Marketing witchdoctor Mark McCann was interviewed across BBC radio this morning. Check out two of his early morning interviews here.

The results are in from the Microsoft EU start-up awards. We were short-listed along with fourteen other European start-ups for the accolade of Europe’s top tech start-up. The results are just in, and they’re good – of the two awards available we won one and came second in the other!

Here goes:

• Microsoft have crowned TheAppBuilder  ‘The People’s Choice’ European Tech Start-Up 2012! Wow! Thank you to everyone who voted – absolutely brilliant showing that we appreciate so much.

And…

• TheAppBuilder came second in the ‘Microsoft Panel Award’ for top European Tech Start-Up 2012!

What a day for the hardest working team in tech. Go TheAppBuilder!

This is a game changer – you can now get a FREE HTML5 Web App for your business, organization, group, club or even yourself – the possibilities are endless.

Yes that’s right – FREE. No gimmicks, no catches, no built-in advertisements – just your fantastic app for FREE which will work on ALL smartphones, tablets & internet connected devices. How good is that! The app market is evolving very quickly and we don’t want to see anyone get left behind so we’ve ripped-up the rules and established a new affordable and accessible standard in mobile communication.

As if that wasn’t enough we’ve gone update crazy, with the added introduction of our brand new online App editor and launch of our Private Apps service. So, just to round it all up, here’s summary of the MEGA update which is live NOW.

FREE Instant Web Apps Launched Today.

Game-changing! It’s as simple as that. You can launch your own Web App for FREE with TheAppBuilder right now! Existing users just need to log-in to get their free web app. New users can build their app in minutes, starting by going to our Homepage, entering their app name and clicking through the simple wizard. Its that easy to get an app which will work on all smartphones, tablets & internet connected devices. If you have any questions about your existing apps click here.

Introducing Private Apps.

Private Apps are just that – they are not available to the public. They can be distributed immediately by you to a selected group of your employees or members. These Apps can be downloaded from your intranet or private app store and will enable you to share product specs, sales collateral, training material, project plans, events and much more.

New Online App Editor.

Welcome to the sparkly new world of TheAppBuilder’s Online App Editor. Creating, publishing and updating your App couldn’t be easier now we have brought the whole experience online. If you have downloaded the existing desktop editor, it will no longer work. Just log-in on the website to access and manage your App.

Vote for TheAppBuilder.

We couldn”t possibly miss the opportunity to squeeze a vote out of you! Microsoft has nominated TheAppBuilder as one of Europe’s top 15 tech start-ups! This is amazing. In June we compete for the overall title in front of the panel. Help us win the People’s Choice Award. This extra prize which the public can vote for is now open! Follow this link (closes June 6th), it just takes one click…please!

We are going crazy with excitement as JamPot Technologies, the company behind TheAppBuilder, has just been selected as one of Europe’s top 15 start-ups by global software giant, Microsoft, for the incredible success of TheAppBuilder since launch three months ago.

JamPot has been invited to the Microsoft BizSpark European Summit in London on June 7th to pitch to a panel of judges for the ultimate accolade of being named Europe’s top start-up.

In addition, Microsoft has also launched a People’s Choice Award which is an extra prize for which members of the public can vote. We’d be awfully grateful if you could find the time to click this link to Microsoft’s voting site and click the ‘Like’ button (you need to be logged into Facebook to vote!) before 7th June.

To be selected by Microsoft as one of the top fifteen start-ups in Europe is a major achievement for a company which only launched its flagship product, TheAppBuilder, three months ago.

James Scott, our illustrious CEO, had this to say, “The announcement by Microsoft has capped off a wonderful three months. Since launching at Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, more than 25,000 apps have been created using TheAppBuilder. With over 70% of our customers from North America and the rest truly from all four corners of the globe, TheAppBuilder is taking the self-service app market by storm.

“Many organizations can be overwhelmed by the cost, time and technical knowledge traditionally required to create and set an app live, but TheAppBuilder is ripping-up these rules and establishing a new affordable and accessible standard in mobile communication. We are so committed to this vision that we even provide users with a Free Trial, so that they can preview their app on their phone at absolutely no cost.”

Well said James.

Please please please vote for us in the People’s Choice award. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with how the voting is going.

Go Team JamPot, Go TheAppBuilder!

Sorry to those of you who didn’t have a chance to meet with him, as time was limited. However, he will be back for a further ‘Tour of Duty’ from June to August, so if you would like to be blown away by TheAppBuilder’s up and coming features send us an email to ‘hello at theappbuilder dot com’ and Andy will be happy to hook up. JamPot Technologies, the company behind TheAppBuilder, will be forming more allies and establishing a permanent base in The Valley during Andy’s next visit this summer.

Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy schedule to meet with Andy earlier this month and see what a bunch of highly clever geeks are doing in Ireland.

No tour of duty is complete without a picture blog though, so here goes…

There’s no DODGING our CTO in The Valley

Watch Out, Andy’s About

He’s getting around! The latest on his meeting schedule - Google and Microsoft. Look at the size of Google’s sign!.

Andy Meets Adobe and a S.W.A.T. Team…

Continuing his series of posing with signs, CTO Andy checking in from Adobe.

However, later in the day we were concerned to receive this picture.

Game Over For Andy…

After the involvement of a S.W.A.T. Team things didn’t get any better!

He’s now back in the office, but what a week Andy had meeting the giants of world software, discussing the forefront technology in app building – TheAppBuilder. He’ll be back in the Valley very soon – keep an eye out for Andy’s Picture Blog Part II.

Keep a keen eye on our Facebook and Twitter pages this week,  as who knows, we might let something slip…

“TheAppBuilder is a new online service that helps you create native Android, iOS, and Windows Phone applications (yes, all at once) in a matter of a few minutes. Moreover, as soon as you pay the standard setup price, it also gets published in the 3 major marketplaces. I see you app developers laughing it off, and so did I until I gave it a shot. The product simply blew my mind. I encourage you to try it yourself or see one of the example apps.”

Read the full article on Build Mobile here.

You’ve probably noticed that we have been attracting a lot of media attention in the past few weeks. We had a great response to TheAppBuilder at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February, and SXSW in Texas during March – I hope you enjoyed the photos, videos and write-ups from each. These events really gave us the opportunity to launch TheAppBuilder to the masses, including consumers, business community, tech peers and the media. The response from each was incredible. Once people complete the first three steps of the wizard on our site and physically have their app on their phone in a matter of a minutes, they are blown away.

Engadget was the first big media outlet to ‘discover’ TheAppBuilder and senior mobile editor Myriam Joire broke the story of the app building revolution from SXSW. Take a read here. Its a great review feature and what’s even better is that Myriam recorded a video of the three easy steps she took using the web wizard to build her app and download it to her phone.

Next up was the giant business magazine Fast Company. Kit Eaton delivered a great interview with our VP of Sales Matthew David and provided an insightful piece on the power of TheAppBuilder.

Following these articles a multitude of reviews by other business, tech, mobile and social media magazines and sites sprung up all over the web. What was also great to see was the international response in the past few weeks. From Russia to Holland, Spain to Germany, India to Japan, Brazil to Mexico we’ve been featured and reviewed to great acclaim around the globe.

Indeed Google and Intel have even jumped on the bandwagon!

The Intel App Up crew interviewed Mikey and Matthew at SXSW and recorded the three minute process of building an app and having it installed on your phone. I think its just great that we can build and deliver you an app in the time it takes to conduct a TV interview! Check out the interview at the foot of this post, we are 3mins 30 secs into the video – oh and there’s a classic line from Mikey at 5mins 35secs about how the magic app fairies build your app in the sky! (just genius, put this man in front of a camera and you never know what amazing sound bite he will come out with!).

Google Creative Sandbox blog recommended TheAppBuilder for anyone who needs a weekend activity – that’s it, they’ve totally got it. Using TheApBuilder you can have your app in a weekend (a few minutes in all truth but they’ve identified a nice sound bite!). You don’t need to wait the weeks and months it can take, not to mention the expense and frustration, of having an app created by a developer. TheAppBuilder is simple, inexpensive, rapid and delivers an app for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone.

I also like how Google describe what gets featured in the Sandbox blog, “Google Creative Sandbox is a space to celebrate the intersection of creativity and technology… It’s a place for Google to expose cool creations, generate inspiration, and prompt possibilities.” Couldn’t be a better fit with TheAppBuilder really!

Well that summarises the media activity and reception to TheAppBuilder over the past few weeks. At the minute we are really excited about some new updates to the product which are really going to shake up the market. I can’t reveal the details yet, but if like me and many others you think TheAppBuilder is an amazing product now, we’ve got something just around the corner which is going to wow you!

Until the next time (which will be soon), happy app building.

Mark

Matthew will be building an app live during the show and highlighting how easy it is to use TheAppBuilder to build your app.

We hope you can tune in.

Details:
http://www.tsnlive.tv
Tuesday, March 27, 10.15pm EST

This is a great article, check it out here – or we’re still on the Fast Company home page.

Well switch over to Engadget right now as TheAppBuilder is the top story! Not only are we featured, but Myriam has uploaded a video on the simple steps she used to build her own app in 2 minutes, and provided us with a picture gallery!

Myriam spotted TheAppBuilder at the SXSW conference and festival in Texas last week and couldn’t wait to share it with her readers. Head on over to Engadget to get her low-down on the best app building product available - TheAppBuilder. It feels great to be ‘discovered’…

“But you would be wise to pay attention to an emerging company from Belfast that was also at SXSW, called JamPot, that is making it possible for any firm or individual in the world to create their own app and publish it within two minutes”.

John recently interviewed our CEO James Scott, along with Josh Holmes from Microsoft, to find out more about TheAppBuilder and the general app publishing ecosystem. Read the article from Silicon Republic here.

John Traynor, Vice-President Products, Bsquare Corporation was quick to state that his number one hit of MWC12 was  “Lots more multi-platform support, so tools that allow you to build an application and immediately be able to submit it to multiple different app stores..the technology is really coming into its own”.  

As this is the market in which operate we would have been glad to hear this if he had stopped speaking right there. However, he continued:

“The one that really stood out is Jampot’s ‘TheAppBuilder’. It has great integration of social media, the content tools are very interesting, it also supports Windows Phone 7, so it supports Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7, so all the major platforms are covered”.

Well imagine our delight! Here is a senior executive and commentator on the mobile industry naming TheAppBuilder as his number 1 hit of Mobile World Congress 2012.

John was unknown to us at Mobile World Congress. We delivered hundreds of demos over the course of the four days and John would have received the same demo as everyone else – and that includes you. It surprised many people at MWC to learn that we didn’t develop a fancy off-line demo that was specially prepared for the conference. Instead we set up a wi-fi hotspot and ran the demos directly from our website so that anything we showed in Barcelona would be the exact same experience as that by a user accessing the site from anywhere in the world. We don’t hide behind gimmicks – there’s no no need to as TheAppBuilder is so simple to use.

Our thanks go out to John – we hope you enjoy building an app with TheAppBuilder – and Fierce Wireless who assembled and moderated the webinar. To access the webinar go to http://www.fiercewireless.com/offer/mobileworldcongress2012/thankyou?sid=58243571 and follow the instructions. We’re mentioned at the 51 minute mark.

Breaking the shackles of app building - TheAppBuilder

UKTI has selected TheAppBuilder to represent the UK mobile industry at SXSW and Mikey and Matt would love to demo our ground breaking app building technology to you tomorrow. Just head over to the SXSW Startup Village in the Hilton Austin, which is directly across from the Austin Convention Center on Sunday at 3.30pm.

Mikey and Matt will build you an app and have it on your phone – all in two minutes. Plus you can pick up your $1 promotional card which will enable you to publish your app to iTunes App Store, Google Play (the renamed Android store!) and Windows Phone Marketplace for just $1.

See you there…

Mikey Barr, our COO and Matthew David, VP Sales are on a mission to storm SXSW and school the U.S. in how to build an app and have it on your phone in two minutes!

To make matters even better, UK Trade & Investment have selected TheAppBuilder to represent the UK mobile industry at SXSW.  The UK Demo Day, which is being held in the SXSW Startup Village, provides TheAppBuilder team the opportunity to demo this ground breaking product to a select VIP audience of potential clients, media, capital providers and industry contacts, before opening the doors to general conference attendees.

The UK SXSW Demo Day will provide SXSW attendees with an opportunity to try out the best start-up technology coming out of the UK. To celebrate TheAppBuilder representing the UK mobile industry, we are giving all visitors to the UK Demo Day the opportunity to have an app published to the major app stores for only US$1. Visit TheAppBuilder at the SXSW Startup Village in the Hilton Austin, which is directly across from the Austin Convention Center on Sunday 11 March at 3.30pm to pick up your US$1 promotional card.

If you catch up with Mikey or Matt during SXSW (check in at the UKTI stand #1107-1214) make sure to ask them for a revolution T-shirt and $1 promo card. The guys will be at loads of the parties too, including:

• Mashable Party (well they did list us as one of the coolest things going at MWC last week – of course we were going to be on the party list!). Sunday 11th March, Buffalo Billiards – 201 6th Street Austin.
• NI Party. Monday 12th March, British Music Embassy – Latitude 30, San Jacinto Blvd Austin.

We made it home safe and sound (regardless of the spanner rattling in the jet engine of of our plane – Mr McCartney’s attempt to freak out everyone boarding on the steps of the plane!) and were delighted to find TheAppBuilder on the FRONT COVER of Ireland’s Sunday Business Post on our return.

This article focussed on Microsoft Ireland’s recommendation of TheAppBuilder as the app builder of choice for publishing apps to Windows Phone Marketplace. Here’s a snapshot of the front cover. See the Sunday Business post article here or check out our press release and more photos from the ground breaking photo shoot in the post below.

The Competition
All you have to do is visit www.TheAppBuilder.com and create a truly fantastic app. The app which has the most downloads on the Windows Phone Marketplace in the 4-week period following its launch will be adjudged to be the winner and that App Builder will win an 8-week Internship with JamPot. The competition is open now and the closing date for entries is March 31st.

Who can enter?
Anyone in third level education can enter this competition. Students of any discipline can enter and JamPot will create a unique internship suited to the winning App Builder. It really doesn’t matter if you are studying Architecture, Zoology or anything in between. TheAppBuilder is easy to use and it’s the content that makes a mobile app compelling. Choose your favorite subject, group, team, band, brand, product or person. Go Build!

What next?
1. Check out the handy “How to” videos at http://vimeo.com/user9384028/videos 
2. Visit http://www.theappbuilder.com and start building.
3. When you are ready to submit, don’t enter any payment details. Just complete the online form herehttp://bit.ly/wa74rY and we will push your app through the payment process and out the other side. It won’t cost you a penny. You can enter as many times as you like.

The Small Print

• JamPot reserve the right to decline to submit any app to the app stores.
• Entrants must be qualified to work in the UK.
• There is no cash alternative and the duration of the internship is flexible.
• All apps must conform to JamPot terms and conditions available at http://www.TheAppBuilder.com
• Apps submitted are the property of JamPot Technologies.

CLOSING DATE : MARCH 31st @ 12:00pm
JamPot Technologies Ltd.  – http://www.jampot.ie

In my blog post yesterday I wrote about how we were delivering demos to crowds that were 10 deep. Today we did that from 9am -7.30pm constant. Matthew, James, Andy and I have been overwhelmed by the interest in TheAppBuilder. We’re providing demos to people who want to build apps for their business or hobby, agencies who want to quickly build apps for their clients and make amazing profit margin, and big multi-nationals who want to build private app stores for their workforce.

But the cool part (excuse my poor sentence structure – its late and I’m about to hit the sack) is that EVERY person who experiences the demo is walking away with their own personal app which we’re creating for them in 2 minutes. This blows them away. They are literally leaving our stand with their own app which was built for free – in the exact same way and using the exactly the same wizard on our website that anyone can access 24/7.

I didn’t get a chance to leave our stand today to find out what anyone else is doing at MWC. The feedback I’m getting is that the guys in red are all anyone is talking about. By the way, if you’re at MWC I’m the lunatic with a revolution flag tied around his neck and assuming the identity of App Man. In this show of grey, navy and black suits (guys and dolls) you’ll soon find me. Come and say hello, thousands of others have, I’ve got some great treats for you at the stand.

Also, big up to the Invest NI guys. They brought Hilden Brewery – the staff and beer – out to the Northern Ireland stand and we had a great party from 4pm – and don’t worry, Hilden got their app 2 minutes after landing – I don’t miss a trick People flocked in their droves and Andy our CTO ensured everyone had a full glass of Northern Ireland’s finest beer. We even got our promo girls off TheAppBuilder promotional tour and ensured all the guests were topped up and happy.

Finally, if you’re in Canada, Korea, Japan, Australia, the UK, Ireland, USA or Argentina check out your national news station – the finest network reporters from your countries interviewed Matthew David, our VP of Sales, on the stand today. Amazingly though once one camera appeared, everyone around started pulling out camcorders and iPhones and recorded the interviews too. So we’re probably on loads of blogs and online publications all over the world. Let me know if you spot a feature and I’ll publish your app to iTunes, Android and Windows Phone stores for $1 – you can’t say fairer than that.

Until tomorrow,

App Man (come to the stand – Hall 1E67, you’ll get it!)

Here’s the link: http://itun.es/iS72SM

Jump right over to iTunes to listen to the whole show: http://itun.es/iS72HP

You can see their blog post here: http://www.peisocialmedia.com/pei-social-media-on-itunes/