Andy Boyer

Adotas brings us word that Barack Obama is bringing his presidential campaign to the coolest phone (and presumably most influential trendsetters) on the planet,  releasing an iPhone app that will enable supporters to easily reach out to friends and remind them to vote for their favorite candidate.

According ot the story, the app,  “Call Friends,” organizes the user’s phonebook by state and gives each contact a status (called or not called).  You can also use the app to find out where he stands on issues - and of course - enables people to donate to the campaign. 

I will tell you one thing.  I wouldn't  trust a lot of politicians to run a company's mail room, but if Obama doesn't become President, he would certainly be a heck of a CMO.   

I was down at CTIA in San Francisco last week expecting to be wowed by tons in mobile innovations.  I really thought  I'd be furiously taking notes and have plenty to write about for weeks.  Sadly, I was forced not to publish the trip report I did write and had sent internally to the folks at Spring Creek Group, due to my overall  philosophy of only writing about innovations I like, not complaining about things I don't get or won't use.  I figure Techcrunch does enough criticizing for the entire blogosphere, so no reason to be one of the naysayers

So instead of a trip report from the Bay, here are 2 clever text messaging apps that I read about at PCWorld.com and now use fairly regularly

1) Google Calendar SMS Commands  - I use Google Calendar, as part of my slavery to Gootle Mail, Docs, Chat, Analytics and Ad Words.  Instead of having to sync my Blackberry every day, i can simply send a text to GVENT (48368) with the word "day" and I get a full schedule.  If I want tomorrow's shcedule, I type "nday."  I immediately receive a text back with my schedule.

2) Diet Watcher - If you're watching calories, Diet.com can help you keep count. Text any major restaurant chain's name and menu item to DIET1 (dial 34381) and they'll send you back the nutrition stats: calories, fat, carbs, and protein.  In case you are curious, a McDonald's Double Cheeseburger has 440 Calories (23g fat), while a Starbucks Grande Latte has 

Neither of these services are awe-inspiring, but if you want information quickly, they are pretty useful.  And really at the end of the day, "Useful, Easy and Free" beat slick marketing and $60 Million in Series C funding any day of the week.

Here's an odd report that comes out of England.  Does it mean that pregnant women must add Cell Phones to the list of things they can't use? Perhaps.  

In a nutshell, the suprised researchers found that cell phone usage while pregnant leads to hperactivity wwhen the kids are born.  Specific results:

• Mothers who did use the handsets were 54 per cent more likely to have children with behavioural problems
• The likelihood increased with the amount of potential exposure to the radiation.
  
• When the children also later used the phones they were, overall, 80 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties with behaviour.
  
• They were 25 per cent more at risk from emotional problems.
  
• 34 per cent more likely to suffer from difficulties relating to their peers.
  
• 35 per cent more likely to be hyperactive.
• 49 per cent more prone to problems with conduct.
  

So if your kid is hyper - don't blame them....it sounds like it's your fault :)  Can't wait to see the first lawsuit to come from this.... 

In the very early days of PC Casual games, you had to buy everything you wanted to try.  But once the internet hit, and you could try out demo versions of the games for free, the market absolutely exploded.

Well, I think we've finally reached that moment in Mobile Games, thanks to our friends at Movaya.  Here is their latest release:

The Movaya team is excited to announce the beta release of Movaya TryNBuy: the first off-deck, cross-carrier try-before-you-buy system for mobile game sales in the US.

Movaya TryNBuy is a patent pending licensing system that allows consumers to download games over-the-air to their mobile devices and try games on their handset. Upon purchase, the games are unlocked.

Try-before-you-buy was a major driver in the huge growth of casual games on the desktop and now Movaya is bringing this to the mobile marketplace.

Movaya TryNBuy is configurable on multiple levels including length of play, and number of plays.

Movaya TryNBuy is now available online at www.bustedthumbs.com and will be rolled out to Movaya's publisher and merchant network over the coming weeks.

To get more information on Movaya TryNBuy, please visit our website.

For years, we have all been hearing how Mobile Video would soon breakthrough and become a major part of our media consumption habits.  And yet, for most of us, it's rarely or ever something we use.  So the question is, "Why aren't we adopting Mobile Video at the rates we're expected to?"

Last night at dinner some friends and I surmised the following, and I wonder if you agree.  Mobile Video is a "Supply-Side" product.  Some of the most powerful brands and industries - Mobile Carriers, Broadcasters, Sports Leagues, Ad Agencies and Media Distributors - would absolutely love if we were never disconnected from highly visual mediums where ads can be placed, or content can be charged for.  There is a wealth, or excess supply, of content out there, and the only thing holding back their revenues is our ability to escape from that content.  So of course, they look at us and say, "When Andy leaves his Living Room, we need a way that he can keep watching TV." 

But very few of us look at our phone - which is our telecommunications device - and say, "Damn, it sucks that I can't watch TV on this."  Now, I have a high DEMAND for a phone that I can take with me wherever I go.  I have similar high DEMAND for Text Messaging, a car that runs, laptops I can take anywhere, online services I can use to order anything, and hundreds of other things that I can't make it through the week without.

But television on my phone? I don't really demand that.  I understand it's available.  I think it's cool that it's available.  But I can't think of a reason that I would demand it be available.

And I think that is the crux of the mobile video problem.  The marketing campaigns are awesome.  The technology is cool.  I trust the people bringing it to me.  And I love the shows that are available.  But those are all supply issues.  Until there's a demand scenario that makes sense for me, I think it will continue to languish. 

And so, as we head toward potential Web 2.0 bubbledom and a possible recession, I'm putting all companies into these two categories.  Which companies are trying to create their own market out of an excess supply of something, and which companies are providing products and services that fill an already establish demand? I think the demand side companies will survive whatever economic blip we run into.

New product announcement from Movaya today, as they released version 2.0 of Plug N Play, which is a technology that makes it even easier for any online merchant (or even a blog) to sell mobile games from their web site, deliver them directly to the customer's phone, and directly charge their cell phone bill. 

While the mobile game industry is still in its early stages, all signs point to an explosion in revenues of mobile games in the coming years. The new version of Movaya's product comes after months of research and feedback from the several hundred web sites already implementing the platform.

The entire press release is available in a Social Media form at their blog.

So here's something I bet Bob Cousy or Wilt Chamberlain never did.

An ESPN.com article reports that when New York Knick Stephon Marbury left his team's practice in Phoenix and flew home to Arizona, "The point guard reportedly sent two text messages to the New York Post saying that he had permission to leave the team in Phoenix and fly back to New York. He arrived at approximately 4 p.m."

So much for the need for PR guys and Agents.   

But how far could this go?  Think about Game 7 of the World Series, and a player in the dugout texts the announcers.  Or training camp where a player texts a reporter about a rumor or trade.  I know it's all absurd, but if you told me a player would ever leave practice and make his press statement through an SMS text directly to a reporter, I'd have said that was ridiculous too....  

An old friend from Manchester sent me news about his company, Tixmob, this morning. Here's a synopsis:

http://www.tixmob.com/ Is a new concert ticket agent, just like Ticketmaster and Seetickets we work directly with concert promoters and event organizers to sell tickets on their behalf.   Unlike Ticketmaster, Seetickets etc.. A Tixmob ticket is paperless. Upon purchase it is sent to your mobile phone in the form of an sms message with a bar code. When you get to the event the ticket taker will scan the ticket with our scanner to prove it’s valid and it hasn’t already been used. So ticket touting/scalping is more difficult, you’ll probably get in faster since, for a while at least, we’ll usually have our own que.   A big complaint people have about ticket agents like Ticketmaster is all the crazy fees they stick on top of the ticket price. Generally Tixmob will have a booking of 10% of the tickets face value. As some extra incentive for people to try the product, we’ve reduced booking fees on our first few events to as low as 2%.

While it appers to be UK based for now, the US possibilities seem far reaching as well.  I would assume sports teams would love the anti-scalping features.  Anyway, something to keep an eye on.

MocoNews reports that Hillary Clinton will add mobile marketing to her campaign promotion arsenal.  The article states,"“Clinton’s text-messaging initiative targets the 230 million American cellphone users - a sign the campaign is hunting for every possible vote in her bitter battle with rival Sen. Barack Obama. It’s only a matter of time before campaign ringtones are sold."

A few places have picked up the story that Movaya launched a service to make it equally easy for large retailers or small web sites (like this one) to add Mobile games for sale. 

Brier Dudley writes a blurb here. 

GameProducer.net received some comments here. 

NW Innovation profiles it here.

More links to come....