Articulated Naturality (AN) vs Augmented Reality (AR) -the new frontier of Mobile 2.0

QPC - Articulated Naturality Web from Justin Montgomery on Vimeo.

Special thanks to the great team at The Where Business who alerted me to this video about the fresh new notion of Articulated Naturality or AN. 

AN is set to take Augmented Reality (AR) to a whole new level. With an AN app, you could point at a hotel building, zoom in on a particular room, and find out whether it is available for that night or not. The company pitching AN widely is QPC, who particpated in the recent Summer Davos Conference.

Check out the video, where Matt Trubow, QPC CIO, explains why AN is set to give a 'flat' AR a much richer three dimensional element or a 'virtual universe'...inspriring stuff...

The Keys to Great App Discoverability-App Store Tricks for Mobile 2.0 (PART II)

Getting your app to be discovered amongst a galaxy of options out there in the mobile 'appspace' is rapidly becoming the key to success or failure for new services (as well as for existing brands).

One of the key decisions developers, entrepreneurs and companies alike need to make is whether their app should be free or whether it should be premium.

There are good reasons to go down either path. Consumers love free apps, so if you are looking principally for volume of downloads, it is the way to go.However, there is no such thing as a free lunch -someone, somewhere down the line has to pay. Step in 'freemium models', allowing 'free-sounding' apps to actually generate revenues at some point.

App Store Discoverability rests on four cardinal points:

1. App Reviews
2. App Rankings
3. App Analytics
4. App Discoverability Services

You can find more detail as well as some great examples in Chapter 11 of my book.


The key message is that you can significantly increase the odds of becoming a popular app by understanding the dynamics of how App Stores work. To avoid getting lost in this murky world of App Stores, developers should never lose sight of their prime objective: to get the wider public to discover, examine and download your app. This means experimenting with different approaches, and tracking the impact of these different tactics on app downloads over a period of time. 

The Keys to Great App Discoverability-App Store Tricks for Mobile 2.0 (PART I)

I will be presenting some ideas from my book, Location Aware Applications, next week in Malta, which made me think about an issue that keeps popping up time and again in mobile development: how to get a great app downloaded by thousands of users.

With an 'app universe' of over 300,000 applications, over 8 mobile development platforms and over 50 app stores to choose from, it is has never been this tough to pick the right distribution option(s). And if you zoom into individual App Stores, the level of detail becomes even more  mind-boggling: the iTunes Store has over 200,000 apps available in more than 30 individual country stores, with over 20 different App Categories!

First, a disclaimer: there is no one method that guarantees a successful distribution and discovery of your app.

However, there are some tips and good practice that you can follow to boost your chances of succeeding. 

The first step to get you on the right track is to answer five fundamental questions:

1. Who is your app for?

2. Which geographical market are you going for?

3. Is the release of your app time-critical?

4. Is your app for a single operator, Operating System or Handset model?

5. Is your app free or not?

Armed with the answers to these questions, you can then proceed  to define your App Discoverability Strategy....(to be continued)

The iPad Tablet Revolution-Three Reasons that Explain Why it is the Future

These days, it is very difficult to filter real news from the substantial amount of 'digital media noise' created on the web. This is even more the case, when it comes to new gadgets and technology. And no gadget caused  more noise and expectation than the iPad, when it was launched to a global fanfare in April this year.

I will not review the iPad's hardware and technical capabilities-enough has been said already and you can easily read this up elsewhere. I just want to make one point that is getting lost in the media hype -the iPad is the most revolutionary device type that has been rolled out this millenium.It is not a fad, it is not a toy and most definitely not merely a giant-sized iPhone.

It is the exquisite execution of the tablet computing concept that others before, including Microsoft, tried and failed.But let me say this again, the iPad is a revolutionary device. It is set to change mobile media forever. Here are three reasons why:

1. The iPad introduces a totally new way to consume mobile media, especially newspapers and magazines.Its screen size achieves a happy medium between readibility and portability. Again, something that is easily overlooked by reviewers is its landscape mode. Turn the iPad on its side from its vertical position and it automatically switches to landscape reading mode.This makes it ideal for newspaper and magazine browsing (Kindle take note).It also makes using those wonderful apps an even better experience.

2.The iPad is the first device of its size and weight to truly enable computing to be carried out. You can actually create and work on a Powerpoint presentation on an iPad. Yes, processing power needs to be upgraded, but then Apple is not perfect.

3. The iPad is designed to be a connected device. With 3G capability designed into the device (unlike a netbook which relies on a dongle or WiFi), data exchange and sharing comes as standard. Forget the WiFi-only version of the iPad, I am sure it will be phased out in due course.(Significantly, the iPad was conceived before the iPhone was, but put on hold to prioritise launching the smaller 3G iPhone device).

The iPad is an inspirational product, like many Apple creations before it. But don't take my word for it. You can check out many videos of how it was used as different musical instruments to create compositions. You'll find one in the title link. Enjoy!