tech arb

Carrier Mobile offers mobile‐phone-based software applications for common problems faced by the North American truck drivers. Through the use of GPS‐enabled smart‐phone technology, Carrier Mobile strives to provide cost effective solutions that increase productivity and situational awareness. Carrier Mobile has received seed funding from Ann Arbor SPARK, and is a part of the RPM 10 summer program.

Founded in April 2008 by Jonathan Carender and Dylan Imre, CrowdClarity was created in order to address the growing need for a proper sales forecasting solution.

Who is our ideal customer
Product managers who are about to finish development of a new product at companies that sell, consumer electronics, video games, sports equipment and apparel, large consumer appliances, cars, boats, RVs, and many more that introduce new products and have short product life-cycles.

What we offer
Decision support through better sales forecasts, earlier than other methods by tapping into the collective intelligence of your employees, channel partners and customers.

What problems we solve
Predicting first year sales for brand new products is risky. Very often we see high product failure rate, overstock, stockouts, expensive test markets, and out-of-date normative models.

Three University of Michigan students run the show at Mobil33t (pronounced as Mobileet). With two software guys and a designer, the team has the right mix to tackle any mobile platform. Our current focus is on the iPhone marketplace, where, amongst the several thousands of applications, we’re determined to be heard. Mobil33t believes in the philosophy of keeping it simple, and with this in mind, has an awesome time making slick and robust mobile applications!

Mybandstock.com is home to The Music Revolution™, an online community where artists sell shares to their fan base in exchange for access to their music, videos, blogs, and other personal benefits in order to raise money for album production. These shares establish a personal relationship and represent the purchase of content, membership, and binding access to a unique artist community. We are based in Ann Arbor, MI and launched in January of 2009.

Our clients include progressive-thinking independent artists and music managers who seek to monetize their existing fan bases and raise capital for recording. We assist our clients in setting up their accounts, marketing their profiles, and choosing effective perks for fans in order to create the best experience for our users.

When a consumer buys music – either digital or physical – there is no clear recognition from the artist. Even with advancements in internet connectivity, music companies have found no means to capitalize on the digital opportunity. MyBandStock shares establish a valuable relationship between the artist and consumer: additional value is created by the scarcity of exclusive musical content and our unique online experience.

At Phonagle, we’re making mobile games that use the real world as the game board. We’re currently working on a game for the iPhone that calls for those playing to interact with friends, acquaintances, and potentially strangers to win. Why? Well, basically we love the games that we got to play as kids at camp and we want to play them again. And we’re pretty sure we’re not alone. Now we have friends spread out all over the country and world - we want them to play too.

QuazieCode is an iPhone centric start-up with a single employee Brandon “Quazie” Kwaselow. QuazieCode specializes in Map based applications, building on open-source map packages to provide users with both interesting and entertaining experiences on the iPhone. Though we specialize in maps, we are not mapping exclusive, creating applications that focus around improving the users daily life, from more knowledge about their local weather to what is going on in their community.

Shepherd Intelligent Systems seeks to expand and capitalize on technology that was started at the University of Michigan in 2004 under the name “Magic Bus.” Intended to track all university busses on campus via embedded GPS locators, it exists now as a functional beta website that, through real-time bus tracking on street maps and up to the second timing predictions, allows users to estimate their bus’s arrival time. It also allows riders to see their bus travelling down the street toward their stop at a refresh rate of every two seconds. Our company hopes to take this great start and make it better by:

1) Implementing a new, cutting edge method of GPS tracking in order to cut the cost of installation substantially.

2) Developing seamless, easy-to-use mobile applications for smart phones that take advantage of their GPS capability. Applications will provide customers with walking directions to the bus stop, bus directions, real-time tracking over a Google map (rather than just text), and total trip cost. For those without a smart phone, SMS text messaging will be available.

3) Updating and improving the user interface for website accessed with computer.

4) Developing easy to install, turnkey system for new customers that will beat competition install time by months.

5) Developing system for dispatchers to instruct bus drivers through GPS unit on each bus.

6) Develop automated system to count number of people on each bus in real-time.

7) Developing data processing programs to help bus systems maximize efficiency through studying data collected over the course of running the routes.

8) Making day-to-day maintenance of the system possible with only a laptop and an hour of training.

Our vision is of a person standing at the corner of an intersection in an unfamiliar part of the city. It is getting late he wants to go home. However, before walking to the nearest busy street to hail a cab, he flips open his phone to check another option. The application opens and directs him to the nearest bus stop, a three-minute walk away. His phone informs him that the next bus to take him home will arrive in 8 minutes, and it shows him the bus’ current location on a live map. Finally, the application tells him the trip will take him 25 minutes in all to make. If that kind of information can be delivered to potential riders, public transportation services will have the opportunity to increase their ridership dramatically by being more cost effective than cars or taxis. They will also be able to improve overall system efficiency. Currently, Shepherd has an option with the University of Michigan to commercialize this technology. This option will become a license at the end of the summer if agreed upon goals are achieved.

Troubadour Mobile develops new, fun ways for people to use their iPhones and iPod Touches to quickly connect with family and friends around the globe. At Troubadour Mobile, we value design based on user research for elegant, easy-to-use products and pushing the limits of the iPhone platform to provide people with exciting new experiences to enjoy.

WOMP Software is a newly formed LLC focusing on native mac development. WOMP’s first project is a Notebag, a lecture capture tool aimed at students, to be launched this Fall.