Mobile Roadie

TechZulu Interview With Mobile Roadie’s Michael Schneider

If you’ve been keeping tabs on our CEO, Michael Schneider, then you probably know he was at SXSW last week.  What you may not know, however, is that Mobile Roadie won the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator award in the Business Social Media category.  After winning the award, Michael made a special appearance on TechZulu with Amanda Coolong, the COO, Executive Producer and Chief Correspondent from TechZulu.  Michael pops into the video at about the three-minute mark, and Amanda begins to grill him about Mobile Roadie’s success (okay, so she wasn’t really that hard on him).  Check out the video to see where Michael sees the mobile market going and why Mobile Roadie is positioned in the right place at the right time.

TechZulu is also a Mobile Roadie customer, producing their official app on our platform.  Founded in 2007, TechZulu’s goal is to bring both emerging and established technology companies to the forefront by presenting news, exclusive interviews like the one above, and covering tech events like SXSW.  They are a community platform where people within the industry can discover and connect, just as their tagline says.  From what we’ve seen, we would have to agree.

• posted under: news

What Makes A Great App?

What makes a great app?

I don’t believe that people should make an app just to have an app. Here are a few things I believe make a great app.

1. Quality design. The user experience is important. Everyone has “ADD.” The way things animate, slide in and out, are readable (or not), and function in a “natural” way has a direct correlation to your user’s enjoyment of the app. Attention to design detail matters.

2. Great content. This may be a given but it’s vital and worth repeating. Don’t put last year’s videos, or audio, or photos, or events in the app. Upload your best stuff. Add exclusive app-only content. Engage your users inside your app on a regular basis and they’ll come back often.

3. Use location. Knowing where your users are is a huge advantage over the web. Use this to your user’s benefit. Send them relevant geo targeted push notifications. Offer them location-specific content. The future is all about personalization and location is a huge part of it.

4. Add some personal flair. This could be a custom design theme. Or your own personal top 10 video list (Ashton Kutcher’s doing a great job of this with his A+ list of top videos updated weekly). Or a weekly show (Taryn Southern’s weekly show on Ustream is streamed into her App). Whatever your personal flair is, Mobile Roadie gives you the tools to express it.

Mobile Roadie is the most powerful, viral, and customizable app platform out there. Take advantage of our tools. Be beautiful, interesting, location-specific, and express your personality in your app. That will keep your users coming back.

• posted under: op-ed
• 1 comment

Mobile Roadie App Directory Brings More Visibility to Our Clients

Here at Mobile Roadie we are constantly looking for ways to improve our service and help our customers in as many ways as possible.  This week we finalized a project that we’ve been tossing around in our heads and we’re happy to be able to present to you the Mobile Roadie App Directory.

While the directory helps us present an organized portfolio of our work to prospective clients, it does more than that for our current clients.  Because we’ve optimized this page for search engines like Google, we’ve created a page that not only attracts visitors to our site, but also to our client’s apps, with both iPhone and Android apps being listed.  The listing can be sorted based on popularity (the default setting), release date or alphabetically.  This can help consumers find the app they are looking for.  In addition, the page has it’s own search bar, allowing visitors to search for a specific app instead of wading through our entire portfolio.

It’s all about discovery – consumers discovering our clients and their apps and our clients discovering each other.  As our service has grown over the past year, you just might be surprised to see who has an app powered by Mobile Roadie! Whether you are a current client or potential client, you’re in good company when you decide to go with Mobile Roadie for your iPhone and Android apps.

• posted under: MoRo v2.0, news

Mobile Roadie Invades SXSW

Before we get to all our SXSW activities there’s a few things you might not know about Mobile Roadie.

One short year ago we officially launched our company and initial product (“iPhone Apps for Bands”) at SXSW Music with the support of our launch partner, The Orchard.

We immediately gained traction within music and entertainment to support their expanding needs to promote and build brands, engage direct-to-fan, and make use of existing promotional content (Facebook, Twitter, video, ticket sales/tour info, news, merchandise, etc.)

Then a church called. And then an author. And soon restaurants, politicians, venues, athletes, magazines, conferences, bloggers, and more.

Some of the customers in the Mobile Roadie family now include:

Not too shabby for the one year, right? And we haven’t even mentioned our partners yet.

To help make our CMS even more robust we integrated with leading providers in their respective industries:

• -Brightcove
• -Topspin Media
• -Artistdata
• -Ustream
• -Flurry

Mobile Roadie has also become a global brand with customers all over the world, which is why we offer support for 10 languages.  We’re also the only  company on the market to be able to serve both iPhone and Android needs, simultaneously, with no extra work or investment.

Michael attributes part of the rapid adoption to bringing democratization to the entire mobile space and giving control back to the brands. “Apps that were easy, affordable and quality we’re out of reach to those who wanted it. Now everyone can have high quality at low cost and you don’t have to choose between iPhone and Android.”

We’ve collected a lot of stories the past year through our stellar customers and can’t wait to share them at SXSW. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to hear them through the myriad of events we’re involved with.

How’s this for a SXSW SCHEDULE:

I’ll be getting in on Friday (@nicolejordan) so give me a shot (I’d meant to type “shout” but that works too) if you want to connect.  Brock (@brocksteady) and Michael (@msfd) get in Sunday the 14th for the first of our official events, TECH Cocktail where we’ll be demo’ing the Mobile Roadie platform and apps as one of the Microsoft Bizspark Accelerator finalists. Come on by and pick up a custom designed, vinyl-inspired shirts.

Monday the 15th you can catch us at Microsoft Bizspark Accelerator stage, where Michael will be presenting at 5:00pm in the social-business category. Later that evening we’re co-sponsoring events with TechKaraoke and Katalyst/Foursquare.

On Tuesday the 16th, to close out interactive and ease into music we’ve partnered up with two epic events: theMIX agency’s #theparty and (mt) official SXSW closing party.

If you’re hitting up music, join our team along with Topspin Media, All Access Today and PIAS on Thursday, March 18th at The Belmont from 7:00-10:00pm.

We’re also proud to announce that we’re the official app and co-sponsors for two must-attend showcases at SXSW Music: Levi’s Fader Fort and Ninjatune.

It’s going to be a packed schedule between the sessions, meetings, our events, and all the others we attend along the way. But we’ve got a lot to say and can’t wait to get started.  See you soon!

Doh! How could I forget this extremely important detail about our involvement at SXSW?  We are very proud sponsors of fellow Angelenos, and kindred start-up spirits, TechZulu.  They’ll be camped out at the Social Media Clubhouse most the time but if you’re lucky you might catch ‘em around the show or at any of our events!

• posted under: Events, news
• 1 comment

APPetite for Construction: MoRo SXSW grafx preview

Here’s a little preview of the promo campaign we’re hitting Austin with next week at SXSW.

The theme: “APPetite for Construction” is without a doubt a reference to your favorite band — but we felt like going a little more retro/funk with our graphics by playing off old 45rpm record labels.

The design was created in collaboration with Dan Funderburgh, who’s one of the hottest wallpaper/pattern designers in NYC (not to mention a fellow Jayhawk). And since there seems to be a huge talent pool coming out of Lawrence, KS, we printed our shirts at the spectacular Blue Collar Distro, where they used a discharge printing process to lock in the vintage feel. In the end, I hope we accomplished our goal of trying to be as “un-nerdy” as possible! #yeahright

We’ll be giving away shirts and stickers to people that give us love, so look for us in Austin next week! (Our full schedule will be posted soon so you can see all the events we’re attending.)

• posted under: Events, Graphics
• 1 comment

Taylor Swift App Goes to the Top of The Charts!

In just 72 hours (at the time of this writing) the newly released Taylor Swift iPhone App has shot to the top of the charts in Apple’s App Store.  Right now the app sits at position number six, just one slot away from being in the top five iPhone free apps!  There are already over 1,000 total ratings with an average of three-and-a-half stars, with a total of 109 reviews written.  While we’ve had some serious gains in the app store before for Mobile Roadie apps, this one takes the cake, rising to the highest ranking of any of our apps to date.  And this isn’t even counting Swift’s app on the Android platform, which has gone live as well.

Playing around with the app today myself, I have to say that the interactive features are sweet. Not only can you read Swift’s tweets directly on the app, you can comment and read other’s comments as well. But that’s not the half of it! Let’s say you’re going to the concert in Dallas, Texas, on March 11th … you can connect with other fans going to the concert, post comments and discuss the event and even share photos from the concert, all directly from the app.  There are also 30 tunes you can sample (some are ringtones), share comments with other users about, and decide if you want to purchase them (also directly from the app, of course!).

Of course, congratulations go out to Big Machine Records and Taylor Swift, the real reasons behind the success of this app launch!  Their promotional efforts have paid off, and in a big way. We’re happy to be the platform for the official Taylor Swift app, and we wish her and Big Machine continued success as she continues to engage her fans through the medium of mobile technology. After all, we told you it’s the wave of the future!

Update:

Well, we knew Taylor’s app was going to be a big hit when we originally wrote this blog post three days after the release. However, just two weeks after the app launched, Taylor Swift’s iPhone and Android apps were downloaded a combined total of over 350,000 times with 10% of all users purchasing music during that time frame as well.  One thing is clear: her fans can’t get enough of her music in-app, as over 7.5 million songs and ringtones have been listened to and almost 650,000 videos have been watched.

• posted under: news

“Cookie Cutter” apps and Mobile Roadie

There’s been a lot of chatter lately on Apple changing guidelines for so called “cookie cutter” apps. TechCrunch, PC Magazine, Wired and MacRumors all have reported in the last week on this so called “purge” of the app store.

First, let’s define “cookie cutter.” This refers to apps that follow the same template over and over. It also applies to apps that just pull in feeds that have no business being apps in the first place.

I’m not going to comment on specific competitors, but I believe as a result of the recent changes at Apple many of them will be out of business. The ones that are left are going to have to step it up, which is a good thing for the app store, for our business, and for consumers.

Mobile Roadie is not cookie cutter in any way. While we may provide a template, it’s a highly customizable template. Our customers can rename and reorder tabs any way they’d like. They can upload custom graphics and media, and of course content, to further differentiate their app. And they have the option of baking in custom features if they’d like from any outside developer they want.

I want to reassure our customers and partners that everything going on right now is a good thing for consumers and for Mobile Roadie. We are well positioned to adapt to ever changing standards, and this doesn’t hurt our business long term – it enhances it.

• posted under: Apple, news
• 5 comments

Taylor Swift Joins the Mobile Roadie App Family

She took the Grammys by storm and now it’s time for Taylor Swift to take over the iTunes store (again) and make her mark in Android.  Starting today the much anticipated Taylor Swift app is now live and available for both iPhone and Android users.

The Taylor Swift app takes advantage of the versatility of the Mobile Roadie platform, creating an interactive experience for her fans.  The application is enabled with push notification so that any time Taylor releases new music (both to sample and to purchase directly from within the app), videos or photos (and more), fans will be instantly updated directly on their iPhones.  Fans can also see all of Taylor’s most up-to-date tour information, find and connect with other Taylor fans in their area as well as share their personal photos from Taylor shows with other fans in the application’s network.

Many of these features are easily configured by Taylor Swift and her team because they are using the Mobile Roadie content management system.  Instead of requiring each and every change to go through a series of requests, designs, re-designs, etc., we provide a simple way for our customers to modify and organize their application’s functions and menus to their specifications.  And with the Android platform now on board as well, it’s literally as easy as pie to keep your mobile app up-to-date with fresh material and to notify your fans or customers using push notifications.

Want it?  Get it here.

• posted under: App Review, Customers, MoRo v2.0, news
• 1 comment

Why Mobile Roadie? Ask Drew McLellan

We like to hear good news, especially when it comes from our customers. We recently worked on an application for Drew McLellan, a 20 year marketing veteran who founded his own company, McLellan Marketing Group, in 1995.  His list of achievements is long and his list of clients he’s worked with is almost like a listing of the Fortune 500, with names like Nabisco, IAMS, Kraft and John Deere.  So when Drew got ready to launch out into the arena of smartphone apps, he decided to do his homework.

McLellan called up his mentor and coach to help him in the process, and together they evaluated four different application vendors that could provide an off the shelf system to meet Drew’s needs.  His list of things he wanted was demanding: customization, easy to use content management system, multi-platform support (for Android), push functionality, customizable navigation folders, sharing with Facebook and Twitter; and the list goes on! It was a pretty tough list of requirements, but out of the four vendors he considered, Mobile Roadie was the only one to meet all of these requirements.  When it came right down to it, his only sticking point was the price.

If you’ve done some shopping around, then let’s face it – Mobile Roadie isn’t the cheapest player in the ballpark.  And there’s a reason for that.  We believe in delivering a quality product with excellent support and enabling our users to take charge of their applications. In short, we believe you really do get what you pay for.

So what was the deciding factor for Drew? Here’s what he had to say on his blog regarding his decision to go with Mobile Roadie:

In the end, despite the higher cost — I decided on Mobile Roadie.  They offered more customization and the ability for me to really include a wider variety of content in my app.  But it was their content management system that really won me over.

So if you’re getting ready to partner up with a vendor to produce an application for your customer’s mobile experience, be sure you weigh all your options before you go with the cheapest name in the book.

• posted under: Customers, news

It’s time to take mobile seriously

I meet a lot of people every day in a wide variety of positions in companies. Some people get it, and some people don’t.

Morgan Stanley predicts that within five years, more people will connect to the internet via a mobile device than via desktop PCs. This is game changing for everyone.

Lack of mobile friendly shopping experiences
It’s unbelievable that big companies still don’t prioritize making a mobile version of their ecommerce site. Just do it, stop wondering if it’s worth it. I know several Fortune 500 companies that do tens of millions of dollars a year in ecommerce business that don’t even have it in their long term plan.

Carrier billing is a con
Carriers need to get over themselves. No one is going to give them 50% just to have the privilege of having the charge billed to the consumer’s cell phone bill. Apple and Google take 30% for purchases through their store. That’s a lot, but they’re also providing a lot of value. Carriers are providing less value and charging nearly double. If carriers got smart, they would reduce carrier billing to 5% and start taking business from credit card companies.

Your mobile strategy needs resources
Don’t get an app to just have an app. You’d never get a website and then not maintain it, right? Mobile is just as important if not more. Give your mobile customers exclusive content. Update the app and your mobile website often. Engage with customers where they are (huge advantage of mobile vs. desktop).

Flattening world
In many countries around the world, there are more people connecting to the web through mobile devices than desktops. This is mostly due to economic reasons – but is extremely powerful in reaching demographics you might never be able to reach if you just have a website.

Bottom line
Apps and mobile are here to stay, and the opportunity is real. Don’t slack. Grab the bull by its horns and go for it. You won’t regret it and frankly don’t have a choice (your competitors are making a move). It’s time to take mobile seriously.

• posted under: Mobile, op-ed
• 1 comment