This last weekend, Scoble presented “Flipboard”, a new Ipad application for a personalized magazine with Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds. A flood of Tweets with enthusiastic articles appeared as soon as the announcement came out. The result, despite renowned founders/investors and a big IT team, Flipboard did not take into account the problems of accelerated ramp-up, the Achilles heel for all start-ups.

But it’s not this recurring problem (dixit Twitter) which will undermine the success of this type of application; it’s the replications, motivated by this success, which is just as dazzling as unexpected. In a few weeks there will be 10 Flipboard like that will offer the same features because there is no legal defense or patent that protects exclusive use of Facebook and Twitter APIs. Already, Sobees offers an application dedicated to Facebook that transforms the way to use this platform, and paper.li also proposes, but in a web navigator, an intelligent aggregation solution for feeds in the form of a magazine.

In addition, the future business model seems to be supported by the insertion of intrusive advertising. This approach is very risky; in effect, it’s my magazine, it’s personal, and I don’t want promotions spoiling my daily reading.

Flipboard app also raises some fairly sticky issues related to copyright.

The future of this type of application in terms of a business model and user acquisition will prove very improbable and yet dozens of investors are knocking at the door.

This defines well, in my opinion, the “rule of three” that maintains the actual investment ecosystem:
20% in human resources, the project and the technology
60% in pure emotion and dreams
20% paradoxes and aberrations

The central idea that guided the development of this application was to evolve the distribution model for free classifieds.

Often listed in columns in the traditional press, online classifieds services quickly benefited from the power of search and the interactivity of the Internet. The success of services such as Craiglist and Ebay classifieds transformed and popularized access to good deals.

The arrival of the portable telephone will enable the expansion of the distribution model, which has been fixed for 200 years, thanks to GPS localization or GSM triangulation. It will be possible to be near places where one can find interesting deals for consumption or to discover in real time.

This distribution model is characterized by a localized base of classifieds that adapts to a geographic, social and cultural micro environment.

In addition to geolocalization, the social dimension allows the publication of one’s offer on networks such as Facebook and Twitter, finding an instantaneous and qualified audience.

This service therefore corresponds very well to traditional needs and consumption habits, favoring local human contact which had practically disappeared from the web.

This application is available for free download from the App store, and covers the US, UK and Canada in terms of content. French and multilingual versions will be implemented in the near future.

While you are in town around lunch time, you hear a beep. Is it your mother sending you a text message? Is it another alert informing you about the latest sports results? No. It’s an offer that arrives just at the right time, as long as you like hamburgers.

You have received this coupon because you were geo localized near a business offering a promotion for two cheeseburgers for the price of one, and the business is only 200 yards from where you are. The coupon is in your Smartphone; you just need to go to where the promotion is being offered and eat the two cheeseburgers. A check-in with the business will give you the right to a free drink. WOW!

For this to happen, you must have an application that pushes this kind of information directly to your telephone, using the multitasking of the los4 and Google’s Android, and agree to receive and personalize these alerts.

A revolution ? Without a doubt; because in this case it is not a question of unavoidable or non-solicited promotions. You can respond to them minutes after receiving them or store them in a list of favorites to benefit from them at another time.

These days it is very easy to get caught up in following all of the latest trends and attempt to predict the next big digital wave. And there are indeed several interesting new, cool things you can do with digital media (I just checked in…..now, what?). Stop waiting for Web 3, semantic and other buzz words. These are nothing more than fads and will be small parts of the real change that is taking place: mobile engagement and the integration of the digital and real world – where everything all comes together and goes everywhere you do.

The first computer revolution enabled people to do things faster and easier than ever before. The arrival of desktop computers got them out of the computing center and into the office, homes and schools. Portable computers, combined with the internet, freed workers from the office to do their work from all kinds of previously unexpected places. And all of the information and services made available via the Internet increased exponentially professional and personal use (Web 1).

The Web was always about communicating but it wasn’t until real conversations started taking place that the “social” aspect of the Web off (Web 2). Social functions in digital experiences at first seemed to be a trend among young people but are now so commonplace that the thought of not having socially-enhanced experiences seems illogical.

Now more than half the planet owns a mobile device. And businesses are well on board the anytime/anywhere mobile communications medium which is at the center of how people are communicating and enhancing their everyday lives.  It’s no longer about the desktop.  All of the professional and personal power of the computer, the internet and mobile communication is right there in your pocket for easy access to the best things in the real world.  It’s not called Web 3, it’s called Real World 2.0. Enjoy!

By Guest Author Julia Motet

Everyone believes that 2010 is the year that consumers will embrace geolocation and tell friends and marketers their every move. But are consumers really ready to tell marketers where they are?

Yes, if they see value in return.

Services like Foursquare have been surging, thanks largely to the iPhone and other GPS-enabled mobile devices. But a majority of enthusiasts are tech -loving early adaptors and very few are average consumers. What will make the latter cross the line and start telling their network when they are at the local coffee shop or bookstore? It certainly won’t be the chance to become mayor or to win a badge. Mainstream use of geo-location enhanced services will happen when consumers are comfortable with the privacy options (they only want a small, local-sphere group of friends to be informed – not the whole world) and when they will clearly see the value in it for them.

Location is not about a single service; rather it’s a new layer of Digital media that is very close to real life. Merging the digital and real world is a next major step, and geolocation is the perfect support. It’s not just about broadcasting our whereabouts, but about turning this data into value for everyone.

The hype over Foursquare, Gowalla, and many of the other smaller location-only players is useful in getting location to take off. But it will be whoever moves in to offer consumers real value that will have a massive impact on the location-based service environment. Those that fail to evolve will quickly die.

By Guest Author Julia Motet

Last year mobile advertising grew by 85% while the overall ad industry suffered. This year many analysts and major players in the advertising industry have said mobile is growing strongly. The mobile phone offers an unmatched channel for delivering content-rich, interactive and targeted promotions/services – it’s a marketer’s dream.

But if marketers only copy legacy ad concepts and don’t understand the unique abilities that only mobile can offer – they will not leverage the full promise of this mass medium.

What make the mobile channel unique (that cannot be done on a PC or PSP or digital camera, etc….)?

1 – Mobile is personal
2 – Mobile is permanently carried
3 – Mobile is always on
4 – Mobile will soon have a built-in payment mechanism
5 – Only mobile is available at the creative impulse
6 – Mobile has the best audience measurement
7 – Only mobile captures social context of consumption
8 – Only mobile enables real augmented reality

Don’t bother with copying the tired old models of older media. Especially since consumers actually prefer the more advance mobile ads (when they are not copies of old concepts).

Some “mobile savvy” marketers and Digital Agencies have started taking advantage of this new media to carry out their marketing mix on the mobile. But if they are not taking into account mobile’s unique abilities, then it is as if they are running a radio ad on TV or showing a IAB Banner as an ad in the cinema.

By Guest Author Julia Motet

Location is going to drive the next wave of consumer marketing. Advertisers are already relying more and more heavily on location-based, or mobile marketing, which allows a business with a physical location to drive foot traffic to their stores–previously an issue for store owners given the popularity of online shopping.

And the trend is not going to diminish any time soon. Research firm Borrel forecasts that location-based mobile spending will hit $4 billion in 2015, an increase of nearly 12,000% from the $34 million spent in 2009. Ad Age reports that Google will soon roll out new types of location-based mobile ads that can navigate consumers toward a store. And location-centric announcements also expected from both Facebook and Apple.

Why is location king?

• Mobile has a unique approach to advertising: a pay-for-performance model, not a CPM or pay-per-click. This is possible due to tracking capabilities; advertisers can measure exactly who used a location-based coupon
• Surprisingly, 94% of retail transactions still take place in physical stores
• Over half the world’s yearly $458 billion advertising budget is spent on local advertising
• Consumers accept advertising in exchange for free content
• The objective of mobile advertising is to drive traffic to physical stores

Because mobile advertising is easy to target, easy to measure, and location-based, it will be easy to apply, test, tweak and reapply. Using location-based mobile marketing advertisers can target consumers where they are; when they are looking for information.

By Guest Author Julia Motet

Time’s #1 tech trend for 2010 is location, and it points out the growing popularity of services like Foursquare and Gowalla. Mobile augmented reality applications have been taking advantage of location data since the beginning and continues to play a crucial role. After location comes "building platforms, not websites," meaning it’s all about what you can do and not being tied down to a web site. The shift to a cloud computing model continues as more and more users enjoy the ease of online access for data and services without any infrastructure worries. And few doubt the impact of the iPad once shipping starts in April.

South By Southwest Interactive is nerd paradise — Austin’s annual tech smash has minted its share of Internet darlings. (Foursquare in 2009; Twitter in 2007.) While this year’s conference didn’t have a clear breakout star, it did offer insight to the trends and ideas that will be shaping the Web in 2010.

Geolist brings these developments together to deliver location-specific content in a new and compelling way. Leveraging location and AR, Geolist will give users exactly what they are looking for – anywhere they go – any time of the day.

By Guest Author Julia Motet

With over 3 billion users in the world, the mobile phone has become the no1 media, far ahead of the rest.

 
The number of mobile phone subscribers in the world in 2008, over 3.3 billion!

From this we can see that, even if advertisers are still timid in respect to this media, the use of GPS functionalities on smartphones will revolution cross-media advertising.

On top of real-time localization and assisted guiding, the GPS already offers unlimited possibilities for advertisers to target needs locally, which goes a lot further than search or the antique concept of yellow pages. Such hyper-targeted information will reach you automatically as you move around.

  Software editors will use these functions to offer applications which are social, fun and aid sales, proof being the phenomenal success of the iTunes App.

It’s one of the great revolutions awaited by advertisers, to be able to attract consumers with the “GPS local Personal Mass Media” (GLMM) concept !

The five basics of the GPS Local Personal Mass Media are :

• The mobile phone is totally private (even a spouse cannot access it)

• It is close to the consumer 24/7 and follows him/her everywhere

• 7 people out of 10 sleep with their mobiles on

• Soon you will be able to buy things in one click, 2 times more people have a mobile than have a credit card

• Possibility to affect consumers through dreams and emotions at the right moment 24/7

After E-commerce, comes L-commerce (LBC Location Based Commerce). This is the name for commerce that relys on consumer geolocation. It is a virtual means for traditional businesses to attract clients that are located nearby.

The business has an ad, which could be a coupon or a specific offer, running on a network that distributes this type of ad. The ad is viewed by GPS-equipped portable phone users who have downloaded a dedicated mobile application allowing them to receive, in notification or push mode, promotions that match their interests as soon as they arrive in the area near the business that is advertising.

It is, therefore, this time, traditional businesses who will benefit from the digital boom with a non-intrusive form of advertising, accepted and shared by consumers. The good deals are in your neighborhood and you can take advantage of them and inform your friends.

E-commerce and L-commerce, finally brought together by the digital world, will certainly find synergies for increasing the value of their offers which will utimately be beneficial for customers.