FUN'k up your life with Minute Race

I am proud to say that I am one of the ‘mentors’ to help out the guys that invented this crazy app to spice up your life and make it more playful. If you have the feeling your life is all-right, you should definitely install the app. You will get a task every week that helps you to get out of your comfort zone… And you have to complete every task a.s.a.p. and make a picture of it and show it on your Facebook timeline (sharing is caring 😉

Check out the screens below and if you think it’s not for you… DOWNLOAD IT AND START PLAYING !

      

Minute Race is the first mobile app that helps you move beyond your comfort zone in an exciting and playful way!

The app challenges you to be courageous, playful, self-ironic and adventurous! It’s your turn!

*Do you have a crazy idea for a race? Tell it us on our Facebook page or send a tweet @minuterace.

We’re still looking for a CTO so if you live in The Netherlands (preferably Amsterdam) and are a genuine hacker. Contact Peter (peter at minuterace dot com)!

Support these guys at startup bootcamp or rockstart accelerator!

Download the app here

Posted in alternate reality, Gamification, Mobile | No Comments »

A Second Layer on Life

In April I posted a short video from Google about the future of ‘mobile’ and the Google Goggles project (project glass).

http://www.brandnewgame.nl/2012/04/project-glass-one-day/

This is how we will experience life in the future according to Sight Systems.

It starts out nicely and confirms that Gamification is the future, but the power of programmers seem to get out of hand if we don’t watch out…

Posted in Mobile, Trends, video | No Comments »

Where are your mobile manners?

By Morten Geertsen

An infographic says a thousand words. Well, at least they’re quite entertaining as well as informative. Often they have kind of a message. So did the one on mobile devices, which Bart sent me, written by an online college site – with the purpose of making students aware of their mobile behavior.

“Cellular Jerks: Where Are Your Mobile Manners?” There you go! The title says it all: Some people just don’t know how to behave with a cell phone in the real world.

In Denmark we have more bicycles than citizens (3:1). Maybe the same accounts for Holland, where Bart is from (Bart: I believe in Holland it’s 2:1 and 1 million are sold every year). However, I wasn’t aware of the fact that the number of mobile devices has increased beyond the number of people! Mobile zombies are everywhere: People walking the streets, their eyes fixed on the tiny screen.

In supermarkets in Denmark you often see people caught up in the worlds of their mobile devices: Distracted from any sociable interactions with the cashier (or any other person for that matter). No wonder that 3 in 4 people think cell phone behavior has gotten way worse in the past 2 years!

Do you use your cell phone when you shouldn’t? According to the infographic… you do.

If you’re a student most likely you’ve texted in-class, just like 9 out of 10 students. If school is not your strongest side, you might even have texted during exams, like 1 out of 10! Remember you’re not in “Who wants to be a millionaire” – you don’t have a “lifeline” and you can’t just call a friend!

To be honest, it’s not illegal in all countries to use your cell phone. However, it’s dangerous worldwide! Reportedly 3 in 4 adults have talked or texted behind the wheel. Apparently a text distracts the driver for an average of 4.6 second. So, more surprising than how fast-fingered drivers are, is the fact that this is the equivalent of driving an entire football field blindfolded!

Not exactly forbidden but definitely awkward is the combination of texting/calling and being intimate with someone.  10% under the age of 25 have texted during sex. Among all adults 15% will answer a call mid-sex. I’ll let the reader decide for himself, if that is a surprising fact.

3 in 4 college students sleep with their phones in or by their bed. This is of no surprise, because functions such as alarm clocks are used by many students as a way of gaining consciousness on early mornings.

Apparently cell phones often visit bathrooms. 3 in 4 people bring them there to either text, e-mail or play games, that way making the previous use of gossip magazines outdated. Similarly many people answer calls (63%) or strangely enough make calls themselves (41%). Consequently 1 in 5 people have experienced the traumatic accident of their phone falling in the toilet.

Ears don’t have the same ability to shut out the outside world as let’s say mouth and eyes. So chances are you’ve heard things you wish you hadn’t from someone talking on their cell phone. In that case you’re not alone. The same accounts for 55% of the rest of the population, who’ve felt uncomfortable in overhearing a personal cell conversation.

If you plan to make a personal call in the middle of crowded afternoon train, please keep the level of details low! Thanks on behalf of half of most of the population.

Total annoyance can be summarized: 22% have been bothered by others playing games or listening to music, 20% dislike hearing someone talk on their phone and 17% were peeved by people texting in movies. However, it is pointed out that paradoxically 90% of cell users think they have excellent mobile manners. Duh.

Translated into something more picturesque: The relationship between respectively active and passive cell phone users is a bit like two old neighbors not getting along, all the time getting annoyed over details. “How tall is the hedge supposed to be?” is a bit like “How loud is a person supposed to talk on a cell phone?” (the infographic says people speak three times louder on their cell phones compared to normal conversations!) and “What are they supposed to talk about?”.

However, as the infographic claims, our cell phone use can be quite dangerous or in other cases very annoying to people. Mobiles are awesome… they can do all kinds of things. But they’re not a natural part of the social reality and sometimes we need to control our dependence and use of them.

Are you a cellular jerk? (http://www.onlinecollege.org/cellular-jerks/)

Posted in Mobile | No Comments »

Android Update June 2012

This infographic brings you up-to-date in a glance about all you need to know about the use of Android and it’s apps. As usual, the TOP10 of apps are all game (or in this case – gambling) related… no news to me, but brands seem reluctant to hop on the bandwagon and keep investing in one-way pushy and static TV advertising… (even when three independent research documents show that 70% of all viewers zap away, get a drink or go take a ‘restroom’ break). Why not develop a FUN or FUNCTIONAL app for mobile devices to be closer to your consumer than you will ever get!?

A big thanks to Start-app for sharing this!

Posted in Mobile | No Comments »

Mobile Casual Gaming Report

Posted in Gaming research, Mobile | No Comments »

Students in USA are messaging 3 hours per day!

>I was surprised recently that big telephone companies like Vodafone and KPN (The Netherlands) didn’t foresee the fact that apps could gradually make certain functions of their business proposition redundant. To name one example: texting / messaging. Since Whatsapp (do we still remember Budweiser’s Wassup) telephone companies are loosing loads and loads of turnover…
And it must have been their biggest chunk of turnover if you take a look at this Infographic from OnlineEducation.net According to this research students spend 3 HOURS (on average) PER DAY sending text messages to each other…!!!

This is incredible, that’s even more than watching TV!

I recently received a hand-written note from a guy aged 25… it was illegible and looked like the handwriting of my grandfather AFTER he died… If 82% of all students prefer to use digital tools to learn, why are we still not using games as a training tool on schools I wonder. Are teachers really that terrified that they will lose their jobs? I think teachers will become the admins of the future teaching playground, but that’s another subject. For now, go check out this great infographic – and a BIG thanks to Lessie for keeping me posted on interesting shizzle for the peepz!

Posted in Mobile, Personnel, Research | No Comments »

Mobile Gaming Report – Thanks to Distimo

>Our friends at Distimo, a research company in Utrecht – The Netherlands, just released a 27 pages report about the mobile gaming market. These slides are the highlights, in my opinion. 




The major findings are:

• Games are still the most popular downloads for Phones, whether paid or free 
• The average selling price of games declined by 28% over the last year, while the revenue generated by the most successful freemium games increased tenfold during this period in the Apple App Store for iPhone.
• The presence of virtual currencies within games is one of the main reasons behind the popularity and monetization success of in-app purchases. 35% of the 300 most popular free games in June use some sort of virtual currencies to monetize in the Apple App Store for iPhone.
• Looking at the 300 most popular paid for applications, 72% of downloads are
generated by games while the remaining 28% of downloads are generated by
applications other than games in the Apple App Store for iPhone.
• The total revenue generated by top grossing games increased by 79% year-on-year in the Apple App Store for iPhone.
• A small number of publishers dominate total game downloads: ten publishers
account for more than half of all downloads among the 300 most popular paid
games in the Apple App Store for iPhone.
• Notwithstanding the popularity of games, the growth rate of the number of
applications other than games is higher than the growth rate of the number of
games in most stores. The number of games has increased faster than other apps only in the Apple App Store for iPhone, the Apple App Store for iPad and GetJar, but the growth rate for games in other stores is lower than for other applications.




It’s interesting to see that more and more games (and apps) are using the freemium model and use ‘micro-transactions / ingame-transactions’ (as described in my book ‘A Brand New Playground‘) to make money. It’s a trend that is apparently evident if you look at the data. 


For more mobile research and consultancy, please visit Distimo’s website: http://www.distimo.com

Posted in Gaming research, Mobile | No Comments »

New Distimo research is out

>I am still wondering why brands are still hesitating to start developing cool branded games for the world. My book A brand new playground clearly states all the possibilities to create cool concepts for consumers. Also my research shows that gamers are very much open for brand interaction (hence the 600.000 Nespresso fans on Facebook and over 11 million for Victorias Secret).

Again the most downloaded applications (free as well as paid applications) are GAMES! Surprise, surprise. Of course it’s the coolness of the concept that determines a great deal of the success of the game, but hey, that;s why BrandNewGame is here!

… 😉

Source: www.distimo.com 

Posted in Mobile, Research | No Comments »

A Mobile update: Phones versus Pads versus Computers – Globally

>


Internet Trends Presentation

Read the full article and response at Mashable

Posted in Mobile, Research | No Comments »

Games still the most popular apps on smart phones

>Research done by Nielsen amongst 4.000 US Smartphone users shows that games are still the most popular downloads.

Interesting to see that social networking websites (Facebook & Twitter I guess) are more popular than ‘communication apps’ like Voice over IP (Skype) and Instant Messaging (MSN). Also the weather and news is high in the list.

The charts speak for themselves I guess 😉

Posted in Apple, game, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mobile, Research, Social media | No Comments »