Mike Isaac

Recent Posts by Mike Isaac

Foursquare’s Latest Update Targets One of the World’s Most Widely Used Phones

In a short blog post Tuesday afternoon, Foursquare announced what seemed like a minor app update: The Foursquare app is now available for Nokia’s full series of S40 mobile phones.

Small potatoes? Not exactly. While the S40 may not be as fancy as an iPhone, it’s one of the world’s most popular mobile devices, having sold more than 1.5 billion units as of last year.

That’s a smart play for an app that, after being on the market for three years and change, is aiming to up its distribution fresh off its most recent round of financing.

Moreover, Foursquare struck a deal with Nokia to bump that distribution even more, preloading Foursquare on an upcoming series of Asha OS-based devices, according to the company’s blog post.

Aiming for the low end isn’t a bad idea, though the future looks to be in favor of low-cost Android devices rather than relatively cheap Nokia-based ones. As we make strides in tech, the cost of producing today’s Android smartphone hardware will go down considerably, so in five to 10 years the global cellphone providers will be able to offer those phones over today’s cheap devices.

Still, we’re not there yet, and pushing Foursquare on today’s cheap phones is likely a good way to bump up the user base. Let’s see if it works.

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Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work