4Prox

Proxpro Prompt v0.2: New Look, New Features and Bugs Fixed

With well over 3,000 downloads in the last 30 days and press praising Prompt as "a service more intelligent and resourceful than anything we've seen before",� we are pleased to be able to release an even better version of Prompt, in the next few days.

New Look to the Prompt Countdown Alarm Screen:

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- It is always important to see where we are going.� The Prompt countdown alarm has been moved to the top of the screen so the trip, that best avoids traffic, is visible start to finish.

-� As you progress on your the map adjusts enlarging to show more detail the closer to your destination get.� Use Prompt to navigate.

-� A new "LocateMe" feature is available in the menu so you can quickly update your start location, without having to wait for GPS.

7-day Forward Visibility to Make Trip Planning Easy



- The Prompt calendar now opens at today's date and you can plan your trips for the next 7 days.

- Flip between your BlackBerry applications and Prompt using the "call end" key.� The "escape key" will take you back to the calendar.

- Switch Prompt on/off in preferences, whenever you like.

If you would like to be notified when you release is available please email me at: julianbourne "at sign" proxpro.com.

Bugs fixed in Version 0.2

1. MyCommute, daily commute on/off
2. Central, Pacific, Mountain time zones for MyCommute
3. Updating synced events to Prompt calendar
4. Uncaught Exceptions in preferences
5. If last known location is incorrect you can quickly correct start location

New iPhone Fitness App: RunKeeper shows a clean pair of heels!

A friend Jason Jacobs is about to release a new application for joggers / bicycle enthusiasts.  The product is called RunKeeper and it is designed for the new iPhone.  As you can see from the video the application uses GPS to track your process, speed, distance, changes in pace and then can be uploaded to a website.  The website archives you history and displays a bread-crumb representation of the route on a map.  Jogging to music and a permanent record of your fitness plan.  This is a must for serious athletes and joggers trying to loss some pounds.

Should Social Networking be strictly for social networking or for business networking, or both?

It is often asked should we keep professional and social networking separate.  Clearly LinkedIn believes people should keep a clear demarcation.  By contrast Facebook would probably like to have more professional users, rather than having a totally social brand.

Sometimes we forget the sociology behind social network analysis. The study was designed to people calculate social capital - the qualitative and quantitative sum of their contacts. People use social networking to expand their contact base, disseminate peer-to-peer information and advance themselves socially and professionally. One would keep them separate if the information one disseminates socially might reduce their professional social capital or vice versa. For some it is just easier, and less risky, to keep them separate, but, in my view, you are not optimizing your social capital by doing so.

Julian Bourne
CEO & Founder, Proxpro Inc.

Julian Bourne is an inventor of mobile social networking and other award-winning GPS mobile applications. He was granted a mobile social networking patent US #7,310,676 and a further patent allowed; He launched the world's first location-based (AGPS) mobile social networking application in the UK provisioned to events attended by 500,000 people (Oct 2004); won the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge, best social networking application, April 2006 (4 winners / 140 entrants); He has built the first GPS navigation application personalized to the digital calendar. This patent pending product is called Prompt. It makes sure people are never late, and has been described as "a service more intelligent and resourceful than anything we've seen before" (Mobile Messenger 2.0, July 2008) because it gives people the ability to predict the future. Proxpro is based near Boston MA.

The Future of Mobile? Where to look...

There is much discussion in the press and the mobile community as to whether or not Apple will take enterprise market share from RIM.  In the medium term it does not really matter if, at the margin, Apple substitutes BlackBerry, or vice versa.

In the past we looked at Europe, S. Korea or Japan as a vision of the future.  Now we look at Apple's App Store or some even better apps available on BlackBerry.  With falling prices and increased features the speed with which the consumer markets adopt, Apple, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian or Windows becomes a key factor that drives growth in the industry.

Companies that earn a place on the open OS deck in the short run, have a huge opportunity in the long term.

Update July 23rd, 2008

AT&T published their results today highlighting a 52% surge in data revenues.  Underlying this trend is an 10% increase in smart phone and integrated device adoption, up to 18% of their customer base from 8% one year ago.  A very smart strategy from AT&T.

Julian Bourne
CEO & Founder
Proxpro Inc.
NEVER BE LATE!  Download Prompt at www.proxpro.com on BB 8800 and Curve.  USA and Canada only.
"A service more intelligent and resourceful than anything we've seen before.  Super-Cool"  (MobileMessenger2.0)

Who will be the Winners and Losers in Mobile Social Networking?

InMobile.org has been having a debate about the future of Mobile Social Networking.  Here is my contribution to the discussion.

1. Who will be THE biggest winner in Mobile Social Networking?
a) Today's big social networking companies (e.g. Facebook),
b) Independent mobile social networking companies (e.g. MocoSpace) or c) Some other type of company?

 Mobile social networking will have a variety morphologies: communication will be important in some but other mobile social networking services will be maps, navigation, user generated content or situation awareness centric.  Along the continuum social networking importance, as a feature, will vary according to membership behavior and developer creativity.  My personal view is that it is subjective content that matters and social networking is secondary.

 All businesses will be driven by value, relevance, stickiness and user acquisition.  Each of the contingent parties: carriers, social networking company, device manufacturers, carrier sponsored independents, device sponsored independents or independent will approach the challenge by exploiting their strengths. 

 The degree of success will be weighted less by the unassailable strengths of the incumbents but more by their obstacles.

 The carriers? demarcation of on-deck services limits those companies that partner with them.  Business model, value cannibalization and other limiting constraints suffocate the user experience and innovation.

 Social networking companies / portals must have a technology lowest common denominator approach and will naturally favor PC services that translate to mobile (search, messaging and status updates).  However they may not have access to all handsets or location coordinates.

 Device manufacturers are very fragmented and have relationships with the carriers to maintain.  Merging combinations of the above, will meet increased resistance before they reach critical mass.

 My preference is independents that have killer mobile applications, supported by social networking, which are able to rise above the noise. 

 The jigsaw puzzle has many pieces and not all are interchangeable.  Winner takes all does not apply here,  web-based incumbents must lose share in the mobile ecosystem.  Licensing mobile social networking patents is a good place to be too.

2. What is THE most important unique feature about mobile that will make MOBILE social networking different?

Location will be the most important feature, combined with immediacy and always on awareness. 

3. What is the business model for mobile social networking?

I'm not a big believer in subscriptions for social networking.   Some brands may feel they command a premium, but in time people will unsubscribe and again the brands will lose share.   So an ad-supported model is important long term.  If your membership can command high value CPM, so much the better.

Julian Bourne
CEO & Founder, Proxpro Inc.

Julian Bourne is an inventor of mobile social networking and other award-winning GPS mobile applications. He was granted a mobile social networking patent US #7,310,676 and a further patent allowed; He launched the world's first location-based (AGPS) mobile social networking application in the UK provisioned to events attended by 500,000 people (Oct 2004); won the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge, best social networking application, April 2006 (4 winners / 140 entrants); He has built the first GPS navigation application personalized to the digital calendar. This patent pending product is called Prompt. It makes sure people are never late, and has been described as "a service more intelligent and resourceful than anything we've seen before" (Mobile Messenger 2.0, July 2008) because it gives people the ability to predict the future. Proxpro is based near Boston MA.

Make Way For “Aware” Services That “Tell” The Future

Proxpro received a fabulous write-up in Mobile Messaging 2.0 by Peggy Anne Salz.

The article focuses on the powerful distinction between services that tell you how things are (the weather, the news, your friends status) and "super-cool" services" that connect the dots in our daily routines to help us manage our lives and express our intentions"

"Take Proxpro Prompt, a GPS service in beta that fuses the mobile device’s digital calendar with GPS to tell users exactly when they have to leave to make the next appointment based on a real-time understanding of traffic conditions and related factors. By integrating GPS with the calendar, Proxpro compares current location with the time and location of the user’s next appointment, and 30 minutes before the best departure time a “when to leave” alert pops up automatically on the user’s mobile device. A map displays the fastest route and the current traffic conditions."

"Put simply, mashups between location (GPS, for example), calendars, address books and a host of other tools and technologies make it possible to create services that transcend the present tense to focus on future possibilities. Clever companies (read Proxpro) is combining phone features with personalization and pattern recognition to introduce services that are more intelligent and more resourceful than anything we’ve seen before."

"In fact, many (attendees at Navigation and Location Europe 2008) wondered why we don’t have those services now. After all, the utility is obvious and the value prop is easy to communicate."