This past week, Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team hosted Mobile Acceleration Week at our Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, CA. The purpose of the event was to accelerate development of applications in advance of our Windows Phone 7 launch this fall and featured 13 of our top mobile startups. The companies represented a diversity of applications, from a mobile social networking app for sports (CrowdZone) to an application designed to monitor vehicle safety and health (Motolingo). The startups ranged from stealth mode startups building their first mobile application (Cellixis) to more established companies with successful iPhone and Android titles (Digital Chocolate, UStream.TV).
Modeled after our popular Mobile Incubation Week program, the event offered startups on-site technical and business assistance from Microsoft, as well as third-party support from partners iLink, Muranosoft, and Corpus Mobile. In addition to development workshops, the week featured educational sessions on the WP7 Application Lifecycle, User Interface and User Experience, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, and the WP7 Partner Perspective with guest speaker OpenTable. Feedback from the participants and partners has been extremely positive. Many startups commented on the value of having real-time access to Microsoft staff and technical experts, coding support and business advice they received during the week, and the opportunity to network with other startups. Some selected quotes:
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“I was shocked in 8 days that we’ve been able to port everything over and have a working application. We’re believers now!”
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“This is our big bet for the year. The backing of Microsoft makes this really exciting for us.”
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“This has been a perfect crash course to get us up to speed and get that much further down the road to take advantage of the platform.”
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“We found it invaluable to have everyone (vendors, Microsoft support) in one room for a week.”
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“It’s been a really successful week for us, especially considering we just started development three weeks ago. We appreciate Microsoft’s openness. Having an event like this gets us in front of and access to the people we need to talk to. It’s a very different environment.”
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“This week on campus was a big help. We would never have gotten this far without it. Having access to engineers, connecting with other startups, etc., it was a great experience.” Press Coverage
Harry McCracken of Technologizer interviewed the startups on Thursday, following with an article on PCWorld, Windows Phone 7 Apps: Third Party Early Birds Arrive. In the PCWorld article, McCracken notes the importance of third-party applications to the ultimate success of phone operating systems. In closing, McCracken wrote: “If the WinPhone programs that are available on day one live up to the promise of the ones I saw, I think there’s a good chance that people will be pleasantly surprised by the third-party software solution.”
Who Participated
· Cellixis: Personal mobile concierge to find restaurants, bars, entertainment
· CrowdZone: ‘Mobile crowd network’ that comes alive during sports events, fans can check into games, post photos, text ShoutOuts, and connect with friends
· Digital Chocolate: Leading publisher of games for mobile phones
· Flixster: Social networking site for movie fans where users can create their own profiles, invite friends, rate movies and actors and post reviews
· Graphic.ly: Provides an immersive social experience and marketplace around digital comics and associated merchandise.
· Loopt: Location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them – enabling them to find and enjoy the friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now
· Motolingo: Connects your car’s computer with your smartphone to offer information on your vehicle’s location, fuel consumption, and other key metrics
· PageOnce: Developed an internet ‘assistant’ that helps both consumers manage their online lives and marketers connect with those same consumers
· Retrevo: Consumer electronics site that aggregates product information, reviews, articles from blogs, forums and websites to help shoppers make smart, confident decisions on what, when, and where to buy consumer electronics.
· Soundtrckr: A free geo-social music service for smartphones and the web
· theChanner: A social TV platform to enjoy and participate in watching Internet television on your phone
· Ustream: An interactive platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection quickly and easily to broadcast to an online global audience
· YomoMedia: Automatically downloads news, blogs, podcasts, audio and video so they’re available when you want, without waiting.
Development Work
UI/UX Presentation
Third-Party Development Support
Getting Feedback on First Prototype
Startups Collaborating
Partner Networking Dinner
Send-off Lunch
This week, thirteen startups from around the world joined in the Windows Phone 7 Mobile Acceleration Week taking place at Microsoft Silicon Valley in Mountain View, CA. From personal finance management to digital comic book delivery, these startups are developing compelling apps for the upcoming launch of Windows Phone 7.
 During the week, startups are receiving dedicated technical guidance from Microsoft product experts from the Windows Phone, Silverlight, and Premier Services teams, business advice from the Microsoft Emerging Business Team, and development support from partners Muranosoft, Corpus Mobile, and iLink.
Congratulations to the select startups invited to participate in the Mobile Acceleration Week, and stay tuned for the launch of Windows Phone 7 this fall!
Meet the startups participating in Mobile Acceleration Week:
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Cellixis: Personal mobile concierge to find restaurants, bars, entertainment |
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CrowdZone: ‘mobile crowd network’ that comes alive during sports events, fans can check into games, post photos, text ShoutOuts, and connect with friends |
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Digital Chocolate: Leading publisher of games for mobile phones |
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Flixster: social networking site for movie fans where users can create their own profiles, invite friends, rate movies and actors and post reviews |
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Graphic.ly: provides an immersive social experience and marketplace around digital comics and associated merchandise. |
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Loopt: location-based social mapping service that allows individuals to use their location to discover the world around them – enabling them to find and enjoy the friends, places, and events that mean the most right here and now |
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Motolingo: connects your car’s computer with your smartphone to offer information on your vehicle’s location, fuel consumption, and other key metrics |
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PageOnce: developed an internet ‘assistant’ that helps both consumers manage their online lives and marketers connect with those same consumers |
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Retrevo: consumer electronics site that aggregates product information, reviews, articles from blogs, forums and websites to help shoppers make smart, confident decisions on what, when, and where to buy consumer electronics. |
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Soundtrckr: a free geosocial music service for smartphones and the web |
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theChanner: a social TV platform to enjoy and participate watching the Internet television on the phone |
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Ustream: an interactive platform that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to quickly and easily broadcast to an online global audience |
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YomoMedia: automatically downloads news, blogs, podcasts, audio and video so they’re available when you want, without waiting. |
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To learn more about development resources and tools for Windows Phone 7, visit Windows Phone for Developers.
Location Labs, formerly WaveMarket, announced some exciting changes last week. You may remember WaveMarket as our Mobile Incubation Week winner in Washington, D.C. last fall. Their new Universal Location Service allows developers to locate 180+ million phones across tier-one carriers. ULS promises to simplify the effort involved for developers to build across multiple operating systems and devices and gives an instant entry point into the feature phone space.
By tapping into the carrier networks, Location Labs offers a single remote API with no download required. Location Labs is also launching a geo-fencing API that can trigger a notification if a friend is in the area. The company plans to leverage its platform, already running AT&T’s Family Finder and Sprint’s Family Locator, to bring the same low-cost location service to developers. Social apps might allow people to check in via SMS or mobile browsers, increasing the footprint beyond smartphones.
For more information or to sign up, visit the Location Labs website.
This week, Microsoft is featuring Motolingo, a Bizspark startup and Mobile Incubation Week finalist, in our pavilion at DEMO Spring in Palm Desert, CA. For anyone at DEMO, come by the booth to meet Charles Nesser, Motolingo’s founder and CEO and get a demo of their latest application.
Motolingo - for Safer, Greener Roads
Motolingo is working to make our roads both safer and greener. Motolingo’s mobile phone applications monitor mobile phone usage and use the data available from a car’s computers to diagnose engine failures and detect aggressive driving behaviors.
Motolingo’s mission is to use the wealth of information available from our cars' computers to improve driver safety, prevent breakdowns and reduce operating costs, according to founder and CEO, Charles Nesser.
Nesser and his co-founder, Mitch Todd, combine extensive experience in the automotive industry and in software development. Nesser began his career with GM, the largest automotive manufacturer at the time, and later worked in Product Marketing and Management for Bosch, the largest automotive supplier. He started out working on the OBDII systems (that turn on the Check Engine Light in today's cars) and has managed telematics fleet tracking systems, On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) service tools, and vehicle simulators and test systems. Todd worked as a software engineer for ETAS, the developer of automotive diagnostic and Electronic Control Unit (ECU) tools.
Motolingo has developed a suite of applications for Windows Phones. The applications communicate with On-Board Communications Devices in 1996 and newer vehicles. They provide services for both the consumer and business markets – concerned parents and family members, as well as companies that want to protect their interests by mandating safe driving habits amongst their employees.
 Motolingo launched its first product, MotoCarma, in February 2009. MotoCarma provides vehicle diagnostics. It helps reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions by continuously monitoring a vehicle’s combustion quality through a wireless network connection from a mobile phone to a vehicle’s on-board computers. MotoCarma detects aggressive driving and overly aggressive accelerations that increase fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), aggressive driving can lower gas mileage by 33% at highway speeds, translating to dramatically reduced fuel consumption and costs. With MotoCarma’s solution, when MotoCarma detects violations, it warns the driver by playing an audible chime on the driver’s mobile phone and records the results in an email report. Along with green monitoring, MotoCarma can also warn of engine overheating, speeding, low fuel level, and identify what caused a check engine light to illuminate.
Motolingo’s most recent product, MotoRiety, released to beta in September 2009, adds safeguards against distracted driving. MotoRiety monitors Driving While Texting/Emailing/Phoning and delivers warnings to the driver as well as reports to a loved one or fleet manager. Monitoring reports can be sent by email or by Twitter using the Street TweetTM feature.
Motolingo was one of six startups, chosen from an applicant pool of over 60 companies, to participate in the first Microsoft Mobile Incubation Week last April in Mountain View, CA. You can see the new Free and Pro versions of MotoRiety in the Microsoft Pavilion at Demo Spring from March 22-23, 2010 in Palm Desert, CA. Today features one of our Bizspark One companies, Ubitexx, as Startup of the Day. I’ve invited Markus Mueller, CEO of Ubitexx, to share his thoughts on the industry. Guest blogger Markus Mueller, CEO of Ubitexx So finally the industry noticed that each working individual is also a consumer. The times are gone where IT departments decided which devices employees should use. Today young talents and senior executives ask for the device of their choice. And IT staff has to make sure that these devices are managed and secure. Wow… what a change within the enterprise system. Finally employees are true “internal customers” with demands and choices. Of course this puts some pressure and stress on the IT departments. How are you going to handle a “device jungle” in your company. This seams like a security nightmare – not to speak from supporting all these different devices. But there is good news for IT decision makers: The mobile software industry now offers scaleable and secure central management system software for multiple mobile operating systems. With these tools Chief Security Officers as well as CIO’s get back their sleep knowing that corporate security policies can be enforced on mobile devices. And: finally there is one place where IT and help-desk staff can inventory, view and manage all major smartphones through one console. ubitexx is one of the pioneers in the Mobile Device Management space with it’s award winning product “ubi-Suite”. We spent several years as consultants in the mobile enterprise space before we created ubi-Suite – this is why our customers like our product so much: it was not created on a sketch-board but it was the result of more than 350 mobile projects. So what comes next? What is the next big challenge for us – and improvement for our customers? It seems that enterprises get more and more comfortable with mobile technologies. This is why more sensitive corporate data is being pushed to smartphones – like CRM or ERP data. This raises security concerns as well as questions about integration. Corporate networks are unique, even more so their enterprise software systems. The security concern is the easy part – solutions like ours give the IT enough control to enforce all kinds of security policies and make sure that data is transmitted securely to the device. But what about the integration part? Here we can make use of a general IT market development: the cloud. Salesforce.com has done a great pinoeer job in this area. So why not also move smartphones up into the cloud. They are location independent – so is the cloud. And it solves a lot of the mentioned integration issues. Mobile Device Management would be a perfect first cloud-service for smartphones. This is why we just announced cloud-support for our product: “ubi-Suite Cloud”. We will use Microsoft’s cloud service platform “Windows Azure” to serve our customers all around the world because we believe in the scalability and security model as well as the marketing power of Microsoft. So watch out for our “ubi-Suite Cloud” service offering – coming soon.
In the most closely contested Mobile Incubation Week to date, WaveMarket pulled out a dramatic victory in the fourth Mobile Incubation Week in Washington, D.C. September 28-October 2. The event featured a strong line-up of startups, ranging from an enterprise-focused project management tool to a mobile application focused on skincare for women. Spry took home the Team Spirit Award, capping an intense week-long marathon by all teams. Follow our Twitter site for the play by play.
The week started off with a feature on ABC News on Mobile Incubation Week and the launch of Windows phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Alex Housley from Rummble, a MIW London alumnus, joined me for the news segment on ABC’s Ahead of the Curve.
Mobile Incubation Week on ABC News
Following a similar format to our previous Mobile Incubation Week events in Mountain View, London, and Singapore, the week was a mix of educational workshops, 1:1 business coaching, technical support, and development sprints. Featured sessions included a chalk talk on Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, How to Work with Mobile Operators led by Sprint, and How to Get the Most out of Mobile Incubation Week led by Rummble. The 1:1 business consulting sessions focused on business plan improvements, opportunities to partner with Microsoft, and pitch refinement for our final judging on Friday. Two technical experts from Microsoft’s Premier Consulting Services were on-hand to answer questions, give advice, and speed development time.
Final judging took place on Friday and included a diverse panel with a wealth of experience in the mobile industry, including: Michael Avon from Columbia Capital, Saj Cherian from Valhalla Partners, Jackie Luo from Sprint, Dayakar Puskoor from GlobalOutlook, and David Steinberg formerly at Swapdrive and now advisor to Core Capital.
Special thanks to our partners for the week, including Sprint, Muranosoft, and Corpus Mobile. Murano and Corpus supported with onsite staff and offshore developers during the week.
Most importantly, congratulations to our startups for a job well done. All five companies developed a working Windows Mobile application from scratch or greatly improved their Windows Mobile application during the week. Mobile Incubation Week is part of Microsoft’s continued efforts to find and support great startups on our platform. These developers, selected from over 150 applicants to participate in the event, showed tenacity and talent getting the job done this week. Congratulations to all our finalists!
 
Mobile Incubation Week Kickoff Windows Mobile Chalk Talk
 
Backstage at ABC News Mobile Incubation Week on ABC News
 
Muranosoft Developer Session Our judging panel
 
Overall Winner – WaveMarket Team Spirit Award – Spry
· mTools: mTools is working with Microsoft on a mobile content management tool for Windows Mobile. With mTools, you can effectively manage and share files, contacts, settings, and bookmarks for end users and enterprise making your mobile life style easier. Sign up for an account for free, http://mtools.guiang.net
· Spry: Spry is comprehensive insight for software projects. Spry brings the real-time activity stream into the world of software development and helps teams make better decisions.
· Wavemarket: Wavemarket is building, Veriplace, a platform that provides a comprehensive, secure API for location-enabling your web or mobile application with WiFi, Cell ID, and GPS location data from mobile devices, unlocking LBS opportunities for both developers and their users. The Veriplace Location Tag is a smartphone application for Windows Mobile devices, enabling battery-optimized periodically pushed locations, asynchronously on-demand pulled locates, and geo-fenced location alerts. Users maintain complete control of their privacy preferences, have an audit trail, and can revoke or amend authorization at any time.
· mySkin.com: MySkin finds products that work for your skin. With mySkin’s mobile app, you answer a series of questions about your skin. mySkin.com’s proprietary technology returns a highly customized combination of products at various price points that are right for you. You can maintain a journal where you take pictures, note products that you used and track changes in your skin via a simple report. All data are transferred to your account online and can be easily accessed via your Virtual Shelf.
· My Kid is Safe: MyKidisSafe is the single application that caring parents need to keep their kids safe. Features include: Sexting monitor, location-based services, blocking texting while driving, scanning pictures for nudity and much more. Parents can have comfort that they have the information to help their kids avoid pitfalls from unwanted influences.
It’s been a busy and exciting week in Washington, D.C. for Mobile Incubation Week. We’ve had five great companies giving it their all, literally working around the clock to produce the next greatest generation of Windows phone applications. The week has been action packed, featuring presentations, seminars, and chalk talks on Windows Mobile development, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, How to Work with Mobile Operators led by Sprint Nextel, How to Get the Most out of Mobile Incubation Week led by MIW London alumnus Rummble, business consulting sessions led by the Emerging Business Team, networking, and of course, lots of dedicated development time with the Microsoft team. ABC News aired their lead story on Ahead of the Curve today on Mobile Incubation Week and the launch of Windows Phone and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Alex Housley from Rummble, a Mobile Incubation Week London alumnus, joined me for the ABC segment to give his perspective on Mobile Incubation Week and his work with Microsoft. The full video can be found here. Congratulations to all the startups on a job well done this week: mTool, Spry, Wavemarket, MyKidIsSafe/Push IT Mobile, and mySkin. Good luck for tomorrow’s final presentations and demo!
 Sprint, one of our partners for this week’s Mobile Incubation Week in Washington, D.C., is offering free passes to the Sprint Developers’ Conference October 26-28 in Santa Clara, CA. This offer is for a limited time only and is available exclusively for readers of this blog and Twitter feed. To take advantage of this offer, please email Anne-Louise Kardas at Anne-Louise.Kardas@sprint.com with “Mobile Incubation Week Free Pass Offer” in the subject line. Sprint will be supporting Mobile Incubation Week this Wednesday with a presentation to participants on how to partner effectively with mobile operators. Jackie Luo, Director of Strategy and Planning, will also be on Friday’s judging panel. Sprint’s Application Developer Conference Sprint is holding its ninth annual Application Developer Conference Oct. 26 – 28, 2009 in Santa Clara, CA. This year marks the first time the conference will be open to the entire developer community. Registration is open here. The conference will focus on educating the developer community on current Sprint capabilities across devices, networks and platforms, as well as provide compelling and useful tools that can immediately be used to develop applications, content, machine-to-machine devices and unified communication solutions relevant to the market. Conference goers will learn best practices for all supported Sprint mobile device software platforms including Android, Java, Palm Web OS, RIM Blackberry, Windows Mobile and more. There will be discussions and demonstrations of the network capabilities including location based services, messaging, streaming multi-media, Sprint 4G and Sprint Developer Sandbox. In addition, developers can learn how to work with Sprint’s partners to take your applications to market. Sprint 4G will be live during the event. Developers will be able to experience turbo-charged data speeds of 4G and learn about creating the next generation of wireless applications. Steve Elfman, president of network operations and wholesale for Sprint, will be providing the keynote address. Here are some of the reasons why you’d want to attend: 1. See the Power of 4G - A live 4G network running in the conference - See extensive demos in the 4G demo room 2: Get help to develop your application - Hands on coding labs and best practice sessions for application developers: Windows Mobile, Android, WebOS, Blackberry, Java… 3: Learn about ways to work with Sprint to get your application in front of customers - Sessions from many of Sprint's mobile content application storefront providers - Sessions from Boost and Virgin Mobile 4: Get Your M2M and Embedded Solution on the Sprint Network - Learn how to get M2M/embedded solutions certified and provisioned on the Sprint Network - Overview of existing certified solutions in the M2M demo room 5: Leverage Sprint's Network and IT Service Capabilities - Topics include Sprint IT Services, LBS, Messaging, Multi-Media and the Developer Sandbox The full agenda is posted here. Mobile Incubation Week stormed into our nation’s capital today, with five terrific startups developing the next greatest Windows Mobile applications. This may be the most exciting Mobile Incubation Week yet, with a range of companies building everything from location-based parental controls to mobile healthcare applications. The event kicked off this morning with an overview of the week’s goals and agenda by yours truly, followed by a presentation from Muranosoft and Corpus Mobile on the development resources they will be providing for the week. Murano is a MIW veteran, having supported both the Mountain View and London events, while Corpus Mobile is joining us for the first time. Both companies are supporting with offshore developers to supplement the work of the Microsoft technical team that will be onsite all week, led by Mike Francis and Reed Robison. The rest of the week holds an action-packed agenda, with presentations on Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Marketplace for Mobile (both of which launch next week!), How to Work with Mobile Operators led by Sprint, Getting Ready for the Pitch, technical training sessions led by Mike and Reed, as well as business consulting sessions with myself and Tom Halabi on the Emerging Business Team. You can follow the event real-time with our Twitter feed. Without further ado, congratulations to our five outstanding finalists! · mTools: mTools is working with Microsoft on a mobile content management tool for Windows Mobile. With mTools, you can effectively manage and share files, contacts, settings, and bookmarks for end users and enterprise making your mobile life style easier. Sign up for an account for free, http://mtools.guiang.net · Spry: Spry is comprehensive insight for software projects. Spry brings the real-time activity stream into the world of software development and helps teams make better decisions. · Wavemarket: Wavemarket is building, Veriplace, a platform that provides a comprehensive, secure API for location-enabling your web or mobile application with WiFi, Cell ID, and GPS location data from mobile devices, unlocking LBS opportunities for both developers and their users. The Veriplace Location Tag is a smartphone application for Windows Mobile devices, enabling battery-optimized periodically pushed locations, asynchronously on-demand pulled locates, and geo-fenced location alerts. Users maintain complete control of their privacy preferences, have an audit trail, and can revoke or amend authorization at any time. · mySkin.com: MySkin finds products that work for your skin. With mySkin’s mobile app, you answer a series of questions about your skin. mySkin.com’s proprietary technology returns a highly customized combination of products at various price points that are right for you. You can maintain a journal where you take pictures, note products that you used and track changes in your skin via a simple report. All data is transferred to your account online and can be easily accessed via your Virtual Shelf. · PUSH IT Mobile: PUSH IT Mobile is the only solution you need for increasing sales by portraying a professional image. PUSH IT uses handheld software to exceed customer expectations with sharp letter templates for invoices, quotations, and rescheduling of appointments, all in the palm of your hands.
Last Call for Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 @ Boston during week of 5th Oct 2009. Thanks to everyone who submitted their nomination for Microsoft BizSpark Incubation Week for Windows 7 in Boston during 10/05/2009 – 10/09/2009.
 We are getting very cool application nominations using new and unique features of Windows 7, and looking forward to announce the accepted companies soon. You are welcome to send your nomination, if you haven’t done so. See the nomination details here.
Don’t forget to check the award winners of the last Incubation Week in Washington DC.
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Featured Startup
The BizSpark startup of the day is crowdzone (mobiTeris), based in the US. Below you will find an interview with Murgesh Navar, CEO of mobiTeris. All the best to them and congratulations for being the startup of the day!
Read more...
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