Living in a Multi Platform World

The mobile community has started to talk about how the tide is turning on App store mania and that the natural route forward is Web apps, HTML 5 and so on. Is this another example of wishful thinking - or is it reality? Isn't it actually all a bit more complicated than that, for example where does J2ME sit and doesn't that characterisation ignore the existence of Flash and Silverlight? What about Java FX?

In any case, is it even the main problem? While the technology related issues are of course important, isn't there a more fundamental issue relating to how real people actually use these mobile devices and services and the UI design required to deliver this? Differences in interaction styles and form factors challenge the idea of producing a single UI design for the various classes of phone, let alone when you take into account tablets, laptops, game consoles and so on.

Kindly hosted by Windows Phone at the Microsoft Offices in Victoria, and with an introductory keynote by Alex Reeve, Director of Mobile at Microsoft, our brave panel will tackle this wide ranging topic that includes everything from consumer behaviour through to choice of developer SDKs.

Marek Pawlowski of PMN, and organiser of the famous MEX Conference will moderate the panel session. We will confirm speakers from a major content provider and a major online retailer shortly. Oded Ran from Microsoft will give us a platform vendor perspective and Ilia Uvarov from RG/A and Tom Hume of Future Platforms will bring the design and development perspectives. Nick Lansley of Tesco brings a major online retailer perspective and Jerry Ennis from Flirtomatic brings the mobile social angle.

Doors open at the usual time of 6.00 pm for a 6.30pm start at the Microsoft Conference Centre at 80 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL (map here). Networking drinks will follow the panel session and we're excited to hear that there will by a number of interesting devices on show during the networking as well.

Registration at http://momolo.org will open shortly and is essential. As you can imagine security is pretty tight there and pre-registration is required.

Partnering for Innovation regional events tour to promote £18m TSB fund

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has recently announced a new competition of £18m for collaborative technology R&D to support the UK’s digital industry. And that includes mobile technologies too.

To help digital firms successfully enter this competition, we have organised a series of six regional events taking place through-out May and June 2010.

The six ‘Partnering for Innovation’ events will take place around the UK, in Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and London.

The TSB fund will be in the form of a competition launched to promote lasting alliances between technology companies and entrepreneurs. To qualify for both streams, projects must be truly collaborative, with at least one partner. Partners can be drawn from businesses large or small, academia, research and technology organisations, not for profit organisations, but the projects must be led by a revenue earning business entity.

Applicants can pitch for projects of up to £99,000 as part of the fast track, or for larger projects of up to £2-3m, with grants available for up to 50% of the total project costs. So this seems like a good idea and one way to part-finance a new project.

These free-to-attend one-day Partnering for Innovation events will cover:

• How to enter the Collaboration across Industries competition
• Detailed information on deadlines & eligibility
• Networking and collaboration opportunities
• Workshops on proposal writing and pitching
• The chance to quiz the TSB on specific proposal issues
• What to expect from the application process

Dates for the diary:

• Tues, 25th May – alongside Thinking Digital at Live Theatre, Newcastle – register
• Tues, 2nd June – Watershed, Bristol – register
• Weds, 3rd June – IAB, London – register [At the time of writing there were 20 places left for this one. Limited to max 2 attendees per company]
• Tues, 8th June – Glasgow, Scottish Youth Theatre – register
• Thurs, 24th June – Manchester, Bridgewater – register
• Tues, 29th June - IAB, London – register

The events are free to attend but space is limited so do register using the links above to secure a spot. And in registering for the events, you’ll also be registering on the CI-KTN’s free network where you can access other information resources. CI-KTN is a sister organisation to DC-KTN who regularly support and sponsor Mobile Monday London activities.

If any MoMoLo members have previous experience, positive or negative, about these initiatives or have advice to share, please do leave a comment or enter the discussion via our email discussion group. It would be good to understand a bit more about what’s involved and how these initiatives can benefit your business.

[via Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network – CI-KTN ]

Technorati Tags: events,CI-KTN,DC-KTN,TSB,Technology Strategy Board,UK

Monetising Mobile – Wednesday 26 May at BAFTA

Hot on the heels of our own ‘Where Mobile Meets Media’ event next Monday, industry magazine, Mobile Entertainment, is running their own conference cum dinner event a couple of days later at London’s BAFTA.

Starting at 4.30pm in the afternoon and continuing well into the evening, they will be discussing and debating how can you make real cash from mobile applications. There’ll be a series of short presentations and panel sessions covering in-app payments, viral distribution and marketing, in-app advertising, DIY application building platforms, retail techniques, affiliate marketing and more and you’ll be mixing with speakers from Nokia, RIM, Intel, Shazam, Admob, Bango, Scoreloop, O2 and Vodafone. And this is followed by drinks, dinner, yes, dinner, and networking.

For the full lowdown, please visit http://www.mobile-ent.biz/events/219/Monetising-Mobile

The normal ticket price is £229 + VAT, but the special Mobile Monday London members price is £199 + VAT.

To book your place, please contact Jodie Holdway by phone on 01992 525 647 or email quoting ‘MoMoLo’ to claim your discount.

Technorati Tags: mobile applications,mobile entertainment,mobile media