‘Social Club’ from Virgin Mobile France!
Jun 16th
Exciting stuff: Today sees the launch of Virgin Mobile France’s ‘Social Club’, the latest rebranding of our InTouch5 social network, IM and email aggregation app.
Virgin are celebrating the release by offering lots of juicy offers to their customers – with plans that include ‘Social Club’ starting from 13,90 € per month! That’s unlimited access to Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger and email – you can’t say much better than that.
Check out this screen-shot I just took from their site.
More news to come…
For the full press release – please take a look at our site.
Miyowa proud to be part of The Messenger Edition by SFR
May 3rd
We love the fact that tens of thousands of customers are buying the ZTE ‘Messenger Edition’ phone from SFR, a handset especially made for, and pre-installed with, Miyowa’s Windows live Messenger client.
Launched in March of this year, The Messenger Edition by SFR, has an onscreen button for direct access to Miyowa’s Windows Live Messenger client, and an AZERTY keyboard for quick fire thumb action. That makes for some very dynamic instant messaging between friends.
SFR has also created this cute site: http://www.meilleursamisdumonde.fr/ (‘The best friends in the world’) which gives friends the opportunity to share their stories and celebrate their friendship.
Thanks ZTE, SFR and Microsoft for working with Miyowa to get this cool experience in to the customer’s hand.
Now that summer has finally (touch wood / fingers crossed / whatever else just might help) arrived, it’s all the more worth celebrating that ‘The Messenger Edition’ lets you take all of your messenger friends wherever we go, chatting as quickly and easily as you could, were you stuck indoors, glued to your PC.
Vivre la mobile internet revolution! Making everyone more mobile. Miyowa are proud to be part of it.
Take a little look at SFR’s Messenger Edition in this video below:
What? No, I am definitely NOT checking Facebook
Apr 22nd
I posted something on Facebook this morning – alright, alright, so maybe it was this afternoon. Quick. As a flash. Like, wham, bam, copied it from Twitter, signed in, posted it. Signed out, good bye, adios. Will not be sacked for piddling around on my personal social networks at work. Phew.
But I want to see if anyone has commented anything…
I really, really do!
The thought keeps sneaking back on up at me. It’s like an annoying itch. An itch to sneak on, see if anyone has written anything…
…then sneak right off, of course. Wouldn’t hurt just once, right?
But then, it wouldn’t be once would it, Mairi? Nope, because, even if I did see that one of my friends had posted a little something – my little itch would still be there – wanting to know ‘has anyone posted anything else?’, ‘And, did anyone comment on that?’ Because somebody very well could, like, at any minute.
God, my addictions….itchy.
If only I had InTouch5™ Social Dashboard. (plug). I could sneak a peak at my mobile – without signing in….without having to leave the conspicuous FACEBOOK! page open in my browser – without having to let that unmistakable interface ping up on my screen every time I just need a wee… check.
Ahhh, if only. My perfectly innocent mobile could just buzz me, just a wee ‘ting ting’ or ‘zzz, zzz’ to notify me that someone had commented. It wouldn’t just scratch my itch but clear it altogether. I’d be doused in chamomile – oooh refreshing. I’d be soothed in the knowledge that ‘it’s O.K, you’re not going to miss a thing – you’re there, they’re all there and you’re going to know about it the very moment someone notices that rather funny little link’.
And relax.
NB: It should be noted, by anyone who I might work for, that this post was completely fabricated – the situation described is utterly false – a mere figment of my imagination, used, simply, to demonstrate the possible benefits of having InTouch5™ Social Dashboard on my mobile phone. I, for the record, do not even have a Facebook account.
Mobile Advertising – 8 things we can be sure of
Apr 15th
Everybody’s musing about mobile advertising – is it really going to take off? is it where the money’s at? how can we avoid annoying the consumers? who is going to come up with the best model and what the hell is that going to be?!
Personally I’m sure that there are already some very bright start-ups that have come up with some pretty cracking ideas, but before they’re ready to unleash them, here’s a few things we can be sure of:
1. It’s not going to be advertising as we know it…or at least as we knew it yonks ago – marketing ‘messages’. Web 2.0 has given a voice to the masses – a way to communicate and share real opinions about products and services (Yelp, Trip Advisor, Alikelist) and nobody pays attention to the marketers message anymore. The best way to deliver ads to consumers is through the voices of their friends. If you can get my friends to tell me about your product/business, I’ll probably listen. (Way-to-go Blippy & Foursquare).
2. There’s going to have to be something in it for the consumer. Consumers want rewards. Thousands have signed up for advertisements dressed up as promotions on the likes of Groupon.com. They’re happy to receive news of products & services because there’s a prize, a discount in it for them. Everyone gets something – which is why these services have so far proved golden.
3. It’s got to be interactive. Consumers are pretty good at ignoring ads these days – if you want them to pay attention, you’re going to have to encourage them to engage with your ad. Twitter for example, is trying to implement this by only showing ads that Tweeter-folk favorite, retweet, or somehow mark as useful.
4. We’re all sick of paper, we’re green now. If you can send consumers tickets and vouchers that aren’t printed on chopped down trees, won’t get misplaced somewhere, accidentally washed or whatever else – they’ll happily receive them inside their telephone.
Check out these results from a recent test by Sony.
5. Obviously the most profitable and least annoying ads are going to be targeted to consumers likes, dislikes and demographic profiles (Google). But in order to use that information – which will be easy to harvest from consumer’s online mobile behavior – companies are (at first anyway) going to have to be open, and ask permission before doing so. Otherwise, they’ll have some freaked out consumers and privacy issues to deal with.
6. Compared to the PC, the mobile screen real-estate is rather little. We can’t go stuffing it with information. There’s going to be a strong link, between mobile ads and the internet. An online call to action, or a PC base to manage what flows through the mobile. I think, to begin with, advertisers are going to start incorporating mobile in to their web based communications. Perhaps sending vouchers to your mobile, from online actions. Take a look at this from Groslch to see a clever example of using both mediums (& the 70.6% success rate it generated in peer to peer recommendation).
7. A large proportion of big brand communication is, in the next few years, going to be done with branded utility apps from the companies themselves. Fanta’s very clever app for teens – the Fanta Stealth Sound System – is one great example. We’re also going to be getting sponsored Augmented reality apps to help us navigate around events – like the World Cup, for certain – or stores (pointing us to recommended products and promotions, allowing us to plan out a shopping list online and carry it around on our mobile).
8. It’s going to be great. As someone passionate about advertising I’m no doubt biased. But the truth is, it really has to be. There is so much choice for consumers between apps and service providers, that in order to keep their subscribers loyal and their businesses alive, the ads these players incorporate will have to successfully pander to consumer demands: rewards, interaction and entertainment.
And, the money at stake here means that there are so many smart people out there working on cracking the golden ad model that we’re bound to see some truly brilliant, creative solutions.
Cool Stuff for All!
Apr 14th
COOL STUFF FOR ALL! That’s my chant for the day.
Often when I talk to people geeks about our InTouch5™ product they reply “cool, can I get it on my iphone?”, but the answer, for the moment is “sorry, no”. And I’m really proud of that. Don’t get me wrong, I have an iphone, I think they’re really cool – but the truth is that they still a minority in the mobile handset market.
Most people, and certainly many of the people in the demographics that we’ve made our product for, aren’t too inclined to spend the amount of money that an iphone costs, on their mobile phone. Maybe they’re studying, rather than earning, or are in their 20s, and haven’t yet hit the big bucks at work. Maybe they’ve just started a family and are budgeting for a whole new person. Whatever the case, their financial priorities don’t necessarily include having the latest smartphone. None the less, they’re people who have lives bursting with exciting activity that they want to share, and loads of friends that they want to share it with.
Which is why I’m proud to say that InTouch5™’s first deployments are on affordable handsets. Not low-end handsets, but mid-range handsets. Cool handsets that can be bought with a pay-as-you go package or as part of an affordable tarif. We’re bringing InTouch5™ to handsets that have lots of smart functions – but that with InTouch5™ on board have considerably more.
Yes, we’re going to be deploying on Android in a couple of weeks, we’re already on Blackberry and yes, eventually we’ll be bringing InTouch5™ to the iphone. And, of course, we’re immensely proud of that too. But, first we’re taking care of a big chunk of the people that we had in mind when we first designed InTouch5™. People who are too busy being out there living cool adventures (and wishing they had a fast, easy and mobile way to share it with their social communities) to be able to stump up the mega bucks for an uber smartphone.
Geeks like me, gadget addicts and big spenders, will have to wait just a little while longer to get InTouch5™ on their handset. In the mean time we’re bringing the high value service to the mid-range phone.
So, there we go, that’s why today’s little chant celebrates: COOL STUFF FOR ALL!!!
Branded online communities – we’re about to see many more
Apr 2nd
My favorite Newspaper have created what seems like a very well designed version of something we’re going to be seeing a lot of from now on: branded online communities.
As Facebook overtakes Google as the most visited site on the web, it seems logical that brands jump on the social media bandwagon too. But that’s not to say I don’t think it’s a good idea, it’s a logical step. Born from all of the best bits web 2.0 has given us so far, the new branded online communities roll everything we’ve begun to expect online, in to one.
Take what the Times offers me:
1 – The same service as the original website: the news, videos, photographs
2 – The Facebook aspect: My own profile, my own wall, my place within the community
3 – The Twitter aspect: Q&A quizzes with Journalists – an open line of interaction with people I want to engage with rather than their agents, secretaries, assistants etc
4 – The Yep/Trip Advisor aspect: forums and debates – where I can have my say, see the opinions of others – get ‘the truth’ as the hoi polloi see it and not just the official line
5 – The Groupon aspect – exclusive offers for those in the group…such as, I quote “tickets to film previews, invitations to exclusive events hosted by our writers, complimentary upgrades, discounts and so much more”
6 – The Google aspect – Location aware ads and offers, personalized to my tastes
7 – The app aspect – interactive graphics and applications
This isn’t a newspaper anymore – nor a website, forum, loyalty club, customer-relations line – but an active social community, where people will no doubt meet and engage, forming relationships that will spill over in to the real world.
And we’re about to see many, many more. For supermarkets, fashion & confectionery brands, cultural halls….almost any brand big enough to gather all of their customers in to one place – reward them, engage with them, feed them marketing news and react to their gripes – in an open web 2.0 environment.
There was a time long ago where people claimed technology would destroy human to human connections. Turns out, we’re just using it to make even more.
Dude…it’s David Kerrigan of 3 UK
Mar 10th
I love me a bit of Californi-zation (see the fist appear around the 0.46 mark, dude) and I love to hear people saying good things about our company (happens all the time yo, just don’t always have a camera to catch it).
So please enjoy this video that Mike shot at Mobile World Congress, where David Kerrigan, head of internet at 3 UK, talks about 3’s relationship with Miyowa.
I’ll also track down the vid where Mike bigs up the work they do at 3, just to keep it mutual 
as promised….
And here’s a little tweet I just saw from the peeps @3mobilebuzz…looks like Mike might have developed a new moniker…
Cyber-crack…now with vitamin D!
Mar 9th
Citizens beware *scowls sternly* it seems there is a new menace threatening our society. Haven’t you heard the news? Web addiction is well on its way to becoming a clinically recognized form of dangerous dependency.
That’s right citizens, just when you thought you were a clean living, smoothie drinking, yoga posing goody two-shoes, your dabble in to cyber-crack (social-networking, gaming, googling…) has gone and got you hooked.
I know that I am, and that the Miyowa office contains quite a few others who are too.
But luckily we functioning web addicts are not likely to find ourselves banged up next to Winehouse or Woods just yet. It’s the high school drop-outs who pass weeks locked in their dark, sock-ridden bedrooms, developing rickets and interacting solely with avatars, that really need to watch their backs. Apparently an ever-increasing number of adolescent addicts are being prized from their bedrooms and wheeled in to 12 step programs, military schools and detox camps in Utah by desperate parents trying to ween them off their 18-hours-a-day PC habit.
So, what does that say about the industry we all work in – providing mobile internet? Are we pushing a product that enables addicts, helping them feed their addiction anywhere, anytime?
Well, sort of. But at the same time, we are the lighter, healthier ‘safer’ option. We’re the booze-free beer or like playing poker for pretzels, if you will. In my mind, mobile internet is less of an enabler, and more of a cure.
For the shizzle we’re shiftin’ gets the web addicts out of their dark and dingy lairs – away from the decomposing pizza fumes and in to the fresh air of day. After all, could there be anything more embarrassing than only ever checking-in to various corners of your bedroom on Foursquare? 
And, we all need to get out to take some photos for Facebook sometime, do we not?
Especially now that stepping *grimaces* away from the PC and out of the house no longer means logging off.
Mobile internet, and in particular (plug) Miyowa InTouch5™, allow you to take every one of your social communities with you….all the way in to the real world!
You can keep connected, notified and in-the-loop – you can tweet on the hoof, IM on the go and meet your friends in the flesh.
When it comes down to it, I don’t think that there’s any need to, sense in, or chance of ‘curing’ this very human addiction to discovering new things, interacting and maintaining our place as part of a social group (albeit via the web). But I do think that we might all end up a bit less fat around the behind, and rather more rich in vitamin D, now that mobile internet has given us the means to do this on the move.
Life is best shared, and when accompanied by a good tune
Mar 2nd
I want to share a couple of paragraphs from an article I read this morning in the Times (by Alexi Mostrous). The ideas expressed and the scene imagined, resonate so perfectly with our vision here at Miyowa.
“It’s 4am in a hotel room far from home and you’ve just broken up with your lover. Aside from the minibar, there’s no empathy on offer: not a soul to talk to, no shoulder to cry on.
You update your Facebook status with news of the split. Seconds later someone on the other side of the world sends your smart phone a digital version of What Difference Does It Make?, allowing you and Morrissey to wallow together in self-pity. Someone else sends you Paul Simon’s Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover, which cheers you up a bit. This may sound far-fetched, but the hope of the music industry rests upon such connections. A future where songs are not bought, but accessed via telephones, sent across cyberspace, and passed around friends through platforms such as Twitter, is what is hoped will save music from the twin ravages of illegal downloading and a lack of strategic direction.”
This is uncannily similar to one of the user-case scenarios we worked out when we started building the roadmap for the InTouch5™ Rich AddressBook (give or take a few song titles). Only, importantly, we can assure you that the concept isn’t far-fetched at all. In fact, it is exactly what we are in the middle of delivering. It won’t be ready for the end-user until the second half of the year but yesterday I had my first demo experience of music sharing with the InTouch5™ Rich AddressBook.
For those that don’t know, the InTouch5™ Rich AddressBook aggregates all of a users social networks in to his or her mobile phone address book. That is to say that, next to each of the friends in my phone book, I have their most recent status update and an icon for each of the social networks that we’re connected on. These icons show me whether my friend is currently active on that network or not, and when clicked upon, take me to the InTouch5™ Social Dashboard. Here, I can access the entirety of each of the social networks, and carry out any of the actions that I can on the original wap version. I can also choose to be alerted any time certain (or all of my) friends change or post something new to one of these networks.
In the scenario that we at Miyowa envisaged when we designed our roadmap, I would receive an alert from Facebook, to tell me that one of my best friends had just changed her relationship status to single. If she also decided to post the news on Twitter or Windows Live Messenger, I would see that immediately too. I’d be notified in real-time, and could react in real-time – with any form of communication I choose. I would decide to dip in to my (in our case) last.fm library, chose a song, and send it to her – either as a pop up message, on Twitter, or on Facebook. She, who has since dropped her phone on to her plump hotel pillow, as she rummages in the mini-bar, receives an alert to tell her I’ve sent her something new.
Despite the miles that separate us, my friend has my support, in real-time, the moment she reaches out.
Our prime concern at Miyowa, is about providing the end-user with a service that keeps them constantly connected to the people they care about, in as many ways as possible, and as immediately and easily as possible. On top of the social networks, instant messaging and email services that we already have agreements with – I am really excited about the others that we are currently working in to the InTouch5™ experience. These are really going to make what we finally deliver to the end-user, the most comprehensive social experience imaginable.
We are also thrilled to be part of delivering a service that could help the music industry find a new way to flourish. If there are two things we’re sure of at Miyowa, it is that life is best shared, and even better when accompanied by a good tune.
Designs we like
Feb 25th
This post isn’t exactly about mobile, but seeing as the Miyowa office has recently been so abuzz with all things design, I wanted to share a few of the cool things we’ve been looking at.
A while ago, when the developers emerged from tirelessly building, testing, re-testing, re-adjusting, tweaking and perfecting the R.A.B framework, and produced the final, optimized InTouch5™ Rich Addressbook architecture, it was time for the team to really get down to ensuring that every aspect of the end-user experience was at its very best. Not only, of course, the scenarios and sequences of how to use the application – that’s been an ever-evolving key concern from the get go – but also the details of the ‘look & feel’.
Over the past few months, the team have been musing over inspiration from far and wide.
While I don’t want to give too much away about the final design of InTouch5™ R.A.B interface (available for the end user in Q3 2010), I thought I could at least share some of the images we found, and appreciated along the way. Suffice to say the inspiration gathering process was pretty extensive, so I just want to dip in to some of it, and that’s not to say they represent the look we’ve finally gone for. First up, I had a rummage in to the folder marked ‘Geometric Shapes’ and today I thought I’d share some of the content we sourced from the city of Melbourne.
If you’ve never been to Melbourne you’re missing out on an incredibly good-looking city that’s somewhat of a treasure trove of very, very cool design. Here are some images of things we liked:
The recent re-branding of the city:
Melbourne’s Capitol Theatre:
Melbourne’s VCA
Melbourne’s TCA
And….not from Melbourne at all, but just because they’re pretty awesome, and I wanted to include them too, some origami shoes from the French graphic artist Ndeur.
Recent Comments