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APIs Open Up Circles of Innovation
I spent a couple of days in Vegas to kick off 2012 starting with the AT&T Developer Conference and then CES. I make it a point each year to go a day early to participate in the AT&T Developer Conference to hear the announcements first hand but also see the carrier actually “pitch” their customer, the app developer.
Facebook 2007 platform launch spurred API hockey stick growth
This year’s highlights included a number of items but the topics were centered around:
- The “Blazing Fast Speeds” of the newly deployed LTE network with a plethora of new LTE devices from all of the leading handset OEMs
- A renewed commitment to Android and iOS but most notably, a real push for Windows Mobile with a surprise appearance by Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer, excited on Stage at ATT Dev Conference 2012
- An update to the developer API set, services, tools and capabilities with particular focus on HTML5, open platforms and application ubiquity
- A new developer engagement/support function known as “The Foundry” for helping to foster innovation and facilitate access to key AT&T resources
- And a host of “cloud services” with an emphasis on messaging being sent/received across multiple devices
It’s clear that developers are the clear path forward and APIs need to be made available to create new circles of innovation. I’ll be interested to see if the carriers do anything unique (APIs) to unleash advanced capabilities within the newly deployed LTE network. Is the formula still faster speeds + higher throughput = more data consumption as a path to additional carrier revenue?
Looking forward to an exciting 2012.
Posted in All Things Mobile, API, Communities, LTE | No Comments »
2012: The Year Of The Connected App
This year, we’re going to see the birth of a new class of connected apps. We’ve spent much of the last year building out our 3.0 platform and working with a select few rock star developers we invited to use our new SDKs. This year, we’re excited that those initial mobile apps will be released in the wild. And these new apps will pave the way for app to app communication and how an app should work going forward.
This new class of connected apps will allow friends to find other friends that have the app installed. You’ll know in advance what capabilities your friend has – Can he video? Can she chat? Even before you try to communicate. And finally these apps are live, instant and always connected with a heart-beat.
Connected apps will deliver more value for the user, this will produce more opportunity for developer revenue, and more differentiation in the marketplace. They’ll do this by bringing community into the app and real people interactions inside the app experience.
We’re looking forward to a fantastic 2012 and seeing this new class of connected apps communicate.
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We’ve Moved. More Space, Ready to Expand!
We’ve officially moved to our new office in Mountain View.
Good timing as our CTO, Elmar Weber, just moved from Germany so we’re happy to have work digs with enough space to expand the team. If you know your tech, love mobile (who doesn’t), and want to be part of a fast growing company - get in touch with us.
Friends of Jibe, and future friends of Jibe, be sure to stop in for a demo or to pick-up a few SDK development tips. We look forward to seeing you.
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Sprint to Launch Kyocera Echo with Jibe Social Messenger
Big Jibe News Today! The Jibe Social Messenger 2.0 will be pre-installed on the Kyocera Echo phone, the first dual-touchscreen smartphone. Sprint is launching the Kyocera Echo phone April 17, 2011.
Jibe’s Social Messenger app, built on the Jibe platform, is the first Jibe app pre-installed on a US phone. This app brings all your friends together to easily view newsfeeds, post and share media and status messages across their current social networks. Users can also engage friends directly in a chat conversation. Now with the Jibe Social Messenger you can enjoy, share and chat about your favorite content, all from the same application.
Thanks Kyocera for making such an innovative handset. Here are a few screenshots of the Jibe app in action on the dual-touchscreen Kyocera Echo.
Social feeds from all your social networking activity in one app. Filter by custom groups of friends or family across your different networks.
Chat with friends across any of your chat networks including Google,Yahoo, and Windows Live.
Post your status or add comments to your friends’ posts. Easily post across multiple social network services such as Facebook and Twitter – tweet, retweet and reply as well.
Share media – YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Yahoo and more – with your friends and post it to social networks. See the most popular photos, videos and news. Personalize your feed and subscribe to your favorite channels by category. Or add your own RSS feed.
We’re looking forward to the upcoming spring launch. Sprint will start taking pre-orders on March 26. You can can learn more about the phone at www.sprint.com/echo.
Posted in Kyocera, Social Messenger, Sprint | No Comments »
MWC Highlights & 2011 Mobile Trends
What an action packed week in Barcelona, I just loved the energy. This year’s Mobile World Congress was, by far, the best mobile conference I’ve attended – it did help that GSMA 2011 was also a big hit for Jibe.
You could feel the buzz in the air with lots of great news and demonstrable innovation.
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I spent the majority of my time in meetings, and talking about Jibe at our booth in the App Planet (Hall 7), but I did make it a point to see the show and talk with many people.
Here are my top 10 takeaways from the GSMA 2011:
10. The Nokia partnership with Microsoft was the biggest news in Barcelona, Nokia should have bought Palm but since that did not happen they had to go with Android or Microsoft. For the industry, I think this was the best outcome, but for Nokia I wonder if Android was the better choice.
9. Tablets are in demand and will open up a whole new ecosystem for applications. There is fierce competition to not let Apple dominate the tablet space.
8. Pricing mobile data is the biggest headache for operators, days of “all you can eat” as we know it today in the US will soon be over. Since I am in that 20 percent category of heavy users, I am happy to pay a little more but I also want quality of service and high speed everywhere.
7. Video on mobile is here and will help operators monetize bandwidth. I helped launch video telephony for Vodafone in 2001 and did the first call between Japan and Germany. Oh what dreams of mass adoption we had back then. I think we have now learned that 2-way video is all about the user experience and simplicity.
6. Discovery and personalization will be key drivers for usage on mobile. The most commonly used apps will melt into the fabric of our mobile users experience making access and discovery much easier and of course HTML5 will help make this happen.
5. OEMs are focusing on software, having realized there is only so much you can differentiate on hardware.
4. Sony Ericsson gaming device, the “Play Station Phone”, was very impressive. Perfect timing with LTE and high powered devices, it will be interesting to see the uptake.
3. RCS (Rich Communication Suite) was big news at the show and something we’ve been investing in at Jibe. RCS will play an important role in upgrading and changing the user’s interaction with messaging, sharing and video by making it more real-time and rich.
2. 3-D UI was big amongst the OEMs, I am still not convinced consumers want it but certainly a big factor in making augmented reality come to life on the phone. As a consumer, I like to play with it and use in in particular situations but not something I want throughout my entire mobile experience.
1. And finally we are just at the beginning of the consumer mobile revolution.
It is really amazing to see how far we have come in the past 3 years, mobile platforms have been rebuilt from the ground up, bandwidth is finally here and devices are now like mini computers, the perfect storm for anyone in the mobile industry. What an exciting year ahead of us.
Posted in All Things Mobile | No Comments »
Jibe Mobile WINS Best RCS Mobile Client Award at Mobile World Congress
Today, Jibe won the BEST RCS Mobile Client Award at Mobile World Congress for our Smart Address Book, the first to implement the new RCS-e standard. Our teams from Europe, North America, and Japan were on hand at World Congress to see our CEO, Amir Sarhangi, accept the award on behalf of Jibe Engineering and the whole company. Great job everyone!
Thanks GSMA for this opportunity. We’re really excited about all the innovations around RCS, and its ability to make RCS simpler to use for end users and developers.
Jonathan Ross presenting the GSMA awards, see the video.
Posted in All Things Mobile | 1 Comment »
Jibe HOTminutes from Mobile World Congress
Using the Jibe Media Capture RCS-e App, sponsored by GSMA and Vodafone, roving reporters at Mobile World Congress are capturing hot mobile minutes from the show. This experiment is showcasing reporters using Android phones to capture video in either a 3gp or MP4 format and then publish the video to YouTube.
Here are a few of the videos from Mobile World Congress, to see more visit http://bit.ly/HotMinutesMWC11.
If you are at Mobile World Congress 2011, meet up with our roving reporters for your interview.
Thanks to our sponsors, GSMA and Vodafone, for making this possible.
Posted in All Things Mobile | No Comments »
GSMA RCS DevChallenge – In the AppGarage this week
This week at Mobile World Congress, we are taking part in the RCS DevChallenge. RCS, or Rich Communication Suite, is a joint effort of leading industry players to provide the next generation IP communications, enabling video, text messaging, media sharing and other services.
Using RCS means app developers have more flexibility to focus on what’s important in their applications without having to write core networking code. We entered our RCS Addresss Book into the competition, that makes use of dynamic capabilities detection to provide a more natural experience for video chat, text, and media sharing.
We’ve been shortlisted for two categories: (1) Best RCS Mobile Client and (2) Best RCS Innovation.
Thanks GSMA for the opportunity.
We’re demonstrating our app this week at MWC in the AppGarage exhibition stand in AppPlanet (Hall 7).
Look for us and stop by for a demo. We’re looking forward to seeing you.
Tags: awards, mobile, mwc11, rcs
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Jibe Launches with KDDI (au) in Japan
We here at Jibe are very excited to announce our launch with KDDI Corporation. Jibe brings the top Japanese and international social media and mobile web destination to AU users. The Jibe offering will include over 16 social networks, blogs and search services including Twitter, au one GREE, mixi, Ameblo, Cocolog, Gourmet Navigator, Livedoor Gourmet. Users will be able to read, post, and share messages and media all through the Jibe application. Check it out for yourself in this promotional video created by our friends at au (sorry it is in Japanese but I think you will still enjoy it.
Tags: Ameblo, AU, Cocolog, Gourmet Navigator, GREE, Japan, KDDI, Livedoor, Mixi
Posted in Announcements |
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Jibe on the big stage with KDDI
Thank you KDDI for an excellent presentation and being the first to launch the Jibe brand in Japan in high flying fashion. Check out the video for the event which also introduced AU’s new Android devices. Please fast forward to minute 29 for the Jibe portion of the presentation, sorry it is in Japanese, working to have it subtitled:)
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