On par with John McCain’s vetting of Sarah Palin or my due diligence into the calorie count of a Nature’s Valley Peanut Bar (WARNING: “Nature” isn’t always synonymous with “healthy”), Apple’s naming effort for its revolutionary new tablet product has got to be one of the biggest brand-naming blunders of all time.

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all MBA, this is basic … BASIC … marketing 101 strategy and management.  It is impossible to believe that an entire company full of bright, talented engineers and marketers could miss the feminine-hygiene connection.  (This just in … the AP is reporting that something called a “Google Search” is transforming the trademark-verification process.)

This leads one to believe that they knew this fallout might rear its ugly head at least in the near-term.  Was the name “iPad” really worth the risk?  Will it have the enduring power big enough to define an entirely new and innovative generation of personal media devices?  The more times I hear the nickname “Max-iPad,” the more my answer skews towards a resounding “NO.”

That said, very cool device.

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Behold …

I worked with a team that tested this technology using a relatively basic cell phone back in 2006.  It was very cool then and we were only working with a non-smart handset device (the Nokia 6131). Marry this technology with the upcoming iPhone 4G (name under construction) – a machine that boasts the world’s richest user interface, fastest processor, and most sophisticated functionality set – and what do you have? In all senses of the phrase, a game-changer. Go back and watch Minority Report, then let your mind wander about the possible proximity marketing campaigns and utilities that can and will be enabled when this technology reaches critical mass.

Per ReadWriteWeb, “2010 could be a great year for RFID in the consumer market, if it is to be a feature of the next iPhone. Expect to see it in Android devices too.”

It is coming, perhaps as early as this summer.  How and when will your business take advantage?

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True mobile phone marketing - i.e., holding your phone up to a smart poster and downloading content, linking to a website, etc. - remains an elusive pipe dream for U.S. consumers and businesses.

Or so I thought.

Do you know what a QR code is?  Do your friends know what a QR code is?  While people like me have been waiting semi-patiently for Bluetooth, infrared, or NFC technology standards to break through as the single ubiquitous killer app for proximity mobile marketing, the QR code revolution has quietly broken through as a hear-and-now option.

Rather than try to explain how the technology works, it is easier to show it in action.  Courtesy of Brazilian online retailer Editoras Online, …

The possibilities for this technology are endless. And they are available now. Very cool.

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Gartner Research has published its list of “the top 10 consumer mobile applications in 2012.”  The list ranks in order of most to least significant the following:

  • No. 1:  Money Transfer
  • No. 2:  Location-Based Services
  • No. 3:  Mobile Searchnfc
  • No. 4:  Mobile Browsing
  • No. 5:  Mobile Health Monitoring
  • No. 6:  Mobile Payment
  • No. 7:  Near Field Communication Services
  • No. 8:  Mobile Advertising
  • No. 9:  Mobile Instant Messaging
  • No. 10:  Mobile Music

Regarding No. 7 – Mobile Payments, Gartner believes that Near Field Communications (NFC) will “see large-scale deployments starting from late 2010, when NFC phones are likely to ship in volume, with Asia leading deployments followed by Europe and North America.”  This seems unrealistic given the current focus carriers have here in the United States (e.g., wars over operating systems, the ability to stream live video).  I remember Gartner forecasting that we’d be knee-deep in NFC-enabled phones and usage by 2010 back in 2006.  Clearly, they missed the mark then and my guess is we are headed for another letdown now.

Still, it is very cool to see NFC getting some press.  The technology is the only instantaneous contactless transmission standard (Bluetooth takes forever) that does not require a data plan (i.e., access to the wireless web).  Consumers with standard flip phones would be able to do so much more with a basic device – e.g., download train schedules from a ’smart’ poster, configure a digital wallet, conduct cashless peer-to-peer transactions.  It’s a no brainer from a user perspective; if only the carriers would open up their walled gardens and iron out the economics …

Source:  ”Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Consumer Mobile Applications for 2012.”  Press Release, 18 November 2009.  http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1230413, Accessed 19 November 2009.

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event_logoThe Vanderbilt Entrepreneurs Association (VEA) at the Owen Graduate School of Management is excited to host a panel discussion titled “Emerging Media – Mobile, Social, & More” this Wednesday, 11/18, at 5:30pm in room 222. The event will be one of several the school is organizing as a part Global Entrepreneurship Week – an initiative launched to help “connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.” (http://www.unleashingideas.org/)

As the name would suggest, we will be talking about the technology and strategy surrounding all things mobile, social, and more to answer questions such as …

  • What kinds of questions are your clients asking about mobile? How aggressive have they been in terms of designing and rolling out apps?
  • How will mobile continue to shape the future of social media and networking?
  • What is the most intuitive, robust, and/or innovative platform (e.g., iPhone, Android) to work with from a developer’s perspective?
  • What cool new innovations can we expect to see in the next three to five years that a sideline observer might not know about?

Our distinguished group of panelists will include:

  • PROFESSOR DOUGLAS SCHMIDT. Associate Chair of Computer Science and Engineering at Vanderbilt University, Professor of Computer Science, and founder of Vanderbilt’s mobile app design curriculum.
  • BEN HENDERSON. Partner & Senior Software Engineer at Firefly Logic, Inc.
  • HAMILTON TURNER. Mobile App Designer and one of Professor Schmidt’s current undergraduate students.
  • PATRICK WIDEN. Founder of Blend, a social media strategy firm, and current Vanderbilt undergraduate student.

Dinner will be provided so please let us know if you plan on attending. It should be a great evening!

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