ISBX Blog

I was interviewed last week by Appmodo's Editor, Jason Coe on the subject of mobile apps and the enterprise. We had a very engaging Q&A session. Check out the Interview on Appmodo.com.

Today there are thousands of app developers and counting. New app developers seem to pop out of the wood work every day. How can one app developer stand out when there are over 500,000+ consumer apps across various mobile platforms? The creators of today’s most prevalent smartphone operating systems (i.e. iOS and Android) has made app development so easy and straightforward that almost anyone with some programming knowledge can produce apps. To stand out among the sea of app developers we not only focus on cross-platform app development, but apps for the Enterprise.

In the early 1990’s Apple released the Newton Message Pad at a dark time when the ousted Steve Jobs was not guiding the Apple franchise.  The Apple Newton was the first business and consumer tablet platform, and considered the grandfather of the current Apple iPad.  With almost twenty years of technology innovation since the release of the Newton, it seems apparent that Apple finally got it right.  The natural extension of the super successful iPhone helped bust open sales of the iPad beyond early projections.  But soon the tablet marketplace will become very crowded

Android based Smartphone sales have recently undergone significant accelerated growth, despite the Google developed OS being over two years old, and according to a recent Nielsen study, for the first time ever, outpaced iPhone sales over a rolling six month period.

What is the mobile cloud?  Cloud computing is on-demand computing that does not reside on the users’ premise.  Instead, the shared computing resources are owned and managed by a service provider and the users access the resources via the Internet.  The majority of the processing for the application takes place in the cloud (Shared Service), with some processing taking place on the mobile device.  The mobile cloud will leverage the same cloud infrastructure as standard desktops and other devices, such as gaming.

I found this video we put together in the early days when we were still working out of E’s garage.  In fact the second half of the video is filmed in the same place we used to do our meetings.   We used it to pitch to a few seeders including Y-Combinator, but it never really got much air time.

The BlackBerry blog (http://blogs.blackberry.com/) is ablaze with comments and critics regarding the upcoming release of the Blackberry OS 6.  RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry brand, is scheduling a launch date for the third quarter this year, just in time for the holiday season.  This will put the new phone on track to compete directly with the new release of the Windows Phone 7, which is rumored to be released at the beginning of the fourth quarter. 

Connections are vital part of human interaction.  Every day the average person experiences hundreds of connections with others.  Some connections may be profound, others casual, business related, and personal.  In the end, these connections shape who we are, and what others will become.  Connections are at the core of the social species, “humans”.  

Available July 1st, Apple will be delivering its new mobile iAds to their mobile platforms (iPhone, iPods, and iPads). The iAds platform will have the opportunity to revolutionize the mobile advertising market. Apple has built the new mobile advertising directly into the Operating System interface. Steve Jobs was recently quoted, “…the company is looking to change the face of advertising”. Job’s is more interested in providing the user an ad experience within the application, rather than search.

Microsoft recently announced the availability of the Windows Phone 7 shipping this holiday season (rumored for October or November). With recent releases for Apples iPhone 4 and Google’s Android phone, the updated Windows Phone has received limited press. Formally Windows Mobile, the updated Smartphone will take advantage of touch screen technology and more advanced security than most of its competitors. Security is a welcome feature based on Microsoft’s storied past with security.