Første sociale lokale tilbudsfinder til både Facebook og smartphone på banen

For et par måneder siden blev jeg tippet om en ny smart tilbudsfinder, der var under udarbejdelse. Sådan en, hvor brugere kan tippe hinanden om gode tilbud, når de spotter dem – ganske enkelt ved at hive deres smartphone op, og knaste fundet ind, evt. suppleret med et hurtigt foto fra mobil-kameraet.

Screendump af Sparetrippet til iPhone

Sparetrippet laves både til iPhone og Android, ser det ud til, fra skærmsiderne, men jeg har kun prøvet iPhone-app’en. Og for at det ikke skulle være løgn er den tæt vævet sammen med Facebook, hvilket både gør den lettere at bruge og sørger for at de gode tilbud bliver spredt mere effektivt. Jeg har ikke før set sådan noget – hverken i Danmark eller elsewhere. “Sparetrippet” hedder den.

Wow, det er cool
Først tænkte jeg: wow, det her er cool. Det er alle – eller ihvertfald 3-4-5 af de store Buzz-words, der koges sammen i en enkelt tjeneste: Det er en lokal tilbudstjeneste – ligesom Groupon eller herhjemme f.eks. downtown, Sweetdeal eller Dagensbedste. Det er en app.  Den er lavet til smartphones – og ikke blot til iPhone, men også til Android. Og den er tænkt social – ligesom alting for tiden.

Sparetrippet som Facebook-app

…men fænger ikke rigtigt
Men når jeg så har Sparetrippet i hånden er det lige som om det ikke helt svinger for mig. Måske er det fordi den er i beta, og stort set alle tilbuddene ligenu er ren mumble-jumble-tekst, og dem der ikke er det, ser stadig ud som om det er rene test-indtastninger. Måske er det fordi der, af gode grunde, endnu ikke rigtigt er nogen brugere på systemet. Så måske bliver det meget bedre lige om lidt.

Der er ellers ihvertfald fem smarte ting ved Sparetrippet
Sparetrippet er ellers godt tænkt. Jeg kan se ihvertfald fem smarte ting i den:

1. Sparetrippet er – fordi den ligger på din smartphone – lige ved hånden, når du spotter et tilbud. Det gør det let at indrapportere gode fund.

2. Sparetrippet finder selv gode tilbud i nærheden – igen fordi den ligger på din smartphone, der takket være dens indbyggede GPS hele tiden ved hvor du befinder sig.

3. Det er – på grund af den tætte Facebook-sammenvævning – let at bruge Sparetrippet. Du behøver ikke opfinde nyt brugernavn og password. Og når du skal indtaste et tilbud, har den Facebooks register over butikker i nærheden at trække på. Så du kan for det meste nøjes med at vælge den butik, hvor du har fundet tilbuddet, fra en liste på skærment.

4. Tilbudsfinderen bliver ikke så let væk. Det sker ellers ofte for smartphone-apps – du downloader den, prøver den en gang eller to, og glemmer så alt om den, hvorefter den drukner blandet de mange andre apps, du har liggende på din mobil. Men Facebook-sammenknytningen gør, at tjenesten af og til vil poppe op i din nyhedsstrøm på Facebook, og minde dig om dens eksistens.

5. De gode tilbud på tilbudsfinderen vil – igen takket være Facebook – let blive spredt ud gennem brugernes vennekredse.

Men er der nok motivation for brugeren til at bruge den?
Smarte systemer er imidlertid ikke nok. Hvis ikke det smarte er så smart at brugerne kan se at de selv får klare fordele ved at investere kræfter og tid i systemet, kommer det aldrig til at flyve. Og det kan jeg godt have mine tvivl om. Særligt fordi tilbudsfinderen først for alvor kan give dig gode tips, når rigtigt mange anvender systemet. Og det kommer der jo aldrig, før systemet er en succes. Så det bider sig selv i halen.

Fiat 500 som kunstigt åndedræt
For at motivere nye brugere, udlover tilbudsfinderen en præmie til månedens bedste tilbud. På Facebook-siden står der lige nu, at man kan vinde en Fiat 500. Men det, tror jeg, kun er noget der står der her i testfasen. Udviklerne bag systemet fortæller mig, at præmierne, når tilbudsfinderen går live, bliver penge og gavekort.

Men selv penge og gavekort vil ikke kunne holde tilbudsfinderen i live i det lange løb, hvis ikke grundideen tager rigtigt fat. Spørgsmålet er: er der nogen grupper af mennesker der vil synes tilbudsfinderen er så god, at de rigtigt vil tage den til sig? Hvis heldet er med dem, så ja. Men det kan ligeså godt gå grueligt galt.

Hvad med Foursquare, Deals og Places?
Det man kan med tilbudsfinderen kan man nemlig også med andre systemer. Foursquare, f.eks., ligger på mange måder tæt op ad Sparetrippet. Og Facebook places og deals ligeså. Er der nok ekstra i Sparetrippet til at det gør en forskel. Eller er de andre systemer faktisk så gode at de på grund af deres udbredelse i sig selv vil vinde – også selvom Sparetrippet på et enkelt punkt eller to måtte være mere to-the-point?

Diffus branding
Det er JyskeBank der står bag Sparetrippet. Sikkert fordi de tror at det giver lidt branding både at være først med smarte tjenester. Og fordi hele Sparetrippet jo handler om at spare penge, hvilket jo også er sådan en bankdyd. Men ærligt talt er det ikke superklart for mig, hvorfor det ligepræcis er JyskeBank, der giver mig denne app. Som branding er det hele lidt diffust.

Men JyskeBank skal alligevel have credit, synes jeg. Jeg kan godt lide deres måde at tænke ud af boxen på med kaffe i banken, storstilet web-tv med allehånde fine programmer og nu også fine nye apps. Det giver for mig – som ikke-JyskeBank kunde – et billede af en bank der rækker ud og vil mig et eller andet. Om det også ville kunne få mig til at skifte bank er nok en anden ting.

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Kortene på bordet – eller som de siger “full disclosure”
Jeg har ingen økonomisk relation til hverken Jyske Bank eller Komfo, der har lavet tilbudsfinderen. Men jeg tjener blandt andet penge på at rådgive om og holde foredrag om tjenester som Sparetrippet.

Det er Mikael Lemberg fra Komfo, der har tippet mig om Sparetrippet og givet mig test-adgang. Mikael Lemberg sidder i bestyrelsen for DONA, hvor jeg er formand.

Welcome to… Googledom, Socialistan, Newscorpey and Disturbia

Socialistan is the largest country in the new world accounting for 31 % of total time-spend. Here by far the most Danes are actively engaged in updating their facebook-status, twitting and blogging. The women of Socialistan leads on, while men are more passive.

You won’t find a Dane who hasn’t spend time in Googledom within the past month. For 24 % of their online-time  they’re googling around, looking up numbers and facts and using the tools of the Internet.

Especially men are fond of Newscorpey. They like to stay informed (though top issues evolves around sex, gossip and crime stories). The country is ruled by the “old media” who find a hard time in the fact they’re not the key media providers anymore, accounting only for 15 % of the time Danes spend on the Internet.

In Disturbia you’re engaged in buying and selling. Danes loves this – however there’s nowhere enough online outlets to satisfy their needs: one third of all Disturbia-activity is spend second-hand shopping, consumer to consumer.

The mobile moon is orbiting around our new globe – especially powered by the iphon-ish way the internet are spreading to the pockets of Danes.

(Time spend for the four countries all are Gemius-figures for +15 years olds surfing (top 300 sites) in August 2009, which I’ve digged for you (I also analyzed them and drew up the above map). Socialistan activity is documented in Facebook rules Danish social networking, in Danish facts: Twitter is a small, elitist niche-site and in arto.com vs facebook. If you want to know more about the gender issues, check out War of the gender reborn on the internet: Women socialize, men gather information. For documentation of Newscopey-characteristics, see Economics of news: the case for qualitative journalism on the internet. Disturbia-facts and -explanations are found in Eroding powers of digitalization revealed: Secondhand-shopping, telecommunications and e-banking rules e-commerce in Denmark and Oldschool/Newschool: Top 25 Danish e-commerce sites evaluated – Consumer-trust and exploitation of business opportunities. For more on the Mobile moon check “Christmas sales at Apple App-store. Assessing the Danish market for iPhone applications”, Smart-phones leading the way: The case of iPhone and dedicated mobil-sites in Denmark and The seven faces of iPad. Assessing the potentials of Apples new tablet-device. Several other findings are available from my hand; check out the reports-section of this site)

The seven faces of iPad

The Apple iPad doesn’t challenge one, but seven (today) distinct markets with yesterdays launch of the iPad tablet flat-screen-computer. This is one of the key findings after I’ve analysed the market potentials of the new fabled device. Read all about it in my new report “The seven faces of iPad. Accessing the potentials of Apples new tablet-device” (link below).

Not only net-books find themselves in a new uncomfortable situation. Also the gaming console industry (Nintendo), the e-book readers (Kindle), the GNDs (Garmin), portable media players (iPods (!)) and the smartphone-market (Androids)  are, in varying degree, under fire. The iPad may also give rise to a whole new market, professional and private-use applications, taking the promises of the iPhone app store to yet higher levels.

Why? Because the iPad manifests itself as the first true convergence-device to this day.

I also estimate the market potentials of the iPad and find find all the affected markets selling a total of two billion devices a year on a worldwide basis. Given this potential I find the iPad to be able to sell some 50 million devices by 2013, starting out with some 5 million i 2010.

Here’s what I find the iPad-market to look like:

Download full report

Send, download and print. Price: 345 ddk/€45,50 (ex. VAT)

“The seven faces of iPad. Assessing the potentials of Apples new tablet-device”. 16 pages.

To order the report, send an email to jon@jon-lund.com including your contact information with subject: “Buy Jon Lunds The seven faces of iPad”, and you’ll receice both the report as pdf-file and an invoice.

Dedicated mobile websites ruled out in the era of iPhones

We’re in an iPhone-era. The iPhone itself – and the me-to’s of Google Android, RIM Blackberry and the lot – have changed the game of mobile phones and mobile computing, creating its very own category.

This shift now begins to manifest itself in available stats:

During the past 18 month, the usage of iPhones for surfing the web has grown exponentially. Have a look at the numbers I’ve just drawn up from the official Danish web-stats: from 460.000 pages in February 08 to 3,43 million pages in August 09:

Monthly page-views conducted by devices with a screen resolution of 320 by 396 (iphones and ipod touches), all websites, from August 2007 to August 2009. Found the numbers digging and interpreting the databases of FDIM/gemiusAudience

I’ve added the exponential tendency-line. It should be pretty significant with an R-spuare of 98,29.

Interestingly enough, stats for the use of the dedicated mobile web-sites shows a decreasing trend (!)

Index (Aug. 08=100) of monthly page-views conducted by devices with a screen resolution of 320 by 396 (iPhones and iPod touches). , all websites vs. Monthly page-views on selected 19 mobile websites. Found the numbers digging and interpreting the databases of FDIM/gemiusAudience

Although the individual sites displays large variation, none of them gets close to the growth-rates of the iPhone.

Monthly page-views, top 5 mobile websites (as per August 08). Found the numbers digging and interpreting the databases of FDIM/gemiusAudience Mobil-listen

This indicates that iPhone-growth primarily happens elsewhere: iPhone-users are fans of internet-surfing – but not of surfing the mobile websites. Instead they prefer the regular stuff. Although not entirely convincing, you are actually able to navigate the full-fledged web-version on your iPhone to such an extend, most users won’t settle with the stripped-down mobile websites. (I can’t wait for mobile websites and mobile apps which are not just stripped-down websites, but build to take advantage of all the stuff possible with the new smart-phones).

Read on in my latest report: Smart-phones leading the way: The case of iPhone and dedicated mobil-sites in Denmark

Apple countdown: App # 1 billion to be downloaded tomorrow

The success of the Apples App-store (from which you can dowload applications to your iPhone) has taken the world – and Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung and the lot of competitors – by surprise. Launched only some 8 months ago, Apple now gears up to celebrate download number 1 billion. As we speak the count has just surpassed 992 millions compared to 956 millions one week ago. With this pace it looks like they’ll hit the 1 billion mark tomorrow.

Move towards ubiquitious computing
The iPhone/application store-phenomenon is – I think – by all means extremely interesting. To me it witnesses the coming of a new era in which computers finally move away from being office-machines and steps into real life. Moves away from the keyboard-writing metaphor into an intuitive-omnipresence paradigm. Let go of ridig written “commands” (“run” or “save”) and embracing a much more physical interface, in which it understands instructions like touches, moves, blows and noice.

Draws on and urges to transparancy
In the iphone/application store combination I also see the embodyment of an era of openness and transparancy. The first tech-pieces that actually holds the possibilities of large-scale drawing the tons of data out there in the cloud (that is: the internet) together in applications, that are really meaningfull. That finally promises to condensate the vast amount of information and utilize them in applications that runs intuitively and in context with you’re present whereabouts, on your handset. And that thereby fuels the transparency paradigm: give and you shall be given.

Application store
Apple not only created a great piece of technology (the iPhone). They also opened up their APIs allowing everybody to develop their own applications which could run on the iPhone, set up the application store which is tied into all iphones and ipod touches, making one single one stop marketplace for consumers to find and buy new applications. And then Apple adopted a revenue sharing model with developers (70 percent to developers, 30 percent to Apple), giving a fantastic incentive for devellopers to create apps. In the wake of this, all other mobile manufactures and their surroundings have woken up and are now all getting into the race as well. Nokia is set to open their app store (OVI) in may, and Microsoft their maketplace over the summer, all copying the apple-move.

Keynote at Børsen Executive Club the 19th of may
I’ll elaborate on this on the 19th of May, when I do a keynote-presentation at Børsen Executive Club in Copenhagen. In my presentation I’ll give a run-through of my own favorite apps, highlighting exactly how the era of the mobile phones that are dawning also paves way for a new user-experience and a new business possibilities for virtually all industries. The presentation explains in a simple and easy to understand what the new phones, apps and app-stores are all about, and ties on to how the new phones draws on the fruits of the social network-revolution, on the emergence of crowdsourcing and customermade technologies, how it builds on longtailed, networked, economics and how it heralds the coming of an age of openness, not only in the social sphere but also on the data and applications.