4 Ways To Better Market Your iPhone/iPad/Android App

by Mike Vallez on February 12, 2011

Planing your app marketing efforts for your iPhone, iPad, or Android app is critical. Marketing your app is not as daunting as one would think. That being said there is still a process or strategy that should be put into place to give your app a chance at succeeding in the very competitive world of iPhone/iPad and Android apps. There are 316,229 approved iPhone apps, 67,931 iPad apps (via http://www.appshopper.com) and 113,124 (via http://www.androlib.com/) at the time of this post, indicating that there is a lot of competition in the app world. According to Gartner the industry leader in market research, app sales will approach 15 billion dollars in 2011 (via TechCrunch). With the increases app sales there will be increased development and more competition. Here are 4 ways to better market your iPhone/iPad or Android app to success.

1) Start early- Before you start coding you should develop a marketing plan around your app idea. Determine who you are targeting, the branding, genera, niche market, how are you going to get your app noticed and incorporate this into the development process. A check of the competition is also a good idea before development starts. For example if you are making a “Flashlight” app you may want to see what the competition is in this utility category so you can add a feature or concept to make your app stand out from your competition.

2) Create A Web Page- Developing a web page for an iPhone app is mission critical. You should look at your app as a product, if you look at any different then you are short changing yourself. In this day and age if you have are selling a product and have no website are not meeting the consumer where they are looking for information, which is on the web. The cost to set up a website is 0, so the decision to do so is a no brainer. A developer outfit that has a great blog, which can suffice as a website is Bolt Creative, the creators of the hugely popular “Pocket God” iPhone, iPad, and Android app. (link to website: http://pocketgod.blogspot.com/). A couple of important features you should include in your website are 1) upcoming news about your app release, updates, improvements, etc and 2) contact information for customer service. A third bit of information that would be useful on an app website are FAQ’s (frequently asked questions) for users to solve their own problems without having to contact you.

3) Create Social Media Profiles- Once you have determined your branding before you app development or during app development (lets be realistic) you need to create profiles in all the major social media networks. The social media networks to concentrate on are Twitter, Facebook (Fan Page), Friend Feed, Touch Arcade, YouTube, MySpace, and any other social network where you can disseminate status updates about your new app. One of the social networks that is grossly under used by developers is YouTube. If you can develop an app you can do a short video trailer for your app to some cool and post to YouTube. Another tip is to use your friends and your own personal social footprint to help grow your new app branded social media profiles.

4) Plan Your Launch- Keep it simple stupid is the best plan of attack here. Here is what my simple plan would include: 1) send out a press release using prmac, which costs about $20. 2) Hold a giveaway by using your Facebook profile, Twitter, etc to get people to share that your app has launched. You can giveaway promo codes, iTunes gift cards, but giving away and iPad or iPod Touch will generate some buzz and you want all the buzz you can get. A few tips, for giveaways, keep the time frame of the giveaway short like a day to no more than 7 days and make the requirements for winning easy to do such as “Please like my fan page” to win.

The 4 tips in this blog post will help you to get a handle on planning to market your iPhone, iPad, or Android app. While these tips are but a few they are meant to give you a better chance at making your app chart to success and higher revenues. MV

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Magnum Gear Protects The Protectors-Law Enforcement Tools

by Mike Vallez on January 15, 2011

While attending the International Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference in Orlando, Florida this year I had the opportunity to connect with Alexis Nascimento, Social Media Specialist for Magnum USA. If you are not aware what Magnum USA makes, primarily they are known for high quality law enforcement boots. But, Magnum USA is much more than just a police boot maker, they make clothes and other products for the Military, EMS, and anyone else who works in a tough work environment. Alexis handles Magnum USA’s social media efforts so we had a nice conversation regarding social media, then Alexis asked if I would like to become a field tester. Duh, this was not a hard question to answer. Here was the proposition from Alexis, free Magnum products, for honest, non-biased reviews of said products. I agreed and a about 6 weeks later I received a pair of Magnum Stealth Force 8 SZ WPI law enforcement professional boots as well as a new Magnum Taurus winter duty jacket. For full disclosure I do get to keep both the jacket and boots, but this blog post and review of those products is no way affected by this. Actually, to Magnum’s credit they encourage honest reviews of their products by consumers. They do this through the “Field Tester” program by asking customers to leave honest reviews/feedback for the Magnum products they purchased and used. I applaud Magnum USA for using customers to determine how products are engineered and made. Who better to listen to than those who consume your products? Too bad more manufactures don’t follow this model.

Now for the review of the products:

Magnum Stealth Force 8 SZ WPI boots- Also for full disclosure, these Magnum boots were not my first pair, I regularly wore Magnum boots while a police officer in Tampa, Florida. These boots were very nice. While my feet are weirdly enough different sizes from each other I had no problem fitting either foot in these boots. These boots are high cut, full laces, with a quick zipper access on the side of each boot and a velcro clasp. Since I am retired I did not take the boots out into the streets, but I did take them out on my 4.5 acres of land. I gathered wood with them, hiked on my land, and wore them in my house, much to my wife’s dismay. The end result is the boots are great. They are light enough to briefly run in, but sturdy enough to give you that extra leverage you may need.

Magnum Taurus Jacket, Black, Large- If you have followed the weather news this winter you may have been aware that it has been really cold in Florida as of late, my home is in West Central Florida. Now don’t shed too many tears for me, but I am really glad I had the Magnum Taurus jacket this winter. The jacket is a heavy enough to keep you warm, but light enough to feel more like a wind breaker. The Tecproof material kept me warm in damp conditions without causing any sweat. The jacket is duty made for a gun belt with zipper break aways on both sides as well as extra magazine slots on the inside. I never felt cold wearing the jacket and recommend this to anyone who works in cold environments.

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Mobile Biometrics Security Industry Game Changer

by Mike Vallez on January 14, 2011

While in Santa Monica, California this week speaking at the SMILE conference (social media internet law enforcement) I had the opportunity to demo a mobile biometric facial recognition software solution called FaceFirst. The company Airborne Biometrics was nice enough to pick me up and bring me to their company in lovely Camarillo, California for the demo. The building housing the company is not unlike any other industrial or commercial building, but what was different inside the building is the technology FaceFirst offers the security industry.

If you have watched the hit TV show 24 then you have been exposed to all sorts of fantastical technology solutions that Jack Bauer had at his beckon call. Well one of those solutions, mobile biometric facial recognition is no longer just fantasy. Here is how the demo went for the FaceFirst product. I sat down for an approximately 45 minute meeting in which by the end of the meeting I wanted to buy stock, unfortunately for me Airborne Biometrics is a private company. The Founder & President Joe Rosenkrantz demonstrated the FaceFirst solution which uses a smartphone, digital camera, or other video camera (to include currently installed security cameras) to capture images either through video or still photos. Once an image is obtained by a device it is processed through an existing database for a match of the subject or “enrollee.” If there is a match an alert is sent realtime via text or email based on a pre-determined threshold to an alert distribution list. As you can see this kind of security solution has tremendous implications in the current security challenged environment.

A few obvious uses for this technology would be airport security entrances. Yes this may only work for enrolled subjects, but a future feature will allow for “white listing” individuals for comparison of images on the world wide web. Maybe this would have been useful in the Gabrielle Giffords shooting? Another future use I am quite fond of is a camera placed on a law enforcement officer’s shirt that would allow the officer to scan individuals in a vehicle during a traffic stop for immediate identification of potential security risks to that officer.

FaceFirst is an awesome security solution that will not just be limited law enforcement. Additional uses of this product include military, transportation, retail, and commercial business use. As security risks continue to grow technology like FaceFirst is being developed to help cope with the continued threats against this country both internally and externally.

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Can Your Smartphone Be Searched By Law Enforcement? My First Foray Into Quora

by Mike Vallez on January 4, 2011

Today I found myself joining the new social networking site quora.com after reading an article on TechCrunch about technology that will blow up in 2011. I had no real knowledge of Quora until reading this article, not wanting to be left behind, I joined. What I found was a unique question and answer social community based on users likes and followed topics. Quora does the hard work for you once you join. All I had to do was sign up create a profile and numerous topics were suggested for me based on my profile. One obvious topic suggested was law enforcement.

After adding some users via my Twitter and Facebook accounts, which can be tied into Quora I found myself looking to answer a question. I went to the unanswered law enforcement questions and selected a rather tough one to answer as follows:

Question: “Should the police have the ability to search your mobile phone without a warrant?”

My Answer: For now that depends on each situation and this will no doubt be a future court case ending up in high court. Here is my current take on this. Law Enforcement may only search your cell phone/smart phone if 1) voluntary submission by owner 2) exigent circumstances-belief there is information on the device that may save life/protect law enforcement, etc, in days of terrorism this is/will be a huge warrantless search issue 3) plain view- if the device is considered to be part of a crime i.e. evidence then it can be seized, now diving into the device law enforcement would best be served to get a warrant after seizing to protect any evidence seized. It is always best to get a warrant when possible, then your evidence is better protected. Hope this answers your question, mind you there will be challenges to the 4th amendment soon regarding technical areas like this.

Quora intrigued me and I believe as TechCrunch has aptly forecasted that Quora will grow this year, whether they “pop” in user size like Twitter did in 2009, we will see. I appreciate the heads up by TechCrunch and advise any experts out there or people who want questions answered head over to Quora and sign up today and start learning or help others learn. MV

**the opinions expressed in this blog in no way represent or are intended to be taken as legal advice. Michael Vallez is not an attorney, but is a retired police officer who provides his opinion on law enforcement issues**

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Mobile Video Usage Explodes in 2010

by Mike Vallez on December 21, 2010

A few weeks ago YouTube posted unbelievable statistics on their blog regarding the massive amount of video uploads that occur on a daily basis. But how are people consuming this massive amount of video content? Apparently, an ever increasing amount of video is begin watched using mobile devices. According to MeFeedia and Nielsen mobile video usage exploded in 2010 and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Nielsen research users using mobile devices to watch video has climbed upwards of 43% compared to the same time last year.

MeFeedia’s research on mobile video consumption targeted the type of device being used to consume mobile video. Not surprisingly the iPhone leads the pack in mobile viewing, Android comes in second and iPad third. The iPhone and iPad account for roughly 52% of devices viewing mobile video. An interesting piece of information from MeFeedia’s research was mobile video engagement was 40% greater than PC/desktop video engagement.

What does all this mean? We are fast becoming a technologically mobile society, which will impact the way people obtain and consume information forever. These statistics are only the beginning and I would gather that in a few short years as mobile device technology increases the video consumption on mobile devices will continue to grow exponentially. Do you watch videos on your mobile device? If so how much, how often?

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5 Reasons the Army is issuing iPhone and Android Smartphone’s to Troops?

by Mike Vallez on December 19, 2010

The Army budget morphs that of individual law enforcement agencies, but thinking outside the box seems to be consistent on the battle field. The US Army is going to equip their field soldiers on the front lines with iPhones and or Android mobile device as soon as the Spring of 2011. I originally saw an article on www.digitaltrends.com and tracked the original information to the www.armytimes.com website. As a mobile device evangelist, enthusiast, I find the Army’s action to be an obvious technology progression of both physical mobile devices and web 2.0 technologies. Below are 5 reasons why the Army is issuing mobile devices to troops.

1) Portability- Mobile devices are small enough to slip into a pants pocket, jacket pocket, ruck sack, duffle bag, etc.

2) Powerful- Smartphone’s have become mini laptops in the last year or so and upcoming generations of these devices will boast duo core processors, increased graphics, more HD video capture models and overall more power.

3) Real Time Intelligence- At war, smart phones would let soldiers view real-time intelligence and video from unmanned systems overhead. Drones would be able to provide intelligence to field personnel via smartphone. While this certainly already occurs with laptops, laptops are unreasonable to carry individually.

4) Real Time Maps- Track friends and enemies on dynamic maps, this could certainly be life saving.

5) Real Time Information- Soldiers will have the opportunity to use network searches, email, MMS, and get information real time while in critical situations, through individual mobile devices.

My first thought was, how are the soldiers going to access a network? Not to worry, the Army has already been working on this with basically a portable or mobile cell tower that would provide soldiers a mobile network in battlefield situations. There really is no argument why this is not a brilliant move by the Army to equip their troops with more information. Does law enforcement see the same benefit as the Army does from mobile devices? I think issuing police officers iPhone and or Android smartphone’s is also a no brainer, what do you think?

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Should Prisoners Have Access to Social Networks?

by Mike Vallez on December 5, 2010

Social Media in Prison

Personally, I feel if you are in prison you should lose the right to have access to social media, social networking, and people in general. If you have made it to a prison cell you have been convicted of a crime by a judge or jury, thus limiting your rights. Kind of like being a kid who gets in trouble in kindergarten or grade school and gets a time out. The kids in time out aren’t watching TV, playing video games, talking to other kids or updating their status on their Facebook pages. According to a Police One article an inmate named Justin L. Walker has pictures of him smoking a bong, licking a shiv (homemade prison knife), and holding a bottle of booze (other inmate holding a bag of weed). How is this possible? While these may not be 100% authentic (weed & booze), the flame is as well as the picture of the shiv.

The above pictures were easy to find through a search on Facebook for this guy. Besides stupidity for 1) taking pictures of potential criminal activities, 2) posting them on Facebook profile or 3) having someone else post on Facebook profile, why does this guy have access to Facebook, a cell phone or camera? Bottom line, this guy killed a Sheriff in Oklahoma and he has numerous other criminal charges and should not have the freedom to do this. Do we want people like this on Facebook? Do you want this guy friending your child, girlfriend, mother? I don’t. The obvious security risks posed by an inmate having access to communicate on a social network are dangerous. While law enforcement has been slow to deal with social media, apparently, the correctional system should be working on plans to prevent inmates from participating in this type of communication. What do you think? MV

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Is your organization ready for the mobile video explosion?

by Mike Vallez on November 13, 2010

A recent article by GoMo News, “Mobile video use explodes for YouTube” is very telling about the increase of mobile video consumption. Even more telling is a recent article by YouTube’s own blog, “Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube.” It is rather apparent that we are in the midst of a video content creation explosion the likes that this world has never seen. This may sound dramatic, but lets look at some of the stats these two articles present.

-75% of YouTube users say mobile is their primary way to access YouTube
-35 hours of video uploaded a minute, equates to 2,100 hours of uploaded video in an hour
-50,400 hours of video uploaded daily to YouTube
-70% use YouTube’s mobile site a least once a day

The increased mobile use and the increase in upload of video content goes hand in hand and you can see that YouTube, the worlds largest video social networking site and second largest search engine continues to grow. Some reasons for the increased upload of videos are the increase in length of uploaded videos by YouTube, the continued technological advances in mobile handsets (iPhone, Droid X, etc) and portable video devices (Flip, Kodak, etc.) as well as the increased use of YouTube’s api allowing for upload of videos from other social networking sites, video games, and other online communities. But what does this mean for corporations, law enforcement, and people in general?

One of the biggest issues that corporations, law enforcement agencies, and people are going to have to come to grips with is that video will soon be on the web as fast as Tweets. Now this is already happening to a certain extent with more tech savvy social networkers, but prepare yourself for the masses to become instant reporters of police brutality, poor product performance, failed product performance, poor service and the list goes on. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube continue to change the way people consume information, but if you notice YouTube videos are shared on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email, blogs, etc, which allows for continued growth of mobile video consumption and content creation.

Is your organization prepared to deal with the ramifications of the video world? I would like to hear from you if you are experiencing challenges from the new video age we are living in. mike@michaelvallez.com.

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Is Video Taping The Police Legal?

by Mike Vallez on November 11, 2010

Police work changed as a result of the Rodney King beating video that was recorded by bystander George Holliday on March 3, 1991. At the time mobile video recording was relatively still new. But, the recorded images of Rodney King being beaten transcended anything he did prior to the video captured beating by LAPD officers. What about now? How is video capturing effecting police work today in 2010 almost 20 years later? Here are some examples of recent news articles involving mobile video recording of law enforcement:

1) Gizmodo- Are Cameras the New Guns?

2) Cato@Libery.org- “Privacy” v. Justice: Wiretapping Case Update

3) Aolnews.- Video: Cop Socks Girl During Jaywalking Stop

With the technological metamorphous that is occurring in mobile video technology it is only a matter of time before there will be no expectation of privacy, if there is not already. Currently with my iPhone I can capture high definition (HD) video, edit it on my iPhone, and upload it to YouTube within a few minutes. Additionally, USTREAM allows for live streaming of video content from mobile devices, laptops, and desktops. But, what are the laws pertaining to uploading of mobil video content?

There is no single law that controls video recording, it is basically a state by state decision, but here is a rough explanation of video recording laws (also known as wiretapping laws) recording/wiretapping throughout the United States: Video recording is legal in public, if there is no expectation to privacy where/when the recording occurs. But, this law differs from state to state so be sure to check out The Citizen Media Project for specific laws for each state. Most of the above articles make it clear that law enforcement as well as normal citizens have little expectation to video privacy while in a public setting. What say you? How do you think mobile video capturing and uploading is going to change your life?

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