moblf Blog

At moblf, we share a vision of providing access to web services over SMS text messaging. A tall order when you think of it. But when you look at the opportunity it boils down to strategic planning and quick execution.

Some facts:

• Total mobile users: 3.5 billion (3 times more than the internet users)
• SMS Text Messaging is the biggest data application on earth
• SMS Text Messaging Revenues in 2007: $ 100 Billion (a projected growth of 25% year on year)
• 8 Billion SMS are sent every day Or 92,000 SMS sent every second
• A study by Queensland University in Australia last year found mobile phone services twice as addictive as PC based services, and text messaging to be as addictive as smoking.

SMS Text Messaging is instant, as compared to email, where an average user might not access the web for sometime. Email is opened in 24 hours and replied to in 48 hours. SMS is read within 15 minutes on average and responded within 60 minutes. 65% of email is spam and less than 10% of SMS is spam. (more here Putting 2.7 billion in context: Mobile phone users)

Only 1% of the mobile users population own a smart phone, that leaves us with the rest of the 99% who have the SMS Text Messaging feature on their phones.

Here’s how it all fits in:

Scenario 1: How about accessing your mail server via your SMS Text Messaging and keeping update on your mails? Or accessing your Facebook account or Orkut account or…the possibilities here are immense.

Scenario 2: When you walk into a restaurant or a café next and find the service or foods inappropriate, you have the option of scribbling off a quick feedback / review about the place and SMS Text Messaging to a number. How would you like it?

Right customer feedback is of great importance to businesses, there are feedback mechanisms currently, which has a chance of losing its flavor during translation. Or like most people who I have interacted with, may not choose to leave a feedback as they seldom get a feedback form or the feedback number to call is too cumbersome to dial.

Scenario 3: How about you had the option of sharing your experience of a vacation you are at? The website you took the vacation from offers you a SMS Text Messaging number for you to quickly send your review.

Travel companies will love to hear from you, other users who are looking to know about the experience will advantage from you. And as for the review, it’s coming in at real time, just as you are experiencing it!

Scenario 4: SMS Text Message your order to the fast food take away counter at the corner of your street as you wait for the traffic signal to turn green. The order is ready for you to take away as you reach the window. How would you like that?

These are a few examples of how moblf can serve consumers and prosumers via their platform. Let us know what you think of them. Also, please write to us services you think will add value if they were available on SMS Text Messaging for you to use them.

We’ve been in a mull-mode, here at moblf; working towards a few next things, shaping up our long-term goals, so on. This for me is the innate characteristic of a startup, that one will not find elsewhere – the whole experience of evolving the product or business offering, tweaking the main idea, changing it based on user and industry inputs. I am living what Paul Graham has articulated here.

What’s the relevance of moblf to the end user, to the world of communication and to web services – this is something that has occupied a great part of our mindshare here. Moblf is a platform that brings web services on mobile, specifically over SMS text messaging. With this as the premise the opportunity is vast and the possibilities immense. Who we will cater to first, what will we offer initially, what’s a good start – these are questions we’ve been trying to answer and have found some ground too. As a platform we have the opportunity to serve consumers and prosumers simultaneously, we can serve as brand moblf and also as a customized white label enterprise solution. More on relevance of moblf in my next post!

Guest post by Anikit Maheshwari, who is the CEO of Instablogs Network (www.instablogs.com)

Ironically one of the most used Mobile App is writing the script for demise of Mobile Native Apps ‘The mobile browser’. From Opera Mobile to iPhone Safari, Pocket IE to Symbian, browsers are getting more robust, and devices extremely powerful hence paving path for rich mobile web applications. All of sudden it’s starting to make more sense to build two to three different mobile web apps/sites covering almost all phones rather than doing hundreds of versions of mobile native apps to run on handful of phones.

I am not saying all Mobile Apps will be dead, but they will be becoming more like desktop apps. Native apps will be used only when they are actually needed, for e.g. a mobile photo editor, a PDF reader, etc. It’s like history is repeating itself. We have already witnessed the sharp decline in desktop apps and exponential rise in popularity of online apps. Today my most used application on my laptop is none other than Firefox browser. Most of the desktop applications I used once are replaced by online applications which are accessed by all latest browsers. I used Zoho for project management, Google Docs for online collaboration, Netvibes or Google Reader for reading feeds, Gtalk for keeping in touch with all my team members, Zinio to read my monthly magazines subscription, Google Domain Apps for email solutions, Jajah for net telephony. And now all of them have launched their mobile web versions as well. Most of the current phones are supporting JavaScript and mobile Ajax is already a buzzword, many mobile optimized open source Ajax libraries are available, which will facilitate more rich looking mobile web applications.

Mobile-optimized sites and apps are easy to distribute, faster to release, have low cost entry, and quick to share. The native mobile apps on the other hand are being crushed by near-monopoly of operators and handset companies and fragmented market. The greed and paranoia of carriers has hurt native mobile app industry a lot. Thanks to mobile phones and OS manufacturers, who ensured that carriers always had influence over third party developers.

Let’s consider it this way, when you decide to create a mobile web application. You don`t need a nod of approval from the carrier or manufacturer, no need to get certified, no need to share revenue with the vendor, no need to beg for placement on the deck, portability problem is solved by designing 2-3 different versions. You are free from carrier, handset manufacturer, OS vendor; it’s you and the users. With mobile billing solutions coming fast, billing the users on mobile won`t be a problem in coming days. Most of the serious users are switching to flat-rate data plans, and it will be a common norm in future.

One thing I am greatly thankful to Apple is that they have forced phone companies and OS vendors to build more powerful browsers, and ship them with new handsets. Some people might point out the release of iPhone SDK is itself an argument against this write-up of mine. But I doubt if SDK is nothing but an extension/ sandbox environment for Safari.

So I will finish this write-up with the dream of seeing operators and carries as nothing but delivery pipes, and more power to the developers, who have been treated like peasant farmers by the nasty Zamindars (feudal system) a.k.a. carriers.

The past few days Twitter SMS number in India, that we depend on is down. So here’s steps to get FriendFeed on moblf going via IM/ Twitter Desktop client. People in India and other across the world can use this.

Instructions:

1. Confirm if you are configured to receive messages on IM client:

a. Log into your Twitter account and in “Add Device”, make sure that IM Devices Updates is in “ON” status and save the settings.

b. Please Switch “OFF” the mobile updates it is “ON”, this is to ensure that the IM is configured properly.

2. Go to Gtalk / any other Twitter client and in the Twitter window type HELP - Just to confirm Twitter is working on Gtalk. You will get the following response:

“Reply with what you’re doing.
‘invite’ to invite a friend.
‘follow’ to receive updates.
‘track’ to track interests.
‘whois’ for info.
‘off’ to silence.”

3. Type the following command and submit, in your Twitter chat window:

Follow moblf

This lets you follow Moblf on Twitter

4. Type the following command to ensure that Gtalk and Moblf are communicating with each other:

D moblf help

a. First you will get the following Twitter message:

“Your direct message has been sent.”

b. Next, you will get the following help information:

Direct from moblf:
Send D moblf <moblf command>
ffstart <ffusername>, <ffremotekey> - to start ff on mobile
ffget - get top 5 ff messages
ffgetn - get next 5 ff messages
More…
Reply with ‘d moblf hi.’

Direct from moblf:
ffgetus <username> - get top 5 ff messages from user
ffgetus <username>, <webservice> - get top 5 ff messages from specifc website for the user
ffsend <message> - update status on ff
Reply with ‘d moblf hi.’

5. Now that you have confirmed Twitter is working on Gtalk and you are following moblf, It’s time to setup the FriendFeed account. For this you need two things:

a. Your FriendFeed username

b. Your FriendFeed remote key: It can be found here: https://friendfeed.com/account/api

6. Next, type the following command and submit, to Activate FriendFeed on Moblf

d moblf ffstart yourffusername, yourffremotekey

a. First you will get the following Twitter message:

“Your direct message has been sent.”

b. Next, you will get a confirmation message from moblf:

“Thanks for registering for FriendFeed using MobLf. Send ‘D moblf help’ for more information. Have fun!”

c. Now your are set to use FriendFeed on Moblf

7. Start by sending

d moblf ffget

To get the latest 5 updates from your friendfeed account

8. If you get a message that says your are “not authorized” to receive messages, that indicates the details your provided with ffstart are incorrect. Type the following command to Stop FriendFeed : d moblf ffstop

After this restart FriendFeed with the ffstart command

9. To get the next 5 use the command

d moblf ffgetn

10. To post a direct message to friendfeed use the command

d moblf ffsend <your message>

11. For help on commands type

d moblf help.

Got mashed on Mashable. Thanks to Adam Ostrow. Here’s the link:Moblf: 15 Steps to Getting FriendFeed via SMS [Invites] Give us your opinion by way of comments…

Adam from mashable wrote to me few minutes ago informing that he finding it difficult to setup his FriendFeed account on moblf.

I have listed below detailed steps to setup Friendfeed on moblf, they are little too detailed just to ensure you can setup it without trouble.

Please follow them and you should be fine, i am available on IM nandini.hirianniah@gmail.com for any further help.

Instructions

1. Confirm if your phone is setup to use twitter over SMS Text Messaging. If not please goto your account on www.twitter.com, click on “add device”, add your phone number and verify with the code as mentioned on the add device page

2. Once your account is setup make sure on that the device updates are turned on (this is also on add device page)

3. Test twitter connectivity on phone

a. Send command “help” to twitter shortcode “40404″

b. You should receive a reply form twitter with the following contents

“Reply with what you’re doing.
‘invite’ to invite a friend.
‘follow’ to receive updates.
‘track’ to track interests.
‘whois’ for info.
‘off’ to silence.”

4. Now that your twitter account is tested on phone, send command “follow moblf” to 40404 (or send the same command on your desktop twitter client: gtalk or twirl). You will receive a reply from twitter with following contents:

“You’ll receive a message every time moblf updates. To silence, send ‘off moblf’. For more commands, send ‘help’.”

5. Now time to set up the ff account, you will need two things

a. Friendfeed username

b. FriendFeed remote key: It can be found here: https://friendfeed.com/account/api

6. Send command “d moblf ffstart friendfeedusername,yourremotekey” to 40404 (or send the same command on your desktop twitter client: gtalk or twirl)

7. You will receive a confirmation back from moblf

8. Now you are all set to start getting your friendfeed updates on your phone via SMS or on your IM/twitter client

9. First to test send “d moblf ffhelp” to 40404 (or send the same command on your desktop twitter client: gtalk or twirl).

10. You will receive help contents from moblf

11. Now send “d moblf ffget” to 40404 (or send the same command on your desktop twitter client: gtalk or twirl).

12. You will receive 5 most recent updates from your FriendFeed stream

13. For next 5 send “d moblf ffgetn”

14. For posting a message to FriendFeed send “d moblf ffsend <your message>”

15. For more please also visit: http://www.moblf.com/help.html and read question “moblf list of commands”

Guest post: Ravi Jitani, is based in Nairobi and works as IT Program Manager, Aureos Kenya Managers Ltd.

Mobility is a synonym to connectivity in our times and also the ability to stay mobile for extended periods of time. We have seen an astronomical growth in number of people using mobiles for voice communications as it is a boon to business people who are constantly on the move. Mobility now has a new dimension which lets us transmit data and run sophisticated applications which has given birth to new lifestyle called “Mobile Life”. This new lifestyle (unlike its grown up mature cousin “computer”) cuts across generations and has been embraced by the rich and the not so rich.

Well imagine as a bank if you have to compete with telecom companies that provide mobile to mobile cash transfer services, to retain the small savers and the casual workers! I am sure you will agree that “mobile life” has truly arrived.

In Kenya a product called “M-PESA” a cell phone to cell phone cash transfer service has been a huge hit in the rural economy where there is a serious lack of banking infrastructure and leaves people with virtually no options to transfer money. This product lets people load money on their cell phones and then use it as a virtual wallet to transfer money or buy products. This is the new life style embraced by the millions of people some of whom have no access to luxuries of life and yet are able to able to do transactions in the comfort of their home while a majority of us are still waiting for our token number to be called?

Welcome to Mobile Life… what’s your opinion, let us know in comments.

Guest post by Sameer Guglani, serial entrepreneur and mobile industry veteran. Sameer is an advisor to moblf

Sarah at Readwriteweb has a written a very good post titled “Enterprise 2.0 To Become a $4.6 Billion Industry By 2013”. I am a firm believer in this trend and have been watching it gather speed at my companies as well as at other companies I am familiar with. Enterprises are increasingly open to invest in tools of this nature.

In this context platforms like moblf will become a very important part of the Enterprise 2.0 solutions as they will allow enterprise solutions to be extended for anytime/anywhere availability, via SMS text messaging. And this connectivity will include all employees, even ones who don’t have regular internet or PC access as part of the job.

Employee facing use cases:

• A pizza hut delivery person can start collect payments from customer using his Mobile phone. The delivery person can also provide real time update - the status of success/failure of the delivery of the order. No need to invest in expensive custom devices with data connections and stuff.
• Popular agile project management tools like basecamp (from 37Signals) and Zoho can be made accessible on SMS. Allowing employees working on a project to create new milestones/tasks from their phone or to get list of pending tasks and milestones which are due this week.

Customer facing use cases:

• Mobile CRM extensions: Customer visiting Startbucks / Mcdonalds can send instant feedback via SMS, they don’t need to call toll free numbers or write an e-mail or go online to give feedback. A simple SMS text message will do the job, “I am the store on Battery Street in SF and service here sucks, my Chai was not hot and the staff was rude”. Customer will get an acknowledgement instantly and the required action can be taken by the company.
• Extend the product search: All online and offline retailers can enable catalogue search via SMS test messaging. The customer can initiate the search from the mobile using SMS text messages, he can choose to purchase via the mobile and get it shipped or go and pick it up from the nearest outlet. Amazon is already experimenting with it in an initiative called Amazon TextBuyIt

What do you guys think about this trens? What can be other use cases where Enterprises can benefit via integration with mobile, especially via SMS text messaging? Lets us know in comments…

It’s official now! We have just released our FIRST application – this brings FriendFeed to SMS text message. Moblf becomes one of the first companies to launch an application using the FriendFeed API and perhaps the first to have an app on the mobile!

Using this application, you can do the following on SMS text message:

• Post direct messages onto FriendFeed
• Get updates from people they are following on FriendFeed
• Get updates for a particular user they are interested in

Currently, this app works via Twitter, so you’ll need a Twitter account to use it.

We have released the application on closed beta, click here to get a Promotion Code and start using moblf.

Join, play with it and let us know your feedback by way of your comments.

Hey All,

Welcome to the world of 140 characters – this is what it takes us to connect you to your favorite web services from your mobile phones. Yeah, over SMS text messages!

moblf brings ‘web to SMS text messaging’; the idea is to enable access to your favorite web services anytime, anywhere from your mobiles.

We (moblf team) live by the rule that every idea should be shared with a hundred people and when the idea is executed, the process of evolution should be shared with a thousand people or more.

And therefore, this blog:

• To keep you guys posted on what we’ve been up to and get feedback from you.
• To discuss what’s happening in the area of web2.0, mobile2.0, enterprise 2.0 and the upcoming 3.0 versions.
• To get ideas and indicators from you on what we can do that falls under moblf’s purview.
• This will also serve as a personal diary for moblf, for us to trace back our steps on what we did when!

Harish, the mobile geek, head’s moblf tech army, only that he’s currently a one-man army! He will contribute to this blog on business and technology related topics.

Sameer, our Advisor and a mad/passionate entrepreneur, is another regular guest writer for this blog. He will blog on topics related to the business, the eco-system in which moblf is founded.

Nandini, yours truly, with expertise in the product and the flag-bearer of moblf; I will blog about moblf – the product; what’s happening in this domain, our competition, why we are the best and much more!

A few posts to look forward to:

• Release announcement of the first app for ‘moblf Platform’ – a FriendFeed app!.
• Enterprise 2.0 – What role will platforms like moblf play to change the game.
• Guest Post by Ravi Jitani on: Potential impact of mobile/SMS text message apps on upcoming economies of East Africa

As the fervor begins at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, stay tuned to the moblf blog, for more on our progress and more information on this space!

Get your favorite web service on your mobile now! Goto: moblf

Nandini