From: October 2008 Alberta Venture, http://www.albertaventure.com/?

p=2759
This years wireless spectrum auction should usher in a whole new wave of mobile
applications. Thats where several Alberta developers come in, all vying to be
the next RIM
By Scott Valentine
Most of the growth of the mobile Internet is based on the idea that sooner or la
ter businesses, consumers and everyday folks will want a web experience on their
hips that looks, acts and feels as good as what they get from a desktop compute
r. One with everything and a side of customizable personal expression to go, ple
ase. Take away the device that fits in your hand, and you have the realm of appl
ications. This is where network operators and mobile software developers the c
reative architects of the on-hip experience are carving the future of the mobi
le web.
In truth, mobile applications are what last summers wireless spectrum auctions
were all about: creating more (and more profitable) airspace for the swell of in
teractive mobile Internet expected to crash down on us at home, work and at play
in the coming years. As a sector, mobile applications the software and middle
-ware that powers wireless devices and networks is booming. Rogers, Telus and
others just forked out nearly $4.3 billion for rights on Canadas newly fat-and-
flirty wireless spectrum. Its probably not an accident that public policy, priv
ate capital and personal penchant for hip-borne bling have converged at this poi
nt. The time is nigh for a market disruption. You in?
Heres a quick look at what it takes to play in the world of mobile technology,
via snapshots of four homegrown companies working to change the way the wanderin
g world lives, works and spends.
Challenge one: make the mobile application work. Its tougher than it sounds. Le
ts say you code a nice little game of hangman and want to get it out to every h
ip on the planet. Theres not a carrier in the world that will let HangHip (pate
nt pending) on their network unless the application has first been strenuously b
eta-tested a mind-splitting process of testing and tweaking that every piece o
f commercial software must undergo before deployment.
Challenge two: there are more than 1,000 different mobile devices worldwide, two
or three times that figure if you include regional model variations. Each devic
e could be running on one of a dozen or more popular operating systems and trans
ferring data over the networks of hundreds of carriers. So deploying an applicat
ion to every device worldwide means potentially thousands of beta-testing projec
ts to deliver quality to each user, all before HangHip ever sees the light of da
y.
Think of Calgary-based Mob4hire as a beta-broker to the mobile world. Paul Pouta
nen, president and founder, explains Mob4hires technology as a crowd-sourced m
obile application-testing platform. Basically, Mob4hire acts like an agency, co
llecting revenues to manage the delivery of beta-testing services provided by su
bcontractors. You cant really test code on one carriers network if youre log
ged in on another, so you either have to send people there or find someone quali
fied whos already in the right place to test, says Poutanen. Its a useful ser
vice offering to mobile applications developers because writing, compiling and d
eploying mobile code across a labyrinth of technology, regulations and grey-area
market share aint easy, though Mob4hire is making it look that way. We incorp
orated in September 2007, says Poutanen. Now, we have resources in 36 differen
t countries and are working with eight major carriers.
So, on the continuum of mobile applications commercialization, Mob4hire is build
ing a home where it can help businesses sidestep the pain of mobile applications
deployment.
A bit further up the supply chain, at the point where the end user is engaged, a
n application needs to be fast, friendly and secure in order to compete. HotButt
on Solutions, founded and nurtured by Jane Glendon, is a wireless business intel
ligence play that offers real-time data capture and decision-making analytics ta
rgeted to Big Oil and the defence industry. Its been a long road since 2000, b
ut weve made it, says Glendon. Now we have a real solution to extend software
applications to the field through wireless handhelds. Big business loves the i
dea of mobile data capture, but worries about the implications of integrating it
with older technology and data security not an easy sales path to navigate.
But one of the interesting things to come out of the wireless spectrum auctions
for Alberta users is the great likelihood that areas in the north, where the oil
industry rules, will have much better mobile coverage in the near future. With
a looming wave of spectrum availability, wireless business-to-business plays lik
e HotButton represent early plunges into deep-pocketed industry sectors looking
to make a major market splash.
Assuming HangHip has passed muster with beta-testers, potential clients and netw
ork lawyers, were now free to launch our application and monetize the mobile wi
dget. At the end of the day, we need to cover expenses, motivate sales, fuel cre
ativity and either make or save people a lot of money.
Calgary-based Singletouch draws on founder Marty Hilsentegers experience as an
accountant in the construction industry to fuel its proof-is-in-the-pudding valu
e proposition. The construction services market has been plagued for decades wi
th manual business processes, he says. By contrast, Singletouchs software was
designed from the job site in, to capture real data as decisions are being made
.
Construction jobs are incredibly expensive to operate. So much the more so in pl
aces like Fort McMurray where labour costs are hyper-inflated. By giving constru
ction companies and the people that hire them a tool to capture and measure the
cost of every business process, Singletouch can honestly say, We get you. Here
s something that can help you run your business, and deliver on the promise. Bu
t in order to take the next step, beyond novel solution and on to market leaders
hip, Singletouch, HangHip or any other mobile application must meet one more key
criterion. It has to be marketable to the world.
Mobile can hang with us anytime, anywhere. As a result, its a great tool for ca
tching us in the very human and commercially exploitable act of being ourselves.
Take a cool picture? Upload it to Facebook or Flickr and share it today. Need d
irections? Tell Google where you are and what you want to do and it will happily
make a sponsored suggestion. Want to catch the world news or a little saucy Eur
opean cinema on the train home? Tap your iPhone a couple times and so it shall a
ppear.
MoboVivo is the first company in Canada to license and distribute TV shows onli
ne, says Trevor Doerksen, founder and CEO of Calgary-based MoboVivo Inc. My ba
ckground is as a television producer, but around 2005 I saw an opportunity to di
stribute content in different ways, he says. We started by licensing technolog
ies, then created a web store and now were on the iPhone.
The success of people like Doerksen no techie, at least to begin with illust
rates a truism about this emerging field. On the economic landscape, the conflue
nce of mobile technology and market opportunity occurs at the headwaters of inte
ractive content and Whats in it for me? The question is not: Do consumers wa
nt an entertaining, interactive experience on their hips? Its: How are we goi
ng to get it to them, and whats my piece worth?
Think back on our problem of fragmentation all those different devices, networ
ks and marketers and imagine a big, fancy negotiating table with parties all a
round screaming about reasonable risk, copyrights and revenue entitlements. Mobo
Vivo helps take the pain out of that negotiation by providing a media repurposin
g solution that handles the problems of deploying digital content over a range o
f devices, and brings partners to the table with world-class pedigrees in broadc
asting, network management and marketing in order to deliver content worldwide a
t no-blink price points.
The commercial appeal is obvious. Mobo-Vivos technology reaches a broad and eng
aged demographic in real time and offers advertisers an unprecedented opportunit
y to connect with the consumer when theyre open to an interaction. Its a lean,
mean business plan that leverages the quicksilver opportunities of mobile appli
cations deployment with tremendously scalable market opportunity.
Any serious mobile technology play has to have the legs to go global. Take a qui
ck tour of MoboVivos website, www.mobovivo.com, and youll see that Doerksen al
ready has the company positioned front-of-mind with a range of consumers and mar
keters: club culture from Europe, news, sports and entertainment from around the
world; an inspired documentary on snowboarding filmed in the Canadian Rockies.
Its no hype. MoboVivo is already the top iPhone web application worldwide, an i
ncredible accomplishment for a young Canadian company. (Dare we invoke the name
of Research In Motion?) The challenge for Alberta mobile technology firms that w
ant to last is to offer a unique wireless value proposition to the global market
place that deploys easily, harnesses the power of interaction and is flexible en
ough to allow for still uncharted business opportunities.
Piece of cake.
A large, growing and fragmented market for mobile applications solutions is in p
lay, and the wireless spectrum auctions have helped to assure that MoboVivo, Hot
Button, Singletouch, Mob4hire, HangHip and every other Alberta mobile tech has t
he capacity to compete on the world stage. Its now up to the leadership of thes
e companies to carve out a niche somewhere upon the 24/7 market opportunity we w
ear on our hips.
Astute investors wishing to learn more about HangHip can text me on the mobile w
ith lunch requests. Please attach a Google map.