UNTETHER.tv

Welcome to our NEW newest show: “Where’s The Money?”. It is here we try to decipher the way some of the more popular mobile applications and services will generate cold hard cash. The industry is full of promise but only a handful of companies will crack the buck. “Where’s The Money?” is where we put them to the test.

Today’s show is a little different from most “Where’s The Money?” episodes. Instead of looking at one individual app, today we tackle multiple apps trying to capitalize on the current ‘Instagram for video’ goldrush, including viddy and Socialcam.

Relavent questions Rob and I try to answer: do ‘Instagram for video’ apps have a business model, or are they looking to be acquired? If the latter, which app is most likely to get bought and by whom (YouTube, CNN, Twitter, etc.)? Finally, does the viral growth of applications signify anything other than the reality that there are a lot of smartphones in the world?

Rob and I do our best, but we’d like to hear what YOU have to say, so don’t hesitate to post your thoughts in the comments section.

 
Your Wednesday Mobile Pint: the top mobile stories from the past 24 hours, good to the last drop.

It’s Time For A Larger iPhone (via TechCrunch)
A 3.5-inch screen is just too small now. At this point to say anything to the contrary is pure fanboi nonsense. The standard argument that consumers don’t want a large phone is tired and overused. Besides, it’s effectively proven wrong by the 20 million Galaxy S II phones sold by Samsung last year. It’s time for a larger iPhone.

Verizon phasing out unlimited data as customers switch to 4G (via GigaOM)
Verizon Wireless plans to close down the mobile broadband buffet for good, phasing out unlimited plans as customers upgrade from 3G phones to 4G. Verizon CFO Fran Shammo revealed the policy plan change on Wednesday while speaking at a J.P. Morgan conference, saying it must turn off the unlimited spigot as a prerequisite for moving to shared family data plans.

Regular UNTETHER readers were likely not surprised by Facebook’s recent acquisition of Glancee , and not only because seemingly every company interviewed on UNTETHER.tv gets acquired soon after. We have been paying close attention to Facebook’s revamped mobile strategy, which I have dubbed buy all the things: if you can’t beat the potential disruptions to your business, you better buy them. Recently, this has meant Gowalla, Instagram, Glancee, and now Lightbox, which was acquired just yesterday.

But buying a suite of mobile companies is just the first step. What is Facebook going to do with them?

This is an epic episode with Dan Martell, entrepreneur, founder of Flowtown and Clarity, investor in GetAround, Udemy, Foodspotting and others, advisor to HootSuite, LocalMind, Massive Damage and others, proud New Brunswick, Canada native and the definition of hustle.

What does it take to build out a string of successful mobile businesses and what does mobile mean to traditional business – that’s where we start. Dan has some incredible insight into some of the top mobile companies that are challenging existing incumbents – he either invests in them or advises them. He’s also turned his sights to his next startup, Clarity.fm, where he combines his passion for advising startups with mobile in a decidedly old-school, voice-first way.

If you’ve heard of Dan, this episode will highlight the key tenants of being an entrepreneur. If you’ve never heard of Dan (shame on you!), this will be the defining UNTETHER.tv session and will immediately give you better business insight.

Enjoy!

 
Your Monday Mobile Pint: the top mobile stories from the past 24 hours, good to the last drop.

It’s official: LightSquared goes bankrupt. What’s next? (via GigaOM)
Hours away from defaulting on its debt, LightSquared filed for bankruptcy protection Monday afternoon. What’s next? The company has said it would use the shelter of the voluntary Chapter 11 filing to buy time in its fight to build its nationwide LTE network, but given how slim its chances are of winning that fight, this could just be a prelude to a liquidation of assets.

LightSquared’s bankruptcy is Washington’s failure too (via GigaOM)
Maybe it would have failed for economic reasons if it had ever gotten off the ground, but before it got that far it fell victim to D.C. politics, spectrum warfare, and interests that don’t want more competition in the wireless industry.

Welcome to This Week in Location Based Marketing where we rehash the news that matters in the location based marketing world.

Welcome to episode #77 of this week in location based marketing. On today’s episode we take a global tour from RVs to TataDocomo in India and everywhere in between. We ask what is up with Apple’s latest patent – # 20120115512, are we seeing the end of the coupon and what does Converse see as the way to connect with customers? Plus we have our usual plethora of deals, our resource of the week PLUS special guest legendary entrepreneur and Canadian extraordinary, Dan Martell. Enjoy!

There seems to be a shift happening for the first time since the promise of HTML5 landed on the mobile doorstep over 2 years ago. Companies are moving away from native apps and putting their full efforts behind the nascent promise of the latest “build once” language – and you’ll be surprised at the companies that are leading the way.

Fragmentation in mobile is an understatement these days and we are witnessing the effects of that as companies are trying to figure out the answer the the HTML5 vs. native app question. A number of publishers – including the Financial Times of London, Technology Review, NSFW and The Toronto Star – have moved over to HTML5 as their mobile publishing platform of choice instead of the costly alternative of native apps.

Is this HTML5′s debutante ball? Is this leading shift an indication of things to come? Is there a more definitive answer to that age-old question of when to go HTML5 and when to go native yet? That’s why we tracked down Carnet Williams, founder of Sprout (an InMobi company) and HTML5 soothsayer from Bangalore, India to get answers these questions and more.

Carnet’s first episode on UNTETHER, Sprout: Why HTML 5 is the natural choice for in app advertising – with co-founder Carnet Williams, is the 5th most watched episode of all time.

Enjoy!

Earlier today I participated on a panel about the future of mobile beyond the smartphone at the Scotia Capital Apps Conference. It got the blog juices flowing.

Here’s the brutal truth. Talking about mobile beyond the device is something that most humans are not ready for. We think we are, but in reality most of us aren’t able to let go of the past in order to see the possibilities that a pure mobile future truly means.

The closest parallel that I can formulate while sitting in this Starbucks on Front St. in Toronto is the invention of the car. The gas-powered engine that heralded the era of modern transportation was an inspiring invention all by itself, but what happened after – and continues to happen – is a lasting legacy that would not exist without first putting some rubber to the road.

 
Your Wednesday Mobile Coffee: the top mobile stories from the past 24 hours, good to the last drop.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg defends $1bn Instagram purchase (via The Telegraph)
He said that Facebook had decided to buy Instagram when it saw the company’s user data cross a “tipping point”, from which they believed it would grow significantly.

foursquare looks to personalized offers to generate revenue (via GigaOM)
We knew this is where foursquare was going, but will it work?

Not a week goes by without somebody asking me about how to get an idea. It can be a speaking thing with students or a bunch of us hanging out complaining about the state of affairs in Washington, Toronto, Cleveland, or Regina depending where I’m at when the bitch fest starts.

In hanging out with tons of people smarter then me, I’ve come to – I think – some reasonable observations with respect to all the great ideas available to entrepreneurs.

There are some ideas that are truly accidental everybody has heard of. The microwave oven and Post-It-Notes are just two great examples of this phenomenon. It is worth your time to Google the history of both.

Since you and I are not likely to have those ‘accidents’, what do we do?

We’ve come to realize very quickly that mobile can help change behaviour a number of ways. One of the largest behavioural influences mobile has brought forward is the democratization and gamification of learning – two trends that can only be good for both the industry and for education.

One perfect example of this in action is nutrition. At one point a domain for experts, mobile is bringing a broader-than-base-level awareness and understanding of the foods we eat and their impact on our body. Now, with the help of iPad game Smash Your Food, you can help educate children on the perils of junk food.

Smash Your Food was built by the husband and wife team of Marta and Frederic De Wulf and has recently won Michelle Obama’s Apps for Healthy Children award. If you’ve ever wondered what mobile’s true impact can be you will want to watch this episode. How did this idea come to fruition – why they started down this path of nutrition education through mobile, what some of the lessons they learned as they started building, deploying and selling their application, why they put the focused effort they did into the production of the app and what their distribution strategy is.

If you are interested in mobile or interested in understanding how mobile can become a powerful tool for mass education, sit back and watch this episode!

Enjoy!

While our very own Jeff Bacon was in Orlando, Florida, for BlackBerry World to provide his unique brand of analysis, I can’t help but take a crack at something that has been running through my mind since last week’s keynote (the highlights of which can be found here).

The first to be led by new CEO Thorsten Heins, the keynote marked a clear articulation of the BlackBerry brand and RIM’s focus for BlackBerry 10. In an attempt to articulate the aspirations of “BlackBerry People”, Heins claimed that BlackBerry is about success. If BlackBerry smartphones are designed for successful ‘doers of things’, BlackBerry 10 will make it even easier for them to get things done.

While Thorsten’s keynote was perhaps the clearest articulation ever of what BlackBerry as a brand entails (who needs a CMO, right?), it did ring a little familiar. So familiar, in fact, that Jordan Crook of TechCrunch has lamented that RIM is trying to recapture a past glory that is no longer possible.