Mob4Hire is the inspiration of Paul Poutanen, who set out to solve a perennial mobile industry problem of testing not only on the huge variety of 26,000 handsets, but also over the local idiosyncrasies of over 350+ networks in 130+ different countries. Just because you’ve tested your JME* app on one handset in the US, don’t assume that it’s going to work on exactly the same handset in the UK.

Mob4Hire’s solution to the problem is crowd-sourcing and today they have a network of 40,000 highly mobile literate users throughout the world to do not only do usability and functionality testing for developers’ projects, but they do so at up to 90% of the cost of traditional testing. A very strong proposition and one which meets the main criteria for any new start-up – solving a need or real pain in the sector.

Today, Mob4Hire has a bunch of other testing type services. But the one that really caught my eye was for Apps. As you probably know, most Apps Stores help discovery via implementing some kind of user ranking system. In Apple’s case, it ranges from a measly one star, up to the coveted 5 stars. Mob4Hire tell me that 83% of people only download 4 and 5 star Apps, which means that a 1 star rating kills any chance of success. To put it even more bluntly, if you launch an App which gets a 1 star rating, you’ve just completely wasted your time, energy and whatever money you spent getting it out there.

But how do you know if users will rank your App high or low? That’s where Mob4Hire come in – by pre-testing your App before it’s launched. Not only will you learn what your ranking will probably be with that version, but you’ll find out why. This allows you to improve and tweak your App, re-test and launch when you’re confident that you’ve cracked it.

This is a really valuable service for everyone from Indie developers to brands looking to launch an App – it removes the risk and uncertainty from the process and avoids the curse of the one-star. It’s hard to see why developers wouldn’t use this.

Mob4Hire have won a bunch of awards in their short life to date and it’s certainly a company to watch.

* JME is not a typo. Sun renamed J2ME back in 2005. Clearly not one of the world’s best branding campaigns, huh?

Predictably, there’s been plenty of news about app stores. The biggest news was the announcement of the Wholesale Applications Community, a consortium of about 30 operators and device vendors that are going to work together on a common app store platform. Sounds good, right? Making it easier for developers to get their apps to market (a market of some 3 billion users represented by these operators) is a great thing. But why leave well enough alone?

In addition, the alliance will utilise existing technical standards, rather than creating new ones to allow developers to access operators’ assets, for example network capabilities or API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) more easily. In practice this means that developers will only have to create one version of their application and this can be used on multiple types of devices and operating systems (such as Symbian, Android, Windows etc) which is not the case today.

(Fill in your own comment here.) I’ll have some more thoughts on WAC in a later post, for sure.

There’s been some news on the mobile OS front as well. Microsoft announced the latest version (7) of Windows Mobile — now, it’s Windows Phone — and Intel and Nokia annouced they were merging their Moblin and Maemo mobile Linux projects to form “MeeGo”.

Windows Phone 7 looks pretty slick, but I don’t find that too surprising. The big challenge will be convincing handset vendors to devote resources to building great devices with it, and to successfully navigate the shift from an enterprise-focused product to a consumer-based one. They also face a Palm-like challenge in drawing developers back to the platform.

I don’t find the MeeGo news all that interesting on one level (Nokia’s Ari Jaaksi has a good rundown of how he sees the project), but on another level, the growing collaboration between Nokia and Intel is a little more fascinating. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

And what would MWC be without some new devices? These four caught my eye:
- The Puma Phone, made by Sagem. There have been plenty of branded devices before, but most of them haven’t been very impressive. I like this one a lot, though, because it doesn’t seem to be relying so heavily on the Puma brand as it’s only attraction. It’s got a lot of fun features and applications, and a solar charger on the back. I like this direction — making the UI of a mobile device fun. Interesting.
- HTC unveiled its latest Android devices, the Desire and the Legend. Check out the specs and features if you like, but I think the design of the two handsets is the real attraction here.
- And at the opposite end of the market, Vodafone’s $15 handset, aimed at developing markets in Africa and India. Pretty amazing that a $15 device can be profitable, and the VF150 also supports m-payments, given its buyers what’s essentially a bank account as well as a mobile phone.

Network capacity remains an issue. Dean Bubley has his usual adept roundup of what’s been said about it, while the CEO of RIM says networks would be a lot less crowded if we all bought BlackBerrys. Vodafone’s CEO is pretty worried about bandwidth-hungry content eating up his networks, too — unless he’s allowed to charge content providers for access to his customers.

Finally, what would MWC be without some of the usual suspects, those stories and topics that come around year after year without ever really seeming to get anywhere. Two great examples so far:
- “Symbian joins Adobe’s Open Screen Project for Flash compatibility”. I think it was the first 3GSM I went to, I met with Macromedia (the then-owners of Flash) and bought into the idea of Flash on mobiles. Sounded great, but we all know how it’s turned out. I’ve seen some stuff with it here and there (including its success in Japan), but it seems like nary a mobile event goes by without this sort of partnership press release. We’re well past that generating any excitement — time for some results.
- You could probably file widgets in the same category. Still there, but maybe there’s a little movement.

- New devices and such: My general reaction: “eh.” Not sure if I just don’t care about the latest and greatest handsets as much as I used to, or if the crop of announcements at MWC simply wasn’t that exciting. I’m hard pressed to really remember any real standout handsets, but you can look over Phone Scoop’s thorough coverage to check out all the new devices.

- Social Network Integration: This is a trend that’s been gathering steam for a while, and it’s good to see it continue with things like the integration of Skype into Nokia’s N-Series devices, and the recognition of INQ’s first device as Best Mobile Handset at the show. But while this trend is rising, it seems like some people are still misunderstanding mobile social networks. For instance, the CEO of MySpace talked up its mobile strategy at the show, but it seems much more focused on revenue generation than providing user benefits. And as Helen is always keen to remind us, better targeted ads aren’t a user benefit.

- LTE was surprisingly loud: There seemed to be a lot of talk about LTE, including Verizon’s pronouncement that it would have an LTE network up and running in 2011. Given the current economic climate, the high cost of and difficulty in accessing capital, I was a little surprised to hear so much talk about LTE. Perhaps for operators like Verizon making technology switches, they’ll want to press ahead, but it’s much more likely that we’ll see continued upgrades to HSPA continue from incumbent UMTS operators.

- App Stores!!!!!!!!!!!!! Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung and more. Great to see the mobile development community get a boost, if only from publicity, but this movement has got the feel that it’s the latest strategy-via-lemmings in the mobile industry. Again, simply having an app store won’t see all these different players emulate the success Apple’s had. Apple’s App Store wasn’t a new idea, but it put all the pieces together in the right way for users.

- Pickpockets: I wonder if attendees’ safety in Barcelona will become a bigger issue. Last year, one friend had his hotel room ransacked and his laptop stolen, while another was the target of muggers on consecutive days. Thieves and pickpockets appear to have caught on to the fact that all these people in town for the show are carrying around lots of phones, cameras and laptops — like the Telstra exec, who had a device with a prototype build of Windows Mobile stolen from him.

- Ups and downs: NFC and mobile TV, the “next big things” of previous years, were conspicuous in their absence, while there was a lot of talk about the mobile money and banking space heating up.

Some other people who were in Barcelona and have some good rundowns of their experiences are Ian Wood, Telecoms.com, Dean Bubley and Martin Sauter.

What are your thoughts? Leave ‘em in the comments.

The idea is that each MoMo City chapter puts forward the best early stage startup, as well as the best emerging startup from their part of the world. Then, after a pre-judging session, 12 early stage and 8 emerging startups get to present their companies in 3 minutes, or less, to the audience and panel of judges. I sat on the early stage jury with my pals Roberto Bonanzinga of Balderton, Matthaus Krzykowski of VentureBeat and we were joined by Laure de Saint Denis of Orange and Alejandro Romero of Yahoo!

You can see the whole list of entrants here and it’s worth checking out. With no disrespect to previous years, the standard of companies and presentations was much higher this year and I think most of this list may have actually have won in 2008.

A couple of entrants especially stood out for me.

Firstly, Babajob, which won our section’s Jury Award, from MoMo in Bangalore. Babajob is a business with a social mission, which is always nice. The big idea is that many people are trapped in poverty as they don’t know the right people to get better jobs. As an example, they presented two nannies, one of whom earned $120 a month, because her sister knew some rich people and the other who earned $20 a month because she was born and worked in a slum – despite both doing essentially the same job.

A further issue is that over time in urban areas, people can travel shorter and shorter distances to work, due to congestion. This means that the number of jobs they could do, gets smaller and smaller.

Babajob’s solution is use the mobile as a tool to merchandise new jobs to Bangalore’s poor, via the mobile and it works via IVR, sms, up to a mobile web portal. This is a fantastic use of the mobile as the poor often have no access to other media, such as newspapers or PCs. They also provide incentives to mentors to help illiterate people or those who don’t have mobiles themselves.

Posting a job with them costs Rupees 999 ($20) and for that, you get access to people with various skills living in your area. You then find someone you like and everyone wins.

It’s a very simple idea, but I find it interesting not just because it’s successful (30,000 registered users so far), but because I think it’s an early example of a big trend. Up until now, most innovation in technology has been a one-way street – from the developed world to the developing markets. In the future of mobile, this is likely to change as developing economies will be experiencing the mobile as their first screen and much of their ideas and behaviour are going to be influencing us for the first time.

Orbster was also an idea that makes you think. The idea is that it’s a platform, where unskilled people like me can create their own location based game, quickly and easily, with no knowledge of coding, or location technology. That’s right, user generated content meets location gaming.

An example of a really innovative idea coming out of it, is a fishing game. You get in a real boat and use your phone to land virtual fish!

Mob4Hire was also a neat idea, which brings crowd sourcing to phone testing. Their website connects thousands of qualified phone testers throughout the world with companies that need to know say, how a Nokia 6600 behaves on a Serbian operator network, when loaded with a JME game.

This solves a perennial problem that plagues our industry as anyone who has worked for more than 5 minutes in mobile knows.

Also of special note for me was BioLocate from Jakarta, which helps you avoid traffic jams, while simultaneously passing information on traffic conditions back to their server (another crowd sourcing application) and Aka-Aki from Berlin, a stranger-finder (as opposed to buddy finder), which helps find like-minded people around you in urban areas. Aka-Aki is an a very competitive space, but it’s a very interesting concept.

And if you didn’t go, you should next year. If you’re not a MoMo member, you should be (or start a chapter in your city). And if you have a startup, don’t forget to enter.

Special thanks for Team Rudy for organising it so brilliantly again and a shout-out to Bena Roberts, of GoMoNews for doing a great job as MC this year and for a great party on Wednesday.

Looking forward to Barcelona 2010!

Swedish Beers are go!!

Our venue for the evening is Dostrece which is a two floor bar and restaurant. Yes, that’s right, a restaurant too! This means that they will be serving food from their normal menu all evening so you’ll get a chance to eat too. Prices are reasonable and it’s a mix of Mexican, Spanish and Turkish flavours. @BCN_unlike reviews it here.

The venue holds up to 300 folks at any one time so it’s a little bigger than last year’s venue, Belchica, and it can be found behind La Boqueria market and the nearest metro station is Liceu. Just walk up La Rambla, walk past La Boqueria and Teatro Grec, then take a left at Calle Carme (or Carrer del Carme) and Dostrece is at number 40 (Google map here). (They also have free wifi if you’re desperate to demo your latest iphone app.)

Doors will be opening at 6.30pm and we’ll be open until late so there’s plenty of time to drop by and enjoy the fun, meet interesting people and soak up the Swedish Beers vibe.

(Only thing more disappointing than my absence at the event is that it’s not at Manchester Bar, but that’s neither here nor there )

A great event for developers is the WIP Jam Session, going down on Thursday, Feb. 19:

WIP Jam Session at MWC

Thursday, February 19, 2009, Hall 2, FIRA

Join WIP for our popular Day for Developers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The best mobile developers meet key leaders of the mobile ecosystem in interactive sessions where we are serious about no panels, no ppt and no ties! Sign up now at www.wipjam.com

Update:

- 30+ speakers confirmed and 8 hot topics for the afternoon Discussion Groups.

- Pre-event reception confirmed the WIP Mobile Jameoke, on Wednesday, February 18 from 9:30pm til late at the Bel Chica bar following the GoMo News Blender. Join the other musicians from the mobile industry for some real hot jam’n!

Once again, the Mobile Peer Awards are being held on Monday, Feb. 16, and feature a great set of mobile startups and our own Russell as part of the jury:

163 startups participated and 42 nominees were selected by their respective chapters. An international Jury will now select the 20 finalists to present at the Peer Awards event in Barcelona.

The finalists to present at the Mobile Peer Awards in Barcelona are:
EARLY-STAGE STARTUPS

* Addict Digital Media – Mobile Monday Buenos Aires
* aka-aki networks GmbH – MobileMonday Berlin
* Babajob.com – MobileMonday Bangalore
* Big in Japan Inc. – MobileMonday Dallas
* bioLocate – MobileMonday Jakarta
* Dial2Do – MobileMonday Dublin
* Fortumo – MobileMonday Estonia
* Mob4Hire – MobileMonday Vancouver
* Orbster GmbH – MobileMonday Munich
* Oxynade – MobileMonday Brussels
* Tellmewhere – MobileMonday Paris
* Xumii – MobileMonday Sydney

EMERGING STARTUPS

* Aradiom – MobileMonday Istanbul
* fring – MobileMonday Tel Aviv
* Getjar Networks – MobileMonday Lithuania
* Keynetik – MobileMonday Washington DC
* Mobintech A/S – MobileMonday Copenhagen
* PopCatcher AB – MobileMonday Sweden
* Soonr – MobileMonday Silicon Valley
* Unkasoft Advergaming – MobileMonday Madrid

And there’s the always popular MobileSunday gathering, where you’ll find all the cool kids that got to town a little early:

The fourth annual MobileSunday – an unofficial, informal and generally cool and funky gathering of mobile bloggers and their chums – will be taking place in Barcelona on the eve of this year’s Mobile World Congress (formerly known as 3GSM) on Sunday, February 15, 2009.

The people who came to our last year’s event, know what’s it’s all about: it’s the place to be where you can meet some of the most influent people in the mobile industry and its convergent area’s, from startups to VC’s, from operators and handset manufactures to the most innovative application and service providers around. This is also a unique chance to meet most of the MobileMonday global chapter founders in one spot during the conference.

Last year’s event was attended by some 400 people. This year we moved to one of the coolest bars in Barcelona, the CLUB MIX for a bit more space and a jazzy, loungy athmosphere.

To be honest, the overall event was a little disappointing and nowhere near the scale and success of the sister event in Barcelona, which has to be the mother of all trade shows. Delegates seemed to think that it was smaller attendee-wise than previous years, though the exhibition was generally bigger. However, there were loads of rumours about companies cutting back on the number of delegates at the last minute, generally reflecting the grim reality of the economic situation. It was the first real impact I’ve seen first hand of the affect on mobile.

Having said that, it was hard to judge numbers in the huge venue that is the Venetian hotel in Macau – about a 40 minute ferry from Hong Kong. It felt as if it could comfortably swallow a couple of large football crowds and is, I understand, the largest hotel in the world and a replica of the Las Vegas one. The over-the-top Vegas style was very weird transposed into an Asian setting and was all the more strange as it seems to be a pilgrimage point for ordinary Chinese people, who can be found walking along the huge corridors, gawping at this example of Western decadence. In fairness to the West, it’s about as representative of what we’re really like is a pre-crash hedge fund manager’s salary is of the average wage. But they don’t know that.

As far as the mobile advertising channel was concerned, again numbers were slightly disappointing and it would have been a hell of a long way to travel if that had been my sole reason for going out there. Having said that, there was a great line up of speakers and some senior attendees, so while there’s room for improvement, I’ve certainly been to far worse.

I’m still gathering together notes from various sessions and if I can knit them into a cogent form I will. However, one really nice anecdotal campaign that was mentioned was one by BBH for Axe. BBH have won plaudits and awards for their work on Lynx in the past, but the Axe was a new one on me.

The idea is that many blokes buy the deodorant brand in Asia, but only actually use it once every 3 days, which doesn’t have the desired effect on them, as well as depressing potential product sales. So they launched a campaign where the guys could go online and choose from a selection of hot Axe babes to give them an automated video phone call at the time when they would be performing their morning ablutions and to do the right thing with the spray.

OK, pretty sexist, but in the humorous cheeky-chappie style that BBH has carved out for the brand.

While BBH are to congratulated for their use of mobile in their ongoing Lynx/Axe campaigns, as one of the leading creative agencies in the world, I’d love to see them embrace mobile more into the heart and soul of the agency. This might be an unfair outsider’s perspective and they might have other great mobile work that doesn’t make the headlines. However, their website doesn’t even classify mobile as a distinct medium at the moment, which while understandable for many of the agencies out there, isn’t quite what one would have hoped from the great BBH.

Let’s hope that gets put right soon.

– Damn, it’s big. I’ve been going to this event for several years now, stretching back to the Cannes days, and it just keeps getting bigger. I’m not sure that’s such a good thing, though, and I wonder how long it is before the gear makers get siphoned off to some other event or locale (Dubai, for its proximity to emerging markets, ventures Ian Wood) and the rest of us are left in Barcelona, or all venture our own separate ways to more narrowly targeted affairs.

– Perhaps as a result of the scale and wide reach of the show, there wasn’t any big story or announcement that everybody was talking about. Nokia’s new devices got some buzz the first day, but that almost seemed by default — it wasn’t because people were blown away by them, just because there wasn’t much to rival them. The “there’s not a lot to see” line was taken by a decent number of folks, but that didn’t seem to come with any resentment, as people were still enjoying the discussions and networking with all the other folks that turned up.

– Where were the operators? They weren’t very visible. This struck me as perhaps another sign of their disintermediation, and combined with the above point, further illustrates that the innovation in this industry isn’t going to come from legacy telco thinking or through its traditional channels.

– The Mobile Monday Peer Awards on, er, Monday, were a good time (even if proceedings did drag on a bit). I was impressed by several of the companies that presented, including Buzzd and Funambol.

– I picked up a SIM from Spanish MVNO Yoigo at the recommendation of Martin Sauter’s useful Prepaid Wireless Internet Access wiki, with the 1.30 euro or so max daily data rate looking tasty. But just like Martin, I found the network performance abysmal, with it disappearing for hours on end. Also, am I being overly optimistic in expecting SMS interconnect to not be an issue in 2008? SMS sent to UK networks never arrived, as did messages sent to other Yoigo users while their phones were off. Messages sent to my SO in the US arrived, but her responses didn’t.

That’s most of what I got from my limited experience — if you’ve got more to add or anything to share of your own, the comments are all yours.

Sony Ericsson managed to score some buzz by announcing their new
devices last night. The new Walkman device, the W980, is pretty slick
in appearance, and the guy demoing it on their stand pointed out that
it will ship with high-spec in-ear buds instead of some crappy
earphones. That’s a great move and one that I welcome, since these
are, after all, supposed to be musicphones. But the W980 still doesn’t
feature a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Draw your own conclusion.

It was a bit surprising to see the new Xperia X1 from Sony Ericsson –
since it runs Windows Mobile. This is another WM handset that’s got a
lot of UI customization running on top of it, like the HTC Touch or
perhaps even the Treo. It’s an interesting choice for SE given its
investment in UIQ, but the use of WinMo like this appears to be a
growing trend. An SE employee demoing the device said it was “not yet
defined” if the Xperia line would continue to use Windows Mobile
exclusively, or if other operating systems would work their way into
the mix.