The Great Startup Game

Marketing's Greatest Creation: The iPhone Cult

The iPhone 4 Versus the Competition, a Review of Sorts

This is a very funny video about the iPhone Cult. (Beware if you are at work that it contains some salty language.) Prepare for some serious laughing.

Britney Spears iPhone Launched

The Britney Spears iPhone Website

Now this is quick responding entrepreneurship.  This is how you make money.

Late last night, I posted the top search terms on Google and Yahoo, and already there's a new business up to capitalize on the opportunity presented by combining two of the hottest terms.

www.britneyspearsiphone.com

Update: apparently the traffic has already eaten up the site's bandwidth.

Mobile Marketing Takes a Giant Step Forward With Iphone

The iPhone is a big step forward for mobile marketing.

From Advertising Age:

Apple iPhone Device's Share Is Tiny, but Its Graphics, Apps Offer Brands Big Ad Possibilities

Published: December 03, 2007

If some early returns from Land Rover and 20th Century Fox are to be believed, Apple's iPhone will raise the stakes for marketers that go mobile.

To be sure, the iPhone, with more than 1 million sold since its launch and working only on the AT&T network, holds a just fraction of the U.S.'s 250 million wireless subscribers. But results of iPhone-specific creative from both marketers indicate that the device's graphics and range of applications open up possibilities for marketers and their target audiences.

Land Rover's iPhone-specific creative showed users the dealers closest to them.

Land Rover, seeking new ways to reach its affluent target for the launch of its Range Rover Sport, ran a campaign on the iPhone that allowed consumers to quickly connect with the iPhone-exclusive Google Maps page providing directions to the nearest dealer or make a phone call there.

Market leader MyNumo is already leading the pack here:

We (at MyNuMo) believe that our iPhone games provide a superior channel to reach this demographic.  We also have the capacity to quickly generate specific themed iPhone games and activities to meet the advertising needs of a brand looking to reach this desirable demographic.

Please feel free to contact MyNumo for additional information.

The Greatest iPhone Accessory: The Amazing iBucket

iBucket Gives Worried Retailers a Reason to Look Forward to Shopping Season

Today's WSJ reports that Wall Street expects the $215.99 iBucket to give this holiday shopping season a badly needed shot in the arm.

With North American sales of the iBucket set to start the day after ThanksGiving,  iPhone afficionadoes have already begun lining up outside of the still under-construction iBucket stores in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles,  Toronto,  and Montreal in order to be the first to own the hot new iPhone accessory.

In related news,  Apple spokeswoman Gidget Gringle announced that Apple was set to introduce its own version of the iBucket in mid 2008. It will be called the iPail and is expected to retail for $400 to $500. "This will be the must have Christmas gift next year", she added. Apple shares instantly rose 15 points on the news.

The iPhone Ecosystem Starts to Heat Up

Emerging iPhone after-market estimated to be worth one billion

For most of us who started our business careers before the advent of the WWW, the dizzying rates of speed at which new industries emerge, peak, and then fade away is mind-boggling.  The historical norm of industry arcs spanning 50 to 100 years or longer has been replaced by ones of typically 5 years. Does anyone recall the war of the giant search engines in the late 1990s? There was Lycos, Infoseek and about 4 or 5 others whose names I can't remember anymore vying with Yahoo and Google for dominance.

Now just 3 months after the launch of the iPhone, we already have a rapidly emerging industry consisting of third parties supplying games and other paraphernalia. Here's a quote from a recent Dow Jones article titled Investors eye iPhone start-ups :

Under the right conditions, the iPhone's ecosystem of third-party companies and software developers could equal the one surrounding Apple's iPod lineup of media players, [Jim] Sterling [of Sterling Marketing] believes. There's an estimated $1bn in sales annually of iPod add-ons.

So it looks like investors, including those fickle venture capitalists, are salivating over this market which is great news for startups.

Not only that, but we are starting to see mergers & acquisitions activity in the space. German software vendor, Shape Services GmbH, is acquiring New York City based iPhone Applications List. The company's founder was approached by multiple suitors before accepting the Shape Services offer.

There's anecdotal evidence suggesting the investment community's interest in iPhone-related companies is relatively strong now. iPhone Application List founder Steve Schopp said Shape, based in Stuttgart, Germany, was one of three potential buyers that approached him.

And as usual, we are seeing small players outshine the major players in terms of creativity and quality.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me illustrate this point with illustrations of iPhone Blackjack games from giant Yahoo and tiny MyNumo which appears to be emerging as the leader in iPhone games.

The Beauty

and The Beast

Click to embiggen.

So there you have you it, the trifecta of money-making opportunities: emerging technology, intense investor interest, and M&A activity. It doesn't get any better than that. Ladies & gentleman, start your engines!

The Ultimate iPhone / iPod Accessory: the Amazing iBucket

Accessories for your iPhone, iPod and other gadgets

Every few years you stumble across a product that just makes you stop dead in your tracks and blurt out loud, "How on earth did I live this long without one?!"

The amazing iBucket is one such product.

Click to embiggen.

This amazingly versatile device serves as a "platform" for your iPhone, PDA, MP3 player, Blackberry, and other electronic gadgets  so that they may "rest" in one place while their batteries recharge. 

Click to embiggen.

Just think, the days of searching for a flat surface to rest your gadgets on over-night are finally over!

Suggested retail price for the iBucket is only $215.99, plus shipping and handling. Don't be surprised if Apple unveils its own version soon for double that price. After all, don't we need another reason to spend a cold rainy night lined up outside the Apple store?

P.S. Word to the wise, spend the extra $75 for the easy-carry shoulder strap.

You will thank me later.

Adobe announces Photoshop for the iPhone

If you have been waiting for a good reason to purchase an iPhone, this is it! Adobe releases Photoshop for the iPhone.

Go play the latest iphone game Pigs a Pop'n.

Latest iPhone Game: Pigs a Pop'n

PIGS A POP’N: Sou-Wee!!! How ya gonna keep them down on the farm when they see this here new fancy puzzle game created just for the iPhone. Pigs need a feeding and you got only so much vittles to make them pop off the field. These pigs are a considerate bunch, so if you pop one he’ll kindly oblige you and pass some eats onto his neighbors. Do it right and you’ll set off one of them there “chain reactions” and clear that field off right quick. Clear one field and you can move right on to the next. Takes real pig feeding skills to advance in this game, so get it done and play PIGS A POP’N on your iPhone today.

Go play the latest iphone game Pigs a Pop'n.

Paris Hilton Launches iPhone Games Community

Well, not exactly. 

Actually what happened is that plucky little games developer MyNumo launched a Paris Hilton game which then helped to jump-start a community and marketplace for mobile content publishers.

Check out MyNumo's iPhone games.

Check out the mobile content marketplace for publishers at MyNumo.

Here's the full story.

 

This is creative entrepreneurship at its best.

iPhone Games launched by MyNumo

MyNuMo launches Fun4iPhone.com bringing games, social networking, news and cool products to the iPhone.

Los Angeles, CA – July 2, 2007, MyNuMo today announced the launch of http://Fun4iPhone.com and the debut of its first iPhone game, iWhack. In the free humorous game iWhack, iPhone users get to “hammer home” the success of iPhone by whacking Steve Balmer (Microsoft CEO and iPhone critic) every time he pops up on the screen.

“iWhack is a fun activity that is the first in a series of casual games and useful products for the iPhone.” states William Volk, CEO of MyNuMo, LLC. “We’re excited about the iPhone, this game is just the beginning of great things for Apple’s groundbreaking device.”

“Our goal was to create a fun game for the iPhone that would appeal to game players and iPhone fans.” commented MyNuMo President Sherri Cuono. “MyNuMo will be launching a series of fun casual games, social networking tools, and other products on Fun4iPhone.com as well as providing a portal for news and information about the iPhone.”

MyNuMo has already attracted worldwide attention for its mobile publishing tools, social network, and game titles. “Our goal is simple,” concluded William Volk. “…to provide iPhone users with quality games, utilities and the information they need to make the most of this incredible device ”

iWhack is available for the iPhone for free at http://Fun4iPhone.com and will be available in other versions in the future.“