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Having worked in videogames and mobile, I could not miss the first London Mobile Monday of 2012. “Mobile Games” was the hot topic of the night, discussed by a great panel of professionals and chaired by Oscar Clark of Papaya Mobile. Not that one would want to miss any of these industry gatherings, but, for me, it was also the first time on the volunteer side. In fact, they even gave me the chance to blog about the event, so here I am.

While on the tube to go to the event, I was thinking about the topic. I personally feel that video games and mobile industry are converging towards something different, and mobile games development is driving the innovation. The new mobile and tablet platform allowed games to change, thanks mainly to three new features: touchscreens, connectivity and portability. All the portable game consoles we used before the rise of the app stores lacked at least one of the three, not to speak about the powerful graphic of the new mobile screens. We now have...

Have you also noticed that 2011 has seen a drastic reduction in the numbers of predictions?

When this time of year is usually full of "Top 10 things that will happen next year in mobile" ... In 2011 pre-dictators (those doing predictions) seem to have disappeared or seem to be more quiet than usual!

What should we read in this?

Optimistic view
2011 has seen mobile finally booming (despite a slow economy) and people usually predicting at this time of the year are too  busy doing! (or resting from a long hard year)

Pessimistic view
2012 looks so muddy that most people do not want to venture in what could be a very very dangerous territory

Even more pessimistic view
The major mobile devices and mobile platforms (Android and Apple) have reached a stage of maturity where the rhythm of innovation inside and outside the platform is slowing down. There is no exciting future for 2012 just consolidation over existing technologies.

Realistic view
This is the end of...

The slides of my talk at Turing Festival are available on slideshare!

Have a look!

[Disclaimer : this slide pack was prepared on a broken Mac! where only the browser was working! The entire presentation was thus prepared on sliderocket who saved my bum, by allowing me to import exisitng presentations (albeit in image format most of the time. The fact that I didn't have access to a file browser (they call it finder on a Mac) did not really help ... I still curse Apple to this day! But hope you enjoy the presentation. This is a long winded way to say that some of the slides look awful and I apologize for that... and I'm working on an official apology from Apple too :D ]

I'm doing some research on all the components that go into making a successful app.  Is it a good idea?  Good planning.  Good market research?  Good marketing?  Practice?  Having investment?  Living in 'the valley'? or having a good luck charm?  My sense is a combination of the above, and a lot of hard work.

Help me out by completing this brief survey. Also - if you are interested in being a case study, please contact me directly (caroline at wipconnector dot com). Thanks!

Yesterday was a big day for Apple. The company announced iOS 5 at its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, and it said it had paid out $2.5 billion to developers for apps they've sold to iOS users. 

Apple's lawyers also sent WIP a letter yesterday, asking that we cease and desist from using the term "App Store" in the title of the App Store Catalog and App Store Reports we provide for developers here on our site. Apple has trademarked the term "App Store" in the US and many other countries, and the letter says our use of the term "improperly suggests to U.S. consumers that numerous companies offer an APP STORE mobile download service, when in fact the term APP STORE refers exclusively to Apple's groundbreaking download service."

Apparently Steve Jobs hasn't gotten a similar letter, since even he uses the term generically to refer to any of what the lawyers suggest we call "mobile download services" or "application download services".

We provide the App Store...

These are the latest Samsung, Microsoft, Google, Nokia/Intel and Apple devices...

Obviously I'm not talking smartphones! But rather a smart box (a.k.a  Set Top).

Can you recognize them?

(there's a prize for first person to write a comment with all the devices, OS, manufacturer)

A year ago we organized our first MiniJam at IP&TV World Forum. In expectation of the Google TV announcement, the world was abuzz and full of promises, Apps on the TV were going to revolutionize the world!

A year later the buzz has definitely disappeared and TV apps have little space in developer conversations. And a few hands suffice to "count" the results from the app bonanza everyone was expecting. Arguably the real bonanza was to be found in the TV platforms. 

Apple TV, Boxee and Google TV are here for the buzz, Samsung TV, Meego and Microsoft MediaRoom play the hiding giants. And I'm sure I'm missing a few. Now, mobile device fragmentation looks so, well, over-hyped.

However...

We’ve know for a while that that apps are the key driver in the mobile industry today, driving the demand for devices and network time.  The big players in the industry recognize that too, so are constantly on the lookout for new mobile applications that meet the requirements and imagination of their customers.

There are a variety of entry points to get you and your app noticed, including the AT&T Open Call Contest whose deadline for entry is Tuesday, March 8, 2011.  Get your app in now so you don’t miss out on this opportunity.  

Here’s why we like this contest. Not only is it a great way to get noticed in front of the right decision makers at AT&T, they and some of their partners who participate in the judging (I was a judge last year and will be  again this year), offer alot of advice and connections.  So even just getting a judging/pitch time is a big win!  There are over 100 spots open – so lots of opportunity!

We had an opportunity to speak with Andrea Morton the...

A few days ago Amazon opened the doors to their Amazon Appstore Developer Portal.

As we have seen before that adding your app to any appstore can be a painful process. WIP has run Android appstore submitting competitions to see which appstores make it easiest and fastest for developers to submit and WIP has also experienced some bad forms and error messages in a lot of appstores. Well I wanted to take a closer look to see if Amazon has made this process any easier as they are predicted to be another big player in the appstore world.  Some Seattle based bloggers are saying Amazon has done a marvelous job of creating a Super-Slick Android Appstore, but I want to go through the whole process and submit WIP's own Appstore Wiki App.

Walk through
For starters Amazon is certainly getting the ball rolling by waiving the $99 yearly fee for developers who want to submit their app. Their layout is sleek, and it has the classic amazon feel. Their FAQ has lots of questions with straight...

As I peer into my crystal ball I see a year of more growth coupled with higher expectations for mobile along with a few upsets along the way.

The Growth

If you didn’t rest over the holidays, don’t expect to relax anytime soon no matter where you fit in the industry.  We will continue to see more devices, more demand for apps, and more demand for developers. 

It was March when we declared 2010 The Year of the Mobile Developer.  Developers were in hot demand and were finally being embraced publically and vocally as a key piece of the mobile ecosystem.   

With that, we will continue to see huge growth in the number of mobile developers entering the scene.  I do think we will see a combination of really newbie/webby developers, given the rise in toolssuch as AppMobi.   As mobile has now become ‘mainstream’ we will also see more traditional software folks entering mobile.  Expect more development tools and enablers (analytics, advertising etc) on the scene too.  Choice...