Mob4Hire
Encyclopedia
Mob4Hire is a privately held Canadian Web 2.0
company that focuses on crowd sourced
mobile application testing services and market research in the global wireless
telephony
space.
The company facilitates the relationship between mobile application developers and professional users who test the functionality and assess the usability of the application(s) under consideration for a negotiated fee.
The services are based on a bidding model with a fixed-fee structure. As the broker for these transactions, Mob4Hire derives revenue as a flat percentage of each transaction agreed to by the developer and tester. The company also accrues income from up-front licensing fees, ongoing subscriptions, managed accounts and other services.
The business model also incorporates enterprise customers. “Mob4Hire As A Platform” [MAAP] effectively re-brands the Mob4Hire model. O2 Litmus, a British division of the global carrier Telefonica
has implemented Mob4Hire technology and launched their own community of developers and testers.
Mob4Hire is responsible for holding payment in escrow until the developer is satisfied. Once the developer has approved the test report, monies are then released to the tester via PayPal
.
The developer is expected to grade the quality of each tester. This feedback establishes a rating hierarchy among the testing community; the intent is to continually improve the overall quality the application test reports and grade the relative skill and efficacy of the individual testers.
Mob4Hire is also concerned with the user experience of mobile applications. The process involved is similar to the functionality testing except that the testers are focused on the usability of the application being considered and the overall user experience rather than a purely functional assessment.
A paradigm of software design is that developers are the least desirable group to test their own releases and, in general, developer bias can be mitigated by employing a testing group completely independent of the design process. The testers are locally based on the actual networks on which the applications will be launched and as such, their assessment more closely emulates genuine market feedback than ‘in-house’ testing conducted remotely from the network.
Developers conduct mobile surveys in the global space by paying testers to download applications and complete a survey with demographic information relevant to the developer. The intent is to collect key market research from a community of unbiased early adopters with minimized costs to the developer. Examples of typical survey questions may include: Was the application intuitive? How would you describe the user experience? Would you pay for the application and if so, how much? Were there features that should be included or enhanced? How did the interface appear on the handset? Would you recommend the application?
Mob4Hire builds and maintains a global community of application developers and testers. There are currently almost 1,000 registered developers and market research firms in 111 countries and 42,000 registered testers in 142 countries. The testers represent 364 carrier networks. Mob4Hire is also associated with 20 professional entities that develop, test and port mobile applications.
November, 2008: O2 Litmus, a U.K. subsidiary of Telefonica, became the first carrier to adopt and implement Mob4Hire technology [MAAP] as a “white-label” testing community.
November, 2008: Stephen King appointed CEO of Mob4Hire.
January, 2009: At the GSMA 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Competition in Barcelona, Spain, Mob4Hire was named Top 15 Innovator Chosen for Most Innovative True Mobile Startup Category in Global Tournament.
March, 2009: Mob4Hire partners with Wavefront
.
March, 2009: Mob4Hire enters marketing deal with Gamelion
.
May, 2009: Mob4Hire awarded Red Herring
100 North America.
July, 2009: Mob4Hire collaborates with Navteq
for LBS application testing.
November, 2009: Mob4Hire wins Investor Choice awards at Vancouver Angel Forum.
November, 2009: Mob4Hire and Flurry Analytics announce a joint collaboration.
December, 2009: Infostretch and Mob4Hire form partnership.
February, 2010: Mob4Hire joins the BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program.
March, 2010: Mob4Hire releases preliminary Global Wireless Survey.
March, 2010: Perfecto Mobile and Mob4Hire form partnership.
April, 2010: Mob4Hire launches V4.0 platform.
April, 2010: Mob4Hire included in the 'Top 25 Canadian ICT Up and Comers' by the Branham Group
June, 2010: Mob4Hire awarded a 'Meffy' by the Mobile Entertainment Forum for 'Most Innovative Business Model'
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
company that focuses on crowd sourced
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the act of sourcing tasks traditionally performed by specific individuals to a group of people or community through an open call....
mobile application testing services and market research in the global wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
space.
The company facilitates the relationship between mobile application developers and professional users who test the functionality and assess the usability of the application(s) under consideration for a negotiated fee.
The services are based on a bidding model with a fixed-fee structure. As the broker for these transactions, Mob4Hire derives revenue as a flat percentage of each transaction agreed to by the developer and tester. The company also accrues income from up-front licensing fees, ongoing subscriptions, managed accounts and other services.
The business model also incorporates enterprise customers. “Mob4Hire As A Platform” [MAAP] effectively re-brands the Mob4Hire model. O2 Litmus, a British division of the global carrier Telefonica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
has implemented Mob4Hire technology and launched their own community of developers and testers.
General overview
Mob4Hire brokers relationships between mobile application developers and a global testing community. Developers post pre-release applications and associated test plans to the community, and specify which handsets and networks are under consideration. Individuals (or groups) registered in the testing community (Mob) that are able to fulfill the functional requirements of the test bid for the contract, and developers select testers based on such criteria as the community ranking of the tester, turn-around time for delivered test reports, the tester’s desired pay-scale and other metrics.Mob4Hire is responsible for holding payment in escrow until the developer is satisfied. Once the developer has approved the test report, monies are then released to the tester via PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
.
The developer is expected to grade the quality of each tester. This feedback establishes a rating hierarchy among the testing community; the intent is to continually improve the overall quality the application test reports and grade the relative skill and efficacy of the individual testers.
Mob4Hire is also concerned with the user experience of mobile applications. The process involved is similar to the functionality testing except that the testers are focused on the usability of the application being considered and the overall user experience rather than a purely functional assessment.
A paradigm of software design is that developers are the least desirable group to test their own releases and, in general, developer bias can be mitigated by employing a testing group completely independent of the design process. The testers are locally based on the actual networks on which the applications will be launched and as such, their assessment more closely emulates genuine market feedback than ‘in-house’ testing conducted remotely from the network.
Developers conduct mobile surveys in the global space by paying testers to download applications and complete a survey with demographic information relevant to the developer. The intent is to collect key market research from a community of unbiased early adopters with minimized costs to the developer. Examples of typical survey questions may include: Was the application intuitive? How would you describe the user experience? Would you pay for the application and if so, how much? Were there features that should be included or enhanced? How did the interface appear on the handset? Would you recommend the application?
Mob4Hire builds and maintains a global community of application developers and testers. There are currently almost 1,000 registered developers and market research firms in 111 countries and 42,000 registered testers in 142 countries. The testers represent 364 carrier networks. Mob4Hire is also associated with 20 professional entities that develop, test and port mobile applications.
History
Paul Poutanen, the founder and current president of Mob4Hire, credits the inspiration of the crowdsourced mobile application testing paradigm to an insight he had in the San Francisco airport. Poutanen and several colleagues had spent a week testing a mobile phone based game on a carrier in the Bay Area. They’d purchased ten handsets with subscriptions for a demonstration to a local client, and Poutanen was considering the overall expenses of the network tests while awaiting a return flight. He saw a fellow traveler speaking on the identical handset and considered how much time and money he could have saved if that user had done his testing for him. Poutanen wrote a business idea and presented it to the Cambrian House community, a Calgary-based crowdsourcing community for software and business applications. Members from the community then helped build the original Mob4Hire platform. Mob4Hire was incorporated in September, 2007 and the beta version of the Mob4Hire platform was launched in March, 2008.November, 2008: O2 Litmus, a U.K. subsidiary of Telefonica, became the first carrier to adopt and implement Mob4Hire technology [MAAP] as a “white-label” testing community.
November, 2008: Stephen King appointed CEO of Mob4Hire.
January, 2009: At the GSMA 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Competition in Barcelona, Spain, Mob4Hire was named Top 15 Innovator Chosen for Most Innovative True Mobile Startup Category in Global Tournament.
March, 2009: Mob4Hire partners with Wavefront
Wavefront
In physics, a wavefront is the locus of points having the same phase. Since infrared, optical, x-ray and gamma-ray frequencies are so high, the temporal component of electromagnetic waves is usually ignored at these wavelengths, and it is only the phase of the spatial oscillation that is described...
.
March, 2009: Mob4Hire enters marketing deal with Gamelion
Gamelion
Gamelion signifies:*a month in the ancient Greek calendar*Gamelion Studios, video game producers...
.
May, 2009: Mob4Hire awarded Red Herring
Red herring
A red herring is a deliberate attempt to divert attention.Red herring may refer to:* Red herring , the informal fallacy of presenting an argument that may in itself be valid, but does not address the issue in question....
100 North America.
July, 2009: Mob4Hire collaborates with Navteq
NAVTEQ
Navteq is a Chicago, Illinois-based provider of Geographic Information Systems data and is a dominant company in providing the base electronic navigable maps...
for LBS application testing.
November, 2009: Mob4Hire wins Investor Choice awards at Vancouver Angel Forum.
November, 2009: Mob4Hire and Flurry Analytics announce a joint collaboration.
December, 2009: Infostretch and Mob4Hire form partnership.
February, 2010: Mob4Hire joins the BlackBerry ISV Alliance Program.
March, 2010: Mob4Hire releases preliminary Global Wireless Survey.
March, 2010: Perfecto Mobile and Mob4Hire form partnership.
April, 2010: Mob4Hire launches V4.0 platform.
April, 2010: Mob4Hire included in the 'Top 25 Canadian ICT Up and Comers' by the Branham Group
June, 2010: Mob4Hire awarded a 'Meffy' by the Mobile Entertainment Forum for 'Most Innovative Business Model'
Executives
- Stephen King, CEO
- Paul Poutanen, President and Founder
- John Carpenter, CTO
- Allen Poutanen, VP Business Development
Advisory board
- Randy Thompson, Venture Alberta
- Keith Cook, Device Anywhere
- Bob Hayes, Ph.D., Advocacy Expert
- Tony Fish, AMF Ventures
- Lisa Whelan, socializemobilize.com
- David Craddock, MacLeod Dixon LLP
- Jonathan Kohl, Testing Evangelist
- Marc Kornak, Advisory Board Member, Genesis Technical Solutions
- Cameron Peters, Innovation Architect
- Stephen Nykolyn, Mobile Business Dev
- Marc Wachmann, growwireless.com