In the unofficial web blog from Apple, it looks like compatibility spagettii is about to happen, or not? Being in mobile myself for the last 15 years one of the greatest challenges with application development has always been with forward and backward compatibility. After Apple has now reached it’s 1billionth download with >30K apps in store and in the market for just over 1 year, compatibility-hell (CH) has started. As Apple is no stranger to this, I am sure they will do a great job in informing developers what to do about this, but what makes this interesting now is the cost to develop apps. As it will now become the responsibility for the developer to make sure that there is compatibility with the new OS3.0, New OS3.0 developers will now have to start looking at their apps for older versions potentially as well. As it is not cheap to develop apps, this is another factor that has made application development for dedicated platforms quite interesting. When there are standards around cross-platform application development, the same CH exists, but there is a bit more assurance on being able to have a product that works across multiple devices in the market.  As a developer, hopefully companies like Nitobi with PhoneGap will work out these issues and make it easier and cheaper to develop with CH.  I am particularly interested in how this will play out with the emerging App Stories of WinMo, Nokia’s Symbian, and Google Android.  Maybe it is time to just focus on the web?

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