Unfortunately due to a mysterious, unannounced account suspension out of the blue, I have had to move my blog to a shiny new server. Unfortunately this means I have lost alot of the original images that had been uploaded, so if you do look at any of the older posts, my apologies.
Hopefully I should be getting some more content on here over the next few weeks – so expect some more articles soon – and a new theme!
I had the good fortune to be invited to speak on the MoMo london Panel for ‘Talking tablets’.
It as a great night , with some really interesting conversation around tablets and the content being created for them in general.
Check the video below for the highlights! (and plenty of hand waving on my part)
Check out the video here
check out the momo london post here
Hey all,
Had the great fortune to be invited to talk at the monetizing mobile event hosted by Mobile Entertainment .
Great event and really enjoyed myself. You can find a write up of my (super short) session here.
Good times!
I have been watching the Apple / Adobe tiff for some while now, with a lot of interest. Apple’s stance seems to go in the face of all the media companies that have invested in their Flash Media Server platform. Also it seems to be flying in the face of the Open Source buzz of the last few years. They have a locked down platform, for which to get on and distribute your content you have to use their tools, their guidelines and in the end get their sign off. And after all that, they can just turn around and drop it if they decide to change their T&C’s.
For a developer point of view, this is horrific. From a business point of view it is a very clever move. The hardware and platform is now so attractive to media owners as a way to get people to pay for content, that it is in fact making them turn from Flash to HTML 5. Now, I have used flash for 5 years + , and i have experimented with HTML 5. From early impressions , HTML 5 is not as yet ready, to a degree where i feel content can be made as efficiently, quickly and to the same level of that that can be created in Flash.
And it is this , that has actually impressed me more than anything, the fact that major content owners are now retraining, and investing huge amounts of money and time in changing their internal development capacity. The Apple platform and distribution channel is so good, and so appealing as an income stream that it is not about the best/worst technology, or the cost of development, but the chance to finally start making consumers pay for content again! And no just start paying for it, but changing the mindset away from free content from google, to premium content available on a premium channel.
And for me that is were the real beauty in what apple has done lies. By creating a premium piece of hardware, which is marketed almost entirely on the functionality of the 3rd party software available on it, then after getting thousands of developers on board while while at the same time slowly locking the gate, they have created their own Apple-opia. Regardless of how people feel about it, and how much developers moan about it, companies will do as they are told as the opportunity to make money (or the apparent one) is just to great to ignore now. And whats makes this more impressive is the relatively small market-share apple still has.
A great step for open source and freedom ? – possibly not. One hell of an envious business position to be in ? – hell yes. For all the complaining i probably have and will do about it, i wish i had thought of it first 
Got sent the following article today, which was posted to moconews.
(Well worth signing up to the newsletter if you get a chance)
http://moconews.net/article/419-2009-was-the-year-of-mobile-advertising-again/
Online(purple) Mobile(green)
Interesting post, and the title initially made me laugh as i remember saying that about mobile in general way back in 2006. The rate of growth however only backs up the amount of Ad money to be made on the mobile platform (if we like it or not).
With the Google / adMob merger (nearly 
) and the Quattro / Apple partnership, 2010-2011 will be interesting times. Unfortunately, not sure what this means for the other smaller companies currently serving ads. With Apple locking down iAds and the slow rise of the android platform, these to giants lock to secure a large market share indeed, and I think we are going to have a few causalities on the way .
Key take aways :
—Search 54 percent of mobile ads: In keeping with online, search ads are the fastest-growing kind on mobile – up 42 percent to £20.2 million.
—Display 46 percent of mobile ads: Display ads (banners, text links, pre-/post-roll and in-game ads) pulled in 24 percent more money at £17.4 million.
—Text messages unfancied: SMS/MMS ads attracted just £1.2 million last year, up 26 percent.
we will be holding the next UK mobile and devices user group meeting on Wednesday 4th November @ the adobe offices in London.
We will be having the Device Central team over to talk about the new version, and give a sneak peek at some of the new features that will be available to you in the upcoming version. You will also get a chance to ask questions, give feedback and talk about feature you would like to see available.
Mark Doherty will be giving a demo of the new work flow for developing iPhone applications, using the flash IDE that was announced at MAX this year, as well as going over some of the new developments we will be seeing for the mobile space in upcoming versions of the Adobe software.
As well as all this breaking news, we will be providing some drinks, as well as the chance to win a full version of CS4 Creative Suite, as well as some more adobe goodies.
Places will be limited, so please RSVP to matt AT ustwo DOT co DOT uk to secure yours, and be entered into the software draw.
Venue :
Adobe Offices
12 Park Crescent
London
W1B 1PH
Tel: +44 (0)207 317 4100
Date:
Wednesday, 4th november , 2009
Time :
7.30pm onwards
download the attached file for detailed instructions on how to get there,
look forward to seeing you all
Matt
I wish I knew for sure
But to be honest, after just day one of release from ben 10 mouthoff, the new iphone app we have created in partnership with turner/Cartoon network, I think I am starting to get an idea…
Ok, broad statement, so lets break it down. When I say lots of luck, it’s a bit unfair. Luck is part of it, but mostly it will come down to a really great app idea, and the fact that someone has picked it up and tried it out, that can influence others to buy it (itunes apple recommended section manager for instance). This is a typical example of a way a single developer can have a huge success story. Also, if it is a single developer that has created this, it is very probable that they have created it in their own time, while still holding down another job or have some other source of income. Out of the however many tens of thousands apps on the appstore, realistically I would say there are only a handful of individuals that have got seriously rich. But then that ‘seriously rich’ is only relative to the amount of ‘investment’ they have made.
The other part of my statement refers to others, like myself, who work for digital studios or development companies that create apps, which invest serious man (or women) hours and capital. All of a sudden, after a couple of weeks work on an app, with a couple of developers and designers working on it, you can already equate that to a fair amount of billable hours which would have been charged for on a normal service client contract. So basically, after two weeks or so, tens of thousands of sales to get a decent return on investment.
This is where the huge marketing budget comes in. How can you make sure you get tens of thousands of people to download your app and make sure you make your money back? The best bet is to make sure at least a hundred thousand people know it exists at a bare minimum. There are numerous ways you can do this ‘cheaply’, such as social marketing, viral videos and great concepts, hooks or news coverage. But the way to get real exposure, is to be included on TV adds, advertised in national newspapers, or be included in national competitions. And this is where you start to drop serious marketing £££s. Even with this type of exposure, your key to selling huge numbers of downloads will be attaining the holy grail of the top 25 apps, or at least be featured in the staff favorites or recommended sections.
So, it will be interesting to see what happens with ben 10. Already, due to turners PR company, the application has been featured on a large number of high exposure blogs and publications, a competition is being run in the daily mail featuring it, and hopefully we will be seeing it featured on the CN website (and if we are really lucky, on the channel). It will be even more interesting to directly correlate the difference between running our own social media/viral campaign with mouthoff (original). Although the best part of me wants to believe that major success can be achieved without paying a huge amount to promote your app, I have a sneaky suspicion that the money and major clout of a huge brand and marketing budget will win..
so good luck, or happy spending
Wow, over 8 months, and my site is now back online, at a brand new domain, mattpollitt.co.uk. Over the next two weeks, I’m hoping to get back to posting and put some of things i have been up to lately on here, including a few conferences, work @ ustwo , and as recently announced, some details into the work we have been doing on notus.
This was originally a test post to see if i could get flash working ok in wordpress. Since it looks nice, i have decided to leave it here.
This is actually a little fun particle generator i knocked together on the plane to Torronto, on my recent trip to FITC Mobile to run on a high end fl3 device. The motion is code generated, and the particles are a mix of minimal code and pre-made timeline tweens, including the colour shift. At the end of each particle motion, the clip deletes it’s self and frees up memory . The combination also means the processor is not bombarded by multiple instances and movies.
I have multiplied the number of particles created by 3 for the desktop version though, and added motion on 3 axis using a basic sine calculation.
[kml_flashembed publishmethod="static" fversion="9.0.0" movie="http://www.mattpollitt.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/header1.swf" width="530" height="230" targetclass="flashmovie"]
[/kml_flashembed]
Christmas has come early – ustwo has just price dropped the FULL version of Steppin™ for iPhone and iPod touch so it’s now FREE!! That’s right nada, nil, zero, zip, nothing! You can get your hands on this exhilarating racing game that tests speed and dexterity across 5 stunningly designed levels from the app store now – http://iphone.ustwo.co.uk/get/steppin.
Me and dain will be giving a presentation on wednesday for Mobile design uk.
A light hearted look over the short history of mobile UI and UX, and were it might go in the future. This short talk will specifically look at the progression of mobile UI, personalization and overall user experience over the last decade or so, and how we as mobile designers can push the boundaries to create fresh, intuitive interfaces and user experiences.
Looking forward to meeting some more of the every growing mobile community in London, and thanks to Bryan for inviting us.
Seren Partners Limited
55-57 Rivington Street, London
Wednesday April 22rd, doors open 6:30pm