The Apple WWDC (developers) keynote today did not disappoint. Ordered my 32GB iPhone, should be here on the 19th.
(Some txt via Gizmodo)
40 million iPhone and iPod touches. In the last year, mobile has officially become a viable platform, larger than some gaming platforms.
Dating sites are starting to roll out iPhone apps. Match’s is nice, so is Skout, Are You Interested, SpeedDate and TrueFlirt. I used them all at first, but usage tends to drop off over time and interest wanes after the gee-wiz aspect wears off.
Mobile dating is going to force dating sites to do better searching and matching algorithms. Few people I’ve talked to want to browse profiles on a phone, even with new web browsers. Give me results, not features.
Safer Dating: Forgetful Mobile Me customers can send a message to their phone which will display a notice and make a sound for two minutes. More interesting, it will show you on a map where your phone is. Also useful for your family/friends to track you down for those Craigslist dates. Nice safety feature that can be co-opted by dating sites. That’s a free feature right there, you’re welcome.
Subscriptions: Today we heard about in-application iPhone payment options. Several dating companies have subscription or virtual good features ready for the new iPhone 3.0. You can use it in magazine subscriptions to renew your magazine (Kindle competition), or buy additional game packs for your games. Or re-up your dating site subscription, or buy the blond across the bar a beer or a song, all sorts of opportunities to build cool functionality into location-based apps and virtual goods. Skout and viximo are going to be all over this. One problem, if your app was originally free, you can’t charge them for an upgrade from within the app, has to be a fresh download. That’s the beauty of $.99 cent apps, people don’t think twice about buying them.
Location-based Dating: Peer to Peer support, which can automatically find another person in close proximity and connect you seamlessly. Meant for games, could be used for dating apps as well. I wonder about the criteria applied to local matches, is it based soly on proximity or can you tap into address book card or some other profile?
What matters most is anonymity. You can know where I am in general, but not down to meter-resolution. This is what terrifies people about location-based dating and hampers adoption rates. This will go away over time as people get more comfortable with the idea. Prediction: casual sex sites will see the highest usage initially.
Google maps can go into any app. Good for finding out date locations, tie in coupons and deals, lots of revenue generators here.
There’s also a built-in digital compass. Only one guy in the crowd goes crazy. “A cool compass fan out there,†says Phil. What do to with it for dating? Point me to the hotties, make me embark on a quest to prove my interest? Very interesting opportunities here. Can you say compass-driven pub-crawl app?
For more on this, read Quests are the new grind in social games, and that is why they are a good idea. Great food for thought for dating sites to adopt social gaming concepts.
Somebody is going to make an absolute killing in the mobile dating space. It probably won’t be a dating site, it could be something like Skout but I certainly wouldn’t rule out a 15 year old kid that will swoop in and take the prize. If you disagree one iota with that you’re not paying close enough attention to the mobile developer market.
Dating sites, it’s time to go forth and start building the next generation of mobile dating applications. You have the hardware, the tools and the API’s to useful datastreams (Google, place data, FB activity streams and photos), the only thing holding you back is your imagination.
