Mobile Fix: Google+ making Facebook look socially awkward?
Simon Andrews, founder of the full service mobile agency addictive!, on the Facebook/Skype partnership, Google+, and the possibility of the iPad 3 in September…
As rumoured since the Microsoft acquisition of Skype, Facebook have announced an interesting partnership with Skype, bringing the opportunity for video chat to go truly mass market. As and when the Facebook iPad app finally arrives, we’d expect this to be front and centre – but how will operators feel about mobile Skype video calling available through Facebook?
Additionally, a recent study has suggested that each Facebook Fan is worth 20 site visits.
The launch of Google + seems to be proving successful – perhaps making Facebook look socially awkward? It’s premature to claim this as a real gamechanger but for the first time Google have a credible play in social. Many commentators on the Facebook/Skype partnership point out that the Google video has a groups option – called hangouts – which Facebook doesn’t.
And some people are suggesting that, as the various features in Google+ evolve, Google could dominate places and photos – two of the spaces where start-ups have been flourishing. And perhaps they have ambitions in games too.
And whilst some businesses have rushed in to claim the first this or that on the service, Google are kicking out everyone who isn’t a real person, clearing the way for a formal way for brands to get involved. Search firm Efficient Frontier have some interesting thinking on what Google need to do make this ad friendly.
Apple
The rumours of the iPhone5 being imminent are getting stronger and it seems probable we’ll have a couple of new devices sometime in September. But will there be an iPad 3?
We called the iPad 2 as being really iPad 1.1 and we expect the next version to be a big step up. So maybe these rumours are worth taking seriously.
And is there something else on the way? We shared a conference platform yesterday with the tech savvy former MP Derek Wyatt who told us that Apple have bought 3 million 9 inch screens… Could Apple be extending the nano strategy to their iPads too? A smaller, cheaper simpler tablet could revitalize the iPod range and heap misery on everyone planning to enter the tablet market. This type of product was rumoured a couple of years ago and would help counter Amazons ambitions in hardware.
One thing that became even clearer this week is the Apple dominance in apps – the app store has now done 15 billion app downloads – 1 billion in the last month. And Distimo research suggests that apps on Android are struggling to get the same acceptance – there are very few hit apps on Android and a high proportion of paid apps on Android have been downloaded less than 100 times.
Places
Despite everyone predicting its imminent demise, Foursquare is going from strength to strength, announcing 10 million users and – even more impressive – half a million merchants.
And proving the doubters wrong, O2 are demonstrating you can make money with location based messaging – Fitness First claim to have generated £300k of new business following a campaign with O2 More.
Our friends at MediaTel ran an event around retail and media, which we had to miss, but location was a key topic. You can read a good summary of the event here.
Other news
The IPO papers for Zynga have some interesting numbers – including the fact that 232 million people play their games each month.
Betfair reports their mobile gaming took £1 billion last year.
Luxury is proving a strong sector for mobile. And if you can’t wait for the new iPhone, Collete in Paris (one of our favourite shops) has the new Tag Heuer phone – a snip at just €6000.
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