LOCATION AND CONTEXTUAL-BASED MOBILE APPLICATION PROMOTION AND DELIVERY

• US 20120042036A1
• Filed: 08/10/2010
• Published: 02/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Lau, James Kai Yu, Bruno, John P. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 9,936,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for selecting one or more mobile device applications using context data describing the current environment of a mobile device and application metadata describing environment conditions where applications are more likely to be relevant, in order to improve the experience of discovering, downloading, and installing mobile device applications. According to one embodiment, a method comprises associating metadata with mobile device applications automatically receiving context data representing a current geographical location from a mobile phone, searching the metadata to determine which applications are likely of interest based on the current geographical location, and transmitting notification data to the mobile phone indicating the determined applications.

Claims

1. A method of discovering applications for a mobile device, the method comprising:

transmitting context data based at least in part on a current environment of the mobile device; and

automatically receiving application data for a first application executable on the mobile device, wherein the first application is selected based on the transmitted context data and on application metadata associated with the first application, the application metadata representing the relevance of one or more applications to environment-based conditions of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the application data comprises computer-readable instructions for the first application; and

the instructions are executable on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first application is a network application; and

the application data comprises an address associated with the first application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first application is installed on the mobile device prior to the acts of transmitting the context data and receiving the application data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating output with the mobile device operable to notify a mobile device user of the availability of computer-readable instructions for the first application.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the application data comprises an address for remotely retrieving computer-readable instructions; and

wherein the computer-readable instructions are executable on the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the application metadata is selected based at least in part on one or more of the following:

user ratings for the first application, number of users of the first application, features of a nearby device in the current mobile device environment, marketing payments for the first application, or popularity of the first application.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after moving the mobile device to a second current mobile device environment, transmitting second context data representing the second current mobile device environment; and

automatically receiving computer-readable instructions for a second application, wherein;

the computer-readable instructions are executable on the mobile device,

the second application is selected based on the transmitted second context data, and

the second application is a different application than the first application.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving context data from a remote device, the context data being based at least in part on a current location of the remote device;

receiving application metadata associated with one or more applications executable by the remote device, the application metadata comprising data representing the relevance of the applications to one or more locations;

selecting one or more of the applications based at least in part on the context data and the application metadata; and

transmitting data for the selected applications to the remote device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising transmitting computer-readable instructions for the selected applications to the remote device, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the remote device, cause the remote device to perform a method associated with the selected applications.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the application metadata comprises data based on previous usage of at least one of the applications on a mobile device while the mobile device was in or near the current location.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the data for the selected applications includes one or more network addresses associated with the selected applications.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the data for the one or more selected applications includes audio data, video data, or audio data and video data.

15. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-readable instructions that when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of claim 10.

16. A method of delivering an application to a mobile device, the method comprising:

associating metadata with one or more applications, the applications being downloadable and executable on a mobile phone;

automatically receiving context data from the mobile phone, the context data comprising data representing a current geographical location;

based on the context data, searching the metadata to determine which applications could be of interest based on the current geographical location; and

transmitting notification data to the mobile phone indicating the determined applications.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

selecting one of the applications;

transmitting the selected application to the mobile phone; and

executing the selected application on the mobile phone.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the application is an executable program.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the metadata includes criteria, which if satisfied, result in determining the application of interest.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

automatically installing the determined applications; and

automatically removing one or more of the determined applications if they are not accepted by a user of the mobile phone.