Top 5 reasons why iPad Magazines aren't working

It is with great interest that I read a story on AppleInsider.com titled After initial success, magazine purchases on Apple iPad decline - talking about how magazines on iPad haven't achieved the success that was predicted for them.


With the global magazine industry threatened by visions of the print versions of their magazines going the way of the dodo, the magazine community has spent significant dollars on creating amazing, rich media digital magazines on iPad.  One only has to open Wired's iPad app to see how much work has been put into the iPad version and Richard Branson's Project iPad app went even further with integration of video and amazing interactive advertising and yet it also seemingly has suffered from a lack of take up from the iPad user. 


Its has been said in the boardroom of many a magazine publisher that perhaps this investment has been made "too early", or has been a wasted chance to build the magazine's brand on a smartphone type device.


Why?


Could it be that the technophiles behind the creation of these apps have let the tech run away with the fundamental premise of how users want to consume magazine style content.


It didn't take much time with a range of these apps to write down 5 fundamental issues with the way these apps work that are kind of obvious to any magazine subscriber.


Issue 1


Downloading of content - unlike the magazine that you purchase at your local news stand or have home delivered, these apps require you to initially download a "shell" that is then used to allow you to download magazine issues. 


For many an iPad user the time it takes to download the hundreds of megabytes of data is a significant impediment to viewing the magazine. That together with the way people use the iPad - which is a kind of "information grazing" approach with one app being open, then closed to do something else, then back to the first app - means that often the user will not get a chance to download their first edition of the magazine for many hours and forces users to leave the device with the app open overnight. Not an ideal way to quickly consume magazine style content.


Issue 2


More is not more. To a fault the iPad magazine tries hard to include as much "eye candy" as possible to (in the mind of the developers) create a new compelling experience on device.  What this often does is simply takes away for the quality of the article or photograph that has been carefully crafted for the paper based magazine.  


Developers need to understand that old publishers saying "less is more" - as otherwise they risk overwhelming the user and making the app boring and a simple showcase of iPad graphic capabilities - to create return readers its the content that rules, not the iPad graphics.

Too many choices and too much eye candy take the reader away from the content 

Issue 3


Advertising. Where is the value? By moving the iPad magazine away from a traditional "Front to back reading" approach to a "go anywhere anytime" the iPad magazine has removed the ability of the publisher to charge a differentiated fee for advertising by its placement within the publication. Advertising and per download fees will both be required in the future to create a viable commercial structure for iPad (and other table) versions. App developers need to go back to basics to create a way of allowing publishers to monitise content in more traditional ways.


Issue 4


The good old double page spread. We have yet to see any examples of iPad magazines creating a concept as powerful as the double page spread.  Advertisers love creating special content and readers find the spread something that catches the eye and makes one "linger" on it.


Issue 5


Give aways and bundles. Where are the "free tote bags" or "free CDs" that have been a successful mechanism for driving news stand purchases? Consumers need constant reminding and encouragement to purchase these magazines again and again. Traditional marketing works.  App developers just need to implement a way of offering a similar structure for their users in the digital age.


Overall I think that magazine publishers and users are still very excited about the use of the iPad (and other tablets) as tools for delivering content.  These first few versions of the iPad magazine have been great pointers to what works and what doesn't work for the mass market of users out there who are thinking of spending their hard earned money on this new way of getting the content that they value in a way they want to consume it.








  

Christmas Greetings

We can't believe Christmas is almost here - so we wanted to send out a special THANK YOU to all our loyal customers, partners and suppliers wishing you a very very Happy Christmas.

We hope you (like we do) take the opportunity to donate to a Christmas Charity like the Smith Family in Australia - or one of the other fantastic charity organsiations worldwide who do for others what we find all the excuses in the world not to do.

Every day is special, so lets all try to make this Christmas Day as special as we can for people around the world.

The BigTinCan team

Jessica Simpson Christmas App Now Available

Its Christmas time and the team at BigTinCan is pleased to bring you an exciting new app for the iPhone and BlackBerry - Jessica Simpson's Happy Christmas.

When Jessica Simpson released her new album Happy Christmas - and we found out that it is only available for people living in North America - we felt knew that people all around the world would love to be able to hear her music, and get access to special content from Jessica's TV Special that aired last weekend in the USA - and we believed that the power of the smartphone would be the idea answer to getting fans access to this exciting and unique content - just in time for Christmas.

To do this we partnered with Primary Wave Music based in New York and have delivered two exciting smartphone apps - for iPhone and BlackBerry - that are the only way to get access to this content outside of North America. You can see videos of the apps in action at our Youtube channel on the Jessica Simpson Christmas Playlist  - and you can read the press release here

To quote the guys at Primary Wave -  “We see this new app as the future distribution mechanism whereby millions of fans around the world in this innovative way,“ said legendary music company executive and Primary Wave Music talent manager Jerry Blair.

We hope you all like the app and we are looking forward to bringing this way of distributing music content around the world in 2011 - and special thanks to the team at Tolemy for the amazing design!

Happy Christmas from all the team at BigTinCan

Thanks to you we're into the Semi-Finals

We received some great news this week - BigTinCan has made it into the Semi-Finals of the 2010 BlackBerry Partners Fund Super Apps Developer Challenge.

This is a great result for us and shows what can be done with some great care and effort for the development of a world class smartphone app - and it's great to have the support of our users in doing that!

We issued a simple small press release this week about it - and thought it might be interesting to post it here!

Local smartphone firm at forefront of digital content revolution, is competing on global stage.

Australian smartphone firm selected as Semi-Finalist in 2010 BlackBerry Partners Fund Super Apps Developer Challenge

Leading Australian smartphone application development firm BigTinCan has been selected as a Regional Semi-finalist for Research in Motion’s (RIM) ‘2010 BlackBerry Partners Fund Super Apps Developer Challenge’.

Earning the award for their Harper’s Bazaar (Australia) super app on BlackBerry, BigTinCan is at the forefront of delivering digital content to mobile consumers around the world. With the ability to instantly deliver new and exciting multimedia content to millions of users around the world, BigTinCan has established themselves as a key player, in the move to mobile exclusive content on mobile devices.

“We are very happy to be selected as a Regional Semi-Finalist in this amazing app challenge, against strong competition”, said David Keane, CEO of BigTinCan. ““This result shows that an app like Harper’s Bazaar is a great example of the future of digital content, and BigTinCan is at the forefront”.

As a ‘Super App’, Harper’s Bazaar delivers on the promise of delivery of digital content directly to the smartphone. The application allows users to view updated ‘push’ content that is delivered to their phone in real time. The content is “side loaded” into the phone and update alerts are presented to a user only after the content has been received, making the app experience fast and dynamic. With direct BlackBerry calendar integration Harper’s Bazaar allows users to add details of ‘events’, sent directly to the phone using directly into their BlackBerry calendar.  The app also displays picture and video within the application.

The Harpers Bazaar, plus other great apps from BigTInCan, is available now for download free on the BlackBerry App World.

About BigTinCan

BigTinCan is a smartphone systems developer operating BigTinCan Connect our global overlay telco network, BigTinCan Maps our OSM linked mapping service, and BigTinCan BuzzMe our wildly successful smartphone application.

With over 2.7 million users worldwide on our suite of iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and platforms, BigTinCan is a global leader in smartphone systems and services.

Based in Sydney, Australia, and with global experts in telco, smartphone, database and web skills, BigTinCan is well placed to take advantage of the smartphone revolution.

For more information, please contact Robert Leigo on +61402166910, or email robert.leigo@bigtincan.com or visit www.bigtincan.com

USA Trip comes to a close

With one team member already home, and the rest about to leave San Francisco for Los Angeles and then onto Sydney, this has been not only a productive trip, but an unforgettable experience.

A week at BlackBerry DevCon2010 in San Francisco was truly a great learning experience for all of the team as well as a fantastic opportunity to meet and connect with other developers and businesses who work in and around the BlackBerry platform. The obvious highlight of the week was the announcement of the new BlackBerry tablet, the 'BlackBerry PlayBook'!

After the productive week in San Francisco, the BTC team spend a few days out in Silicon Valley. With a few meetings and some R&R, including seeing 'The Social Network' in Mountain View...along with what seemed to be half of Stanford University.

Everyone at BigTinCan is looking forward to returning to Sydney and getting back into work. Keep a look out for the exciting new products and ideas that are just around the corner!

Its great to be a BlackBerry Alliance Member!

Pictures after the jump

BlackBerry 'PlayBook' Exclusive Video

BlackBerry Announces 'PlayBook' Tablet at DevCon

San Fransisco, September 27th, 2010

The BigTinCan team were present at BlackBerry DevCon2010 today where RIM Co-CEO Mike Laziridis announced the BlackBerry 'PlayBook' ultra-thin tablet. This 7 inch tablet was announced with the tag line "Everyone needs a great PlayBook". We've been told by RIM that the device, which features True HD video, true multitasking, dual core processors and HDMI out will be released early in 2011.

When asked to comment on the 3G/4G capabilities, Mike Laziridis wouldn't comment but was heard to say "You do the math".

The BigTinCan team is about to attend the first developer session at DevCon2010 which will feature the new tablet OS, and will keep you posted during the week as we get more information.

Exclusive photos and video after the jump

 http://tinyurl.com/2vqgkx2

Free vs Paid Apps

The First session at the BlackBerry DevCon 2010 is all about Free vs Paid apps. And whilst listening to the leaned speakers telling us that "having a free app helps you get you more downloads than just a paid apps" - I was thinking "What is the future for the freemium model?".

We have successfully operated a "freemium" service with our BuzzMe Product since April 2009 - and its worked quite well for us - and for our users, but it that what people really want? The commercial alternative seems to be to introduce advertising into the apps, but I personally don't really like apps that include lots of ads - unless there is a real benefit to me and my use of the device - which most apps are just not able to provide.

What about a model where (a bit like what Pandora has done to the music market) where users pay a regular monthly fee to download any number of utility style apps - now that is something that I as a user might actually pay for - and that is also something that could reward developers for their work.

Challenge there is that might provide a way for developers to make a "hobby living" but can it create sustainable businesses? I doubt it.

For developers to grow to scale and create real value in their companies there needs to be a service that users are willing to pay regularly for in a way that the service actually either a) gives them a real cost saving over other commercial alternatives, or b) provides them with a lifestyle benefit that is worth paying for.

We have some ideas about this - but how about you? We would love to hear your comments

BigTinCan in San Francisco

So its DEVCON time again, and we are in San Francisco (well today in University Ave, Palo Alto).

Its going to be a great ride with lots of news about new BlackBerry products already in the rumour mill - check out this story on Engadget reported initially on the WSJ.

Its also a great chance for me to "eat my own cooking" , as I am using all the features of BigTinCan Connect this trip. So far so good.

What I have done is forwarded my Aussie mobile number to a BTC inbound number in Australia and then pointed that number at my ATT prepaid SIM card (that is not sitting nicely in either my Bold 9700 or iPhone - depending on what apps I want to run;). So people at home can call my mobile and it will ring here in the USA - but even better I have created a time of day rule that means that people who call me outside of normal hours here in the West Coast will just get sent to a voice mail - which is then sent to my email.

Then from my ATT SIM I have setup BigTinCan Connect to add this number as my callback number - so now when I call Australia I am calling at US domestic incoming rates. Pretty cool huh! Oh and it shows my Australian mobile number as the caller ID when I call someone in Aus - so they know its me!

COST?

I purchased a $25 pre paid credit pack for my SIM here.

I then used $4.99 of that credit to purchase a 1Mb data pack - to send the call requests to the BTC server.

And now I've got $20 left over for the minutes - which actually gives me plenty of minutes for the calls.

Compared with roaming charges this is going to save me I think hundreds of dollars!

I will post back here on my experiences with the US cell phone network - but for now its working great!

BlackBerry DevCon 2010

Last year's DevCon was a blast, and a great opportunity to learn about the future of BlackBerry as well as doing some great networking - so this year we are going back to DevCon - September 27-29 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis for more.

Its interesting to see that an event normally in November has been scheduled to end September. What is RIM trying to say ? Focus on OS6? "Blackpad" introduction? new devices? maybe all of those.

We will be blogging and tweeting from the event - so if there are things that you would particularly like to hear about just post it here.

BlackBerry Alliance Membership

As a mulitplatform smartphone developer we work with a number of vendor programs. One of the programs that we think is worth special mention is the BlackBerry Alliance Program. What this program does, is not just give you access to the standard development and marketing tools, but it also lets developers like us get access to other benfits including access to special BlackBerry hardware, training, and other programs.

If you are a BlackBerry developer you should check out the program. Its certainly worth it.

And we would love to hear what you think of it and how it compares to other smartphone developer programs in the comments on this entry.

BTC Connect wins Brothersoft Editors Choice

We are really proud to mention that BTC Connect iPhone has won an Editors Choice award on Brothersoft app review site.

Check it out here

Its a great review from a major app review site - we are pleased to be able to win this award!

Thanks to all our users from around the world for your support.

BTC hits the Australian

The Australian IT has published an interesting article about the iPad revolution and how the technology can be applied - as well as a good update on BigTinCan and were our opportunities are. Its worth a read http://bit.ly/be71sR

Outage notification

We are currently experiencing an outage with our upstream carrier for phone calls in Australia and some other regions. Estimated restoration time is 3pm AEST Tuesday 6th July 2010

Service fully restored 2:38pm AEST

If you have any remaining issues please contact our support email

support@bigtincan.com

BuzzMe Beats Football Edition

Is now live on App World and Mobihand.

If you want to really get behind your team you need BuzzMe Beats Football Full Edition

BuzzMe Beats Full Edition includes 10 unique football tones that match with customised LED colors and vibration patterns on your phone. Everytime you receive a phone call your phone will flash the colors of your team, play a specially selected football ringtone and vibrate in a pattern specific to your team - and it also includes bonus downloadable wallpapers and links to the latest team information.

The Full Edition lest you control your tone, LED, and vibration for phone calls, SMS/MMS. each email account, and all your social media including BBM, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, MSN chat and over 9 other service types.

The app includes 10 different tones that you can select, or turn off the BuzzMe Beats volume and use your own tone.

Everytime you receive a phone call, SMS/MMS. each email account, and social media including BBM, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, MSN chat and over 9 other service types. your phone will flash the colors of your team, play the alert tone (including whistles, crowd sounds, soccer balls being kicked and more) and vibrate in a pattern specific to your team.

The FULL edition includes links to flag wallpapers of each of the teams.

Get BuzzMe Beats with Football Edition now and get into the spirit of the game.

Want to get Off your Face - well look out for BTC FaceOff

We have been working hard since Christmas on a new app for the BlackBerry Storm that takes advantage of the accelerometer in the Storm and Storm 2.

That app is FaceOff.

And just like the 1997 Movie Staring John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, BigTinCan FaceOff lets you escape the bad guys and go undercover when ever you turn your BlackBerry Storm or Storm II "face-off"

FaceOff is something cool for BlackBerry Storm users that uses the built in accelerometer to let users easily manage the ring process on their phone.

With FaceOff you simply need to turn your phone "face off" and the phone will not ring and vibrate when you receive a call. Ideal for when you are in a meeting and don't want to be disturbed or on the bedside table at night.

And FaceOff is a lot more than that. You can select and control the ringtone and vibration, have a different ringtone volume or vibration when the phone is set "face off" and best of all you can use the FaceOff WhiteList to setup numbers that will cause the phone to ring when they call.

With WhiteList you can be in a meeting with the phone set "FaceOff" and be able to feel confident that you wont miss that important call from home, your best client, or the kids school.

As you have covered BigTinCan products in the past we would love to let you do a "preview review" of FaceOff.

The Beta is available for download now at this link

http://bit.ly/amm1l2

We would love to have your comments

and screenshots of the app are at this link

http://gallery.me.com/roegrif1#100289

FaceOff is set for release mid April 2010 on BlackBerry AppWorld and Mobihand for $4.99.

Requirements: FaceOff works on the BlackBerry Storm I and Storm II with OS v4.7 and OSv5.0

BuzzMe v2.6 now ready for download

BigTinCan is please to announce that BuzzMe v2.6 (in the Standard, Pro and Premium flavours) is now ready for download at BlackBerry App World and Mobihand app store.

BuzzMe v2.6 adds some key features people have been asking for since we released BuzzMe v2.5 earlier this year.

In the Premium Version , and supported in the free trial of Premium features that comes with BuzzMe Standard and BuzzMe Pr, BuzzMe v2.6 adds support for three key new plugins

- support for GoogleTalk IM

- support for Yahoo Messenger IM

- support for ICQ

In addition now BuzzMe v2.6 also is aware of your phone startup and will not vibrate upon phone startup for 2 minutes - giving your phone the time it needs to complete the startup process before you start getting BuzzMe alerts.

And BuzzMe v2.6 includes a number of small but important bug fixes and performance improvements.

BuzzMe Standard Edition is available now from BlackBerry AppWorld

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1019

and Mobihand

http://www.mobihand.com/product.asp?id=34176&n=BuzzMe-Standard

BuzzMe Pro Edition is available now from BlackBerry AppWorld

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/1804

and Mobihand

http://www.mobihand.com/product.asp?id=31050&n=BuzzMe-Pro

BuzzMe Premium Edition is available now from BlackBerry AppWorld

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/4662

and from Mobihand

http://www.mobihand.com/product.asp?id=51551&n=BuzzMe-Premium

And remember we would love you to leave your feedback at our forum

http://forum.bigtincan.com

or on our Twitter account

http://www.twitter.com/bigtincan

Great review of BigTinCan Connect on Gizmodo

Our friends at Gizmodo have published a great review of BigTinCan Connect.

Its going to be very interesting to see how the market in Australia begins to adopt the idea of getting a fixed line replacement from a mobile oriented service like Connect.

Whenever I talk to people about their telecom needs there is this constant bitching about the fixed line, its cost, and mostly its inflexibility.

People need mobility - they love their mobile phone, but they also want to have a traditional landline phone number. They can do that by paying Telstra or their local carrier $40 a month just to receive a few calls - and then they are stuck when they move - its not that easy to relocate a land line.

Not only that, sure you can forward your calls from the landline to the mobile, but then you are paying the huge cost of diversions to mobiles and you get absolutely no control of who get diverted, who doesn't and if you wanted any more advanced call rules your out of luck.

What we think services like Connect will do is to really free the millions of people around the world who have had enough of landlines prices and services, but still want to have a landline - and let them manage who gets diverted to where, when and more.

There are also many people who we talk to who are using Connect as a "front end" to their mobile - so they only give out their Connect number but map that to their mobile - this means they can change their mobile number anytime they want to without having to tell their friends and business partners of a number change.

Oh, and services like Connect save you money on outgoing calls too.

Are you looking at ditching the fixed line number? Tell us more here about what you need to make the switch.

BuzzMe Premium 2.5

BuzzMe Premium has just hit the App World and is already making an impact. We woke this morning to find that on App World UK its already hit No 19 - within 24 hours!

And we have had a few really good reviews including this one by AppBoy

So its off to a good start, but now we are thinking about what to add to the next version :)

We have had a good post on our forum and the suggestion is to add

1. An option to have the LED blink for a period of time for the plugins.
2. Plugins for IM+/IM+ lite
3. Plugins for Windows Live Messenger

Pretty good and doable idea.

If you have any others please post here or on our forum.

We would love to hear hear what you think

BigTinCan Connect 2.5 Launched

We are pleased to announce that we have released the newest version to our Web site - WebCan v2.5

This new update includes improved performance, better quality phone calls and lots of new features including

• Incoming Calls: You can now get a phone number in over 40 countries worldwide and connect that number to your mobile phone and even implement advanced call rules, like callerID based routing, time of day call control and multiple voicemail accounts
  
  
• Conference/Group Calling: Sick of having to get people to dial in to a conference call ? Do you want to have a system where the conference call can dial the participants for you? Want the conference call recording emailed to you right after the call is completed? Our new Group Calling feature does that and more ...

All you need to do is login at http://www.bigtincan.com to take advantage of these new features.

If your account was created in 2009 you will need to sign up again to use the new features of WebCan v2.5. Just visit http://www.bigtincan.com/signup.php and re-create your account and you will get 50c FREE CREDIT to try these new features.

Give it a try and post here or on our forum what you think

BuzzMe 2.5 Out

Just wanted to let everybody know that BuzzMe 2.5 is now available on the Mobihand store and BlackBerry App World.

We hope you like it.

We would love any feedback and suggestions or if you need help setting it up, just post at our forum

Thanks to our amazing team and our supportive users for helping BigTinCan to get this product to market.

BuzzMe 2.5 Ready to Go

Look for BuzzMe 2.5 to hit your local neighbourhood appstore shortly.

After extensive beta testing we are ready to let the cat out of the bag!

You can check out a video of BuzzMe Premium 2.5 running on a Storm here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS2Hv3mcmPo

and we have screenshots now on our Facebook page

Check it out and leave a comment here!

BuzzMe 2.5 Beta Testing

Thanks to everybody who contributed to the BuzzMe Pro v2.5 beta testing

Its been great to have you help us, and we really appreciate your fantastic feedback.

You should have the "real thing" in your hands soon!

In the mean time for anybody who hasnt yet seen it - check out the new videos at our Youtube Channel - in the BuzzMe Playlist

www.youtube.com/bigtincanvideos

New Harpers Bazaar App Now Available

Harpers Bazaar BlackBerry App now on AppWorld

The apps just keep coming.

We are pleased to be able to announce that the new Harpers Bazaar app has just launched in Australia.

This is a very exciting app as it is a true multimedia PUSH app - rich media content from the magazine (and a lot of content you cant get in the mag) is send using BlackBerry BIS PUSH directly to a subscribers phone - and its make available for immediate viewing! really cool stuff.

The app also includes integrated links to maps to find locations of fashion outlets where you can buy the products featured in the app.

Check it our on App World (Australia only for now)

new iPhone app released

Wow - we have just had approved the latest BTC iPhone Connect App - now up to version 2.4

V2.4 adds some great new features

- support for inbound numbers ( you can now get an inbound number in over 40 countries worldwide and implement advanced call rules to send the calls to your phone or voicemail)
- voicemail - you can now see your BigTinCan voicemail right on your iPhone
- improved content upload process to MyFiles - big changes ! great performance increases

And lots more!

Give it a try - just download it at the Apple App Store - search for BigTinCan

Temporary Outage

*** update - all call services to all countries should be working great new and we apologise for the outage - we did send out a note about the problem to your email account if you did experience a problem today - we just want to say thanks for your patience with us ***

We are currently experiencing a temporary outage that will affect customers on our Connect Service in Australia and some parts of the USA.

We apologise for this outage - our engineers are currently working on re-routing the traffic and will have that rectified shortly - I will post back here when things are working again.

We are also (unfortunately at the same time) doing some work on maps.bigtincan.com and tidymystreet.com - we expect these sites to resume normal operation shortly.

I hate doing it .... but another post about how good Apple is at approving apps

When ever I talk to people in the telco industry and talk about BigTinCan and what we are doing with our iPhone app, people are always asking "but how do you get Apple to approve it? Apple hates competitive telco apps right?".....well my answer has to be a resounding NO - Apple seems to be very supportive of new innovative telco apps

We have just partnered with GlobalTel a major Florida based telco, who is a global leader in "call back" services. We have jointly created a new iPhone app that uses the GlobalTel backend to allow their customers to use the iPhone to make calls (read save money). Its simply called "GlobalTel" and is available on the AppStore now (AppStore Link)

Once we completed the development, we submitted to Apple - in fact it was just before Christmas. We had an email back from Apple requesting a small (very minor and not really relevant to this) issue - we made the change, resubmitted, and then the app was approved only a few days later.

What can we say, from our repeated experience, Apple is a friend to innovative developers who are interested in helping the smartphone community through telco apps.

And now into 2010 - we see even more opportunity to work with Apple on new ideas.