One Of The Best iPhone Apps For Busy Moms

The smartphone is coming of age and becoming an integral part of our lives, whether you're a business executives or a busy mother trying to juggle your family's grocery shopping and planning healthy meals.  One of the most practical Apps around has just been launched by Rachael Ray (Food Network personality) for the iPhone, called "Tasty Bytes".  It includes a 200 recipe database and combines a shopping list feature, that basically takes the ingredients from the recipes you select and converts it into a shopping list.  Getting your food shopping this organized makes it a breeze to eat healthy.  And who takes a recipe book with you when shopping or forgets the list at home? 

The App is only $1.99 in the iTunes store.  Other nice features are the ability to email a recipe, search the database by meal type, holidays, cooking style and even ingredients.  This is just one simple way that the smartphone, in particular the iPhone with over 200,000 Apps, is able to bring organization into our lives and transform daily tasks into something a little bit more creative and exciting.  I'm sure there will be other celebrities that follow suit with their own App,  but the key is to provide something a consumer really needs and that enhances their daily life.  

With a food/recipe and shopping list App, marketers and retailers can find ways to add mobile marketing, location based coupons, and even combine social networks into the mix, so you can also tell your friends about your recipe or even share a menu.  

Mobile Marketing Budgets Set To Explode In 2011

A recent survey by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) predicts that mobile marketing budgets will double in 2011. Mobile marketing spend is still a small piece of total advertising expenditure, at $2.3 B but those surveyed indicate expenditure is likely to top $5.5 B next year. This is hardly surprising since smartphone sales are already beginning to replace older basic cell phones as contracts expire. The consumer sees a value in spending $199 (price point for the best smartphones) today, as opposed to two years ago.

• Mobile websites and apps are expected to become more popular as well, with anticipated adoption rates of 83 percent and 71 percent, respectively. 
• The MMA also anticipates marketers will invest more in location-based features - in fact this is the area of biggest growth. 
• SMS appears to be in for an increase of 141 percent in spending. 
• Spending on mobile video is expected to increase by 137 percent. 

The drivers in the marketplace are the continued release of Android phones and the Apple 'effect' - the iPad and iPhone 4.  The drivers in the retail sector is the desire to capture 'first mover advantage' and increase the engagement with customers, according to a Forbes Insight Study in July 2010.  Even a small business can utilize mobile marketing with a minimal expenditure using Google Mobile AdWords.  

For more on Social Media Marketing for Small Business, check out the iBookstore. 

iPad Becoming Standard Equipment At Med Schools

The Apple iPad, initially perceived as a beautiful consumer gadget must have, has transitioned into a serious business and education tool.  Stanford School of Medicine has just announced that incoming students in the Class of  2014 will get an  iPad as part of their welcome kit.  The School cited that:  “iPad allows students to view and annotate course content electronically, facilitating advance preparation as well as in-class note-taking in a highly portable, sharable and searchable format.”

Even though the school has admitted that they don't really know how the students will be using the iPad, there's no question that the device will offer flexibility in accessing so much information for students, from class to lab to viewing multi-media and evidence based data.  Once students get used to working in a certain way with technology, it's  likely to be a part of their working life in a medical institution or private clinic.  The sheer mobility offered by the iPad allows the physician to be more efficient, offer a personalized service to patients and even, more interactive using the multimedia capabilities of an iPad in a friendlier environment.  

UC Irvine School of Medicine is also following suit with free iPads for students but providing additional content including: course outlines and handouts, slide presentations and first-year textbooks in a digital format that allows highlighting and notation,  access to audio and video libraries as well as podcasts. And technological advances such as digital stethoscopes and handheld ultrasound units are currently being configured.

At last, perhaps the medical industry might be catching up with technology, efficiencies and ultimately, better patient care.  As for Apple, the iPad is a real game changer in so many ways.  And this is only the beginning of a new computing revolution that will see other hardware manufacturers follow rather than lead. 

Business Is Not Using Social Media Wisely

A recent study by Wildfire (a research company) in the UK, looking at the social media activities of the 50 fastest growing tech companies, found that while over 90% of the companies had a presence on two or more social networks, only a small minority were actually using social media to be 'social'.  About 74% of the companies in this survey had an official Twitter account, but less than half actually ever responded to a single tweet.  These companies appear to be using Twitter to distribute press releases, or one-way marketing.  A major opportunity is being missed.  The power of the social media platform enables a company to engage in socializing to build brands, awareness, develop customer relations, conduct valuable research and generally market their products.  

Companies are embarking on acknowledging social media such as Twitter, but essentially they are ill-equipped in the method of socializing or using the media as a conversation tool.  Until they do, the results of their efforts will be minimal.  You can learn  more about how to use this tool by reading: Social Media Marketing For Small Business which is available for iPad or Kindle or,  click here for a consultation.

Smartphone In-Car Usage to Increase Significantly

A recent Survey by Frost and Sullivan predicts that the number of cars connected to the internet via the smartphone will exceed 5 million by 2015, in just North America alone. There is a gradual shift to this hybrid model of connecting a smartphone from inside a car (or hybrid connected telematics).  In fact Ford Synch has played a big part in this consumer shift, especially in the 'Gen Y' demographic who are driving the use of mobile Internet on smartphones.   Downloading apps from sites like Apple is becoming increasingly popular in North America and Europe.

Gen Y will continue to account for at least a quarter of the total population until 2030, but in South Asia, Gen Y will likely represent over 40 per cent of the population by 2030.  This is clearly a huge opportunity for vehicle manufacturers and for Internet radio which is the most popular App in cars at present.  

Should the satellite radio companies be worried?  Yes, if they continue to price monthly subscriptions at $13 a month.  That price level  can no longer be justified by many and in fact Sirius has been declining for about 2 years.  Internet radio is essentially free and customizable.  There are many good services to choose from such as Pandora or Slacker which are essentially free, but offer true customization for a small subscription.  However, you will have to watch the data consumption rates if you are on an AT&T plan.  The sensible option is the subscription service for Slacker Radio which gives you offline listening by caching and storing the music. Slacker Plus is $3.99 a month which is considerably lower than satellite radio subscription.  The App is free and works with iPhone, Android and Palm.  Alternatively, listening to previously downloaded podcasts is truly free and you can connect your iPhone with an accessory, enabling you to listen through a free FM station.  

There's no question that your smartphone is going to be your in-car device for navigation and now for music and podcasts too.

Another Blow For Blackberry

This week we heard about the UAE and then Saudi Arabia banning RIM Blackberry phones based on security issues. Basically these countries have rather specific requirements - servers cannot be based overseas where governments cannot trace the data. So it's really secure for the user but apparently not for certain governments. There are around 500,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE and around 750,000 BlackBerry users in Saudi Arabia.  The ban will also affect visitors to the country and even travelers in transit, which does pose a serious problem for business users. 

Following on from this news, the EU has just announced it will switch its 32,000 workers to HTC and iPhones, citing these are more desirable platforms for voice and mail apps.  Certainly, RIM's past dominance is being challenged with these new generation multimedia smartphones.  Reviews of the new Blackberry Torch don't seem to indicate that this phone will lure Android or iPhones users and is likely only to appeal to diehard Blackberry fans.  

RIM has until October this year to remedy the problem, which means placing servers inside the particular country to enable government to monitor and access, for reasons of national security.  

Google Chases Yelp With Geo-Targeted Ads On Android

Mobile marketers now have a whole new platform to consider for campaigns - Google Places App. Basically, this expands the use of Google Maps by overlaying the maps with the pinpoint location of local businesses, places of interest, hotels, bars etc. Google Places becomes an icon on the Android phone for the consumer.  Last year, Yelp turned down an offer from Google for $550 million.  With Google Maps, Place and tight integration into the Android platform, you have to wonder what was the CEO of Yelp thinking.  

For local businesses, all they have to do is register their business for free in Google Place. A restaurant can even include its menu, enter what types of credit card it accepts, promotional coupons etc. Of great value to the business is the access to web data and the ability to analyze consumer responses, such as where people are coming from, the search terms they used, what was most popular on the menu and if that had an impact on attracting the customer. Indeed, it may even alert the business owner to another opportunity to open up in a different part of town, especially a restaurant. 

Four million businesses have already claimed their Place Page on Google through the Local Business Center, and advertising starts at just $25 a month.  This is a great opportunity for local businesses to enter the location based marketing world.  My advice is to test campaigns and continue to use other social media as part of your campaign strategy.   For a step by step guide click here.