Steve Jobs

By Josh Rochlin

I have nothing original to say, but something needs to be said.

We are all so much more today because of who Steve Jobs was and what he created.

I am not just thinking about the great technology he created.

Mostly I am thinking about the possibilities he inspired. The possibilities that nothing need be permanent; that excellence could inspire change; and the possibility that passion and brilliance could trump complacency and inertia.

Steve was at once the ultimate disrupter and quintessential creator.

I hope that each of us will grow from his memory and one day be worthy of similar praise.

Josh Rochlin
Chief Executive Officer
Xtify

Xtify Appoints Michael Bordash as Chief Technology Officer

By Dan Gesser

We are excited to announce the arrival of our new CTO, Michael Bordash! Prior to joining Xtify, Michael was Vice President of Software Development at Experian where he directed all application development, architecture and software quality assurance for Experian CheetahMail. CheetahMail clients include Starbucks, Estee Lauder, Visa, Wyndham Hotels, and Barnes & Noble.

Michael will be responsible for technology, engineering and operations for Xtify’s mobile engagement and geo-push notification platform.

You can read the full press release here: http://bit.ly/q7jG6B.

Welcome to the team, Michael!

7 Thoughts For Your 2012 Mobile App Strategy

By Josh Schiffman

1. Speak to your users as if they are your customers. Because they are. Your “users” are customers that just told you loud and clear that they care about your brand or service, what your have to say, and what your app has to offer. Fulfill their expectations and engage them.

2. Keep your messages relevant. Just because your customer has your app on their fancy smartphone and has opted-in doesn’t mean that you can send them just any message. If I’m a 29 year-old woman, do I want to know about new men’s chino styles? No.

3. Android is for real. It is. We’re serious. Hundreds of millions of consumers have Android. It’s time to invest.

4. Retain your users. How much did you spend to create your app? How much more did you spend to drive downloads? And, how much time and energy are you expending to maintain that app? Get the most from your investment by keeping your app utilized and your brand top-of-mind.

5. Reward. You know that I’m a good customer, shower me with love. Give me incentive to tell my friends about your great app. Give me reason to stop into your store. Give me reason to open your app.

6. Measure. Who says mobile is the “wild west”? That’s ridiculous. You can learn more about your customer when they are mobile then you can when they visit your website. Know when, where, and what communications with your customers are most effective.

7. Tablets are the new black. Everyone is going to have one. And, they are going to spend money on your brand using one. Make it easy for them and create an irresistible experience for your customer.


How Can Xtify Help?

1. Great delivery. Send rich and engaging content to your mobile customers via push notifications, without email or SMS. Xtify provides rich-HTML push notifications with customizable actions along with a notification inbox to ensure that your messages get read.

2. High relevance. Reach your audience with the right message, at the right place, at the right time with trigger-based messages including user location – even when the app is closed! Xtify provides web-based tools and API’s to create and configure both simple and robust communication campaigns.

3. Perfect information. Nothing is perfect, but Xtify provides actionable data about how your mobile customer communications are resonating. Get Xtify analytics about how your notifications perform. You can even send messages based on specific events and behaviors.

4. Cross-platform. iOS + Android + BlackBerry. Yes.

5. Expertise and support. Our team will help you create the best relationship with your customers using the mobile channel.

Location-Based Coupons Delivered By Xtify Push Notifications

By Dan Gesser

The daily deal and couponing space is at the forefront of seemingly every marketing conversation these days. It’s a HOT topic given the success of Groupon, Living Social and others. I’m happy to share details about VoucherMob, a company based in New Zealand, which uses Xtify to deliver location-targeted mobile coupons.

Available on iOS and the Android platform, VoucherMob allows shoppers to select the retailers they’d like to receive coupons from. These “big name” retailers include McDonald’s, Dick Smith and Liquor King. Based on the retailers chosen by the shopper, VoucherMob sends notifications with the latest deal for that location when the shopper is in proximity to one of the retailer’s locations. Delivery of highly relevant and targeted offers direct to a shoppers phone increases foot traffic, coupon use and overall positive association with the brand.

While having “big name” retailers sets VoucherMob apart from its less sophisticated website counterparts, geo-triggered notifications allow a level of direct marketing not accessible by any other means. “We see our role as providing the technology to enable a closer relationship between the retailer and consumer,” explains VoucherMob head Scott Bradley.

VoucherMob’s use of Xtify’s geo-location push notifications also allows the company to provide meaningful analytics to retailers. By pushing real-time offers straight to mobile devices, VoucherMob can track sales conversions, close the loop and gain excellent market intelligence about consumer behavior in the marketplace. “It’s a great way for shoppers to save money and a fantastic sales tool for retailers- a really powerful call to action that is cost effective to run, generating virtually instant sales and a tangible way to track the effectiveness of digital marketing” explains VoucherMob head Scott Bradley.

In addition to gaining favorable customer and industry feedback, VoucherMob recently won the Ministry of Science & Innovation Best Hi-Tech Start-up category at the Hi-Tech Awards in Wellington, NZ. Hoping to hear much more about this great, innovative company!

You can download the VoucherMob iOS application here:

http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/vouchermob/id394489809?mt=8.

You can download the VoucherMob Android application here:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.vouchermob&feature=search_result.

iOS 5 Makes Using Xtify for Push Notifications Even Better

By Dan Gesser

Last week’s WWDC marked the public unveiling of Apple’s newest mobile operating system, iOS 5. The Xtify team is incredibly excited about the many new features and usability enhancements slated for this upcoming release. In particular, the Notification Center functionality offers several welcome features that will prevent incoming push notifications from being obtrusive (causing users to clear the notifications as a means of quickly returning to what they were doing before the notification appeared) and help consumers seamlessly interact with unread push notifications (increasing likelihood that notifications will be mindfully reviewed at a later date). Xtify’s push notification technology will become even more effective in helping application publishers engage their mobile users with targeted push notifications based on pre-configured schedules, locations and preferences.

The new Notification Center functionality offers the following improvements to existing push notification handling on the iOS platform:

o Notifications will no longer interrupt the user’s device usage when they are delivered (no more annoying popup that pulls the user away from what they were doing before the push notification appeared)
o All push notifications will be delivered directly to a single place, the Notification Center (similar to the Notification Tray already in place on the Android platform)
o Notice of a new push notification will be conveyed by an icon at the top of the screen
o The Notification Center will also list unread emails and SMS messages (great for users who interact with many apps and other people)
o The Notification Center can be accessed at any time by swiping down from the status bar at the top of the screen
o Notifications will appear on the locked screen (along with stock and weather alerts) in order to allow for quick and easy viewing when the user is ready
o When a notification appears in the locked screen, swiping the notification will automatically open the related app

The release of iOS 5 undoubtedly gives application publishers betters tools to create new and even more exciting apps for their customers. Similarly, application publishers utilizing Xtify’s push notification technology will be able to build great relationships with their mobile customers by providing relevant notifications that can be easily managed in the moment or at a later time.

If you'd like to Download the iOS 5 SDK beta, click here: http://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios5/.

If you’d like to watch the relevant portion of the presentation from the WWDC 2011 Keynote, click here: http://bit.ly/k1psNf and move to 42:55. Happy Viewing!

PacSun Launches iPhone App with Xtify Push Notifications

By Dan Gesser

Recently, Pacific Sunwear of California, known by many as PacSun, released its premiere iPhone application featuring Xtify push notifications! The PacSun application does more than merely function as a digital magazine for shoppers. This app uses Xtify push notifications and other new technologies to engage customers, retain users, and create a truly unique mobile commerce experience. You can download the app here.

One premiere feature of the application, which sets it apart from a traditional magazine, is the PacSun outfit builder. Users can take clothing and accessories from the new line - currently featuring swimwear and beach apparel - and create head-to-toe outfits at the tip of their fingers. PacSun worked with Usablenet to create this integral part of their new application. PacSun senior online operations manager Tim Katz notes that, “It makes sense with our demographic, the 18-24 space. And it adds an increased level of interactivity and excitement around the swim season.”

Additionally, Xtify’s location-based push notifications are an essential part of PacSun’s new mobile strategy. PacSun plans to leverage user location to send targeted push notifications featuring special discounts and promotions when users are within a certain radius of specific PacSun locations. These notifications transcend typical paper cutouts, as location-based coupons serve to drive users into stores to redeem offers even if the user doesn’t know they are currently near a PacSun location! Katz remarks that “Xtify does the specific geofencing and geotargeting; we have all of our store locations and coordinates within the app, and using the GPS we can detect and push you notification when you’re near a store. We can offer a percent off or a music video; the possibilities are really endless.”

PacSun’s recognizable brand and vision combined with Usablenet’s app-making expertise and Xtify’s push notification platform ensure an all-around remarkable and unique user experience. The mobile ecosystem is changing, and here at Xtify we are certainly enjoying the ride!

Xtify Xoom Giveaway Winner Announced!

by Dan Gesser

Congratulations to Rohi Zacharia, the winner of Xtify’s Motorola Xoom giveaway contest! Rohi’s use of Xtify’s free push notification platform for his Android app, TDU 2 Stats, is an incredibly interesting example of how developers can use Xtify’s services to meet the specific needs of their applications - Rohi’s app is a social tool for players of an XBOX game, not a mobile game.

Rohi describes TDU 2 Stats as a social media platform for players of the popular XBOX game “Test Drive Unlimited 2.” Initially, Rohi’s TDU 2 Stats app was designed to supply game maps for the driving courses in the game (modeled after Hawaiian island Oahu and Spanish island Ibiza) and to offer insights into the different cars that players can race in the game. Aware of the growing community of game players, Rohi wanted to connect players via mobile device. Enter Xtify.

Rohi realized that he could use Xtify’s push notifications to connect members of the community playing the game in real time. He describes his solution as a “twitter-like” application, where drivers discover and find other drivers they want to follow, and get notified via push notification when those players come online to play. Followers can jump onto their XBOX’s together when they know that a specific driver they want to play against is online. Additionally, Rohi uses Xtify push notifications to alert app users when players send direct messages to one another, strengthening an existing community. Upon implementing Xtify in his application, Rohi received enthusiastic feedback from his application users - TDU 2 Stats app users continue to love being instantly notified when other players come online and alerts about messages waiting to be read in the app.

“One of the things I really liked about Xtify,” Rohi said, “was that it is straight-forward, there’s lots of support, and it was up-and-running pretty quick.” For Rohi, the decision to integrate Xtify was rooted in the platform’s ability to enable push notifications “without having to manage a lot of the messaging system.” Once Rohi made the decision to integrate Xtify, all he needed to focus on was where and how to best use push notifications to support his app users.

Looking to the future, Rohi plans to develop many more applications for Android with Xtify integrations. He plans to implement Xtify’s location triggered push notifications into some of his up-and-coming applications, and will continue to add new features for his TDU 2 users. Be sure to check out Rohi’s applications in the Android market at https://market.android.com/developer?pub=GoRohi, which, thanks to Xtify, he can now test using a new Motorola Xoom tablet!

New Xtify Products and Enhancements

by Josh Rochlin

April has been a great month at Xtify - we've just launched a new service, RETAIN, enhanced our existing service offerings, PUSH and TARGET, enhanced our notification delivery capabilities for iOS, with Rich Push and Notification Inbox, and improved our developer tools and documentation. And, we've MADE PUSH NOTIFICATIONS FREE!

Let's discuss these one by one -

1. Xtify RETAIN - The mobile industry’s FIRST application user retention tool. Developers can use this service to keep users engaged with their applications by messaging users with highly relevant content at pre-configured times (i.e. days since app was installed or days since app was used). Set it and forget it! Xtify RETAIN is available for free to our registered developer community at www.console.xtify.com.

2. Xtify PUSH - A cross-smartphone push notifications service that provides application developers with robust (rich HTML) push notifications, that include customizable calls-to-action and awesome analytics. Xtify PUSH is a free service if you are sending fewer than 300 messages per user per month.

3. Xtify TARGET - Enables delivery of “smart notifications” to mobile customers. Smart notifications can be delivered based on user preferences, user behaviors and even user location. Xtify is the only provider of location-triggered notifications that work even when the application is closed.

4. New API - The Xtify Notification Configuration API provides the ability to create, modify and activate/deactivate notification configurations via a web service, instead of by using the Xtify Console. The API can also be used cross-platform. You can learn more here.

5. Improved developer resources - We wanted to give app developers additional ways to learn about implementing, using and managing Xtify's rich services. To this end, we've deployed the following NEW resources:

• New Support site - You can search our knowledge base articles, browse public discussions, or create a new discussion if you’re having trouble.
• If you take the time to create an account, you’ll be able to post private discussions (that only you and our support team can see) and track your existing discussions. However, if you don’t want to create an account, you can still create a public discussion in our discussion area.
• How to videos - Watch Erica Fox, Xtify's Head of Developer Relations, guide you through the notification configuration process. We'll be adding additional videos over the coming weeks.
• Improved Live Chat with additional support hours.
• Additional sample code and applications.

We've also placed all of our documentation, code and sample applications in front of the developer registration process - You need not Register with Xtify to review our materials. Our implementation overview can be found here.

You can also always email us directly at support@xtify.com.

Keep checking this blog for interesting thought pieces and upcoming posts about Xtify's evolving products and usage.

Xtify Introduces RETAIN

By Andrew Weinreich

Xtify released a tool today designed to reclaim users from a mobile app’s dead pool.

If you’re running a business through a mobile application on the iPhone or Android you’re probably already paying for downloads.  Millennial or Admob will sell you run of network advertisements where instead of paying per click or impression – you literally pay per download.  They’ll tell you the cost of a download is somewhere between $1 and $2, but the figure can be really misleading. 

Xtify RETAIN Console

If you have a registration process after download, you might see drop-off in excess of 50%. And then there’s what happens after your users download your app.  Localytics just came out with a study saying that 76% of people that install an application use it once and then never touch it again.   When you combine the drop-off with the churn, your real cost for a user you buy at a $1 download is probably upwards of $8 ($1 times 2 divided by .25).

If you want more users on a fixed budget, your options today are pretty limited.  You can buy incentivized downloads for $.15 to $.35, but those users are likely to churn out an even higher rate than users who download your application because they’re generally interested in what you do.

Example Retention
Message

The real way to drive down the cost of acquisition is to keep a higher proportion of the users you acquire from churning out.  Put differently – you should fish out of the dead pool of users that aren’t coming back.  If you can reclaim some subset of these numbers, you’re effective cost of acquisition goes down.

Xtify’s new RETAIN product allows developers to accomplish just this.  By embedding the Xtify SDK in an Android or iPhone application, a developer can set a business rule which specifies that if a certain number of days elapse without a user opening up an application, a push notification is sent to that user asking them to come back.    In a subsequent version, developers will be able to A:B test sending a “come back” message on the 6th day as opposed to the 5th day for example, and whether a message with two lines of copy is more effective than a message with only one short sentence.

This is Xtify’s first foray in to the well-known practice of lifecycle marketing, whereby each user has a natural lifecycle of use and disuse and messages are triggered to the user based on where they are in the evolution of that usage.

The Place of Place in Xtify Smart Notifications

by Dan Gesser

Location, Location, Location!

While we've all heard this idiom as it relates to real estate, it is now becoming increasingly prevalent in our digital lives. A few companies you may have heard of including Facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Google offer some kind of location relevant service offering. While the promise of location relevant content and advertising is significant it has to date been met with only a fraction of the success one could reasonably envision. The reason is that the most popular incarnations are based on a user actively 'checking in' to a location. What if someone forgets to check in? What if someone doesn't want to check in multiple times per day? I could go on and on.

The good news is that we are only getting started…local is here to stay.

Here at Xtify, we are guided by the promise of persistent location. Persistent location is now made possible using Apple's iOS and the Android operating system which allow location to be extracted from the handset on a periodic and continuous basis.

By the way, Xtify's Chairman, Andrew Weinreich, wrote a fabulous post about this for the Huffington Post.

Xtify's smart notifications use location-based services that enable companies to establish “geo- fences” – points of interest around locations that are relevant to your customers – enabling you to proactively send messages when when they’re most likely to take a desired action, such as visit a nearby retail location for a special offer, where they can then receive in-store mobile marketing services.

Folks often ask us, 'Do I use check-in services or persistent location?' The great news is that smart notifications are an excellent complement to passive check-in services such as Shopkick, Foursquare, and Facebook Places. You can use Xtify to drive check-ins by driving notification recipients to check-in. More to come on this important topic....

OrganizedWisdom Partners With Xtify to Offer Mobile Health Notifications and Close the Online Health Gap

by Dan Gesser

We are proud to announce that OrganizedWisdom, an innovator in the digital health space, is now Live with Xtify. A feel good use case for our technology.

"OrganizedWisdom is on a mission to close the 'Online Health Gap' -- the scary space that exists between a doctor visit and the Internet, where people are left alone with an empty search box and millions of computer-generated results," said Unity Stoakes, president and co-founder of OrganizedWisdom. "This mobile initiative represents an important step in advancing our mission of connecting patients, wherever they are, with the most credible health and wellness experts."

Xtify's smart notifications will be used as part of the 'Healthy Bites' application to send specific health and wellness information to the mobile phones of interested people. Here is a screenshot of an OrganizedWisdom smart notification:



Xtify's smart notifications are visually rich messages sent directly to a consumer's smartphone based on rules that content editors and marketers define, such as time of day, user responsiveness, user location, and other criteria that ensures delivery of content when consumers are most likely to need and act on it.

Kudos to the Organized Wisdom team for their vision!

Further details here.

Announcing the Mobile Industry’s First Cross-OS Mobile Notifications Platform for Location-Based Marketing!

by Dan Gesser

Exciting news from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.....today Xtify announced the first cross-OS mobile notifications platform for location-based marketing!

Said plainly, mobile marketers and developers with smartphone applications on one or many platforms (iOS, Android and BlackBerry) can now use Xtify to easily configure their campaigns from a single, easy to use interface. No need to log in to multiple systems, Xtify lets you do it all from one place with only one login.

Application publisher campaigns can be configured to target customers based on location, time, past user behavior and other criteria. A marketer's delight!

Additional features of Xtify's Smart Notifications Platform:

• Higher quality, lower cost – Deliver visually rich messages without the per-message costs, character/size limitations, and extensive approval process associated with SMS, MMS, and email-based marketing. And there are no carrier-related GPS costs because smart notification technology uses the phone’s internal locator beacon to persistently know consumer location.
• Message delivery even when the mobile application is closed – The content appears as an alert in the message tray of the customer’s phone screen, and can be acted on even if the brand’s app has not been opened by the customer.
  

You can read the full release here.

The Xtify Name Game

by Dan Gesser

We're frequently asked by press, customers, prospects and potential employees about what our company name, Xtify, means or stands for. What a great topic for a blog post…..

Xtify helps brands and application publishers deliver the right content to the right users at the right time and place.

Time:
Marketers use our console and APIs to configure the specific dates and times when their push notification campaigns will be sent. You can use Xtify to send notifications everyday at 5pm local time or at 11am on Wednesdays or on March 3, 2011 at 4pm.

Place:
The use of persistent location or passively derived location, refers to the extraction of location on a periodic and continuous basis from a smartphone once a consumer has opted-in to share this information. Using persistent location, marketers can send useful messages to consumers’ smartphones when they enter a predefined geographic area, or “geo-fence.” Consumers don’t have to open up the brand’s app or check in to find out if there’s a special offer – the offer is automatically triggered when the consumer is in the vicinity of the triggering location and can use it immediately.

Thus, the name Xtify was inspired by the adage “X marks the spot" as our services are used to configure the right time(s) and place(s), when and where, push notifications will be delivered to customer smartphones.