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Important News and Articles…
Android vs. iOS vs. Everything Else– Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder
Christina Bonnington (@redgirlsays) with Wired asked a provocative question today; Why do iOS Apps Look Better Than Android Apps?
At the end of the day, it seems to come down to platform fragmentation and freedom of choice — with iOS, there are more polished, built-in widgets and techniques for creating a higher degree of visual polish by default, but with Android, a developer can invest time and effort to get exactly the effect they want without worrying about an officially sanctioned way to “make it look good.”
Why does this matter?
People love apps, and everyone is scrambling to create App versions of their existing products. The question is, what’s the best way to do that?
More Consolidation as Big Software Recognizes Mobile Future
@LeenaRao on TechCrunch helped break the news that Syclo was acquired by SAP.
The move is further evidence of the trend toward consolidation as the software industry comes to terms with the new mobile-first future across all verticals.
Syclo’s and SAP’s approach to enterprise mobility makes perfect sense as companies continue to struggle to field mobile solutions while their core software suppliers lag behind in transitioning their products to native apps.
While Unwired Nation’s platform can be used by enterprise directly to facilitate the transitioning, deployment and management of internal enterprise applications, we work through partnerships with companies like ClearBlade when working with customers on enterprise opportunities.
Unwired Nation’s platform approach is targeted to the SaaS and Web Enablement vendors servicing the SMB space who are facing the Scalability Trap … Read More »
Unwired Nation and Rackspace – Enabling the Enablers
@lalorek with Silicon Hills News did an interview with Unwired Nation and Rackspace that was published Tuesday to talk about the company’s partnership to deliver mobile platform services to Rackspace’s 170,000 hosted and cloud customers.
She sat down with our co-founder and VP of Product and Strategy, Stacey Zuniga and Rackspace’s VP of Enterprise Strategy, Andy Schroepfer to discuss Unwired’s mobile platform and our business model of “enabling the enablers” – working with web software companies that power the customer-facing interactions for businesses around the world.
In mobile, so much of the conversation is dominated by companies that focus more on flash than on substance. As Stacey says, “In [mobile], we’re the non-sexy solution that makes money.”
We’ve talked about the Scalability Trap – how successful web software enablement companies power so many small and medium … Read More »
News Flash: Mobile Banking is Important
Techcrunch broke a story Sunday that Montise, a UK-based mobile banking infrastructure provider had acquired Clairmail.
In a nutshell, Clairmail provides mobile banking middleware and professional services geared around SMS, mobile web, and native mobile apps.
The deal, rumored to be for $173 million, would represent a solid (if smaller-than-expected) return on the estimated $45M in venture + debt capital raised by the company since 2005 in four+ rounds from Norwest Venture Partners, Outlook Ventures, and others. (Note: Techcrunch’s Crunchbase database shows only $34.1M raised, but omits a C Round of capital and rumored debt financing).
Clairmail and Montise issued a press release that emphasized the synergies of the deal, possibly signaling the beginning of a wave of M&A in the mobile services space. Combined, the two companies service 15 of the top 50 US financial institutions.
What’s interesting about this deal … Read More »
Death by 1000 Cuts: How Mobile Devices are Killing Web Software Companies and Endangering Small Business – And What They Can Do To Avoid the Scalability Trap.
Victims of Their Own Success
Over the last decade, the vast majority of businesses have moved to web delivered software to power their organizations. Web software powers both internal processes like financial payments, controls and HR, and external customer interactions like e-commerce, promotions, customer care and support. As this trend evolved, the price point for these services declined as the quantity of powered businesses exploded. So far so good…
The Threat
It’s hard to find a business today that isn’t in some significant way enabled by web-delivered software. This trend has only accelerated in the last five years, even as mobile devices running iOS, Android, etc., have redefined how customers interact with software and the Internet, and by extension, how they interact with these businesses online.
While everyone is focused on the success of the app store phenomena and the explosive growth of mobile, this new business reality represents a significant threat to web … Read More »
