Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Apple (Page 2 of 4)

A New Optimization Game in the Age of Mobile

February 11, 2016 / / 1 Comment
AppStoreIcons-VentureBeat

Graphic: VentureBeat

If you publish apps (and it’s hard to find a company these days that doesn’t), you’d better be up on the new science — and art — of App Store Optimization. Yes, say hello to another acronym: ASO. We all know about SEO — it’s such common practice, we do it like breathing. But when the whole world has gone mobile, when everyone and their mother are publishing apps, if you aren’t into ASO – well, you’re falling behind. It’s a major new focus for app developers and publishers, and a Minnesota firm is ready to take you to school on it.

ASO is the direct result of a phenomenon VentureBeat calls “invisible app syndrome.” In a post today, it explains: “With over 1.5 million apps in each app store, it’s easy for apps to disappear and never be seen… App Store Optimization (ASO) can bring your app out of hiding, placing it squarely in front of the customers who need or want it, and keep them clicking through.”

Minnesota-based NativeX is an experienced player in helping app publishers NativeX-logooptimize for the app stores. It describes itself as “the premiere ad technology choice of top-charting mobile games and apps.” It has an expert team of engineers, data scientists, account managers, and designers, and has been recognized as a leader in effective monetization and user acquisition. Continue reading

Mobile App Discovery Not Getting Easier; ‘Zombies’ Gaining

February 2, 2015 / / 0 Comments

[Note: This post first appeared earlier today at Minnov8.com, where I am a contributor. Image credit: Telegraph UK.]

appsBasically, app discovery is a bitch, and the App Store is no longer the answer. That is the gist of a report on “2015 App Store Competition” published a couple days ago by an analytics firm in Berlin called Adjust. (PDF of the full report here.)

Minnesota developers are of course not strangers to this problem.  It’s especially painful for startups looking to get traction in today’s “mobile first” startup environment — and moreso if they don’t have Silicon Valley sized funding rounds.  I asked a couple of experienced mobile industry players here in Minnesota for their reaction to this news.  But first, more on the report.

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Quantifying the Hype: A Data Analysis of #CES2015

January 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

cesThink of it as the morning after. Actually, it was the Monday following the week when 2015 International CES ended, on a Friday. I was scrolling through my email, trying to decompress — feeling some pride in surviving multiple weeks of being blasted with hundreds (thousands?) of PR pitches from an absolutely cuh-razy variety of exhibiting companies, from all over the globe. The blisters on my feet weren’t hurting so bad anymore. Whew! Things were finally starting to… slow… down.

Part of this decompression process is always trying to form in my head my overall opinion of the show — this after writing a couple of posts (and shooting a ton of photos), but no one person can ever really write enough posts to describe their entire experience at this thing. Which begs the question, how the hell do I summarize yet another year of this massive tech-product sensory overload? It is not easy netting it out!

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Darn You, #CES2015 – You Made Me Buy a Pono Music Player

January 13, 2015 / / 0 Comments

ponoI didn’t go to the CES show looking to buy anything. I was already spending enough money getting there… and, um, making cabbies rich once I arrived. But the chance to listen to Neil Young’s Pono music player at the Showstoppers press event at CES on Tuesday evening last week convinced me to open my wallet. The experience was just so amazing.

Understand, now, I’m no audiophile or crazy-geeky music connoisseur. But I do know when I hear something that’s like nothing else. So I decided pretty instantly — yep, I’m a buyer! At $399, it’s a bargain to be able to have on-demand music experiences that rise above anything else, as Pono does. And as I considered the cost, I figured, hey, how many people paid this much and more for iPods back in the day? (Even though I admit I didn’t.) So, price is especially relative in this case.

Compare your iPod to the Pono sometime, if you can find someone who owns one, or if you can find a demo unit in a store. You will be convinced. Or compare it to the sound quality of any of the various modern smartphones out there today — those sure haven’t improved music listening much at all since the iPod, in any way I’m aware of.

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A Minnesota Tech Company Goes Back to CES and Gets a Ton of Media Coverage (Again)

January 26, 2014 / / 0 Comments

CES2014-logoYou'll recall I wrote a couple of posts about this time last year recapping my experience at CES 2013, one concerning my work for a Minnesota-based startup client there, and another about a giant Minnesota company that also had a presence there.

Well, I attended CES again this year, in support of that same startup client, WelcomeToVegas Canopy Co., which was introducing a new model of its "app-enhancing" iPhone case, this time a pressure-sensitive version. It is a pretty amazing product! Once again, here's a rundown of the media coverage I helped the company attract from this year's CES appearance (to date):

Sensus_iPhone_case

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local/MN Coverage:
• St. Paul PioneerPress: Minneapolis iPhone case maker rolled with Apple's innovations
• Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal: Canopy’s touch-sensitive iPhone case gets more sensitive … and Twin Cities tech featured at CES (with slide show)
• Minneapolis StarTribune: Canopy tries again with pressure-sensitive iPhone case (also appearing in the print edition, top of page 1, Business Insider section 1/13/14: “A New iPhone Case – Under Pressure”)

National & International Coverage Appearing During CES Week:
• The Verge: Sensus pressure-sensitive iPhone case hands on
• The Verge: Sensus case gives your iPhone a rear touchpad like the PS Vita
• HuffPost Tech: This Pressure-Sensitive Case May Change How You Use Your iPhone (story made their front page)
• TechHive (PCWorld/Macworld): Pressure-detecting Sensus case turns your entire iPhone into a touchscreen
• Engadget: Canopy's Sensus app enhancing case hands-on (article)  << reposted scores of times elsewhere)
• Engadget: Canopy's Sensus App Enhancing Case Hands-on (5-min video)  << reposted scores of times elsewhere)
• IDG News Service/Computerworld: Pressure-detecting Sensus case makes your entire iPhone a touchscreen
• Daily Mail Online (UK): The case that turns your ENTIRE iPhone into a touchscreen
• BBC News (mention within) – CES 2014: Phones morph into 'stun guns' and 'tricorders'
• iPhone Life Magazine:  awarded the Sensus a "Best of CES"
• Apple Insider: New 'Sensus' case adds pressure-sensitive touchpads to Apple's iPhone
• Ubergizmo: Sensus Case Introduces Pressure-Sensitive Touchpads For The iPhone
• Stuff Magazine & Stuff TV: Sensus case turns the back and sides of your iPhone into buttons
• Dailymotion: Canopy's Sensus App Enhancing Case Hands-on – Video
• TrendHunter: App-Enhancing Cases – Canopy's Sensus App Enhancing Case Draws Eyes at CES 2014
• Apple Daily Report: CES: Canopy launches ‘variable pressure’ iPhone case
• Gotta Be Mobile: Sensus iPhone Case Adds Touch to Back of iPhone 5s (Video)
• Caseaholic: Canopy Shipping Sensus™ Touch-Sensitive iPhone Case Developer Kits
• Tech Investor News: Canopy's Sensus app enhancing case hands-on
• Street Insider: Canopy Co. to Launch New ‘Variable Pressure’ Smartphone Interface Technology

It was an awesome experience at CES again — albeit a very, very busy one. Here's wishing all the best to my friends at Canopy as they gear up for a very big 2014!

 

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