Well it has been Three years since I worked at Nokia, and it is great to start to work officially with Finland here in NYC.

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Finnish Mobile Association brings Finnish mobile expertise to New York

- There is life outside Nokia, media and advertising industries convergence with mobile seen as the next big thing.

May 2, 2011, Helsinki, Finland – Finnish Mobile Association (FinnMob), Greater Helsinki Promotion and Finpro are expanding operations to New York to promote Finnish mobile industry expertise and help Finnish companies to make it in the US. The trio aims to open doors for Finnish companies wanting to enter the world of mobile media and advertising.

FinnMob and Finpro are also establishing a new incubator and co-working space for Finnish companies in New York. They will offer office space as well as mentoring services and introduction to local investors. Today, there are more investments made in high-tech companies in New York than Silicon Valley.

“We can certainly see a shift from West Coast to East Coast happening in the technology market. For example, Google just opened their new media headquarters in New York. As convergence of mobile and media is continuing, it is important for mobile companies to be in New York, where all the major digital, media and advertising agencies are based. We believe that the next big revenue source for mobile will be from media and advertising,” comments Ismo Rantala, Managing Director of FinnMob.

FinnMob has been warmly welcomed to New York and they work closely with the New York Mayor’s office and New York University. The goal for FinnMob’s expansion to East Coast, is to find 30 most potential media houses that could benefit from mobile technology and introduce them to Finnish expertise.

”We have created a database of over 400 Finnish mobile companies, who we will be promoting in New York. If Finnish companies want to break in the US, they should head to the East Coast instead of Silicon Valley” Rantala continues.

Second goal of the project is to attract R&D to Finland, where there is talented workforce available. Many global companies already have presence in the country and Finland is leading the way in mobile gaming fuelled by the success of Angry Birds.

Finnish Mobile Association promotes Finnish mobile industry expertise globally. FinnMob acts as a matchmaker for Finnish companies looking for global opportunities by opening doors for potential new clients, investors and partners.

For more information:

Ismo Rantala, managing director

FinnMob

Ismo.rantala (at) finnmob.com

Tel. +358 40 556 7770

We have entered 2011 and I have to say the first decade did fly by rather quickly for us in the mobile industry.   I am a big fan of JWT and their things to watch deck.  I thought I would share it and highlight the top 10 in my mind for those realigning and creating a  mobile strategy this year.

I learned about Delta’s decision to add WiFi now to its regional Jet Service. It appears the Virgin domino strategy has worked!  This is big news for all of us that like to work when we are flying.  I do not know what they will do about Skype or video calls over Wifi, but being connected during those several hours when flying is exactly the service I like as a business traveler.

This will bring a new breath of fresh air to iPad, smartphone Apps as now we will start to see the in-flight entertainment services moving to those opportunities as well.  Just think of the future shopping potential? Duty Free when you fly with one-click of the button….

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September 2010
Happy New 5771 Year שנה טובה
ADObjects, Inc wishes a Happy New Year to its Jewish
Friends and Colleagues!  This is the Year of Peace and
Prosperity.  Shana Tova!

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ADO Expands with Office in the
Big Apple [New York City] from August 2010

ADObjects, Inc has been involved in a variety of high-level strategic projects and partnerships that has enabled an expansion of the company’s presence to New York City.  Presently we have two official office locations:

ADOcrossmedia [ USA/East Coast:]
Clinton Ave,  Brooklyn, NYC USA  11238

ADObjects, Inc  [ Canada/West Coast- HQ]
400-601 W. Broadway, Vancouver, BC, Canada V4Z 4C2.

This expansion  further supports the release and growth of the ADOcrossmedia Platform ( A Mobile Cross-Media Business Acceleration Service | Cross-Media Marketing Service)
* New ADOcrossmedia Website coming soon

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ADO Hosts Mobile Entrepreneur Guests from Japan and Finland during NYC Advertising Week September 27~Oct 1st

ADObjects, Inc in collaboration with Finnish Mobile Industry Association,  FinnMob and Japanese Group, Eagle-Inc.JP will be hosting a week of planned events for Visiting Mobile CEO’s  during Advertising Week in NYC during Sept 27~Oct 1st.   For more information and  interest in participating, Please contact masumi@adostrategies.com

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ADO Collaborates with the MEF on the 2010 m-Commerce “Whitepaper”

In Cooperation with MEF, ADObjects, Inc brings in the valuable overseas experience from Japan in m-Commerce as part of the International Guide on m-Commerce.  ADObjects, Inc provides leading edge consultancy services in the areas of mobile marketing and m-Commerce as well as building revenue generating partnerships with overseas companies looking toward market entry into North America. This guide has comprehensive examples and case studies from both leaders in Japan; SONY FeliCa and Entermotion.  Learn More

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ADO a Judge for the upcoming SMAATO Mobile Advertising Awards 2010

This is the Second year of participation for ADObjects, Inc to be a Judge for the upcoming SMAATO Mobile Advertising Awards.  Results presented on October 7th.  Learn More

Reader Feedback Highlights From ADO Blog… Top 5 Posts for August 2010

•    Why it is better to be an API and Not a Client? Twitter Strategy and Smart. August 30, 2010

•    Getting Started with a Mobile Marketing. Four insights to Guide your Strategy. August 17, 2010
* Reposted from Marketing Sherpa Article www.marketingsherpa.com
•    The Android trajectory shows World Domination, it is all in the momentum.     August 5, 2010
•    HTML5 vs. Flash: Does One Bad Apple Spoil the Bunch? August 5, 2010
•    Torch that growing MOS on the Blackberry Bush. Poised for MobileOpenSocial August 5, 2010

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Great Mobile and Online events | Greater offers |
Up to 50% Discounts

In Partnership with several different organizations, ADObjects has been involved as a Media Sponsor and Production Chair for some great Mobile Events coming this Sept and October.

1] APPNATION September 13-14 San Francisco Moscone Convention Center.   http://www.appnationconference.com.  
 If you sign-up using the ADObjects-Inc Promotions code you can get 50% off the ticket price.  Promotion Code: MGFC50

2] INTERNETMARKETINGCONFERENCE | VANCOUVER September 21-23  Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver.  http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/vancouver. 
If you sign-up using the ADObjects-inc Promotions code you will get 20% off the ticket price. Promotion Code: ADOIMCM

3] INTERNETMARKETINGCONFERENCE- MOBILE | NEW YORK October 12-13  Helen Mills Theater.  http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/NewYork. If you sign-up using the ADObjects-inc Promotions code you will get 20% off the ticket price. Promotion Code: ADOIMCM

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CEO Corner
Greetings!   It was a hot summer wasn’t it.   Even though we have entered September it still feels like the heat wave is still here.  At ADObjects, Inc   we are closing in our our third year as a company focused on revenue generating Strategic Development and Mobile  Media solutions for our clients.  We launched ADOstrategies.com  ( Strategic Consultancy) at the start and have found a wide array of opportunities that expanded from the basic strategy analysis work,  mobile media and mobile marketing campaigns to large event planning and cross-border go-to-market execution.

Over the last couple of months we have had some great projects with some clients over in Japan and we have taken a greater role in Mobile Marketing Education,  Media Planning and New Event Series Chairing as well.   We were asked to help out with the Internet Marketing Conference- Mobile in New York City this fall, and we set-out to create a new unique event around “Cross-Media marketing convergence between Online and Mobile”  as the underlying theme.   We are constantly getting contacted by many companies, brands and publishers that have asked about ” The best way to go mobile when they are still grappling with budgets for online and social.  Yes- mobile is important they say, but we have been prioritizing online and social first, should we build a mobile application? What is the best way to do it? “    Our answer to them is that mobile does not have to be separated, but incorporated into the Strategies of Online/Social and Traditional from the beginning as a complementary solution to get more out of the existing Online, Media campaigns and strategies.  This is the topic we hope to deeply cover during the upcoming Internet Marketing Conference- New York.

In addition we will be running two sets of Mobile Marketing Educational Series.  For More information contact,  masumi@adostrategies.com

1) Mobile Marketing BootCamp Sept 21st, 2010, Vancouver, BC
  learn more
2) Mobile Marketing BootCamp Oct 12th 2010, New York, New York learn more

Come and learn about how to integrate Mobile into your Marketing Plan!  We will be doing hands on training of mobile website, mobile application, mobile SMS products.

In addition, We at ADO have been constantly obsessed recently with “What mobile can achieve to both complement and  measure traditional media campaigns as a transitional new method for print, TV, Radio, OOH strategies from the start”.  We see Mobile as a way to give the Broadcast medium better way to be  measured with mobile as well as building up a consistent audience database that can be used for more efficient engagement moving forward.  We have been working on some new unique solutions that we hope to bring to the market in the near future.

With our “Newly formed Presence in New York City,  we are excited to expand our footprint with Brands, Agencies, Publishers, Media Companies supporting  business acceleration services and solutions.  Our focus is to work with partners and  bring “New Revenue” to their existing business via Mobile with clear milestones and plans.

If you are in the neighborhood, drop buy and say Hello!

Sincerely,

Matthew Snyder

I guess you can say, it is about time! Kyocera launched at CTIA this last spring with their first entry into the America’s after waiting and seeing for many years…NT&T DoCoMo brought Android to the Japanese Market in April with the Sony Xperia and Softbank was soon to follow with their Android device.

From the walled gardens of the different marketplaces to the open platforms, the world has come alive for the cross-border opportunity again.  I am excited to see these high-end toys now entering the states to offer a unique variety to the same old stuff we have seen.  Japan was very strong in the consumer product space in the 80′s and early 90′s, but then it stopped. The re-emergence of the US industry in the consumer space with Palms, iPods and the flurry of electronics from the Korean’s and the Taiwanese seemed to be become the replacement.

So what will be different that will make us want to buy them?  It is not just a hardware game anymore, but a one-stop-shop for all kinds of services.  My feeling is that we will start to see followers to the Google-TV example that started with Sony for a complete array of interesting cross-media interactivity….. Will Hitachi bring back its household goods back with a twist on mobile:  Google-Refrigerator?  What about Casio and their cool G-shocks tied to the mobile device : Google-Watch? and even NEC  following Sony with the Google-TV series?  These are some of the areas where I think the Japanese can really accelerate the convergence of mobile and everything around us.

1) Cross-platform integration into the consumer electronics space

2) Unique uses of mobile wallet and integration between products

3) Cool, fun, innovative designs and market demo differentiation. Highest of High quality….

4) Enterprise products and services for small  and medium businesses

5) Access to the wonderful world of Japanese sourced content.

6) Unique integrations amoungst the Japanese suppliers themselves…. Wii?

7) Cross-Carrier cooperation ( i.e. JIL )

Deep rooted relationships between Japanese companies and Microsoft and Google

9) Heavy industry and mobile. ( Trains, Buses, Elevators, Escalators, Ticket machines all integrated to mobile)

10) ….. or just another Android, Windows mobile device?

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Techcrunch reported last year that NEC, Hitachi and Casio were in negotiations to merge their cell phone operations to become Japan’s second biggest manufacturer, following Sharp. And the new company, which is called NEC Casio Mobile Communications and was established on May 1, just yesterday announced ambitious expansion plans.

According to reports in various Japanese media, NEC Casio Mobile plans to ship a total of 12 million cell phones in fiscal 2012, up a whopping 60% of all handsets NEC, Hitachi and Casio together shipped in 2009 (the companies will merge their cell phone operations on June 1).

All of Japan’s eight (soon six) major cell phone makers are going through a slump currently, mainly due to a shrinking domestic market and rising development costs for advanced cell phones. In Japan, the new company wants to cooperate with all three national carriers (Docomo, KDDI au, and SoftBank Mobile).

In the US, NEC Casio Mobile is said to currently look into building business ties with Verizon and AT&T, according to reports. The company expects 4 million of those 12 million cell phones it plans to ship in 2012 to go to markets outside Japan.

My article in Japanese for the Nikkei BP IT Pro [ CTIA 2010 has gone Android ]

It has been 7 years since I lived in Japan or have been fully operational in Japanese.  Last November, I visited Japan on a M&A due-diligence project and found the changes to the mobile landscape overwhelming.  About one year prior, I was fortunate to be invited by a Canadian Government trade mission on the cross-border business development of the independent music industry and felt that Japan was still locked in the closed internal format wars that separated them from entire planet over the last 15 years.  Japan was a leader in the development of the 3G ecosystem, but it was very Japan focused.  Companies like Nokia and others attempted to bring in Global 3G products,  but it proved to be very costly to reset all the device requirements and to develop a separate category for a Japanese only marketplace.

However, Apple launched iPhone in Japan shortly after via Softbank.  Their visionary CEO Masayoshi Son ( an individual with his team that has built an empire on cross-border tech business/platform investing and facilitation such as Yahoo-Japan) championed the existing system with this some what risky proposition at the time. By Sept 2009, the iPhone was exploding in device sales and by the end of the year it was recorded close to 3M subscribers.  I saw in one trade journal that Japan was the fastest growing market for iPhone sales per capita and the transformation had begun.   The iPhone product was launched very much with the same business model as the rest of the world with a very small launch team just outside of Hatsudai station at the Apple Japan Corporate HQ.  By the time I had arrived the market was changing.  Techcrunch Japan had just gotten started, and the feeling of  the Silicon Alley entrepreneurial spirit had found a way in the Japan mobile space.  There were thousands of iPhone apps available for Japanese consumers, and the touch interface just did not seem to matter.   I found people proud to put their iPhone on the table in front of them at the local Kissaten ( Coffee Shop) as they chatted with colleagues with one had holding that exotic cup of Java, and the other a Marlboro.  I had heard that over 40% of the Apps came from outside of Japan, and it was the first time that the  international content industry had just blown through the Japanese system within the comfortable pipeline created by Softbank and Apple.

This experience got me very excited to see that now there was finally an opportunity for Japanese prowess in the mobile industry to start to go global.  Yes, this was a platform created by the North American Dev team in Cupertino, but the manufacturing was in China and now the content was coming from everywhere around the Globe in one scalable process.   This was a first step in the process for real cross-border development and innovation to begin that surrounded an App ecosystem.  Although, 3M is not a large number when we talk about the incumbents of the Japanese system, or is this the full game-changer to the Japanese market, but it was a beginning.

I decided that it would be time for me to start to bridge my consultancy practice over to Japan as my second International country of clients.   As of 2007, I had been working with the Finland tech scene and had the opportunity to work with several Finnish companies looking for global strategies and mobile market entry into North America.  That pipeline has continued to grow, and we will be visiting Finland at the end of this month on our periodic trade mission.

The mobile content industry has really now gone global with the explosion of the iPhone.  It has changed the dynamics of marketing, content delivery and advertising toward the dream all of us had in the mobile industry for many years.  2010 has really the year to define mobile as the transition has begun for media players to treat mobile on equal terms as part of the overall media strategy.  This is not just at a country level, but the cross-border international opportunities have really started to accelerate.

I returned back to Japan in January to speak about the cross-border opportunities surrounding North America.   In the 10 days I was there, it was apparent that Japan really was my second home, and my 7 years away might have just been too long.  My schedule became packed with meetings with a variety of different companies looking at their position for marketing and sales outside of Japan;  however, the focus seemed to be on China.  It is apparent as a first priority many Japan mobile companies  have looked for international expansion with this gorilla neighbor.   Over the last 15 years, the US Market had proved to be very difficult for many Japanese companies, and you could probably say that there are less then a couple mobile companies that have really been able to make their  US International efforts successful.   The odds have not been so great, and with the large market ( today there are over 500M subscribers) , the close proximity and the technology gaps, China is hard to ignore when it comes to the next step in an expansion  and an International strategy.

I hope my presentation has some effect, as I compared the opportunities between heading to China and then looking toward North America.  The room was filled with start-up CEO’s, Media companies and a variety of others interested in this debate.  The presentation went for over 2 hours into the late evening, and I was surprized I was able to bring back for the first time in a long time my dormant Japanese speaking skills for this kind of  format.  The big discussion points were of course around iPhone, but what I found that was even more profound was the interest in “Android” and the “iPad”.

Android….

NTT DoCoMo made it clear that they would be the leaders in bringing this to market.  Yes, we all knew that Softbank would follow and that we are now looking at a similar AT&T versus Verizon type of phenomena in Japan with Google and Apple playing tag-team to open up the marketplace ( at least it seems that way?)

Android was key part of my presentation as after being with Nokia for so many years, it felt like Google took the play-book right out of Nokia’s hands and have started to execute on the same dream.  Nokia had for so many years tried to bring an open philosophy to the market and the mobile industry, but they just might had been a bit too early.  I do not think Nokia has at all  run out of steam, but they did pull out of Japan and left a vacuum right when the time was for entry.   For Google to compete against Apple and to launch something fresh might have just been the timing for this perfect storm of a  teeter-totter like strategy.  Of course, Eric Schmidt sat on the board of Apple during the conception of the iPhone strategy, and it only makes one wonder if this was some kind of grand plan in market attack between the two companies at any level.

Well Android looks like it is here to stay, and it has become a powerful force as a Global Open Framework.  Apple was able to “blow a hole through the window” and now all the flies and everything can come through.  Open is now the flavor of the month, yet Apple keeps coming out with new and exciting products and services that the balance between Open and Closed is still evolving.

I met with a representative from Nikkei BP, and they asked me if I would work with them on different mobile projects around  North America effects and the Japanese market.  I was even asked to  represent them by covering the CTIA event in Las Vegas this last month.   I look forward to more and more of these types of project down the road and will continue to fine-tune my writing and evolve my Japanese journalist skills.

I will publish an English version of the article on this blog shortly to follow.