Nameo: the End of Businesscards?

Written on October 14, 2008 – 11:24 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur

We are very proud to launch our first Apple iPhone App today: Nameo

Nameo (website) is a virtual business card exchanger for the iPhone. It will allow you to exchange your business card with one click with any iPhone users who also installs Nameo.

A lot of people have been waiting for this App for a long time. More recently Michael Arrington from Techcrunch quoted blogger/venture capitalist Fred Wilson who wished for a vCard exchange app:

“one of the other things Fred requested in his post was a way to handshake two mobile phones and share contact info. A decade ago we could do this with the Palm V. I can’t wait to do the same with my iPhone.”

Tapulous, the company behind bestsellers Tap Tap Revenge and Twinkle briefly released an AddressBook replacement a few months ago which would allow you to exchange information with another iPhone by shaking two iPhones at the same time. They pulled the App within hours after releasing it because it apparently didn’t work and never submitted it back again. Others companies working on similar ideas are My name is E and iCard App. All those projects aren’t live yet though and we are very proud to be the first to offer this functionality throught the App store.

We decided not to wait for Tapulous and built our own unique solution. No shaking here but a simple click on the big green ‘Connect’ button will show you who else near you has clicked the “Connect” button. After you give permission to the person you want to connect with to retrieve your information, and they do the same, you can exchange vCards.

The App is really simple to use and we expect to sell a lot of them. We are also working on version 0.2 which will show a bit more information during the connect sequence and will allow you to enter more information about yourself in your vCard.

We are also working on Nameo versions for the Blackberry, Android, Nokia and other phones. If you want to know about those or have suggestions for other platforms leave a comment here.

What other people are saying about Nameo:

Techcrunch: “Nameo: Single-Button Business Card Replacement For The iPhone”

TinyCrunch: “Do You Have A Card? No, But I Can Give You $3 For An iPhone App That Does | tinyCrunch”

Washingtonpost: “Nameo: Single-Button Business Card Replacement For The iPhone”

Whataboutmac: “Nameo: Business Card exchange done right”

iPhoneinRTP: “iPhone app video Review: Nameo Business Card Replacement For The iPhone via @techcrunch” (Video!)

Best iPhone Empire: “Nameo: The End of Businesscards”

TechAddress: “Nameo: Single-Button Business Card Replacement For The iPhone”

Venture Cashcow Paddock: Startups: “Visitenkarten per iPhone austauschen”

Hiconomics: “Nameo… iPhone app to replace Business Cards?”

Desinformado: “Nameo: Business Card exchange done right”

Arnnet: “Nameo for the iPhone aims to replace business cards”

Crenk.com: “Nameo Makes Business Cards Obsolete”

iPhoneRocket.com: “Exchanging contacts is easy with Nameo for the iPhone”

CellPhoneHits: “Exchanging contacts is easy with Nameo for the iPhone”

IntoMobile: “Nameo allows iPhone users to exchange virtual business cards“

I hope you like that post!

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app store, exchange, iphone, nameo, vcards

About the author: Serial entrepreneur and founder of several companies. Current activities include TwitterCounter.com and The Next Web Conference & Blog.

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6 comments/trackbacks to “Nameo: the End of Businesscards?”

Oct 18, 2008: Nameo voorspelt het einde van (ouderwetse) visitekaartjes > Nieuws > iPhoneclub.nl
[...] info: The Next Web Installeren: Nameo (€0,79 / $0,99) var post_author = ‘1′; Vorige nieuwsitem Volgende [...]

By Robin Wauters on Oct 15, 2008

Very cool, buddy!

[Reply]
By Wayne Sutton on Oct 15, 2008

Nice app, I created a video screen cast with two iPhone swapping “cards” see it here: http://iphonesinrtp.com/2008/1.....echcrunch/

[Reply]
By Shaun on Oct 15, 2008

This just shows up the missing functionality in the iPhone - no bluetooth vcard exchange like every other phone going.

Come on Apple, get your act together and we’d not need these apps. No offence intended but this app would be pointless if Apple had a clue.

[Reply]
By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on October 15th, 2008:
Well, the bluetooth vCard exchange never really worked for any phone. I remember playing with it on the Palm V and later on my Nokia phones. The idea worked but the implementation always sucked. The iPhone is the complete opposite of all those failed technologies. It doesn’t do everything but what it does it does well.

[Reply]
By Shaun on October 15th, 2008:
There’s no reason Apple can’t add decent vcard exchange though via sms or bluetooth in a way that is better than what has gone before. I’ve not had much of an issue with recent Nokia and SE phones though so I can’t see how Apple could improve on such a simple process as selecting a name and hitting send.

Just seems wrong to be paying $3 for something that is normal on other phones, even for a usually apple loving fanboy.

ps. I guess I’m just miffed at their price increases on the Macbooks here in the UK. And the glossy screens. Ugh.

[Reply]

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