Apple has given developers a sandbox style environment to store backup files from apps. The backup actually has 4 APIs that connect apps to iCloud:

• Regular files
• Packages (a collection of files representing a document)
• Shoeboxes (a large quantity of indexed files, like iPhoto’s library)
• Preferences

As pointed out by Paul Miller of ThisIsMyNext.com, Apple has given 3^rd party developers the same functionality with iCloud as they give themselves native osX and iOS apps.

Are you starting to get excited yet? Consider the applications – iCloud links iPads, iPhones and Apple computers together (Macbook Pro, Macbook Air etc.,).  The low hanging fruit would be things like saving documents and the position you have read to on Twitter across all documents, but real innovation can happen here, too.

Consider the mobile user on holiday. For arguments sake, lets say their hotel has free WiFi, (if they’re in Australia, PROBABLY NOT) and they left the Macbook at home in favor of the more portable iPad and iPhone combo- something I personally do.  Doing anything complicated on an iPhone is a passable experience if there are no other options, but typing, booking and planning a day out is much easier on an iPad.

If a developer released and app for both iPad, iPhone and took advantage of iCloud, they could sync bookings, travel guides and important documentation from one platform to the other. This would save the user the trouble of emailing info to themselves or having to do the entire process on an iPhone.

Of course, this is just the first example I could think of, there are any number of possibilities for iCloud backup.

When I heard about Plus I was a little bit frustrated; yet another network to maintain, build up a following and push content to. Between Twitter and Facebook, I have enough of that already. In the end, my fear of being out of touch won and I swindled in invite.

At first, everything was exciting and new; I was willing to give Plus a fair chance before making a judgment. I haven’t always been a fan of Google products, but if something it is good,

Circles seemed passable, but I was worried about offending anyone by putting them in the “Acquaintance” circle. Is that a new social faux pas?

The most interesting of the network’s features, I felt, is “Hangout” and I was really excited to give it a test run. Five unexpected errors, multiple session dropouts with a few different people and a failed shared YouTube experience later, I was totally over it.

Yes, this is an invite only beta, I KNOW. But one would think the most novel feature a product has to offer would at least be functioning?  I might just stick to Skype, thanks.

I forgot about all that and let the marketer in me take over. How can I use this system to my advantage?  It sounds slightly evil, but if there are opportunities here, it’s best to be across them.

So far, I have yet to find one function designed to let businesses play. Again, it’s early days and this could be coming, but even the “sparks” space doesn’t seem all that helpful. It’s basically a permanent Google search on a specific subject saved in the sidebar.  Articles seem to be chosen at random from a myriad of source websites and brand pages don’t seem to exist.  When more users get on board, it seems friends will update these topics as well as others that are interested (?).

Hypothetically, if Facebook and Plus had started at the same time, there would be a very good chance that either one could become the dominant network. One open and supporting brands, the other closed, but Plus is starting 700 million users in the hole.  I question if it’s possible to reach a tipping point with the non-tech loving crowd with something like Plus?

Oh yeah, don’t forget: 25% of Google employees bonuses are tied to the success of social, so I doubt this is over yet.  Not by a long shot.

According to this post from Tnooz.com, 19% of all hotel queries are from mobiles, but only 1% actually make bookings via their phone. I read this post a week ago, but couldn’t get the statistics out of my head – what’s going on here, are we too far ahead of the curve with mobile?

Probably not.

The purchase process in travel isn’t the same as other e-commerce products; it’s confusing, sporadic and full of eccentricities. To develop a mobile strategy that includes transactions, it’s important to “get” the booking process and understand why a user would want book using their mobile in the first place.

According to the numbers I could find, women make 70% to 90% of the purchase decisions in travel bookings. That is a huge consideration for anyone in the industry, but even more so for mobile marketers. Not only do you need to get how women make bookings, but also how they use their mobiles in general.

The best breakdown I could find for female mobile usage came from Admob:

Smartphone ownership seems to be male-dominated, but Android takes the cake. Only 27% of Android users are female! Android’s branding does seem to be very male focused, something HTC appears to be aware of. I’m not sure if slapping a pink case on a phone will convince women to buy an Android, but HTC are going to give it a try. To be honest, the coat hanger ad seems a bit patronizing, but best of luck to them.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, an incredible portion of Blackberry users are women:

This actually surprised me; Blackberry always felt like a male dominated handset. I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear Blackberry, images of balding executives always spring to mind. This stereotype is not just totally inaccurate, but could be damning for a mobile strategy, especially one with limited budget.

Development for the Blackberry market always seems to happen after the iPhone, Android, web and Windows mobile apps have rolled off the shop floor, but why?

If women make 90% of the decisions in a booking and 70% of Blackberrys are owned by females, it makes sense to take Blackberry OS seriously. If you mix in the very realistic assumption that business travellers prefer Blackberry and are also more likely to book last minute, it makes the OS look quite attractive.

Mobile strategy and forecasting is not about what’s cool, its about knowing your demographic and keeping up to date with the an extremely fluid market. At first glance mobile looks like a race between iOS and Android, but it really depends on who you’re targeting and what works for your business. Research is key!

One of the hot topics at Web In Travel Australia last week was how companies can adapt to the needs of the Asian market. Looking outside travel, Tesco has done an amazing job in South Korea by reinventing their brand as “Home Plus” and dominating online.

Instead of pushing an American brand into a marketplace to compete with an entrenched local player, Tesco took a step back, considered the strengths and weaknesses of their competitors and approached from another angle. Their research showed that Koreans were time poor, technology rich and hated the idea of taking time out to shop; something many of us can relate to.  Instead if accepting this fact as an inevitable weakness of the retail model, Home Plus used mobile technology to help their customers take advantage of time they would otherwise be forced to waste. Check out this video:

You might be asking yourself why QR code purchases work in South Korea and haven’t taken off in Australia and other western regions. There are actually two reasons.

Mobile carriers in both Japan and Korea demanded that all mobiles ship with native QR code readers; meaning Korean consumers are conditioned to use QR codes as part of their mobile life. Second, the iPhone, which doesn’t ship with a native QR code reader and arguably led to the disinterest in QR codes in the west, wasn’t released in Korea until 2009. South Korean consumers are living in an environment where QR code marketing is not only viable, but the norm.

But what’s happening outside of western Asia?

According to research by 3GVision, the global usage of QR codes rises every month.

Top ten QR code usage from around the world:

In May, Australia became the tenth highest country for QR code usage (74% growth month on month, 195% over 3 months) and America held its spot in number one. If you thought QR code marketing had missed its window of opportunity, it seems you’d be mistaken.

With QR usage on the rise, we can expect some really fresh “in real life” applications coming soon. The real question is, how we get the average Joes to adopt something they know nothing about? Personally, I feel it will take courage from advertisers to take a leap of faith, and the foresight from developers to include QR code readers within apps would be great too. Really, why wait for Apple when we don’t have to?

The Hipmunk posted something quite interesting on their Facebook page today, a little post that did a little more than hint at their future plans:

Some fans offered suggestions, mostly around searching for flights based on wither or not they have WiFi, to which Hipmunk responded:

So is that it? Will we see searches filtered/displayed by WiFi? The image does look exactly like a WiFi image added to the Virgin Airlines bar on their site.

Hipmunk won’t be the first flight metasearch site to show listings with WiFi, (Mobissimo claimed this feature was live on a blog post in 2009, but I couldn’t find an example of it) but it will be a very welcome feature for those of us who never want to be disconnected, even at 30 000 feet.

Of course, I could be way off?

On Tuesday, I live blogged the inaugural Web In Travel Australia conference. It was a really solid conference, (expect a post on that shortly) but what really frustrated and confused me were some comments that were made during the open question time at the end of the day.

I’m not sure what caused it, but one of the speakers launched into a tirade when asked what company wouldn’t be around in 2 years.

“FACEBOOK!!”

“Ah” I thought to myself, “one of these”. You usually experience these types in the comment section of pretty much any Techcrunch post about Facebook. They’re usually screaming about how some other service with stronger privacy features is so much better and usually throw in the odd “Remember what happened to Myspace” remark. But this rant wasn’t about privacy or failed social networks.

“Facebook is for drunk kids to put their pictures online. Once all these kids grow up and get a life, Facebook will disappear. These people should go out and have real relationships, maybe they’d be able to find a real girl”.

Wow.

A stat (I use the term loosely) was also thrown in there saying six million users have dumped the service in the last little while. Of course, the user-base grew by about two hundred million in that time, but we won’t talk about that. What I will talk about is the numbers.

Thankfully for me and everyone else, people study the users of social media in a rational and measured way. To set the record straight, I dug up some facts that I think should shed some light on the situation.

Ivy Bean - Oldest person on Facebook

According to Pew Research Center, the percentage of American adults that use social networking sites in 2010 went up 21%  from 2008 (from 26% to 47%). This moved the average age from 30 to 38, meaning the average user, statistically, is definitely not a drunk teenager.

As for getting out and getting a real girlfriend, that’s happening on Facebook, too. Nancy Baym, a University of Kansas professor studied online relationships and found that stronger ties were made using the social platforms.

“So it’s (social networking sites) a continuous link of hanging out in the halls with your friends between classes or hanging around the water cooler at the office.”

I think we’re at the point where most of us know someone that met online and they usually seem pretty happy. They say friendship is the basis for all relationships, so why not Facebook friends?

I feel it’s dangerous to entertain those who push misguided opinions on the impressionable. A conference is a learning environment; those who attend are there to gain a better understanding of their target audience and how best to communicate with them.

If there is one thing that can be taken away from this, it’s that no matter what you hear around the office or on blogs, do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

By all means, feel free to have an opinion, but PLEASE get the facts first.

To break down something that has already been expertly condensed (thanks again, Nilay!) Google blocked the Skyhook XPS positioning system from shipping with the Motorola Droid X by implementing a few last minute contractual conditions. As Skyhook’s product directly competed with a Google product, the move prompted some serious legal concerns.

Image property of Thisismynext.com

On a personal level, I find all of this very interesting. One of Google’s mantras when it comes to the Android OS has always been its openness as a platform. The concept of an open OS has acted as a call to rally their followers against the oppressive regime that is Apple and iOS.

As a platform for app developers and users, Android is very open. For handset manufacturers, it’s obviously a totally different story.

This short summary doesn’t do Nilay’s post justice; I encourage anyone interested in mobile to read the entire thing.

This guest post is by Stas Belkov, co-founder of group buying aggregator Dealfetch.com.au. Stas has extensive experience in digital marketing and a deep understanding of the group buying market in Australia.

The past 12 months has seen group buying take off in Australia in a big way, with numerous sites launched in Australia following the massive success of US giant Groupon. In its current infancy, the Australian industry consists primarily of Groupon style clones – sites that feature group deals across a wide range of categories and market to a mass audience. Stardeals, Scoopon, Spreets, Cudo, and LivingSocial are the current major players that follow this model.

The types of deals on these sites vary to a great extent, ranging anywhere from restaurants to spray tans, to notorious canvas prints. This model has proven to be extremely effective, and has attracted a whole range of competitors into the market. With low barriers to entry and a lack of differentiation, it is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire new users, and retain them for future purchases. The concept of brand loyalty seldom applies in the daily deal space, with consumers keen to use deals from any of the available sites, assuming the deal has both relevance and value.

Cue the group buying verticals. While the trend is only just starting to pick up, a number of niche group buying companies are operating or soon launching in Australia. Some of these include Food Morning for restaurants, Drinkle and Nightly for alcohol/nightlife, BizzBuzz for b2b services, 123Cars for vehicles, and of course travel. With travel deals first emerging earlier this year, the segment has seen steady growth, increasing the average daily deal price, while generating hundreds of bookings for hotels in Australia and abroad.

Group buying for hotels and accommodation makes sense – hotel inventory can be sold quickly and in bulk, bookings are boosted during low peak periods, and accommodation can be packaged together with value added services. Consumers are also winners here, obtaining extremely low prices for popular destinations, as well as not having to worry where in the world they should travel, or which additional services and experiences to book; everything has been pre-prepared. Travel group buying creates a kind of window-shopping consumer experience, providing the cream of the crop in travel experiences, while taking weight off the consumer during the booking and research process.

Here are the major group buying players in travel:

LivingSocial Escapes – Launched in early June to accompany LivingSocial’s existing Australian presence. An average of 12 deals exist at any given time. These are primarily focused on Australian destinations, however overseas markets such as Thailand are rising in frequency. Deals last around 7 days, and cover both 1-2 night stays as well as longer holidays.

Getaway Lounge – Launched in late May and backed by Nine Entertainment, thereby ensuring a mainstream media presence on Channel 9. The site features only four or less deals at any given time, however they all tend to be character/boutique hotels, serving the higher end of the market. Similar to LivingSocial, deals last around 7 days, with length of stay varying between several nights, to a week or more. The service does a good job at complementing the Getaway television program, matching it both with content and branding.

MonthlyCatch – Launched in early June, this site is owned by social media consulting startup iGenYZ. MonthlyCatch follows a youth oriented branding strategy with a heavy social media focus. Thailand is a commonly featured destination here, appealing to the younger demographic while providing the industry with a good dose of overseas deals. Another differentiator is deal length – each travel deal is active for 30 days, giving visitors plenty of time for research and purchasing. The site features around 6 deals per monthly period, with length of stay ranging from 2-7 nights.

Also worth noting are several upcoming contenders in the travel vertical. These include TravelFactory and DailyEscape – startups that promise great discounts for top travel destinations. It will be interesting to see how these sites compete with both the large daily deal sites, as well as existing niche services.

While the primary benefit of travel group buying is heavily reduced prices, there is a major pitfall. Consumers are normally not able to customize their travel itinerary, and are limited to sticking to whatever deal is chosen – freedom is given up for lower price. Many consumers will not be happy with this limitation, and will choose instead to use existing hotel price comparison sites to find hotels for their chosen destination. To counter this, group buying operators need to identify distinct market segments, and tailor packages directly to groups of consumers. Local weekend travellers, adventurous young travel seekers, affluent couples and more, can all be targeted. Herein lies the power of group buying; people can purchase off-the-self travel experiences, at great convenience, and lower price. This creates a platform for discovery, allowing consumers to find novel and exciting travel destinations at prices accessible to a wider audience.

I really do love getting the chance to talk to people from outside the travel industry about what we do, and the unique challenges we face as marketers. Most conversations start the same way, “Travel must be using social media really well, right?”

I don’t blame people for assuming that this would be the case. Mobile devices are ever prevalent and people love to talk about travel, even while they’re still on the road. It’d be silly if travel wasn’t leading the way, right?

Unfortunately for the industry, travellers and the brands they engage with while on the road are out of our control. The average users Internet connection is held to ransom by the omnipotent gatekeeper of wifi- the hotel.

Now obviously some hotels have free wifi – I have no issues with you.  I take issue with hotels that have:

• No internet
• Wired internet only
• Charge for internet

It’s pretty bad when New York City parks are offering more in the free internet department than some hotels.

Although it sounds selfish to be demanding services, it’s not just for the customers benefit. In fact, free wifi benefits the hotel, customers and other brands, and here’s how.

When I get to a hotel, I check in on Foursquare and Facebook places before even checking in officially at the front desk.

I check in, get to my room. If there’s a good view or something extra impressive, I’ll take a picture and tweet about it. Here is one I actually took in Thailand:

Over the course of a normal 3-5 night booking, thousands of users are exposed to the hotels brand. Although this is obviously a positive, it does mean that hotels can open themselves to the opposite.

Before even speaking to the staff, a customer could have been exposed to messages like these:

Don’t expect people not to talk about the negatives. If a room is dirty or the service is subpar, it will be shared.

Regardless, the benefits of giving your customers free wifi will out pace the financial return of charging for the service.

And then there are the rest of us. Toiling away in our offices, spending all of our time, effort and money trying to engage our users while they’re on holiday. Realistically, some of them might as well be lost at sea, we’d have about as much chance of making an impact. Or lost in a Manhatton park.

So, hotels that don’t offer free wifi, it’s okay if you can’t put yourselves in our shoes. That’s fine. But at least do it for your customers happiness and your own brand. Please?!

For another rant on the lack of wifi in hotels, check out this post from Stuart McDonald (@TravelFish)

You read right! Thanks to the generous organizers of the renowned Web In Travel conference, I have two tickets to WIT Australia and I’m going to GIVE THEM AWAY! Only one catch – you have to love Twitter.

Web In Travel are looking for two eager Twitterers to cover the event live under the #WITSYD hashtag. Your tweets will help leagues of desk-bound travel industry fans keep up with the conference.

To enter, either retweet this tweet, or tweet this message:

I love to travel and I wanna tweet at WIT Australia http://bit.ly/witsyd #WITOZ

Make sure you include the link, or we won’t be able to track your entry, two names will be drawn at random on Thursday afternoon (16^th, June).

I think this is a really great opportunity for someone that might not get the nod from their employer, or cannot afford a conference on their own dime to gain some valuable experience. Tweeting a conference live is a great way to build your profile!

Conditions:
Can only enter once
Must tweet message (including link)
Two winners picked at random on the afternoon of the 16^th