You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t agree that there’s an ever-expanding need for organizations to branch out into the mobile sector. But with the plethora of mobile platforms that exists today, we have a tricky task of knowing which to develop for, and how to most effectively and efficiently make sure the application is successful on the other platforms as well.  

We recently hosted a three-hour workshop at the 2010 South by Southwest Interactive Festival, where we discussed mobile development across platforms and brought together three top-level thinkers in the industry: Rylan Barnes, lead developer on the ShopSavvy application and co-founder of Big In Japan, Inc.; Kevin Hoyt, group manager of platform evangelism at Adobe, Inc.; and Tom Conrad, CTO of Internet music giant, Pandora. Throughout the course of the workshop, our speakers provided insight on their experiences and key learnings for today’s mobile developers. Here are a few highlights and how-tos:

• Keep it familiar. Each platform provides room for customization, but it should be done within the parameters of its standard, familiar toolkit. Take the iPhone, for instance. All of the navigation buttons remain on the screen at all times. Then there’s the Blackberry, whose buttons are tucked into the menu. Users don’t typically jump between platforms; they’re only familiar with how to use the device they own. So, while it’s easy for developers to want to bring tools from one over to the other, for user experience purposes, it’s imperative to stick to the basic rules of each individual platform.
• Don’t silo your customers. When developing for multiple devices, too often customer segments get broken down too much. Your users are most likely not just Windows phone users, or just desktop users. They move across contexts and they take their data with them from one to the other, making it important to create a unified user experience across multiple devices. A recent Nielsen report shows a substantial increase in media multi-tasking in America, with 57% of consumers watching TV and going online simultaneously at least once a month. Adobe is at the forefront of an industry-wide initiative that aims to make the cross-device development task less daunting. The Open Screen Project (OSP) is bringing front-end Web development into the mobile conversation with the hopes of making it no longer necessary to develop new sets of code for each individual platform. While the possibilities presented by initiatives such as the OSP are still up for debate, if done right, it could undoubtedly ease the workload of developers in the future.
• Invest in user experience. In 2007, Pandora had a presence on an array of feature phones, but quickly found that success in the mobile arena isn’t as simple as just making sure you’re everywhere. Phone owners at that point weren’t thinking of the Internet aspect of their devices. Then came the iPhone, a very Web-centric device, and as a result, the opportunity developed to create not just an app, but a full-blown user experience tailored to the way customers engaged with a specific device. Within four hours, Pandora had more users on a single platform than they had ever had on all the feature phones combined. 

Mobile development will continue to be a hot topic of conversation as bright new solutions and ideas surface, morph and are repurposed to improve the user experience. We’re excited to see where mobile is headed, and, along the way, help steer conversations and develop solutions that make sense for both marketers and mobile enthusiasts.

A horrific earthquake struck Haiti Tuesday. Millions of miles away professionals are helping rebuild the devastated country without ever leaving their office chairs; students from around the globe have had a hand in the disaster relief while sitting in their lecture halls and dorm rooms.

In less than two days, a host of organizations including the American Red Cross has raised more than $4 million to aid the devastated country, thanks to $10 donations sent from individuals around the world via a simple text message.

Mobile giving makes collecting donations from around the globe faster and easier than ever. Texting a word to a short code (in this case, “Haiti” to 90999) sends a donation of a predetermined amount, which then shows up on your next cell phone bill. It’s that simple.

And with such a basic call-to-action, getting the word out is as easy as updating your Facebook status or posting to your Twitter account.

The possibilities of mobile giving stretch far beyond raising fast funds for disaster relief. Here at T3, we’re fortunate enough to be gaining firsthand experience in the mobile giving arena alongside Mobile Loaves & Fishes, an incredible organization that provides food, clothing and dignity to the homeless. By texting “MLF” to 20222, you can donate $5 to help keep people fed and off the streets.

Whether it’s enabling people to act when tragedy strikes miles away or helping a homeless person during the morning commute to work, the power of mobile giving is about empowering people to act in the moment when they’re inspired to support a cause.

There’s been quite a bit of industry chatter lately surrounding augmented reality, the blending of the real world with the virtual world. Computer-generated information and real-time environments are now being seen together, and it presents big opportunities for marketers. But the question of practicality still remains.

I’ve been watching and waiting to experience augmented reality from a true consumer perspective. My moment finally came this past weekend when I picked up InStyle and Esquire magazines, both of which debuted augmented reality content in their December issues.

Among endless pages of new fashions and beauty guides, InStyle featured a six-page section, “Gifting in 3D”, that promised a 3D holiday shopping experience that was “as easy as 1-2-3”. It proved more complicated than advertised, however, as you had to first download a plug-in that would allow you to view the galleries. And the only reward I received for the effort put forth was simple video advertisements (25 of them no less) that popped out of gift boxes. The gallery of items presented for each brand with click-to-buy capacity, which wasn’t even part of the actual augmented reality experience, was the only interesting aspect.

Esquire, a publication that has been known to experiment with off-the-wall features, at least offered more interesting content with more of a wow factor. It featured numerous AR elements, including an introduction by Robert Downey Jr., a photo shoot with changing clothes and weather conditions, and a joke-telling model that gets more risqué after midnight. At least that’s what I’ve read, as I was never even able to get the required software to download in order to view the augmented reality content.

My first true experience with augmented reality left me disappointed, with all of the effort and time I put into trying to view this cool new content far outweighing any sort of payoff that was promised. Too many variables, from searching for the magazines among newsstands to trying (unsuccessfully) to get the downloads to work, tainted the much-hyped technology.
 
I was beginning to have my doubts about augmented reality until a co-worker showed me Burger King’s AR banners advertising its dollar value menu. No magazine purchase or print out was required to trigger the experience. All I needed was a Web cam and a one dollar bill (or something that was of a similar size and shape). Three dollar-menu options rotated across the screen as I flipped my dollar bill over a few times, and then, perhaps most entertaining, the iconic King’s head was superimposed onto my body to wrap it all up.

It was simple, it was contextually relevant, it was awesome. The Burger King ad works because the payoff received is greater than the little effort that they ask on the part of the user. Unlike InStyle and Esquire, Burger King kept it simple and wasn’t too ambitious on its first foray with a new, complicated technology.

By minimizing the variables, they maximized the experience.