Two years ago, my colleague Isaac went to SXSW, and came back with a presentation on Mobile Development. In it he said that one of the greatest challenges is getting a mobile application “on deck”. “On Deck” is the term used for an application that’s available on a provider’s mobile platform, that place you goto online when you browse applications, ringtones and such, and to get something on there used to take an Act of God. Why? Because all billing had to be handled through the provider, all sales had to be done though your phone bill, and payments to third party companies had to be set up through their system (and usually required a hefty premium). In short- more trouble than it’s worth. Fact is, this is largely still the case. Yes, with greater adoption of mobile web browsers these things are becoming a lot easier, yet getting an application onto a phone remains problematic, especially if the consumer isn’t aware that you have it. The best option these days seems to be building a Mobile website, which is a far cry from a good user experience.

A bit of background first: The presentation I delivered yesterday was on Confluence, a Mortgage Regulation Compliance Solution provider (I can see you falling asleep) that’s competing in the space with Charles River Development who dominates their market. Essentially we had to write a paper and give a presentation on it, and since my teammate Brian (who actually works at Confluence) wasn’t going to be there for the presentation, he was kind enough to write the paper so I could base the presentation on it.

I used to wonder why subway seems to be doing so well with competitors like Wendy’s and McDonalds, but then I really thought about it- Subway, really, doesn’t have any competitors. The company is in the low-cal fast food market, bordering on healthfood. Yes, other burger joints are trying to muscle in on that territory, but when you think McDonalds, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘Burger’. Subway has managed to position itself as equivalent to ‘healthy’, even though some of their sandwiches really aren’t.