It was not a strange coincidence that on 11.11.11 @ 11:11 am as part of our launch of ADO.cm ( 1.to.1 parity of mobile-tablet-network-Desktop-DigitalScreens) we also became aware that Responsive Web Design in Search traffic trends has now overtaken Mobile Web Design around our Nov, 2011 date.

For a Free Mobile Web View quote, please visit http://ado.cm and register today!

We are excited to host this Sold-Out Event!  The Evening will have Special Guests- Eliot Pierce ( NYTimes) and Scott Meyer ( EVIDON).

Here are some of the participants attending..

Look at the incredible growth of Netflix over the last year!  9Million new subs… ( Approx 40% of their total subscribers).  They have embraced cross-platform convergence as a core strategy. Not only are they on every mobile platform that will port them today, they exist on as many platforms they can port to.  Try Nintendo, Try Playstations, X-boxes you name it Netflix is there… They started out as a humble service provider that leveraged snail-mail and now they are the top of the  rich-media content delivery business.

Media companies today need to really embrace cross-screening ( a term I created to describe the phenomena of users experiencing content on Multi-Screens.

Another company that has done a great job at the cross-screen strategy is New York Times.   Not only they marketing everywhere that they are leveraging all screens for users to consume content ( pay once and get all, they are advertising this just as well).  I see their Digital Subscriber Ads in the New York Subway everyday, and here is an ad that I recently saw in the CBSlocal.com website.

Not only is NewYork Times building themselves very strongly across all mediums, what is equally important is how much emphasis they put on Mobile.  Just recently, New York Times was awarded the 2011 Webby for the Best Mobile News Website . In today’s landscape media companies need to not only embrace mobile, but make it a very strong priority like Netflix and NYTimes.

If we look at Comcast, they do have a strong mobile strategy but as media consumption patterns are changing it is critical they embrace all platforms.   My gut tells me that they should just buy Hulu and start to change the game with Online content distribution streaming in a bigger way as well.  Put Hulu a bit out of their misery by trying to do it alone with those tough Networks.   Netflix has evolved with those relationships that started with physical plastic boxes with Tape, then DVD’s (some may say this could be considered an advantage), but they got the business model right and have expanded like crazy.   Hulu on the other hand, has had an uphill battle from the start with the content providers.  My recommendation for Comcast is to buy Hulu and start to change the game a bit with Netflix!  Make it cross-screen for all Digital Subscribers…

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

It was just announced that Nokia will solidify its go-to-market strategy with its product line-up to include a deep partnership with Microsoft. What happened Nokia? With this new focus on Windows7 together with Microsoft change the game against iOS and Android? How will they now focus on Symbian, MeeGo and now Windows7? Why not make MeeGo the platform to really compete in this game?

In any event, this was a bit shocking news but not unexpected.

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Nokia jumps from ‘burning platform’ and forges alliance with Microsoft
By Ed Owen, marketingmagazine.co.uk, 11 February 2011, 09:20AM

Nokia is turning to a strategic alliance with Microsoft to compete against rival smartphone manufacturers and is splitting its operations into two divisions.

Nokia N8 series: ‘it’s not technology, it’s what you do with it’ campaign

The tie-up with Microsoft covers mass market mobile phones and partly sidelines Nokia’s ailing Symbian platform.

Nokia was widely expected to abandon its operating system following a leaked internal memo from its new chief executive Stephen Elop earlier this week.

Elop was scathing about his company – which remains the world’s largest handset manufacturer – and said it needed to change.

In Elop’s memo, the man jumps. Elop, a former Microsoft employee, said: “We too, are standing on a ‘burning platform’, and we must decide how we are going to change our behaviour.”

The mobile giant’s new strategy will be to:

Use Microsoft to develop its primary platform.
Focus on connecting a billion people in developing markets to the internet through their phones.
Generate new “disruptive” technologies to take the creative initiative back.
Elop, today, said: “Nokia is at a critical juncture, where significant change is necessary and inevitable in our journey forward.

“Today, we are accelerating that change through a new path, aimed at regaining our smartphone leadership, reinforcing our mobile device platform and realizing our investments in the future.”

Two business units will be formed:

Smart Devices, to be led by career marketer Jo Harlow, former head of marketing for Nokia’s North American division, developing high-end smartphones to use Microsoft, Symbian and MeeGo platforms and develop business services.
Mobile Phones, to be led by Mary McDowell to push mass-market devices powered by Microsoft’s platform, pushing another billion customers in new markets.
The link with Microsoft will be symbiotic, with Nokia providing mapping for Microsoft’s Bing search engine and AdCenter ad platform. Nokia’s Ovi app store will be rolled into Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace offering.

Microsoft will now provide the developer tools needed for apps. Nokia had been subsidising app development to try and keep pace with Apple and Android.

Recently appointed marketing chief Jerri DeVard remains in position, and holds a place on Nokia’s executive board.

The Symbian mobile platform will not be dropped completely, but will be used as a “franchise platform” to retain existing users, and the company expects to sell an additional 150 million Symbian devices in the years to come.

Nokia’s other mobile platform, MeeGo, developed for tablets and other mobile computers in a deal with Intel, remains under development and Elop says a MeeGo product will be shipped later this year.

Nevertheless, board member Alberto Torres, who had responsibility for MeeGo development, leaves the company.

Nokia reported an increase in profits in full-year results last month, with growth coming in new territories, particularly Latin America and China.

Nokia remains in various court battles with Apple over who developed interactive browsing features typically used in smartphones.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk

There where many exciting announcements today around Android from AT&T, Motorola, Sony, Sharp, Samsung, LG, Panasonic at CES, but the main them was around TV/3DTV and some unique concepts between PC/Mobile and Tablets configurations.  It also seems like there is a new trend of Global releases these days with Android, from companies like Panasonic, Sony instead of the regional launches.

The hot, exciting release today in my mind was from Motorola with Atrix and two other products Smartphone products. The Xoom showed promise to be one of the top Tablets this year.  It really looks like Motorola is making big come backs in the mobile arena.

Motorola Atrix

This was the flagship of the series and the most powerful of the three new Smart Phones. It showed a unique feature to doc into a laptop empty. Specifications include a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4 inch qHD pentile display (that’s 960 x 540 pixels), Android 2.2, HSPA+ data support, front and rear facing camera, biometric fingerprint reader, a huge 1930 mAh battery, and 16GB internal storage with the microSD card slot. They announced that AT&T will get the Atrix in Q1 2011

• Small light 4G product
• Worlds most powerful Smartphone
• America’s 1^st Dual Core Smartphone
• Worlds 1^st Smartphone with 1930mAh Battery
• Worlds 1^st Smartphone with 1GB Ram
• Innovative Fingerprint Reader
• The only Smartphone that delivers larger display, keyboard and mouse experience

Droid Bionic

The follower that will launch on Verizon Wireless will be the successor to the much acclaimed Droid X.  Specifications include a fast 1 GHz dual-core processor, 512 MB RAM, 4.3 inch qHD display, dual cameras (rear one is 8 megapixel), and support for Verizon’s new LTE 4G data network. With LTE support this may be the fastest Android device available this year. No pricing or release information was given in the today to the press.

Motorola Cliq 2

This version 2 of the series, the Cliq2 will be on 19 January via T-Mobile. Specifications include 3.7 inch display, support for HSPA+, 1 GHz processor, funky slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and WiFi hotspot capability. It is an Android 2.2 device with a 5 megapixel camera, and MotoBlur.

Motorola Xoom

The Motorola Xoom is powered by a dual-core 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset, Android 3.0 Honeycomb, 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen with 1280 x 800 resolution, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, 32GB of built-in memory, 5-megapixel camera on the back with 720p video recording, and a battery which can handle 10 hours of continuous video

AT&T exciting news that they will have 20 new Smartphones and 12 of them Android products coming has spread through the community that Android is the platform to be reckoned with now moving forward in 2011.  The ran a successful developer day as well in parallel that had some interesting facts on how to best develop for Android from Motorola, with new launches around their Ad network for developers to monetize applications for iOS and Android

Sony’s release of Xperia Arc is the next generation Android ( Google), but even though Sony had a lot of exciting things to show with 3D TV, Gaming and Blue-Ray,  the exciting Qriocity platform that works with Google TV, will not yet be connected completely to mobile. When will we see the real unique connectivity as a remote control between these two different Google platform products with Sony unique offerings?  They did bring on interesting features such as Bravio TV on mobile and the HDMI connector true ubiquitous of the Sony content world is just beginning.  It is going to be an interesting extension to the Xperia series with the product out in the market Q1.  Most likely an AT&T network product, but still not confirmed.

Sharp’s release of Galapagos was part of the highlight, but the exciting update of the new organization in North America that will bring both the eBook and tablet size specifically for the North America later this year as an Android product instead of Japanese Linux version.  They commented that the products would be coming to America, but the specs were not yet announced in full.

Samsung releases today array of Android products.  They are working hard in this category to bring seamless interaction as a strategy.  After the successful release of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab in 2010, 2011 will be another showcase year for Android and Samsung. The Samsung representative mentioned that they are the #1 Android providers including Google’s new Nexus S with 2.3 Gingerbread.

They also announced Infuse 4G that was previewed as AT&T’s thinnest device in the Android Category with the super 4.5 inch AMOLED and a 1.5GHz processor.

LG did release two Android devices with the following highlights:

The Optimus Black is an Android phone that weights 3.8 oz, is 0.36 thick and introduces the “NOVA” display. 700 nit. vs. the traditional 450 nit. This is the dual-core phone we’ve been hearing about. This is an Android 2.2 product.

The Optimus  2X  will be the first NVIDIA Tegra 2-enabled “super phone”–a generation beyond the Smartphone, The Optimus 2X, an Android-based which will ship in Korea this month, does not currently have concrete plans to be available in the U.S

They said that due to the ecosystem of the carriers as their main partners they have nothing to announce between the connectivity with their new TV launches.

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 have been involved with mobile from all aspects since 1995. Over the last 15 years we have seen significant change in the overall world of media and today Social Media and Mobile are two major drivers that are affecting everybody’s business across the board.  Now with the massive shift to smartphones, the world of mobile as it was designed by the different platform companies and incumbents of the 90′s and the early 2000′s are all hit with this new wave of convergence that is causing a unique form of disruption that it is only obvious that companies would need to start to re-think their mobile strategies once again.  Forrester’s Thomas Husson has recently released a report that has grabbed a lot of media attention across the board as to the fact many companies lack a mobile strategy.  In there finding that claim that 75% of companies still do not feel comfortable with a mobile strategy.

This new wave is what prompted me to launch MXM: MediaCrossMedia as not only an event series, but a start to a unique education series  geared to the issues surrounding media convergence in general where mobile is a key part of this overall new wave that is affecting publishing, marketing, and general advertising.

1995~2000 Age of proprietary mobile specific entertainment content ( Ringtones, Wallpaper and basic games)   * Content was created in a unique form  proprietary to Mobile for distribution through the different mobile specific channels such as the mobile operators and mobile platform companies

2000~2010 Age of Mobile Channel ( Mobile Marketing via SMS, Growth of silo’d mobile sites and dedicated mobile content: Apps) * The massive growth of mobile specific content utilizing the cloud techniques to deliver and reform content for a small user interface and dedicated applications.

2010-2015 Age  of the Converged Mobile Channel ( Cross-media Content distribution, Full HTML Browsing,  Convergence of media and publishing)  * Where all of the existing online companies begin to extend their offers to include  as part of a full-turn key extension of  their existing strategy. HTML5 will be key to this with Java script magic on the web!

I have recently put together a 5~7 hour workshop on what it means to create a mobile strategy and build the right mobile marketing plan.  In the course of the next several blog posts, I will begin to share insights and experience over the course of my 15 years in Mobile and Media what it means to build the right mobile strategy for this new era.

Mobile Marketing Goes Cross-Media!

Silo’d Media Mix? Learn how to effectively integrate Mobile into your Overall Digital Strategy

With ever-smarter portable devices, the line is blurring as to What is Mobile and What is Online. By 2013 more then 50% of web usage will occur via Mobile. This growth will require marketers and media companies to combine their approaches to mobile and online.

ADObjects and InternetMarketingConference (IMC) have joined forces to bring this first in a series of unique mobile cross-media events that will discuss how Brand Marketers, Agencies, and Publishers can efficiently enter a strategy of mobile and online convergence.

This must-attend event will answer critical questions that are key to your converged future.

Hear from 30+ experts from leading companies including  iCrossing, Insight Express, Google, Microsoft,  MTV, Strawberry Frog and Tweetdeck as they cover major issues such as:

• How can I leverage a mobile strategy efficiently with my existing online resources?
• Should I not just design my existing website to be accessed by Mobile?
• Who are the best online partners to consider?
• How can I evolve my online customer acquisition and retention strategies for mobile?
• How to I manage analytics and social media strategies to include mobile?
• What should I do about transferring my online rich media assets and video to mobile?
• How do I incorporate my existing ecommerce strategies with mobile?