Boston #AGMobileUp Tweetup

This post originally appeared on the Altimeter Group blog.

Thanks to all those who helped us make our #AGMobileUP Tweetup a success last night in Boston. We had a great and varied group of attendees hailing from agencies, mobile startups and the VC community as well. We all had great conversations and great food (don’t believe me? See Joselin Mane of BostonTWeetUp’s amazing writeup) and a few themes stuck out to me:

On Mobile

• Social/Mobile Is Cool, But It Scares Us A Bit: Gathered around someone’s iPhone, as one does at a mobile tweetup, we all got to talking about social discovery apps. We all acknowledge the potential for the usefulness of apps like Banjo, Highlight and others, but the conversation is still lopsided toward the “creepy” factor. Seems not much has changed since we looked at this around SxSW.
• Mobile App Dev Is Getting Hotter: There were a lot of companies in the room that provided some level of mobile application development support or guidance and business is GOOD. These folks are very busy as their client lists are looking to take another look at how they invest in mobile, backed by a firm business plan and with differentiated approached. We’re going to be seeing a lot of action, and a lot of consolidation in this space. Local-area startup Kinvey has mapped out themobile back-end space quite nicely in their popular infographic.
• iOS Still Rules The Day: My colleague Jeremiah had his Google I/O issue Galaxy Nexus Android smartphone on him, it drew more than a few stares and drew out some questions, “does it have…” and, “can I run…” for the statistically most popular platform, most of the innovators we brought together saw an Android device as a curiosity. Are we too small a sample, all in the same demographic or is this indicative of the hybrid business/personal user? What are your thoughts?

On Boston

• We need a roundtable: More than a few people acknowledged the need for more roundtables, get-togethers, and networking among the mobile community in Boston. Largely we all know of one another but don’t have a great place to meet. I’m proposing a TweetChat for #Bostonmobile once every month or two. I’m interested in thought in the comments on timing, location and format that people would be interested in.
• There’s a lot going on: We may not have the per-capita number of startups of Palo Alto, but there’s a rapidly growing tech scene in Boston and its surrounding areas. No surprise with over 50 colleges and universities and some receI can’t attribute the quote but someone noted that, “there’s a lot of VC and startup activity here, but we do it quietly.” I think that’s apt, but that doesn’t mean that what’s happening on the East Coast, particularly in Boston is of less import to the mobile landscape. In fact, with payers like Kinvey and Modo Labsredefining app design, Apperian re-envisioning app life cycles and Mobiquity reinventing the mobile development process this small market among many, many others will definitely leave a mark.

My thanks again to all those whose hard work made this event a reality, and all who came to make it a vibrant discussion. Until next time!

Some More Thoughts on Android 4.0, Tablet Version

After living with the OS for a couple of days, some more thoughts on Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich on my Moto Xoom, overall, a good experience, app migration notwithstanding.

Android 4 ICS on Xoom 2 from Chris Silva on Vimeo.

Overview of Android 4.0, On Moto Xoom Tablet

This week, owners of existing Android devices (as opposed to new-in-market smartphones) got an update to Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich. My official update rolled out to my Wifi Motorola Xoom Tablet mid-week, below I review some of my initial impressions of the new OS, in my view an improvement over Honeycomb (Android 3.0.)

Android 4.0 Overview On Moto Xoom from Chris Silva on Vimeo.

 

Video App Review: Starbucks

One of the companies often cited as a leader in mobile shopping is Starbucks. The company, which offers payment using starbuck card credit via its newly-designed online app has illustrated what’s possible in mobile payment with a one-plus year old deployment of mobile payments via the app across its 9,000 US stores. There are also some interesting engagement tools the company is putting out on mobile, in the video app review below, we explore both.

Starbucks is one of the firms being featured in my upcoming mobile retail report, “Santa’s Little Helpers.” Look for it here on December, 19, 2011.

Video App Review: Amazon Flow

As I get closer to the publication of my upcoming mobile shopping report, I’ll be putting a series of video app reviews up on the site. The first one is below and, yes, production value will get better (I promise.) The first review is on Amazon’s Flow augmented reality app, designed to aid in the discovery of items to purchase on Amazon.com, discovered in their “natural habitat.”

I look forward to you comments on the video, more to come!