MySplice Blog

Apple is introducing the iPad and www.friend.io already upgraded to support the iPad on their iPhone 4 social network. The iPad is like an Acer Aspire without the keyboard (a small netbook). The iPad is like a giant iPod. Just when things were getting smaller and smaller the iPad is probably 3 or 4 times the size of the iPod Touch / iPhone. I have to think the reason for this iPad monster size thingy is due to the fact that the mobile Web is getting ready to burst open the bubble. In other words, the mobile Web is about to boom, or did you think that happened already? Hardly. In the next 18 months, if not sooner, the mobile Web will out number the PC Web, or should I put that in simpler terms? The Web is going mobile. The PC popularity is going down hill fast. The future is mobile. If you have a Website you better get it ready for mobile if it’s not made for it already.

I remember back in 2000 (yeah, I’m 40) when Bill Gates said that in 2010 there would be 2 kinds of business…those that are online and those that are out of business. Well, I, Doug Blogger, am here to tell ya something new. In 2020 there will be two kinds of business…those that are on the mobile web and those that are out of business.

iRovr is (or was) a social network built specifically for the iPhone.  They launched to the public in June of 2007 and in about 2 weeks they had over 400 users.  Today I learned that iRovr is shutting down tomorrow, January 31st, 2010 at midnight.  It’s not the first iPhone specific social networking site to fail, but it was the most complete with a great design,   probably the best one until the recent launch of friend.io with it’s geo location that came out this month.  Communication on  iRovr is done by internal email. When you sign up with your  iPhone email iRovr sends you a list of account specific email addresses for your address book.  Writing to one submits a blog, sending pictures to another posts the photo to the site, and so on.

iRovr isn’t closing because of the bad economy though, as the site claims:

January 31, 2010 will be iRovr.com’s last day of operation.

The site further states that the owner has no choice but to shut it down because of personal / family reasons and he no longer has the time to maintain the iPhone app.  Hopefully things will work out for the owner of the site and one day the site owner may continue, you never know.  Perhaps in 2011 we’ll see a new iRovr with even more features for the new iPhone 4 , but for now, if you never saw iRovr before you better hurry, you’ve got just under 24 hours to see it, and you’ll need an iPhone to get in.

Americans spend a lot of time online, and about 17% of that time was spent on social networks.  That’s 3 times the amount it was just 12 months ago according to data collected by Nielsen.  In addition, they report advertising spending is up a whopping 119%. Not bad for a bad economy if you’re in the business of social networking.  In August 2008 they report the advertising spending to be about $49 million USD and a year later, in August of 2009 it soared to $108 million USD.

There’s an enormous increase of online users in the United States & Canada who really love being social.  North America wants to connect and share information with friends and family, from their status on Twitter to their new photos and activities on Facebook & MySpace.

Because of this urge we all seem to have today we’re all flocking to social networks to share information with everybody we can reach, and advertisers know they’re reaching everybody ‘we’ reach too.

Now there’s a big surge in iPhone sales and the mobile Web is beginning to boom just as the PC did in the late 1990’s.  With this new way to connect mobile social networking is the next big thing, without a doubt.  Apple just reported unreal growth and huge profits, and this is just the beginning.

There are already sites taking advantage of the future social web such as Friendio, the iPhone and iPod Touch optimized social networking site for mobile users on the go.  Not only does Friendio feature Twitter style updates, they also have the long sought after geo location to show you when your friends & family are near so you can easily connect and make plans together.

Friendio is going to boom in the coming year.  Advertisers will likely flock to Friendio this fall, just as they do with other social networking sites.  Growth is going to be amazing for sites like this.  Now, if only one of us lucky ones can be the Angel investor they’re seeking out!

Reduced social advertisers include those in the industry of hardware, software, financial services & automotive, however the travel and entertainment industries are spending much more (actually the statistic shows their ad spend is up 812%).

2010 will be an interesting year, most likely the year the Internet really does go mobile.

Friendio is a social network built for the cell phone, but not just the iPhone, it works on all cell phones with Web browsing ability. It launches to the public in about 10 days so we’ll have to watch it for new users. Friendio has a clever Web address: www.friend.io - very easy to remember, which is a big plus, and it’s made to work with the iPhone and the iPod Touch, as well as other cell phones, so now you can find phone friends and cell friends on this new social network. It is not the first iPhone social networking site, but I found the test site (beta) and I think it is probably the most complete and perhaps the easiest universal social network for cellular. Friendio is about blogging, sharing photos, inviting frineds and connecting to the people you care about. When you sign up at the site with your email account, Friendio gets you started with new connections. One thing I liked when I was sneaking around in the beta site was the plans section, where you can post your plans and choose to share them with other friends. It will be interesting to see what else there is in store for cell users from this new phone friends network next week.