US 8,285,840 B2 · Using social networking to help users purchase mobile applications and devices

Abstract

A social network helps mobile device users purchase applications for their devices and to purchase new mobile devices. The network utilizes information from a user's friends to effectively “recommend” applications and mobile devices, and in particular recommend mobile devices based on the applications recommended. The phone numbers of a user's contact list may be scanned by the system to identify friends of the user. A friend network database stores the user's information and friends' information throughout the network and supplies the information to an application store where users may download applications or purchase mobile devices. The information supplied by the database includes the applications and the mobile devices of friends or friends of friends. In response to a user inquiry, the store displays the amount and/or identities of friends and/or friends of friends who have downloaded a particular application or own a particular device.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A social network method of offering recommendations to a user of a mobile device, comprising steps of:

obtaining mobile numbers from a contact list associated with the mobile device of the user;
identifying the mobile numbers from the contact list as those of friends of the user, in a friend network database;
identifying a type of mobile device associated with the respective identified mobile numbers, based on friend network data associated with the user in the friend network database;
recording in the database, in association with each of the identified mobile numbers, identification of software applications downloaded to respective mobile devices of the user's friends associated with the respective identified mobile numbers;
and
based on the friend network data, and responsive to at least one inquiry from the user, transmitting information regarding the user's friends in the friend network database who have a particular type of mobile device and who have downloaded a particular software application through a data communication network to a terminal of the user.

3 more elements

A social network method of offering recommendations to a user of a mobile device, comprising steps of:

obtaining mobile numbers from a contact list associated with the mobile device of the user;
identifying the mobile numbers from the contact list as those of friends of the user, based on friend network data associated with the user in a friend network database;
for each respective identified mobile number of friends of the user, identifying mobile numbers of friends of the identified friends as those of friends of friends of the user, in the friend network database;
for each respective identified mobile number, identifying a type of mobile device associated with the respective identified mobile number, in the friend network database;
recording in the database, in association with respective identified mobile numbers, identification of software applications downloaded to mobile devices of friends or friends of friends identified by the respective identified mobile numbers;
and
based on the friend network data, and responsive to at least one inquiry from the user, transmitting information regarding friends and friends of friends having a particular type of mobile device and information regarding friends and friends of friends who have downloaded a particular software application through a data communication network to a terminal of the user.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Using social networking to help users purchase mobile applications and devices

Life of this patent

Using social networking to help users purchase mobile applications and devices

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20