I recently came across this article and couldn’t resist talking about it see how I have spent the last 6 months helping Nokia plug their Ovi applications store. However as an Ipod and Nokia owner, I know the real value of mobile apps. I use them everyday to check the weather, check train times, find out what’s playing at my local cinema, find out where I am or how to get somewhere, check my mail, keep track of time I spend on projects and much more. I keep discovering new apps all the time to the point where I feel I am actually getting some kind of mobile app overload happening.

As a dad however, I can appreciate the idea of a application that translates a baby’s cries into something more understandable like, “I’m hungry, feed me.”

I remember reading baby books which all mentioned how mothers eventually can tell the difference between one cry and another. But what about dads? To me a screech was a screech. Sure I could tell the difference between a mild night disturbance versus a baby in pain, but these are extremes. It’s all those cries in between that drive you mad with uncertainty and anxiety. After all, you want the little one to be happy all the time. You want to protect and make them feel special. But how can you do that when you have no idea what’s wrong?

Well, for all the new dads out there, I truly hope this mobile app from Biloop Technologic works. Just one word of advice however, if your wife doesn’t know  why the baby is crying and you do because of this application, don’t tell her. She will hate you for it. Instead find a clever way to “lead her” to find the reason that you already know thanks to this application.

As a marketer I am however surprised that the brand managers for Pampers or Johnson & Johnson’s didn’t think of this first. What a huge missed opportunity to create lasting brand value. Didn’t anybody pay attention to Kraft’s success?

IPhone Application Translates Babies’ Howls

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INQ Hong Kong Launch event

So it seems that social media has gone mobile in a big way. Yes, we all heard of those great Facebook and Twitter apps for the iPhone that just work brilliantly. And yes, you can get Facebook on other handsets as well. However, the mobile upstart, Team INQ has put together a nice piece of kit for the ever struggling mobile operator 3 that does social networking one better. It’s called the INQ¹.

The Gadget Inspectors have appropriately fallen in love with this device, as seen in their video.  And there are some pretty good reasons for it as well. Anyone who has worked in the device side of the industry will tell you that mobile phones are all about design, design and design. Not just the outside, but the software as well. 

Given that the handset itself doesn’t look that much different than let’s say, the Nokia E66, just what is it that makes this interesting? I can already hear the echoes across the blogosphere. “Ah, it’s just a gimmick!” In part, it is just a gimmick, albeit a well done one. The gimmick is that unlike Nokia, INQ has taken it’s UI to task. The icons for all of the embedded social applications are in the main screen menu, making it a quick flip to get what you want. While Nokia’s applications are well and truly hidden in submenu’s and folders. 

On top of that, there is excellent integration with its applications. Java has long been a drawback of mobile phones in that it’s a ringfenced application with limited integration. Here however, the integration is smartly done. I especially like being able to utilise Facebook as my addressbook and the automatic push of Twitter posts. It would be interesting to see just how difficult it is to set up all of one’s social accounts on the phone; an area where the iPhone excels, and the others struggle.

Packaging is another area that INQ has gotten right. While Nokia, Samsung and Sony’s packaging is sometimes stylistic and fashionable, they can also be downright corporate looking. 

With the INQ¹, they sought to “create an object of beauty – something to cherish, not chuck. All too often, packaging needs up in landfills, or recycling bins at best. While we’d like people to keep it, use it and treasure it. When we design our handsets we remix and edit internet services so that the play best on a mobile. Similarly, we remixed the idea of a box and made it into a place to display artwork.  The box art, and the illustrations on the help cards, come from people whose work we really like,” states INQ’s blog. 

The artist for this box is Yuko Shimizu who is also credited on the box itself. Other artists whose work will soon adorn future INQ handsets can be found here.

It’s all very reminiscent of the early part of the century when Nokia partnered with famous designers to create their phones. These so called Limited Editions always sold out even before hitting the stores. It does make one wonder why Nokia didn’t spin off a business producing just limited edition handsets for the design conscious, like they did with the Vertu for the ultra-rich. Instead, new upstarts are taking the thunder away from the market leaders. 

For INQ’s part however, despite a fair start, they have a long road ahead. First off, they are already a generation behind the others, who are already moving towards touch-screen phones. Secondly, their distribution is far too limited, being solely available through the mobile operator 3. Thirdly, putting one’s eggs in the social networking basket may sound like smart business today, but who can say which platforms will dominate in the next two years. And eventually, the majors will learn from these upstarts, take their own UI’s to task and reinvent them from the ground up. Or just buy out INQ. Anybody want to vote for a Sony INQ3?