So we’ve been watching the iPhone App store closely of course - 10,000 apps 300 million downloads and counting.  We’ve been wondering what the evolution would be, and in a sense it is turning into a subset of the mobile apps space as a whole.  Discovery costs.

We’ve always talked about 3 main issues with mobile applications, Porting, Discovery and Distribution.  What is it like in Apple’s world?

Porting:
Well - that is easy enough since there is only one iPhone spec to develop against.

Distribution:
Apple certainly took care of distribution - getting an app on your iPhone is about as easy as it gets - iTunes.

Discovery:
Ah - now the interesting part. How do people become aware of your app? In the long run, think about it this way - if you record a song and put it on iTunes, are you going to get rich?  Probably not unless you are already a successful artist.  Sure there are a few hits that grow in popularity there, but for the most part, just putting something on iTunes isn’t good enough.

You’ve somehow got to get to the top of a list. How do you do this?

• Pay for it (sponsorship - costs money)
• Be popular (that costs money too)
• Get “chosen” as a favourite
• Get blogger coverage or other PR
• Or…

The article goes on to say that for iPhone developers and designers, creating an app can cost $80,000 according to Craig Hockenberry’s open letter to Steve Jobs - which may or may not earn a return in iTunes.  Now even if that number is a little high - this is driving developers to focus on simple and cheap apps recognizing that people right now are willing to pay much for something as an impulse buy.

This has generated a lot of discussion in particular about what Apple, or developers should do, but in the end when you build something that can only be sold in one store, you are at the mercy of that store and its policies.   That is the price you pay to have Porting and Distribution solved for you (at least with Apple anyway).  Will the Andriod Market or the Blackberry Application Storefront change this - or just continue to make Porting a headache?

Wireless Week noted that Vodafone has announced its Wireless Innovation Challenge, an initiative that seeks to identify and fund the best innovations using wireless related technology to “address critical social issues around the world.”

Wireless technologies like, say, a mobile application perhaps?

Not only do you get to design, build and publish a mobile application for the good of the earth and its people, you can also win some cash. And, you can build your application using our software.  With Breeze, you’ll be able to get your app up and running with the potential to run on billions of phones, and the distribution and porting problem solved out of the gate.

The new competition will award three winners prizes of $300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 for unique, late-stage wireless innovations that offer the best potential for creating social change in the areas of education, health, economic development, the environment and access to communication.

Eligible projects must demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach that uses an innovation in wireless related technology to address a critical global issue and has the potential for replication and large scale impact. Applicants must also have a business plan or basic framework for financial sustainability and rollout.

Interested in developing a mobile application for a good cause?

Let us know how we can help and good luck.

We caught an interesting post yesterday from Rafe Needleman on CNET about a panel that took place at last week’s Under the Radar conference.

The panel, “No filters: Ask the carriers anything,” according to Rafe, went downhill pretty quickly. The panel, consisting of representatives from U.S. wireless carriers Verizon Wireless, Alltell, T-Mobile, and AT&T, were basically on defense mode.

Entrepreneurs in the audience – many who have to constantly plead with carriers to add their services - challenged the carriers to open their gates and let them offer their services. Seems like a fair request to us.  One of the spokespeople for a carrier countered with a good point, though. When an app doesn’t work, the developer doesn’t get the phone call, the carrier does. True but aren’t there ways to bypass this? A middleman workaround was discussed where developers would develop the app then have someone else bargain with the carriers. Still, it all depends on what the carrier agrees to at the end of the day, not how cool the app is.

Rafe ended his post with:

“..In the meantime, some of the carriers just aren’t going to budge. If you want to get your cool new app on all the mainstream phones, there’s no easy way. There are, though, other opportunities to work with the mobile carriers, if you’re looking for a business to start…”

We recently blogged about this same hesitancy of carriers to allow developers to add their apps to their “walled gardens” and still believe the same thing: If carriers are to remain competitive they need to let up a bit and start working with developers – they are missing out on opportunities and revenue. The iPhone has proven that users will be increasingly demanding more apps from their providers - what about the rest of the phones out there?

What would the desktop software market look like if the ISP’s put the same controls on software that goes onto computers?

We thought we would highlight the Sony Ericsson Content Awards 2008.  While we are not officially affiliated with the contest in any way - there is still time to use Breeze to create your application for it.  While Breeze will create binaries for many other devices as well, Sony Ericsson phones are supported through our platform.

Anyway, you can find out more about the contest at the official website, and if you need help submitting your apps, please get in touch with us and we’d be pleased to help out.

Good luck!

We were meeting with an industry analyst recently speaking about off-deck content trends, how content providers can best play in the space, and where Cascada Mobile fits into that equation. During the conversation an interesting side conversation developed on carriers and the evolution (or de-evolution) of their business models to adapt to consumer’s demands for better and more openly available mobile content.

The next few years will be interesting for carriers with the market becoming saturated, consumers expecting more and more from their mobile phones, and the increasing pressure to open up even more (or open up at all). With mobile content increasingly becoming more and more desirable to consumers, the carriers are challenged to stay relevant as mobile content providers.

As is stands now, carriers closely guard their customer’s information with vigor and offer customers “walled garden” environments and closed pipe content. And let’s be honest, some of that content is not-so compelling. Not to mention from the customer perspective, the grass is always greener on the other side of that walled garden. As consumers are drawn to mobile content off their carrier’s deck, many find that they can’t have it due to a closed carrier approach. They may just revolt, and at the very least complain. Regardless of whether they purposely open up now or not, carriers risk the chance of watching from the sidelines as their customers go elsewhere for content, such as applications.

The proverbial dam, so to speak, has been breached. Whether carriers like it or not, users are demanding and downloading applications. Will carriers step up and join in?  And will people start switching to carriers that are more open, or has this already started to happen?

Into Tomorrow is the radio network program covering the latest in consumer electronics and technology. The program is hosted by Dave Graveline, one of the most talented and professional radio and television hosts in the business. Dave’s show is a dynamic blend of listener interaction and insightful and informative guests speaking on a variety of topics related to technology.

Dave caught up with Cascada Mobile CEO, Alan Lysne, at CTIA for an interview on Cascada Mobile, the Cascada Breeze Platform, and the Cascada Mobile App Portal.

You can listen to the interview by clicking on the Red Arrow on the web page found here at the 8:38 mark of “Hour 1″.  You’ll even hear the phrase “Magic Pixie Dust” in a technical interview.

Into Tomorrow is also available as a podcast for free on your Tivo under “Science, Tech” and can be heard daily on XM Satellite Radio on 35+ various XM channels. For other ways to listen to Into Tomorrow, check this out:

Thanks Dave, for taking the time to talk with Cascada Mobile!

Here is a simple little app created in Breeze that lists the upcoming “into tomorrow” shows.  As much as we’d love to list the full audio of the files, the network speeds on most phones won’t really support it, not to mention the possible bandwidth charges.  If someone really wants this, we can look into adding it in (with Dave’s permission of course!)

The Mobile Industry Review [formerly known as SMS Text News] makes the journey from London each year for Showstoppers and the CTIA show and this time they brought a video camera. The MIR has been working on a lot of interesting ways of spreading their mobile knowledge: they blog daily, they have a weekly newsletter, and now they offer readers video episodes of cool mobile applications, trends, and interviews and reviews of technology from around the globe called the Mobile Industry Review Show.

The brains behind the organization, Ewan MacLeod, founder and publisher, interviewed Cascada Mobile CEO Alan Lysne for the MIR Show, at Showstoppers.

Alan chatted about BreezeApps, how mobile developers can develop their applications so they can be read by billions of smartphone users on their smartphones, but also why developers shouldn’t be building mobile apps just because they can. You’ll have to watch the video to find out what Alan means!  Watch the video to see a custom App built for Ewan installed and run at the show.

Note to Ewan - and you thought we couldn’t support your Nokia Communicator ;)  Cascada’s bit starts at about the 7:45 mark.

Mobile Industry Review - Episode 26 from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Ewan, thanks for stopping by the Cascada Mobile booth!

bnetTV.com, Inc., was on location at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008 Show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, September 10-12th. bnetTV’s  ‘on-the-ground’ reporting team met-up with Cascada Mobile’s Alan Lysne for an interview during the Showstoppers Press Event at the annual wireless show.

The full Cascada Mobile interview can be found on bnet.TV here:

Thanks bnet.TV, for taking the time to chat with Cascada Mobile!

Upon returning home from travels to San Francisco for CTIA and New York for InterOp / Mobile Business Expo, we found out that Cascada Mobile won the Red Herring Canada Top 50 Award, honoring our company as one of the fifty most innovative and promising private technology companies in the country.

Here is what Red Herring CEO, Alex Vieux, had to say about Cascada Mobile:

“Cascada Mobile’s innovation is its development platform which levels the playing field for content owners and developers with web skills to harness the enormous market potential for mobile applications that serve the 2 billion plus Java-based mobile phones already in use today around the world.

The business opportunity for Cascada Mobile’s development platform, Breeze, and its mobile application portal, BreezeApps.com, coupled with the company’s management and execution of strategy impressed our panel of judges and made Cascada Mobile a clear choice for the Red Herring Top 50 award.”

Red Herring’s editorial staff evaluated hundreds of Canadian companies on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management, execution of strategy, and integration into their ecosystem.  The list was narrowed to the top 100, and then was further reduced by an all-star panel of judges to arrive at the top 50 winners, of which Cascada Mobile was one.

My thanks to the Cascada Team for all their continued efforts.

I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion entitled “Software Platforms for Mobile and Wireless Computing” at the InterOp / Mobile Business Expo show in New York (next to the Web 2.0 conference) last week, and it reiterated what we’ve been seeing in the market as well.

First off, thanks to fellow panelists David Birnbach, CEO of Vaultus Mobile Technologies, Jeanne Kolesnik, Business Development Director, of Paragon Software Group, and Agam Singh, VP of Product Management for Slifter - and of course our moderator Michael Miller of PC Magazine for generating a good discussion (and making sure we didn’t bore the audience with any PowerPoint slides)!

The lively discussion centered around the fact that a mobile developer these days has to make a lot of decisions before even getting started.  Specifically what platforms they will support.  Michael summed it up quite nicely over at his blog, Forward Thinking, here:

It is worth pointing out that as more and more players start promoting their own app stores and distribution channels, that this too will become a choice a developer/publisher has to make.  In the long run, it probably doesn’t make sense to have one single app store for everything, but this market fragmentation in the distribution of mobile apps is now expanding and adding an additional layer to the already complex development, testing and porting issues.