Ever since the return of my iphone from it’s odyssey in Vegas, I’ve been spending more time with the iphone installer to see how it can be better customized to my daily routine.

One of the most interesting applications I’ve installed so far is something called Twinkle. It’s Twitter with a nifty interface optimized for the iphone with location and picture capabilities.

The interfaced is optimized for the iphone - so i can check in my tweets easily throughout the day if i’m so inclined. I’ve included a screen capture from my iphone to the right (thanks to the iphone screenshot 1.2.1 app from robota)

The really interesting feature is the “near me” button which identifies other people in your area who are also on twinkle. You can follow their tweets and even send them private messages.

I also like the idea of taking a picture of where I am right now… and having that included as a tiny URL link in my tweet.

Twitter hasn’t taken up a lot of mind-share when i’m on my desktop(s) or laptop… but increasingly it’s getting a slice of my mobile time - and twinkle makes it that much more interesting.

I haven’t tested any twitter clients for my blackberry yet - but I’ll try and do so in the next few days and report back my thoughts.

How about you - do you tweet on mobile… or do you use something else - like mobile instant messaging (MIM)? MIM will also be the topic of my next post over at onedegree.ca 

Do you twitter? Follow me here.

Here’s some irony for you - one week after posting about the 8,690 disruptions I experienced in April, here’s a forwarded email I received last week that I actually found interesting.  I guess 1 in 8,690 isn’t bad?

FIRST
Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112 . If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

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Today Rogers made the long awaited announcement that the iphone was indeed coming to Canada to a Rogers store near you - sometime this year. No other details were made available. 

This is not great news for blackberry.

Since the iphone was launched last year, Apple has grabbed 27% of the North American PDA market while being available only in the U.S. and through att&t. Blackberry currently has about 42% market share in North America.

The fact that no set timeline has been set likely means that Rogers is waiting for the anticipated release of the second generation iphone which industry insiders say should be available around July of this year. 

It’s worth the wait.

Here’s what to expect: 

1. It will be a 3G phone - which means it will take advantage of third generation networks that are now widely available in Canada. This will be like going from the slow dial-up speeds we have today to near high speed. Think of it as broadband light. This will make browsing the mobile web a pleasant experience in Canada
2. It will have true GPS
3. It will look slightly different. I bit thicker to accommodate a bigger battery that is needed to support 3G and the back is rumored to be black instead of metallic - which should improve the range of the antenna
4. The headphone jack will no longer be recessed - so you can use any set of headphones now. Woo hoo!
5. New operating system that will come with new software. This will probably include new video editing / management software as well as GPS. 
6. Expect to pay around $500 for the new phone
7. No word on capacity - but it will be a minimum 16 gigs… although I wouldn’t be surprised if it comes with a 32 version too. 
8. All you can eat data plan should be made available for about $20
9. The iphone will be enterprise ready - which means many of the best features currently only available on blackberrys will be available for the iphone. The iphone will be secure enough and come with enough enterprise level management tools that there will be nothing preventing some corporations form switching from blackberry to iphones… or at least supporting both.

Be sure to check out the following two articles posted on onedegree.ca and the CMA blog this month (in case you missed their original postings)

1. Will Bluetooth Become a Sweet Tooth for Marketers? (onedegree.ca)
2. 6 Tips for building and managing consent for mobile marketing (CMA blog)

I spend just as much (if not more) time deleting or ignoring spam than I do responding to wanted or relevant messages. Here’s a snap shot of what made it through my spam filters this month:

• 7,643 spam emails
• 909 spam blog comments
• 72 event or group invitations on facebook
• 42SMS spam messages from this site
• 24 calls from 1-800 numbers

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April has been the busiest traveling month for me in years. A combination of conferences, client work and a work reward trip means that I’ll be physically in the office for three days this month!

My month began with a trip to Las Vegas for the CTIA Wireless conference. In the spirit of the week, I decided to try Air Canada’s new mobile check-in.  The way it works is that you check-in as usual on their website then in the final step you can choose to print your boarding pass or request one be sent to your mobile device. I entered my mobile number and waited. And Waited…. and waited.

My Air Canada mobile boarding pass never came.

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Join me on May 15th for  strategy’s Mobile Marketing Workshop at Revival in Toronto, Canada where you can learn about how to successfully integrate mobile marketing into your multi-channel campaigns.

I’ve been asked to sit on the end of day mobile marketing panel discussion entitled “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

Well-executed mobile campaigns yield positive user response and increase customer engagement. To avoid consumer backlash, you must understand the subtleties of how to use mobile effectively.

What works in traditional media does not work on mobile!

The workshop agenda includes:

• consumer perception of mobile advertising

• campaign best practices

• emerging mobile technologies

• what works now in Canada

• the role of mobile in the marketing mix

• interactive panel with senior execs from mobile marketing agencies and technology providers on how mobile as an ad medium needs to be approached, and its distinct differences from other media

You can register for this event here. 

After the event, join me at the “Five Years of Great Text” bash presented by the CWTA.

Any questions? Comment, send me an SMS or drop me a line the old fashion way with an email.

Today the CWTA released their quarterly report on the mobile industry in Canada. Here are some highlights:

1. Over 350 active mobile marketing programs in Canada right now with a Canadian short code
2. 10.1 billion SMS messages were sent in 2007 in Canada (as previously reported) 
3. Over 1.2 billion SMS messages were sent in Canada in December 2007 alone - making a prediction of 15 billion total in 2008 easily within reach. 
4. As of September 2007, 37% of mobile users had sent at least one SMS message
5. MMA guidelines around mobile advertising and content may be adopted by the CWTA
6. 18 applications have been approved in Canada for mobile payments or micro-payments 
7. May 15th marks the 5th year anniversary of the short code in Canada. Look for information on industry event on txt.ca 

One of the problems we’ve had with mobile video is figuring what formats to offer the user and how.

On one automotive mobile site we offered two video types for download - but that assumed the user knew which one would work on their device. We also had to compress and shrink the video to the lowest common denominator so that it would fit on all devices.

What a pain in the butt… and try passing that off to your client as customer friendly!  

At CTIA this past March I had an opportunity to speak with Daniel Torras - the VP of Marketing and Product Strategy for vantrix - a company that specializes in mobile video solutions.

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Mobile credit card payments, also known as m-payments, are expected to rise in popularity within the next several years. Surprisingly, a lot of people are unaware of this expanding technology, despite the fact that it can make many of our lives much easier.

M-payments are point of sale transactions that can be made between a mobile device and a contactless reader. If you are in a restaurant that supports m-payment, for example, you can settle your bill from your table in seconds. Although m-payment has only been tested in North America on a trial basis, the technology is being readily used in parts of Asia and Europe.

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