Why won’t someone develop a decent Twitter client for the Blackberry?

Image by via CrunchBase

On the trip to the parent’s house this weekend, I was bemoaning the fact that Twitterberry is not exactly a stellar Twitter client for the Blackberry.  And I appear to be in good company since Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures complained about the same thing on Friday.

So why is a smart developer not paying attention?  After all, RIM announced in September 2008 that they have over 19 million Blackberry subscribers.  Compare this to the Nielsen estimate that there were 3.6 million iPhone users in October 2008.  So while there are 5X as many Blackberry users, the only decent option is Twitterberry while iPhone users have Hahlo, Tweetie, Twitterific and a whole bunch of others.

And this lack of options is coming out clear in Google as well.  If you search “Twitter for Blackberry” you get 4.2 million results.  But if you type “Twitter for iPhone” you get a staggering 10.3 million results.

Blackberries (not iPhone) are the tool of the trade for most marketers and Brand Managers out there.  If Twitter is going to catch on with this group, it would help to have a solid Blackberry option for them.  As Twitter’s popularity grows, Blackberry themselves would be smart to develop a killer Twitter app and stop giving corporate users any excuse to switch over to the iPhone.

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Upcoming guest writers on Hard Knox Life

Image by joseph a via Flickr

Over the next week, I will be making the move to Cincinnati to start my new assignment in Procter & Gamble Corporate Marketing.  Since I haven’t yet mastered the art of mobile blogging, I have asked a few of my peers and closest friends to keep the fires the burning here at Hard Knox Life with a series of guest posts.  Special thanks in advance to these guys for lending a hand during the move.  I have a feeling you are really going to enjoy reading what they have to say:

• Bryan Radtke: Fellow P&G Brand Manager and owner of LookTone Design.
• Anthony Portuesi: Author of Driven Leaders and Senior Sales Rep/Management Intern at Johnson & Johnson.
• Jared Meisel: Management Director, Shopper Marketing at DraftFCB

Depending on how long it takes to get everything set up at the new home, I should up and running again by October 6.  In the meantime, these guys will do an amazing job of providing interesting reading and I should be relatively active on Twitter.

Celebrate the World’s Largest Ice Cream Social and Support the Make-A-Wish Foundation®

Today from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM, Cold Steam Creamery with be hosting the 7th Annual World’s Largest Ice Cream Social in support of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, an organization that grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.  a special night to join together and share the simple pleasures of life with a FREE ice cream and family fun.  You’ll be treated to a 3 oz. serving of two special “Make-A-Wish Creations” inspired by Jack and Emily, two Wish Children.

• Jack’s Creation – Marshmallow ice cream with OREO® Cookies, Chocolate Chips and Fudge
• Emily’s Creation – Nutter Butter® ice cream with White Chocolate Chips, Kit Kat® and Yellow Cake

Gas mileage be damned… I want the Halo-inspired Hummer HX Concept

Hummer HX Concept SUV - The Halo Warthog brought to life

If you haven’t seen the Hummer HX Concept SUV before, you need to check this beast out.  I’m not a huge car guy but I want this thing.  It’s basically a real life version of the Warthog from my favorite video-game Halo.  Yeah thats a geek thing to say, but come on.

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled marketing, media and technology programming.

Social THIS! Fantasy Football Week 2

The first week of the Social THIS! Fantasy Football League (#SMFFL) proved to be a rough one.  I had the fortune of being the hard luck loser…scoring the 2nd most points of the week but still losing to Jeremiah Owyang and his Little Birds.  I am hoping to rebound in week 2, which should have some fun “storylines”:

Hard Knox Life vs Dan Cordella’s Munoz Mustache Club:  Yahoo is predicting a coin-flip with both our teams forecasted to put up 91 points.  Hands down the game both of us will be watching is Dallas vs Philly.  In the back field, it will be the battle of the Dallas Cowboy RB’s as I pit Marion Barber against his Felix Jones. Then I have the Dallas Defense going against Brian Westbrook.  Plus I have TO as one of my WR’s.  But the real story is going to be Hurricane Ike since Dan has both Matt Schaub and Andre Johnson.  So far the game has been pushed back from Sunday till Monday.  Rumor is it might be cancelled all together.  I have my fingers crossed.

Mustangs vs The Beasties: Call it the “Battle of Detroit” as Michigan born Craig Daitch goes against new Detroit resident Scott Monty.  The big question of the day is if Monty actually changes his line-up to replace the injured Tom Brady with his back-up Jon Kitna (how very convenient in the Battle of Detroit).  Come on Scott, keep it competitive!

The Team w/ No Name vs LittleBirds:  Current Forrester Analyst Jeremiah Owyang goes against former Forrester Analyst Peter Kim, with Yahoo predicting both teams to put up 93 points.  Pete has all the Dallas players not on my roster with Romo at QB, Crayton at WR and Witten at TE.  LittleBirds meanwhile hopes for lighting to strike twice with Michael Turner and for Randy Moss to catch a few TD’s from Matt Cassel.

(Sidenote: I amazed that Matt Cassel hasn’t started a game since his senior year of high school.  How do you get drafted in the NFL after being a back-up your entire college career.  Yeah he was behind Carson Palmer and Matt Leinert, but seriously.)

Social THIS! Fantasy Football Draft Recap

Disclaimer: Over the next 4 months, football season will cause quite a few non-marketing posts to show up on Hard Knox Life. Hope you don’t mind too much!

“There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.” Woody Hayes, Legendary Head Coach of Ohio State

The other week, Peter Kim announced that he was pulling together some of the top minds in Social Media & Marketing for a Fantasy Football League called Social THIS!  Luckily for me, Pete was willing to expand the league to 12 teams and let me slip into the fray.  The competition is really a who’s who of blogging (team name/coach):

• Favre Beans, Joseph Jaffe. (blog/twitter)
• Little Birds, Jeremiah Owyang.  (blog/twitter)
• Munoz Mustache Club, Dan Cordella. (blog/twitter)
• Mustangs, Scott Monty.  (blog/twitter)
• Mzinga Maurauders, Aaron Strout.  (blog/twitter)
• Mosi Tatupu’s Mullet, Adam Cohen (blog/twitter)
• Purple Pistachios, Laura “Pistachio” Fitton.  (blog/twitter)
• Stillers, Jackie Huba.  (blog/twitter)
• The Beasties, Craig Daitch.  (blog/twitter)
• The Viral Gardeners, Mack Collier.  (blog/twitter)
• The Team w/ No Name, Peter Kim.  (blog/twitter)
• Hard Knox Life, me (blog/twitter)

With games kicking off this coming weekend, we had our draft on Sunday.  Overall, I’m really happy with how my team turned out though the draft did have some interesting moves from my competition.  Here’s my insight / trash talk as we kick off the season:

• I ran each team through the Football Guys Draft Dominator and Joe Jaffe looks to have the strongest initial team, thanks largely to his drafting of LT with the 2nd pick of the draft.  He should give a big hug to Scott Monty, who with the surprise first pick of the draft, went with Tom Brady – who was a stud last year but in expert leagues has an Average Draft Position (ADP) of 11.3.  Jaffe also stole the best kicker (Nick Folk) in the 9th round…4th kicker taken overall (more on that later…).  He also got a great value with Jay Cutler in the 11th Round.  Cutler is ranked by experts as the 8th best QB this year.
• I’m feeling good in 2nd position, though my roster has a few too many Cowboys (TO, Marion Barber, Dallas D) and Saints (Brees, Colston) for my liking.  As a loyal Bengals fan, I hate cheering for the NFC.  But I didnt end up with any Steelers or Browns on my team, so at least I have that going for me.  And on the note of the Bengals, I could end up beating myself up for taking Brees instead of Carson Palmer and Colston instead of Ocho Cinco or TJ.
• Jeremiah has the 3rd best predicted team, but is a study in contrast.  His QB core looks to be the lowest scoring (Garrard and the currently benched Matt Leinart) but he has a stud group of WR’s with two Top 10’s in Randy Moss and TJ “Who’s Your Mama”.  If Marshawn Lynch stays out of trouble with the law and Michael Turner proves his worth out of the shadow of LT, then Jeremiah could be looking at a scary good team.

Yeah it’s an ego trap but still…

Well I know it’s an ego trip but still I’m excited that Hard Knox Life was named one of the Top 10 Content Marketing Blogs by Junta 42.  This ranks me alongside some of my favorite bloggers including Brian Solis of PR 2.0, David Meerman Scott of Web Ink Now, and Brian Clark of Copyblogger

This is one of the first major blogging lists where Hard Knox Life has been recognized so that’s pretty cool.  Nice news to come back from vacation to find in the inbox for sure.  You can see the complete list of blogs or read more in the press release.

UPDATE: Congrats to my fellow WordPress Marketing Network Bloggers – Eyecube (#46) and Online Marketer Blog (#121) – for making the list as well!