So what has Palm got going for it that others want?

Most 25-45 yo’s in the USA and Europe are very familiar with the Palm brand, they’ve been making hand held devices for years. So if you don’t have a strong brand presence in these regions Palm may be just the ticket.

Any serious company in the hand held market has a pretty impressive IP portfolio. This IP portfolio is used in the IP trading game, which happens amongst the big players in the industry (or not as the case may be between Nokia and Apple). Palm is no exception and has a very mature IP portfolio.

Finally, there’s the very tidy Palm Web OS mobile SW platform for app development, nicely architectured, but to date it’s only been proven on the Pre and the almost unheard of Pixi. So by definition it may be premature to refer to it as a platform. Either way, it is a good development platform with early promise.

Current speculation is an Asian suitor such as ZTE or Huawei may pull out the cheque book, but apart from the brand and IP count the motivation isn’t really there, as both have been playing with Android already. Unless Palm launches some more products that accumulatively grabs the smart phone market then Palm are very likely going to be squeezed in to mobile history.

UPDATE 29/April – HP (not exactly an Asian company) has waded in and bought Palm for it’s IP and Web OS. So whilst the brand Palm may vanish behind HP, the Web OS lives on.

An initiative of noble intent. Led by a crowd of world-wide mobile network operators, a sprinkling of handset manufacturers, and the mobile standards deity, GSMA. Under the banner of the Wholesale Application Community, they’re all valiantly fighting the mobile dragons of fragmentation.

In the world of mobile application development there’s a colourful array of competing and differing technologies. Whilst some of this diversity is healthy, too much of something is never a good thing. In the case of mobile application development it can lead to bloated development and testing schedules/budgets.

Looking at the problem on a larger scale there’s too few developers and too many platforms to support.

It’s not new news who has the biggest piece of the app pie, and it’s not surprising that others like the network operators are looking for a bigger piece of the action. Whilst the Wholesale Application Community initiative works to hammer out some fragmentation, it must also ensure the developers tool chain is stable, efficient and easy to use. Many look at the run away success of the Apple app market from an end market perspective, but unless the developers tools are up to the job, the glorious, shiny tower of a super huge App store will never ever become reality. This is one of the key attributes (often over looked) why Apple has soared and others have flunked.

The current scope of the Wholesale Application Community is pragmatic, but a little too tame. Today, there’s at least three competing web app technologies JIL, BONDI and Webkit. The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) will only attempt to integrate two of them, unfortunately it’s the weakest two! So based on Darwin’s laws, at least one would have perished sooner or later. Unfortunately, the WAC efforts are likely to result in two fairly balanced technologies still competing and this is where business politics come to play.

Apple, Google and Nokia, the Webkit advocates like to play business their way, and the WAC is the network operators protecting their interests and aiding the common good – rationalising fragmented technologies. However, don’t look at the history of how the technology fragmented in the first place, as that quickly ends up in business politics again and doesn’t smell the freshest.

Nothing stands still, so lets see where this goes over the next 12 months. Who knows there may be jam tomorrow and the dream of write once, deploy everywhere has become a reality – If only it was that simple! (VM)

Further to this revelation, Gartner forecasts smartphone owners will spend $6.2bn on apps this year, estimating this to grow to $29.48bn by 2013. Currently only 18% of apps are paid for. So these numbers give some idea of the scale in which mobile technology will grow in the very near future.

Vividly Mobile is ideally placed to help your business take on this new technology, whether it’s used to simply extend brand recognition, or to extend existing services to accommodate new use-cases out in the real world, no matter where your (potential) customers are.

Unfortunately, the Nexus One launch has stood on the toes of Google’s nearest and dearest in the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and the Android developer community. How you might ask? It’s not the existence of a Google-phone that offends, it’s more to do with how the Nexus One was created that is insulting to many. Google hasn’t exactly been as open with the latest OS Android 2.1. Just today the 2.1 OS SDK became available to the development community and in contrast Google’s employees received a pre-launch version of the Nexus before Christmas, sporting the 2.1 version OS.

Rumours are flying that mobile industry giants in OHA may lose favour in Google & Android. This is very unlikely as every mobile platform has at least one master pulling the strings:

- Android is obviously Google

- Symbian is Nokia’s pet

- LiMo is commanded by the duo DoCoMo and Vodafone

Additionally, Google isn’t really making hardware, the Nexus One is a badged HTC, with Google and HTC putting Android on top. The likes of Samsung, LG, Motorola and SonyEricsson all have a track record (some better than others) of making nice kit. So the Nexus hardware won’t worry them in the slightest. However, the lack of openness with the OHA will have them concerned, at least until Google starts playing nicely again…

Let’s hope Google quickly learns some etiquette in open source and collaboration, and starts living by it’s motto of “Don’t Be Evil”.

Garden Party has been hugely popular with preschools in the UK since it’s creation in 2003, where it’s been available on the PC & Mac platforms. Vividly Mobile has redeployed the game on the iPhone platform and has distributed the game to 83 countries via the Apple App Store.

Garden Party was targeted for a pre-Christmas launch and it successfully appeared on the App store globally today. The Apple review took one week exactly and Garden Party passed first time with flying colours.

Vividly Mobile will be redeploying Garden Party on Android during H1 2010.

Delight your child while encouraging cognitive, language and small motor development

- Audio memory and recollection
- Shape recognition and sorting
- Visual memory and recollection
- Colour and sizes
- Listening and observation
- Being helpful and polite

The friendly characters of Gigglesbury help and encourage children as they learn in each activity.

Inventor Bink’s house is included with the free version of the game. The remaining houses are unlocked as they’re purchased within the game* via the App store. Once all the houses have been unlocked, the bonus activity SunnyShine becomes available too.

*To avoid accidental purchases please sign out of your iTunes account.

For technical issues, please check FAQs below or email us support@vividlymobile.com

Which OS is required?
OS 3.0 or later (an Apple requirement)

How do I turn the sound off?
It’s currently only possible to reduce the volume using the buttons on the side of the device.

Why can I only play Inventor Binks?
Inventor Binks is the free initial activity. Other activities can be purchased within the game. After all activities have been purchased, the bonus activity SunnyShine will be available too.

When will other languages will be available?
We’re working closely with Jelly Bridge Productions and will bring them to the iphone as soon as they’re available.

For more Gigglebies information please visit www.jellybridge.com

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