Remember when Microsoft, Palm, Blackberry, and others dismissed Apple’s entry as a newcomer into the smart phone space?

Big Mistake!  I mean Big!

Apple created a new distribution paradigm with the iTunes store. Unlike all other smartphones, you can get everything you need from the app store. Although developers cannot just throw any junk on the shelf there, the barrier to entry is really quite low and easy. Try getting vendorized at WalMart as a single product software vendor- good luck with that.

We were not stupid when we launched zhiing for Apple right out of the gate.  We have seen product adoption that is not a curve, but the famous hockey stick.  It would have been nice to be in the store with them at launch, but in the larger perspective of things - a few months late has not hurt us at all.  At our current growth and adoption rate, theoretically every human on the planet will be using zhiing within the next 50 years :-).  Wouldn’t that be nice for us.  Alas I jest.

Understanding that the probability of Apple continuing their explosive growth and effort to put an iPhone in the hands of every person on the planet is shady economics, we are diversifying our strategy.  As many of you know, anyone can receive a zhiing on any mobile phone on any carrier, but only the fancy Location Aware smart phones can send them - iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Android.

We are really looking forward to the day when RIM launches their BlackBerry Application Store.  Yes, they will be copying iPhone and Android - but who cares.  WalMart copied KMart and look what happened there.  We launched zhiing for BlackBerry in line with the launch of zhiing for the iPhone.  Given that there is no distribution center that draws consumers (like iTunes) - we have had to do the heavy lifting of using new and old marketing to drive product adoption.  The other good news for us is that when ever a zhiing gets sent to a BlackBerry, we detect the device and offer a free download.  Hurray - another customer.  Nevertheless, adoption has not been nearly as robust as zhiing on the iPhone.  We hope that will change when RIM gets their act together.

Look for zhiing to be available in January for Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android.  We hope that if we cover all of the bases, having 10 Million customers within a few years is a realistic expectation.