Its no laughing matter, even in New Zealand!

January 25th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile

Lookout Mobile has just been selected to create the 2010 New Zealand International Comedy Festival. The festival will take place in the month of May and will showcase the best of New Zealand and International Comedy.

The International Comedy Festival is a highlight on the entertainment NZ calendar and Lookout look forward to assisting patrons in discovering and encouraging their participation in the festival. Its broad mainstream appeal has been demonstrated by consistently high audience attendances since it’s inception in 1994.

Held simultaneously over three weeks in Auckland and Wellington, the Festival then takes to the road with the Crunchie Comedy Convoy, touring to regional cities across New Zealand.

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The Travelling iPhone

January 21st, 2010 by Lookout Mobile

Yesterday i returned from a nice holiday break overseas. Instead of posting a hundred pictures of me standing in front of various churches (available on request though), I thought it might be useful to post some details on how my iPhone fit into my holiday experience. Firstly, data is crazy expensive overseas > which meant no email > a good start. Apart from the usual games and random entertainment, offline Maps was really the key app for me. Data will cost you a lot overseas so using google maps on your phone is not an option. The various offline maps applications made it a whole lot easier and I can’t imagine how I did it in the past… standing on every corner with an A2 foldout trying to work out where the hell i was. Parlez-vous anglais?

I am sure there a lot of other great apps for travellers, but here are a few of my favourite applications over the last 6 weeks:

• oMaps (link) – ($2.49 AU) - probably my most used application. Using a WiFi connection, you select on a map the region to download. Once done, you can use this map the same way you would use google maps, including GPS, digital compass & adding placemarks etc. The compass made this even better by helping me get my orientation when working out where to next. I found this one extremely useful for all the cities i visited. For the small price, users can download unlimited maps so you can cover all of your destinations with the 1 purchase.
• XE (link) – (FREE) – run of mill currency conversion application. There may be better ones out there, but this was free and served its purpose nicely.
• Cricket Game (link) – ($1.19) – I’m not the biggest cricket fan, but for some reason I am quite addicted to this game, and during those boring airport waits I honed my skills and became extraordinarily good at this game. Expert difficulty level, 300 runs, 20 overs… easy.
• Scrabble (link) – ($5.99) – The old classic. If you are travelling with someone who also has an iPhone, this game is great. Play against each other and get beaten every time like I did. Note that if you play vs computer, it definitely cheats.
• London Tube (link) – ($1.19) – As the name suggests, tube map for london. Also covers busses i think and a journey planner. There are apps like this for most countries and always useful.
• World Nomads French Language guide (link) – (FREE) – For those important times….  No boeuf cru s’il vous plaît (no raw beef please)

I tried a few of the more popular iPhone guide books… Lonely Planet, Wallpaper etc… but to be honest i found them to be pretty average, especially for the hefty price tag. There is a whole travel category in the app store so its certainly worth browsing before your next trip.

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iPod Touch Downloads Explode on Christmas Day, Surpassing iPhone for the First Time

January 18th, 2010 by Lookout Mobile

A shock to some and certainly a shock to me was the news from Flurry about the significance of iPod Touch downloads in comparison to iPhone downloads.

Out of the estimated 58 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices in the market at the time, Flurry estimated that around 40% of those, or 24 million, were iPod Touch devices. The influx is most likely correlated to the Christmas season, as iPod Touches was Santas number 1 gift, while these users, primarily pre-teen and teen audiences, are voracious downloaders leading to the increase increase in downloads.

Here are some stats :

• App downloads on iPod Touch soared past iPhone for the first time, eclipsing iPhone downloads by 172%.
• iPod Touch 3G downloads increased by more than 900% on Christmas Day, compared to the average of all previous Fridays in December.
• Total iPod Touch downloads (all generations) jumped by over 1000% on Christmas Day, indicating that in addition to new iPod Touch 3Gs coming into the market, iTunes gift card giving may have driven downloads to older generation iPod Touch devices.

The chart below sets demonstrates the increase (and comparison) to iPod Touch vs iPhone app downloads:

Downloaded apps still keep soldiering on:

November app downloads set previous download volume records, growing by 15% over October. And App Store download growth increased by more than 50% in December* over November. Its worth noting that Android market growth increased by over 20% in December over November.

To hypothesis about app download growth during the Christmas period would be quite straightforward, however, to suggest the figure it would increase by is no easy task. Flurry predicted a 20% which was more than half and if I was to guess I would of expected a 30-35% increase. But 50% is mind blowing. With all the new mobile phone entries, including Googles Nexus one, Apple App downloads are still aggressively increasing, while the its competitors app store is growing at a underwhelming rate.

As a development company, the questions we start to ask is when is it worthwhile to start creating apps for other devices? To me, Nokia is still the only device that is worth considering. With its massive customer base, we are seeing a stable increase in Nokia app downloads for its nSeries devices.

Furthermore, the marketing machine that is Apple, and its loyal following, I cannot see their market share dissipating. Especially with iPod Touch downloads exceeding 40% in December, which suggests more people are becoming familiar with the device and app store. My guess is that a large % of these iPod users will commence shifting to the iPhone in the coming year. I know i did.

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