The popularity of iPhone has taken the world by storm and now it is reaching over 45 million of consumer at the end of 2009.When iPhone was first introduced, it hit the headlines across the entire globe. Its appealing outlook along with its amazing features simply ignites the burning desire of every consumer out there. Many companies are seeing this as a great business investment and the direction where these companies are investing their money on is none other then the recent buzz, the iPhone applications. In other words, more businesses are realizing the benefits of mobile applications and web-based access.

iPhone applications can be used to promote your business and it can be sold as a consumer product. Within a few days of the Application Store launch, over 900 new applications were added. This has stunningly turned the iPhone into a digital playground for all its users.

The Advantage of Investing in iPhone applications:
1. Attractive Commission – You’ll get to keep 70% of everything you sell in the iPhone Application Store.

2. Wide Range of Business Opportunities – It is speculated that iPhone will achieve 45 million units by the end of 2009. With such strong numbers of consumers, this is where many opportunities can be found.

3. Work From Home – Some people are creating applications as a full time job. One reason is because of its high rturns and it is seen to be only growing at the current rate. Therefore, more and more people are starting to come into this industry.

The iPhone market is still in its early stages and growing at a very fast rate. This makes it extremely attractive for many business companies. It is the reason why the popularity of iPhone applications within corporations is blooming. On the other hand, Apple is trying to do its best to support business applications development. Very soon, developers are able to sell additional services within applications, and buyers will be able to use these new features to create a better and more distinctive application.The development of iPhone applications has become one of the richest business in the world of information technology these days. Many programmers have made a name and fortune for themselves by simply writing unique iPhone applications. In fact, these applications are fairly cheap, but if you write one that goes viral, it will generate you a whole lot of money.

For 22nd MobileMonday Taipei, we invite 3 speakers to share their newly business development for iPhone application. Each of them representing different business ventures:

Presenter 1: Mr. Steve Follmer – who co-founded internet radio station live365.com during the dot com era, he recently started developing iPhone application with his engineering team. He will share with us his thoughts about the iPhone impact for the market.

Presenter 2: EzMoBo – Established in 2000, EzMoBo provides entertainment focused services and contents over side range of wireless network and platform. As part of this effort, EzMoBo now has leading services, EzFriends, EzDating, and others established across all of Taiwan’s major cellular carriers. And to seize the business opportunity brought by iPhone, they recently launched few gaming iPhone applications on app store. They will share with us how they see the market is evolving from a mobile content provider’s point of view.

Presenter 3: Ayaris 9 – A company provides software contracting and development project management with partners. One of their key partners specializes in iPhone application development, they will share with us how the new software ODM/OEM business opportunities iPhone brought in.

Event program:

Time: 7PM, Monday, July 6th, 2009
Place: Mary’s Bistro 2nd. Floor, No.89, Sec 2 Ren-Ai Rd., Taipei City.

Check-in: 7 PM

Presentations & Discussion: 7:30 PM

Networking Time: 8:00 PM

Steve Follmer consulted in Silicon Valley for many years, where he co-founded live365.com. He is currently between startups and analyzing opportunities in the mobile space. Steve holds a BSE degree from Princeton University.

21st MobileMonday Taipei Event Report
21st MobileMonday Taipei-Mobile Open Source

MoMo 21 proved enjoyably intimate, giving many of us a chance to catch up on friends from earlier meetings. As usual, the conversation was fueled by abundant Aussie fare and hospitality at Mary’s Bistro Cafe. The two presentations then centered on open platforms.

Mirko Linder, lead developer for Paroli at Openmoko, illuminated for us the Paroli platform. This is an entirely open hardware and software GSM handset platform, built on the Neo Freerunner phone, in which all chips and architecture are fully documented and all firmware can be re-flashed. The Frerunner runs a Linux Kernel, and offers wifi, gsm, bluetooth, accelerometers, and touchscreen. OM2009 is Openmoko’s application platform running on top of this. The cherry on top, Paroli, is a python daemon which enables users to integrate and share data and control among most phone software with the ease of a scripted language. In a way, the entire project is a paragon of the open source philosophy, of generating new ideas and a common wealth, through sharing and through enabling users to program and rapidly prototype. An exciting project to which we wish the greatest success. For more information, check out Mirko’s slide show and Paroli.

Next up, Nicolas Sauvage, Asia General Manager for Open-Plug explained the use of open source on feature phones. Open-Plug is used by the majority of Taiwan’s OEMs and ODMs, who use their ELIPS development platform to dramatically reduce both the time and cost of creating handset software. Instead of creating a monolithic statically linked executable for the handset, the Open-Plug system enables the software subsystem to be built from components that are dynamically added. And indeed, these components can be open source. You can find his presentation here.

This raises the interesting subject of smart phones pushing downmarket into feature phone territory. Price will certainly remain the primary driver on any spreadsheet, but I believe sales are subject to additional dimensions. As a point of reference, iSuppli has estimated that the iPhone has about $200 in material cost, and as we know it retails for about $600. Indeed these numbers simply out of reach in many markets. But for the consumer, this hard cost is masked by bundling the phone into a 2-year contract. For the carriers, the handset is more than that, it is the vehicle through with voice, data, and SMS plans are delivered. For Apple it is a music delivery vehicle, and for Google is is an ad delivery vehicle. Given these powerful forces, it seems nobody will let the handset be “just a phone” and that consumers will have to search harder and harder for any pure phone handset. In sum, in addition to wagering on the win, place, and show among smart phone players, we can also watch the smart phone vs. feature phone boxing match. I don’t have any hard numbers at hand, but Infonetics predicts 1.1 billion handsets sold in 2009, and double-digit growth for smartphones for the next 5 years, with dollar (though not unit) volume exceeding feature phones by 2013.

The evening concluded with a drawing, with Makato Chiu from Pixostyle giving away 20 Golla brand cell phone bags.

Sponsored By Pixostyle

Without a doubt, 2008 has been the year where open source has transitioned from a status of early adoption to one of acceptance and endorsement by the mobile industry’s who’s who as a recipe for collaborative software development. The Android launch, the Symbian acquisition and open source roadmap, Intel’s Moblin 2.0 and OpenedHand acquisition, Nokia’s adoption of WebKit as a feature of the S40 platform, the Trolltech acquisition and incorporation of Qt on S60, Purple Labs acquisition of Openwave and Sagem assets, AOL’s Open Mobile Platform… it seems that in the space of just one year open source has transitioned all of a sudden from geekware for Linux enthusiasts to a succesful commercial alternative to closed-door standards. Moving forward, 2009 will be the year of maturity for how open source can be used as a tool for cheaper, faster collaborative software development, which reduces barriers to entry and breeds innovation. This month’s MobileMonday Taipei, we invite two leading companies in the mobile open source world to share with us: what is open-source, why so many licensing restrictions, and why it is such an unstoppable force?

Please CLICK HERE to sign up!!

Event program:

Time: 7PM, Monday, May 18th, 2009
Place: Mary’s Bistro 2 Floor, No.89, Sec 2 Ren-Ai Rd., Taipei City.

Check-in: 7 PM

Presentations & Discussion: 7:30 PM

Presenters:

Nicolas Sauvage, General Manager Asia at Open-Plug

Topic : “Using Open-Source for feature phones? Really?�

Open-Plug provides the only *component-based* framework for embedded systems, offering a unique and proven Software design flow to the mobile industry. They are experts in embedded software and provide Component, Framework and UI Technologies enabling Handset Manufacturers to rapidly adapt their software assets to new consumers and operators requirements.

Mirko Lindner, Senior Developer-Paroli Project at Openmoko

Topic : ” Paroli on Openmoko2009 – a tale of scripting and sharing ”

Openmokoâ„¢ is a project dedicated to delivering mobile phones with an open source software stack. Openmoko is currently selling the Neo FreeRunner phone to advanced users and will start selling it to the general public as soon as the software is more developed.

Networking Time: 8:00 PM

>Steve Follmer consulted in Silicon Valley for many years, where he co-founded live365.com. He is currently between startups and analyzing opportunities in the mobile space. Steve holds a BSE degree from Princeton University.

20th MobileMonday Taipei Event Report
20th MobileMonday Taipei – Windows Shopping: the Future of Windows Market Place for Mobile

MoMo 20 was held April 20, 2009, at Mary’s Bistro in downtown Taipei, where we gobbled down Australian pizza and three presentations.

FFirst off was Vincent Chiang of Microsoft Taiwan, presenting their .NET Micro Framework. In a word, it turns feature phones into smart phones. The framework is already in use on devices such as Garmin navigation devices and Comcast set top boxes; the version for cell handsets will launch later this year. Nicolas Sauvage and Open-Plug are assisting local manufacturers with integration. The platform is fully elaborated here.

Next, Kai Su of iMobile Mind discussed their experience developing for the Windows Mobile platform. They have extensive worldwide expertise generating custom turnkey solutions for industries including field service, healthcare, hospitality, real estate etc. Industry data shows double digit annual growth across numerous industries enjoying extensive deployments of handset and PDA “Enterprise Mobility Solutions”. Check out their powerpoint.

Finally, Johnson Huang, a Microsoft MVP at Delta Electronics, shared his positive experiences developing for Microsoft. Their “Windows Marketplace for Mobile” boasts 20,000 applications, with developers cut in for 70% of revenues, as seems standard. In particular, Johnson explained how VUI (Voice User Interfaces) are particularly suitable for handset apps. The presentation can be downloaded here.

Over the last 3 sessions, we’ve seen what Apple, Google, and Microsoft are bringing to the mobile world. Revolutionary not just on technical merits, they also level the playing field for consumer and developer alike, by bringing the carriers to heel, and through a veritable mall of app stores. With handsets being upgraded on an annual basis in many countries, what will the league table look like a year from now? Microsoft and RIM have strong established user bases, but Apple has the inside track, and nobody is counting Google out. We live in interesting times.

Open-Plug would like to know about your views on Mobile Applications Development.
Take the survey for a chance to win $250 !

Take the survey now:

Are you or will you be involved in the development and deployment of mobile applications ?
Whether you are a Manager, or are into Business, Development, Technology or Content Creation, then your views are of high interest to us …

In exchange for taking a short survey about your views in Mobile Applications Development, you will have the option of participating in a drawing for US$250 in prize money. The survey should take no more than 5 minutes to complete.

The survey is anonymous and your responses will remain confidential.

All respondents who wish so will receive a summary of the survey results.

To take the survey, please click here or go to http://openplug.mobileappsdev.sgizmo.com/

Feel free to spread the word about this survey.

Thanks in advance and best regards,

The Open-Plug team

Microsoft plans to launch an App Store that lets Windows Mobile users find, purchase, and download programs directly from the phones. It’ll work much like the iPhone App Store and the upcoming BlackBerry App World. Microsoft will take a 30% cut on the sales of any paid applications. That’s the same fee that Apple charges, although Research in Motion keeps just 20%. Although Windows Marketplace will only works for Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Mobile 7, and it will be launched later this year.

It seems that because of the success of iPhone and its app store, everyone is trying to doing the same thing, could this marketplace be the answer for Windows to gain more market share in the smartphone operating systems? As for developers, what are their thoughts about this new change? This month’s MobileMonday Taipei, we invite some MVP (most valued professional) of windows mobile application development to share with us their experiences in developing windows mobile application and what they think about this change.

Please CLICK HERE to sign up!!

Event program:

Time: 7PM, Monday, Apr. 20th, 2009
Place: Mary’s Bistro 2 Floor, No.89, Sec 2 Ren-Ai Rd., Taipei City.

Check-in: 7 PM

Presentations & Discussion: 7:30 PM

Presenters:

Mr. Kai Su, iMobile Mind

iMobile Mind is one of the global leading mobile information platform and mobile enterprise solution vendors. They are very well-known in the industry when it comes to Windows mobile developing. iMobile Mind has assisted over 60 famous global or Aisa’s enterprises to implement the mobile data applications.

Mr. Johnson Huang, Currently works for Delta Electrnoics Inc. as Research Center MMI dept. Researcher. He used to be Assistive Technology Engineering Lab. R&D div. Manager. And he is Microsoft Taiwan Corporation Windows CE Partner Trainer, also Finesse IT Partners Inc. Windows Mobile Programming Trainer.

Networking Time: 8:00 PM

Steve Follmer consulted in Silicon Valley for many years, where he co-founded live365.com. He is currently between startups and analyzing opportunities in the mobile space. Steve holds a BSE degree from Princeton University.

19th MobileMonday Taipei Event Report

19th MobileMonday Taipei: The Android Experience

Tonight at a Momo new venue, Yuma Southwestern Grill, we enjoyed presentations from two top Android developers. Spencer Riddering provided a sneak preview of his forthcoming to-do list app, überdo, and Eric Huang of jmap.cc showed off a weather application he developed in a mere 3 days. Both developers were elated with Android and its java-like environment. Strategy Analytics predicts that Android will top the market with 50 million units by 2012.

At this moment, Android is only available on the G1 unit through T-Mobile in the USA. But expect dramatic changes: the HTC Magic “G2″ is to ship next month, followed by as many as 10 models in 2009, from diverse manufacturers in the Open Handset Alliance: LG, Samsung, ASUS, Acer, Huawei, and Sony Ericsson, including 5 new Android models from HTC. Google has placed a dedicated team in Taiwan to work with manufacturers. Lastly, Android is anticipated on a netbook platform such as the eeePC.

Eric Huang of jmap.cc spoke in Mandarin about Android and his development experiences, supported with an extensive Power Point presentation in English. He explained the many parts of the Android platform: it is an application framework, the Dalvik virtual machine running atop a linux kernel, an integrated browser, optimized graphics, SQLite databse, media support, GSM telephony, Bluetooth, EDGE, 3G, and WiFi, camera, GPS, compass, and accelerometer. Android Market is Googles answer to Apple’s App Store; it currently stocks about 2300 apps, both paid and free. Eric can be reached through his blog http://blog.jmap.cc

Spencer Riddering of Lean & Keen treated us to a sneak peek of their powerful to-do list application überdo. Like Eric, he entered the Google coding challenge and was ranked in the top quartile.

Clearly RIM has established a loyal base of business users, and Apple has a tremendous head start. Google has clearly come late to this market, but Google has come late to many markets only to later dominate them. Google also operates from a different business model, basically offering Android for free to handset manufacturers. I expect that the diversity of android handsets and its free OS and web services will put pricing pressure on Google’s competitors. An iPhone which costs $200 to manufacture costs the consumer $2400 over the course of a two year contract and this will not last. Lastly Google has a powerful array of cloud services that will be integrated with their handset. The interesting question is whether Google will be able to manhandle the operators as Apple has.

Come back in a year and lets see what kind of numbers can be put up by a dozen different gPhones from diverse manufacturers and carriers, at a lower cost than their competitors, and leveraging the power of a free, open-source, open-standard OS backed by industry leading cloud services.

links:
HTC to unveil new Android phone in Q2
HTC workforce up 46% as Android mobiles defy slump
Google betting on mobile Internet
Android Developer program
Taiwan Android Developers Group
Endagaget Taiwan Android Developer Forum
Android Market
Spencer Riddering
Lean & Keen
Eric Huang

Last month, we invited iPhone apps developers to share with us their application and their experience to join the iPhone developer program and how they put their product onto Apple’s app store, it is very interesting to know what developers had to go through and the impacts for them. This month, we are going to talk about another mobile operating system, google’s android.

Even though today there is only one device available in the market, and only in the US market, already generate a huge interest among developers all over the world. With more and more android devices in development, and not just mobile phone also MID and “netbook�, it seems android is going to open a huge opportunity for developers. But is it really the case? Or is there any hidden trap behind the android market? For this month’s event, we invite android developers who had made it to top 25% during the android challenges to share their application and experience with us.

Please CLICK HERE to sign up!!

Event program:

Time: 7PM, Monday, Mar. 16th, 2009
Place: NEW LOCATION Yuma SouthWestern Grill Lane 216, Alley 11, # 21 ZhongXiao East Rd., Section 4, Taipei City.

Check-in: 7 PM

Presentation from android developers: 7:30 PM

Networking Time: 8:00 PM

Steve Follmer consulted in Silicon Valley for many years, where he co-founded live365.com. He is currently between startups and analyzing opportunities in the mobile space. Steve holds a BSE degree from Princeton University.

18th MobileMonday Taipei Event Report

The 18th Mobile Monday Taipei featured presentations from 3 iPhone developers. In its first month, December, the iPhone surged to a 2% market share in Taiwan, the 6th most popular handset and rising, and we’re not even counting fake clones from the mainland.

Lukhnos D. Liu of Lithoglyph Inc. kicked things off by presenting TapExpense: from Sketch to App Store Launch. Tap Expense is a no-nonsense expense tracking system for the iPhone, featuring Personal/Business categories, multiple currency support, and support for Excel. The app was conceived during Apple’s WWDC conference in June 2008, and they were able to ship version 1.0 as part of the app store launch 1 month later!. Version 2.0 was a complete rewrite, released in February 2009. Check it out on their website and buy it on the AppStore, where there is a fully featured trial version. Mr. Liu will be presenting at the Open Source Developers Conference Taiwan this April.

Yung-Luen Lan shared his experiences developing Free KanaQuiz, currently the #1 Free App in the Education Category at the Apple’s Taiwan AppStore, including sales figure for its first six weeks. These figures jumped rapidly when his app was featured on http://www.iphonetw.net

Ching-Lan “digdog” Huang then flowcharted for us the exact procedure by which you can become an iPhone developer. Which he learned early on in the process of creating his FrostyPlace RSS reader. While you can start playing with the iPhone SDK immediately, the $99 registration for Apple’s iPhone Developer Program confers several benefits. Non-members can only write apps and test them on the simulator. Membership lets you test your code on real handsets, distribute your app on the iTunes App Store, and make money. Digdog’s blog contains his entire presentation and flowchart.

The developers cited several key advantages to Apple’s system, particularly useful to individuals and small businesses. There is one simple central location for all worldwide customers. The localization and payment system is handled for you, and the customer feels secure buying from Apple. And some security is provided by the closed architecture of the iPhone. In exchange for this Apple charges a 30% fee.

Apple has strongly galvanized the market for developers with their AppStore. I wonder if they will extend the market to software for OS X software or music for garage bands? I suspect they are wary of upsetting incumbents in those markets.

Other companies are now trying to replicate the success of the AppStore. At this months GSM conference in Barcelona, Microsoft and Nokia declared their intention to set up similar stores, joining similar announcements by Research in Motion, and Samsung. Google’s Android Market is already online Clearly however, Apple’s success is based on a complex ecosystem, and it will take time and skill to succeed at replicating it, its not just a matter of jumping up and down on stage shouting “Developers!”.

I asked the panelists about the gPhone. They were skeptical about developing in the gPhone’s chosen java instead of the iPhone’s Objective C language, and concerned that Google gave free software first crack at the store and invading their turf. To get rich is glorious! The gPhone should be available in Taiwan this April.

Resources

Get yourself into iPhone Dev Program and iTunes App Store
Yung-Luen Lan
Lithoglyph
Apple iPhone Developer Program
iPhone tw
Open Source Developers’ Conference Taiwan
iPhone Not Popular in Japan
Japanese “hate” for iPhone all a big mistake
Competing App Stores
Report: iPhone “miles ahead” of competing app stores
Taiwan Top Handset Vendors
Android Market

After the long wait, in December 2008, iPhone finally officially launched in Taiwan and in just one month, iPhone takes up 2.2% handset market share in Taiwan, becomes the sixth most popular handset in Taiwan, based on the report of Digitimes. And with the popularity of iPhone, iPhone apps become a new income source for developers, also a brand new way for companies to promote their business, products and services. But it’s no secret that iPhone app developers are less than happy with the App Store. The criteria for approval of iPhone apps is arcane and approval can take anywhere from a couple of days to months. And then there is how to price your app right, how to promote your app… it is a lot of work and seems never ends. Is it killing the creativity for app developers? Or it opens a new door for developers?

For this month’s MobileMonday Taipei, we have invited some iPhone app developers to share with us their experience in developing application for iPhone, showcase their creativity and how they feel about the app store “Black Box�. Also we invite some mobile content providers to share their thoughts how they foresee this market is going to be.

Please CLICK HERE to sign up!!

Event program:

Time: 7PM, Monday, Feb. 16th, 2009
Place: Mary’s Bistro 2 Floor, No.89, Sec 2 Ren-Ai Rd., Taipei City.

Check-in: 7 PM

Panel Discussion: 7:30 PM

Networking Time: 8:00 PM