Smarter Agent extends its reach to Google's Android Operating system and continues its reign as the only developer with a property search application available across all devices, carriers and formats.

Real Estate by Smarter Agent is a free application on the Android.

It’s a power tool for anyone interested in accurate, up to date, and comprehensive real estate information.

Real Estate by Smarter Agent features three location-aware (including GPS-triggered) real estate searches in one easy-to-use application.

Search options include:
• Homes for Sale
• Recently Sold Homes
• Apartments for Rent

Homes for Sale lets users search every public MLS listing in over 300 markets, more than any other real estate application on the market. With Recently Sold Homes, consumers can see the prices of homes sold within the last three years, and Apartments for Rent offers a growing list of apartments from top Web sites like apartments.com.

All three search options use Smarter Agent’s patented property search technology to pinpoint the user’s location and find available apartments and property listings in the immediate area with the touch of a button. Consumers can also search by address, community name, city or zip code.

Search results reveal:
• Price
• Square footage
• Estimated mortgage
• Taxes
• Interior and exterior features
• Interactive map
• Beds/baths
• Pictures

Smarter Agent features a “Call to See” button, which offers real time access to a real estate professional if you have questions or want to schedule a tour of the property.

This is the first application created by Realtors for Realtors that gives home buyers full access to publically viewable MLS property information and helps agents and brokers maintain their brand in the emerging mobile real estate market.

Android download instructions: Go to Android Market, select Search and enter Smarter Agent. Select ‘Real Estate by Smarter Agent’ and then select Install at the bottom of the screen. You can also text G1 to 87778 for download instructions.

For other devices, Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale application can be downloaded from:
• www.SmarterAgent.com
• A consumer’s cell phone via the carrier’s application store, or from application stores maintained by iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.
• A broker’s or agent’s Web site if they subscribe to Smarter Agent and have a branded application.

Labels: Android, GPS, mobile, real estate, Smarter Agent

All Aboard the Smarter Agent Express
Bus transportation for all NAREE members and attendees to tour D.C. was provided by Smarter Agent again this year! Both buses were packed - about 80 attendees toured D.C. from what we liked to call the "Smarter Agent Express."



From the buses, it was difficult to catch For Sale signs, but the writers could see all property listings in D.C. with Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale application. BlackBerry generously provided 30 BlackBerry Curves so that a majority of members could see the app in action. A big thank you goes out to BlackBerry for providing us with so many phones at a moment's notice. Since Smarter Agent works on virtually every mobile device, many members downloaded the app to their personal cell.


The Big 8-0!
The weekend packed with tours, panels and presentations concluded with a toast to NAREE, which has been going strong for 80 years. Smarter Agent hopes everyone enjoyed their time at the conference. We enjoyed your hospitality and enthusiasm!

Labels: BlackBerry, NAREE, Smarter Agent

This weekend, Smarter Agent is a proud sponsor of the National Association of Real Estate Editors spring conference in Washington, D.C. This is the primary networking event for real estate writers, editors and authors. Nearly 100 members of the press covering residential, commercial, and financial real estate have gathered to hear from representatives of the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

BlackBerry provided Smarter Agent with BlackBerry Curves to give attendees a mobile tour of D.C. real estate with our Homes for Sale application.

I read an article this morning on RISMedia about how Realtors can effectively meet the demands of Generation Y. With over 72 million ‘Millennials’ in the US (another cool term for people, like me, who fall in the 22-31 age group), we’re an “increasingly powerful economic force.” The article briefly touched on a list of ways Realtors can become relevant in the Millennials’ world including blogs, social networking, and virtual tours on YouTube.

I may be slightly biased, but I don’t think the article went far enough in stressing the importance and prevalence of mobile in the Generation Y target market. Our dependency on accessible, mobile technology comes into play not only in communicating (texting and e-mailing via cell phones is the norm), but gathering information and completing even the most mundane of tasks (from finding movie times to tracking personal spending), and finding a home should be on that list!

We here at Smarter Agent think one of the best uses of our mobile application is to become relevant with your Generation Y house hunters and to help meet their needs using a medium with which they are already very familiar.

Click here for the full article.

-Melissa Hindman, Smarter Agent Marketing Manager

Labels: Generation Y, mobile, Realtors, Smarter Agent

Severe thunderstorms rolled through Camden, NJ around 7:45 a.m. Tuesday morning and Market St. near Smarter Agent's Headquarters just couldn't handle all the rain! Sure, we're located on the Camden Waterfront but this was a little too close for comfort. Gondola ride, anyone?

Labels: Camden, Market St., Severe Weather, Smarter Agent

Pretty spiffy. But don't forget - Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale app is available on virtually every mobile device!

Over the past 15 months, my wife and I have been preparing to purchase our first home. It started with raising our credit scores by decreasing our debt, which fortunately turned out to be easier than expected. Simultaneously, we were gathering information about what neighborhood, school district and price range would be ideal for us. After crunching numbers and weighing the pros and cons, we narrowed our search down to the zip code that best fit our criteria.

But we were challenged with trying to lay out a plan to drive through the different neighborhoods and only see the properties that were both in our price range and included the features we desired. Throughout this time we witnessed our selected homes pop up as new listings only to go off-market before we were ready to commit. We never imagined what a challenge it was going to be to keep track of the dynamics that were happening as we were out searching for properties.

While we were out searching, I noticed some For Sale signs had sign riders to have the property information texted to your cell phone so I decided to give it a try. I’d stop the car, pull over in front of the sign, type in the text information and wait for the text message. Much to my surprise the text message arrived quickly, which made me very excited to be able to instantly see the additional information available for the property, “including photos” it said, but I was disappointed by the seemingly endless wait for the data and photos to be transmitted to my phone followed by endless scrolling up and down to actually view the data.

These events provided more than enough motivation to help the company I work for, Smarter Agent, to launch its carrier approved, GPS mobile search application. Finally, the time came that we are ready to purchase our home. So, on the night of May 15th, 2009 I took a BlackBerry armed with Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale mobile application to the neighborhood we were interested in and performed a GPS refine search, narrowing the results to within our price range. Very quickly we had a list of 17 properties that fit our specifications, along with a map view to guide us to each one. As we easily drove to the homes on the map, we were able to quickly narrow the list down to our top five: three corner lots and two middle rows, based on all the property information, including pictures, displayed right there on my BlackBerry screen. I need to mention that there was no need to send a text message and then wait for the information and photos to be transmitted to the phone for just that property, or scroll endlessly to see all the information once it arrived. It was just there. An easy-to-use, touch-of-a-button application allowing us the luxury of driving right past the homes that the photos and data helped us eliminate and right to the homes that we could stop in front of and envision ourselves living in.

I immediately called my Agent to schedule showings for our top 5. As we walked through the homes, I was able to pull up other properties for sale in the immediate area by doing a GPS Quick Search to compare the value of the property we were being shown. Now the best part- As as we walked through our top pick, the value was clearly evident. This home was priced to sell with a list price 15% under the 3 other properties within a stone’s throw. We are now under agreement with this property and are very excited about this terrific opportunity that may have been lost without the instant access to information provided by Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale application.

Ken Gilliam, Data Analyst for Smarter Agent

Eight months ago I tottered slowly into the Smarter Agent headquarters for the first time. And to be honest, I felt like I was walking into a completely new universe. I've been employed at countless jobs ever since I was a young teenager, but I never actually had a real job. I scrubbed tires at a car wash, bussed tables at a restaurant, stocked shelves at a supermarket, and did about 734,278 odd tasks at various local grocery stores. So when I was shown my very own cubicle... with my very own name on it... with my very own computer (with two fancy shmancy high grade monitors, mind you), I felt like Charlie when he won the golden ticket. You mean I can actually sit down at work? You mean I get unlimited free coffee? You mean I can make my own schedule that works around my college courses?

Seriously, it felt like I had met the most beautiful girl in the world. And for some odd reason, she decided to give me a chance.

Well once the initial honeymoon wore off, and it actually got down to do work, I was pleasantly surprised. I work on the fastest desktop I have ever used. I use powerful “crème de la crème” programs. I write web pages. I design handouts. I create things. I create things that people are actually going to see on their computer screen or mobile device. I'm not just cheap physical labor anymore, but an actual asset to a company. It's honestly one of the most exhilarating feelings I've ever had at a job.

I've been pretty busy at the office these days. I seem to have my hands on a bunch of different assignments at once. I get to work one-on-one with most of the other people at Smarter Agent, and everyone is extremely proficient at what they do. Not only are they hard workers, but they are darn good co-workers, too. It's a real family atmosphere over here, and that definitely makes it easier to be productive all day long. One of my bosses actually decorated my cube with Jonas Brothers and Twilight posters, as well as various High School Musical memorabilia. Despite the fact that I am a twenty-year-old male with little to no interest in these tween sensations, I keep all the items exactly where they were placed. Because I'll tell you, looking up and seeing Nick Jonas squinting seductively back at me is enough to make me crack a smile on even the most stressful of days.

While I'm notorious for my lighthearted and jocular personality, I'm using this post as an earnest opportunity of reflection. I get to do something I love for a company that makes a product that I am very proud to be associated with. I'll meet people in my personal time who ask me if I have a job. I'll tell them how I do graphics and web work for a company that makes a GPS-based real estate search for cellular devices. And they all respond the same way: “Whoa... cool.”

So I'm grateful. I'm grateful that I wake up in the morning and drive to work with a smile on my face. I'm grateful that I work with some of the coolest, smartest, and most talented people I've ever met. I'm grateful that all of my superiors think highly of me enough to keep me on board. And I'm grateful for the opportunity to be apart a company that is destined for tremendous success.

To the MLS companies that supply their IDX feeds, the brokers and agents that sign up for our branded application, the real estate buyers downloading Homes for Sale on their cell phone, the Blumberg brothers who operate Smarter Agent, my department superiors Alison and Tom, and all of the other wonderful people I work with:
Thanks.

Sincerely,

The Eccentric Intern with the Most Questionable Cubicle Decorations in the Entire Office.

We at Smarter Agent believe everyone should have access to our superior mobile real estate search. Have you checked out our downloader tool on our homepage recently? Take a look below. You'll see Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale is now available on even more carriers and devices.



Plus, if you don't see your device listed, you can select "[Other] Not Listed" to download our mobile web (WAP) version of Homes for Sale. With our fully downloadable application and our mobile web version, we can reach just about every mobile user! And we won't stop until Smarter Agent can provide the best mobile experience for everyone.

Smarter Agent's Founder and President Eric Blumberg was invited to San Francisco this week to speak at the 13th Annual GPS-Wireless Convention on the Web Portal Markets Panel. He is joined by:
Thomas Owen, Vice President of Wireless Development & Alliances and panel moderator; Pankaj Mathur, Vice President of Sales at infoUSA; Howard Steinberg, IAC Mobile Business Development at IAC Mobile (Ask.com); and Bob Upham, Director of Business Development for Yahoo! Geo Technologies.

Give our Earth a break! Help reduce waste while house-hunting by going mobile with Smarter Agent.

Consider this situation: You print out pages upon pages of properties you're interested in checking out. And you can't forget directions to each destination--a dozen more printouts. Then, as you're driving to the first property on your list, you pass the perfect house you never came across in your internet search that you just have to know more about. All those printouts--and, still, you don't have all the information when you want it most.

Using Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale mobile search application saves paper, time, and hassle. So save a tree, and get GPS real estate search capabilities and real time property information directly on your mobile device for an easy, green, and fun house-hunting experience.

Kathleen Allardyce is the President of Getting It Write, Inc. and a "how to" guru on a variety of real estate marketing issues on her blog, Build Real Estate Results. She writes how Smarter Agent can help "Dazzle Your Real Estate Website Visitors." --Click the article title to find out more on how Kathleen thinks Smarter Agent can benefit agents and brokers.

Kris and Steve Berg of San Diego Castles Realty are excited about Smarter Agent's WAP app, according to their blog post. The Bergs launched their mobile search feature a few months ago, and now the WAP app makes it possible for the Bergs to reach every consumer across every carrier and device, including Kris's BlackBerry Storm. Rest assured, Kris, the fully downloadable Homes for Sale application will soon be available for the Storm, and we'll be asking you to be a Beta tester when the time comes.

Click here to see Kris's full blog post on San Diego Home Blog and for more information on San Diego Castles Realty's mobile application.

Geno Petro--a top producing Web 2.0 Realtor and downtown Chicago Buyers Agent--just announced his Homes for Sale application is live and ready to help all his clients search the Chicago MLS from their cell phone.

See his blog Chicago's Home Weblog for the full announcement and more on how Geno is taking his business mobile.

Check out Mike Antoniak's post on Smarter Agent. Mike covers technology for the National Association of Realtors and supplements his articles with his blog RealTechTools.

Five Questions About Smarter Agent
Most think of GPS as a navigation tool, but one company is using that technology as the basis for of location-based property searches on mobile devices. Smarter Agent is a carrier approved, GPS-powered tool which enables consumers to search and retrieve property information on their cell phone or other handset, based on where they are. It was developed by co-founders and brothers Brad(CEO) and Eric Blumberg ( CTO and president). The Blumbergs have an insiders’ understanding of how technology can best serve the needs of today’s mobile real estate professionals and clients... See the rest of the post on RealTechTools.

Smarter Agent's President Eric Blumberg was invited to speak on the Mobile Search panel at CTIA in Las Vegas.

Here is a description of the panel:

"Rising penetration of smartphones and all-you-can-eat mobile data ‘bucket’ pricing plans have led to a dramatic increase in usage of mobile search services. The assembled panel will deliver a frank discussion on what the mobile search sector’s diverse set of players need, want and expect from each other in order to maximize their respective stakes in the mobile search game. This invited team of experts will offer insights on the real-world partnerships currently in place and their top choices for future collaborative arrangements and why."

Moderator: Mark Lowenstein; Managing Director of Mobile Ecosystem

Speakers
Doug Antone; CEO of Networks In Motion

Eric Blumberg; President & CTO of Smarter Agent

Aman Brar; Vice President, Business Development of ChaCha Search, Inc.

Matt Crowley; CMO of AT&T Interactive

Brian Lent; Chairman and CEO of Medio

“In the midst of these challenging economic times, this study shows the wireless industry’s future is extremely bright.”-Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association.

LAS VEGAS, Apr 02, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) – A new national study released today at International CTIA WIRELESS 2009® in Las Vegas, Nevada by CTIA-The Wireless Association® in conjunction with Harris Interactive®, finds that almost half, 45%, of business decision makers state that wireless applications are important or absolutely essential to remaining competitive in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Click here to view the full article.

Highlights of the study, “Mobility Means Business—The Wireless Road to Prosperity” by Harris Interactive Technology Research Reports:

55% of business decision makers agree with the statement that “wireless applications are only getting started. I’m excited about the future.”

More than 50% of those surveyed expect to deploy the hottest application within the next two years.

Improvement Expected with wireless applications: Small Business: 16%, Medium Business 16%, Large Business 14%.





Smarter Agent's President Eric Blumberg is invited to speak on the Mobile Search Panel at CTIA in Las Vegas this week.

Smarter Agent's Jennifer Levine presented before The Realty Alliance this morning at its General Membership Meeting in Coral Gables, FL. Levine demonstrated Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale mobile search application in a session titled, "Taking House Hunting Mobile." Members of The Realty Alliance represent and serve most major markets in North America. These Realty Alliance members were the first to join the mobile revolution:

Prudential Georgia Realty: www.PrudentialGeorgia.com
The Keyes Company: www.Keyes.com
William Raveis: www.Raveis.com
Real Estate One: www.RealEstateOne.com
Prudential Fox & Roach : www.PruFoxRoach.com
Prudential Carolinas: www.PruCarolinas.com
Prudential CA
Prudential Douglas Elliman

Jay Youmans is a Broker Associate at William Raveis, Smarter Agent's Real Estate Partner in CT, MA and RI. Jay took advantage of the latest in mobile technology by signing up for a personal branded Homes for Sale application for his websites. He continues William Raveis' attitude of having the latest and greatest in technology, and making sure consumers benefit from those tools!

Jay had been keeping me up to date on the happenings with some out of state buyers. Smarter Agent always strives to provide the best user experience possible, so when our efforts prove successful for the agents we work with, we are ecstatic!
Jay sent an email to the Executive Vice President, Kent Hanley, of William Raveis telling how he used his branded mobile application to seal a deal! Kent was nice enough to allow me to share it with all of you.

...'I had an unexpected turn of events with my new "Go mobile" Smarter Agent system. I wrote an offer which was accepted on a home in Sharon, CT. My buyer clients are getting an absolutely incredible deal on a charming well cared for 1780 vintage home. After the inspections, the buyers were concerned about value based upon some issues they felt needed correction. On final decision day I met with the out of state buyers at the house (4th time) armed only with my Blackberry and knowledge of the current market. After lengthy discussions at the kitchen table I suggested to the buyers that we take a look at what's on the market right now around this house so could see for themselves, one more time, whether or not this was the best value.

I pulled out my phone, brought up my Smarter Agent branded web page, then displayed the current listings surrounding the house in list and map form. There were numerous homes less than 2 miles away with the vast majority of them being priced well in excess of not just my clients accepted price, but also the asking price. Then, with phone and surrounding market data in hand we got into the clients car and I drove them around past the other competitive listings (many of which they had already been through). Along the way we also past some multi-million dollar estates which the phone showed us were less than a mile away.

My clients were literally able to see the value of their purchase right in the palm of their hands. It was powerful. It was subtle. It literally saved my deal. The second deposit was Fed-Exed today. I never anticipated using this system for a situation like this. It was the cornerstone for this particular decision process.'

... 'Turnaround time for my "Go mobile" system set-up was only about 48 hours. That's branded website set-up, testing and all. Jennifer was highly customer service oriented, followed up and followed through. She was even double checking functionality for me this past Saturday moments before my meeting with these clients. I was nervous the application would not work in Sharon, CT - but it did!! She is a great asset to Smarter Agent and to our team.

In closing; Thank you Bill!! Thank you Kent!!! Thank you Joy and the Raveis Team behind the scenes!!! I truly appreciate the tools, the support, and the opportunities.

Jay Youmans
Broker Associate
Litchfield, CT Office

Congratulations Jay on a job well done! I can't wait to see what happens when you start distributing your branded application to your clients, and potential clients, putting yourself and all the listing information in their pockets, anytime anywhere! May your real estate knowledge and expertise, along with your branded Homes For Sale mobile application powered by Smarter Agent, bring you lots of "Call to See" action!

Last week, Smarter Agent exhibited once again at Inman Connect, this time in NYC. And let me tell you, when they say New York is the ‘city that never sleeps’ they weren’t kidding! Every day was filled with exhibiting, mingling, networking, and of course having fun! While there, we had the chance to meet so many new agents, brokers, and social media gurus. This is a show where people really “get” technology which allows us to have more in-depth conversations about our applications.

I must say, I have never seen so many iPhones in one place than at this show. Did I mention we also got to show off our new free iPhone application? Hands down, it had to be the biggest hit of the show. Real Estate by Smarter Agent is so easy to download and use, and pictures just look great! Everyone that downloaded the application played with it for at least an hour after. I am not an iPhone user, but using the application is seamless, simple, and most importantly FAST. Within seconds I could locate the closest properties for sale and find price, beds, baths, details, and pictures. This has to be the most efficient home search I ever conducted, and all in under a minute. I could even refine my search to find properties with the exact amount of bedrooms and bathrooms I need. It was great to know that when I’m ready to look at a property I just have to hit “Call to See” and I am instantly connected with a knowledgeable agent ready to help.

Overall, the show was a great success. A great buzz around our new application was created, and we got to make great new relationships as well as strengthen existing ones. There is truly no other city like New York and with the great group of people we were surrounded with, it was definitely a trip to remember.

To see what all the buzz is about, click here to download our free iPhone application: http://www.smarteragent.com/mobile/att/iphone.php

Don’t wait. Experience the mobile revolution now and join in on the conversation by writing your own review.

P.S. - The Blackberry download is free too!
http://www.smarteragent.com/index_blackberry.php

iPhone's Location-Aware Real Estate by Smarter Agent, the most comprehensive real estate mobile search, is now an approved iPhone application!

With Real Estate by Smarter Agent's iPhone application, you can find the closest properties for sale using GPS technology. No typing required! You can learn about the price, the number of beds and baths, read property descriptions, plot the property on an interactive map - even see multiple exterior and interior pictures!

Smarter Agent is much more detailed and comprehensive than other mobile applications. We are very proud of that.

Here's one reason why:

Because Smarter Agent has partnered with some of the top real estate brokers and agents around the country, you are able to see ALL of the publicly viewable local MLS listings in any market we cover. This is more information and listings than found in other mobile applications. And the information is updated at least once daily so you only see what's REALLY available.

Here's more information about the application and us:

Want to search somewhere you are not? Today you might be in Chicago and want to search for condos in Miami - no problem! You can customize your search to a specific area by entering in a neighborhood, address, city or zip code.

Don't take our word that this is a great application -- CTIA, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Aassociation, named Smarter Agent the best GPS application in the world, and we are happy to now make it available to you from the iPhone.

Mobile to human:

Let's say after months of tooling around, you are ready to actually take the next step and talk to a professional. With this application you can hit the "Call to See" button to reach a live real estate agent to ask questions or schedule an appointment to see inside the home.

Smarter Agent invented the GPS real estate search:

The application is so unique we've been granted 4 US patents: 6,385,541, 6,496,776, 7,072,665 and 7,457,628. No other mobile real estate application can claim that. Once you try it, you'll know why.

Try this version for free!

Download Real Estate by Smarter Agent's application now for instant access to all publically available MLS listing information directly from your personal iPhone.

Change the way you search for real estate as your iPhone becomes the ultimate search tool!

You can find the application in the iTunes store under Lifestyle or search for Smarter Agent.

Or simply download the location-aware Real Estate by Smarter Agent to your iPhone , by entering your information below:

Labels: GPS mobile, iPhone, mobile real estate, real estate, Smarter Agent

Our New Year's resolution is to post more often. To start that off, here are some links to blogs some members of our team have started:

http://activerain.com/blogs/sa_blog
http://www.realtown.com/Bayrin/blog/mobilemarketing
http://activerain.com/blogs/sajlevine

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2009!

Let's try to explain where we are:

For most of the last decade, this country could expect about 4.5-5.5 million existing homes sales, and 500k to 1 million new home sales by builders.

Call it 5.5 million homes sold in any given year.

Over the past 3 years that number went to almost 7.5 million, fueled in a large part by speculation, folks trading up faster, buying multiple properties.

Note: For real estate folks the end of 2008 is going to be a real bear, but we'll get back to 5M homes sold in 2009 - historical norms. With each year 1,000,000 new households are being formed, so the real estate market will have its sales. Homes p-r-i-c-e-s will be down 30% on average, but people have to move in the US and they will.

So let's keep tracking what happended to get us in financial turmoil.

In addition to housing speculation, put into the mix people using their new home equity - as homes prices rose - as piggy banks. Lines of credit to live beyound our means. Throw in all the credit card debt too and the american consumer has little in reserve to weather any slowdown in the economy-caused by that everyone has to slow down their own spending. Yes, that's how it works ;).

Now here's where it gets to become a crises:

Throw in lax mortgage underwriting, packaged as subprime, that fueled a large part of those extra 2 million housing sales.

Right there you have the making of an inflated housing market.

Add that Wall Street goosed returns by leveraging these subprime mortgages and sold them to investors as high yeld bonds, now selling for 30 cents on the dollar as the underlying fundamentals deteriorated. That was part of the Lehman blow-up.

Add more...that the government got involved in giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a "social purpose" instead of a pure ecomomic one, and you have a failed securitization engine. That means if they got people into homes that couldn't really afford them, these securitization firms got more $ without penalty. They blew up next.

Here's one of the more damaging moves...then the government said that banks, who could in the past only could invest in US Treasuries, could now invest in preferred Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock. This also goosed bank returns. This is where additional banking pain is being felt. My own mid-sized regional bank has over $600 million in now worthless Fannie Mae stock. Now you have the duel real estate/banking crises - a nice chunk of GDP now whimpering.

ADD to all this... that corporate borrowing was propping up many of our "leading" firms, like the auto industry, and guess what, this 3 year party, built on over a decade of excess -- is now unravelling. And the insurance industry, tied to many of these ills through the wrongful investment of your premium payments (see the next section about credit derivatives to learn what brought down AIG) is being pulled in as well.

Is this a great country. Yes. We will get back in gear. Yes. Will it take 3 years. Maybe.

The interesting part is while everything is unwinding, there is still a leg wobbiling that could make things worse, yes worse in the next 1-6 months. Something I really just learned about - the credit derivative market.

Here is a summary from an AP story this week:

".....in a letter to shareholders, billionaire investor Warren Buffett followed with his own warning, calling derivatives “weapons of financial mass destruction” controlled by “madmen.” While financial experts were concerned with the housing bubble and mortgage-backed securities, Buffett was focused on what many now believe may be the next big shoe to drop - the credit derivatives market, better known as credit default swaps. What worries financial insiders most is the $54.6 trillion of risky credit derivatives concentrated among the few banks left standing. Credit default swaps (CDS) are the cornerstone of the credit derivatives market accounting for more than 98 percent of all credit derivatives. They are difficult to understand, ignored by regulators and poorly reported on balance sheets. In simplest terms, CDS are insurance policies on things like bonds, loans and corporate debt. But there are two big differences: the seller of a CDS doesn’t need to have the money to cover losses if the security defaults, and the buyer doesn’t need to own the asset it wants to protect. It’s as if hundreds of people could buy insurance policies on houses they didn’t own yet still collect the full value if it burns down. The danger comes when the company defaults and the seller - because he’s not required to - doesn’t have the money to pay out on the default. Investment firms that traded various derivatives, such as CDS, collected an average of $2 billion in fees each quarter over the past two years. And traders who spoke to CBS News said these transactions were the largest cash cows on Wall Street, even more profitable than mortgages. The newfangled transactions were seen as easy money and many traders had the attitude that when it blows up, it’s someone else’s problem. Today, the same commercial banking heavyweights thought to be the most safe, JPMorgan, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America, hold 92 percent of all the disclosed credit derivative contracts, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. "

That does not seem like a happy ending in the short term. More bailouts, will equal more pain, slower recovery. But it all resolves over time, that you can bet on.

In the meantime, try Smarter Agent to look for your next home or apartment. A whole new real estate search and marketing channel will emerge in 2009 putting agents and consumers in touch via a new medium (mobile) in much the same way the Internet did starting in 1999. It's built by us, at www.smarteragent.com. We invented the mobile real estate location-aware (GPS) search and have 4 granted patents.

Labels: real estate market analysis. mobile GPS real estate

Smarter Agent starts the lauch of a multi-carrier, multi-device, multi-operating system roll-out of its Home for Sale application...we start with close to 100 cellphones, and soon Blackberry and iPhones, and other carriers.


Nation’s leading real estate brokers enter red-hot mobile space in a big way via Smarter Agent

Any consumer can turn their cell phone into a house-seeking real estate finder

Smarter Agent’s Homes for Sale mobile search launches today, accessible to over 50 million AT&T and Sprint customers on 80 different cell phone models.

Over 99% of all mobile location-aware real estate activity is now powered by Smarter Agent. Smarter Agent is the only carrier approved, on-deck mobile search – meaning it has gone through significant security and usability testing to be chosen to be on the carrier (AT&T, Sprint) deck.

Smarter Agent delivers accurate and up-to-the-minute home sale information to a consumer’s cell phone.

What is seismic for the real estate industry, and what differentiates Homes for Sale from other mobile real estate applications, is the comprehensive nature of Smarter Agent’s platform:

More listings: This information is delivered from the country’s top brokerage firms, including cooperative access to their multiple listing (IDX) data feeds. This means just about every home for sale in a particular market can now be viewed by any consumer.
Reaches more consumers: Smarter Agent is already on more cell phones than most mobile applications of any kind. It works, elegantly and simply. Smarter Agent invented and patented the location-aware mobile GPS real estate search. Over the next 100 days, Smarter Agent will launch on every carrier, operating system, and just about every mobile device including iPhones, Blackberries and Android.

Where to get it, now
Smarter Agent can be downloaded:
from a consumer’s cell phone via AT&T’s Media Mall,
from a consumer’s cell phone via Sprint’s Get New area,
from www.SmarterAgent.com

If GPS is available on the consumer’s cell phone, Smarter Agent instantly turns the cell phone into a GPS-triggered real estate finder. This means with just one click, all of the local listings are immediately returned—no typing required! Should the consumer’s cell phone not contain inherent GPS, Smarter Agent also works on all non-GPS enabled devices with a simple to use interface that initiates the search.

Smarter Agent instantly returns all publically allowable information on a property, such as sales price, taxes, beds/baths, square footage, interior and exterior property descriptions—even pictures! Mapping capabilities also let the user see where they are in relation to the homes. And a button reading “Call to See” routes the user directly to the Broker/Agent Partner, who can show the home.

To provide consumers with the best and most accurate home listing information, Smarter Agent has partnered with premier brokerages across the country, whose combined sales in the past twelve months exceeds $125 billion.

The following is a sampling of Partners:

Prudential Fox & Roach in Philadelphia
William Raveis Realty in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
Prudential Georgia Realty in Atlanta
Prudential California Realty in Northern California
Real Estate One in Michigan
Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston in Raleigh, NC
Prudential Carolinas in North and South Carolina
Prudential Douglas Elliman in New York City, Long Island and the Hamptons
Prudential Network Realty in Jacksonville, FL
Weichert Lead Network in New Jersey
Luxury Realty Group in Las Vegas, NV
Laffey and Associates in Long Island, NY
Century 21 Sussex and Reilly in Chicago, IL
RE/MAX Professionals in Denver, CO
Prudential Palms Realty in Sarasota, FL
Prudential Preferred Realty PA in Pittsburgh, PA
RE/MAX Allegiance in Baltimore, MD, Washington D.C., Richmond, VA and Northern Virginia
Tomlinson Real Estate Group in Washington and Idaho
The Keyes Company in Southeastern Florida

Also adding to this tony real estate mix is RealEstate.com who will run a channel in the Smarter Agent Homes for Sale portal of nearly two million real estate listings in over 80 markets.

Dependent on your carrier, Homes for Sale costs between $2.99 and $4.99 per month for unlimited usage, billed directly to your carrier bill.

For more information, or to conduct interviews with leading local brokerage launch partners in your local market, please contact Carrie Johnson at (856) 614-5423.

# # #

About Smarter Agent (www.smarteragent.com)
Smarter Agent® combines mobile location technology, such as GPS, with information about real estate and neighborhoods around you. Smarter Agent is the inventor of the mobile location-triggered real estate search -- and has been granted four patents. By delivering location-relevant content to mobile devices, consumers can learn, interact and transact with the world around them as never before possible. Smarter Agent was named BEST GPS Application by the CTIA (Cellular Telecom Industry Association), BEST COMMERCE Application at Navteq Global GPS Challenges in the US and Europe, and has been featured as a leader in mobile innovation at Dow Jones and DEMO conferences.

Labels: GPS mobile, mobile LBS, mobile marketing; mobile advertising; location advertising, mobile real estate, Smarter Agent

Here are some conferences where we are exhibiting or are on panels -- if you want to catch up with us:

Wireless:
Stevens Institute, LBS Event, Hoboken NJ May 12
NJTC Mobile , Mt. Laurel, NJ May 15
Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic (Philadelphia), May 19
MIT LBS Forum, June
CTIA, April

Real Estate:
NAR MidYear, Washington DC May 13-16
June 25-28 The National Apartment Association Convention & Expo (Orlando, FL)
July 23-25 Inman Connect San Francisco '08
Sept 7-10 Maryland State Association Convention (Ocean City, MD)
Sept 8-11 Texas State Association Convention (San Antonio, TX)
Sept 24-25 Florida State Association Convention (Lake Buena Vista, FL)
Oct 5-7 North Carolina State Association (Charlotte, NC)
Oct 14-18 California State Association Convention (Long Beach, CA)
Nov 7-10 NAR Annual Convention & Expo (Orlando, FL)
Dec 9-11 Triple Play Convention (Atlantic City, NJ)

Labels: conferences

We are excited and proud that Pete Distler has become our partner. As we continue to build momentum in the mobile space, how we monetize our traffic for our real estate, distribution, carrier and local neighborhood partners is key. Pete is the best person in the country to lead this effort. Pete was the person behind creating and executing the first mobile media network while at Sprint.

We will announce this, with a release that goes something like this:

Mobile advertising gets focused on the $100 billion spent when people move.

Smarter Agent has developed the mobile industry’s first vertical search application focused on bringing a slice of the $11 billion real estate advertising market to mobile devices.

With Smarter Agent, brands can reach consumers when they are in a particular neighborhood searching for homes and apartments via Smarter Agent with GPS accuracy giving new meaning to the real estate maxim: location, location, location.

To lead this effort, Pete Distler joins Smarter Agent as its new President of the Smarter Agent Media Network. Pete Distler built and ran the first carrier mobile media network deployed in the United States.
# # #
In 2008, $11 billion in advertising will be spent to attract the attention of homebuyers and apartment renters. Surprised at the size of that number? Marketers aren’t. Even in a slow real estate market Americans are constantly on the move.

Many times a move surrounds a life changing event: a new job, marriage, growing families or that second vacation home. Indeed, 1 out of 3 renters and 1 out of 12 homeowners will move this year – and they will spend more than $100 billion on related goods and services.

Real estate is a huge market - where “location, location, location” still rules the day
Smarter Agent patented the GPS real estate search and operates carrier approved mobile real estate applications. With Smarter Agent, consumers can search anywhere in the United States for rentals using Apartments for Rent, past sales data using the Recent Sales application --- and next month for active listings using the Homes for Sale application from their cell phones – in many cases utilizing GPS!

Smarter Agent is now able to offer advertisers a hyper local channel to target movers.
More money is spent buying goods and services when a person moves than at any other period in their lifetime. Think about it: The last time you moved you probably visited a home improvement store, bought new furniture, changed banks, got insurance, picked a new cable and internet service -- and started new relationships with local businesses from restaurants to drugstores to supermarkets. With Smarter Agent, advertisers can already begin this relationship with their new neighbors.

Leading this advertising effort, Pete Distler joins Smarter Agent as President of its Media Network this week.
Mr. Distler created the first carrier advertising while working at Sprint, and introduced many brands and agencies to the new emerging world of mobile advertising. “In looking at the mobile advertising landscape, Smarter Agent offers one of the most thoughtful approaches to give brands the most bang for the buck in mobile advertising”, noted Mr. Distler.

Mr. Distler added, “While searching for what’s for sale or what’s for rent consumers can learn about local retailers - and offers from them - as they search in the neighborhood. When a person moves they spend more than they will on products and services than at any other time in their lives. Now they can get this information from a device they carry with them at all times – their cell phone. Because they are highly relevant, mobile location-aware ads are exciting and useful content for consumers as they review local home and apartment listings”.

Labels: mobile marketing; mobile advertising; location advertising

Things are busy at Smarter Agent.
Here are some items that happened this month and last, January - February 2008.

• Smarter Agent closed an oversubscribed $6.2 million funding round a few weeks ago. Some great investor partners are now part of Smarter Agent and we are honored to have them. We are working in overdrive to create value for them, our customers and partners.
• This week, Smarter Agent Apartments for Rent went live on AT&T.
• Our branded mobile GPS application for real estate agents and brokers, that we introduced at the National Association for Realtors (NAR) annual convention, made more headway at the Coldwell Banker, Century 21 and ERA conferences in Orlando this week. You can catch us live at the Prudential annual conference in New Orleans in March, and at the NAR mid-year conference in May in DC. Agents who have an interest in this product can call us at 800-727-1787. You can see a demo on our YouTube site.
• We will be in the Qualcomm booth at CTIA in April in Las Vegas, further demonstrating our value to the new LBS ecosystem. At CES in January we were again honored to be in the Navteq booth, and also to be named a LBS innovator by TeleAtlas, who also gave us floor time in their booth.
• We are scrambling to hire mobile programmers and build-out our sales team. For those smarter and fearless animals looking for a great opportunity - please consider us as a place to put your mojo to work.
• Thanks to the team at Smarter Agent. You folks are the hardest working and coolest group the Philly region has seen in a long time.

Labels: Cell phone, GPS mobile, mobile LBS, mobile real estate, real estate agent, Smarter Agent

ONE
For Apartment Owners:
Upload your Apartments for Rent - FREE. beta
If you own an apartment, you can post its availability for FREE. You post it, and than SWOOSH...the listing is instantly available to people looking for apartments via Smarter Agent on mobile phones!

The calls go right to you.

Learn more here.

TWO
For real estate brokers, and agents:
Create your own mobile phone real estate search.
Email us at: yourbrand [at] smarteragent.com, or start here. 200 brokers and agents signed-up the first day we showed this product to a select audience at the NAR annual convention in November. We are doing another sneak peak at TRIPLE PLAY convention in Atlantic City the first week in December.

THREE
Ira Lubert is now an equity owner in Smarter Agent. Ira is Chairman of the largest equity fund group in the Philadelphia region with real estate and technology interests. Mike Carter of The Musser Group and Howard Lubert of SafeHatch also joined our Board and have equity interests in the company. The introduction was made by our friend Paul Soult.

Labels: apartments, GPS, mobile real estate, Smarter Agent

I am often asked my opinion of the real estate market.

Stephen Bedikan is a real estate analyst. His piece that I read on Inman news, is copied below.

I suggest you take Stephen's outlook to base your buying and selling and investment decisions.

"The long boom in the real estate market attracted many people into the industry, with the National Association of Realtors' ranks growing to more than 1 million members. Because the upcycle lasted for 10-15 years in many markets, hundreds of thousands of agents have not experienced a significant down market.

By looking at down markets in the late '80s and early '90s, we can make some observations on past real estate declines.

Price declines are relatively shallow. During most downturns, prices tend to decline in the range of 3-6 percent annually with cumulative declines of less than 20 percent. Los Angeles was the exception in recent history, experiencing a cumulative decline of more than 27 percent. Compare this with the NASDAQ index, which was over 5,000 at the height of the dot-com boom in 2000 and is still at only 2,791 seven years later. Of course, because houses are a highly leveraged purchase, a percentage decline even in the teens can eliminate your equity entirely if you bought too close to the market peak.

Down markets can be lengthy. Market observers frequently say that the market will turn up "next year." This is often wishful thinking. Past downturns have persisted for a number of years, not just one or two. Real estate markets are often characterized as "sticky downwards." That is, when home sellers don't get the price they want, they opt to take their properties off the market and wait. While this behavior may cushion the downturn in prices short term, it tends to extend the duration of a market correction.

The big picture matters. Most downturns are a manifestation of larger economic conditions. Generally a national or local recession with substantial job losses drives real estate corrections. The current downturn in Detroit has been the most severe of any major market because of auto industry-related job losses. Many real estate markets declined during the national recession of the first Bush presidency in the early '90s. In the case of the Los Angeles market decline, the downturn was extended and deepened by an earthquake and race riots.

Market	Downturn Start Date	Duration (months)	Cumulative % Price Decline	Average Annual % Price Decline
Los Angeles	Jun-90	67	-27.1%	-4.9%
San Diego	Jul-90	68	-17.2%	-3.0%
Boston	Jul-88	43	-16.7%	-4.7%
New York	Sep-88	31	-15.5%	-6.0%
Detroit	Dec-05	19	-12.4%	-7.8%

Source: S&P Case Shiller National Price Index

So what does this mean for real estate professionals in the current downturn? Be prepared for the weak market to last a fairly long time.

In our view, prices are likely to continue to decline by low- to mid-single-digit percentages annually for the several years in the high-cost markets that had the greatest run-up. The wildcard is a recession. If that happens, we will take another downward lurch before we gradually settle to a bottom and begin the upcycle again.

Stephen Bedikian is a partner at Real IQ, which provides consulting and housing market analysis. He can be reached by phone at: (310) 871-3737 or by e-mail: sbedikian@realiq.com. Or contact him via his blog at http://realiq.wordpress.com/.

Labels: real estate market analysis

The first event for Mobile Monday Mid-Atlantic is set for

Website: http://www.momo-ma.com/

Labels: mobile monday; philadelphia technology

We're orgainizing a Mobile Monday program to be held once a month in Philly. Regional and national speakers will key us in to what's hot in the mobile space - and those of us in Philly interested in all things mobile can network, drink cocktails and create a dynamic community. Interested in helping out, sponsoring to get the ear of both established and up and coming mobile firms, and/or becoming a media partner -- shoot an email to info [at] smarteragent.com - until we get the website up.

Places we'll be...

This Thursday (May 17), I'll be on a panel at the Wireless Evolution Expo: The Next Great Idea. This event will take place at Stevens Institute's Babbio Center, home of the University's Howe School of Technology Management.

Eric Blumberg will be speaking at BREW 2007 at the end of June, his panel is "What's next for LBS after Navigation". Those Qualcomm folks throw a big party.

Places we were...

Had a nice lunch with Steve Smith one of my favorite new media authors. Very perceptive thinker, and he's starting to cover more mobile through his column with OMMA.

Eric had a nice time in San Fran, talking with wireless carriers from the US and abroad, and we're gearing up for some international launches of Smarter Agent.

Did not have much time at CTIA in Orlando last month.

Smarter Agent was showcased in the Navteq and Sprint booth, and I spent a few hours there.

The funniest thing I saw was the CEO of one of the navigation companies asking for directions at a hotel. Of course I busted on him, he's a nice guy. My wife and I still shell out $9.99 each per month to have his company's voice turn by turn navigation on our cell phones. And that sums up the state of the LBS industry...the industry is just getting started, there are good app's that work on carriers, and Smarter Agent is one of the few launched. It's all about building them out, adding content, testing and experimenting. Nothing like using the app in the field, like the nav CEO, to know you have to keep upgrading the experience.

The other thing that struck me is that the carreirs customer service could learn a lot from Disney customer serivce. I brought the kids and we stayed at a Disney hotel. Those folks are all about how can I solve your issue, problem, etc. How can I make you smile. Not about rules, etc.

Overall, there are a few good summaries about the show. Here's one from Cheetan Sharma if you are interested:

Mobile Advertising As expected, the hottest theme out of this CTIA was Mobile Advertising. The pre-event seminar on the subject was packed with discussions and viewpoints from all parts of the value chain. The involvement of agencies was refreshing. They can help guide the industry by articulating the needs of the brands and agencies in an overall advertising framework, develop standards, and not develop point solutions that won’t scale beyond MDF campaigns. But they are keenly aware of mobile and reported positive results from their tests for some big brands. David Rittenhouse from Ogilvy noted that Lenova experienced 188% lift (n=1495) in awareness from a mobile ad campaign. Third Screen reported up to 7.5% click rates on its network. Still missing were Internet players like Google and Yahoo. Vendor driven standardization processes are not very productive and take too long to become meaningful. Since, mobile advertising is the most buzzable topic in the industry right now; companies are adjusting their positioning to become mobile advertising players (akin to becoming Web 2.0 compliant). There was some debate whether off-deck impression is worth more than an on-deck impression. CPMs are a bit out of whack and will need to drop and stabilize. Premium CPMs range from $27-35 going as high as $60. User profile is of course the holy grail of mobile advertising. Visa demonstrated that mobile advertisements isn’t really limited to messaging, keyword auction, and banner ads, but also includes promotions that drop in your applications based on your transaction history. Can carriers stop them from running this downloadable app on the device? They are running some trials to find that out. Code/Image-based advertising is also picking up – Qcode, NFC, barcodes, pictures, etc as input to trigger content/ad delivery is making its way to the US.

Amongst the various enablers (that I was able to talk to and look at), The Hyperfactory has the most comprehensive view of the space and it shows in their campaigns. Not only cross carriers and cross handsets, but also cross modality and cross countries. Mobile Advertising needs to seamlessly fit in the overall digital strategy of a brand or else there will be too much friction. GSM association has taken some lead in helping define standards in this space. MMA is also updating its best practice guide though it needs to do more to expand in its vision. Companies that made their presence felt were Third Screen Media, Ad Infuse, Millennial Media, Yahoo, Smaato, Mindmatics, Bango, Medio, JumpTap, Blyk, Admob, iLoopMobile, GreyStripe, Enpocket, and Rhythm.

Not to be outdone, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola were also showing some future mobile advertising concepts that allow for cross medium advertising. For e.g. purchasing or activating advertising subsidized content on one device (like mobile) and viewing on another (like IPTV) and the experience is subsidized and interstitialized with advertisements.
Note: As some of you know, we have been involved in helping players in the value chain with mobile advertising strategy for the past two years. Well, we are now writing the book on it, literally! A collaboration with two brilliant co-authors and to be published by a major publisher; this book on Mobile Advertising will explore the key elements that will make mobile advertising tick. If you know of interesting case studies or people we should talk to, please do let us know. Check out our two part series on the subject published in Wireless World Magazine. Track the progress and become part of the conversation and the book at http://www.chetansharma.com/blog/category/mobile-advertising

Mobile TV. With Mediaflo’s launch, the discussion in the US has changed from unicast/multicast to broadcast. With Cingular and Verizon adopting Mediaflo, it is hard to see DVB-H’s future in the US. Spent some time with Dr. Kamil Grajski, Chairman of the FLO forum. FLO’s advantage comes from better channel switching time and slightly better spectrum efficiency. The goal is to pursue individual partnerships by geography that fuses spectrum, technology, and content. KDDI partnership is such an example. The quality is very impressive and the user experience raises the bar. With the introduction of clipcasting that enables some personalized content filtering on the device (e.g. Entire NASDAQ quotes are streamed but only your portfolio is displayed), broadcast can extract more value from the spectrum. Though Mediaflo has an edge, the future beyond the US shores is tough. Majority of Europe is going to go to DVB-H and similar standards. But, the potential customers are not only cellular operators but also include cable and satellite operators. Companies looking for Triple and Quad play strategies will have to come up with their mobile Broadcast strategy in the next couple of years. While Mobile TV has been in the headlines for some time, the penetration in the US remains quite low – around 2% and represents less than $350M revenue in 2006 (European trends are similar). For the opportunity to scale, pricing and business models will need to be adjusted to market realities. Mobile TV has been around in Japan and Korea for a longer duration and has reached critical mass penetration. Unicast becomes expensive if the usage gets into double digits because pricing pressure doesn’t allow for monetizing by the MB. Broadcast becomes the natural solution but it is limited by spectrum, less interactivity, and lack of handsets in the short-term. Clearly, hybrid models will continue to exist for the foreseeable future. For broadcast, it is about the spectrum first and the technology second.

Near Field Communication (NFC) VISA has been running NFC trials around the country for some time with VISA credit cards (30K) and POS terminals (50K). The goal is to do NFC on the phone. VISA also released numbers from their NA survey (n=800) – 57% interested, 64% of Gen X/Y will consider switching carriers and credit card for mobile payment capability, by 5:1, consumers prefer to have charges on their credit card bill rather than their phone bill. The first generation of NFC phones is hitting the US market later this year. Kyocera demonstrated buying from a vending machine, downloading content, and doing internet transactions using an NFC-enabled prototype handset. It also had a biometric fingerprint sensor. Korea and Japanese market have been using phone as a wallet for some time (e.g. DoCoMo’s FeliCa) and it will be great to see such enhancements in Europe and North America. There is a demand for such solutions, Visa is providing leadership, and hopefully, the ecosystem will step up. Last year, in US, $7.2Trillion dollars worth of consumer financial transactions took place. Taking a small cut of this pie will be a big deal. Enabler to watch – Ecrio.

Mobile Search Google and Yahoo announced their next release of mobile/local search. Google’s attempts at mobile search remind me of Microsoft’s early attempts to build an OS for mobile phones. I thought AskMeNow’s semantic search was pretty good though they are still working on indexing which can take a long time due to understanding content. With the recent purchases of BeVocal and TellMe, voice is getting its due attention. V-enable showed their local 411 app and Nuance talked about voice-enabled music search. Voice has become an integral part of any mobile search (and ad) strategy.

Interesting handsets While the industry is waiting for the June launch of iPhone, several new concepts and phones emerged at the show. Hopefully, NA operators got inspired from the handsets available in Asia and will bring some of that experience here. Samsung launched its dual-faced Ultra. While, it is a first for the industry, the user experience left lot to be desired, the Sharp touch UI is confusing. DoCoMo had the best selection on display. Flipstart is launching a $2000 which has full PC running on it. It does have some clever user experience enhancements that make the usability acceptable but I am not sure if the price point will hold in the market where you can find an equally powerful laptop for half the price.

User Interface Apple’s iPhone has raised the bar on device user experience. Zenzui announced their UX technology (based on Microsoft IP) that takes us away from the boring menu-based navigation schemes. Punchcut showed what’s possible utilizing the idle screen. Flipstart had some clever UX enhancements that I hope can get integrated into other forms of computing. Biometric sensors also surprisingly prove to be a good navigation element, better than 5 key dial and even iPOD dial.

Simplicity EMI’s Nicoli had emphasized on simplicity of applications and services. AT&T's COO Randall Stephenson echoed similar sentiments. It is a no-brainer, right? So, why do we make things inherently complex and hard-to-use? Hasn’t Apple taught us enough? Ontela’s mobile imaging platform is following on Apple’s footsteps. The technology allows you to take the picture and store it on any other device or destination within 30-60 seconds. No user intervention. It just works.

GYM is in the house It was the first CTIA with Google and Yahoo having their own booths, announcing their arrival. Their presence was telling of the battles to come. Microsoft has been coming to the show for some time but primarily to show their devices and talk about enterprise (email) applications.

LBS and Telematics There were a number of firms talking about telematics or navigation on the phone or devices for your car. Navteq, TeleAtlas, TeleNav, Inrix, Pharos, Kore, deCarta, and many others displayed their wares. On the consumer side, navigation is getting embedded into Local search apps which are enhancing the user experience quite a bit. FindIt and Google Maps are two examples. TCS is working on a framework for LBS based mobile advertising that allows carriers and users to control location availability to applications, something I wrote about back in 2001. Sprint’s has raised the bar by opening the APIs for developers and loosening the pricing friction. GSM operators are awaiting the arrival of OMA compliant phones. European carriers are targeting Christmas 2007 to launch several OMA SUPL devices while US will see such devices from Cingular next year. The best navigation was from Churchill Navigation which gives you a bird’s eye view in a fun-interactive experience.

WiMax. Sprint showed some potential launch devices for their WiMax service. Initially, the focus is limited to data cards and UMPCs. There will be restrictions on data usage and the move to handset form factor devices is uncertain. Samsung showed video conferencing at 12fps and VoIP on WiMax devices (PDA form factor). Since Intel put a boat load of money into Clearwire and Sprint’s endorsement, WiMax industry has been surging ahead but long-term viability is still not certain, how fast will device pricing drop?

China While China can’t make up its mind on TD-SCDMA, Chinese manufacturers are increasingly competing with the big boys, the handset rollouts and infrastructure wins are a testament to that. They should just let go of their obsession with TD-SCDMA, there are plenty of opportunities for their manufacturers. Canada, Finland, Taiwan, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Korea, and UK also had Intl pavilions.

The ecosystem friction The mobile data ecosystem tension is bubbling up. It was highlighted in the first session of the conference – Jim Ryan (Cingular) vs. Larry Shapiro (Disney) well moderated by Tom Wheeler (past CTIA President). Carriers want control (some more than others) so that they can manage user experience and minimize customer support calls. Content companies want to bypass the carrier and go direct to the consumer. Things are improving but not at the pace everyone would like it to be. This debate is not going away. Perhaps, CTIA can demonstrate some leadership in kicking-off some content interoperability (and treat ad as content) initiatives.

Labels: CTIA, GPS, mobile LBS, Smarter Agent

Come visit us at CTIA 2007 in Orlando. Give us a call if you want to meet.

Smarter Agent will be in Orlando Monday-Thursday March 26-29.

We are in the Navteq booth the entire convention, as well as will spend a hour or two a day at a station in the SPRINT booth.

We are also a Finalist in the Navteq LBS Challenge, so will be at the cocktail party Wednesday afternoon when they announce the winners.

We also have an entry in the CTIA Emerging Technology awards (we won last year), and our board will be on exhibit at the show.

Here's a research blurb from API:

ABI Research Sees a Mobile Content Goldrush at 3GSM, as WCDMA Clocks 100 Million Subscribers
Friday February 16, 9:35 am ET

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--At the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona, it was possible to hear a whistling noise as the mobile operators scrambled past each other to reach mobile content providers, and it is not hard to find out why. Data-heavy mobile content services will be key to their future success.

ABI Research is releasing two Research Briefs, "Mobile Operator Performance Benchmarks, 4Q-2006" and "Global Wireless Subscriber Dynamics, 4Q-2006" that track the latest developments in the global mobile marketplace. "As of the end of 4Q-2006, there were over 100 million WCDMA subscribers around the world," said Asia-Pacific research director Jake Saunders. "The WCDMA subscriber sector is moving particularly fast, growing 102% YoY and 16.6% QoQ."

3G subscribers are providing a much-needed shot in the arm for mobile operators, because they deliver an average revenue per user (ARPU) that is 5% to 20% percent greater than the average...."Non-voice now represents between 15% and 29% of operator service revenue, depending on the market. Of that, mobile Internet downloads and data now contribute a very respectable 3% to 17% of total service revenue. Operators are striving to lock down entertainment content, including not only broadcast network syndicated shows, but also user-created material that enables an operator to differentiate itself and reduce churn.

The amount of traffic an operator carries is about to explode, and within seven years the majority of the traffic carried will be data-orientated (music, video streaming, messages, enterprise applications and more). Handling that traffic efficiently will then become the new challenge for operators.

News…

In Barcelona today, at the 3GSM conference ( http://3gsmworldcongress.com/index.asp )
Smarter Agent won the BUSINESS category at the Oscars of GPS/LBS- the Navteq Global LBS Challenge. http://www.lbschallenge.com/eu/judges.html

Smarter Agent receives 5000 euros plus over $100,000 in mapping and hosting licenses.
Judges included those from British Telecom, Orange and Sony. noted

Yahoo Tech News writer Judith Raskin.
She saw a real demo. Sse also lives in NYC. Here is what she has to say about Smarter Agent.

A Phone App for Real Estate Fanatics
Mon Jan 22, 2007 12:02PM EST

In New York, where I live, real estate is second only to the weather on the buzz meter. So naturally, I was tickled to see the first mobile app for real estate mavens, Smarter Agent.

At the moment, Smarter Agent is available as a downloadable application from Sprint/Nextel. You pay a monthly service fee. Because it uses Sprint's built-in GPS service, Smarter Agent is what's come to be called "location-based." You'll be able to walk down the street and press a button on your phone. The phone will know where you are and start cluing you in about real estate: what's been sold or is available in the area, price, floor plans, taxes, and more. If you've seen Zillow, it's similar, but the phone-sized version.

See a home with a FOR SALE sign and want to find out the scoop? Know you want to rent an apartment close to your office? Afraid of paying yesterday's prices in today's market? In the business and looking for the inside edge?

At the moment there three different variants of the Smarter Agent service:
Recent Sales: A Java app that gets data from various public records and costs about $5 a month.

Apartment Finder: This will launch at the end of the month for $3 a month. (The company founders say that real estate season kicks in when the Super Bowl ends.)

Homes for Sale: Launches this spring for $10.99 a month.

I had a demo of the recent sales application. The interface looks like a cross between a mapping program and a classified ad. It's easy to navigate and surfaces a lot of information. In my conversation with Eric and Brad Blumberg, the two brothers who founded the service after successful careers in real estate, they told me that the U.S. is a mobile country. "Forty million people move each year," said Eric. Most people shop for 18 months before buying a home, and one-third of all existing apartment renters move every year (that's 12 million apartments). That could be a lot of people who want a Smarter Agent in their pocket.