Posts Tagged ‘mobile applications’

Mobile App Holiday Giveaway: 1000 Church Apps from ROAR

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

ROAR App's Holiday Giveaway of 1000 Church appsWe are partnering with ROAR to let you know about an awesome opportunity to getting a mobile application built for your church/ministry. Here are the details as posted by ROAR CEO Matt McKee:

From November 29th – December 31, 2011, we are completely waiving the $750 per app setup fee for the first 1,000 churches, ministries, or 501c3 non-profits to sign up. You will still need to pay the monthly hosting fee, but we’ve even reduced that for this limited-time offer! You can choose either option: iPhone and iPad only or iPhone, iPad, and Android. You get a better value if you choose all three platforms, and for this limited time, we’ve also slashed the price if you go ahead and pay for a full year of hosting up front! Seriously, if your church is considering an app, you will not find a better deal than this.

Pricing is as follows:

  • iPhone/iPad app: $30/month or $300/year
  • Android app: $30/month or $300/year
  • iPhone/iPad AND Android apps: $50/month or $500/year
  • And NO setup cost.

So, if you’ve already gotten your ducks in a row concerning what it is that you want from a mobile application (see the recommended reading links below), you just need to step up towards ROAR’s invitation and get that applicaation built.

If you haven’t gotten your mobile app plans moving forward, and development was the sticky point, definitley take advantage of this offering and finish 2011/begin 2012 on a capable mobile foot.

Sign up now before the 1000 slots are taken up.

NOTE: You do need to pay for the 1st month’s hosting fees for the application in order to get the church/ministry application built for free. You can also choose to pay for the entire year, and the free application offer also applies.

About ROAR

Learn more about ROAR’s mobile app development, CMS solutions, their pricing models, and their FAQs at their website.

Recommended Readings
Do make sure to have these articles in your reading list as they will come in handy as you work with ROAR or any other mobile application developers/service providers. The better prepared that you are, they more effective your mobile solution will be.

Take advantage of this partnership between ROAR and MMM while this offer lasts.

 

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Failing to Remember the Bible App Experience

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Screenshot of Palm Bible+ running on Palm T5Over at my personal website, I threw open a thought about how I forgot about the experience aspect of Bible applications because of changes in how I engaged the content. Here’s a snippet:

It used to be the case with Bible apps that I was very tied to the user experience within the application. But, I that changed a bit as I got involved with the Katana project. Yes, there is/was a need for getting a solid and usable experience for Bibles on the Maemo platform, but it wasn’t a pressing need for me. In fact, I wanted that project more because of the needs a visitor to MMM had more than my own. By the time the application got to a testing state, I was already steering away from the collection of Bibles that I owned, the application(s) that accessed them, and spent more time in-between the text pasting snippets of Scripture to notes and linking comments to pages and commentary online.

Read the rest of Failing to Remember the Bible App Experience.

Many of you have talked about the juggling of Bible software platforms because of different content offerings. Because of that juggling (of applications or libraries), does the software platform matter more or less than the content and what you can do with it?

 

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Tomi Ahonen Mega-Post on Becoming the Next Millionaire Mogul in Mobile

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

Tomi Ahonen has been quoted several times on this site as many of his insights have contributed to the understanding and application of mobile technology in the digital faith arena. Suffice to say, when he puts an idea down, it’s worth reading, rereading, and making steps to adjust.

Such is how I feel after having read his latest 20K+ word article about the mega-opportunity in mobile. Thankfully, Ahonen speaks in more than monetary terms. And given the insights he and several others in mobile share, the opportunity in mobile for great gains is just a matter of capitalizing on the opportunity. Here’s a snippet of the article:

MOBILE IS BIGGEST ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY (EVER)

Now, that is a massive statement, isn’t it? I mean, biggest? Ever? But before you jump to your next task on your to-do list, please consider just this fact. One industry on the planet has to be it. All others pretend, but factually, one of the thounsands of industries does truly have to be the biggest economic opportunity of any one time. Earlier on in the past century it was oil. Created the oil barons and billionaire oil sheikhs. Late in the century it was personal computers. Made Bill Gates the wealthiest man on the planet. At any one point in time there is one industry which is the best to be in. (and yes, even if biggest at one point in time, is not guaranteed to be ‘of all time’)

Today that is mobile. Mobile has become a Trillion dollar industry. Not the biggest industry on the planet, but one in a very rare category to pass the Big T of a Trillion. Television is not that big (has never passed half a Trillion dollars in annual revenues). Computers are not that big. Radio is not that big. The internet is not that big. Cinema is not that big. Newspapers is not a Trillion-dollar industry. Neither is air travel, credit cards, advertising, music, pharmaceuticals, hotels, videogames, the coffee industry, etc. Imagine if you were there to be one of the big ‘barons’ of one of those industries when they were in ‘hypergrowth’ stage, you’d have retired rich today with probably universities, airports or even cities named after you…

Read the rest of How You Became Next Mogul in Mobile (and a Millionaire) at Communities Dominate Brands. Also, you might want to add a cup of coffee or tea and a sandwich for this one (the reply from Martin Geddes, then Tomi’s reply).

For something a bit shorter, but packing a similar punch, check out this interview of Tomi Ahonen over at Mobile Zeigeist.

 

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Posted in Commentary, Devices and Software, Future Trends | 1 Comment »

What’s Ahead for 2011

Monday, January 3rd, 2011

View of Camera UI for Moto Citrus - Share on Ovi2010 was one amazing, hectic, and transforming year. In respect to mobile, the world seems to have begun hitting a stride seeing mobile as something more than a flash in the pan. That’s always been the view from MMM. Mobile intersects with digital faith behaviors, and enables us to send and receive a lens of faith that’s a bit different, a bit fresher. Chances are, in 2011, you’ll refine some behaviors and push a bit more. How could that look in 2011? Let’s take a look first at mobile, then at what’s in store for MMM.

A Mobile Lens for 2011

Mobile will continue to push towards the front of technology, health, educational, and policy conversations in 2011. What will be most interesting is the overlap. As we talked about some last year, contextualization and cross-functional knowledge will play a bigger part in understanding the role of mobile and the impacts to digital faith behaviors. Those individuals and groups that pollinate their mobile perspectives with multiple arenas will remain ahead of trends and applications.

In hardware, we are still looking at more of the same from basic devices (slates, candybar, tablet, some clamshells). Storage and processor technology is again on the verge of stepping up a generation, but battery power isn’t. We should see a few more attempts with device and network intelligence on devices, but only at the highest model ranges. Look at what you see as high-end right now, it will be low/mid-range by the fall.

Price points for devices will come down to orughly $100USD for a smartphone sans contract (currently $130-150). This will continue the transformation of some (mobile savvy) developed markets towards being largely populated with new smartphones. That said, feature phones will continue to sell huge in most markets – and the 2nd owner market should also grow. Service prices will hold steady for a bit longer before we start seeing more tiers in data service offerings with larger carriers. Keep an eye on SIM cards, these might be changing – and not just in size.

Software will continue to go the route of paying attention to user experience and smoother user interface design, though we will get some attention paid to optimization and information security. I wish I could say that users will care about security, but situations such as WikiLeaks shows us that this will remain governmental and enterprise conversations.

Looks like we are on the verge of some jumps in the amount and attention paid to audio and multi-lingual approaches. However, the easiest paths for developing these solutions will continue to be with web-dependent data and transaction services.

Open source will continue as an area of opportunity and frequent barrier in software and business development. Religious content is one of the heaviest areas where DRM and antiquated processes remain, and so the change here to more fluid models is still some time off. We will see more attempts like the Kiosk Evangelism Project and The Evangelical Exegetical Commentary that will push some open source behaviors forward – the catch being with regional and legal issues which don’t change so quickly.

Mobile applications will continue to dominate the conversation in smartphone-heavy markets. Mobile web will pick up steam after Q1 and newer devices will further blurr the line between web and native applications. Would be nice to see a bible software company lead in this area – Logos’s Biblia was a great stepping stone to this.

We will see people more empowered with mobile to create their own solutions through more app-wizard-like programs and processes. I’m not sure if it will come from the faith-based space or outside, but I can see a few groups doing more with mashup-technologies that empower individuals to create solutions, instead of waiting for a larger network to be the solution.

MMM in 2011

With 3/4 a year under the belt as MMM as Antoine’s primary focus – and the addition of two voices for regional and development interests, there’s been a lot of learning and pushing taking place. Here’s some of what you can expect from in 2011.

If you will,  all of this is simply building on the core so that the depth of content hits on as many applications of mobile and digital faith explorations as possible.

2011 aims to be filled with a lot more sending and receiving of Christ in mobile and we invite you to be a part of the signal. Connect with MMM and let’s continue to enable the Body to see the intersection of faith and mobile technology.

*If you are interested in being a contributor to MMM, make your request known via the Contact Form. Include links to sample writing pieces, up to three (3) areas of focus/interest, and how often you’d be contributing by writing. Those who can write in a language besides English are heavily preferred, though all applicants are equally considered.

 

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