Database Users

The real purpose of the Nexus One..

This was posted recently in a norwegian financial paper. It is Norwegian.. dont worry, translation by Google..
If someone bother to find other sources.. post it.
http://www.dagensit.no/article1929919.ece
THIS PHONE WAS REALLY JUST A FEINT"
"Okay, it worked. Congratulations - we stop. " Google chief reveals the real purpose of Google phone.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt surprised when the company a year and a half ago, said it would create a mobile phone with Google's own operating system. Now he says that it was with the Nexus One, and it was a success so it will be with this phone only.
Several mobile operators announced that they would sell it, but ldidn't. But the sales figure for the actual phone was not the point.
It was made to speed up the mobile manufacturers so that they will make phones that could use multiple operating systems.
- And it did. It was a success, so we do not need to create another. We will look at it as positive, but people criticized us heavily for it. I called the board and said 'ok, it worked. Congratulations - we stop, "says Schmidt of the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph.
Eric Schmidt
Same with Chrome
The newspaper says Schmidt, Google is considering creating its own small, portable computers to speed the spread of the online operating system's, Chrome OS. Well checking if others succeed first.
- We have talked about it. We have a reference for specifications of Chrome's OS and hardware partners, we have in place. It is on schedule and will take place later this year. But we'll see how the partners do it first. I'm guessing that we do not have to do it. Computer software industry is different from the mobile industry. PC industry is accustomed to working with Microsoft, while the mobile industry was not accustomed to jobbbe with software.
The customer decides
Schmidt also respond to criticism about privacy. Google collects unimaginable amount of data around the world, and has also been criticized for gathering personal data from open wireless networks as they have traveled around the streets to take photos to map their services.
- I think criticism is fine. I think the criticism informs us, it makes us better. It bothers me not at all.
Schmidt says he understands the concern for privacy, because so many people are so much online and leave information at all times. Google uses this to direct ads to web surf visitor places and preferences, and ads is the Google main income source.
But Schmidt said the public will tell if they do not like it.
- All our surveys show that most are satisfied with our policy.
And the message is the message no one wants to hear: the reality is that we make decisions based on what the average user to tell us, and we notice us. And why you should trust us that if we break that trust, people will immediately make use of other services, "said Schmidt, and believes the public is not very loyal when they do not like something.
- So we are very keen to continue to have confidence in users, "he said

Ahh.. allready posted..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=715623
Close this..

if this were a real printed publication i wouldn't pick up dog crap with it.
i struggle to understand why you are taking this danish news source so literally.
google has a real road map for chromium and android. why would they pump and dump two major long-term initiatives that have been and will be wildly successful and above all financially rewarding?

sprinkles said:
if this were a real printed publication i wouldn't pick up dog crap with it.
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Click to collapse
I agree

Web 2.0 summit

Is anyone else watching the web 2.0 summit ? gingerbread is being discussed!
Sent from my Google Phone

Just tuned in. Link if anyone else is interested:
http://www.web2summit.com/web2010

Thanks paul
Sent from my Google Phone

OMG Gingerbread next few weeks.

Chrome os next few months... gingie next few weeks!
Sent from my Google Phone

Liveblog in case anyone missed it:
(Added bold / fixed spelling errors)
Live Blogging Google CEO Eric Schmidt At Web 2.0 Summit
http://searchengineland.com/live-blogging-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-at-web-2-0-summit-56025
Nov 15, 2010 at 5:31pm ET by Danny Sullivan
Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be speaking today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. I’m here and will be live blogging his remarks, when the session begins.
Schmidt is set to speak at 2:35pm Pacific, and he’ll be interviewed on stage by John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly. Live blogging to start shortly. There’s also a live stream here.
John asks about news from a new device from Google…
Eric: we don’t make devices
John: A new device powered by software.
Eric: I have an unannounced device here. Showing an Android phone, looks like the Nexus 2 / Nexus S that’s been rumored. Showing how you tap the phone on a Google Place icon, a picture of one in real life, one that has I guess MSE? encoding, and he taps and it finds where he’s out.
This will be in the new Gingerbread operating system that will come out in the next few weeks. Secure element in it.
John: you could do payment?
Eric: Yes, industry term is tap-and-pay.
====
Idea you could take these into stores and replace credit cards.
John: There are tons and tons of credit card numbers, say Amazon has, does this change the game.
Eric: we see ourselves as a technology provider, not trying to compete with those others.
Tim: But still if you’re doing payment, someone’s doing the processing. You expect to partner in that.
Eric: Yes.
Tim: But you have Google Checkout
Eric: That’s a piece of this. Might be an NFE chip, by the way, he mentioned it again. Oh, and all your hot Android phones out there now won’t likely have this chip already so….
====
Tim asks about search, Eric says “forget search” then jokes in the new regime you have to label jokes — IE he’s joking about forgetting search but goes on to say this is beyond search in that if you’re walking down down the street, offers and other info can just be presented to you without having to search.
John: What are you dissatisfied about with Android?
Eric: Like to have more emphasis on application side, but it’s tough, because you have to get volume of handsets and the platform first, then the apps follow.
====
Tim: how about search as a competitive advantage in trying to find apps.
Eric: We don’t think of it that way. People are obsessed on the competitive landscape rather than the focus on the market overall.
John: What about the divorce from the carriers, something he feels Jobs did right with iPhone, I don’t want your stuff on our phone.
Eric: Agrees with some. Talks there are open and closed system. We’re willing to let vendors do things, we think that’s the right model. So he kind of dodges it.
John: When you closed the store, you said there would never be a new model.
Eric: I said Nexus 2 (IE, if a Nexus S comes out, don’t say he said it wouldn’t).
John: What about environment now with talent, the pay raises given out recently.
===
Eric: The origins of the raise were in the spring. Still coming off the recession, made some core investments, looking at acquisitions, then looking also at sharing of success with others in the company.
Found there are people at Google even if well paid still struggling with sky-high property prices, so this is component about that. But more than that, “we just thought it was good for the whole company.”
====
John: What about trying to maintain the start-up culture.
Eric: we hire a couple hundred of people a week. reports Google is losing talent is “poor writing” by journalists, in his opinion. Oh, and he wasn’t joking when he said that.
===
John: Google’s been in hot water with some agencies around the world, in some responses to then, you said it’s our job to push up to the “creepy” line.
Eric: again, this is an example of quotes being taken … i wish I could push everything up to YouTube so people can see it. The point I was saying is that there is clearly a line that we should not cross it.
====
We’ve gotten onto the auto-driving cars that Google has. Sorry, had to copy stuff over and swear didn’t miss that much. Anyway, Eric says that they think driving cars in this way are legal by various reads.
John’s getting back to the line, leading Eric to say the main issue is that society is going to have to confront all types of uncomfortable questions about privacy, need for policing and all types of issues because so much is coming online or being monitored, such as street camera (run by the government) in Britain.
John: But you have to (Google) make some decisions about products yourself, as with Street View
Eric: We learned that you can’t just rush a product out. The engineers’ political views, for example, might not match government views. Started with face blurring and license blurring (actually, I didn’t think that was part of the initial launch). Most countries was OK. But some wanted houses deleted, and that was added. Still in Germany, not enough, a permanent opt-out of your house. It was a reasonable accomodation to the local sensitivities. People there now love Street View. Things this is how things will go forward.
===
John: are you planning a set of products around social that may be seen as competitive to Facebook.
Eric: because of this obsession with competition, everything we do seems competitive. I’d rather answer the question by saying we agree that social information is important, in particular the name value graphs. That link structure has great value. The classic example is in search, where with your permission, if information you provide is being used. And by the way, that’s a deal Facebook and Microsoft announced.
Tim: Didn’t Mark say they didn’t use you because they saw you as competitive in your space.
Eric: I can’t speak for Mark.
John: Why not use Facebook Connect. There are clearly business reason you aren’t doing that. You don’t want to strengthen Facebook.
Eric: That’s not literally how we think. One of the fundamental principles on the internet is that this kind of information is open. So I worry, as a general response, not just about Facebook, that things are developing to keep too much information private.
====
John: Can you take a minute to educate on how came to joint statement with Verizon on net neutrality and different views on wired and wireless web.
Eric: Which is not what we said. Let’s define the terms. Net neutrality has meant if you have one video type like video, vendors won’t discriminate one video provider over others. But it has always allowed data in general to be discriminated against.
So the problem with the telcos is that they don’t want to be regulated. they say they’re OK with this, but they don’t want the govt writing regulations when they’ve just left being regulated.
So our response was lets look at wired, where you often have less choice if only one choice, so less competitive. We did that to encourage more conversation in the industry.
====
Tim: Location is a key part of mobile. You recently moved Marissa Mayer to a new position….
Eric: She was promoted…
Tim: We see more and more focus there?
Eric: Absolutely. Google Maps is phenomenal. It’s changed his own view of the world.
Tim: No question, just walking with Google Maps on the phone, you’re never lost.
John: Google TV just recently in market, how’s it going, what’s the beef with the networks hating on it?
Eric: Finally at a point where you can have computer-powered TVs that work, with browser, etc. As I understand the industry’s concerned, do you realize you taking a dumb TV and making it smart, one said. Yes, and the idea is that the TV will be harmed by all this access too to internet content. I disagree. I think people will watch more TV.
Tim: But they’ll also watch through other venues, like Netflix.
Eric: But Netflix pays a pretty penny for that content to the owners. But what do you think will fundamentally happen with TV, they’ll go to the web and watch stolen content or go to watch more TV. I think more TV. Stresses also that the TV now becomes a major new platform.
====
Q&A: What’s the next billion dollar rev opp for Google?
Eric: The next large one is clearly in the display business.
Question: You probably talked with networks before you launched Google TV and they were on-board [actually, they weren't].
Eric: Says reading more drama than there is. A whole bunch of people are happy. There are some concerned, and you’d expect that. But, “we want to make the revenue larger” for everyone and is “quite confident” that “we’ll get through this one.”
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Click to collapse

Thanks Paul.

Does anyone have a video of the interview? The blog post seems mixed opinion with quotes.

avio07 said:
Does anyone have a video of the interview? The blog post seems mixed opinion with quotes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The full 45 minute interview is now on YouTube:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/16/nexus-s-teaser-by-eric-schmidt-now-available-on-video/

[APP][TOOL] Bing Rewards Automator

I have this posted in the Apps & Games forum, but I'm looking more for constructive criticism from a coding standpoint here in the Software Development forum..
I'm sure some of you are familiar with the Bing Rewards system; it's simple, search with Bing, earn rewards points, redeem rewards points for gift cards, Xbox Live Microsoft Points, among many other things. Most commonly you are able to accumulate 15 points per day (in some cases 30), with 1 point being equivalent to 2 searches. This means you must do 30 Bing searches per day to get the maximum amount of points. But who has time to sit there and tediously search for 30 different things? That's where my app comes in.
I haven't found anything similar on a mobile phone. I know there are websites that do this for you, but if you aren't near a computer and want to bang out your 30 or so searches quickly, this is the app for you.
Be gentle, this is my first crack at an app! Although it is extremely simple I believe there is much to be done and updates will continue to roll out over the coming weeks.
Thanks guys! Any constructive criticism is appreciated
You can find the link to the Play Store here.

Bing Bot
I also made a Bing bot. This was also my first app.. Take a look and tell me what you think

Sammi's Marketing Guide

Hello folks!
I wrote this guide to help the many app developers out there who are looking for help with how to 'properly' market their apps to achieve their individual goals, be it maximising profits, awareness, market share and so on.
What's extremely important that needs to be realised is that marketing isn't only about advertising or promoting an app, but rather covers a whole range of aspects that may not seem very obvious at first. A brief description of these are listed below:
Product - The actual product that the consumer will have, in this case, your app
Pricing - The appropriate pricing strategy for your app
Promotion - How you will inform and persuade the consumer to download your app, either for free or for a price
Place - Also known as Distribution, this deals with how you get your app to your customer
What will be covered?
We will be covering both the pricing and promotion strategies of marketing your app. The reason we won't be talking about the product and place is because you've probably already got your app that you want to be marketed already developed and at hand, and the distribution channel will more likely than not be the Play store. The other reasons is that the success of your goals through marketing is largely dependent on the pricing and promotion of the app, especially in the mobile app market. I've seen plenty of apps that have so much potential, but are hindered and held back by the lack of appropriate pricing strategies or exposure to the consumer, thus hopefully I'll be able to help out a little in those two departments
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"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
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"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
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Pricing
Pricing largely consists of a base pricing method, and then fine turned with a pricing strategy.
Pricing Methods
Generally, there are 3 main pricing methods
Cost-based (mark-up) pricing - Simply putting a price that will cover the costs/effort of the development of the app and an additional amount that will provide a satisfactory profit margin. In our case, depending on how much time/effort/money you've spent on your app, you solely base the pricing on how much you think you deserve for your app. In all honesty, this wouldn't be the most smartest choice, especially for apps that have alternatives that are superior or free, or both. Even for apps that may one-of-a-kind or has a major differentiating factor that makes it stand out, a price tag alone may be enough to stop potential customers from downloading the app.
Market-based pricing - Putting a price on your app determined by the interaction between levels of supply and demand - whatever the market is prepared to pay. This may be quite hard to implement without proper market research, which will be expensive or time-consuming, so unless you are a big company, or are willing to fork out a bit of cash to conduct market research, this may not be a good starting point.
Competition-based pricing - This is probably the most common method of determining a price of an app. It's setting a price according to the prices of your competitors. However more likely than not, the most common price of your competitors is $0, and this is most likely the case for apps that have many similar alternatives on the market. However, this doesn't mean that you have to make your app free. Do a Play store search for 3rd party launchers, and you'll see lists of successful apps that are priced similarly and despite the price tag, still garner tens of thousands of downloads and purchases.
Pricing Strategies
Depending on your source, there will be a varying number of pricing strategies, but the main ones are:
Price skimming - This occurs when you charge a very high price for your app. Generally, this is used as a way of conveying a 'prestigious' and 'high class' image of a product, and in the case of apps, truly does not work. In fact, such a strategy for an app may even result in an unfavourable image of the developer. As 'The Most Expensive Journal' puts it, "the practice should be considered digital begging.".
Price penetration - Introducing an app for a low price (including free), building up market share and/or a customer base, and then hopefully introducing a paid/donate version. In all probability a more realistic approach that many developers take, it is probably the smartest and most appropriate pricing strategy that will not only get you that all-important customer base, but also a profit. Be extremely aware though, of having the appropriate balance of free/paid features - no one will buy an app if the free version is lacks the necessary room for testing and trialing, and having a trial app that basically does everything a paid version means that any profit will entirely be based on the goodwill of your customers.
Loss leader - Unlike for businesses, there isn't really much difference between this and price penetration for apps, because they both essentially do the same thing in actuality, that is, introducing an app at a low price (including free), and then garnering as much market share and customer awareness as possible. The only theoretical difference between price penetration and being a loss leader is that the latter approach is taken in hopes that the customer will download or purchase your other apps. However as already mentioned, in reality these theoretical terms won't actually matter because they both do the same thing.
Price points - This applies to in-app purchaes, such as upgrades in games. It basically means setting key prices or price points for the 'upgrades' or purchases in your app/game, an example being having certain 'upgrades' costing $0.50, a higher tier for $1.00, an even higher tier for $1.50 and so on. This is good at 'luring' your customers to purchase more and more 'upgrades' in your game because you start off with a really low price point, and then consistently increase the subsequent price points. Be mindful however to not go overboard with it, such as $1, $150, $300 etc. but common sense would have probably ruled that out already.
Promotion
There's a quite common misconception among many people - a misconception that promotion is the same thing as advertising. However in theory, promotion encompasses advertising to also include relationship marketing, sales promotion, and publicity and public relations.
Advertising
This is probably the aspect that many developers focus on nowadays - having as much flashy images as possible in order to raise awareness and achieve downloads.
Youtube - Youtube is a great way of advertising your app, its features, as well as creating a connection between you and the customer through dialogue. As DoubleP90 says, "watching a short video is way better than reading something, and as always if it's enjoyable it will be shared by people.". People are also more inclined to watching a short video that conveys information visually and aurally rather than reading paragraphs. Advertising in video form will also, more likely than not, provide more information about your app in the same time as a person reading your preamble and going through the help section and all that.
Ads in online magazines and subscriptions - Try to find online magazines and subscriptions that have an audience you think will be interested in your app. The great thing about this method is that your app will be given access and exposureto an already established target audience. Contact online magazines and subscriptions to see if they're willing to put have a banner of your app somewhere in their medium, either for free or a price. For example, if you have a children tracking app, find an online magazine/subscription geared towards parents.
Web ads on sites - Another way of providing exposure to your app, it'll be a good idea to find a website that has the same target audience as your app, just like the online magazines and subscriptions covered previously. There is not point in advertising your elementary spelling game on a website for the aurally impaired.
Direct marketing - This is an approach where you directly approach potential customers offering information about your app. Again, be smart with your time and efforts when choosing potential customers of your target audience. Forums are a good place to start, but be aware that this may create an unfavourable image of you and your app for many people
Relationship Marketing
This is more important than many perceive it to be. In our case, this involves keeping your app users up to date with the latest happenings regarding your app such as future updates, invitations for testing and suggestions, and so forth. It's main focus is to develop a long term relationship with your users through customer satisfaction. It provides a win-win situation where your customers are happy with your app and are more inclined to purchase more of your apps, and you get those all important ratings and profits from the additional sales as a result of customer loyalty. I've known and come across apps that excel in this area, as well as those who leave their users in the ditch and run with the money. How would I know? By simply glancing at the app comments on the Play store. This is probably the most important medium of feedback for you developers, so make sure to regularly check up on it and respond to user concerns.
Sales Promotion
Sales promotion is the use of activities or materials as direct inducements to customers, and aims to:
Entice new customers
Encourage trial download/purchase of your app
Increase sales to existing customers and repeat purchases
Sales promotion is primarily used in a complimentary way to increase the effectiveness of other marketing activities such as advertising. Examples include:
Discounts - Pretty obvious what this one is all about. If you have a paid app, you may want to consider having a promotional discount for a limited time to draw in customers to your app. Big companies do it all time with those $0.99 app sales in the Play store, and they do quite a good job at enticing customers to purchase your app, especially if they're going for pennies.
Premiums - Basically giving customers something extra for their purchase. Usually running for a limited time, you may want to reward all your first-week sales customers with a free download of another paid app, or an extended subscription period for apps like Evernote.
Refunds - Part of the purchase price is refunded back to the customer for a limited time. It's basically another method of discounting apps. Can be used in conjunction with coupons or vouchers.
Free download or trial - This is the most common way of promoting an app, and is used by small time developers and big corporate companies. It may be the best way of promoting an app, as potential users are more inclined to download an app that's free than purchasing a trial version, although this may not necessarily be the case for every app.
Publicity and Public Relations
Theoretically, publicity is any free news story about your app and:
Enhances the image of your app
Raise awareness of your app
Highlight the app's favourable features
Thus from the list, it's quite an important aspect of marketing to gain as much publicity as possible. Usually bigger companies have more ease in this department than small-time developers as they already have a substantial exposure and market share (Eg. Do a youtube or google search on Google Keep and see for yourself). So what does this mean for you guys? Try to contact possible outlets that have the same target audience as your app. tlovidiu has a list of sites that review apps for free.
Public Relations are the activities aimed at creating and maintaining good relations between you the developer and your customers. This can be done by donating part of your proceeds to charity, such as what Swype is doing, or not having any ads in your app, or at least, not having air-push ads (trust me, they get on everyone's nerves). Regarding ads, make sure you don't cross the line separating reasonable ads in your app and ads that literally pop up every 10 seconds, because the latter will most likely result in an uninstall, a bad Play store rating, and a 1 kilometer virtual radius from all your apps.
...aaaannd Bob's your uncle
Hopefully I helped out a bit. Any suggestions or fixes are welcome. If you would like to know a bit more, make sure to check out DoubleP90's "little guide to promoting your app"
Ciao!

Very well written article that covers pretty much everything. Thanks for sharing.
one question
Direct marketing - This is an approach where you directly approach potential customers offering information about your app. Again, be smart with your time and efforts when choosing potential customers of your target audience. Forums are a good place to start, but be aware that this may create an unfavourable image of you and your app for many people
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what makes you say that?

out of ideas said:
Very well written article that covers pretty much everything. Thanks for sharing.
one question
what makes you say that?
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People may find direct private messages advertising apps to be somewhat similar to junk mail in your mail box
Sent from my LT29i using xda premium

SammiSaysHello said:
People may find direct private messages advertising apps to be somewhat similar to junk mail in your mail box
Sent from my LT29i using xda premium
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oh yeah i would if my mailbox starting filling up with junk. lol.
i was thinking you just meant having a thread in general. not so in your face direct.

Well done, mate!
Great reading.:good:

Great article
Great job :good:

Best Type Of Ad To Promote Mobile Apps

Best type of ad to promote mobile apps
When advertising your app to other countries start from the grass roots level which is pinpointing the countries which you will advertise first. This is important so will have a much clearer picture on who you would will to sell you app to.
Once you establish the list of countries the next thing that you should do is to localize your app. English may be the medium where individuals from different countries understand each other but what else could you do to attract more people to your app? Incorporate their local language in your app. Not all people can thoroughly understand English and are drawn to pay more attention to things that they could understand.
Now after doing all those things, you need to find a DSP (demand side platform) which has self-serve RTB(real time bidding) capabilities like Bluagile and start creating mobile web and in app campaigns. This is the most affordable, convenient and efficient way to run your campaigns. Using a DSP lets you connected with more or less 30 differennt ad exchages which means accessing more traffic than you can ever imagine over 200 countries worldwide. The cost wouldn't be a problem since it's a self-serve RTB you can bid whichever rate you would think would be best suitable for the campaign. Another great thing about this is that they have a brand safe inventory which is accessible through static banners. DSPs usually providereportings on their platform which is far better than getting separate reports from various blogs, article and sites. Creating a buzz in the world wide web is the best way to get more people interested in something new and investing in CPM (cost per 1000 impressions) is the perfect fit to achieve that goal.
To sum it all up, you're creating a mobile campaign using static banners to ensure bot free traffic at a very cheap and affordable cost and you can view the reportings on one area which is very convenient. Learn more about Bluagile by visiting the site:
bluagile . com

Dear colleagues!
In this text below, I want to warn you about the scam danger from "Advertze" company.
We signed the traffic purchase agreement, made the prepayment of $2000 and after that Advertze disappeared.
I'll give you a summary of the situation that happened while negotiating with Advertze.
Our company, Hotger, is the user of MyMediaAds platform, which was the reason of finding and choosing Advertze.
We contacted Aaron Lopez, a manager of the company and the dialogue was started right away.
We have signed the document and received signed invoice for $2000. We did the payment for this invoice by bank transfer and sent the Swift payment confirmation, then we asked them to confirm the payment receiving. After that our partners disappeared, no one answered the phone or email.
We decided to contact Advertze the other way. Our manager added Aaron Lopez( the one who disappeared after payment) on skype. He answered surprisingly quick, started asking about work details and about prepayment!during the discussion Aaron Looez asked for email address. Because we all have same domain it was probably familiar to him. As soon as he saw the email address Aaron disappeared within 2 minutes and deleted our manager from skype and never contacted us again.
This second situation left no doubt, that Advetze is a scam company. They steal not only money but your precious work time.
This is why we want to spread this information as much as possible. Dear colleagues, our company Hotger is warning you, to avoid any contact with Advertze company. Beware of scammers never discuss any prepayments. We, Hotger company, strongly believe that this text should be spread as much as possible in order to avoid the same situation that happened to us.
Wishing you peace, happiness and good honest partnerships.