• BlackBerry App World downloads top Nokia’s Ovi Store tally – http://tinyurl.com/342mj57 – wow! ->
• smartphone penetration will be 31% by end of 2010, 60%+ by 2014 – globe and mail. ->
• facebook feature phone in the works – is it already irrelevant? http://tinyurl.com/3ysrmxd ->
• Quality over quantity? Twitter followers apparently better than facebook followers: http://tinyurl.com/275hhug ->
• "manufacturers who use Android are like Finnish boys who 'pee in their pants' for warmth in the winter" http://tinyurl.com/2bxknkz ->
• we are now in the post-PC era – it's now about the internet of things: http://tinyurl.com/267mwpx ->

• @torontojungle – classic! that logo sure looks dated now though… would love to hear some sets from that night! in reply to torontojungle ->
• 8 of 10 of Nokia's last acquisitions have been related to LBS. Apple & Google have invested 1/2 billion in LBS in last 6 months… ->
• smartphones are the catalyst behind the rebound in worldwide mobile market this yr – IDC analyst Kevin Restivo. Smartphones up 55% SPLY ->
• Get ready for Mobile Innovation Week. I'll be presenting an updated POV on wap vs app http://t.co/mfDOr6c ->
• RT @nationalpost: Posted Toronto: Discover TIFF 2010 with the National Post and Foursquare http://natpo.st/dkHS78 ->
• BSTREET Leads Mobile Task force for the CMA: http://t.co/LTVLamx ->
• RT @OPENForum How and Why Facebook Users Interact with Brands : Technology :: American Express OPE.. http://bit.ly/cJODIY ->
• Blackberry & Android users catching up to Apple in terms of App downloads: http://tinyurl.com/27y6cvj ->

The Canadian Marketing Association has formed a mobile task force to determine how marketers can best integrate this emerging marketing channel into the overall marketing mix.

Several industry leaders representing different aspects of the mobile channel are represented. I’m representing BSTREET as Chair of the task force and look forward to working with the broader team to help marketers better understand and integrate mobile into their marketing plans.

The full press release can be viewed here.

Next week marks the second annual Mobile Innovation Week with events happening all week long in Toronto. Whether you’re a developer, designer, marketer or brand manager – there is an event for you next week.

I’ll be participating in Mobile Media World from the 16-17th and will be presenting an updated point of view on the “Wap vs. App” debate.

For more information on the events and to register, you can click here.

• Only telecom country more restrictive than Canada is China apparently: http://tinyurl.com/24u7g3o ->
• RT @mobilesyrup Quote: Wind Mobile to Wind acquire Mobilicity and Public Mobile? | MobileSyrup.com http://bit.ly/cdWiAN ->
• Google serves 98.29% of mobile search queries globally, followed by Yahoo with 0.81%, Bing 0.46%, other sites 0.46% – pingdom.com ->
• More marketers are using location services as customer activation channel: http://tinyurl.com/2aebpqu ->
• Here's The Difference Between Apple TV And Google TV http://read.bi/b2Filh ->

The digital media landscape just got a bit blurrier.

The long anticipated roll out of facebook’s geo-location based feature called “Places” has been heralded as the end of foursquare, gowalla, yelp and other geo-based social media platforms.

Geo-based social media is not about location

This is a lesson that Google learned a few years ago when they rolled out Lattitude – one of the first geo-based services. It became know as the stalker app because all it really did was show you exactly where your friends were at all times.  That was a bit creepy for most to handle and the service never took off.

Location is merely the enabler to an engaging user experience

The reason foursquare and Gowalla have had great success is that they are essentially social gaming platforms that are enabled through location based check-ins. The experience is fun, easy and engaging. Add rewards for check-ins or earning badges and suddenly marketers were salivating at all the opportunities to build loyalty and word of mouth for their brands.

Facebook Places can do for mobile web and applications – as American Idol did for SMS

Much like voting for your favorite soon to be pop star on American Idol via text message really ushered in the era of mass SMS adoption, Facebook Places has the potential to bring mobile web and mobile applications to the masses as you can’t carry around your desktop to “check-in” to your favorite restaurant in the Toronto Entertainment District.

You also can’t carry around the old flip phone or first generation smartphone, so bringing geo-based social media to a mass scale could accelerate the adoption of new generation smartphones that are location aware through GPS and have great mobile web browsers or a platform that supports enriched mobile Applications.

Should Marketers abandon services like Foursquare now that facebook Places has arrived?

Although it’s true that facebook has 500 million users (150 on mobile) while services like foursqure only have a few million, let’s keep in mind the following things:

1. Places is only available in the U.S. currently – although I’d expect it to come to Canada and other countries by the holiday season.
2. Facebook became the king of location overnight but just because the media is declaring this to be true, it’s the consumer who has the ultimate say.  Remember Google Buzz? It too was heralded as a new giant in the social media space.  The problem was that consumers didn’t really want their Google services to be linked and used in a different context from which they subscribed to.  There is a good chance that many facebook users will feel the same way about their profile and will instead start limiting their time on facebook or abandon it entirely.
3. Facebook is making their location based API available to developers – so marketers can create digital experiences that leverage facebook Places – much like how facebook connect for commenting, liking and sharing has been incorporated into many sites today. For example, this means you can roll out a foursquare program that leverages a proven social gaming platform and then extend reach and frequency by incorporating the new facebook Places extensions.

Regardless if you or the brands you are working for think existing geo-based social media gaming platforms or the new facebook Places is the future, the only bad choice to make right now is to ignore geo-based social media and the impact that smartphones will have on shopper marketing and all consumer communications.

As I was packing for my trip to China this week I realized how much lighter my back pack was compared to other big trips from just a few years ago.

When I went to Peru I had packed an HD video Camera, an SLR camera, my laptop, a mobile phone and a DVD player along with all the cords, and batteries adapters.  It was perhaps a little over the top to carry a virtual media studio on my pack through the mountain of Peru, but i wanted to capture every great moment with the best tech available.

This time my mobile device is acting as my video, photo, and media device while my iPad is giving me the larger media consumption platform I need for movies or catching up on whatever news i’m allowed to access here.

So far finding Wifi has not been a problem but accessing my usual social media platforms has been a different story. I can’t access facebook or twitter directly and even foursquare has been blocked – so no check ins, badges or new mayorships.

How will I survive a week without social media?

I think I’ll somehow survive with all the movies I picked up in an alley yesterday. 20 movies for less than $20 – all in high definition. All the rage here is to buy a hard drive pre-loaded with hundreds of movies. The hard drive sits in a cradle with an HDMI output so you can easily stream blue ray or other hi definition videos directly to your TV.

Assuming I have some $$$ left at the end of the trip I may pick up such a system for some R&D in Canada

• how to make flash run on your iphone 4… http://tinyurl.com/29jqb5z ->
• QR codes reaching mainstream – AR codes won't be far behind: http://tinyurl.com/2df6j5u ->
• 3 reasons why people still love their blackberries: http://tinyurl.com/2abdrut ->
• @RobertPaege – probably not worth it on the 4, but on my 3gs that is doing nothing but gathering dust right now, yes it's worth it in reply to RobertPaege ->
• blackberry integrates QR codes into summer campaign – slick! http://tinyurl.com/2dbfe4v ->
• Report – iphone users have more sex than android or blackberry users: http://tinyurl.com/35u73km – more reason to buy the iphone4? ->
• Canadians paying up to double the termination fees vs. U.S. for mobile contracts: http://tinyurl.com/29sxud8 ->
• torch will please bb diehards – best one yet: http://tinyurl.com/26ubxlk ->
• Mall deal gives boost to smartphone coupons – http://tinyurl.com/29oma9e ->

• Quoted this week in Canadian Business magazine re: loyalty & foursquare: http://tinyurl.com/2evmmon ->
• i want the one with the extra gees http://shar.es/0n7Le ->
• 4 reasons why brands need to check into foursquare: http://tinyurl.com/2d8n3lc ->
• cardstar integrates foursquare into iphone app – how long until airmiles or aeroplan follow suit? http://tinyurl.com/2adwlu6 ->
• facebook best practices – how t get more likes: http://tinyurl.com/29agpgs ->
• Mesh Marketing lineup announced – looks solid! http://www.meshmarketing.ca/ ->
• WIRED believes mobile can't replace credit cards… not sure i buy into that as carriers think otherwise: http://tinyurl.com/24dwnkc ->
• marketers staring to figure out what we've know all along about mobile media: http://tinyurl.com/2azwcze ->
• @EricaGlasier – do both. run promotion on facebook and enable facebook connect on your microsite, best of both worlds! in reply to EricaGlasier ->
• @Franky_B – good point on carrier ego… but some would say that's what they've done by creating zoompass in Canada in reply to Franky_B ->
• RT @rww Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Our Newest Research Report http://bit.ly/bt0JNH ->

The iphone 4G finally arrived in Canada this week and I found myself in line to buy one outright from the Apple store.

Why buy one outright?

That was the question the Rogers sales person asked me as I tried to get my new phone activated today since their entire system was down yesterday. There are two main reasons why consumers should consider this

1) You don’t have to extend your current contract by three years. I don’t want to be trapped in a contract for another three years – especially one that may limit my ability to buy a new phone next year

2) Buying your iphone directly from Apple outright means it’s unlocked – so you can take your iphone to another network if you wish, or you can buy a pay as you go SIM card when you’re travelling in other countries to save big $$$ on roaming fees.  This is exactly my plan as I travel to China and Thailand in a few weeks.

According to an Apple employee at Yorkdale, of the 500 or so people in line yesterday morning by 6:30am, around 50% were buying the iphones outright.

You would think that that on the third try (and three years later) Rogers would figure out how to handle the volume of activation requests, but once again they could not.  Bell and Telus had no such problems yesterday, but unfortunately due to the issues with Rogers the average customer was waiting 45 minutes to an hour to activate which had a brutal impact on the lineup to buy one.

I spent five hours in line waiting before I gave up. Lucky for me, my good friend Dave Shen stayed in line and two hours after I left he picked one up for me.

First impressions

I love the new industrial design and i’ve had no issues with reception or discoloration of the screen. The updated camera is outstanding and the display is crisp. I haven’t tried the video talking feature yet – but I will next week as the balance of my geeky friends finally pick one up.

I love the glass on the front and back – but the downside is that now you’re cleaning both sides of the phone instead of just the screen.

With more Android phones coming to the market as well this Fall + a new lineup of blackberries, it’s going to be a great year for mobile in Canada.

47% of new phone purchases in Canada in Q3 of last year were for smartphones – which was nearly double what it was in Q2. With 55% of Canadians looking to upgrade in the next 6 months, I’m predicting that with all the great choices on the market we’ll see 2/3 of new purchases being smartphones.

Brands who are now in planning for 2011 are missing out on a huge opportunity if mobile is still not part of the mix.