DeviceAnywhere Blog

Forum Nokia - finally!

You may have already caught this press release we sent out a few ago:

Forum Nokia Teams with Deviceanywhere to Deliver Enchanced Mobile Application Development Testing Services

...well...this has been several years in the making....

We started talking to Forum Nokia, if I remember correctly, in 2004.  Of-course we were a little startup with a grand idea, and not much proof in the market.  We had good traction with the group even then, but it pretty much hit a wall each time we needed to get confirmation from Finland.

...and discussions have gone on back and forth since that time...until...

...at the beginning of 2008, discussions started gathering steam.  Now, 4 years later, with multiple VDL partnerships under our belt, and tens of thousands of testing hours being delivered each month - our efforts have finally come to fruition.

Forum Nokia does indeed have the largest developer community out there, and we are proud to be associated with their plans - which put developers first...they are one of the few companies, who not only say, but (given what I know) truly believe that 'the developer is the killer application for mobile'.

I'm expecting many good things to come out of this relationship, and we have already started seeing the initial effects of this launch...

DeviceAnywhere Consumer for the Apple App Store

I've mentioned this in a previous blog post - DeviceAnywhere Consumer is a new product line we launched last year.  This new product helps mobile companies create product awareness, provide pre-purchase try-before-you-buy, and post-purchase customer support - all by using 'virtual handsets' that allow a user to navigate through phone and applications in an interactive manner to see what is available, how things work, etc.  To see a demo, go to www.TryPhone.com

AT&T recently went live with this technology (one phone only for now).  Check it out HERE.

Now, looking at the Apple App Store, it appears to be ripe to use DeviceAnywhere Consumer.  In fact, they have already attempted to do something like it - when you select an app in the store, they show you a few screenshots of the app, which you can browse one by one by clicking on a right/left arrow located below the screenshot window.

Wouldn't it be much nicer if they provided users with an interactive experience of the apps they are selling in the store - much more effective than screenshots - a true try-before-you-buy experience?  And once you've bought an app and want to learn more about how to use it, where will you go?  DeviceAnywhere Consumer also provides visual step-by-step tutorials to serve as consumer education aids in the post-purcahse phase.

We're trying to work with Apple, it is a bit slow going - as we all know, they have their own ways of doing things (which normally produce perfect or near-perfect results).  I'll hope that sooner or later they'll realize the value DeviceAnywhere Consumer can add to their efforts - and to the results their app providers are trying to achieve.

And - I have to say that the iPhones we have in our DeviceAnywhere handset bank always feature in the top 5 most used handsets - clearly indicating the popularity this platform is enjoying across the global developer community.  It is time, we created a Virtual Developer Lab with Apple.

Is DeviceAnywhere recession proof?

I get this question a lot, given the current economic environment - sometimes from prospective employees, and sometimes from investors/customers/partners. The truth is that no business is totally recession proof, because we all rely on other entities to make our money - and if those other entities suffer and start contracting, so will their expenditures with us.

Now, I'm no economics guru, but common sense dictates that when you see a recession looming, start preparing - and figure out a strategy, which - while it may not make you 'recession proof' - increases your chances of surviving it gracefully at least.

When it comes to DeviceAnywhere, we have really seen no signs of the the anemic economy impacting us.  Our revenues and customer counts are growing nicely on a month-to-month basis.

And, of-course, I mentioned creating a strategy to see us through - well we started working on that strategy heavily last year (2007) and we are seeing fruits of that labor.  We launched DeviceAnywhere in Europe (UK, France, Germany) - and now we are seeing European customers sign-on in big numbers.  Europe continues to be a big area of focus for us through the rest of this year, both on the DeviceAnywhere side of our business as well as on the Enterprise side of our business - and while the US economy is weakening, we are seeing rapid growth in other geos...

We might actually be recession proof - although I'll never admit it!