Red Droid Software (http://www.reddroid.com) develops software for smart phones. Our team has spent the past year developing a series of templated applications for Android devices that enable companies, government agencies, charities, and political campaigns to easily create their own Android application. Currently we have available mobXBusiness, a templated e-Store for Android, mobXCampaign for political campaigns, and mobXCharity for non-profits. We’ll soon be announcing some other templates.

Stop and think about the evolution of New Media. We started with web sites. Everyone got one. Then along came Facebook. Everyone got an app. Then came Twitter. Now everyone Twitters. These are all channels to customers, each providing some unique and some overlapping functionality. All are designed to drive traffic to the web site. We believe that mobile devices, like Android or iPhone or Blackberry are the next new media marketing channel. In fact, we think that the mobile channel probably will be more important that Facebook or Twitter since it is completely portable. Customers can access, say a state government’s contact list and then click a phone number to call them. A customer can be on the bus and choose a gift for their husband’s birthday, save it to a wish list or email it to a friend. Can’t do that on Facebook or Twitter can you? Unless you have a special mobile connectivity card or free wi-fi and have your laptop with you.

Our mobX apps are designed to provide visibility to a company or organization’s brand. They are relatively simple apps providing easy access to contact information, product lists, donation forms and news. More sophisticated integrations to a Facebook page, online app or Twitter account is of course possible, but we believe firmly in starting small, providing value at a low price tag and then adding functionality as required. So the goal of our MobX templates for Android is to create a new channel that an organization’s customers can use to directly interact with the organization and build on the foundation as requested.

So what does Red Droid want with me?

We want to partner with design firms and provide them with another service that they can provide to their customers. You probably don’t have the time to learn how to develop an Android app. And an iPhone app. And a Blackberry app. But our staff can work with your staff to take one of our templates and customize it for your customer. We can work with you behind the scenes as a silent partner or directly with you as an official technology partner. You control the customer relationship. We just want to develop fun mobile apps.

If you’re interested in offering a solution for the next generation of New Media apps, give us a call. We can be reached at 831 295 4042 or by email at wayne@reddroid.com if you have any questions or comments.

Cake&Cupboard http://www.cakecupboard.com, based in sunny Santa Rosa, California, is an innovative cake, cookie and candy making supply boutique, providing inspiration and tools to help decorators of all levels make beautiful cakes, cupcakes and other pastries.

Red Droid Software recently created a mobXBusiness Android client for this start-up baking supply company to help them advertise their new site to Android users world wide. What have we learned so far about how mobXBusiness can drive traffic to a web site? About 20 people a day learning about Cake & Cupboard by downloading their app.

So on the one hand, this is only 20 people a day, but on the other hand, for a niche ecommerce site, this is huge! Basically 600 people a month or 7200 people a year for an investment of about $1000.00. For a site like say, ebay.com that’s nothing. But for a high-end baking supply company that’s huge. Our other customers are receiving about the same numbers of downloads. So we think that this level of traffic is going to be consistent regardless of what it is your selling.

Ask us about how Red Droid’s mobXBusiness solution can help your small business create a buzz!

Several companies have recently announced new Android Devices. And it seems that a general trend is appearing. Larger and faster.

Archos recently announced 2 Android based tablet devices. The devices are measuring in at 7 and 8 inches.

Dell also announced a 5 inch android device called the Dell Mini 5. This is a signal that Android is beginning to creep out and grow from the phone OS that is was born as and into a whole new beast.

Android will end up being in all kinds of different devices. It will be in things you see and interact with often. like phones, tablets, etc. But it will also slowly creep into areas that we don’t knowingly see and interact with it, like sensors, washing machines, etc.

Android Anarchy, an Android app review site, posted a review of 10001 Cocktails this morning. 10001 Cocktails is one of our most successful apps with hundreds of thousands of downloads and a spot in the top of the Android marketplace’s “Free” area.

Much thanks goes out from the Team at Red Droid Software to the team over at Android Anarchy. Thanks!

With the abundance of Android devices on the market there ends up being quite a diversity in the version of operating system (OS) each phone is running. This has resulted in developers coding for older versions of the OS in hopes that everyone on earth with an Android device will be able to access the application—regardless of the age of the device.

Also, often people will be totally unaware of which version of the OS they are using. Much less that they have the option and ability to upgrade when a new version is released.

And finally there are a whole group of developers with “versioned” phones. This means that the phone was set up so that the OS couldn’t be upgraded even if the developer wanted to. This is all about to change.

Android and me reports that all US android devices will soon be getting the 2.1 version of the OS.

This is very exciting because 2.1 is the version with which Google decided to turn on multi-touch. Until this release the Android platform only supported single touch. This fact alone limited developers and designers in the types of games and interfaces that could be developed.

Now that all Android devices will be getting multi-touch we can expect the number of games in the marketplace to increase even quicker. We can also expect applications to have a much smoother interface that implements pinches, multi-finger swipes, and other advanced interactions.

At Red Droid Software we program and develop for all versions of the Android OS. And we are very aware when a new version is released and what new features are included.

This chart from the Android Developer center shows the breakdown and distribution of the OS across handsets worldwide.

Endgadget reports that AT&T have announced that they will be releasing 5 new Android devices in the first half of 2010 including devices from Motorola, Dell, and HTC.

This may strike you odd if you remember that AT&T is the exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone. Some people speculate that with the Apple and AT&T contract about to expire AT&T might be covering their bases in case Apple decides to jump ship and join with Verizon. Others speculate that the Android platform is growing so quickly that it is just too good of an opportunity for AT&T to pass up.

Having the exclusive provider of the iPhone show support for the Android platform is a major sign of Android maturing and coming of age. The iPhone has been a smash hit for AT&T and Apple and this announcement shows that AT&T recognizes the potential of the Android Platform and is ready to make a significant investment in it regardless of it’s current relationship with Apple.

Brand Awareness is probably the easiest of the three business models to develop to. Basically, it means that your app exists not to make money directly from the Android channel but to increase awareness of your non-Android business channels, products and services. Brand Awareness apps generally don’t have ads or a cost to download, represent recognizable products, companies or services and have a wide variety of features and prominent links back to the brand’s web site.

Red Droid used this model when it started developing Android applications a few years ago when the first Android SDK was released. Hard to believe that our staff has been doing Android for almost two years! Basically when we rolled out our first App, FreshPowderReport there were probably only a few thousand apps available. Now it seems like a thousand a day gets published! But anyway, based on our research, we felt that putting ads on the apps would discourage downloads, so we intentionally waited almost a year to do so. And the results? Because our apps were so successful in terms of downloads, we were able to showcase the our brand as a premier Android consulting company and not worry about making a buck or two a day off of ads or app sales.

Using Android for Brand Awareness is not just about having an Android App, it’s about connecting your Channels.

We recently did a very quick prototype for one of our stealth customers where his idea is totally about driving brand awareness for leading consumer product and service providers. Think P&G, McDonalds’, Sony or Hersheys. We quickly realized the implications of the idea for driving traffic to other non-web site channels, like Twitter and Facebook and even offline channels like retailers and even concerts and events! Using the Android Channel as a brand awareness tool is not just about having an Android app that does something and reinforces your brand, but also reminding your customers about the other channels. So having interaction between Android and your other channels like Facebook is critical to making this business model work for you.

Our mobXBusiness is all about brand awareness. For candidates for public office, mobXCampaign is a cost effective Android App template for delivering their message to voters, solicit donations and pledges, notify their true believers of campaign events and interact with constituents via email, texting and even the ability to direct dial their campaign headquarters. We’re very excited about the first licensees of mobXCampaign and can’t wait to roll it out!

Similarly, mobXBusiness is a template for increasing brand awareness for a company and enables them to put selected products in an app and provide basic ecommerce functionality right on the phone.

Why do companies need a mobile presence to promote brand awareness?

Would they shut down their web site? Stop advertising on TV or radio or other media? No of course not. Mobile is simply another channel for increasing brand awareness. We think because of the mobile channel’s portability and ability to link into other channels like Facebook, Twitter or web sites as well as features like the ability to and share things like pictures and video with friends, makes developing a mobile a no-brainer for increasing brand awareness.

In our next installment of this series, we’ll look at another business model, Ad Supported, and give you some inside information on how we’re using it and what to expect.

Wow, what a week. When I talk to people about eCommerce and the mobile space, I think back to my early days (1995-1996) with my first company called Trade Compass. We were a very early Internet site that specialized in connecting U.S. importers and exporters with overseas trading partners. Back then, remember, email was just taking off in companies and the www was just an infant. But I remember talking to U.S. companies about setting up web sites for themselves. Even at $99 a year it was a hard sell. Now everyone has a web site. A twitter account. A Facebook page. An Intranet.

You can lead a horse to water….

My point is, mobile is just like the Internet back in 1995-1996. You have apps being developed but no real commerce yet. That’s where Red Droid’s mobXBusiness, as well as some other mobX’s in the series we’re developing, comes in. We’re probably one of the first companies that is focusing on mobile eCommerce templated solutions for business, small and large. mobXBusiness is templated eCommerce software for Android and soon iPhone and Blackberry that can integrate with your ecommerce backend web site to sell your online catalog, directly from the phone. Just like you set up a web site, you can easily set up a mobile business version. Anyway, enough propaganda.

We’re very pleased to announce the third mobXBusiness licensee for Android, boilCrawfish.com (http://www.boilcrawfish.com) (I love their logo. )




BoilCrawfish.com is run by a husband and wife team out of Dallas, TX. The owner grew up in South Louisiana loving the fresh fish, shrimp, crabs, oysters, crawfish, and the like. Moving to Dallas, after college, the owner quickly realized that he missed home cookin’ and set out to find a pot and burner to throw his own boils for his friends. There were turkey fryers with boiling baskets everywhere, but the largest one available was only 34 Quarts. And that just isn’t big enough.

So he decided to start boilcrawfish.com and the rest is history.

The BoilCrawfish team is already on Facebook and is doing a pretty good business on the web. But they’re always on the lookout for new sales channels. So when they stumbled on Red Droid’s moBusiness, they decided to give it a shot.

“We emailed the Red Droid team and they sent us some simple instructions. Basically all we had to do is fill out a little text document, zip up our images and send them back to them. Took about 2 hours or so to figure out what products we wanted and to copy and paste the descriptions of them from the web site. We emailed them to Red Droid and were shocked when half a day later, we were live in the marketplace. We’re very pleased with the downloads and have gotten some really nice emails and a few product inquiries already. It’s amazing how many ex-Louisianians are out there!”, said Andrew Beyer, owner of BoilCrawfish.com

There you have it. I’m just waiting for Andrew to send me a pot of my own. Out here in Santa Cruz, we got some great Dungeness Crabs that would be perfect for a late summer boil!

Huge news from the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona this week. Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that Android is now shipping on 60,000 handsets daily!

From mobilecrunch “If that’s a true average rate and it holds true for the next year, that works out to about 5.4 million handsets per quarter, or 21.9 million per year. Not only that, but the rate seems to be growing fairly rapidly; according to Schmidt, the rate has nearly doubled over the last quarter. Solely as a point of reference for the curious: Apple sold 8.7 million iPhones last quarter.”

What does this signal for the world at large? It means we are witnessing the greatest proliferation of high quality-low cost technology in our history and it is being fueled by Android. It means that open source software is ripening as a platform—with major industries betting their collective futures on it.

What does this mean for Red Droid Software? Business as usual. We saw this trend early on and have been programming for Android since the early days. We have deployed over 15 distinct projects to the Android Marketplace either as Red Droid Software or for clients. We have worked with almost every area of the Android API including calendaring, mapping, live folders, custom widgets, data synchronization, backend integration and GPS, sensors, text message interception and processing and sdcard integration. Like I said, business as usual.

Also, we recently launched moBusiness & appULearn. Both are templates that are available for a fast launch of your idea. We create high quality templates that are easy to customize and launch into the Android Marketplace.

And what does this mean for you? This means that you now have access to another avenue to reach millions of consumers. It means that you can quickly and effectively get your most recent product or idea out to the millions of new users of the Android platform. And it means that you too can participate in Android’s explosive growth and potential.

Mobile devices offer a unique opportunity to rethink the way in which we learn and interact. They also allow us to build new tools for our children to play and study with. At Red Droid Software we are very happy to announce the release of appULearn.

appULearn Templates makes publishing children’s books and other educational software a snap!

appULearn Templates for Android makes publishing children’s books and other educational software a snap!
Each page of your book becomes a screen in Android. Forward and back arrows are easily accessible for all Android screens. You
simply organize the text and images/sound files/video by page, fill out a simple Microsoft Excel document that tells our staff what image and/or text
goes on each screen, email us all the images, sound files and video files and we handle the rest! A few days later, we’ll release a private copy of your book
that you can install on your phone! Once approved, it’s off to the Google Marketplace!

But our services can include more than simply using a template to publish your app. We can customize it to meet your needs. We can also assist you
with the marketing and sales of your app. You app can be included free of charge in our soon to be released Red Droid Advertising Network that includes
some of Android’s most popular apps! Let’s face it. The Android Marketplace is clogged with Junk Apps and visibility via free advertising
will drive downloads!

Contact Red Droid Software today at 831 295 4042 to learn how easy it is for your campaign to get an app created and deployed in the Android marketplace. We can
have you up and running in as little as 72 hours.

Want a demo of one of our AppULearn Apps? Give us a call!