Dave’s Take

The latest twist in the battle of mobile search engine evolution is the ability to apply local targeting. This technology permits smart phone apps to not only recommend a great restaurant (or whatever else you are looking for) located in your present area, but to deliver ads or reviews for that venue instantly. Already in the game are Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla, along with the goliath of the industry, Google. Its new Near Me Now and Latitude are cutting edge and promise to grab more market share than all the others combined.

Before Google counts its chickens however, it might want to check out what the little guys are launching to compete. Recently, two daring whippersnappers have teamed up to shake up the mobile search biz and industry insiders think they may be on to something. Loopt, the social networking service that allows users to locate any of their friends’ locations instantaneously via detailed mapping; and Mobile Spinach, the Northern California-based mobile coupon distributor are changing the local targeting landscape by offering the first phone apps allowing for local businesses to offer instant coupons and promotions to mobile surfers.

Scheduled to roll out first in San Francisco, their new service will give local merchants the ability to immediately interact with people who are 100% demographically guaranteed to be interested in their product or service. Imagine being able to not only locate reviewed recommendations of a requested product or supplier, but to receive a mobile coupon good for that business immediately. If any local entrepreneurs needed another reason to cancel their Yellow Pages ad or their Sunday circular coupon budget, this is it.

Well almost. The one fly in the ointment is Apple. Last week, the makers of the Macintosh sent notice to mobile app designers everywhere, warning that future applications with local targeting abilities will not be allowed for the iPhone or iPad. This not only hurts firms like Loopt immediately, but with over 25% of the smart phone market, they can control the entire landscape of the market. Design engineers are wondering what the “think different” people are planning to release on their own. Once again, Steve Jobs has the world awaiting his whim.

Regardless of what Apple does, local targeting is here to stay. Soon, every consumer GPS system and smart phone will incorporate this new technology in one way or another. The only question remaining is whether Apple will play well with others or stay in their own sandbox.

In yet another installation of “How Broke is Los Angeles?”, the LA city council has recently voted unanimously to outsource its e-mail system to Google. Starting on a test basis next June, all 30,000 city employees will have their e-mails delivered via a Google cloud. “The City of Los Angeles, the second largest city in the nation, made a world-class decision today to support a state-of-the-art e-mail system,” stated Councilman Tony Cardenas.

Despite the 12-0 vote, several council members questioned the stability and cost savings of such a decision. To reduce concerns, Google agreed to add a provision in the $7.25 million contract for compensation should the city’s data be lost or compromised. What that level of compensation will be was not disclosed. Archrival Microsoft lobbied hard to prevent the award, negotiating dutifully for the contract over the past twelve months – all to no avail.

Critics of the award argued the new system should be based on a Linux or UNIX open-sourced code, fearing Google will morph into a latter-day Microsoft willing to continue raising prices and curtailing code sharing. How anyone could think such skeptical thoughts about a monopolistic American company is beyond me…but then, I’m still waiting for flying cars and zero calorie ice cream.

Is this the kind of thing we want outsourced? Do we need to wonder about security breeches or targeted malware? If the LA DMV is any indicator, I don’t think the state has a clue about IT, so Google should have a low threshold in terms of improving internal communications. I just wonder what the cash-strapped city will outsource next – perhaps offshore 9-1-1 operators?

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In other tech news, a new Nielsen study shows both good news and bad news for mobile Web providers. According to the study, the audience for Web surfing via cell phone is increasing to nearly 57 million users. The bad news is that two out of three cell phone surfers are frustrated with their phone’s Web surfability.

Because of the wide use of broadband, consumers are used to having Web pages load within five seconds. Unfortunately, the average smart phone takes longer than six seconds to load page ready viewing. This has led to over 60% of cell phone users saying they would be less likely to visit slow-loading sites. Additionally, 80% of users claim they would visit Web sites more often if the process was a fast and reliable as their PC. Clearly, when it comes to timely surfing, the cell phone manufacturers have their work cut out for them.

As a happy iPhone owner, I am always surprised when I ask fellow iPhone users what their favorite mobile applications are, only to hear, “I don’t know.” How can anyone who has the foresight to own an iPhone not have any personal favorites from among the more than 50,000+ iPhone applications now available for download? How do they not feel strongly about any of the incredible programs that make our lives so much more enjoyable, or at least somewhat easier?

Apparently the iPhone owners I’ve quizzed are not alone in failing to find favor in any specific application. According to a new AdMob report, more than half of the available iPhone applications have less than 1,000 active users. Even more surprising, despite having millions of iPhone owners, only 5% of all the iPhone apps have more than 100,000 users. The report was based upon a survey of 15 million users and clearly points out the difficulty and frustration facing app developers to create a hit.

The reasons for iPhone apps failing to find a following are numerous. Experts cite several reasons for lack of usage, including bad user experiences, old apps, too new of apps and apps designed for too specific of niche users. Regardless of past failures, a full 37% of all mobile traffic is attributed to smart phones, assuring a bright future for those developers who know how to market to the masses. My personal belief on why so many apps flop is two–fold: first, it’s not needed. I’ve looked at dozens of iPhone apps that are silly and of no real value to a user. Just because you can design and develop an app, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s needed; and second, lack of word of mouth. People tend to keep great apps a secret, as if their mere mention will make them go away or become so popular they become blasé.

Therefore, in the name of bettering the iPhone community, I am sharing my favorite apps in hopes you find them helpful and download them ASAP. Here’s my list of the best iPhone apps available, with all but two being offered for free:

Sports Tap (free): Great app for following your favorite sports teams. Posts real time scores and news.
Sportacular (free): Another great sports app that not only shows scores and news, but also provides Vegas lines and fan input.
Pandora (free): Pandora radio is the best radio app out there. Gives you access to thousands of free Internet radio stations.
Showtimes (free): Want to see a movie at the spur of the moment? No problem, with Showtimes, you get timely listings for all the theaters in your area and the play times of their movies.
Flashlight (free): I don’t know if this is my favorite app, but it is definitely my most useful app. It turns your phone into a flashlight, which is extremely handy for everything from reading restaurant menus to hitting your front door lock with your key at night.
Around Me (free): This app gives you the nearest business from a list that includes places like banks, bars, coffee shops, gas stations and hospitals.
Google Earth (free): Drill down from space to anywhere on the planet. Check out its new feature—earths’ oceans.
Amazon.com (free): Buy, sell or trade all from your phone.
Translator (free): Translate English into dozens of other languages—great for travel.
Shazam (free): This is my favorite recreational application. Shazam allows users to identify any song within seconds of sampling it. Simply open the app and click the “tag now” button. Shazam will sample whatever music it hears, analyze it and then provide you with the ability to buy or download the song. How good is it? I’ve used it numerous times to identify songs everywhere from TV backgrounds to bars. It has never failed to tell me the song and singer.
At Bat 2009 ($9.99): For baseball fans, this app is worth the money. It gives real time game stats, live video, news and standings. The free version (at bat lite) is great for free, but lacks video and other real time features.
WordBook ($1.99): As a writer, I need an accurate source of spelling wherever I go. While lite (free) versions of dictionaries are available for download, WordBook is a much better version and worth the two bucks.

These are just a sampling of my favorite iPhone apps. I’ve currently got 80+ loaded on my phone and use all of them (at least occasionally). Check them out and see what you think. If you like them, pass them on to other users. Maybe we can change some of these apps from unknown to fan favorites.