Carnival of the Mobilists

The Carnival is up (again) at my own MSearchGroove with a selection of solid posts that ask some tough questions and offer some insightful answers.

This week’s line-up:

• Tam Hanna conducts an interview with Resco, a Slovakian company sharply focused on Windows Mobile 7. What’s the view of WM7? What is the likely take-up among enterprise users? Is the timing of the release good for business (literally)? Lots of key questions, so read on and find out.
• Tomi Ahonen provides us a masterpiece of math and logic. His post recounts the key stats we need to know to understand just how much money the Apple App store has made and argues that the numbers spell disaster for developers who hope to make real money selling their apps.
• Steve Litchfield over at allaboutsymbian.com points out that booksmarks may be the best way to get Web content on your smartphone.
• Kudos to Stasys Bielinis over at UnwiredView.com for his keen observations and conclusions from the Droid X launch. What has happened to Motorola’s Android smartphone strategy? Could it be that Google has learned to innovate at Internet speed?
• Taking a similar stance, Sachendra Yadav tracks the evolution of the Android operating system as it takes up the charge to beat back Apple. Consolidating and defining the UI layers in the Android OS is the best solution. But how will handset makers differentiate?
• Steven Hoober over at Little Spring Designs blog walks us through a detailed discussion focused (no pun intended!) on images, resolutions and new approaches that get good images to display even better on a mobile screen.
• Terence Eden provides us a textbook example of bad mobile advertising (badvertising) using the example of an Apple app advert shown on an Android device.
• Volker Hirsch over at Volker on Mobile connects the dots in recent comments by carrier representative to conclude that the classic 50/50 rev share model may be on the way out.
• An emotional plea from Antoine RJ Wright for change in the U.S. mobile market. It may not be everyone’s taste in posts, but there’s no arguing that many customer feel locked in a market that is high on carrier control and low on carrier innovation…
• And finally, my own submission: an update on mobile charity and a look at a successful cancer awareness campaign using barcodes to get the message out.

That’s a wrap for this week. Next week our host is Tomi Ahonen at Communities Dominate Brands.

READ COM #228 HERE

Today is an outreach to the community to get involved with hosting and fill in some of the white spots in our calendar. I will be sending out individual emails and I also encourage each of you to recruit a ‘mobilist’ to join our Carnival moving forward. Another topic high on the agenda is ways to make COTM more interactive and valuable to you. I will be reaching out to some of you individually for your good ideas.Finally, Twitter is working really well to spread the word and today the Carnival posts will be up to date.

MSearchGroove steps up to the plate to host this week – but it would be great to see some new names and faces. Please review the calendar and pick a date to make your debut!

Meantime, this week’s Carnival (posted here) features:

• Smartphone stats and controversial conclusions from Tomi Ahonen over at Communities Dominate Brands.
• Ajit Jaokar gives invaluable insights (with a nod to Sun Tzu) into why Apple is no longer the one to watch.
• In the run up to an exciting event — Mobile Future Forward (September 8th) — Chetan Sharma gives us the opportunity to download a worthwhile white paper that outlines the themes/ trends impacting mobile at all levels. Reminder: Registration for Chetan’s event is open – and the Early Bird offer expires June 30^th.
• Mark Bridge over at Fonecast showcases a podcast with Hans Eriksson of mobile video streaming service Bambuser, which lets you share streaming video in real-time and even add chat.
• Alfred DeRose over at Tego Interactive looks at how text messaging has influenced voting intent and perception in the world (specifically, the U.S.) and walks us through a campaign (combining Web, social media and mobile) his team developed for a Slovakian political party. Why can a well-integrated multi-channel campaign influence voter’s perceptions and participation? Read on and find out…
• Participation of another kind is the focus of a post from C. Enrique Ortiz over at About Mobility. He reflects on some of his recent work and insights about the rampant spread of mobile broadband that cause him to wonder if developers (or operators) will have to carry the burden of app support. He also wants OUR input on these questions, which is why he asks us all to participate in a simple survey. Fill it out & make your voice heard!

This week’s Carnival of the Mobilists comes to us from Antoine RJ Wright’s blog, offering us thoughts on faith and all things mobile.

The long and illustrious list of bloggers and contributions (which covers two weeks work of the best in mobile blogging) includes:

• A recap of the 4th mobile breakfast series event and some of the key takeaways from Chetan Sharma. Another post in from Chetan focuses on his renowned mobile research tracking the exponential growth of mobile data and the opportunities it presents.
• A podcast (via Fonecast) with Ben Whitaker of Masabi on the topic of mobile ticketing and innovation.
• A summary post from Indigo102 recounting the recent M-PUBLISHING event and analyzing the future of mobile publishing
• A roundup of exciting stats and facts that marked the recent Mobile Marketing Association Forum in NYC via Tomi Ahonen at Communities Dominate Brands. Tomi was also the global keynote. In another submission Tomi treats us to an analysis of the new iPhone 4.
• A light-hearted, no-holds-barred podcast series with Tomi Ahonen launches on MSearchGroove (Text, drugs, rock-n-roll!)
• Welcome insights for human-centric mobile design from Volker on Mobile.
• Little Springs Design looks at paper, printing and the fundamentals around mobiles and the iPad.
• A view of UI design and UI learning from AntoineRJWright.
• Ajit Jaokar over at Open Gardens Blog examines the move to tiered pricing models and the pressure on carriers to be transparent.
• Comments from TamsS60 reflect on AT&T’s new offer: insurance on iPhone devices.
• JK on the Run delves into HP’s comments and strategy around webOS.

Read COM #226 HERE

This time the Carnival of the Mobilists covers two weeks of the best in blogging. Guess the great summer and the World Cup are getting more attention. But you can also use your summer “downtime” to host the COM at YOUR site. Take a look at the schedule and contact me directly (peggy AT msearchgroove DOT com) with the dates you want. Hosting the COM is a great way to boost profile, increase traffic and do your part.

Meantime, personal thanks to Holy Kolman at her new-design mobiEnthusiast site for hosting another exciting collection of mobile blogging.

The line-up includes:

• A look at mobile banking and money from Andy Favell at mobiThinking.com.
• An excellent post from Carl Martin of Mobsessed advising financial institutions to “get mobile”
• Volker Hirsch from Volker on Mobile tells us why Google is the one to watch – and back it up with stats and insights into Android policy.
• Tam Hanna alerts developers to a bug in rendering graphics on some handsets.
• Tsahi Levent-Levi of VOIP Survivor writes about the main challenges of integrating mobile video telephony into the Android OS.
• Ajit Jaokar of Open Gardens examines the net neutrality issue and argues there is no such thing as net neutrality on platforms like Twitter and Facebook when they make the transition from platform to service provider.
• Antoine RJ Wright tells us iPad may not be the showstopper device after all.
• Over at MSearchGroove two podcasts (with Thomson Reuters SVP and Handmark CEO) outline the issues and opportunities in mobile publishing.
• And finally, a tome from Tomi Ahonen. He wrote Everything you ever wanted to know about mobile, but were afraid to ask. Nothing more to add to that!

READ COM #225 HERE