Startable – Healy Jones’ & Prasad Thammineni’s Blog

Android is growing like crazy but it sill lacks that… je ne sais quoi that the iPhone has.

Oh, wait, I know what it lacks. People who download and use mobile apps, a stable and non-fragmented OS and consistent user experience.

Android Eclair - is this robot holding a piece of poop? Nope, it's just another dessert named OS by Android

Anand Rajaram, an OfficeDrop co-founder and our chief product officer, just wrote a piece for Techrepublic called “10 Things I Hate About Android.” Of course, not to be totally negative on Android, the subtitle is “and some work arounds that help.”

OfficeDrop has now released a series of mobile apps on different platforms – our iPhone PDF app, iPad App, Android Scanner App, and the PaperPort Anywhere iOS and Android apps. Anand has led the charge on all of these mobile applications. It was a lot of work! And he also has gotten a pretty deep view into the development and marketing side of these different mobile platforms.

And let me tell you… Android has some problems brewing. If the platform is going to be a serious contender from a mobile app developer perspective then it’s got a lot of stuff that has to get fixed. Anand goes into his top 10 in this article. This includes things that are nightmares for developers and QA people, like the software and hardware fragmentation, security issues, and the problem of getting found in Google Android marketplace.

Let’s hope that Google is able to address and reduce some of the problems. I think they, as a company, are taking this whole mobile thing quite seriously and I’d expect they make significant headway in improving a lot of these things in the coming year.

Anyway, click on the link above to see what Anand has to say about OfficeDrop’s experience developing on the Android platform. It’s a good read.

I’m pretty excited about a new partnership my company has that just launched. OfficeDrop is working with Nuance’s PaperPort desktop filing system to bring the newest version of PaperPort, PaperPort 14, to the cloud.

The team here at OfficeDrop was able to connect our APIs to PaperPort 14′s desktop client, making it simple to right click any folder from within PaperPort 14 and automatically sync all files to the cloud. If you include the mobile apps we developed this means you can right click a folder and the text search, browse and share the folder and it’s contents from your phone. It’s pretty cool and the tech press seems to be getting it. You can buy PaperPort 14 at paperport.com, where you can also sign up for a free PaperPort Anywhere account. And the mobile apps are here:

• PaperPort Anywhere iPhone and iPad App
• PaperPort Anywhere Android App

Obviously preparing for this was a ton of work, which is why I’ve been totally silent on the blogging front. Hopefully now that we are launched I”ll have time to get back to posting more frequently!

Below is the press release by Nuance talking about PaperPort Anywhere.

Nuance Launches PaperPort Anywhere Cloud Service

Making it Easy for Millions to Organize, Access and Share All of Their Paper and Digital Documents, Anywhere and Anytime

BURLINGTON, Mass., August 2, 2011 — Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN), a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions, today introduced PaperPort® Anywhere, a new cloud-based service that makes it easy to organize, access and share documents from nearly any PC and mobile device. PaperPort Anywhere lets users manage and access their documents in the cloud using web browsers, as well as using free apps from Nuance for Apple® and Google® Android® mobile devices.

The service uses the market-leading Nuance OmniPage® OCR (optical character recognition) engine to automatically create searchable documents from scanned and camera-captured documents, as well as faxes, making paper content as easy to search and find as digital documents. As a result, users can organize, access and share all of their document content on PaperPort Anywhere.

“There is a reason that recent surveys show over 51% of people still use paper files – it is in large part because current cloud services treat paper content as an afterthought,” said Robert Weideman, vice president and general manager for the Nuance Document Imaging Division. “PaperPort Anywhere goes further than other services by closing the content gap between paper and digital documents – making it easy to scan to the cloud, improving the way users manage both their scanned and digital documents, and by making cloud access easy and convenient.”

PaperPort Anywhere also integrates with the new release of Nuance PaperPort 14 for Windows®, the world’s most popular scanning and document management application for the PC, which was also announced today. PaperPort 14 provides automatic synchronization of Windows folders and files with PaperPort Anywhere. It also adds conversion of scanned and PDF documents into fully formatted word and spreadsheet files that can be edited on Windows, the Macintosh and through cloud services such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365. PaperPort 14 provides robust PDF capabilities, including the ability to create PDF from practically any application, and includes PDF-MRC, which creates scanned files that are up to eight times smaller than scanned PDF files without compression.

PaperPort Anywhere is valuable to anyone that works with documents, including the over 20 million registered users of Nuance desktop applications, and users of the more than five million seats of PaperPort that are deployed each year. PaperPort Anywhere includes free apps for Apple iPhone, iPad and Google Android devices, and is free for up to one gigabyte of searchable storage space. PaperPort Anywhere subscription plans include $9.99 per month for 10 gigabytes and $24.99 per month for 50 gigabytes of storage space.

PaperPort Anywhere Key Features and Benefits

PaperPort Anywhere makes it easy to organize, access, and share any document – both paper and digital – anywhere and anytime. Key features and benefits include:

• Organize All Your Documents in the Cloud. PaperPort Anywhere is more than cloud storage – it provides a better way to organize and use your documents. PaperPort Anywhere’s thumbnail and clip views of paper and digital documents are key features that help you quickly organize documents.
• Search and Find both Paper and Digital Documents. PaperPort Anywhere is powered by the Nuance OmniPage OCR engine, which provides the highest levels of accuracy for scanned documents and image PDF files, such as those from fax services. The best OCR means users can find indexed paper documents just as they do Word and spreadsheet files.
• Access and Use, Anywhere and Anytime. PaperPort Anywhere is accessible through any web browser at www.PaperPort.com, the web gateway to PaperPort Anywhere cloud services. Nuance also provides free apps for the Apple iPhone®, iPad® and Google Android devices, and supports Microsoft Windows through PaperPort 14.
• Share and Collaborate. PaperPort Anywhere makes it easy to share links to files stored on the site. The service also supports secure and permission-based emailing of files into PaperPort Anywhere accounts, making it easier than ever to collaborate and share documents with others.
• One Click Scan to Cloud. Only PaperPort Anywhere integrates with PaperPort 14 – the world’s most popular scanning and document management application for the PC. The combination results in unmatched document productivity and convenience.

Pricing and Availability

PaperPort Anywhere with up to one gigabyte of searchable storage is free. PaperPort Anywhere Premium with up to 10 gigabytes of storage is $9.99 per month and $24.99 a month for 50 gigabytes of storage. For additional information on PaperPort Anywhere visit www.PaperPort.com.

About PaperPort Anywhere

PaperPort Anywhere is a new, innovative cloud service from Nuance that makes it easy to scan, organize and share documents – anytime, from anywhere. PaperPort Anywhere is powered by OfficeDrop. It delivers enhanced search-indexing capabilities using Nuance OmniPage OCR.

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Trademark reference: Nuance, the Nuance logo, and OmniPage and PaperPort are registered trademarks or trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names or product names referenced herein may be the property of their respective owners.

# # #

Media and Industry Analyst Contact:

Jennifer Shelgren

Nuance Communications, Inc.

Tel: (781) 565-4758

Email: jennifer.shelgren@nuance.com

Ok, to be a little less histronic, internet map access from fixed computers (i.e. ‘landlines” if you will) shrank, while mobile map app access grew a lot. In fact, according to Comscore, it looks like internet map usage is up almost 9%, but this is totally because mobile map usage is up 39% (ie access from a mobile device and not a computer).

Are we seeing the innovation around mobile maps? Or is this space totally dominated by Google Maps? It’s hard to think of a more valuable piece of mobile real estate, although to be honest I don’t know if Google is really monetizing it all that well. I tend not to be hit by ads when I look up addresses or directions on my phone’s map app.

I tweeted this the other day and got some good retweets, so I figured it was interesting to other people too!

35% is a lot, but it is also clear that there is still room to grow. (see the report here.) I don’t think we’ve yet hit the point where growth in mobile advertising will slow down (the pundits are saying mobile advertising will be $1.1 or $1.2 billion in 2011), and the itunes of the world that I continue to say is the major distribution engine for today’s most interesting startups is just revving up.

So, basically, if you are an internet startupper, it is in your best interest to have the latest and greatest smart phone. Looks like I”ll have to be in line for the next iPhone I guess!

Interesting research from Flurry again (they were the ones who put out the info that mobile app usage is topping regular web browsing). This time they have data showing that free or “freemium” app titles are generating more revenue than pure paid apps. From a MediaPost summary of the research:

Flurry shows that over the last six months, revenue from free-to-play game apps has overtaken that from paid apps. Among the top 100 grossing games in the App Store as of June, more than two-thirds (65%) of the revenue generated came from freemium games and 35% from paid games.

That’s nearly opposite the situation from six months ago, when paid game apps accounted for 61% of revenue and free titles, 39%. What’s changed since January? Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at Flurry, pointed out that Apple began counting in-app purchases toward app gross revenues at the end of 2010, reflecting the impact of that sales stream in its ranking of top-grossing titles.

Free apps generating more revenue than pure paid apps

So, this research is focused on games, but OfficeDrop is betting the same will be true for our b2b SaaS app. We switched to a freemium model earlier this week, mainly driven by the feedback we were getting in the app stores. App store people just expect to try stuff for free and don’t like free trials. We can’t get them to read the app description that talks about the free trial period; they just look at stars, download and then leave a nasty review without trying the service. Hopefully this freemium experiment will pay off for us. Initial web signups are promising, but it’s too early to tell!

What happens to the web if apps continue to dominate? Jordan Elpern-Waxman wrote a response to one of my earlier posts about mobile app usage overtaking web browsing time. His basic premise is that apps won’t end up killing the web. I guess the question is will apps eventually kill the browser… I am pretty sure that in the next 5 years the browser will continue to be important (it’s hard to think beyond that time frame – at least for my little brain).

The browser is still a great way to discover and consume content. But there are content oriented things that I’ve switched to consuming via apps. For example, I now have the Wikipedia app on my phone. It’s a little slow, but I still  use it. I have noticed that for many trivia type questions (how many people live in San Diego, for example) Google tends to return Wikipedia as the top one or two result. So instead of going to the browser, hitting Google, asking the question I now just go directly to the Wikipedia app on my phone and visit the particular page on the topic to get my answer. It’s just as fast because it requires fewer steps. But will I ever have a Wikipedia app on my computer? I kind of doubt it.

I also still like consuming news content via a browser. I guess there aren’t any downloadable PC/Mac apps for consuming content, so the browser is the way to go. And on the phone I like the new Bing interface for reading article. Although, now that I think about it, people are using the instapaper type apps to read content. Hmm. Maybe the mobile browser is dead! But I still doubt that the desktop browser dies.

Microsoft Office 365 launches tomorrow, and now that I see the marketing video I think that the Skype acquisition makes a lot more sense.

Microsoft Office 365 Video

My big question is how open with Office 365 be? Will outside developers be able to write to and interact with all the Office services? I get the feeling MSFT is trying to do everything – file sharing, collaboration, cloud content management & storage, webinar hosting… it’s a lot. I can’t imagine all of it will be best of breed. So many customers will likely want to supplement weaker offerings with outside developed programs. If MSFT if open they may lose a little revenue, but will likely actually grow the pie and increase stickiness… we’ll see how this plays out.

2 quick links

1) The definition of a venture capital fund – from the SEC

The only people who’s definition of a venture capitalist matter are the SEC and investors in private equity funds. And, well, the SEC just decided what a venture capital fund is. I’ve been following Dan Primack as he writes this one up. See the definition here.

2) Apps rule; the web is dead

Scroble has a solid piece on how it is clear that apps are beating the web, yet many tech industry experts are not willing to believe it. His basic point is – look at how normal people use their devices, and you’ll see that it is totally app centric. Ignore users preferences and workflow at your own peril. Check out my last post on app usage surpassing web browsing for more data…

People are now spending more time using mobile apps than they spend surfing the web! According to a report by Flurry released yesterday, a serious platform shift is happening in how people interact with data.

The report says:

…for the first time ever, daily time spent in mobile apps surpasses desktop and mobile web consumption. This stat is even more remarkable if you consider that it took less than three years for native mobile apps to achieve this level of usage, driven primarily by the popularity of iOS and Android platforms.

This is pretty big news. Check out the chart from the post:

Time spent using the internet is only growing at 16% year over year, but mobile app usage minutes is growing over 90% year over year. So it looks like mobile has got a lot more legs to grow on!

Flurry also reports that social networking and games account for almost 80% of the time spent on mobile apps. This stat doesn’t surprise me too much, as mobile gaming is really taking off. I am a little surprised about the social networking thing – what are they using, Facebook’s app? Or LinkedIn? Maybe Twitter, actually. I wonder how this fits with Facebooks HTML5 strategy?

This data fits with how OfficeDrop is seeing growth. Our Android app has really taken off and is now a huge percentage of our recent growth, and I’m excited for our other upcoming mobile offerings. I think this survey should help clear up any thoughts on the importance of mobile apps and consumer preferences.

Ok I’ve got to brag a little here. OfficeDrop recently launched our newest mobile app, the OfficeDrop Android Paper-to-Go app, and we’ve had great success with new users and downloads. I’m working on a post about how SEO may be dying, at least for SaaS services, since the huge majority of our new users are coming from app marketplaces these days. I really think we are undergoing a significant shift in the way people find and buy software and web services… and I’m personally having a ton of fun trying to figure it out!

Anyways, here is some of the recent press OfficeDrop has gotten on our new Android app:

May 18, 2011

OfficeDrop: Scan Docs, Turn Them into PDF & Make Searchable (Android)

Using Paper-to-Go you can scan physical documents using your smartphone’s camera and store these documents … other file formats can be uploaded and processed as well. Read OfficeDrop’s Paper-to-Go Review on makeuseof…