I’m going to be shifting episodes around — I apologise — so don’t worry if, for example, you see Episode 81 followed by Episode 86 — this is just because I’m having to check that the content I’m about to publish is accurate.

o2 Litmus, the application developer community for Telefonica’s o2, is running an iPhone Developer competition.

Called The App Showdown, the competition offers a £10,000 prize to the winning application developer.

The judges, well… they’re not an esteemed panel of mobile gods or mobile executives.

Instead — and interestingly — the judging panel is going to be comprised of 100 o2 iPhone customers. Anyone, provided they’re an o2 iPhone customer, can enter to become a judge.

Here’s the criteria that app developers should consider:

O2 is looking for innovative iPhone apps, and we have already been chatting to our customers to find out what they would love to see. Their ideas included:

- An interactive O2 coverage map
- Connecting iPhone to O2 Joggler
- A Bluebook app
- An app that records any sleep-talking you do
- An app that knows if you’re drunk and beeps when you’re near your bus stop to make sure you don’t fall asleep when you should be getting off
- A broadband status app
- An accident kit that prompts you to take emergency contact numbers as well as notes and photos

Naturally, we’ll be asking our iPhone customers to help us pick the winning entry, plus at the mid way point of the two month competition there will be a “drop in” focus group where developers can come along and meet our iPhone customers to test out ideas and receive direct feedback on their apps.

If you’re an iPhone customer and would like to find out how to become a judge in the competition, click “Become a judge” below.

This is the first time I’ve seen o2 Litmus focusing exclusively on iPhone development. When you recognise that o2 have sold more than 1 million iPhones in the UK, it makes a lot of sense, though.

I’m aiming to sit down with the o2 Litmus chaps soon to bring you some good video interviews with them.

Meantime, I strongly recommend checking out o2 Litmus (and registering). If you’re a developer, this is an excellent, excellent opportunity to a) enter to win a pile of cash and b) garner the attention of the o2 Litmus team.

Head over to http://www.o2litmus.co.uk/ for more information.

There’s a rather interesting story on ChubbyBrain regarding venture funding for iPhone application developers (via Johannes). They calculate that 17 iPhone application startups have received $102.49m as of the end of June 2009 (over two years).

Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, the Silicon Valley titan, has reportedly invested the most — $50m across 6 startups.

If you’re looking for investors for your iPhone application related startup, ChubbyBrain’s post helpfully lists all those that have been publicly active.

It’s no surprise that the Symbian Foundation are keen to meet iPhone developers. No surprise at all.

The big problem is for iPhone Developers who want to meet and find out more about the Symbian Foundation. The website just isn’t good enough yet. You can’t watch a 3 minute video on their website and deliver a ‘hello world’ application that you can run on your Nokia handset 30 seconds later. Indeed, the first flippin’ problem that most developers run into is that they don’t have an $800 Nokia handset in the first place.

Despite this, the Symbian Foundation is reaching out.

Check out this poster that Jeff Lamarche snapped this morning nearby the Moscone Centre (where the Apple keynote and conference takes place today).

(Here’s Jeff’s other pics).

This is the changing face of the marketplace.

“Bring your laptop and join us for a Symbian Hackathon,” reads the headline.

You get coffee between 7am-12pm.

The hackathon begins between 1-4pm — which includes lunch, prizes AND everyone gets a FREE Nokia 5800.

And from 5-7pm, there’s free drinks, food — plus you can win a Wii if you’re any good at pool.

Now this is different. Very impressive. I’m delighted to see the Symbian Foundation reaching out.

If you’re a developer, definitely go and take a look.

I will be there with the camera too.

(Thanks to iPhone Developer Ed Lea for alerting me to Jeff’s pic).

Before the joy that is the Apple’s worldwide developer conference begins this morning here in San Francisco, I thought it might be useful to take a look at some stats from AdMob‘s April Metrics Report (PDF).

Last month AdMob served 7.5 billion ads globally — with 250 million of those in the UK alone.

How much of this was iPhone related? Have a read of these stats…

UK
47.1 per cent of ad requests came from Apple handsets
23.9 per cent of ad requests came from the iPhone
254,014,870 ad requests from users in the UK

US
34.7 per cent of ad requests came from Apple handsets
20.0 per cent of ad requests came from the iPhone
3,538,714,000 ad requests from users in the US

Global
26.2 per cent of ad requests came from Apple handsets
15.1 per cent of ad requests came from the iPhone
7,535,272,901 ad requests from users around the world

Despite being a bit player in the global handset business (compared with the likes of Nokia and Motorola), Apple’s devices are continuing to dominate the high-end sector of the marketplace.

I’m looking forward to some interesting news from today’s keynote.

I think it was Mick from GasBag who presented at Mobile Monday Silicon Valley last night.

GasBag is an iPhone application showing the gas (“petrol”) prices in your area. He explained that they had been experimenting with their maps interface and found a more elegant manner of displaying information with their own implementation, as apposed to using Google Maps.

Their own maps implementation used Microsoft branding in the bottom corner.

Mick described how, almost immediately after launching the new implementation, user dissatisfaction and complaints increased by 40% — on account of the ‘Microsoft’ logo.

Apparently users found the new improved service to be ‘slow to load’ and ‘buggy’. Mick and his team found no issue whatsoever — it’s simply that with the Microsoft logo clearly displayed there, GasBag users seemed to associate that with their negative desktop experiences.

Shocking.

I’m going to see if I can get GasBag on camera to discuss this experience in more depth.

Goodness me it’s getting interesting in the mobile industry.

For years I’ve been screaming with utter annoyance at the absolute rubbish Sony Ericsson has been vomiting into the marketplace. Their devices are amongst the nicest engineered on the planet. They’re well built, stylish, reliable and the cameras are simply amazing.

But the dumb operating system (or, more accurately, the stupidly limited UI) is — literally — from the 1990s.

I positively loved their K800i handset — a class leading device in it’s time — and I’ve continued to admire the workmanship of their more recent models — but actually using a Sony Ericsson is akin to jumping in an Ashes to Ashes style timewarp back to 1990.

It’s pretty accurate to refer to a Sony Ericsson user as a Mobile Caveman. Just like a human caveman, a Mobile Caveman (“MobCav, anyone?”) is able to manage life’s various transactions (fire, food, sex) but when it comes to anything more enlightened or connected, no dice.

Your Sony handset will browse the ‘mobile web’. Cool. It will — with quite a bit of persuasion — synchronise your address book. You can play music on it. You can even play game(s) on it.

But put a top of the range Sony handset next to other class leaders (iPhone, G1/G2, Palm Pre, Nokia N-Series) and it’s immediately clear it’s not in the same league.

Don’t get me started on developing for a Sony Ericsson.

Besides from a degree in Nuclear Physics (with hons and some fannying about with the Dean’s List), you’ll need a massive budget and the patience of a demigod to develop for the current range of Sony Ericssons.

The Xperia device is … well, let’s put it this way, have you seen anyone with an Xperia recently? Hobbled by a ridiculous, ridiculous Microsoft bollocks operating system, the Xperia was never, ever going anywhere.

“Why won’t they go Android?” I used to scream, “Can you imagine how brilliant a Sony Ericsson would be with Android?”

Well… it’s happening.

Finally.

It had to happen. It was inevitable. Just like Apple bringing out an iPhone (they had to make the move or surrender the mobile music market to the likes of Nokia).

Slashphone reports that at a recent showcase in Taiwan, Peter Ang, the Sony Ericsson VP of Marketing, confirmed Android is now a key operating system for the company. Along with Symbian and Windows. Gah.

Sony’s Android handset(s) are due to arrive with Android 2.0 — and there’s speculation (from Chris Davies over at Android Community.com) that the devices will sport a proprietary UI along the lines of the Xperia UI.

The upshot?

Upgrade Android in your estimations. With the consumer giants such as Sony Ericsson (and Samsung) jumping in, it won’t be long before high-end (and shortly after, mid-tier and low-end) normal mobile users (“normobs”) will be shopping for their Apps via the Android Marketplace.

Exciting news.

I didn’t bother signing up for Wakoopa when I heard about it a while ago. I thought it was a cool concept — track the desktop applications you’re using (along with ‘web applications’) and then publish the data to let you track what your friends are using.

Now and again I’ve found myself on some obscure blog post from 2005 only to discover a genius application for uploading screenshots or something like that.

Indeed I think that’s how I came across ImageWell (uploads screenshots via FTP) and Mailplane (run Gmail / Apps as a proper application) and more.

I didn’t sign-up initially because, well… so much of my desktop usage is browser based. Looking at the applications I have open at the moment, it doesn’t really make for shocking or surprising reading:

* Safari
* Firefox
* Microsoft Word
* Skype
* Mailplane
* Spotify
* ImageWell
* MarsEdit
* Terminal
* Adium
* TweetDeck

Hardly earth shattering, eh? But then… you never know. So I signed up this afternoon and I’ve added two chaps already, Geetarchurchy and Ricky Chotai. Aside from the basic ‘what’s he using that for’ thoughts, it’s really quite interesting. I can see how this will/would really help with discovery of new applications.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. I’d really like to see something like this for mobile handsets. I’m sure the Wakoopa creators are considering something like this. Of course it wouldn’t work very well on an iPhone in real time (no background apps on an iPhone… yet) but it would work reasonably well on Android and Symbian.

Nokia’s already doing this with the upcoming Ovi Store (just WHEN is it actually, actually launching?). Peer-to-peer recommendations. I should, theoretically, be able to see what my Ovi friends are buying/using/consuming via the Ovi Store. I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to that feature, I think it’ll be a winner.

I certainly find the iPhone application discovery process a little bit haphazard at the moment — indeed, it’s positively lonely when you’re sat looking at the App Store on your iPhone. I tend to hear more about applications when I’m not actively browsing, when I’m out-and-about or when I’m working. That’s fine, but it’s not necessarily when I’m most receptive to looking at new things.

I can imagine opening up the App Store on my Nokia with the intent of finding out what my friends have checked out recently.

I’m hoping that once all the kinks are worked out, the Ovi Store will reinvigorate the desire to install new apps… We shall see.

I just published Vodafone’s news regarding their ‘app store’ initiative — and I’m already getting questions and reaction in from developers.

Here are some quotes right off the press from some mobile developers. (I have removed names).

- “I’d like to know how much of my revenues they’ll demand.”

- “I like the ease of billing and the potential of micro-payments.”

- “I suspect they’ll take 30% just like Apple / Nokia etc. I hope it’s not more than that.”

- “It’s just another App store – we WILL develop for it, obviously, but only because I’m yet to see which store will capture the minds of consumers.”

- “I very much like the concept. Especially if one SDK works across a number of MNOs. That would be really cool.”

- “Is this too good to be true? It sure looks like it.”

- “If they were REALLY thinking of developers, they’d be finding a way to reduce the amount of work we need to do across the various mobile programming languages. Perhaps they are, I can’t quite work it out yet.”

- “Interesting, interesting… that’s all I have to say until you tell us more, Ewan.”

I’m aiming to have more information soon! If you’ve got a comment or opinion, drop me a note — ewan@mobiledeveloper.tv.

(I regularly tap up people for live reaction — if you’d like to be on that list, add me at ewanmacleod@gmail.com on Google Talk or ewanjmacleod on Skype.)

Whilst we get busy with the new design and arranging of developer interviews, I need your assistance on this conundrum. I’m not sure whether it’s a complete ‘FAIL’ (as the phrase goes) on the part of the developer, or whether it’s just-one-of-those-things.

I’ve been using my Android G1 a lot since I arrived in America because, conveniently, my US T-Mobile sim works perfectly with it (even though it’s a UK device). I didn’t have to do any configuration since HTC thoughtfully included the T-Mobile US web settings on the device already.

So I’ve been taking pictures.

As you do in a city as nice and as varied as San Francisco.

I’d like to send them directly to Flickr. Since there’s no ShoZu service on Android at the moment (and I haven’t re-installed Pixelpipe yet) I thought I’d have a look around the Marketplace on Android.

Unlike others, I take it upon myself to buy as many applications as possible. I did a certain amount of evaluation on ‘Flickr Upload’ when I came across it. From memory it was $0.99. Or perhaps less.

I scrolled down to the comments.

On the 28th of April, ‘Matthew’ commented:

Works wonderfully. Well integrated.

.. and he gave it five stars.

I suspect Matthew is referring to the share option. When you take a photo on Android, there’s a button that pops up called ‘Share’. Click on that and you get the choice of sharing by Email, by Google Mail or — to Flickr (enabled by this application). Smart. I was warming to the concept.

I noted that it’s had between 100-500 downloads. Ok. Not a brilliant well-trodden path. I continued with the comment review.

On the 21st of April, ‘z0mbix’ commented:

Will not authorise with flickr on t-mobile/G1. Can’t get any reply from the developers em[ail]…

Er.

I’d gone off it right away.

The final comment on the app’s frontpage was a day before z0mbix’s one from Benjamin:

Exactly what I was looking for works perfectly

Hmmm.

Z0mbix’s comment put me right off. But I reasoned there must be a reason, maybe he/she didn’t know what they were doing? Afterall if Benjamin and Matthew each had a good experience, I should be ok?

Right?

As I walked out of the Westfield Mall in downtown San Francisco I spotted an advert I wanted to write about. I decided to download Flickr Upload there and then, configure it and get moving.

I paid the money, the app downloaded and within seconds I’d got to the main prompt, asking me to authorise my Flickr account to work with it. Fair enough.

I typed in my Yahoo account username and password and hit ‘login’.

Nothing happened.

Nothing.

The screen went blank.

Er.

‘I’ve just paid a dollar for this,’ I thought, rather disappointed. I was experiencing the pain of fellow user, z0mbix.

I tried again. Maybe I typed my details wrong?

Again it failed. The app just sat on a blank screen like this:

Rubbish!

I ended up sending the photo to my email account and walked home, rather annoyed with myself.

I was annoyed because I thought I’d obviously got my Yahoo password wrong.

What self respecting developer would allow an application to go live — a chargeable application at that — which doesn’t actually work?

Then I reasoned that it must be a Yahoo screw-up and spent a good few blocks cursing them in my mind.

I got back to my desktop and immediately changed my Yahoo password to check I had it correct.

Again I tried authorising the app.

Nothing. Nada.

I’ve bought a dud.

I don’t know who is responsible. It COULD be Yahoo, entirely. But one assumes that the two other recent commenters on Android Marketplace aren’t lying and they got it to work.

I’ve tried a few times over the past few days to activate it to no avail.

So I looked up the developer online.

They’re called Macrospecs and they’re a privately-owned startup in the bay area.

Ah hah! They’ll have a GetSatisfaction page, right? Or a forum or something?

No.

Nothing!

It’s a one-page website and — ultra annoyingly — the ‘contact’ page goes straight through to their email address.

Confusingly there is absolutely no reference to the Flickr Upload application on their site.

I then had a look back on the Android Marketplace and saw that the ‘developer site’ is listed as FaceofMobile.com/Flickr. Ah hah!

No, hold your excitement.

This is the entire site:

Yup… it’s one page. It consists of three screenshots and a macrospecs logo, with no link. No contact details. No support option. Nothing.

In fairness to the developer, one wouldn’t expect that many support enquiries from an application that simply sends a photo to a Flickr account. It’s not rocket science and there’s hardly any failure points.

Except the authorisation process.

And, of course, macrospecs don’t control that, Yahoo do.

Tough luck for me and z0mbix, right? If it ain’t working, you can try contacting macrospecs but it’s rather clear they don’t want to know — and are not expecting to support any enquiries.

I hunted around and I found a support forum for macrospecs’ Face of Mobile application, a $1.99 Windows Mobile Facebook app.

I suppose I could try posting there.

But I’m not feeling very welcome — or smart for buying the app. Indeed I’ve paid a dollar for the privilege.

It’s perfectly fine for it to happen to me, I have a good understanding of the trials and tribulations of mobile development — but if this is the experience of your average consumer who’s just picked up a G1 or G2 and is expecting 100% friction-free total quality-assured service from the Android Marketplace, they’re not going to be at all impressed.

Like the ringtone marketplace a few years ago — you’ll pay once and if the experience sucks, you definitely won’t ever pay again.

What’s the right response?

Is this a FAIL on the part of the team at macrospecs? Is it a Yahoo FAIL?

Or is it an Android FAIL?

Would this have happened on an iPhone?