In a recent blog post by James McQuivey of OmniVideo ( VP at Forrester Research), he mentions that the future of TV Remote is the mobile Web.  This is something I fundamentally believe in with the convergence of mobile with existing media platforms. As Companies like TVGuide, TiVo have started to release first release sites and products that have programing available via the site, the next phase will be to really change the channel from one piece of  Hardware in hand to another; total  access to content and hardware converged.

There was so much positive success by having an interative channel with American Idol with SMS thanks to AT&T with voting.  Can you image being able to be on the mobile-view of the TV Program American Idol at the same time, with the same services and more. Then being abile to change channels and make those EPG Settings.   Real time interactivity on screen will be a reality and the program themselves can control the back-channel for thier content programing and users.

There are companies such as Canoe, Back Channel Media that have been working on platform and technology solutions of interactive programing using overlays with the screen, but what they are missing are the core linkages to a mobile strategy and the power of having access via your mobile device simultaneously.

James, thanks for bringing this topic to surface as such a unique time.  In several years we will look back reflect at times when mobile devices and TV programs were not connected.

It was announced today that in the last Six Months Google has hit is 1M Android with T-Mobile.  Information Week Article.  The amazing thing here is that even though Apple has been widely successful >5M Units sold in North America, companies that follow directly behind with large volumes; such as Blackberry achieving the 1Mth quite quickly, etc…

Even though Nokia is shipping 1M units a day, there is no comparison when it comes to scale, but the US Market still seems a quite bit distance for the marketing prowess of Nokia….. I am sitting and waiting for that Nokia Beauty to emerge…

It was released today that Microsoft will add a search feature to widgets. I find this particularly interesting as it shows the strong possibilities toward the next generation application strategy around run-time widgets as a key part of a user experience to link browsers between online and mobile.  Even though iPhone Apps will hit 1B downloads shortly, there with are approx. 30K applications in the iPhone index compared to approx 100M+ Websites online and approx 1M mobile websites ( about 100K sites that can be considered media properties according to AdMob). With the new growth shown in the Android Camp,  the excellent track record of the Blackberry App store,  the coming Palm device,  Nokia’s comeback and all the other device and carrier platforms re-tooling for this next wave, I really feel the strong web anchor will show its face and offline run-time widgets showing an interesting growth opportunity in the next wave.

Here is the PCworld Article on Microsoft’s new announcement

TechTree India writies about the new release of Googles Gmail for Android and iPhones below.

I am excited to see that even with all the GaGa only about iPhone Apps ( understandably so, but) that there are new announcements every day on some of the most practical usage cases of mobile linked to web development and the mobile browser.

As it does make sense to have an application based strategy, there is still a lot to be said about the browsing experience off of the

OpenSource Webkit ( Safari) browser that is used on Android/iPhones/Nokia devices and many more.  As the browser is equivalent to web browsing we experience on PC’s, having a mobile experience that lends itself to the smaller screen size and the user interface of a mobile device is a very smart approach for scaling your existing web/publishing digital strategy to mobile.

I am a very active user of Gmail on both my PC and Device and find that the hardware does not matter anymore. What matters is my seemless ability to connect to the services that I use frequently and email is something that is extemely important for me to have virtually on all the time and extendable in a very usable form from either my PC or my Nokia E71.    I did find it strange that Google has only launched this for iPhone and for Android, when it would make sense to have this for all devices that support webkit from the starting point.  I am sure we will see the announcement for Nokia support in the near future.

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Gmail has announced a new web interface for iPhone and Android platform based mobile web browsers. Built over a new engine, this Gmail Mobile interface closely resembles the Gmail Desktop version. The whole mail browsing, reading and composing experience has become faster, even over weak network connections.

The user interface has been optimized for snazzier inbox, a new ‘floaty bar’ and offline Gmail support. The new floaty bar allows archiving, deleting or more options for the email like Mark as Unread, Add star or Report as Spam. This floaty bar follows as one scrolls down further to select more emails. Navigation and display of threaded email conversations has been simplified and made faster.

Searching specific mails quickly is possible by poking the Magnifier button representing search. More messages can be viewed by hitting ‘Show more messages’ and the page hardly takes half a second to load more emails.

The new Gmail for Mobile is available on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices with firmware 2.2.1 or higher. All Android-powered phones are supported.

The iPhone OS 3.0 brings landscape keyboard support in the Mail application but it still takes a while to load messages. Scrolling between the messages often results in sore fingers. Also, search emails and labels are still difficult to use. However, the Gmail team has made many Gmail fans happy with the new desktop-like mobile web interface iPhone and Android platform.

As we enter April, my favorite part of the year, there is nothing like kicking back and enjoying the Masters. As it is difficult to set glued to a TV for the 4 days of the event ( Some of us have to work!), there is no better usage case then getting and following the event on the go with your mobile device. As there has been so much buzz and GaGa about an iPhone App as a mobile strategy, I was happy to see that there was a good solid mobile strategy that gives balance of the difference options for us mobile junkies. Two years ago I was in transit in Europe ( Actually having Lunch at the Royal Stockholm Country Club with some business with Eniro) when I was going mad trying to find out what was happening over at Augusta.. Well two years later there is now a great mobile strategy inplace that includes the likes of an iPhone app, a great web set-up and event real-time alerts with SMS.  I guess it takes great sponsors like AT&T to help support a mobile strategy that works.

[ see the masters website ]

#1- have your website support a mobile tab for discovery.

#2- have an iPhone App for all those iPhone junkies

#3- have a mobile version of your site that is redirected automatically and also is set with an m.mysite.com domain.

#4- have the ability for real-time engagement with Text/ SMS….

With these 4 scenerio’s covered is a good first step balanced mobile strategy… for those with media properties that can support the costs.

Another good article. Even a friend Peter Jenner is quoted on the real value of “FANS”- more valuable then selling music?

Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Release [ Wired Mag Article]

The flavor of the month for a mobile strategy has definitely been to build an  iPhone App, and given Apple’s leadership in the music industry, iPhone is clearly a mobile strategy in North America over other devices that support different content distribution strategies potentially better.  There is a need for a good white paper on  ” My Mobile Strategy, or just build an iPhone App” – that I have started to work on.

With that said, what this App does is exactly what is very important to the industry and the monetization process…. build a relationship with the fans and bring them into the entire dialog withNIN.   Through this can lead to enormous monetization opportunities.  NIN’s Trevor Reznor states….” Now and artist needs to be a Marketer”

I hope this does bring a bit of clarity to the Music industry again that the traditional methods are now dead and building a Social Media Fan strategy with the right ownership of  Analytics is key. Does a strategy with MySpace enable Artists to own thier own Analytics and dialog in its full form?  With that said,   is not a silver-bullet strategy  to go out and develop an iPhone app at a price of $20~50K USD.  I would say the NIN iPhone App is North of $50K with all the Google Earth integration etc….

There is definitely hype here today and with Apps there is always a compatability issue that needs to be resolved. When Apple launches iPhone2, all the costs incurred with the development of App V1, might go out of the window.  The real value is to look at everything it takes to build a  CRM structure and strategy for your artists to embrace the new social media tools and get a strong dialog with the fans.  All of your artists should begin to look at how to best leverage Twitter, but with a clear understanding of how to capture the dialog and analytcis of the fans.

Here is an example of a search on Twitter for “The Trews”.   Just 3 hours ago, there were Fans tweeting about ” the Trews”.  The first thing that is important is for someone at Bumstead on behalf of the band to go and click ” FOLLOW” of each of the individuals tweeting about the Band.  Just think how great a fan will feel when they are being followed by the band themselves.  It is a process of feeling inclusive.

This is an easy way to aggregate Thousands of Fans that a direct dialog can be created every day.  Twitter allows for picture releases, even small clips, etc….. by having all this linked back to the Artists website and even a mobile version of the site can build a major engagment marketing process of having a dialog with Thousands of Fans on a day2day basis.

Just a quick Reference, today NIN has 13,917 Followers.…. Not alot, but after this announcement this will go up clearly and they will have an opportunity for greater dialog.

…. building Brand enagement with Twitter is a first step that will link to a mobile strategy, and a relationship that can lead to unique possibilities in monetization.  The difference is that this can be done for Virtually Zero Cost, where an iPhone App is a bit costly….

Why not build that base and then have the opportunity to share an iPhone/Android/S60/Blackberry App + your Website, Myspace page all linked back you your Mobile View