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Labels: apps, Cell phone, gps search, mobile apps, mobile real estate, Smarter Agent

BlackBerry Storm users - the wait is over! This week, Smarter Agent launched its free, location-aware real estate app on the Storm.

This new version of our BlackBerry app not only features our flagship search "Homes for Sale" which let's you search all publicly viewable listings in more than 300 markets nationwide, but if you check out the image to the left you'll see an additional search option is included in this app - "Recently Sold" so you can see the prices of homes that sold within the last three years.

With the Storm, the GPS Quick Search feature will pinpoint your location and find all property listings around you. Or, you can always use Smarter Agent's other convenient search options to find homes based on address, community name, city and zip code. Plus, our refine search will narrow down results based on property type, distance, price range, and beds/baths.

Here's what you can expect to see in Smarter Agent's upgraded app:
-A graphically dynamic interface with icons for every command
-More Powerful GPS capabilities
-"Recently Sold Homes" data
-Option to SMS text a property listing to a friend
-Screen adjustment for landscape view

This enhanced version is also available for all other BlackBerry devices (but only the Storm gets the landscape view, sorry). GPS search capabilities are dependent on your device and carrier.

To search all Homes for Sale and Recently Sold Homes on your BlackBerry with the new and improved version, text TRY to 87778. You'll receive a message with a link to begin the download process. I did mention it's free, right?

Labels: apps, BlackBerry, BlackBerry Storm, mobile, real estate, Smarter Agent

It was standing-room only for the panel "Mobile App Development for Real Estate" at Inman's Real Estate Connect SF '09.

Smarter Agent's President/CTO Eric Blumberg was invited to be on the panel along with Sasha Aickin, Engineering Manager for Redfin and Jim Secord, President & COO of Kurio. The workshop was moderated by the Co-Founder of W&R Studios Dan Woolley.

Inman News writer Matt Carter published a story to recap the session entitled, "Do mobile apps right, or not at all."


Carter's article quoted Eric Blumberg using one of his favorite analogies in his panel presentation:

"If you only put an iPhone app out, it's like saying I'm only going to sell to people who drive a Mercedes."

Of the 270 million cell phone users in the U.S., only about 7 million have an iPhone.

Maybe it's time you incorporated a mobile solution that reaches everyone with a cell phone. That's Smarter Agent's philosophy.

Labels: apps, Inman, mobile, Real Estate Connect, Smarter Agent

Connect SF '09 starts Wednesday! More than 1,500 people are expected to attend Inman's annual conference Real Estate Connect in San Francisco Aug. 5th - Aug. 7th.

Smarter Agent's President/CTO Eric Blumberg was selected to speak on the panel, "Mobile App Development for Real Estate," as part of the newly added ConnectTech workshop Wednesday morning. ConnectTech was designed for technology officers, developers, entrepreneurs and product managers to "talk tech."

Smarter Agent is also honored to be an Innovator Award Finalist. Our branded mobile real estate application is up for Most Innovative New Technology.

For Connect SF updates, follow @sa_jen and @smarteragent_ss on Twitter.
Or check out Inman's Social Media Dashboard.

Labels: app, Inman, mobile, real estate, Real Estate Connect, Smarter Agent

Some of the most vocal bloggers in the real estate industry are weighing in on Smarter Agent's mobile real estate app.

See what they have to say:

Agent Genius

Bloodhound Blog

The San Diego Home Blog by Kris Berg

You can also click here to view more comments and success stories on our Testimonials page.

Labels: Cell phone, mobile, real estate, Smarter Agent, smartphones

According to a recent report released by Strategy Analytics, GPS smartphone shipments will grow from 57 million in 2008 to 77 million in 2009. You can either pay $7,000 for this full report or get the gist below. And yes, that is our intern Nick loading Smarter Agent's real estate app on a BlackBerry inside a BlackBerry. Just a little Photoshop fun.

The report indicates there are two main reasons to explain why GPS smartphone volumes will increase 34% worldwide in a year:

1). Widespread acceptance of portable navigation devices in Europe and the U.S.

2). Increasing presence of mapping applications (Like Smarter Agent's location-aware real estate app! That's not in the report-it's just our 2 cents.)

Nokia is the global leader in GPS enabled smartphones. But the report says Research in Motion and Apple are starting to close in. See the article on FierceWireless for more details on the report and quotes from Strategy Analytics.

Here’s the first GPS Smartphone with a mobile real estate search built by Smarter Agent’s founders in 1999.

This is an early version circa 2000 Brad and Eric Blumberg created to find properties in Philly. Check out the size of that antenna!

Smarter Agent has come a long way. Our premium mobile real estate search now works on 95% of cell phones. Click here to see the devices we support and to download Smarter Agent.

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

Smarter Agent's upgraded iPhone app offers great, new features to make your real estate search even easier!

Real Estate by Smarter Agent offers:

* New search flow
* Increased speed and stability
* Ability to share properties with friends via text or email
* Ability to save images with favorites
* Integrated Map View and Map-Based Search
* More data details on properties
* Increased coverage area for searches
* Enhanced Picture View

In a neighborhood you like? Smarter Agent will use your iPhone to pinpoint your GPS location and find what’s for sale in your immediate area. Select a property from the search results to see price information, the number of beds/baths, square footage, interior and exterior features, pictures and more. Map the results to see the surrounding area and get directions to each listing.

If you want to search somewhere you’re not, Smarter Agent will take you there. Customize your real estate search by entering an address, community name, city or zip code.

You can also refine your search based on property type, number of beds/baths, and your price range.

When you’re ready to take the next step and schedule a tour of the property, the “Call to See” button will connect you to a real estate professional.

The “Broker Reciprocity” logo at the bottom of the data lets you know you are seeing every public MLS listing in that area. Smarter Agent partners with local real estate agents and brokers to gain access not only to their listings but to all listings in more than 300 markets nationwide. If you do not see the “Broker Reciprocity” logo, you will see about 25% of the available listings coming directly from feeds Smarter Agent gets from major real estate firms.

Real Estate by Smarter Agent is free! Click the App Store icon below to download to your iPhone or iPod Touch today!




Don't have an iPhone? No problem! Smarter Agent works on 95% of cell phones. Use this download tool to get Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale application on your mobile device.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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