Sadly, that is no longer true.

Dan Rowinski, writing last October, says that Porn is no longer a leading indicator of web innovation and unfortunately, we have to agree with him. After attending Xbiz, Internext and AVN this year, we’ve had to shake our heads a bit because so much of our industry appears to be looking back rather than seeing the bright consumer future.

At MiKandi, we’re fortunate not to be plagued by dogma.  We’re embracing the new consumer world and seeing fantastic results because of it. Hundreds of thousands of consumers every month use our App Market for Adults despite the fact that we’ve spent ZERO on marketing.

These adults are downloading millions of amazing apps, viewing pictures and videos and interacting with one another in meaningful ways, all on their mobile devices. We’re learning more every day about the future of content and consumers.

There are some basic principles that lead to success

The adult industry deserves to thrive and grow. We have no illusions that this is something we can do all alone. We’d like to help lead the Adult industry back to its rightful place as the aggressive, innovative leader of technology development for consumers. Here are the things we find to be most important in designing content delivery for today’s consumer:

1. Content needs to be mobile, because consumers are.
2. Connectivity is the rule, not the exception.
3. Being trustworthy and providing great service matters more than making a quick buck.
4. Personalization is key.

Let’s dig into each of those principles a bit.

#1: Content needs to be mobile, because consumers are.

Consumers are consuming content on mobile devices in staggering numbers. Whether it’s finding out that the average mobile consumer spends 94 minutes a day in their apps or that mobile video already comprises 50% of operators’ data bandwidth, it’s obvious that consumers are spending their time with the brands and content they love on their mobile devices.

We have heard far too many studios discounting the mobile viewing experience, essentially saying, “Who would want to watch porn on such a small screen?”. We can tell you definitively that the answer is: “A lot of people, with more EVERY day”. People don’t care nearly so much about the size of the screen as the availability of great content and the ever present nature of their mobile device.

It’s worth noting that there was a time when people thought that porn on a PC or laptop was a silly idea in comparison to having it on your TV. Those people were wrong then too.

#2: Connectivity is the rule, not the exception.

Consumers expect to be able to connect to the network wherever they are, whenever they’d like to. Wireless providers continue to expand their offerings and to increase the speeds they’re delivering to consumers, leading us to an environment where everyone is constantly online.

Designing services for this highly connected world means that media can be more interactive, delivering experiences that are far more immersive for the consumer. Whether it’s the emergence of live chat services or the explosive growth in mobile dating, when people are always connected they expect more real-time services and we all need to embrace this phenomenon.

#3: Being trustworthy and providing great service matters more than making a quick buck.

Today’s digital consumer expects to be able to vent about problems, tell their friends about services that are shady and to inspire grassroots boycotts of companies that are bad actors. Having a short-term view of your customer relationships in order to boost your bottom line might have worked when consumers weren’t as easily connected to one another and the average person had no public recourse, but it was still wrong.

These days, acting in this way is a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, we see a too many companies in the industry failing to recognize that they need to reform their business practices and treat consumers with RESPECT. Tricking someone into buying a subscription might make you more money but it’s not going to win a loyal customer who sings your praises.

At MiKandi, we’ve embraced this connected environment and place a huge emphasis on our customer service by:

• Making it extraordinarily easy to contact us and responding to EVERY customer request (yes, every one)
• Refunding any consumer who has an issue with an app or our service. We’d rather be like Nordstrom than the 99 Cent store
• Creating a virtual currency system, allowing us to handle refunds elegantly for the publisher AND the consumer

The results have been unambiguous: our chargeback rates are the absolute lowest in the industry (just ask our billing providers) and 1 in 5 purchasers purchases again with us, unprompted. That’s what happens when you develop a relationship with your customers predicated on mutual trust and respect and deliver excellent service.

#4: Personalization is key

A lot of companies are requiring usernames and IDs in order to know who a customer is, primarily for their own benefit. This is step one in developing a customer relationship, but it’s not the most important piece of this relationship development. When you ask a person to tell you about themselves, today they expect that they’re going to get a better service as a result.

From providing content recommendations to understanding their usage activity and delivering personalized messages, there’s a lot today’s content provider can do to personalize experiences. People these days have no time for generic results and services. Personalization is about delivering an awesome experience.

Onward to customer innovation

So, those are the principles we’re finding fundamental to innovating in this dynamic consumer world. We’re fortunate to be building something that consumers absolutely love and want to use every day. We hope that we can work with a lot of other companies in the adult industry in order to deliver amazing customer experiences on a daily basis.

Which brings us to the final point we’d like to make – it’s something we talked a bit about in Vegas. In the media business, the classic debate is whether Content or Distribution is the King.

The reality is this: Customer Experience is the King.

Nothing matters more than delivering extraordinary experiences.

At MiKandi, we’re proud to be part of an industry that is focused on meeting the desires of consumers, regardless of public perception. In many ways, our industry is the ultimate democratic endeavor: satisfying the needs of people, not public personas.

We hope to be a part of the industry’s future and we’re intensely focused on what people want. Our principles are derived from what people are doing, not what we want them to do. We hope that our peers will join us in innovating once again, delivering stellar content, connections and experiences that lead us into the next wave of technology breakthroughs.

Join us in a bright mobile future

The term “Skin Flute” is a pop culture reference most people have heard at one point or another in their lives. Now, with the release of the Skin Flute Android App, which emulates playing an actual skin flute, mobile users have a chance to test their skills.

The Skin Flute app, developed by Media Outbreak, allows the user to choose a skin and then blow into the microphone while simultaneously using their fingers to touch, slide and play notes on the screen . The creator of this app stated, “We wanted to bring the Skin Flute to the mobile market because we knew it would be a fun gag app for people all over the world. We envisioned a fun party game and we hope people get a good laugh when showing it off. to their friends.” The Skin Flute app has been published on the Android Market for $1.49 & is also available for purchase through the MiKandi Adult App Market.

The Skin Flute is the first app release for local Indianapolis based company Media Outbreak (http://www.mediaoutbreak.com). Future updates and releases are already planned for the Skin Flute which will provide further functionality not included in the initial release. To stay up to date about the Skin Flute, or to read further documentation, visit the Skin Flute App website @ http://www.theskinflute.com.

And by the way, it’s only a penny on Amazon.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This Thanksgiving weekend, we are thankful for the many milestones we’ve achieved, including Mobile Entertainment Awards 2011 nomination for Best Adult Company!  As a relative newcomer, we are proud to be nominated with some of the best adult brands in the industry. The event takes place tomorrow, on Nov 23rd at the Royal Garden Hotel, London.

Check out a video reel of last year’s events:

Tons of people have written detailed reviews about the Kindle Fire. We’ve shared a few of our favorites below, but no one’s written this review yet:

MiKandi is the Kindle Fire’s killer app.

See?

MiKandi: the Kindle Fire's killer app

’nuff said .

For all of you with a Kindle Fire, all you have to do is:

• Click on the gear icon at the upper right corner of the screen
• Select “More”
• Select “Device”
• Turn “Allow Installation of Applications” On

A few Kindle Fire reviews:

– Jason Perlow’s “Amazon’s Kindle Fire: The tablet’s Volkswagen moment”

- AppleInsider’s take on the Kindle Fire

- Sascha Segan’s advice on How to Run Almost Any Android App on the Kindle Fire

- TechCrunch’s video take on the Kindle Fire

- Techpinion’s blog post on why Kindle Fire reviews are all over the place

We also believe in treating our developers and customers with the respect all adults deserve. We pride ourselves in that, and everytime we get an email like this,

Thank you so much for your persistence and concern! Its hilarious for me to be getting such great customer service from a porn service! Keep up the great work!

we can help but blush a little. BTW, OP, if you’re reading this- we’re still trying to squash that bug. Hang tight!

Since we’re an adult app market for adults, by adults, we have certain expectations for our developers and customers. By participating in our community, you can help us keep MiKandi a safe environment. Here’s how:

Leave feedback

Rating and reviewing applications you’ve downloaded is a sure-fire way to keep good apps at the top of the barrel. If you find a great app, support the developer by leaving a positive review. That will in turn encourage the developer to create more great apps. If you find something that sucks, warn other customers. And if you find something that really sucks (like a malicious or stolen app or illegal content), contact us.

Report illegal content immediately

If you unknowingly download an application that has illegal content, you should contact MiKandi immediately. Include the app’s name, the developer’s email address, and if you have it, the title of the clip or content in the app. We will unpublish the application immediately and take the next appropriate steps.

If you find a pirated version of your app  in MiKandi, let us know. If your content has been stolen, send us a DMCA Take Down Notice and we’ll take appropriate action. Developers, not sure if you have the right to distribute certain content or apps? Read this and this for more information.

Don’t be a douchebag

When you download MiKandi, you agree to our Terms of Use. Check out Rule #2- No douchebaggery permitted. While this can be interpreted many ways, for the most part that means

• Developers, don’t leave nasty reviews on your competitors apps in an effort to promote your own;
• Customers, don’t accuse developers of something serious unless you have proof;
• Don’t steal apps or content;
• Don’t register an account with someone else’s email;
• Don’t share MiKandi with minors;
• Don’t cheat us and developers by buying a bunch of apps, then requesting a chargeback from your bank.

How not to be a douchebag? Know that you’re dealing with adults and treat everyone with respect. It’s that simple.

It’s been a hot minute since we gave our readers an update on what we’re doing here at MiKandi. As usual, we’re dressing like nerds, acting like pornstars, and coding away to build products and APIs that deliver you your favorite porn to your favorite Android device.

It’s almost our birthday!

November, particularly Thanksgiving weekend, is a pretty big deal for us at MiKandi. We launched on Thanksgiving Day 2009. In 2010, we launched MiKandi Gold and a total overhaul of the MiKandi App Market. This year, we hope to keep up with tradition by releasing another huge product. So keep in touch with us here, on Twitter, and on Facebook to stay up to date with MiKandi news and announcements.

What about GoogleTV?

Also you may have read on Gigaom that MiKandi has no immediate plans to support GoogleTV. We’re always looking for ways to extend our service to as many screens as possible. While we don’t currently support GoogleTV with native applications, we are working on an HTML5 product so all of our non-Android fans can satisfy their Kandi craving. Because we’re cool like that.

AVN or bust!

It’s pretty lame-sauce that AVN and CES don’t coincide anymore. It’s the end of the Horny Nerd era (with which we fit perfectly). Still, if you’ll be in Las Vegas for AVN, holla atcha app store.

Want to earn MiKandi Gold?

If you follow us on Twitter or have liked our Fan Page, you may have seen some opportunities from us to earn MiKandi Gold. Be sure to follow and like us to say abreast (hehehe…. boobs) of our contests. Don’t worry, we won’t ask for anything too crazy. Just a nipple here and there.

This goes without saying, but to participate (and to download and use MiKandi) you must be at least 18 years of age or over the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which you reside, and you must agree to our Terms of Use. Oh yeah, and you must have a compatible device to redeem the Gold (sorry iPhoners).

Check, and check.

Who else will be in Vegas for CES and AVN in January? Holla atcha app store market!

Earlier this year when Mystic Game Development launched the uncensored version of their controversial app iBoobs in MiKandi, they shared something very interesting with us- although Google allowed them to keep their free app in the Android Market, Admob stopped serving ads to the application. Any developer will tell you that ad support is vital if you intend to distribute free apps. By blocking iBoobs Uncensored and cutting ads to the ad supported free version of iBoobs, Google has essentially cut all revenue streams for the app in the official Android Market. Not cool.

Many developers express their concerns to us over the use of mobile ad-networks in their adult applications. Unclear guidelines of acceptable content makes developers worry about suddenly losing their ad support. So where is an adult app developer to turn? It’s important to MiKandi that our registered developers have all the tools they need for success. So we’ve been working hard to find our developers the very best adult friendly ad network. We’re happy to say we’ve found a solution for you.

Announcing MiKandi’s partnership with Reporo

Reporo is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile ad networks and is exclusively focusedon the adult sector. More than 300 advertisers buy CPC campaigns via local language territory managers inLatin America, US, Japan, Europe and SE Asia, and these mobile adult campaigns are targeted in over 40countries. And now they’re available to MiKandi developers!

MiKandi developers can join the largest adult mobile ad network by logging into developer.mikandi.com. (Not a MiKandi developer? Register your free account today.) After registering with the Reporo system from within the developer dashboard, download the Reporo ad serving SDK. Developers can monitor earnings, impression volumes, CTRs and CPMs within the MiKandi developerdashboard. Developers retain 60% of all revenue generated by their applications. “Reporo serves almost 7bn ads per month for our web and app publishers and the number keeps on growing. Their revenues areincreasing month on month,” shares Reporo’s Global Publishing Manager, Ben Keirle. “This partnership allows a mutually beneficial opportunity to deliver higher revenues for all.”

Helping developers make money

Developers rely on three models of monetizing applications- pay per download, in-app purchases, and free,ad-supported applications. Prior to MiKandi, developers of adult applications were shut out of all threemodels. In November of 2010, when MiKandi launched its virtual currency, dubbed MiKandi Gold,developers finally had the power to sell their adult apps for the first time. Shortly after, MiKandi releasedits in-app billing API, which allows developers to up-sell additional content within applications. MiKandi’spartnership with Reporo rounds out the third component of monetization, bringing an adult-focused adnetwork into the fold.

“It became clear to us that we needed a solution for our developers that delivered relevantads to their adult apps with transparent guidelines,” explains MiKandi president Jesse Adams. “We foundthat Reporo’s flexible system integration and innovative approach to delivering adult ads offers exactlywhat MiKandi and our developers need.”