both models can co-exist next to each other !!?

Recently version 2.1 of Layar Reality Browser was launched, so if you are open to explore new technology applications and get a whole different perception on Augmented Reality and interacting with your environment you should certainly grab your Google Android powered phone and install Layar Reality browser on it ! Would be cool if you can share some personal experiences in the comment-section !

Constanze Roman -a Community PM with the Windows Mobile Community Team- has published an interesting article on the Windows Mobile Team blog with the title:  “Ready to Port your iPhone App to Windows Mobile?“

Although I’m not a developer,  nor having a formal Information Technology & Computer Science education, I would like to have a detailed look at this cool case study from a business administration- and entrepreneurial perspective. It might be a good starting point for discussion, so comments are welcome.

Apple Appstore, Android Marketplace and Windows Marketplace for Mobile 

Let’s start builing this case with some details and background information about the Apple Appstore from Wikipedia:

“The App Store is a service for the iPhone and iPod Touch created by Apple Inc. which allows users to browse and download applications from the iTunes Store that were developed with the iPhone SDK and published through Apple.

And furthermore some details about the time frame:

“The App Store opened early in the morning on July 10, 2008 via an update to iTunes. The billionth application was downloaded on April 23, 2009.”

These numbers clearly show that since the launch of the first generation iPhone in June 2007 the mobile marketspace is disrupted with the result of high growth both for iPhone sales and as a result iPhone Application sales. Developers have massively addapted the platform, and simply move where the sales volumes are, right ?

In October 2008 Google hit the market with a similar concept called the Android Marketplace, and because of the Java-kind programming language the developers embraced this platform as well, and currently there are quite some freeware applications in the Android Marketplace. The Android platform however is in the early stage of it’s developments, but thanks to developments of HTC the platform has made some large steps in becoming mature.

Microsoft is currently working hard on the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and probably gains momentum from the Windows Mobile 6.5 release. In a sequence of articles on www.mobilityminded.com I have covered quite some details of the concept and the implementation of the payment mechanism: 

1. Windows Marketplace for Mobile coming to Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.0
2. Windows Marketplace for Mobile – Payments and Operators
3. Microsoft Surface table to win in developer contest: The Race to Market Challenge 

In the articles you can read some concluding facts as well:

“This means that developers will have an opportunity to reach more than 30 million Windows Mobile devices. ”

This means that Apple iPhone developers have the opportunity to enter a second and third market, and scale their businesses significantly. As stated in the introduction, a real case study is conduced in collaboration with a developer for the application “Amplitude”.

 Amplitude – A real(istic) case study !

On the gripwire website you can find the following product description of Amplitude (for iPhone):

“Amplitude is a fun application that enables users to amplify audio from their surroundings. By enabling users to adjust the volume/gain on their microphones, Gripwire has turned the iPhone into a high-tech listening device capable of picking up the sound of animal heartbeats, distant conversations, and a host of other sounds that you might never have noticed.”

Very cool that for the case study not a kind of fictive application is chosen, but an existing application from a “real” software-development-firm. Constanze Roman -a Community PM with the Windows Mobile Community Team- explained why Amplitude is an interesting application to use for the case study.

“Amplitude is well suited for a porting project because it combines a rich user interface with features such as alpha blending and transparency with specific audio and sound requirements, which makes it challenging to port the app but, at the same time, provides a number of helpful learning experiences.”

However I have seen quite some interesting applications on the Apple iPhone where the build-in g-sensor is used. This could also be an additional challenge in the porting process, since these hardware parts become also very common in Windows Phones. However the Amplitude application covers already quite some parts of the spectrum.

Minimizing the learning curve by solid documentation ? 

The article ”Ready to Port your iPhone App to Windows Mobile?” already describes to broad overview of the research project, but on the MSDN network the whole case study is well documented in the article:  “Porting the Amplitude Application from the iPhone to a Windows Mobile Device – a Case Study“

I think the article can be of great help since it offers a starting point, and it provides bits of code which could be helpful while porting your own application. However each application has its own structure and probably each developer has an own style and structure of coding, so a unversal approach probably is not applicable. Every application will have it’s own challenges and it’s up to the developer to tackle these. I also expect not all the developers to document their findings and put these online. 

“The large development community, both within Microsoft and outside, and the various whitepapers, blogs, virtual labs, websites, and other online documentation, offered a wealth of information that provided direction and greatly facilitated problem resolution. The only real challenge was assuring total portability between screens, and that was assured by utilizing the concept of aspect ratios.” 

The documentation is a good point, but in the MSDN article you can read there are some challenges due to the differences in platform requirements as well.

Wrap-up and idea’s

Let’s start by having a look at the main conclusions from the research:

“Porting an iPhone application proved both surprising and not nearly as challenging as had been expected. Once the frameworks and library decisions were finalized, the effort to port code essentially consisted of moving Objective C to C#, both of which are Java-like languages.”

Remark my introductary comment that I don’t have a formal Computer Science education, so I need to trust the developer’s word. I think that the available documentation helps, and it can even significantly decrease the learning curve.

Mary-Jo Foley -Editor at ZDNet All About Microsoft- described earlier this year a kind of chassis/reference concept in her article: “A Microsoft smartphone: No. A Microsoft phone chassis: Yes“:

“Think of what Microsoft is doing in phones as similar to what it has done in the PC market. Microsoft often develops reference implementations and encourages PC makers that they build PCs that adhere to a set of reference guidelines/specifications.”

To me it sounds a little like concepts I know from Mechanical Engineering: process- and product-standardization, modular architectures and -designs. These concepts, if there is some part of truth in it, could furthermore decrease the learning curve for developers since the standards are very clear and outlined (comperable with DIN-norms in Mechnical Engineering).

“Thompson’s case study shows, that even though there are some challenges in porting a multimedia-rich application from the iPhone to Windows Mobile, the task can be accomplished, especially with the help of developer-friendly tools like Visual Studio, the richness of community content that is available for Windows Mobile, and last but not least by planning the project ahead and doing all the necessary research in advance.”

I would like to make a final point here. Close friend and colleague Paul Willen concluded in the article: “Windows Mobile 6.5 Development – What about Developers?” 

“[...] I think its sad to see that a very good developer has to do a great investment before his application can actually become a product in the Marketplace .That’s why I hope Microsoft will re-consider the choice and gives something to starting developers. Something that will make it easier and cheaper to start developing.”

While for the Apple Appstore and the Android Marketplace the development tools are free, developers need to invest even before they start developing. And despite the developer will get 70% of the revenue of the application, according to Todd Brix in the channel9 video, it might be a threshhold to start developers porting their Apple iPhone Applications !

I hope this article will provide some input to start a valuable discussion, and since I’m not an expert in the technical coding part, you developers out there might get my up to speed about the implications !

Reference List

While many references are used as links in this article I would like to highlight the two most important references on this case study, which provide a great amount of information for developers:

1. THE WINDOWS MOBILE BLOG:  Ready to Port your iPhone App to Windows Mobile?
2. MSDN:  Porting the Amplitude Application from the iPhone to a Windows Mobile Device – a Case Study

A few weeks ago Jason Langridge wrote an article on his blog “Online Mind Mapping” which caught my attention and covers a great online service for Mind Mapping called MindMeister.

Last year I attended a traning of Marc Tigchelaar which I covered in the article: “Speed reading, mindmapping & braintraining“, and during the recent “Business Model Knowledge Fair & Book Launch” I could experience the power of visual (thinking) techniques in business communication myself by applying it on drawing a business model.

Introduction: “What is mind mapping ?”

On the mindmeister website a very nice definition can be found which covers most of the concepts behind the mind mapping technique:

“Mind mapping is a creativity and structuring technique that focuses on the human mind and its assumed inner workings. Contrary to the conventional methods of linear reading and writing, mind mapping is based on the central thesis that our mind works both rational and associative. In order to mimic this behavior we have to adapt our traditional methods of note taking, brainstorming, and creating lists. We need to introduce visual stimuli based on imagery, colors, icons and a more holistic view on a given topic or theme. ”

On the website of Tony Buzan -the developer of the Mind Mapping technique- you can find a very practical and helpful example called: “Exam Revision 10 Top Tips“. Here comparison overview is shown of a mindmap next to the list of tips, so please compare for yourself.

MindMeister and some key features

Now we know a little about the basic concepts and reasoning behind mindmaps, let’s have a look in which ways MindMeister extends on these concepts and makes this tool extremely useful for business and working in projects:

“MindMeister is the market leading and multiple award-winning web-based collaboration solution that uses proven mind mapping concepts to facilitate multi-user planning, brainstorming, and project management sessions from within a standard web browser.”

While I used Mindjet Mindmanager 8 until now to draw mindmaps on my Lenovo X60 tablet, it is not easy to work simultaniously, adjust or share the mindmap easily with you project team.  This brings us to THE unique feature of the MindMeister service.

Collaborative Online Mind Mapping

“MindMeister brings the concept of mind mapping to the web, using its facilities for real-time collaboration to allow truly global brainstorming sessions. Users can create, manage and share mind maps online and access them anytime, from anywhere.”

With this concept MindMeister become a valuable business tool, which projectmanagers and engineers could use on daily basis, without the need to be writing on a white board in the same physical room with your team mates. It will help to capture idea’s in an efficient way, and describe relations among the different idea’s in a graphical way.

Mobile access

Another feature that I really like as a mobile technology enthusiast is the availability of a MindMeister for mobile application. With this application you really have total freedom of accessing your mindmaps on the go, even without the need of a computer or notebook.

“MindMeister mobile, our iPhone application, provides access to your online mind maps whereever you are. You can create new ones, edit them and sync them with the server. Through our unique user interface you have both the comfort of an iPhone application and the familiar interface of MindMeister”

Unfortunately the MindMeister for mobile application is only available for the Apple iPhone, and as a Windows Mobile fanboy I truely hope that this great application will be ported to the Windows Mobile platform as well. I think it would a great application to have in the business center of Windows Marketplace for mobile.

Overall thoughts

Despite I really like Mindjet MindManager 8 on my Windows Vista powered Lenovo X60 tablet, I think that the MindMeister service brings mindmapping to the next level and making it available for a wide variety of business applications. You can easily share the mindmap with your colleagues and changes by your co-workers are shown on a real-time basis.

MindMeister connects the web, the pc and the smartphone so you can access the mindmaps anytime anywhere. This is a comperable strategy as some of the Microsoft products like Microsoft Live Mesh or another example Evernote. This multi-platform approach is a concept that I  personally like, and I truly hope te see a Windows Mobile version coming soon !

MindMeister is offered in four different editions:  (1) basic; (2) premium; (3) business; (4) academic; The basic version is free, and this is a great opportunity to get familiar with mind mapping or start instantly sharing and colaborating on mind maps with your co-workers and friends.

Reference List

1. MINDMEISTER:  Online Mindmapping – About
2. BUZAN WORLD:  Buzan Books on Mindmapping

I’m using Evernote software on multiple platforms since the early start a little more than a year ago, because one of the limitations of Microsoft Exchange Activesync is the ability to synchronize notes directly over the air to your Windows Phone. 

“Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.”

The summary above already describes I can take, edit and share notes, as well as embedding voiceclips,  pictures or other files depending on your type of subscription. Yesterday on the Evernote blog an new premium feature was announced:  Evernote PDF Search.

This is very clever and helpful feature for people who read, write and work a lot with pdf-files in their daily life. A good example -also applicable to myself- is students, researchers and practitioners, who share scientific knowledge, papers and articles in databases using pdf-files as the primary medium.

Therefore I’m really excited about this new feature, since I already was uploading pdf-files to my Evernote-account to store them safely in the cloud.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LVwRK3mTO4

What is new ?

“There are two types of PDFs in the world: those that are searchable and those that aren’t. Most scanners produce PDFs that are essentially digitized images of a physical page. In the past, these PDFs would not appear in your search results. Starting now, Evernote will run these PDFs through our updated recognition servers, allowing our Premium subscribers to find them when they search. In addition, our desktop versions will allow premium users to export the searchable PDFs by right clicking on them in the note.”

Wrap-up and thoughts

Concluding I think this is a great feature, which certainly will make people switch to a premium account of Evernote if they work a lot with pdf-files. In the business- and academic world pdf-files are a very common format of sharing information and reports. However I would like to know how the text recognition will be implemented accross different languages.

If you didn’t test the Evernote service before, you should certainly head over to the download page, install the Evernote on te platform you are using, and sign-up for the free service! Seeing is believing, and for additional information you can check out the video’s and tutorials.

If you like it the upgrade for the premium service is highly recommended, and the price $45,- is certainly fair for the amount of premium functionality you get.

Finally Evernote is continuously developing and improving the service, and even adding new (mobile) platforms like the recent Evernote for Palm Pre. It simply is one of these clever applications that makes daily life and work so much easier.

Reference List 

1. EVERNOTE BLOG:  New Premium Feature: PDF Search

It has been some time since I have written my last article here on my personal blog. A fair question is: “Haven’t you been writing anything ?” The answer is certainly: “No, I have been very busy !” At first together with 3 other friends we have re-launched www.mobilityminded.com. Second with the rise of social networks much of the discussions are moved from blogging to these social media. In this article I will shortly eleborate on these two reasons.

MobilityMinded.com

A significant part of the articles on my personal blog were (Windows) Mobile-related, and I still love writing those articles ! Since -with 3 other friends- we re-launched www.mobilityminded.com a little while ago, this is the new “place’ where I publish most of the mobile technology related articles & reviews. Never heard of mobilityminded.com ?

“MobilityMinded aims to be(come) a true strategic partner in mobility for end-users, manufacturers, providers and developers, but foremost to the readers and contributers to the MobilityMinded website. The MobilityMinded focus will be on Views, News & Reviews in an interactive community setting.” [ref01]

And let me introduce my colleagues as well:

“The MobilityMinded Team now consists of Mark Briggeman, Remo Knops, Johan van Mierlo, Paul Willen and other guest contributers. More information and a brief history of the MobilityMinded Team Members can be found on the Team page.” [ref02]

Below you will find a list of articles and reviews I wrote @ mobilityminded.com. Some of the articles are really extensive and describe much detail. Personally I had much fun writing the articles of Spb Mobile Shell v3.0, Microsoft Facebook client and of course the HTC Snap review (a great successor for the all-time-favourite HTC S620).

• SPB Mobile Shell v3.0 User Interface Step-By-Step Review
• Tellme Microsoft’s One Button Voice Access Application Managing Mobile Communications and Information
• Waterfield Sleevecase for Lenovo X60 Tablet (8-cell battery) Review
• Microsoft Facebook Application for Windows Mobile Phones Step-By-Step Overview
• Spb Puzzle for Symbian S60 & Windows Mobile Professional
• Microsoft MyPhone Service Public Beta, Sign-up today !
• iPhone Life vs. Smartphone & PocketPC Magazine – A Thaddeus Computing Magazine comparison
• TomTom Navigator 7 smartphone navigation sold online by TomTom
• Bing a Google search alternative described as decision engine ??
• HTC Snap review – the ultimate messenger ??

For additional background information on the website and a brief history of the mobilityminded-team, you should certainly check out the website, or follow mobilityminded via one of the (social) media below:

Social networks

Everyone who is following developments and trends in technology and ICT knows that social media are becoming increasingly important. An example is the agressive growth in users of the micro-blogging platform Twitter, and the huge investments that Venture Capital firms made into this “start-up”. John Starkweather has described the same movement on his Microsoft Live Space page as below:

“But as everybody reading this already knows (that’s all 20 of you), personal blogs – where somebody rambles on for 500 words – are really not where the action, and definitely not the readers, are spending time. We’re all on Facebook or Twitter now; and for kicks I’ve even started a new MySpace page – as a new personality all together (in the name of marketing research of course!).” [ref03]

Of course the main reason is time. An article or review on a personal blog or website takes quite some time, but you can write into more detail, while the (status) updates on social networks are very short in characters and don’t take much time.  This real-time flow of information on the world wide web has diverse implications, like for instance “searching the web”. This was one of the problems descibe in a reference of the aticle:  Bing a Google search alternative described as decision engine ??

The bottom line is if you want to get in touch, please connect with me via one of the social networks below. Linkedin I use to connect on a professional level, while the other social networks are also for meeting new friends and catch up with old friends! Let’s connect ….