It was awesome to see what has come from the guy who invented T9 keyboard entry for cell phones. I’ve long been a little dubious of text entry on a mobile device - other than the digital natives who can write novels without watching - for the rest of us text entry is just too hard and too slow. T9 is great but what is the next step that allows even faster input and is customised with the latest must have - a touch screen interface?
Enter Swype - a new startup that is currently focused on text input technology for windows mobile devices. The idea of Swype is to press your finger or stylus on the first letter of the word you are attempting to write, then, without lifting it, move it to the remaining letters in the word. When the word is done, then you lift.
Corporate users rely more and more on large scale databases - be it for customer information, resource tracking or other business analytics. This all works well for desk bound workers who can pull up a plethora of applications to access those databases, but not so for mobile users who need to quickly access particular data.
This is the space that Mobile Data Now operates in. Mobile Data Now is a mobile messaging solution that allows users to gain access to business data via e-mail, SMS and IM.
Mobile users gain access to the data they require by sending a keyword based query to the MDN messaging engine. Based on data access permissions, the message query is obtained from the database and transmitted back through MDN to the user.
MDN is a novel approach towards mobile data acquisition. Other solutions have attempted to port a desktop app to a mobile device which - given the plethora of use-cases for mobile, is less than optimal - MDN recognise that every handset already includes its own messaging applications and has leveraged these to unlock database access.
At this stage MDN is an installed application (installed on the corporate server - accessed from the mobile device), although MDN tell me that they are investigating the possibilities around offering MDN as an on-demand solution.
I tend to be pretty damning of start-ups with no real monetisation strategy who give their products away for free with the vague notion of value at some later stage. It’s so painfully hard to change a model post release - try charging punters for something that they’ve grown accustomed to getting for free.
That’s why it was interesting when Jason told me that Jott, the company offering Reminders 2.0, has moved out of its free pre beta stage and is now following a freemium strategy - charging users that need to use the offering often.
I like freemium as a concept - but worry about a service that goes from free to freemium - I guess at the end of the day it depends on how many of those pre-beta users will need to step up and start paying. If the majority of existing users remain on the free offering, but they are the seed customers that bring others in for the paid version then the strategy has legs. If however the plan is to convert existing free users to paid - it’s a difficult road to travel.
Time will tell how Jott manages with its change.
Update - I’m told that existing beta-testers will remain on the free service - nice one Jott!
Awesome to read about New Zealand based company Imarda who have just inked a deal with a major US freight company. The deal is worth $12million and see Imarda supply multi-source data devices that will handle engine-management, GPS and Driving force sensors.
It’s a great win for Imarda but I was al little saddened to read what CEO Selwyn Pellet had to say about their plans for an initial public listing and specifically where that would occur;
It is looking at listing on a sharemarket, but has not decided on a country to list in. The New Zealand market is not ready, there’s a certain culture in New Zealand that bricks and mortar and high revenue are what you should invest in.
It would be nice to think we could both create these high IP products and services, and also retain the business within New Zealand - Pellet’s comments indicate both the appetite for investment within New Zealand, the the sophistication (or otherwise) of the market, and the lack of good alternative funding sources.
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Corporate users rely more and more on large scale databases - be it for customer information, resource tracking or other business analytics. This all works well for desk bound workers who can pull up a plethora of applications to access those databases, but not so for mobile users who need to quickly access particular data.
