Zynga‘s announcement of the Farmville iPhone app will be seen by some as just another game release. But this is actually a very important move from one of the most important social media companies in 2010.

This is my first post from the wordpress iPhone app. It seems useful, allowing me to publish content or save it locally which is very handy.

I can include tags and it has all my categories saved but doesn’t recognise the additional plugins. So, to add my SEO data, and the homepage image I will need to log in ‘properly’.

I’ll add a photo now but expect this will also need to be resized. Actually I can’t do that – cab get the picture onto wp but not into the post. Something for later then. (update, it actually worked!)

It is useful, though and quite quick to write so I will use it again to get initial blogs written but may not actively publish from here due to the factors outlined above.

I’ll publish now and tidy up later.

Gameloft, the french mobile game maker of such hits as Assassin’s Creed, and The Settlers have announced that they ‘and other software developers were reining in their Android development budgets because the app store was not as nice as iTunes (very true) and they weren’t making as much revnue as iTunes (expected.)

The article doesn’t mention which other developers are cutting back, but quotes Gameloft finance director Alexandre de Rochefort,

We have significantly cut our investment in Android platform, just like … many others,

This announcement that they have cut their investment is interesting but not really a surprise if they are measuring the investment with direct sales, given they have a duty to their shareholders. However, I don’t believe this news is a ‘death knell’ for Android but merley the decision of a public company to scale back investment in an unproven market.

The news that they are selling 400 times more games on iphone [than Android] and that iphone apps are 13% of its profits is a sign of a successful and mature [in relative terms] market. What this report does not tell us is how much they had invested in Android Apps, nor how much they have scaled back.

Given that Android has the potential [at least according to Gartner] to leapfrog the iPhone by 2012, one would hope that Gameloft continue to invest in Android development, even if it is billed as ‘research and development’ rather than immediate income generation.

There is a new mobile ‘phone war happening, and its not just between handset manufacturers. In the past when mobile phones were being bought the questions were around style (remember the ‘clamshell’? ) and what the ‘phone would do .. Bluetooth, Tri Band etc. But now I believe these are changing to what can be done on the ‘phone. Applications that are freely available on computers and the web are now being touted as USP’s for a particular ‘phone brand. Take the UK network 3. Their promotions revolve around tools we take for granted online as being ‘free’ on their platform including Google Maps and Windows Live Messenger.

Furthermore, the latest promotions from Nokia, a company that has been struggling without a ‘hit’ smartphone (read Om Malik’s, “The iPhone & Nokia’s Troubles, By the Numbers“) has been not about the handsets but about what you can do with the handsets. This in the form of their OVI Store promotions which are taking full advertising on and offline (including TV spots) to promote what you can do, rather than their latest ‘phone.You may recall the OVI store launch being riddled with problems which will not have helped Nokia’s fortunes.

The big battle that I see is the iPhone vs. Google Android in which the number of apps available has been one of the benchmarks for comparison. Some put the numbers at 1m + apps for iphone, 100,000 for Android. Certainly, as a user of both ‘phones the number of apps available on the iphone and the ease of access [to these apps] on the iphone far outstrips the Android which is one of the main reasons I use the Android less than the iPhone.

The App as the Hookor ‘The Killer App’

The concept of the ‘Killer App’ is not a new one but one I feel is particularly relevant here. Nokia is trialling a free version of Shazam, the mobile music recognition software in the hope it will drive additional music interest and resultant sales of music on Nokia handsets. Music again is the promotion for the newishly released Spotify apps for iphone and Android. The app, limited to premium customers is one potential killer app that could generate interest in new mobile phones. I personally feel a smart move would be for a provider (Handset, Operating System or Network) to subsidise the premium Spotify price to gain market share, much in the same way as Nokia is doing with Shazam. However vested interests of music sales for most players (except Google) means such a tactic may not happen. Putting music to one side, the principle remains strong if there is a new killer app that will kick start interest in mobile ‘phone sales.

The Concept of App Loyalty

As the market matures, or in the interests of gaining customers one has to pay attention to App Loyalty. If the app becomes ‘the thing’ then each platform will need to have the common tools offered by others. Let me explain, I have an iPhone and a Hero (Android.) On my iPhone I love:

1. Tweetie for Twitter
2. Portfolio Live for tracking stocks
3. Evernote for filing
4. Spotify for Music
5. Flight Control for games

Which ones can I get on Adroid?

1. Twitdroid is as close as I can get, but not nearly as good
2. I cannot find a decent portfolio manager
3. I have to use a PixelPipe ‘hash’ version which requires a Pixelpipe account (I don’t have one)
4. Yes, and its great
5. No, I can’t find anything close

Now one of the issues with this is finding the apps. The app store Market on the Android is poor with little visibility of all the available apps, few categories in broad brush strokes like ‘finance’ which covers everything from mortgage calculators to tip calculators and share price tools. Trying to research these on the website for Android is equally hard as only a handful of apps are displayed. Furthermore the quality of some of these apps is questionable which,without better filtering brings down the overall quality of the market.All is not lost, however, there are some great apps for Android (I like the WiFi Analyser) but I find them through trial and error rather than a pleasurable shopping experience.Larva Labs post a great article covering more of the Market’s shortcomings.

If for final evidence, if you will, of the importance of apps it is the revenue they generate. GigaOm estimate Apple sells $2.4 billion worth of apps every year in their store. If Apple retain 30% of the sale value (says Infobeans) that would equate to around 15% of their 2008 profits. Something not to be sniffed at.

OK, the Google Android ‘phone has been around for over a year now and has seen limited success but with real potential. As a die hard iPhone lover I had shunned an Android until I felt I really should understand where this is heading.

In the past week we have seen announcements that some major US carriers are going to be offering Android Smart ‘phones before Christmas. This news just adds to the reasons why we need to be paying very close attention to Google Android. If you pay attention to the Google share price (it has almost doubled in six months) you will see that some of the fuel for this growth in share price is the Android roll out.

The value of stocks can go down as well as up....

So, here are my five reasons you need to pay attention:

1. Network Access. Verizon Wireless, the largest US carrier will start selling two Android handsets before Christmas, one HTC, one Motorla. Good news for these handsets, bad news for Apple, RIM (Blackberry) in the handset department. Bad news also for Microsoft whose outdated Windows Mobile is being shunned in favour of Google. Bearing in mind the choices Verizon no doubt had, and regardless of how many Android handsets are sold this Christmas, this deal should be seen as a strong endorsement for the future of Android.

(The iPhone is still available only on AT&T in the USA. The Verizon deal offers a very real alternative to those people looking for a s,art ‘phone but not necessarily a Blackberry. The deal with Orange (and soon Orange & T-Mobile) in the UK means this is less of a threat on this side of the pond)

2. The Google Android Operating System is free to handset manufacturers. In this market, free is a very good incentive for handset manufacturers to try your software. Remember, Windows Mobile is outdated (and probably costs a lot of money), and the iPhone software is and will remain exclusive to Apple. If handset manufacturers and carriers are looking for the iPhone killer, they have the potential to gain one with little upfront investment or risk.

3. Android is Open Source. iPhone is not. Whilst both systems have app stores, the open source structure offers a greater ability to really see where this can go. I feel it is important also as the Android system, its apps, and the app market (on the ‘phone is atrocious) is not as polished as the iPhone. By making this open source it puts the power and responsibility for growth into the hands of a much larger connected audience which could see step change improvements as we move forward.

To quote Scott Morrison, WSJ

Mobile apps are critical for two reasons. Yankee Group estimates the U.S. mobile app market will reach $4.2 billion in 2013; meanwhile, consumers are likely to be drawn to the mobile phone platform that boasts the greatest number of apps. However, it becomes a chicken-or-egg debate because developers will turn their attention to Android as more people buy those phones, but consumers might be reluctant to buy Android phones without a robust set of apps.

4. Android is Hardware Agnostic. In part because of its open source nature, the operating system can be tweaked to deliver the right customer experience for each carrier and the ability to run on different ‘phones. If we look at two other options, the iPhone and the Blackberry – you can only use the iphone system on the iphone or the ipod touch. If you don’t like the iphone then tough, and in the States, if you like the iPhone but not AT&T – tough. The Blackberry is similar – whilst there are umpteen different Blackberry styles, its still a Blackberry. Android can appear on any network (subject to contracts) and on (virtually) any ‘phone type. Of course, the handset choice is limited at this stage but that’s because of the audience size – as Android increases in popularity so the investment in hardware will follow from manufacturers.

5. It connects seamlessly with your Google accounts. If you look at any of the major search engines over the past 10 years, they have all worked to grow the reasons to stay on the site, not leave it. With Google this has been the investments with iGoogle, Maps, YouTube, Docs etc. So Google are taking this strategy mobile, giving you the ability to use Google as you would on a computer. This in itself is nothing new, nor is it fully harnessed (I don’t get the same experience on Google Finance, for example, as I do on the computer) but with the sheer size of Google users (and growth) this starts to become an attractive option, to have all of your ‘stuff’ in one place. Android needs to work hard to ensure there are additional benefits or greater harmony between computer and ‘phone (vs. a Google app on the iPhone or Blackberry) for it to become a true killer. I believe this is a strong point moving forward, but one that needs to work right now.

The Future’s Bright The Future’s Android

There are many reasons not to like Android right now, not least the lack of polish, the small number of users and the lack of apps. BUT the reason you need to pay attention is that these will be fixed. The Verizon deal is big news as it paves the way for much quicker potential growth. If growth kicks off, then in will come more manufacturers, more developers and more money. Once this happens we will see a snowball effect with growth coming quicker and quicker.

Make no mistake, Google are in this to make money. It is no accident there is a search button the handset – they want to be your partner in mobile surfing and mobile searching. If you watch their video for Android 1.6 you will see they focus on your ability to search.Their investment now will pay dividends in a few years. If I was a betting man, I’d say those are going to be big dividends.

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With rumours growing that Apple will release a tablet computer this month, The team at thenextweb have released some early videos demonstrating how the interface could look. Here is the first of a number of videos..

The videos are actually the work of an anonymous grad student from Georgia who has gone to great lengths to prepare the videos and to speculate as to how the interface and apps will work. Follow the full story and watch the rest of the videos at thenextweb.com.

These are my bookmarks for July 2nd from 09:51 to 09:54:

• famfamfam.com: Home – Welcome to famfamfam.com, personal site and web playground of Birmingham (UK) based developer Mark James.
• Mobile Device Icons by ~pierocksmysocks on deviantART – A great collection of mobile device icons
• famfamfam.com: Hopping with Shortstat – Shaun Inman's ShortStat software is nothing but addictive, especially with the addition of the PathStats extension. But never one to be satiated, and always one to be aroused by interactive visualisation of just this kind of data, I have quickly knocked together the TravelStats extension, which displays a directed graph of the pages on the site, with the thickness of the lines displaying the relative amount of people who 'hopped' between pages.
• 40 Professional Icon Sets For Free Download | Graphics | Smashing Magazine – The motherload of beautiful icons

These are my bookmarks for July 1st from 14:13 to 15:21:

• Buy Sky Lanterns & Chinese, Flying, Glo, Wedding, Festival & Paper Lanterns! – Night Sky Lanterns – Our lanterns are manufactured to the highest standard and should not be confused with cheap imitations. Each lantern is supplied with a non drip fuel cell, which is easy to light, and fully illustrated instructions on how to launch your lantern. In addition our lanterns are flame retardant and biodegradable.
• Your Social Compass | Loopt –

These are my bookmarks for June 29th from 12:56 to 14:15:

• Tether Free for iPhone 02 – Tether Free is an application written to let you use the Internet on your iPhone for free. It uses the same access point for tethered access as your iPhone uses for normal data so as far as I can tell no additional charges *should* be incurred.
• Google move paves way for Firefox on Android | Webware – CNET – Google's move to let software run natively on Android devices opens the door for a version of Firefox that can run on the operating system.

These are my bookmarks for June 24th from 16:54 to 17:12:

• Read It Later Launches New iPhone App (But if You Don’t Like It, You Can Build Your Own!) – Read It Later, a cross-platform browser extension for saving online articles for later reading, has just debuted their newly updated iPhone application. This latest version introduces a number of useful features for voracious mobile readers including support for articles spanning multiple pages, support for sites requiring logins (like WSJ or NYT), new sharing features, and a lot more.
• Mafia makes money from Twitter (but you didn’t hear it from us) | Digital | Revolution – LONDON – Social media gaming start-up Lolplaying is turning to the Mob to generate revenue from Twitter, with the launch of a game that allows users to turn their followers into La Cosa Nostra.
• Once Touted As A Google Killer, Cuil May Deal With Search King – Yahoo! News – Cuil , the upstart search site launched by former Google engineers to a wave of publicity last year, isn't too cool to do business with its supposed rivals, Google or Yahoo.
• Google wants to make friends with your agency | Search | Revolution – Google is testing the new AgencyLand platform in the US with agences including Aegis' Carat Interpublic's Initiative and WPP's Ogilvy and plans to roll it out to all major search spenders.