Some pictures from the summit are here including photos of some of the slides. The videos are available on the conference web site : http://m1summitsf.splashthat.com/ This was quite the break from the usual types of technical conferences I attend. It contained a lot of high level information and discussion panels about future technologies. Here is some interesting press coverage.
- Google's Spero on Mobile Commerce: 'The Consumer Has All The Power'
- Facebook ad exec says mobile marketing is (and must be) highly personal
- Accel’s Wong may pick Android over Apple in health platforms
- Retargeting is ‘where the puck is going’ in mobile advertising
- Health sensors will soon ‘disappear into the background,’ say developers
- Pandora says its 'like' data keeps it relevant against Spotify, Apple
- Google mobile ad chief to app makers: Stop concentrating so much on installs
Here are some notes I jotted down from the sessions.
iBeacon - Alex Bell, Jeremy Osen, Aurelie Guerrieri
- Apple released iBecons 2 years ago. Alex has been looking at them for 4 years. But, why are they not everywhere?
- There have been no marketing materials saying that beacons have changed anything.
- Alex feels it's difficult for big companies to track how much the beacons are being used.
- Jeremy - Has not yet seen a fully scaled program, but they are working
- One of the guys (name not listed) said that he implemented iBeacon in Paris and was able to drive new subscriptions to a club.
- Alex worked with a sports company that was able to increase ticket upgrades by using iBeacons. They would send a message up in the "nosebleed" seats to let people know they could get a better seat.
- Another customer was selling chicken. If folks stood by a display for more than 45 seconds, they sent them a message with a link to a coupon. They used to do this with flyers "proximity marketing".
- Apparently WiFi was put into trash cans in London and folks were upset about privacy. There is some fear about iBeacon as well.
- There was a buzzfeed article about Titan in New York that was written to scare consumers.
- If there is no app to pick up the beacon, it doesn't pick it up.
- Question : An iOS engineer who worked on core location asked about delay. It can take up to 15 minutes to know the phone is in a region. A: You can use core location to get a rough location and scan more when you get close.
- Question : Do any beacons have WiFi in addition to Bluetooth. A: This adds complexity and cost instead of making them cheaper and easier. The beacon just sends a number, not information that you push to it over the internet. 7 ]
Oskar Serrander - The Next Era Of Search is Mobile
- Quixey is a mobile search company. The "other" search company based in Mountain View Ca.
- He mentioned the problem where you get an invite from Linked In and you click on it but instead of taking you to the Linked In App, it takes you to a mobile web browser where you have to log in, and probably forgot your password.
- Some folks have a folder on their phone just for travel apps. Some have downloaded it multiple times since they don't use it very often.
- "The mobile experience is broken"
- In the beginning, there was limited web usage and apps. The original phone was about accessing the web. Later, a whole host of apps came out such as snapchat, instagram, camera, maps,. etc. The apps came to rule our phone and they were nothing like the web.
- Within 2020, it is expected that mobile internet will reach half the world.
- You can't talk about the internet without talking about apps. We access the internet through apps.
- The average user has 29 apps on their phone. 90% come from the top 25 list.
- 58% of apps are zombies. They have never been reviewed. No one has downloaded them.
- 65% of users don't download anything.
- 4 companies own apps that generate 70% of the unique visitors to the top 25 mobile apps. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple.
- It's important to these companies to maintain their share of our attention.
- Google is now a travel agent, a car seller, etc. They are competing with others.
- The cost for marketing apps is increasing all the time. Installs are a value metric. You are "buying installs".
- Search was left behind as a solution for this new era.
- Search is still matching keywords to static content. It hasn't really changed.
- Blue links were never really meant for our fingers. The mobile world is about buttons.
- By Mobile search, they mean device search, but also apps that are out there, and also mobile web.
- Quixey started as an app search company.
- They search through multiple apps and give you a summary from different applications.
- They are the sole search provider for Alibaba in China.
Matt Bar - Group Head, Emerging Payments Mastercard
- The US is both the Best and the worst of global payments.
- Their goal is to create platforms that partners can develop on top of.
Panel - The Wearable Revolution
- Kurk Workman - Owlet : They monitor infants
- DJ Jayalath - Athos - Clothing that monitors your heart
- Ari Roismann - CEO Glide - "Dick Tracy Watch"
- Aza Raskin - VP Of Innovation At Jawbone
- Moderator - Farthan Tawar from Pivotal Labs
- What do you do with the data? Can you make suggestions?
- Owlet - You can let parents know that the oxygen levels are persistently low, but they can not diagnose a problem without FDA Clearance.
- Athos - You can do things that a personal trainer does, but not something a Doctor does. You can show BPM, but not full heart monitor waveform.
- Gilde - Product development is data driven.
- The goal for the Owlet guy is for every baby leaving the hospital to have a wearable.
- Ari - Text based information isn't very human. Much of our communication requires intonation.
- The latest phones have 17 sensors. Will all of this become software within the phone?
- Owlet - THey have a smart sock. You can't put a phone on a baby's foot.
- There will always be a premium for a vertically integrated experience.
- 10 Years in the future there will be sensors in every shoe you buy.
Building The Mobile Workspace - Moderated by Raina Kumra. CEO Juggernaut
- What are the trends you have seen in the mobile workspace.
- Tom WIlliams, CEO BetterCompany - Folks have smartphones now.
- Mohawk Shroff, Head of Engineering Linked In - We are seeing a shift in the way people work. Data at linked in shows an evening out of work. Folks work in morning while commuting, then do things at their desk, then i the evening folks doing things from Tablets.
- The workplace is no longer 9-6, there is usage all day.
- If someone is really good at what they do, you will be lucky to hold on to them for 3 years.
- There is a war on talent where talent is winning.
- Jobber is "Tinder For Jobs". They enable real time chat for recruiters and candidates.
- Values about work have changed. There's no longer a source of sufferage saying that you have to stay there.
- The moderator has held 7 jobs in the last 6 years.
- Data Scientists are always getting pinged.
- Mobile has allowed folks to bring their own solution into the workplace. This means there is a ton of noise. You have to deploy to a large number of users and get a critical mass of users in an enterprise.
- The enterprise has a kill switch on your app. It's good to reach out to them so that if they get a storm of traffic they know that it's OK.
- There is fear with bringing new things into the work space.
- Recruiting is a social activity. Ladders, Linked In, Jobr. will not replace the human element. The #1 source of hires is referrals. 32% of hires come from employees suggesting their friends. This is still an offline process. Personal connections will not replace this. (Alexandre Douzet)
- The reason slack worked, was because most apps that used that model, didn't work for the individual. You have to work for the single player first.
- The viral loops makes Apps like Slack and Hipchat work really well.
Matt Schnittker's Talk -
My talk was about the mobile tools we have at the studio and how they evolved from the ideas of Feeds, Forums, and Chat.
