(Thanks to Virgin Mobile for passing the $50 dollar gift cards our way!)
In the series of $50 gift card giveaways we’ve had so far, this is our third. Well, actually, if you count the one we gave away on our Twitter feed last night, it’s our fourth. Congrats to Chance (Contest 1), Zulay (Contest 2), and Bernardo (Contest 3, via Twitter) on walking away with 50 greenbacks just in time for Christmas. Haven’t won yet? Don’t sweat it. We’re not even a third of the way done yet.
For this next one, I’ve decided to combine two different posts. I’ve got an interview coming up next week with Tracy DeMiroz, the VP of Marketing for the Skyfire mobile browser, and I wanted to reach out to our readers to see if they had any questions they might like us to ask. At the same time, I want to give away these gift cards.
How to enter: Suggest one question to ask Skyfire. We’ll pick a few that we’ll use in our interview, and from this shorter list, pick a giftcard winner at random. In other words, if we decide to use your question, you’ve got a really, really good shot at the giftcard. Post your question down in the comments below. If multiple people suggest the same (or a very similar) question, only the first person to have suggested it gets the shot. Contest ends on 12/14 at 6 pm PST
(Pst, keep an eye on our Twitter feed tomorrow)
Do you have any plans of making the browser for blackberry devices or is it just not feasible?
Do you have any partnerships with US carriers or handset manufacturers? If no, are you currently in talks with any?
Which is a greater concern of your financing group a. Customer/user acquisition/adoption or b. Speed to revenue? And to follow on, why?
will there be a iphone app of some sort?
Are there currently any discussions with device manufacturers to have Skyfire pre-installed on their devices?
What is the main business model of mobile browsers? At any point, would you be considering charging the users for download?
How often is the browser upgraded?
On what platforms do you plan to release this on eventually? The iPhone isn’t possible because of Apple’s restrictions, but what about Blackberry and Android based phones? Or are you going to be partnering with a manufacturer like Nokia?
Have you considered a version for non-phone windows mobile devices? Perhaps something to cache content for off-line viewing?
What sort of enchantments do you hope to offer in the coming release?
Are you aware of the audio playback issue on the HTC P4600 (Touch Pro/Fuze), and if so, when will it be corrected?
Secondly, any plans of integrating an RSS feed reader into Skyfire, if so, when?
What is the SkyFire mobile browser, and why should people use it?
Do you plan on supporting addons/extensions in any sense in the future?
What about mobile *nix or maemo?
When do you think you will get out of the red with this project?
Are you developing any other projects other than the recent release of SkyFire?
Who first had the idea of making this browser and what was your inspiration for it?
What sets Skyfire apart from the competition as a product and an organization?
As a cell phone user looking to enter the smartphone market, and with so many other options out ther, why should I worry about finding a phone that supports your browser?
What do you do in the implementation to help minimize battery drain from the use of your feature-filled browser?
Given concurrency issues as people perform multiple functions on your phone, how do you tackle the problem of becoming a background process vs. allowing users to immediately return to browsing after, say, being interrupted by a call?
How are M&Ms made?
I asked this one to potential employees, they will give the most interesting answers. The best one I ever got was – The Keebler elves poop them out!
Is Skyfire planning on an Android version of the browser?
you all seem to have made quite an advanced browser for a mobile device. Do you see any advantages with possibly moving into the expanding netbook market since your software is already made to work on marginal hardware? i know some work would be required to port it but it seems like a logical step if feasible.
How many programmers does a company like Skyfire employ?
How do you plan on building upon your success after the awards you won in 2008?
With Apple emerging as the fastest and largest seller of smartphones, do you think that by not having an iPhone version of the browser you are removing yourself from a core group of users who tend to do more mobile browsing than any other mobile device users? What will you do to overcome this?
With Android successfully showing a demo of the full flash 10 running on its native browser, how what plans do you have for Skyfire to be competitive on the Android platform?
Will skyfire have offline browsing
What is your plan to make various video codecs function within Skyfire? Flash works in Skyfire. Can it be made to show full screen?
What inspired you to chose a name like Skyfire?
Other than phones, what about devices like the Archos 5? Due to lesser resources of phones, would Skyfire work better than other browers on the popular netbooks?
On a more personal note: you must be thrilled that your product has gone international – how did you celebrate? Was there something you’d been putting off that you finally treated yourself to, or what?
What model handset are you using today, and what upcoming handsets would you consider purchasing
In order to comply with the spread of laws prohibiting even having your phone out while driving, have you considered making the browser itself voice controlled using the phone’s speakerphone?
Question! what’s the best bear…blackbear.
Skyfire’s continuous connection between the browser on my phone and your server drains my phone battery very quickly. Is that connection a fundamental part of the Skyfire architecture, or can we expect to see a future version that is gentler on batteries?
Any plans to make it open source?
any plans/ability to make the browser run/installed on portable non phone HW like the
Archos 605 wiFi
which has some problems with its current browser (try google maps!).
Which guys do you like better–those who wear boxers or those who wear briefs?
Of all the mobile browsers out there, why should I be using Skyfire? What makes it better than everyone else?
why you call it skyfire?
How do you plan on capturing a market that is currently controlled by Microsoft and Mozilla (90%)? Google has only had roughly 3% penetration. How much of the market do you foresee Skyfire competing for?
With program storage at a premium on many Windows Mobile devices, are there any plans to optimize the Skyfire code to run in a smaller memory footprint? If so, how small would you like it to be? Thank you.
While watching Flash content on Skyfire, I’ve noticed significant synchronization issues between audio and video. While I expect such hiccups from a beta product, what steps are you taking to minimize problems like this in Skyfire v1.0?
skyfire is good name
Just noticed I missed the contest cut-off. Doh! Would you please still consider my questions for the interview? Thanks Greg.