AllThingsD » Jonas Brothers

Google Deal for SayNow to Make Google Voice More Interesting

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:02:50 +0000

I’ve been a Google Voice user since before it was even called Google Voice. Back in 2007, I was fascinated by the potential of GrandCentral–the service Google acquired and transformed into Google Voice.

For one thing, once I gave out my new number to a handful of friends, I had this one goofy friend for whom I recorded a custom greeting. Every time he would call, I’d let it go to voicemail and he’d start every message laughing at some silly in-joke I’d leave for him in the greeting. Okay, I grant you not many people would go to the trouble to do that, but if you knew this guy, you just might. Update: A few readers pointed out in the comments that this feature is re-enabled in Google Voice, and they’re correct though it’s not exactly easy to find.

Ever since GrandCentral became Google Voice, it’s been a lot less fun to use. That custom-greeting feature is gone, as are some of the funnier Web calling buttons that GrandCentral had offered. Maybe that’s one of the reasons behind today’s acquisition by Google of SayNow.

Details are scant about what Google has in mind, but a source close to the deal tells us that the intent on Google’s part is to make Google Voice “even better in a world of Skype and Facetime,” which implies that the next step for Google Voice is some form of video calling.

SayNow made a name for itself by giving celebrities like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers (remember them?) and the cast of “Glee” a phone number for fans to call and hear the occasional message. And at the start of the football season, ESPN used it to send the message embedded below from former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka to some 1.6 million fans on Facebook. Another feature gave celebs a way to hold live conference calls that fans could dial in and listen to. The biggest SayNow client was the rapper Soulja Boy, who racked up 50 million calls totaling some 100 million minutes of call time. If nothing else, Google can learn from the team at SayNow how to promote the service and get people interested in using it.

SayNow also has a serious side, an enterprise application called Big Call, aimed at making conference calls for businesses easy. The company says it was built by an intern in a week.

The deal for SayNow comes on the same day that Google made its long-awaited number-porting feature official, suggesting that Google Voice is going to be the focus of a lot more time and attention in the coming months.

Ditka’s season-opening greeting for Facebook users is below.

Meet the App Store Millionaires: The Brothers Behind Doodle Jump

Peter Kafka — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:32:18 +0000

Developers are eager to use the iPad as a chance to sell more expensive apps. But you can do just fine selling software at 99 cents a pop. Just ask Igor and Marko Pusenjak.

In the last year, the two brothers have sold 3.5 million copies of Doodle Jump, a simple and addictive game, via Apple’s iTunes store. That accomplishment may make them the world’s most successful iPhone and iPod touch developers.

It has certainly made them a lot of money.

The Pusenjaks’ company, Lima Sky, is a two-man operation they run out of their homes in New York and Croatia. A part-time illustrator helps them out, and they’ve recently started contracting with some freelancers for help with tasks like business development. But that’s about it for expenses.

So after Apple (AAPL) takes its 30 percent, the Pusenjaks have cleared more than $1 million a piece, before taxes.

How’d they do it?

A good game helps a lot. And Doodle Jump is a bunch of fun. But iTunes has more than 140,000 apps competing for users’ time and wallets, so breaking through the clutter is just as important.

I sat down with Igor Pusenjak last week to talk about his success, and you can see the interview at the bottom of this post. It’s a long clip, because I really like hearing Igor talk. But if you’re rushing to crank out new apps for the iPad, you may be time-pressed. So here are some key takeaways:

Developing a great app is the first part of a developer’s job. Marketing it is the second. Igor politely but repeatedly approached any and all blogs that wrote about iPhones, iPods and/or games, and used a story at one site to gin up interest from another. Landing a mention in Gawker Media’s Gizmodo was particularly helpful. The brothers recently started working with a PR firm, but until then, they did all the marketing themselves.

Work the system. In the early days of the iTunes app store, developers who updated their software would move to the top of the store’s “most recent” chart. So the Pusenjaks pushed out lots of free updates. Apple put that kibosh on that gambit last year, but the Pusenjaks have figured out a new promotional technique: Marketing tie-ins with other small developers, like Bolt Creative, which makes Pocket God. The Pusenjaks feature characters from Bolt’s game in theirs, and vice versa, and the two companies send customers back and forth.

Ask for help. The Pusenjaks knew that the best way to get attention would be from Apple employees who decide what apps to feature at iTunes–unlike other retail outlets, big players like Electronic Arts (ERTS) can’t simply buy preferred placement in the store. The brothers didn’t know anyone at Apple, but a friend of a friend did, and gave them an email address. Igor sent a note introducing himself over the transom, and a couple of weeks later, Doodle Jump got a feature slot.

Please your customers. Though Apple doesn’t reward developers for frequent updates, the Pusenjaks’ customers do. It turns out that free updates–new backgrounds, new characters, etc.–correlate to sales spikes, so the brothers continue to do them every few weeks. The brothers aren’t exactly sure why updates equal sales, but they have a hunch: An update gives Doodle Jump users another reason to play the game, which translates into another chance to tell friends how much they like it.

Focus: The brothers would like to work on a new game, and they’d like to port Doodle Jump to other platforms, like Google’s (GOOG) Android mobile operating system and Microsoft’s (MSFT) and Sony’s (SNE) game consoles. But they haven’t done any of that yet because they spend all their time tweaking the existing game and pushing out new updates. As long as Doodle Jump is selling–and it has been downloaded more than two million times so far in 2010, Igor notes–they can’t justify moving on to something new.

Get lucky: An endorsement from the Jonas Brothers doesn’t hurt. Even if you don’t know who the Jonas Brothers are. Igor explains in the video below.

[ See post to watch video ]

How to Lose Online Fans and Influence Nobody: A Jonas Brothers' Viral Video Falls Flat, But Facebook Live Today!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:02:44 +0000

A lot of entertainers have been using the Web increasingly to promote upcoming material, so it comes as no surprise that the Jonas Brothers have turned there aggressively to do a countdown for their latest music release.

The new album, which is inexplicably called “Lines, Vines and Trying Times,” is set to debut next week on June 16.

Thus, the pop trio have been doing a lot of online promotions, such a live Facebook Webcast on their fan page today at 5 pm PDT.

And they are also posting a lot of original online videos, especially at their YouTube channel.

Unfortunately, the digital hawking includes the one below, which is due to some fan request that has landed Joe Jonas in spike heels and a leotard, doing a bizarre dance interpretation of Beyoncé’s infectious and very viral music video, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).”

After that video soared last fall, a lot of fans did their own versions, including a very funny spoof by Justin Timberlake, essentially doing the same gig as Jonas (except funny).

But, you be the judge.

Here are all three: Beyoncé in the original, TImberlake in the spoof (a bad version–sorry) and Joe Jonas in, well, it is hard to describe:

Beyonce – Single Ladies (New)

3-D: Coming to a Theater Near You (at a Glacial Pace)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:38:41 +0000

A billion dollar investment in digital technologies, struck between a handful of Hollywood studios and a consortium of big theater chains, got little notice earlier this week.

Under terms of the deal, the entertainment companies agreed to help defray the costs of rolling out more advanced digital technologies in 20,000 theaters, which will eventually lead to being able to see more movies using technologies like 3-D.

Even though there will be about two dozen 3-D movies released in the next few years–think Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers in concert popping out of screens–a very small number of theaters across the U.S. can handle the advanced technology 3-D requires.

Why? Well, it apparently costs about $70,000 to upgrade a screen. While studios are only paying a small fraction of that cost, one hopes they understand that upgrading theater facilities will be increasingly important in the years ahead.

Because while the gimmick of getting audiences to wear polarized lenses–yes, you still need them–3-D alone is probably not what will prompt most people to up their movie theater attendance (although 3-D movies do attract more people and command much higher prices).

But, even as digital technologies have exploded everywhere, the theater experience has changed in a negligible way over time.

While questions swirl around whether such upgrades pay off, there is no question it will be hard to know without some effort on behalf of the entertainment industry.

One might imagine a much more immersive theater experience or new ideas from filmmakers–I am not creative enough to come up with any good ones–to amplify a movie.

So we’ll just have to wait for Hollywood to come up with something–well beyond Miley Cyrus or Nick Jonas jumping right into the seats.