Mippin Takes Second Place at BlackBerry Achievement Awards

Every year, BlackBerry hosts the BlackBerry Achievement Awards to recognize the latest and greatest contributions to the world of mobile innovation.

Last month Mippin announced that it was a finalist for BlackBerry's prestigious 'Mobile Innovation of the Year' award on the back of an incredibly successful year with the BlackBerry App Generator. The winners were announced at BlackBerry Live in Orlando last week and we're happy to announce that Mippin took second place (although we can’t deny we’d have loved to have won it!) Coincidentally, we came second last year too in the Attendees Choice category, so at least we are consistent!

First of all we need to thank everyone who voted for us! Thank you! We couldn't have gotten this far without you. Also big congratulations to our fellow finalists Waytag and especially to DirecTV Latin America, who came away with first place! The competition was fierce as always and we're honoured just to be included in this list of organizations taking mobile innovation to the next level.

After just one year we have seen over 17,000 BlackBerry App Generator apps in over 40 different languages submitted to BlackBerry World from publishers in 144 countries. With plenty of exciting new things on the roadmap for Mippin & BlackBerry, we'd say we're just getting started with the innovation!

Haven't tried the BlackBerry App Generator yet? Well it's never too late to join the party!

Create an app with the BlackBerry App Generator today!

 

We're a Finalist for Mobile Innovation of the Year!

Today we bring you not one but two exciting announcements...

Firstly, the BlackBerry App Generator has just been announced as one of three finalists for the 'Mobile Innovation of the Year' award at the BlackBerry Achievement Awards!

Since our early conversations with BlackBerry about offering a quick and easy publishing solution integrated with the BlackBerry platform (roughly 18 months ago), we have worked tirelessly to launch and perfect the BlackBerry App Generator. With over 17,000 BlackBerry App Generator apps currently live in BlackBerry World, we're more than happy with the results so far and cannot wait for what's in store for the rest of 2013.


...So what's the second exciting announcement, you ask?

Well, YOU can help us win!

This year BlackBerry is opening up voting to the public. Votes can only be made until the 15th of April so time is of the essence! If you're a fan of the BlackBerry App Generator, please click the link and vote for us:

http://www.blackberrylive.com/special-programs/achievement-awards/vote

We'll let you create a million BlackBerry apps for free!

Oops, looks like we already do that! All the more reason to vote...

We're Hiring a Social Media Intern

Mippin is the largest developer of apps in the world, and we’re looking for a social media intern to help us rapidly grow our latest app-building service, Appsme.com.

This exciting and varied role will largely involve establishing and maintaining the social media presence for Appsme, as well as assisting with other company-wide tasks like copywriting, responding to customer support queries and supporting marketing campaigns.

This role is paid and full-time. The candidate should be able to work in our offices in Parsons Green most days, though working remotely is fine when necessary. Initial contract will be 3 months with potential to stay on afterwards. Ideal for recent graduates.

Main Responsibilities:

• Create interesting & engaging content for Facebook, Twitter and the company/products blogs
• Work to actively build up the audience for each social network and continually engage with this audience by developing and maintaining social media campaigns
• Assist with carrying out email marketing plans & work against an editorial calendar
• Carry out research about competitors and the mobile tech ecosystem in general
• Respond via email to customer support queries

Requirements:

• You MUST be a good writer and able to create copy with little to no assistance or editing required.
• You should have plenty of experience with new media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogging platforms like Blogger.
• You are as passionate about technology & social media as we are. (A lot.)
• You are proactive and a fast learner who isn’t afraid to ask questions.
• You know the difference between “your” and “you’re” and, more importantly, you know why it’s important.

Nice-to-haves:

• SEO skills
• Familiarity with Google Analytics, Photoshop, Microsoft Office

Interested? Send your CV and a short cover letter to jobs@mippin.com.

20,000 new apps in 36 hours. Intense!

Well, that was a busy weekend!

As many will already know, Mippin built and runs the BlackBerry App Generator for BlackBerry - a simple-to-use website that allows any content owner to build native apps for BlackBerry in under 10 minutes, no coding required.

Last weekend, from midday Friday 18 Jan EST to midnight Saturday 19 Jan EST (36 hours in total) BlackBerry ran a port-a-thon challenge, encouraging developers and content owners globally to build and submit an app for BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry App Generator apps were a key part of the event, and the enthusiasm was overwhelming!

Across the 36 hours, we saw over 5,000 BlackBerry 10 apps built on the App Generator. And what's more, for each app we automatically built a separate binary for BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry OS5/6, OS7 and PlayBook... a total of over 20,000 unique app binaries.

That's one app every 7 seconds, for 36 hours!  Technically, that means that every 7 seconds we were invoking one of our cloud-based SDKs, compiling an app, signing the app using the BlackBerry signing server and automatically generating screenshots for BlackBerry World. Every 7 seconds. Amazing!

We can't wait for the launch of BlackBerry 10, and we know there's going to be plenty of apps in BlackBerry World to support it!

Appsme Launches for Businesses

2012 has been a pretty BIG year for Mippin. We've already celebrated two big launches - first the BlackBerry App Generator (in partnership with RIM) back in May, and then newCard, our digital business card app creation tool, just last month.

But of course that wasn't enough for us this year. We just had to go on and launch a third service...

Today we go live with Appsme - an app creator for business owners. Anyone with their own business, regardless of technical skill, can head to Appsme.com and create a mobile app for their customers in just about 10 minutes. The apps look great and work across all smartphones without the need for app stores.

If you own your own business, Appsme could be the perfect solution for you to better reach your customers. You can pick and choose the features used in your app so your app makes sense for your own business. Features include various methods of contact (click-to-call, email, etc.), business information, maps & directions, and social media integration (with plenty more cool features planned to roll out early next year). Plus, with built-in sharing we've made it super convenient for your customers to share your app (and your business) with others, even on your customers’ social networks - marketing made easy!  

So if you own a small business and like keeping your customers happy, why not give Appsme a shot today? All apps come with a three month free trial so what do you have to lose?

 Create an app for your business with Appsme now.

We're Hiring - Customer Acquisition Manager Wanted

Role: Customer Acquisition Manager

Location: Parsons Green, London

Mippin is the world's largest app-builder platform with over 50,000 apps live in app stores globally. We are constantly challenging the norms of mobile app-building services and are tearing down cost and complexity barriers that prohibit many people and businesses from building apps.

We are hugely ambitious; we have a vision of an app for everything and everyone – including apps for business, people and products – and have a target of building over 1m apps in the next 12 months.

Appsme is our new platform enabling businesses everywhere to build a mobile app for their business. With over 30m SMEs in the US and UK alone, we believe enabling these business to build apps using a simple step-by-step website and at an affordable price point represents a huge business opportunity.

To drive the commercial success of appsme, we are looking for a Customer Acquisition Manager, responsible for driving online traffic to the appsme website and also for striking partnership and affiliate deals with key organisations.

Working closely with the CEO and founder you’ll help to drive the direction of our acquisition marketing.

Primary Responsibilities:

•       Develop, implement, execute and manage all aspects of the company’s online paid customer acquisition strategy

•       Generate qualified traffic and acquire customers across online marketing channels, including SEM, display, retargeting, affiliate and social media networks

•       Work closely with web design team to create, manage and optimize landing pages tied to ad campaigns if required

•       Communicate strategies and results to senior management on a consistent basis

In parallel, you will be responsible for identifying key offline partners (e.g. trade bodies, national business organisations) in the UK and the US, and structuring affiliate partnerships to drive targeted customer acquisition.

The balance between these two approaches (online vs offline) will be driven by the cost of customer acquisition of each, and you will need to maintain a clear view on the relative acquisition costs of each approach and work to develop the most scalable and cost effective acquisition plan.

Ideal Candidate:

•       You have strong direct-response experience with a track record of successful online strategies and funnel-based acquisition models that drive qualified traffic and customer acquisition across online & offline channels

•       You understand customer segmentation and are familiar with web analytics packages like Google Analytics

•       You enjoy A/B testing, optimizing and reporting on campaign performance

•       You are highly analytical and data driven, but also have a passion for mobile technology

•       Familiarity with CRM products and Email Campaigns

Experience of small business marketing/small business acquisition, particularly in a fast-growth, agile environment, would be ideal (e.g. from an online or offline business listing service). You should hold a good bachelor’s degree at minimum 2.i level and be able to demonstrate superior numeric and analytic skills, strong working knowledge of online marketing tools such as Adwords, web tracking tools such as Google Analytics and excellent communication and management skills.

This is a fantastic role if you want to join a truly revolutionary business and create real business impact and significant value. If you're interested, send us an email at jobs@mippin.com.

 

BlackBerry App Generator On Tour in Thailand!

BlackBerry is currently hosting its BlackBerry Jam Asia event in Bangkok and this year it is all about creating amazing apps for BlackBerry 10. With app creation at the forefront, we wanted to be involved with the event in a big way. So we sent some of our team over to Thailand to help get digital content providers their own app in BlackBerry App World. All apps (including those already built) will have support for BlackBerry 10 prior to launch, so getting an app up and running on this groundbreaking new operating system has never been easier.

Working together with BlackBerry, we've created a real-life App Generator for the digital publishers attending BlackBerry Jam Asia. Attendees can head to the BlackBerry App Generator stand with nothing but a blog (or any other type of RSS feed like a YouTube channel, Facebook fan page, or Flickr gallery) and leave with their very own app submitted to BlackBerry App World. How cool is that?!

Here's our Creative Director David Mannl manning the stand and helping to generate some apps!

The BlackBerry App Generator is an amazing way for anyone to turn their web content into a fully-functional, awesome mobile app. And when we say anyone, we really mean it! App Generator apps aren't only for english content - in fact, you can create apps in 32 different languages. That's why it's a great solution for content owners globally, in Thailand and pretty much everywhere else, too!

If you want to create your own app for BlackBerry - including a beautiful app for BlackBerry 10! - why not give the BlackBerry App Generator a try? It's quick, easy, and most importantly free!

Create your BlackBerry app now!