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PlayScreen launches portal with 20 free games for the new T-Mobile G1 (Google Android) Phone.

G1 owners won’t have to wait for great mobile entertainment at PlayScreen.com

SAN DIEGO - Oct, 23rd, 2008.  The company that launched the first iPhone web-based games has announced the release of 20 web-based titles and its first downloadable game for the new T-Mobile G1™, Google Android™ Phone.   Titles include casual, action, puzzle and social games.

"These ad-supported titles take advantage of the advanced browser on the new G1 phone" said William Volk, president and CEO of PlayScreen. "Titles include solitaire, bowling, sudoku, solitaire, backgammon, darts, golf and other popular games."

“PlayScreen is applying its considerable experience in advanced mobile technology to bring these titles to consumers” commented PlayScreen President Sherri Cuono. “There are no installs required and these games are played instantly via the browser.  We're also going to make downloadable versions of these games available when Goggle’s App Market launches.”

“With all the excitement over this new phone and operating system we wanted to make sure consumers didn’t have to wait for their favorite games” added William Volk.

PlayScreen and the PlayScreen logo are trademarks of MyNuMo, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About PlayScreen: San Diego based PlayScreen is a social entertainment company delivering mobile social games, ringtones, wallpapers, videos, and text services on all major US Carriers.  More Details about PlayScreen at http://www.PlayScreen.com/g1/ .  (PlayScreen is a trademark of MyNuMo, LLC.)

Contact: [email protected] +1 858 692 1124

MyNuMo is now PlayScreen, the next generation social entertainment company.

PlayScreen to bring casual social games and entertainment to iPhone, Google Android, and other advanced mobile platforms.

SAN DIEGO, CA - Oct, 22nd, 2008.  The company that launched the first iPhone web-based games and the social network that enables independent artists to sell mobile content across all major carriers is now PlayScreen (www.PlayScreen.com), a new worldwide social entertainment brand.

"PlayScreen is the culmination of our acquisition of advanced social gaming technology and the successful launch of game titles for the iPhone" said William Volk, president and CEO of PlayScreen. "The mobile entertainment market has evolved tremendously during the last year, with the launch of the iPhone and Google Android, making the time right to launch a new brand. The imminent launch of our 2nd round of iPhone native games, titles for the new Google Android T-Mobile G1 phone and other new technology initiatives are well reflected in the PlayScreen name."

PlayScreen is creating high quality iPhone and other advanced social games” commented PlayScreen President Sherri Cuono.  “With over a year of experience in iPhone web and native apps as well as advanced social games, PlayScreen will be building the next generation of mobile entertainment applications.”

“You can expect major innovations on our independent artist social network as well” added William Volk, “We’re going beyond the current offering of ringtones, wallpapers, and videos to enable independent developers to market their mobile apps on a wide range of hardware platforms.”

PlayScreen and the PlayScreen logo are trademarks of MyNuMo, LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About PlayScreen: San Diego based PlayScreen is a social entertainment company delivering mobile social games, ringtones, wallpapers, videos, and text services on all major US Carriers.  More Details about PlayScreen at www.PlayScreen.com.  (PlayScreen is a trademark of MyNuMo, LLC.)

Web 2.0 = Dead 2.0? The Financial Crises As An Extinction Event

Let's get this over with at the start.  I believe most Venture backed startups will not survive this crises.

First let's begin with some background.  A few days ago a presentation was 'leaked' from Sequoia Capital on the financial crises.  You can view that here (yes, this is the opening slide):

The summary?  This isn't like the dot-com crash or earlier slow downs.  This is systemic and it will last a long time.  

Here are some choice quotes from a recent Forbes Article:

Venture firms brace for cash crunch

"If you are not cash-flow positive you are in a tough spot right now"

"To the extent you haven't figured out your business model yet you are in trouble, because it's going to be hard to get another round," ... "You aren't going to get a second life this time."

So, why am I such an expert on this?

Well I saw this happen to a far smaller extent during the dot-com crash.  I've even heard the same sort of nonsense that I heard eight years ago.

"Web 2.0 and Silicon Valley is still in a bubble"

"Good ideas will still get funded"

"Mobile is growing, it won't slow down"

I'd advise EXTREME CAUTION here.  In hindsight the dot-com boom/bust looks almost insane but if you were in it, it seemed rational at the time.  The mind loves to rationalize events.  Come up with metrics that in hindsight look foolish.  Some choice ones:

"The valuation of a dot-com is the number of subscribers x $20" (this was for a free service)

"Forget revenue, the number of eyeballs is what matters"

So here's what will happen.

The "next round" ... maybe not.  Don't count on it.

The funding you are waiting on to get started?  Think of the wealth destroyed in the last few weeks.

I am so reminded of the summer of 2000.  People were still attending these events where you would network with potential investors.  I myself won a major venture event that summer, one that NPR covered.

The result was one investor who basically offered a small investment ($50k) backed by home equity.

THIS IS WORSE.

Now is the time to get cash flow positive.  Better to be one of the small mammals that survives than a large dinosaur who starves to death.

This isn't going away in a few months or a few years.

Another Day, Another App Store Clone.

In this case we have the BlackBerry Application Center, RIM’s answer to the iPhone App Store.

This will initially debut on the BlackBerry Storm software version 4.7.  It's on the handset, no separate web site.

Here's the rub ...

 

All application data will be stored at the carriers’ locale; RIM is totally out of the loop as far as that goes. Carriers put the applications they want on their own little store.

So it's just like the Apple App Store except for:

1. You have to deal with individual carriers.

2. The splits are probabily closer to 50/50.

3. Unlike Google or Apple, no word on Free Apps.

I can understand RIM's reasons, their existing relationship with Handango probabily precludes something as ambitious as Apple's storefront, but this really is much ado about not much here.

Nice handsets too.  Oh well.

News Flash! Flash on the iPhone, don't hold your breath.

PC World reported: iPhone Finally to Get Adobe Flash

Adobe confirmed yesterday at the Flash On The Beach (FOTB) conference in Brighton, UK that it is actually developing a Flash Player for the iPhone.
....
Whether Flash for iPhone will ever see the day of light is yet unknown. Adobe officials said that once their application will meet Steve Job's standards, it might just make an appearance in the next incarnation of the iPhone.

Well folks, this is unlikely and here's why:

1. Developer agreements don't allow it.  No programs that run programs are permitted, hence no Java, no SCUMM (adventure interpreter used by classic Lucas Arts games), and probably no Flash.

2. Steve Jobs has made a public statement that FLASH runs too slowly on the device to be useful.

3. The main reason?  This is a public stunt to embarrass Apple into approving Flash.  

As a business strategy, it's a non-starter.  Apple is now pushed into a situation where approving Flash would make them lose face.  Surely Shantanu Narayen (Adobe CEO) has done business in Asia and understands that this probabily won't work.  

If Adobe wanted Flash on the iPhone Shantanu would pick up the phone and work out a deal with Jobs. 

Look at it this way, a stand alone Flash-Player as a iPhone app doesn't even address the main use of Flash, as a plug-in in the web browser.  If Apple wanted Flash on the iPhone, that's how it would show up.

I personally like Flash (I have even coded  Flash Based Games  for fun and profit in my past) and clearly "Flash Lite", a reduced size version for mobile devices,would run pretty nicely on the iPhone. 

Flash Lite has been a big success in Japan, with one portal, Mobile Game Town, seeing over 1 million Flash Lite games played daily.

So why not Flash or even "Flash Lite?"

Well, here's one obvious reason:

Apple wants native iPhone apps.  Native apps take advantage of the iPhone's unique hardware and provide performance on a par with Sony PSP and Nintendo DS devices.  Apple shifted its focus from web apps to native apps for a similar reason.  Native apps also give the iPhone a performance edge over Java apps on the Google Android system.

Users now prefer iPhone native apps over iPhone web apps.  You now see Facebook, Linked-In, Twitter, and other web destinations offering native iPhone apps with a better user experience than the websites (even specially crafted for the iPhone) they replaced.

So maybe this is a 'stunt' by Adobe to make Apple look bad?

Well, if it's any comfort to Flash fans, I don't expect to Flash to show up on Android.  The Android development system is based on Java and I can't see Java running Flash in a acceptable manner.

Hey, I could be wrong about all of this.  It won't be the first time.

Podcaster and the iPhone, How NOT to deal.

This is NOT another pro/anti Apple post.  That ground has been well trod by the blogosphere. This is about business and settling disputes in mature manner.

To sum up the story, Apple rejected Podcaster as an app because:

“Since Podcaster assists in the distribution of podcasts, it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

You can read more about the story here: iPhone: Big trouble in the App Store

I'm not going to talk about that.  I'm going to talk about what Podcaster's creators have decided to do about it.

The creator of Podcaster, Alexander Sokirynsky has turned to Apple's little-used "Ad Hoc" App Distribution system to make Podcaster available.  "Ad Hoc" is typically used by developers to test versions of their applications before release.  Sokirynsky is asking for a $9.99 donation.

Maybe it's my age or experience, but this seems like a really bad way of dealing with Apple.  

As angry as Sokirynsky must be (understandably) this simply isn't a good way of resolving the conflict.  I've been in these sort of bad situations before and the best technique is to quietly work at getting in contact with Apple and finding a solution.  

Look at it another way, what good can possibly come out of taking this tack with Apple?

1. They are not likely to approve the app now that this has been aired in public.

2. You're limited to 100 copies in a "Ad Hoc" distribution.

3. Your next app isn't going to be greeted with great enthusiasm by Apple.

Pandora was an app that was kicked off iTunes and then returned, with some changes.  So it seems to be possible to deal with Apple on this issue.  Or not. Either way where's the benefit to burning bridges.

I guess I'm getting old.

One cautionary note for all of us.  If you think your app has any possibility of breaking the developer rules, I'd do my darnedest to check with Apple first before building it.

The Dark Side Of "The Cloud"

As we all move to Web 2.0 services we should remember that their can be a dark side to having our 'stuff' in "The Cloud."  This blog is a good example.  Originally hosted (paid) with Weblogger/Manila starting in 2001.  Then a few months ago (not sure exactly when) the blog went away.  New owners I guess.  Sent out emails, found it had been moved to WordPress, was asked to pay $99/year for hosting.

At this point we got into a dispute, I'm not saying I was 100% right and they were 100% wrong ... but at a particular point I made it clear that given WordPress was offering free hosting I was reluctant to pay for hosting on WordPress.  As it turns out they may have been using WordPress on their own servers, I'm not sure.

Well at that point they simply switched off the blog.  And there was nothing I could do ...

Except for the fact that sometime in the past I had saved a off-line copy of this blog.

So here we are, on TypePad with most of the blog restored, even with the dates of the articles intact.

So my point is that "The Cloud" does have a dark side.  What happens to your 'stuff' in a business negotiation?  Hopefully it doesn't just get switched off.

If you build it (iPhone), they will Browse

Saw this:

iPhone Browser Use Surpasses Windows Mobile: Apple’s iPhone browser has surpassed Microsoft’s mobile browser user share, according to a quarterly report from Net Applications. The study is not a measure of units sold, but the share of users browsing the internet with the devices. Of those surfing the internet, 0.09 percent are doing it through their iPhone browser, compared with 0.06 percent surfing through their Windows Mobile browser. Computerworld calls iPhone’s stats “amazing”, especially when you consider that it was gained in the 5 months that the iPhone has been on sale, compared to the ten years that Windows CE products have been on sale with over 20 million units sold.

This fits with what we see on MyNuMo's iPhone entertainment products.  Thousands of users playing web based games every day.

SMS is Here To Stay, It May Never Die

SMS still dominates Mobile data revenue, defying all attempts to replace it with something new.

"... And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast"

- Lyrics, Hotel California, The Eagles.

Worldwide Revenue for SMS has been predicted to reach $100B for 2007.

"The ITU measured SMS revenues for 2006 to be worth 80 billion dollars (ITU 2007) and this service, proven to be as addictive as cigarette smoking, keeps growing at enormous rates."

- Tomi T Ahonen, Communities Dominate Brands

The 'replacement' for SMS has been long predicted, but SMS keeps on dominating mobile data services.  Even in the USA, always slow to adopt mobile technology, over half of the population now sends text messages.  It's not just teens texting teens (teens prefer texting to talking), services are also growing in use.  For example, 64.5 million text message votes were recorded for the 5th season of American Idol.

So why does a decade old technology continue to dominate mobile data revenues?  Why have the contenders failed?

"The Good is the Enemy of The Better..."

The leading contender to SMS was MMS, otherwise known as Picture Messaging.  It has not reduced the size or growth of SMS.  Part of the reason was MMS's rough start.  Interoperability between different carriers did not happen until recently and doesn't always work even today.  It is nearly impossible to launch a paid service, for example daily horoscopes, across carriers on MMS.

So what is so great about SMS, a technology originally created to notify users that they had voice messages waiting?

1. SMS Messages get through, even if the recipient is busy or have their phone turned off.  This is in contrast to voice, which often results in a game of "phone tag" between callers.

2. SMS Messages don't have to be checked.  In most cases mobile email requires the user to check their emails in a client.  The exceptions (email with notification), DoCoMo's mobile email and Research In Motion, Blackberry have achieved success in their market/demographic segments.

3. SMS Messages can be sent during other activities.  Students often send them during classes, much to the chagrin of teachers everywhere.

AND THE MAIN REASON:

4. SMS WORKS.  It works on almost every handset.  It works even when mobile networks are taxed.  During last weeks San Diego fires I often found that the voice networks were tied up due to traffic.  I was able to notify friends and family that all was well (abet smoky) via SMS.

Other solutions, for example Instant Messaging on Phones, often require users to install software on their handset.  That is something only a segment of the market will put up with.

For many applications the Mobile Web (WAP) is the right choice, but not all phones are setup to access the web ... almost all can receive a SMS text message.  On our Mobile Social Marketplace (MyNuMo) many customers prefer using keyword text messaging to order a ringtone, wallpaper, or video ... over a web (PC) based shopping cart.  It's just simple to text CT1 to 74415 to get a ringtone (in this case, a motorcycle ringtone).  This is what mobile consumers have gotten used to.  In the case of a mobile purchase the SMS transaction eventually ends up pushing a WAP page to the handset, with the advantage being that the customer doesn't have to type in the 'address' of the website.

Maybe this will change.  I am reminded of my first technology job, at a company called Rising Star, how management was convinced that a better protocol than the current Internet and POP/SMTP email would arise and take over.  That was in 1983.

A Million Reasons to Create iPhone Games

Just saw this:

Apple Sells One Millionth iPhone

CUPERTINO, California—September 10, 2007—Apple® today announced it sold its one millionth iPhone™ yesterday, just 74 days after its introduction on June 29. iPhone combines three devices into one—a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod®, and the best mobile Internet device ever—all based on Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers.

“One million iPhones in 74 days—it took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season.”

Good news for MyNuMo and all the other iPhone game developers.

Bill