It’s THE Google phone! Don’t think you could’ve had it so easy forever, Apple…

The news has been flying everywhere this weekend: Google has announced the release of its own phone, the Nexus One, early January 2010. It is also not being sold on any one carrier (like the Droid), but will be an unlocked GSM phone. More details on MobileCrunch.

The smartphone market is getting more and more exciting by the second. Every single phone company out there is being challenged with bringing something innovative to the market, and the competition will only get fiercer with the arrival of Google’s entry into the smartphone market. Companies who had gotten complacent in the past are now scrambling to catch up with the competition and boy, do we consumers have it good! The only problem is when we finally decide to get a Droid… and a newer and cooler phone comes out a couple weeks later. AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, BECAUSE YOU’RE ALREADY LOCKED INTO A 2 YEAR CONTRACT!

Yes, phones are only going to get better and better. Smartphones are here to stay. In a couple years, they will just become regular phones and someone will have to come out with “geniusphones” to make a splash in the market. I’m looking at all of Asia as an example. Have you ever seen, or even heard about the features of a Japanese phone? They’re lightyears ahead of our technology… so much so that the iPhone as been doing horribly with Japanese consumers.

The problem I see with this is… having to use these phones with the U.S.’s horrible mobile carrier companies. Smartphones can get as smart as they want, but having to use them on… AT&T? A friend of mine put it quite succintly: “Too bad AT&T’s service SUCKS. 4g will be like buying a ferrari and only being able to drive it 40mph.” (He was referring to the rumors of the iPhone 4G being in the works). Verizon’s service is the best of the bunch, but lords its “great service” status over users by forcing ridiculous penalties and fees, locking down phones, and generally acting like an arrogant ass.

Before phones start getting any smarter, we need a revolution to shake up wireless carriers! Something that can shake wireless carriers out of their complacency… but what? Easier said than done, of course. But something must be done if we’re ever going to be able to use our smartphones to their fullest potential.

iPhone app sales just in time for Thanksgiving

Somehow, Thanksgiving has become synonymous with sales. A time for thanks can extend to cheap things to buy, I suppose. As Lil’ Wayne says, “And honestly, I’m down like the economy!”

EA Mobile has announced as sale on its iPhone and iPod touch games in the app store! Up t o 50% off many goodies, such as Rock Band (now only $6.99!) and Tetris (now only $2.99!)

View the entire list here: Into Mobile

This is the best kind of sale – the one you do in the comfort of your own home. Not the kind where you’re up at ungodly hours of the night, wading through piles of merchandise strewn on the floor, and standing in mile long lines. No thank you!

[Crunch Mobile]

Coupons on your phone?? AMAZING!

Yay no more having to print out coupons! Access coupons right on your phone!

If a business adds a mobile coupon to its Google Local Business Center listing, you’ll be able to access it from your mobile device. Just go to google.com on your phone and search for a local business. When you land on its Place Page, you’ll see any coupons or discounts that might be available. Then simply show the participating business the coupon, right from your phone, to redeem the offer.

How handy. Especially for all the kids there who live their lives on Slickdeals and Bens Bargains!

[Google Mobile]

New Google News for your phone!

Even though Google has become a gigantic business and is poised to take over the world, they still think and act like a small company. They listen to their users feedback and use it to improve their products and product offerings. Tadaa, look where they are today.

Anyway, they’ve released a new Google News offering for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre.

This new version provides the same richness and personalization on your phone as Google News provides on desktop. Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks. If you are an existing Google News reader on desktop, you will find that all of your personalizations are honored in this mobile version too.

Just go to http://news.google.com and start reading the news!

[Google Mobile]

Zedge provides a library of shared mobile content for Android users

About Zedge
With more than 20 million unique visitors per month, Zedge is one of the largest mobile content distribution platforms in the world. The site can be accessed via the web, mobile web, and Google Android. Over the last 5 years, the Zedge community has created a library of more than 3.5 million unique pieces of content. This represents the quality, diversity, creativity and self-expression that Zedge members are known for.

 

Today, I learned on LinkedIn that Zedge had ported its huge existing network of users onto the Android platform. Within the first two hours of release, had around 1,000 downloads. Impressive indeed, especially when they haven’t done any external promotion yet. I was curious as to how they were getting new users now, and asked if they had done any marketing since. No, they responded that they hadn’t spent any money marketing and had just focused on the product and “small details”. Important lesson to learn!

Zedge offers its huge network of shared mobile content, including: wallpapers, ringtones, themes, videos, games, and more. It even allows you to build your own!

Get the app here.
Check out their blog here.

Dactyl | iPhone

It’s time for an app review! Now, most of the reviews I’m going to do will be for the iPhone because I only have an iTouch. But if you guys have any app reviews (for any platform) you’d like to submit, I would love to post it up! Anyway, if I get my hands on any other phones, I will post those up too.

Name: Dactyl
Category: Game
Price: FREE
Description: Test your dexterity! Dactyl is an addictive, fast-paced exercise for your fingers. The premise of the game is simple – defuse the bombs before they blow up. Clear your mind and put your fingers to work!

My review: It’s simple and yea, it’s pretty addictive. A great time-waster. Also, it’s great to play with your friends if you’re all competitive. “Bet I can beat your score!” and “Yea, beat 455, sucka!” are frequently heard around the table. Also a great game to team up with someone else with. One late late night at Denny’s, my friend and I decided to split the screen: we each had 6 bombs to defuse. 455 bombs defused, suckas! It’s FUN!

Wow, that’s a lot of money.

…times a bajillion.

Wireless Expertise, a market research and consulting firm, has made a forecast that sales of mobile apps will top $16 BILLION by 2013. Compare this to the dreadfully low $4.6 billion that apps are making in 2009.

They tie this increase to increased smartphone users in the future.

Wireless Expertise anticipates that smartphone sales will jump from 165 million in 2009 to 423 million in 2013, with the total number of smartphone users approaching 1.6 billion.

[FierceMobileContent]

While I believe that it’s pretty unquestionable that smartphones are here to stay (until the geniusphones come out, I guess), there’s some debate over whether we can say the same for apps. Some predict that apps will soon become “as big as the Internet,” while some say pish, apps are simply a fad. Read the entire post, it’s quite interesting. The article lists several quotes from industry representatives like Symbian and Google.

I think that apps are here to stay, though there will be changes. Perhaps individual developers will slowly become more scarce as they join together, or drop out out of the game entirely, and apps such as iBeer (pretend to drink beer on your phone!) will die out and be replaced with truly useful apps.

So while smartphone growth will continue, we’ll see if apps will keep up.

Google's mobile app analytics

So Google has entered into the arena of mobile app analytics. Developers can now get details on how consumers are using their apps. [Google Mobile Blog]

 

Kuchbi has an analytics packet as well, called PacketPig which they’ve been trying to promote. Now that Google has it’s set of analytics, I wonder how other companies will be able to compete with Google, if at all.

oh, but we haven't been formally introduced yet

Hi kids. Yep, it’s yet another blog about some some technology stuff that we all love… BOOKMARK THIS!

A little intro. I’m the new marketing intern over at Kuchbi Inc, a company that develops all sorts of mobile applications. We’re a tiny little family, but believe me when I say we get stuff done.

Shameless promotion alert: check out a cool app developed by the team!

Anyway, I am a recent UCSD graduate with a major in international studies – economics and political science. I specialized in East Asia and globalization, and minored in Psychology. I enjoy the taking of pictures, experimenting in the kitchen, and running around and knocking as many things down as possible. And Geekologie. And facebooking.

I’ll be blogging about technological news most pertaining to mobile apps. iPhone, Blackberry, Android, so on and so forth… I’ll be blogging about the crazy things happening in the office, cool things I’ve found on the internets, basically whatever pleases me. One does not participate in a wild rumpus to get to a specific destination. The rumpus twists and turns and runs in circles – the point is to create as much rumpus-ing as possible. So stay tuned, kids!

Let the wild rumpus start!

Handy little smartphone chart

Found this handy dandy thing at Geek in Disguise. Granted, it’s missing a few phones. But I love charts because they’re such a great summarizer of information. And in this technological world that moves at the speed of light, summarizing of information is a necessity.

Whenever I think of Motorola, I can’t help but think of the style-over-function-Razr. Sure it was cool, but when you thought about it, it really wasn’t. But the Motorola Droid looks like it’s going to smash the competition. What do you think? Would you choose the Droid over the iPhone?