Mobile World Congress 2012 -MWC12 Parties and Events List

BARCELONA- Mobile fever is about to take over the city of Barcelona as we head into those crucial couple of weeks before the mobile kermesse of the Congress kicks off once again.

There are literally hundreds of networking parties and events being planned during the MWC week -too many to mention in one blog post, so here are some of the most popular ones below (courtesy of Lisa Whelan):

Sunday, 26 February, 2012:

Mobile Sunday 2012

• About: “The seventh annual Mobile Sunday – the now classic meet-up of mobile influencers, developers, investors and entrepreneurs will be taking place in Barcelona on the eve of this year’s Mobile World Congress.”
• Time: 26 February, 2012: 7pm CET
  
• Location: City Hall, Rambla de Catalunya 2-4, 08002 Barcelona (right next to the Plaça Catalunya)
• RSVP: Required. Please register here.
  
• Cost: Attending Mobile Sunday is free. Registration required.

GoMo News Lounge Sponsored By Lumata

• About: “GoMo  News will be hosting a lounge with the fabulous mobile advertising company Lumata on February 26th from 8pm at Mobile World Congress.  This is an invitation only event and is only for mobile marketers or highly connected gurus. It is going to be relaxed and chilled an ideal opportunity to do network ahead of the show with “same page” individuals.  If you would like an invite – please email bena at: benagomogmailcom”
• Time: 8:00-11:00pm
  
• Location: Provided with invitation.
  
• RSVP: This is an invitation only event and is only for mobile marketers or highly connected gurus. It is going to be relaxed and chilled an ideal opportunity to do network ahead of the show with “same page” individuals.  If you would like an invite – please email bena at: benagomogmailcom
  
• Cost: Free

Monday, 27 February, 2012:

Mobile Premier Awards 2012

• About: “Don’t miss your chance to witness the best of the best from the AppCircus 2011 World Tour –  46 winners from 30 countries will take part at this year’s Mobile Premier Awards on February 27th.  You will have a rare chance to meet developers from all over the world competing for the best app of the year. The competition is the largest open and global cross-platform app competition in the mobile industry, it provides the point of reference for the startup and developer community during Mobile World Congress. Why attend?
  • Discover up and coming apps from all over the world
  • Learn how the app business ticks by watching our international jury of experts analyzing the apps live on stage
  • Profit from great networking opportunities  with an audience made up of developers, industry experts, investors”
• Time: 4:00-8:00pm
  
• Location: SALA APOLO, C/ Nou de la Rambla 113, 08004 Barcelona (a jewel of the classic dance hall design!)
• RSVP: Sign up here.
  
• Cost: Free! Registration required.

AppCircus Party 

• About: “After The Mobile Premier Awards – We aim to Party!  … and you’re invited! Come celebrate with us (from 8.30pm till midnight) at the AppCircus party supported by Mozilla; in the Beautiful Sala Apolo, Barcelona – a jewel of classic dance hall design.  Unwind, mingle and do your thing to some great music! Enjoy the hosted bar, delicious tapas, and be prepared for some live entertainment surprises!”
• Time: 8:00pm – 11:30pm
• Location: SALA APOLO, C/ Nou de la Rambla 113, 08004 Barcelona (a jewel of the classic dance hall design!)
• RSVP: Registration is required, sign up here.
  
• Cost: Free! Registration required.

Mobile Marketing Mixer // During Mobile World Congress

• About: “Join us for the Mobile Marketing Mixer powered by Smaato and sponsored by Adfonic, Celtra, Mobile Marketing Magazine and Poynt.  Come out and start Mobile World Congress with the first night out in a proper way!  Join us at the lovely and legendary Incognito Bar in Barcelona – we will have great drinks, open bar and the most important thing – fun people like you the whole night long!”
• Time: 6:30-11:00pm
  
• Location: Incognito Bar, Calle Fusina 6, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
• RSVP: Required here.
  
• Cost: Free
  

Networking By Moonlight

• About: “New this year! Join the GSMA for casual “Networking by Moonlight” events at the Magic Fountain.  Included in all passes at no additional cost, these events provide attendees the opportunity to network and enjoy drinks & light bites before their evening plans. In addition to the spectacular fountain display, entertainments will include music and a stunning aerial dance performance taking place right over the audience.  Whether you stop by for a few moments before leaving the venue or stay until your dinner plans begin, don’t miss this fun opportunity to network with fellow attendees! More details coming soon.”
• Time: TBA
• Location: TBA
• RSVP: TBA
• Cost: Free for MWC pass holders.

Tuesday, 28 February, 2012:

GoMo News Blender

• About: “Velti is the headline sponsor of The GoMo News BlenderFebruary 28th 2012 at Mobile World Congress.  Diffusion PR will sponsor the cocktails and the event will be a full on get down and excited about mobile marketing event.  If you are in mobile, keep your tie on; get your business cards out and make sure you do some great business!  We look forward to welcoming you to our open bar!  We start at 6pm local time!”
• Time:  6:00-11:00pm
  
• Location: Marmalade Bar Barcelona, Riera Alta 4-6, 08001 Barcelona Barcelona, Spain
• RSVP: Register here.
  
• Cost: Free

Wednesday, 29 February, 2012:

WipJam Party

• About: “We’re holding another one of our famous parties in a great new venue on the Wednesday night of MWC. Be sure to register now to get on the list — you won’t want to miss out on the great crowd and networking, free food and drinks, and of course, JAMEOKE. And this year the WIP party meets the Android Barcelona User Group!  One more year Mobile World Congress is coming and Android Barcelona User Group is ready for the Android party. This year inside the WIP party, join the Android corner to meet  all the major players of the Android ecosystem as well local developers.”
• Time: 7:00-10:00pm
  
• Location: Museu del Rock, 4th floor, Arenas de Barcelona (the big round building across the Plaza from MWC), Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 373-385, local PC2 CP08015 Barcelona
• RSVP: Register here.
  
• Cost: Free. Registration required.
  

Swedish Beers Party

• About: “Like our previous events, this is a relaxed evening, no formalities, no presentations, no business cards thrust in your face as soon as you arrive. Just come with an open mind, be prepared to see friends old and new, talk nonsense, enjoy a drink or five and have yourself a good time. Oh, and leave the ties, the corporate personas and the sales spiel at the door please. The Swedish Beers crew will be on hand – Helen, Jenny, Gabriel, Shafiq, Cat, Sarah, Russell – and the friendliest bar staff in town are all waiting to welcome you.It is likely to get a bit busy at times. But don’t worry, people will be coming in and out all evening. That’s kind of the point as we know there’s always a lot going on and you might want to check out more than one party. If it’s very busy, there’s no need to queue to get in. Just check out one of the other bars nearby and come back a little later when it’s a bit less frantic.”
  
• Time: 7:00pm-2:00am
  
• Location: Dos Trece, 40 Carrer Carme, Barcelona, Spain
• RSVP: No need to RSVP unless you want to. There’s no guest list, no tickets and there’s no guaranteed entry. Just come and go as you please.
  
• Cost: Free

Thursday 1 March, 2012:

MLove Mobile World Congress 2012

• About: “You are invited to the second MLOVE @ MWC the final after work party!  So let’s paint the town RED and maybe even dance the night away, please check-in to reserve your space in the cool Incognito club in the hip El Born neighborhood.  SURPRISE:  We are preparing a launch of a new service together with TREND ONE that night – please stay tuned.  SPONSORED by Mobile Marketing Magazine & TrendOne.  To become a sponsor for this exclusive party event, feel free to contact: sponsor@mlove.com.”
• Time: 6:30pm – 2:00am
  
• Location: Incognito Cocktail Bar, Calle Fusina 6, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
• RSVP: On Facebook.
  
• Cost: Free

10 Steps for Building the Best Mobile Marketing App (Part 2)

Here are the last 5 steps for building a great mobile marketing app, following up from yesterday's post:

6. Usability

Mobile is not online. Keep in mind mobile’s innate characteristics like a smaller screen and longer loading times. The interaction between windows is more complicated than on a PC.

The touch and feel of navigating with a touchscreen is significantly different to using a mouse. Transactions have to be simple, yet secure, since security is a big issue for mobile users.

Since the launch of the iPhone 4S, navigation through voice- recognition should be taken into account.

7. Ubiquity

Mobile goes everywhere with you. Many people even sleep with their phone. It is the only device that is constantly with the user, indoors and outdoors.

Mobile can bridge the individual with everything around them. Take advantage of the “anytime, anywhere” potential. Encourage users to interact with the environment through the mobile phone, give them something to explore. The more senses are activated; the more intense is the brand experience.

Its ubiquity is what makes mobiles the most powerful marketing channel there is. Touchpoints can be created when they are most relevant. For example, Geo- location lets you approach a user as they walk by a store or reward them for entering or checking-in.

8. Uniquely Personal

The mobile phone is the most private device we use. It holds a wealth of private information including friends, social networks and even our location. Marketers are lucky to be let into this private sphere of any user. However, this leap of trust should be treated with great responsibility.

Do not just assume the user wants to be open with you. Ask permission to provide a service or communication. More than anything, location is a sensible information. If you choose to use location features, always take the opt-in route and make opting out easy. Users are willing to share information, but on their terms. Reward, but don’t blackmail them.

9. Mocial

Mobile is inherently social. Most of the times a mobile phone is picked up it is to interact with other people. The fusion of mobile and social media, short “mocial”, is therefore no surprise

Most users are logged into Facebook while using any other function on their phone. Use this in your favour and create fast logins through social networks. Enable and encourage sharing whenever it makes sense. And already think about sharing when setting up the scope for your app. Make sure to include sharable content and let your fans do the publicity for you.

Read more on mobile and social media here.

10. Don’t hide the app

Apps don’t market themselves. If no one knows that you have an app, no one will download it. Start promoting the app on other channels. Deep integrate it into the overall Marketing Plan and give incentives for downloading the app.

10 Steps for Building the Best Mobile Marketing App

Here are the first 5 Steps for creating a great mobile marketing app:


1. What do you want to achieve

Mobile phones are used everywhere and all the time in your customers daily lives and can therefore support almost any aspects of a holistic marketing strategy. To develop truly successful mobile marketing campaigns you need to define what you need and combine this with insights of what your customers want.

Here are some examples of what you might want to achieve:

• Mobile app as part of a branding strategy to help position the make
• A tool to raise awareness of an upcoming release or the launch of a new brand
• Create a new sales channel to reach customers and drive sales
• Mobile app as an extension for an existing service
• Drive footfall to a brick and mortar store
• Engage customers at the POS and enhance the in-store shopping experience

An example of an insight associated with this could be that people that buy running shoes want to keep track of how far and for how long they run. You can guess where this may take you…

2. Get the whole picture

Mobile is a powerful channel, but it is not a standalone. To leverage from its full potential it has to be integrated into the general marketing strategy.

• Interlink between channels. Let channels “play” with each other, the more interaction, the more engaged the customer
• Cross-promote throughout all channels. Use NFC, QR Codes or links to connect mobile with OOH Media, Print or TV and vice versa. Create and benefit from synergies

3. Be relevant

Get to know your target group and create an app that is relevant for them. Follow the user’s journey and detect potential touchpoints. What needs do they have, where can an app fit in?

Most successful mobile marketing apps are usually those that either kill time or save time. Think about how you can make life easier for your customers or how to entertain them.

4. Be yourself

Don’t chase the latest buzz just to be cool. The most innovative app does not help achieve any goals if it is completely detached from your brand and what it stands for.

Have a look at your values, your positioning and your message and work out something around it. Create a logical connection between the app and its functionalities, rather than just “brand” the new Angry Birds.

Generally, be wise about branding. A little logo on the side would probably not even be noticed, a big one would be annoying.

5. Pick the right platforms

Not everyone has an iPhone or an Android. Not even everyone has a smartphone. Users of different mobile platforms skew distinctive. Sketch out the target group for your brand and match it with the user profiles for different platforms. Read about mobile user profiles here.

Keep in mind that the target group for your mobile app might just be a subset of your entire audience. If you have a disperse audience, a mobile site is mandatory.

(Blog post courtesy of Golden Gekko)

In-Car Mobile Apps: the future of Telematics on show in Munich

In-Car Mobile Apps: the future of Telematics on show in Munich

MUNICH -Car manufacturers have had a rough ride since 2008, with a drop in consumer demand leading to government bailouts and corporate restructuring. 

But, the good news is that sales since last year have begun to pick up and car manufacturers are focusing on new technology to differentiate their products. The Fiat Group was one of the early innovators, with their Blue&Me partnership with Microsoft allowing drivers to make calls, navigate and use apps from connected mobile devices.

Ford is signaling their intention to innovate in this area as well by making a special appearance at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month and discuss their view of the market opportunity for the mobile sector and telematics in the automative sector.One of the areas where developments are anticipated is in self-diagnosis apps allowing drivers to access car diagnostics, schedule maintenance and review their driving performance.

This is big change and an area worth keeping abreast of.

Telematics Update is organising an event called “Content & Apps for Automotive Europe 2012”,scheduled for 18th-19th April, 2012 in Munich, Germany. It is designed to give attendees key insights on how in-vehicle connectivity is being revolutionised as OEMs integrate dynamic content to stay relevant throughout the vehicle life cycle.


Fiat, Ford, Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, Nokia, Harman, Denso, QNX, Chleon, Magneti Marelli, Continental, The Linux Foundation, Telenor and many more will discuss their content & apps strategies.


The conference will attract over 250 senior-level delegates dedicated to integration of  in-car content and the related business models, you will be able to attend over 30 business-focussed sessions and hear from over 30 top-class speakers.


As a blog reader of Ric Ferraro's Blog, you are entitled to an Exclusive Discount: an extra $100 discount on top of any current web discounts! Download the brochure here and register using discount code '1937RF'

WebOS Future is Open Source -HP makes code available to developers

Today, HP concluded months of deliberation, u-turns and negotiations with the announcement that it will open source WebOS instead of keeping it in-house or selling it off to suitors like Amazon.

This is good news because it ends months of uncertainty which have severely tested the patience of developers and undermined businesses that had already committed to WebOS. The fact that no hardware plans have been announced is perhaps not as big an issue as it seems -if the open sourcing of the code works, then the hardware is likely to follow.

It still remains unlikely that WebOS will, at least in its current state, pose any real challenge to Windows or Android. Though sometimes, the power of the community in open-source environments can make the difference, so it is too early to write it off altogether.

Key to the future is not only the development of the code base and the hardware available to run it, but also the distribution for the software or apps developed in WebOS. With over 100 sizeable App Stores out there, the App Catalog needs some attention as well. Hopefully HP will, as part as its committment to continue investing in WebOS, not forget this, and give the WebOS App Catalog a long needed update to keep its appeal. 

Mobile World Congress 2012 -WIP Jam and Party

BARCELONA- With Christmas less than three weeks away, it can be easy to forget that the Mobile World Congress, the world´s largest trade event for the mobile sector, is also round the corner.

For the joy of mobile app developers everywhere, WIP is organizing the WIP Jam event for developers within the grounds of the Fira complex on the 1^st March 2012 (in Auditorium A, to be precise). This will be preceded by the WIP Party the previous evening at the Rock Museum in the Richard Rogers-designed Las Arenas (upstairs in the Rock Museum venue).

Both events are NOT TO BE MISSED. The WIP Jam event will have the successful formula of short presentations and many breakout sessions to talk about topical issues in mobile, facilitated by familiar faces in mobile development. The WIP Party will have free food and drinks and a Jameoke (for those up for some singing).

You can sign up to the WIP Party by clicking here  

Integrating NFC in mobile apps – implementation costs

In this guest post by Magnus Jern, he sums up the current opportunities and challenges of implementing NFC mobile solutions.

NFC has been around since 2003 but it´s not until now that technology and adoption are ready for commercial deployment. It is embedded in the latest Android handsets, including the Nexus S. RIM are including it in all their new devices and Apple want to equip the iPhone 5 with an NFC chip, despite rumours they would not. Nokia is launching a series of devices including NFC, starting with the C7 and most other handset manufacturers will include NFC in their devices within the next 2 years.

According to Wikipedia: “Near field communication, or NFC, is a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 4 cm or less. (…) This enables NFC targets to take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is also possible, where both devices are powered.”

The technology is enabling new and exciting mobile interactions such as loyalty cards,  identification, travel tickets and micro-payments.

What is the cost of implementing NFC in your mobile applications?

The implementation of writing and reading data on the application side is fairly straight forward, just a few API calls that most developers will already be familiar with.

So the cost of implementing NFC in an application is very small compared to the cost of setting up the backend infrastructure that may be required to support it.  A typical NFC application, which reads an NFC chip once to authenticate that the user has been in a certain store or redeemed a voucher, could cost as little as 10-20.000 euros to implement, but NFC itself can be added to existing applications very cheaply.

So what’s next?

During the coming years we will see thousands of different applications including NFC. Some of those will be ground-breaking and others will quickly be forgotten. Banks, retailers, transportation businesses, fast food restaurants and events companies will all be experimenting with the possibilities. Watch this space.

NFC - The best enabler for the future mobile wallet?

There has been talk of NFC as a big driver of the mobile wallet since at least 2008, and the idea of using NFC has been toyed with by operators for some time. Anything that adds value to what a mobile phone can do is clearly going to be appealing to mobile operators (especially if it locks subscribers in or has a proprietary element to it), though the numbers of different stakeholders involved is still holding back NFC. Retailers, financial institutions, operators and manufacturers all have a role to play but also all have different vested interests in how it should be deployed.

The curious thing is that NFC is touted as the cornerstone of mobile transactions, mobile payments and mobile banking in the future. The reality is that NFC was never conceived for this kind of use case. Born out of RFID technology, some of the earlier uses were in tracking physical goods (from cows to library books!). This is relevant because security and encryption of NFC is a key blocker for further deployement of mobile payments (or other secure uses, like accessing buildings).

Even though NFC chips can only be read optimally at a distance of 20cm, the radio frequencies emitted can be captured a few metres away. I remember attending a panel discussion earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress where a  PayPal executive was asked what was stopping them from developing mobile payments with NFC. The answer was that it was simply not safe enough.

This could change though -if NTT DoCoMo was able to deploy over 100,000 "NFC keys" to their mobile subscribers allowing them to unlock the front door to their homes with their mobile phone back in 2008, then securing NFC transmissions further should be possible.

I believe though that from securing NFC communication for simple use cases like unlocking doors to that of making payments, there is still a long way to go. But then, at the same time, there are sceptics who still believe online use of credit cards is unsafe, so a great deal will be down to popular perception. Apple...please lead the way....

HTML5 for Mobile -better than native apps or a "flash" in the pan?

Interest in HTML5 is definitely hotting up-and not only from within geekland. Leading corporates are keen to "something different" that hasn´t been before, and HTML5 is definitely flavour of the month.

There still are several issues with HTML5 that mean that its adoption has been limited or, at best, what has been adopted were the "easy bits" of HTML5 that are more stable than the more racy components (the location component, for example).

Specifically in terms of mobile browser adapted sites, the examples are even thinner on the ground. The Financial Times´s recent move to switch from a native iPhone app to a HTML5 site instead could be seen as a watershed event.

However, while HTML5 is great for showing content, clearly it is not a replacement for native apps which call native features of the handset (camera, accelerometer etc). Can you make an image in an HTML5 mobile site animate when you shake the phone...no, you cannot (and yes, some clients ask for it!).

You can see a great comparison by Michael Mahemoff of some pros and cons of developing native vs HTML5 apps here: HTML5 vs Native apps comparison. Overall, the point is that web apps are closing the gap on native apps..this is true in many ways, but then the gap in some cases was very large.

Testing Mobile Websites using Mobile Emulators

I am a keen follower of Mobiforge.com (formerly known as dev.mobi) since they provide a great set of practical guidelines for mobile development.

In a recent post, Mike McQuillan provides one of the clearest set of guidelines I have seen recently on how to use mobile emulators for testing mobile websites.

With around 4500 mobile devices on the market today, testing across all platforms and devices is a big challenge. Emulators are a big help in this area (even though from experience, they come with a caveat of never being able to completely replicate 100% of what individual handsets will do).

Emulators are broken down into three main types:

• Device emulators - These are generally provided by device manufacturers and simulate the actual device. Device emulators are excellent for testing your site or application on a particular device or set of devices.
• Browser emulators - These simulate mobile browser environments. Whilst useful for determining the functionality available in a particular mobile browser, they are useless for device-specific testing.
• Operating System Emulators - Microsoft provides emulators for Windows Mobile, and Google provides an emulator for Android. These run within a simulated mobile device environment and provide access to applications running within the operating system, e.g. a Web browser.

Web-based/browser emulators are the quickest to install and access. A good point Mike makes is that despite Nokia still being a leading handset manufacturer, there are surprisingly few handset emulators for their devices.

In order to access all the emulators from device manufacturers, you will need to register on the relevant Developer Portal. If you are looking to test a mobile website for iPhone and don´t have a MacBook there is no need to panic.

You can find a PC-friendly iPhone emulator at: http://testiphone.com/. I actually tested this with my blog (which is mobile-adapted) but the emulator failed to reproduce my website correctly, so I would treat this emulator with caution.

You can find more detailed instructions on each emulator (including set up screenshots) in the MobiForge article by clicking on this post´s title.