We recently shared a few thoughts of ours with Patrick Jordan, in his "who makes this stuff" over at www.justanothermobilemonday.com
"It’s really tough to say how Agendus will stack up against Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion. Personally I believe there is space for a third player in the WM PIM area– a player focused on ease-of-use, user interface, "pleasantness", and desktop integration." - Adriano Chiaretta, Chief Operating & Information Officer, iambic, Inc.
Ever wondered who’s behind some of those essential, favorite applications you use every day on your Pocket PC or smartphone, and how they’ve made them so popular and successful? [source justanothermobilemonday.com]
If so, hopefully you will enjoy this series of posts, where we will talk to some of the very best mobile software developers and publishers. In these brief Q&A sessions, we’ll learn a little about how they got started, their views on how the whole mobile applications area is going to develop, and their thoughts on what it takes to make excellent mobile software.
For this latest entry in the series, we’ve talked to Adriano Chiaretta of iambic - who produce premier mobile applications like Agendus, Agendus Mail, YourCall, TinySheet, and SalesWarrior.
Here’s just a few quick reasons why Adriano’s Q&A was especially fun to work on:
- iambic have been around since 1993 and now develop leading programs for Palm OS, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Windows desktop!
- Agendus - their award-winning and hugely popular PIM program on the Palm platform, is now in advanced beta release for Windows Mobile.
- Adriano offers some great insight on the Palm OS platform and the new ALP (Access Linux Platform)
Read on for Adriano’s full Q&A session with us …
Company Profile: iambic, Inc.
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Founded: October, 1993
Number of Staff: 15
Flagship Products: Agendus (Palm OS, Windows, Symbian), Agendus Mail, YourCall, TinySheet, SalesWarrior
Platforms: Palm OS, Windows Desktop, Windows Mobile, Symbian UIQ
Numbers of Products Sold / Trial Downloads: in the order of the hundred of thousands
Questions:
Q: Can you tell us a little about how the company got started? Was there a particular gap you saw, an application you wanted and nobody made or did right?
iambic started around the end of 1993. At the time, the company had just two people developing solutions for one of the very first PDAs, the Apple Newton. Making it easy to do time and expense tracking while on the go was the primary focus. This led to the creation of TimeReporter, a title that later on migrated over to the Palm OS as well as Windows Desktop platforms. Later in 1994 the company expanded its area of focus to include personal information management (PIM). As a result, Action Names was born. Through the years it evolved to what is now Agendus.
Q: Give us the ‘Elevator Pitch’ on iambic - what’s your company philosophy and mission?
Our mission is to empower users to make the most out of their time wherever they are –on the go or at the desk–, through the creation of easy-to-use, yet powerfully customizable solutions. And we are dedicated to proactively enhancing and improving these solutions so that they better meet users’ needs and take advantage of the latest available technologies.
Q: What makes a GREAT mobile application? What are the key factors in making a really successful and effective application for mobile devices?
There are quite a few ingredients involved in making a great mobile application. Attention to detail, interface design, and usability are definitely a m
ust. Listening to users’ wishes and requests is a very important aspect as well, which helps us hone in on what the application really needs to do.
Regarding mobile platforms, we pay special attention to performance and the careful management of resources because we want to be sure that we create applications that add value and actually “stick” on users’ devices.
Q: iambic has been a very successful mobile software publisher in the Palm OS arena, with leading products like Agendus. Recently you’ve started releasing programs for Windows Mobile. Tell us a little about how that change has come about, and how exciting / challenging that has been for iambic.
Actually, we are not completely new to the Windows Mobile world. In fact, years ago we had several titles in our portfolio, such as an early version of TimeReporter and ExpenseDirector available for what at the time was Windows CE 2.0. However, since that operating system was still in its infancy, we found that it was quite time consuming to support (in terms of time spent into addressing device specific issues versus developing new features or titles). So we made a decision to put Windows Mobile development on hold for a while.
Then right about a year ago, we saw quite some traction picking up in the Windows Mobile space. The platform was maturing and the user base was growing. So we decided to revisit creating applications for Windows Mobile. The natural candidate for a return to WM was of course Agendus. Then, in the second half of the year, we heard that the owner of Two Peaks software solutions was looking for a new home for its titles (including Personal Vehicle Manager, TravelTalk, EzQuote, Personal Health & Diet Manager and TripTracker, which are in use by tens of thousands of customers worldwide). After an initial review of their titles, we immediately saw a good match for us, hence the decision of moving forward with an acquisition, and a commitment to continue the development and evolution of the newly acquired titles.
Q: You’re set to bring out a Windows Mobile version of Agendus (which has been a leading PIM application for Palm for many years) this month in a beta release. I think that’s very good news as I always found Agendus very impressive when using a Treo 650. How will Agendus stack up and compete with the two real heavyweight Windows Mobile PIMs, Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion?
I’m pleased you welcome our decision to move forward on creating a version of Agendus for Windows Mobile devices. It’s really tough to say how Agendus will stack up against Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion. Personally I believe there is space for a third player in the WM PIM area– a player focused on ease-of-use, user interface, “pleasantness,” and desktop integration. Anyone interested in learning more about this upcoming title is welcome to visit http://www.iambic.com/agenduspro/wmppc/.
Q: Will you be releasing more new Windows Mobile products in the near future? If so, any areas you’ll be focusing on in developing new apps?
Yes, we are in the process of releasing Windows Mobile 5 versions of the recently acquired Two Peaks titles, including Vehicle Manager, Diet and Health Manager, Trip Tracker, Perfect Home, and Bill Rate. As far as new areas of development, we do have a few ideas in mind, and are busy doing our homework.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Palm OS, and where it’s going? It seems it has lost a lot of ground, a lot of momentum recently, and even lost a lot of users who have switched over to Windows Mobile based Treos for example. Are you confident that Palm’s new Linux-based incarnation will be a big success?
I’m a bit skeptical on the future of the ALP platform. Although it appears based on a solid foundation, I’m not sure what level of adoption it will get from licensees. The fact that Palm Inc., itself recently acquired the rights to Palm OS, might indicate that Palm OS itself will actually stay around and evolve through Palm rather than through Access. This might bring new life to the operating system and more availability on the entry-level with high diffusion potential smartphones. I believe with the Treo 680 we are seeing a first example of this.
Q: I’ve read a few pieces recently on smartphones and mobile applications, and the lack of takeup of applications by ‘normal’ users (i.e. not geeks). There’s a great piece by Michael Mace at Mobile Opportunity on the need for a new mobile platform, because ’sophisticated mobile data apps’ just don’t sell well. (see it at: http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/). It seems that a huge percentage of users just don’t know about a lot of the great software that is out there, and don’t know all the powerful things they can do with their mobile device (beyond just phone and email). What are your thoughts on the state of mobile apps sales and how to grow awareness and sales to more of the ‘entry-level’ users out there?
I tend to agree with what Michael Mace mentions in his article. This has always been one of the biggest struggles in the mobile software market. In fact, even at the time where most mobile users were power users, and hence familiar with mobile software, the number of users actually buying software for their handheld or smartphone has always been a tiny percentage compared to the number of units sold.
On whether users don’t know about the software that is out there, or whether they don’t need it / they don’t have time to download it, I’m not sure. My feeling is that for quite a few users, and in particular “entry-level” users, contact management, email, web, music and phone are pretty much all they need for their smartphone. And of course the device manufacturers themselves have got those areas pretty well covered. Hence the challenge for independent developers is to always be a step ahead in spotting untapped areas of end-user need.
Of course that doesn’t mean that awareness is not something that developers can improve upon. , My feeling in that direction is that mobile shopping becoming a key area, especially nowadays where more and more voice plans come along with data plans.
Making it really easy to find, purchase, and deliver software right on the device will definitely be a hot topic in 2007. Personally I’m a fan of mobile-friendly web based mobile stores versus on-device shopping applications, and of course my favorite mobile shopping site it http://mobile.iambic.com 
Q: Are there Product Roadmaps that you work to for your stable of products - i.e. should we expect a major new version release every 12-18 months, a .x release once per year? What’s the approach in this area?
We usually tend to release at least one major version per year of the most active titles, in certain cases even two. During 2007 we’ll definitely see Agendus for Palm OS version 12, Agendus for Windows 5, Agendus for Windows Mobile 2 (and perhaps even 3), YourCall for Palm OS 2, as well as other major updates to the former Two Peaks titles.
For the titles with less activity, we usually release two to three minor updates per year, to ensure device compatibility and take advantage of any interesting new capability offered by the latest hardware.
Q: Which other mobile software publishers do you rate highly and admire?
I do admire quite a few actually - here I’m just going to mention a few off the top of my head whose creativity, integrity, attention to users, and marketing strategies never stop surprising me. In no particular order I’d say: Handmark, SplashData, Hobbyist, OmegaOne, WebIS, DeveloperOne, Ultrasoft, Landware, QuickOffice, MotionApps, GoTreoSoftware, Electric Pocket to mention a few.
Q: What can we look forward to from iambic in the rest of 2006, and into 2007? New versions? Any brand new products coming?
Definitely new major version of our most popular titles, more Windows Desktop titles tied into mobile solutions, additional Over-The-Air facilities to complement our current weather, stock quote and address lookup offerings, and yes, most likely also brand new products – but I’ll leave those as a pleasant surprise for the day they’ll be released out to the market 
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