Prediction: BUMP will do some serious damage for mobile apps (& and my idea of what to build on top of their API as part of their developer contest)

Yea, BUMP‘s API that they just wrote about on tc today is gonna be a big deal, and it’s gonna be exactly what the company needs. The problem with these sort of apps is that they’re only useful when you have critical mass. The technology is great, but if nobody else can bump their phone with your to exchange contact details and other info, what good is it?

So anyway, the API will be what makes it so everyone basically has bump. Bump’s gonna figure out how to take advantage of the fact that a bunch other apps will have their api in use. I’m not exactly sure how they plan to make it a catalyst to more people exchanging contacts through it when Bump might only exist through another app, but I’m sure they have something in mind more than just allowing you to quickly connect and play Connect Four after bumping.

Apple really should just put them out of business and make this killer feature a key component of their iphone offering. It’s just so useful and would be great if you could bump with everyone.

I’m trying to think of an idea to submit to them in order to get early access to their API….sorry if this blog article isn’t very coherent, but i’m just enamored by this tool…what can I do original with their API?

…lets think about our constraints, goals and generap api features:

1) you must have an iphone or android phone

2) it would be nice if the idea somehow resulted in making the core bump app more popular or somehow made it so more people could bump, even through applications using the api. If u nail this, u’ll surely win the 1st place $2,500 developer contest they’re holding.

3) generally, the service exchanges any information from one phone to another that can be grabbed via the phone’s api, i.e. contacts, photos, and any info stored directly in the bump app….what spin can we put in sharing info. sharing info seams a little boring. there must be some little twist we can apply to it that makes the final app seam so much bigger than just sharing…however, the point is just that the key thing going on here is simply file sharing and to come up with the killer idea we must own that fact.

4) the exchange only works when phones are near each other in proximity and actually touch each other make a bump motion.

IDEA PHASE:
1) when is it useful to bump in games?

2) what about building another api on top of their api with even more features and make it available for even more iphones? What other services can we mash up to make a killer service that lots of other apps would enjoy?

3) how can we promote bump and more specifically its functionality within other apps? I.e. I’m sure Bump the company–i.e. the contest holder who we’re trying to get to agree to our idea–would want a feature developed that got people bumping while in other iphone apps!

4) is it realistic that you’ll be in the facebook app or some other app and u’ll bump someone else that’s in another app.

5) is there any purpose in bumping someone that is using another app that is different than the one u r using? hmm. Maybe. Games? To exchange virtual currency? …uh oh. there we go! we’re on to something. let’s keep going…

6) VIRTUAL CURRENCY PLATFORM BASED ON BUMP USED BETWEEN MULTIPLE GAMES. THEY DONT EVEN NEED TO BE THE SAME!

7) and when you do it of course you can choose to exchange contacts and all the standard bump stuff. And therefore Bump is happy cuz it means more people are using it, which is exactly what they need if they want to become relevant. They need everyone using it, and now they have lots of people using it to exchange virtual game currency.

8) so let’s extend the idea…What I’m worried about now is that they’ll say: “hey, we already thought of that and plan to do it a long time for now for whatever reasons.” I mean I’m sure they’ve thought of virtual currency. I’m not sure why they haven’t done it yet, except because they only have limited developer resources–which has now changed since they’ve opened up the API…So anyway, here’s the problem: i’m not sure how excited they are about another API built on top of their API that does not at least bring a lot of value of its own. Therefore, WE MUST BUILD AN APP THAT IS USEFUL IN ITSELF AND NOT JUST AN API IN ITSELF.

9) What can our app do that is related to Virtual Currency? …ummm let me think: Stock Market type stuff. It’s a market for virtual currency from all the different games, where one currency from one game is like currency from one country and has its own exchange rate that goes up and down differently than the exchange rate for currency from another game, etc. Not sure how pie in the sky that is. I wouldn’t say I’m the expert in virtual currency, although you can checkout all my research from last summer on the social gaming and virtual currency market here: delicious.com/faceyspacey.com/virtualcurrency

10) I small slimed down stock market could be made for virtual currency exchange. My guess is the hard part and reason they dont have a very popular tool for this is simply cuz to exchange money in mmorpgs, which are what have been popular until the iphone, requires making ur characters meet in a game setting and then u drop ur gold on the ground and the other guy picks it up, etc. That whole industry is plagued with scam artists, deceit etc, or at least has gotten a bad wrap. I know they have several ebays for things like that and Ebay itself banned the sell of fake gold from Chinese gold mining sweat shops lol. So that’s why there is no super legit offering in this market for this. I know there is a few. I think the links are even in my bookmarks, but I’m sure it’s not the next Zynga that this idea could be. And it could be simply cuz physically bumping to exchange money is very legitimate and means u must actually know the person. It’s not something easily done with Chinese sweat shops involved, without them mailing an iphone or, i guess u could just log on another iphone with the same account credentials the chinese sweat shop guys are using to play the iphone game. But, either way, physically bumping might be exactly what makes this idea ripe. That said, I’m basically admiting that I’m not inventing the idea here, just suggesting a timely mashup.

So that’s it, Bump, I’m submitting my idea to you and most to your developer contest now. I’ll do the idea, and I’ll win your contest. The hard part is it’s a lot bigger idea than a 1 month contest for $2,500. But maybe we can work together to do something hot.

….Enough bullshitting, let’s talk about the product now:
1) ok, so similar stock graphs to the regular iphone stocks app
2) the graphs produced based on buying and selling of currency across our platform.
3) we put overlays into any app using the bump api that shows the user his currencies, i.e. how much he has of each currency. The api allows app developer of other games and apps to make a feature to drag and drop currency from their app into the bump api popup overlay. Once it’s in there, u can’t use it in your game, or maybe we can figure out how to keep them always in sync.
4) with the popup overlay open from the 3rd party app (or maybe 4th party app at this point since my app is the 3rd party app) you can go bump someone else that has the popup overlay open and then it will show u what currency they’re offering and them what currency you’re offering. So more specifically, the popup overlay must hold what u plan to trade, and u must drag the virtual money from your current game into the overlay or through some other means like a basic button move the in-game currency to the popup overlay utilizing the api. Then u bump with someone who’s done the same, and it asks you both to confirm a final time after showing u the amount and type of currency being offered from the other person. With a double confirmation, the money is exchanged.
5) if you have the game that utilizes the currency received, u just need to open up the game and since it uses the api already, u’ll be shown a popup automatically the next time u load the app with a button in it to claim the money. Claim it, and it’s added to your bank account in that game.
6) in general, let’s imagine the dynamic that this will really happen to come up with more features: ok, so you’re at your friends house. you’re friend is a video game junkie stoner type, and you of course are a type A software programmer. he has money from playing WOW on his iphone or the like, and you have money from hours you billed while using a time-tracking and billing iphone app. For some crazy reason u want to hire him to do something, or wait, better yet, u wanna play the iphone game he’s playing cuz u just hit it bit and are on the beach sipping coronas, so u bump while in ur time tracking app and while he’s playing some stupid iphone game having to do with skateboarding, and you pay him for his currency…And if these were regular people, they’d be bumping and exchanging currency because they’re both playing a game they like, and hmmm, they want the money not in the currency it came in, but converted to the current game they’re in. AHA! so they must choose an option: do i want the money converted or do i want it in the currency it was sent to me in (i.e. in the above example where u go open up another game and there the currency is waiting). I actually think the real use case–or at least the one this product should be initially focused around–is automatically converted currency. Sorry if this is a little rambly, but that’s the point–I’m brainstorming. Catch if u can.

SO, two regular people that enjoy games on their iphone exchange currency. Why do they exchange currency, what’s the point? The point was in the first example where u get a different type of currency, but I dont think that is the main use case we’re in search of here. The main use case has to be paying someone to do something, cuz exchanging currency does mean anything if it’s automatically converted. At the end of the day someone ends up with more currency and he was therefore “paid” by the person who put more money in the pot. So why do you pay someone? Well, cuz it’s a friggin game and u just wanna hook ur boy up and give him some currency to get rolling and maybe catch up to where ur at in the game. And maybe he’ll do something for u in the outside world in exchange for the currency, like buy a 6pack….Ok, now I’m sounding like a cheezy Web 2.0 Startup Product Tour. But u get the idea….The real idea is actually buying virtual items. SO bingo, there we go. That’s the round 2. I think we just start with giving currency. The only issue is that with that there is no exchange rate that can be calculated. The whole idea in the beginning was to track how much people spend of one currency to buy another to easily produce exchange rate graphs and build a marketplace.

…Anyway, I’m not even gonna try to figure this idea out. Cuz I’m just gonna wait until Bump likes what I have to say and wants to brainstorm it with me. I’m sure they’ll have some ideas of their own. This is a good point to leave off.

SUMMARY OF IDEAS:
1) exchange of currency from different games to produce exchange rates, and graphs, and a little stock market, with in game popup overlays to drag and drop the money exchanged and receive it in a game the money corresponds to, etc.

2) paying your friends via virtual currency that they can use in any game that is making use of the api. Again, you can do this from any game using the api and bump with a phone running any other game that is also utilizing the api.

3) you can exchange money for virtual items. So imagine like before where u drag and drop currency into the popup overlay, you can drag and drop items. And once in your Bump treasure chest, u can select it for trade and bump just as above when bumping money of 2 different currencies. I wont even get too deep into the UI, but if u do this stuff for a living, u know exactly how this product looks already or all the possibilities for how it can look.

4) now, lets actually just come up with the Keep it Simple Stupid need to have to get the first release quickly out: what can you trade that is very likely to be traded. I’m afraid virtual items might take a while to catch on. Is there anything else u can get paid to give to someone on an iphone? I dunno, we might just be stuck with exchanging virtual goods.

Anyway, I’m done….BUMP, I’m not even gonna say my idea on your site. I’m just gonna link u to this. I hope u like my idea, and give me developer access and discuss this more in depth with me. It’s more than just a developer contest idea obviously, and I’m sure you already have things like this in your roadmap. I can help you make it a reality sooner. I look forward to hearing from you:

james@faceyspacey.com

December 23, 2009. Uncategorized.