Isaac Naor.com

Excellent infographic on the latest breakdown of mobile app usage by category and country, from the good folks at Inneractive. Enjoy!

This is a fantastic post by Steve McKee on the importance of integration, the often overlooked “secret ingredient” in marketing that makes long-term campaigns effective and helps brands gain massive market-share.

I agree with almost everything in Steve’s Bloomberg post and would add that while maintaining brand consistency over the long haul is absolutely key, if a brand fails to provide some kind of real value (while maintaining that consistent brand identity) when using interactive marketing channels, that brand (from a consumer’s perspective) will be diminished allowing for competitors to gain/regain both mindshare and marketshare.

Although this post is somewhat unrelated to my general topic of conversation, I had this most annoying experience and wanted to help anyone who’s experiencing this hair-pulling, computer-throwing, keyboard-smashing issue.

Since the latest release of Google Chrome for Mac Lion OSx, if my Google Chrome browser was in full-screen mode and I clicked to open a popup, the popup would show up in full-screen mode as its own full-screen browsing window (not tab), and once closed, it would bring me back to my primary desktop.  This feature was terribly annoying (not just to me — check out this page dedicated to people complaining about it in Google Groups) and not optional!

Fortunately, I found the solution on that page as well, which doesn’t bring the popup functionality back to how it was in Google Chrome’s previous release, but solves the problem well-enough, nonetheless.

Visit https://www.google.com/landing/chrome/beta/ and download the latest version of Chrome Beta (hat-tip to Justin Mitchell, aka Diirge, for providing this solution!) and just like that you can go back to using Google Chrome as usual without cussing every time you open a popup!

Stay tuned for a Battle of the Mobile OS’s post I’ve been working after using iOS, BB7 and Android 4.0.x for all of my mobile computing needs, and creating a point-to-point comparison/rating system in-which only one victor will rise!

In the rapidly evolving technology space it’s often difficult to pin-down what the next big trend will be and how to plan for it.  Literally billions of dollars are being rewarded to those who can successfully predict and then create both software and hardware that is adopted by scores of millions of users, and most of the current generation’s greatest minds are attracted-to and working-on this opportunity.

Looking back into tech history, among of the first truly “successful” technologies that gained absolute ubiquity were the telephone and then the automobile, and the clear common thread is both technologies/products won people’s hearts and minds.

The telephone won people’s hearts because it allowed for one person to hear another’s voice, providing the feeling of presence in-spite of absence. The telephone won people’s minds because it was the first form of instant/real-time communication for those that were separated by more than a short distance.

The automobile won people’s hearts because it allowed Americans who were previously “trapped” in factories and urban areas to experience the freedom of being able to go just about anywhere whenever they wanted, and it won minds as it [eventually] became a practical, affordable and reliable means of personal transportation.

You’re probably asking yourself why I’m writing about cars and telephones here; the reason is, the essence of what made those technologies so successful and ubiquitous continues to be the essence of what makes current and new technologies (both software and hardware) truly successful.

A post from less than a week ago by Reuters correspondent Gerry Shih (@gerryshih) notes that Silicon Valley recently realized the critical importance of the UX (user experience), and that tech companies are finding only a limited supply of designers who also understand technology.

This realization may have stemmed-from the extreme penetration rates (particularly in the US) of Apple’s iOS operating system, iPhone, Square devices, the recently popularized photo scrapbooking site Pinterest and the acquisition of the sleek photo-sharing application Instagram by Facebook for $1 billion.

All of the aforementioned examples have user-bases in the scores of millions and are [nearly] ubiquitous household names. The iPhone and iOS did not exist more than five years ago, while the latter three didn’t exist more than three years ago. Most importantly, all have extremely sleek user interfaces and the technology present in all five examples is/was not revolutionary.

So if you’re working on creating “the next big startup”, you don’t have to employ the greatest technology or groundbreaking hardware; just focus on creating a useful product with an extremely compelling (and simple) UX, and you’ll have the best chance at success.

This is an excellent and well-written post by Jakob Nielsen about the native app vs. mobile web conundrum, and how current recommendations will shift in the future alongside technological advancements.

If you’re interested in mobile, this is fantastic post that provides a wonderfully intelligent perspective — enjoy!

After introducing its highly criticized personalized search, Google’s share of the U.S. search market climbed to its highest point in more than a year in January, surpassing 66% and extending the company’s lead over Microsoft and Yahoo, according to numbers released this afternoon by comScore Networks.

More info on this at http://www.geekwire.com/2012/backlash-google-extends-lead-microsoft-yahoo

Google announced GoogleTV in May of 2010 because the company realized the future of advertising would require a cross-platform approach.  Google knew that if they could gather internet, TV and mobile usage habits, they could build the most targeted ad network on the planet.

Fast-forward to January of 2012; GoogleTV failed and in the interim, AT&T has been developing a home-brewed ad network of its own called AT&T AdWorks.  The ad network boasts advanced targeting capabilities that harnesses its TV (U-Verse), high speed internet and anonymized wireless subscriber data (from ~100M wireless subscribers), creating a data-mining trifecta that promises to outshine any other ad network’s current targeting capabilities.

To make matters worse for the likes of Google, Microsoft and Apple, I expect Verizon will soon announce its own competing product (disclaimer: I have no inside knowledge of Verizon actually working on this, but it is highly probable that the company would release a competing product, considering Verizon also has mobile, TV and internet offerings/subscribers).

At a time when it appears there could never be a competitor strong enough to take on behemoths such as Google, Apple and Facebook, could a retrograde move back to the telecom giants dramatically shift the future of digital advertising?

If you’re still using a Blackberry (I know most of you bailed already ;-)), look out for some awesome updates! 

The highlights are as follows:

• Mobile hotspot feature (connect up-to 5 WiFi enabled devices to your Blackberry, including your iPad and laptop!), and use your Blackberry’s internet connection while on the go!
• Updated Universal Search - this feature is much better than the spotlight search on iOS devices, and now automatically suggests what you probably ment to type (think “Google instant” search results)
• NFC Tag - Blackberry [relatively] secretly incorporated NFC technology into all of its new devices and is now unlocking some of its potential. NFC tag will now allow you to share contacts, media and files, and even invite friends to BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) through a simple touch.
• Wi-Fi Calling - now you’ll be able to make calls using the WiFi network your Blackberry is connected-to, saving you minutes on your wireless plan
• BlackBerry Maps - you’ll be able to see some deals from local businesses using your Blackberry Maps application.  For most people, this will be a useless upgrade as most smartphone owners use Google Maps which already incorporates Google Offers.  That said, it’s nice to see that Blackberry is thinking about a competitive product.
• BBM is now in version 6.1 which allows you to add contacts via a simple touch (harnessing a capability of the NFC tech mentioned above), and lets you customize your chats with specific contacts.
• BlackBerry Traffic now gives you turn-by-turn navigation! Awesome!
• BlackBerry Travel now shows you travel offers

BlackBerry just updated some of its killer apps, and made a good argument to get you back! Are you sick-and-tired enough of the battery & email issues plaguing your iPhone or Android experiences? This may be the right time to switch back! 

Are you considering making the switch back to Blackberry? Let me know in the comments below!

More info from the official BlackBerry blog is available here.

2011 was dominated by location-based ads and daily deals, fueled by the proliferation and increasing penetration-rates of smartphones (now said to be 38% penetration in the US, according to eMarketer).  In addition, mobile ad spending is finally expected to exceed $1B, marking a 65% increase over the previous year.

2012 promises to take true targeted advertising to the next level, and here are the top tech trends to look-out for:

 1. Location-based advertising will evolve into a much more targeted medium as platforms like Foursquare (@foursquare) move to the next evolutionary phase, powered by the immense data repository of recommendations it gathered from “early adopters”.

2. Mobile display advertising options will become increasingly consolidated, and platforms will enable for cost effective creation and trafficking of more compelling platform-agnostic mobile rich media ads.  For a long time brands and advertisers have been forced to choose which mobile operating system (OS) they want to target (and which ad-networks they want to utilize) to distribute mobile display advertising (due to limited resources), or were forced to create and re-create ad units that are compatible with each mobile OS and/or ad-network. The problems included a lack of consistent user experience (from device to device), the inability to rapidly adjust ads in reaction to competition and the marketplace, and costly, drawn-out experiences with creating ad-units that didn’t accurately reflect what ad-op’s teams intended. A few pioneers like Celtra (@celtramobile) identified this trend a few years ago and began “sharpening the saw” while others continued milking the cash cow. The result is a new breed of ad-creation and trafficking platforms that are easily modified, truly platform agnostic, and have both full-and self-service pricing options, appealing to a wide array of advertisers.

3. The daily deals space will become increasingly consolidated and targeted, as consumers seek to minimize the number of daily marketing-related emails they receive (many of-which are for non-relevant products/services).  The wealth of consumer purchasing and viral distribution data can be multiplied exponentially through the merger of two daily-deal leaders, and if we’ve learned anything about the value of highly-targeted marketing, the revenue potential for a joint venture seems to be much greater than that of individual daily-deal companies working independently.

4. Consumer-facing mobile application (app) development will take the back seat, as most big brands and advertisers have tested the waters and recognize that custom mobile apps are only as valuable as the overall strategy they’re a part of.

5. Enterprise-level mobile apps will become more popular and critical as large businesses seek to scale and mobilize their increasingly mobile and data-thirsty employees.  Today consumers are able to find any information they want at virtually any time, and the workplace shouldn’t be any different! According to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, 92% of Fortune 500 companies and 80% of top hospitals in the US have already tested or deployed iPads in their workforce.  Enterprise-level adoption of mobile devices is only expected to increase in the coming year(s) and enterprise-level mobile apps will be fueled by that growth.

6. Social media has been a major focus, primarily on an experimental level, of both big and small brands and advertisers.  As is the case with consumer-facing mobile apps, brands and advertisers have realized social media is only as valuable as the overall engagement strategy it is a part of, and social media will begin to take the back seat, as it becomes a necessary facet of the overall communications strategy.

7. Traditional entertainment will continue to evolve by way of integration with our mobile devices.  Virtually every new movie and show has a website and multiple social media profiles, and the level of integration with engagement will only grow as more of us begin using more advanced mobile devices.

Am I missing something in the list of trends above? Does your experience tell you one (or more) of the identified trends is way off?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

RIM’s Pivotal Time, Google’s HUGE Opportunity

I’ve come to terms with the notion that RIM’s management will not make the big changes it needs to survive.  I also still believe in the potential of RIM’s QNX-based platform, IF certain things happen; but that’s a big if.

If RIM actually wants a chance to survive it needs to finalize the win-win situation it began over a year ago.

The QNX platform (the platform the PlayBook and the world wide web are built on) will be the basis for the “next generation” BlackBerry smartphone operating system (OS), BlackBerry10 (formerly known as BBX - more on the renaming debacle here).  The QNX platform is so versatile, it will allow RIM devices to run both BlackBerry as well as Android apps.  The potential of opening up BlackBerry devices to run Android apps is huge!

The win-win situation involves offering BlackBerry users the ability to load Android apps on their devices, which gives users a plethora of apps to choose from (strengthening one of BlackBerry’s big weaknesses — its ecosystem) and Android developers a much larger user-base of individuals who are actually willing to pay for apps (strengthening one of Android’s biggest weaknesses — the fact that Android users aren’t really willing to pay for apps).

If RIM were to sell its business to Google, RIM would obviously benefit from Google’s deep pockets (which would help finalize the unique PIN issue which has plagued the PlayBook, causing it to lack native email and calendar clients) and management, and could stand a chance to survive (in some way, shape or form) the next five years of the personal computing evolution.

The acquisition of RIM by Google would also significantly strengthen the Android brand’s reputation, as Android’s core security vulnerability (one of its biggest weaknesses, especially for corporate clients) could be virtually eliminated, and RIM’s patent portfolio wouldn’t hurt either.  RIM is also an appealing acquisition because it would help Android solidify its smartphone market-share lead over Apple, and heck, any swipe at Apple’s core business makes Google stronger!  Furthermore, RIM’s stock price (currently valued 80% lower than it was in March of 2009) makes it a steal for the likes of Google, who could turn the savings into massive profits with the right leadership.

Lastly, as hoards of (soon to be) former BlackBerry loyalists defect to the likes of the iPhone, Android phones and Windows Phones, Google would have an immense advantage in grabbing the ~22% (and slipping) of global smartphone owners that still use a BlackBerry, and would gain the opportunity to recapture Android users who are planning on switching to iPhone.

All of that said, we’ll know much more about RIM’s anticipated direction in a few hours (after their quarterly report, which is scheduled to be after the market closes today).

Do you think the perfect mobile OS could be created by merging Android and BlackBerry?

[INFOGRAPHIC] Android reaches 10BN Downloads! 

Any surprises?

When Foursquare (@foursquare) was created back in March 2009 by Dennis Crowley (@dens) and Naveen Selvadurai (@Naveen), it pioneered the checkin space. 

I began using Foursquare about two years and 3,600 checkins ago, and initially had difficulty explaining to my non-technologically-inclined friends and family what value I perceived from the service.

 Many wonderful articles have been written about Foursquare and its benefits (including one written by an innovative thought leader named Jon Gluck (@itsJonGluck) called My One Year Foursquare Anniversary), and over time, with feature additions like the Explore function, the Radar service and integration with AMEX, Foursquare developed into a truly unique and valuable service.

However, it wasn’t until this holiday season (for me, at least) that Foursquare reached “Amazing” status.  Without much mention or fanfare, I found myself suddenly being rewarded with (literally) free money sprinkled all around the city!  And if that wasn’t enough, an interview Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) just conducted with Crowley at LeWeb depicted how Foursquare’s brilliant algorithm will help change the way we make decisions by utilizing social context with locational data.

To highlight how amazing this new Foursquare-powered era of social recommendations is, look no further than google.com.  Hundreds of millions of us conduct scores of searches every day through the site, and Google tracks all of our search histories (let’s not even consider the billions of miles mobile Google Maps users navigate every year).  How much junk do you have to sort-through to get the results you’re looking for when performing a Google search, and how personalized are the results?  Don’t get me wrong; the Google search algorithm has come a long way (like real-time Google search [as you type], often suggesting the search term Google ‘knows’ you wanted to type but didn’t, for some reason), but the opportunity Google has with my search history is huge!  Imagine if Google’s search algorithm created categories of people based-on search terms and their subsequent clicks on the results presented (as a result of the search terms), and then ranked search results based on those categories.

Couple that with the fact that Google has had 13 years to perfect its search algorithm, and you can see how profound Foursquare’s work (in its relatively short life) really is!

So, if you haven’t yet had a chance to truly use Foursquare, now is the time to make it happen!

Do you love or hate Foursquare? Share your thoughts below!

P.S. - I’d like to offer my gratitude to Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai for building such an amazing product (and guiding it through maturity), and to AmericanExpress for embracing the future and pioneering the payments and rewards space for its cardholders.

Let me start this post by saying that I still have faith in the possibility that RIM could, once again, become relevant in today’s overcrowded smartphone marketplace.

I am one of the few BlackBerry loyalists (for work purposes only - I use an iPhone for almost everything else) who not only sports a BlackBerry smartphone, but a PlayBook tablet as well.

About two months ago I was cited in a NewYork Times post by Nick Bilton suggesting that RIM needs to refocus it’s efforts on enterprise clients, and while that’s true, it seems that may not be enough for the organization to re-emerge from it’s current state. In a follow-up post, I explained that RIM has three primary causes to its problems (which are within its control); RIM’s PR, marketing and product people, and guess what?? The company just demonstrated that fact again.

A few weeks ago RIM announced it would be heavily discounting its PlayBook tablet from a starting price of $500 to $200.  This is a huge, fire-sale-like discount, and RIM plans to write-off the loss.  In this post HP TouchPad fire-sale era, where every tablet maker struggles to compete with the iPad (and they do all struggle — the only tablets that have come anywhere near the iPad in sales-volume are the HP TouchPad, during it’s short fire-sale when it surpassed iPad sales briefly, and the new Kindle Fire e-readers which are expected to encroach on the iPad’s sales volume by the end of this holiday season), it is absolutely critical for product manufacturers to realize how price-sensitive the rapidly growing tablet market is.

We’re living in a time when a product is only as good as its ecosystem, and the PlayBook tablet has no ecosystem to support it.

Why, oh why, did RIM decide to devalue its PlayBook in such a half-assed way?  Instead of bringing the price down to the magic $100 price-point and selling-out (which would drive demand and create an audience for developers’ apps, allowing for RIM to at-least build an ecosystem for future iterations of the tablet), RIM decided to reduce the PlayBook’s price to $200 which pitted-it directly against superior devices with infinitely better ecosystems in a fight for consumer dollars!

When people see me using my PlayBook tablet, they often ask how I like it and if I’d recommend it to them. My response always begins with, “Do you use a BlackBerry device as well?”, and if their answer is no, I tell them they can get much better products for their money.

To-date, the tablet is still missing (the long promised and critical updates that include) native email and calendar clients.  Essentially, if you have a PlayBook and no BlackBerry smartphone to accompany it, you’ll have to log into webmail for email or your web-based Google calendar (if you use it) for your organizer. For most people, these two downfalls are deal-breakers.  Couple that fact with the notion that Appworld doesn’t contain a single recognizable e-reading application, and you have a device that surfs the internet and will take pictures & videos, but that’s pretty much it.

So why do I remain optimistic about the possibility that RIM could, once again, become relevant in today’s overcrowded smartphone marketplace?

Because its new BBX operating system promises to be so unbelievably amazing (especially with its ability to run Android apps) that, once released (and that’s dependent upon a few factors :-)), could shake-up the fragmented Android marketplace and bring many former BlackBerry loyalists back to the handset maker…after all, in the last decade+ we saw Apple rise-up against greater odds and become an industry leader!

Do you think it’s possible for RIM to make a comeback?  Why or why not?

Windows Phone Leads the Pack!

Wireless handsets running (any version of) the Windows Phone operating system (OS) have yet to penetrate the global handset market significantly (market penetration is still in the single-digits, percentage-wise), but the OS shows a great deal of promise for advertisers.

According to the latest report from Smaato on mobile banner ad click-through rates (CTR) by mobile OS (which utilizes a proprietary index called the “Smaato Index”), as of Q32011 (and for the third quarter in a row), the Windows Phone OS leads all of its competitors: Apple’s iOS, Android, Symbian and RIM.

Some theorize one of the main reasons for this relatively high CTR is, until the release of the latest Windows Phone OS called Mango, developers were unable to generate revenue through in-app purchases, which forced them to be more creative with banner ad placement. Others believe the relatively high CTR can be attributed to the demographic of the average user of a Windows Phone handset.

Why do you think the Windows Phone OS has generated such a [proportionally] high CTR? Would you consider a Windows Phone for your next wireless handset?

[INFOGRAPHIC} Interesting perspective from small businesses on Social Media

the-infographics:

Social Media in Small Business

nickbmartin:

Electricity free iPod/iPhone music dock. This uses 100% acoustic amplification and might be one of the coolest green products I’ve seen.

via bltd

[INFOGRAPHIC] “An average Facebook user’s day”, thanks to the good folks at @Jess3!

Innovators & techies alike - Check out this ~30 min video from Mashable Media Summit featuring Pete Cashmore about the future of Social Media and connected devices.

Earlier this week I read (and reposted) a groundbreaking announcement about Microsoft’s new Robotics Developer Studio (RDS) which is a platform that allows developers to harness the power of the Kinect system.

This announcement was buried in a week’s-worth of tech news, and I don’t think many people (including myself) gave it much credence.  After contemplating about it again this morning, I realized this announcement was one of the most profound I’ve heard since Siri was announced.

At this point most of you are probably asking yourselves how a gaming console interface or voice control system could be so broadly impacting, and the answer is simple.  With all of the technologies and software that are introduced, few are profound enough to change (or disrupt) the way we do almost anything.

Both Siri and the Kinect system are more than just ways we control our phones or gaming devices; they will change the way we watch (and control) our TV’s (we Americans still spend more than 36 hours each month watching TV!), the way we control our cars, the way we take pictures at parties, the way we remotely provide medical care, and much, much more!

New interface technologies are often tested in quirky ways (like through gaming or controlling our mobile phones), perfected, and then brought to the masses with far-reaching implications, and now, it’s up to us — innovators and software developers — to come-up with ideas to revolutionize our world in ways we never thought possible before!

What industries can you image being revolutionized through the employment of the Kinect sensory system? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Great graph depicting Android’s meteoric climb to attain ~50% of UK smartphone marketshare!

Great post by Chantal Tode at MobileMarketer.com about a campaign promoting RedBull’s Crashed Ice event that focused on exploiting the effectiveness of the mobile/social convergence.

This past June I wrote a post called How Mobile is Fashion?.  As of the end of September, 2011, I still receive comments from you on how great the topic is, and I’ve also received various requests to expand on that post as technology evolves.  This post is a reaction to the requests I received, and I look forward to receiving your feedback below as well.

One of the new leading technologies in both the mobile and social realms is NFC technology (I’m using the term “new” loosely, as NFC technology has been around for years, but its integration into smartphones is a relatively new use for NFC).  If you think you’re unfamiliar with what NFC technology is, you’ve probably already seen it in the form of an NFC chip in your credit card(s), even though you’ve also probably never used it.  The latest data on NFC technology adoption indicates there are over 100 million people globally that used NFC technology for mobile payments; however only ~3.5 million of those people are in the US.

In the above referenced How Mobile is Fashion? post, QR codes and their creative incorporation into fashion was discussed.  QR code technology has many advantages over NFC technology; however, I believe that once Apple integrates NFC technology into iPhones, NFC will take the front seat.  When that happens, QR codes will (for the most part) be forgotten (much like MySpace was forgotten once Facebook came around) even though the two channels of communication can be complimentary, simply because of how easy NFC technology is to use (just touch your phone to a call-to-action).

That said, I’m not suggesting that QR codes shouldn’t be implemented – rather, I’m suggesting that NFC technology should have a good amount of your attention if you’re looking to incorporate the next big thing into your marketing strategy.

Although I don’t expect mainstream adoption of mobile payments (or any other use of NFC technology) until Apple incorporates an NFC chip into their iPhones (for more on this see another one of my popular posts, Mobile Payments Probably Won’t Take Off in 2011), I can assure you with great certainty that  NFC technology will be incorporated into an iOS device in the next two years (this is clearly evident by Apple’s latest patent filings), and that NFC tech will take center-stage very quickly once Apple does incorporate it into iOS devices.

Over the past few years, mobile helped bridge the gap between the real and virtual worlds through LBS (location based services) and social media.  In the coming years, that gap will be closed even more through the use of NFC technology because it is extremely simple to use (just wave your phone) and is both platform agnostic and functionally flexible (can be used at the POS (point of sale) as a payment source (that considers mobile coupons as well!) and integrates seamlessly with social media and LBS).

Earlier this year, Diesel ran a trial campaign in Europe that let people scan a QR code at select Diesel stores that would automatically “like” a product on Facebook and post that like your wall. Please check out the video below to see the campaign in action:

Taking this concept one step further, imagine if you could simply touch your smartphone to the tag/call to action near a product and have that action (touching your phone to a call-to-action) automatically post the same “like” (as in the above example) on your Facebook wall, add the jeans to your wish list on your smartphone’s Diesel app without having to download a QR code scanning app or taking any pictures, and help you find a makeup, shoe or jewelry collection that compliments the jeans well . This same action (touching your phone to a call-to-action) could also allow you to instantly purchase the jeans, tweet about them (or the brand – in the form of a preprogrammed, location-specific and branded tweet), and check-in to the store on Foursquare.  The point I’m trying to make here is, NFC technology is unbelievably secure and can initiate almost any action your smartphone can take…that’s essentially the power of NFC and all of its potential can be harnessed by simply waving your phone!

What do you think about NFC technology – have you had positive or negative experiences with it and does the prospect of paying with your phone excite or scare you?  Does the incorporation of technology like NFC and QR codes into fashion excite you, or do you like that the fashion industry as a whole lags far behind virtually every other industry in the realm of technology? 

Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Ever wonder why some QR Codes are well-received, while others may as well be a picture of an ice-cream sundae?

Check out the infographic to find out why, and while you’re at it, let me know if you agree with the data in the comments section below!

This post is a direct re-blog from a Mashable post written by Staphanie Buck.

The artist who brought you Twitter’s fail whale has joined the fashion realm — but still with a tech twist. Yiying Lu debuted Wednesday two of her 10 illustrations that will appear inMeets Obsession magazine’s “10 Most Intriguing in Fashion” feature next month.

Lu shared her interpretations of fashion icons Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Anna Wintour, on whose likeness she incorporated QR codes. When scanned, the codes will direct readers to Lu’s site where they can download the free artwork to iPhones and iPads.

“I am personally obsessed with the interplay between art and technology, and between digital content and real world content, and this project brings this all together in an innovative and interactive way,” says Lu.

Technology and fashion have been intertwined for decades, but today’s direct interplay between the two is unprecedented. Lu’s artwork comments on that dynamic. “Yiying Lu has discovered the future of fashion,” says artist and cultural critic Jonathon Keats. “Clothing and accessories printed with personal QR codes are the ultimate in mass customization.”

The entire Meets Obsession feature will debut when the magazine’s inaugural print issue hits newsstands August 5. Apart from Wintour and the Olsens, Lu won’t divulge what fashion icons to expect, but she has agreed to share some photos, the first of which is an exclusive sneak peak of the remaining illustrations.

analyticisms:

This is a good infographic and great news for social media marketing

Fashion leads trends in so many different ways, but when it comes to mobile, fashion lags far behind other industries.

Mobile is social, instant, broad-reaching, accessible and actionable — all attributes of fashion as well! So why has the fashion industry lagged behind when it comes to mobile? There are a variety of reasons, but the most important is probably timing.

Mobile marketing’s (essentially, marketing’s integrations with consumes through mobile devices) growth has been fueled by smartphone adoption, which really only started taking-off mid-2007 (with the introduction of the iPhone). During the subsequent years our economy (and as a result, the luxury and fashion industries) has suffered much negative growth. This encouraged the most innovation in the couponing and savings industries (which are a great fit for mobile), but neglected virtually all luxury-oriented industries.

However, now that our economy is recovering and smartphones (and tablets!) are in the hands of about half the US population, why doesn’t fashion catch-up to the times?

Think about your last retail shopping experience (that may as well have been 15 years ago, considering the technology used); wouldn’t it be helpful to have a virtual fashionista (instead of a sales-person, if you actually wanted and got their attention) at your side explaining which colors and clothing lines suit you and your body’s shape best? What about when you dressed yourself this morning — what if the tags on your clothes included custom QR codes that you could scan to view matching items that you already own from the same designer, or see (and buy) matching clothes from the current season’s line with the swipe of your finger? Would that completely revolutionize your daily dressing experience (and help designers with brand loyalty)? What if the tag on the dress you’re about to buy had a QR code that leads to a Twitter search (using a hashtag) that would include the words, “How are you wearing your <insert your favorite brand name here>” and display Twitter posts of others who have the same dress and [links to] images of them wearing the dress (which could encourage posting of the pics by featuring a brand advocate once-a-week on their website)?

Let’s take these concepts one step further to the brand identity level. What if more brands incorporated QR codes (and eventually some form of a micro-NFC chip) into the logos that are already being displayed on clothing which would lead to either a website/app where the clothing can be purchased, a hilarious (or scary) viral video from the brand, or (in the case of “cause marketing” brands like Tom’s) a map of the places that are being affected positively by the purchase of the garment you’re wearing? How much more powerful could the logo/brand be?

In short, both the fashion industry and our population are ready for the mobile revolution. Brands, digital/social/mobile marketing managers, what are you waiting for? The time is now and people are asking for it!

Have you seen any creative uses of mobile or social elements in the fashion industry? Please let me know in the comments below!

**************************************************************

Written by Isaac Naor and posted to ThinkMobi.ly on June 29, 2011 at 8:25amPDT. You can follow the author or the blog on Twitter at @IsaacNaor, or @ThinkMobily respectively. Please click here for the source of the image at the top of this post.

thenextweb:

(via Coca Cola adds 10,000 recycle bins to Facebook places in Israel - Social Media)

Jessica Stuart rocks QR Code Dress @ Webby awards

FYI - the QR code links to here

According to a Nielsen report from Q1 2011, [in the US] we use our tablets most while watching TV and lying in bed, our smartphones while watching TV and shopping/running errands, and we prefer to use both while with friends and family.

Note to Marketers: When you’re looking to reach couples for joint purchase descisions, tablets are the way to go! If you’re looking to tie TV spots to an interactive campaign, optimize it for tablets and smartphones!

Social network usage is still increasing (although according to InsideFacebook, Facebook recently lost 6MM, or 4% of its users in the US), and many believe the current exponential growth is attributed to the sharp increase in smartphone penetration.

To put this all into perspective, consider the following: more people own smartphones than personal computers in India, India’s population communicates more via social networks than email, and social network usage data for the region reflects these points.  So how do mobile OS (operating system) developers control social networks and their prevalence?

Nature follows the path of least resistance, and (in general) human nature is no different.

If there’s a better (or more valuable) UI (user interface) for certain social networks on popular OS’s, most people will choose the social networks with a better UI over others with an inferior UI.  Furthermore, if there is a better (or more valuable) UI for social networks than native email (the email system that’s installed from the factory on devices), people will use social networks more than native email (for communications they can control — professional communications are subject to professional standards, and I’m in no way suggesting that business professionals will begin communicating via social networks instead of email).  Obviously the user-base (or the number of people that you can connect-with) on any given social network or communication platform is an influence as well, but after that, people are looking for the best UX (user experience — a combination of the UI and the value perceived by the experience), as is evidenced by the sharp decline of email usage and corresponding sharp increase in social network usage.  This phenomenon is occurring because many social networking apps have a better UX than their native email counterparts, in-spite of the fact that email has a larger user-base than any social network.

And so, are social networks really at the mercy of mobile OS’s? Absolutely! We have to look no further than the recent announcement that Apple made at WWDC about Twitter being a fully integrated component of iOS5 (Apple’s newest mobile OS which has yet to be released).  Although iOS5 has not been released (and we, therefore, cannot quantitatively measure the true result of this announcement), virtually every thought-leader in the mobile and social media industries believe that Twitter will realize exponential growth in both their user-base, and proportion of active users as a result of Apple’s integration.

To further support this conclusion, think about the mass adoption of Twitter in 2008 and 2009 and how it correlates with mass adoption of smartphones during that same period. In 2007 US smartphone penetration was just ~3% and it (roughly) doubled every year since (to ~7% in ‘08, ~15% in ‘09 and ~30% in ‘10)!

Let’s take this one final step further; I’ve used devices running on virtually all of the major OS’s (iOS, Android, Blackberry WP7 and WebOS) and found that apps on Apple’s iOS provide the best UX for social networking (please let me know in the comments below if your experience is different than mine!).  If that’s true, and many refrain from switching to an iPhone due to the lack of a physical keyboard, could adding an iPhone with a physical keyboard to Apple’s single-product phone lineup actually increase social networking usage?

Do you believe the sharp rise in social networking usage is due to some other factor?

 Image Source: Engadget, in a post about BoxWave’s Keyboard Buddy iPhone case.

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Written by Isaac Naor and posted to ThinkMobi.ly on June 14, 2011 at 8:25amPDT. You can follow the author or the blog on Twitter at @IsaacNaor, or @ThinkMobily respectively.

A great depiction of the GeoSocial universe, by the good people at Jess3

The convergence of social and mobile has never been more apparent or critical, and this blog will focus on the intersection of the two platforms.

Most industry experts agree that social networks are being accessed by mobile devices more than computers (and this is only trend is only expected to increase in the coming years) and yesterday Apple announced the integration of Twitter into iOS5 at WWDC.

What does this mean, you ask? Well, with a single sign-in on your iOS device you’ll be able to share any photo, video, article, or other content with your Twitter followers. Furthermore, all of your contacts can be linked to their Twitter accounts and, if you choose to allow this, each contact’s profile picture (on your phone) can even be updated with their respective Twitter avatars.

This is HUGE!

Until now most have considered Facebook as the owner of the social graph. Facebook has enjoyed the benefit of a similar level of integration for a while now, and FB’s massive user-base has supported its dominance.  

As of the release of iOS5, the monopoly will be challenged by a serious contender. Interestingly, our mobile lifestyle has formed new tools which will help level the playing field for competition in the social space.

In the past, juggernauts like Google and Apple have challenged Facebook and have not gained much traction. So why will Apple be able to take on Facebook now? Apple’s approach is remarkable — pick a platform that everyone knows works and most iOS users already utilize, and make it the primary social communication channel on all iOS devices.

As if that wasn’t enough, Apple also introduced two other revolutionary products at WWDC; the much rumored iMessage platform and highly anticipated iCloud service.

Many people who have chosen to stick with their Blackberry devices do so because of BBM, Blackberry’s instant messaging service that shows ‘read’ and ‘delivered’ notifications in conversations, and links devices from PIN to PIN. Many developers have tried to create competing products with no success. The iMessage platform is a direct competitor to BBM, and truly rounds off the social experience iOS devices were missing.

And, to dynamically shift the content consumption experience, iCloud allows iOS users to access any music, iBooks and other content they purchased from any of their iOS devices through Apples new cloud servers. What this means is you no longer need to sync your iPod, iPhone, or iPad with your computer to get content you already purchased. Instead, you can start the iTunes app on any of the aforementioned devices and download any content you’ve already purchased from anywhere! (for more information about Apple’s iCloud, click here).

Apple realizes the mobile device helps shape our social interactions, and has massively capitalized on the opportunity to build the most social device to-date. With these new tools in its arsenal, Apple is certain to play a dominant role in the future of mobile. Are you considering ditching your Blackberry or Android device(s) in favor of any iPhone because of Apple’s new services?

Written by Isaac Naor and posted to ThinkMobi.ly on June 7, 2011 at 8:15amPDT. You can follow the author or the blog on Twitter at @IsaacNaor, or @ThinkMobily respectively.