Posts tagged smartphone
Putting your brand in the right hands
Aug 11th
By Mat Diss, Co-Founder, bemoko
Back in 2008, IBM released survey results which suggested more than 50% of people would gladly substitute their PC web for mobile web. The reasoning behind this is pretty straightforward, because it enables the consumer to make a choice as to when and where they connect, whether in private, out and about, and when inspired by other influencers.
There’s clearly a strong wish from consumers to embrace the mobile internet, but sadly the reality, even now in today’s smartphone led world is that getting ‘online’ can be a pretty awful experience. And that’s not good for marketing your brand.
You’ll know what I mean if you have tried to call up a site only to have to squint to read the text, or suffered badly pixellated text when you pinch and zoom in. Ever visited a site with a store locator or a login? Smartphones are usually GPS enabled, they know where and who you are! And if you hit a site with Flash, well that effectively triples the page download time, if it works at all.
So why can’t sites be instantly clear and navigable on the mobile screen? Why can’t images be delivered in the right size and resolution for the screen’s capability? Crucially why can’t content be personalised for me without having to ask? Here’s the thing, they can – but only if brands take time to put some thought into the creation of their mobile website. Given that the branded website is one of the most powerful marketing tools in your arsenal it beggars belief that the mobile opportunity is so often misunderstood, or worse still overlooked.
Here then, are five simple steps you need to consider when marketing on mobile:
1. Discover – Ways of finding a site can come from social media, SMS, QR code stickers, mobile email, search, promotions and the oldest of marketing options – posters and signs.
2. Engage – seize the opportunity to engage with your consumer, keep the site social, conversational, make it relevant, and reward your visitors
3. Trust – Your brand is in their hand, so it needs to look and feel right. According to a recent survey by Monotype, “86% of survey respondents in the UK would not trust a communication from a source they often use, if the details were sent in an unfamiliar font.” The user experience must be perfect, and it must present a level of quality equal to the brand. You realistically have one shot at hooking your consumer, so you need to make it count.
4. Measure – Analytics are your friend, they can identify good performance, root out the bad, and provide crucial feedback that lets you improve your site. And that’s important because you must…
5. Repeat – by delivering a social, valuable service the consumer will want to return, and in the best case scenario will become your brand ambassador and take your site viral.
One day we’ll just call it the web, whether we are desk surfing, or hopping online wherever we are. Right now the mobile web offers huge potential to extend marketing campaigns. We can finally drive functional content onto devices wherever you are, with the right branded look and feel that ensures a warm familiarity, and so deliver long term engagement with the customer.
MARKETING NEWS BITES: Apple’s iPad sales figures, Facebook investigated and smartphone shipments up 50%
May 3rd
A round up of news from around the web:
Checks with 50 Apple retail stores have led one prominent analyst to predict Apple sold about 300,000 iPad 3G units, including pre orders, over the device’s first weekend of sales. Apple Insider
Days after Facebook launched its “Open Graph Platform” that extends the social net’s web across third-party sites, it got a surprise rebuke from New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who wrote a letter asking the Federal Trade Commission to develop guidelines for how Facebookers’ information can be used. Facebook says it is currently listening and responding to the concerns. AdAge
The global smartphone market has seen its best quarter for the first time in almost three years, according to Strategy Analytics. Global smartphone shipments jumped by a gigantic 50% to 54 million in Q1 from 36 million in the year-ago period. Smartphones accounted for 18% of all smartphones shipped. paidContent
And lastly, ITV is eyeing a £20m advertising boost from the football World Cup this summer. The broadcaster will report on Friday that advertising on ITV1 in June, when the tournament kicks off, is expected to be 15%-20% up on last year. Depending on England’s progression in the tournament and a late rush of money, experts say ITV1’s income could end up 25% higher than last June. The Times
Why Apple is winning the smartphone war while Nokia plays catch-up
Apr 30th
Smartphone owners of handset brands including Apple, BlackBerry and HTC are more likely to stick with the same brand when purchasing a new handset, according to new research from YouGov, but why are these devices so special?
Apple owners have the highest level of loyalty with 81% of users expected to buy the brand again. In contrast, LG, a traditional handset brand, comes bottom of the pile with only 10% of users saying that they would buy the brand again.
Remember back in the 90s, and even at the start of the millennium, when you swore you’d never use anything other than a Nokia because of its simplicity and easy usability? Now Nokia is being dubbed out of date.
Traditional mobile phone brands, such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG, do not fair well when it comes to loyalty and according to YouGov, and need to update their features in order to stay in the mobile handset game.
Russell Feldman, research manager in YouGov’s Technology and Telecoms team, says that the traditional phone brands have a battle on two fronts. “Firstly, the number of smartphone owners is growing at a very fast rate and the transitional gold rush to this new technology means traditional handset brands face tough competition from new and exciting brands. Read the rest of this entry »
Protect and survive? Now it’s text and survive.
Apr 21st
The phrase ‘Protect and Survive’ that fronted the public information series on civil defence produced by the British government during the late 1970s and early 1980s is being given a new spin.
Mobile developments now mean the rallying call is ‘Text and Survive’ on the back of a new MobileAlert system being introduced in Israel.
It will be used to back up 20th Century air-raid sirens and loud speaker announcements.
Developed by eVigilo the service is set to go live in early 2100 and is being managed by the Defence Ministry with the assistance of the National Emergency Authority.
It’s not a development that is being taken half-heartedly with nearly £35 million being assigned to the project.
MobileAlert will be plugged into the existing network of warning radars that monitor Israel’s borders for rocket attacks, ttrack the flightpaths of incoming rockets, and - estimating the point of impact - trigger alarm sirens in the area.
The hope is that MobileAlert will be more accurate, using GPS to send messages to all phones in the area predicted to be hit.
Of course, the warning window depends on where the missiles are fired from – mere seconds if from the Gaza Strip, but minutes if from, say, Iran.
But it could make all the difference between making to it to a shelter – or not.
“The siren sound component is the primary life saving tool within the alert array. The cellular alert system is being currently evaluated to become the central element in this array.” said Israel’s Deputy Defence Minister, Matan Vilnai.
Race is on for publishers large and small to get mobile
Mar 23rd
Think publishing. Think revenue generation. Think multi-platform. Or your future might look pretty bleak.
Going mobile is nothing new to publishers. After all, how many years has WAP been around, never mind the smart phone.
But the planned launch of the iPad and it’s potential to revolutionise media and publishing is encouraging on those publishers to take action.
The reasons are simple. Going digital – and mobile - opens up the door on alternative revenue steams.
It’s something we’ve touched on a few times, most recently with the launch of Skimkits, but as tech advances, so do the opportunties.
However while major publishers may have had the budget and resources to make the digital leap, it’s not been so easy for smaller players such as bloggers.
A new development may be set to change all that. A new tool has been released that allows publishers to create and monetise a mobile version of their website, turning RSS feeds and web pages into mobile pages.
The best news is that Mobilizer, as developed by BuzzCity, is a free service, with no hosting fees, and free publisher support.
It allows publishers to start earning mobile display advertising revenue with a payout of up to 65 per cent of total ad revenues. Publishers are able to choose the type of adverts that will appear on their mobile website as well as the number of ads and their position.
“It is common knowledge that consumer behaviour is shifting. Reading habits evolved from print-based media to web-based media and now mobile media is really coming in to play,” explains KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity.
“It is vital that publishers are making their content readily available on the mobile. Many have invested in apps for the iPhone but this will only serve a small section of the market.”
In addition, publishers receive a unique QR code to display on their website, newspaper or magazine.
Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader software can scan the image of the QR Code causing the phone’s browser to launch and redirect to the programmed URL.
The simple act of reading may never be the same again…
How to target men using fashionable technology
Feb 23rd
What’s the best way to market the latest technology? Make it look fashionable of course.
The excitement of Apple’s new iPad set many hearts a-flutter. Financially, it is predicted to be another Apple money spinner.
Industry analysts Gartner Research expect the iPad to inject rocket fuel into the sleepy tablet PC market once it actually goes on sale at the end of March, boosting tablet sales from 1 to 9 million by the end of the year.
But how many so-called gadget fans are really in it for the technology? Are some more concerned with image over function, perhaps ageing Baby Boomers wanting trendy gadgets to stave off looking middle aged?
A survey of over 500 users by global news website OneNewsPage asked if some gadgets such as iPhones and Playstations look inappropriate in the hands of older consumers.
It’s worth noting that most who took part in OneNewsPage’s survey were strongly into their technology.
Forty four per cent of respondents claimed they ‘always’ buy the latest gadgets as soon as they go on sale.
But it was a close contest on the question of age. Fifty two per cent agreed that keeping up with latest gadgets is a sign of desperation, while 48% disagreed.
Over half (55%) felt gadgets were like clothes, and consumers needed to buy the right ones for their age.
Indeed, 63% felt that once a person turns 40, no gadget is ever going to make them look ‘cool’.
The survey found that 44% agreed with the statement that people over 40 on a Playstation was “plain wrong”. And 40% felt similarly about the over 40s using iPhones.
Meanwhile, research from Microsoft Advertising has laid bare the depth of British men’s love affair with technology.
The report, entitled ‘PFM Unplugged’, reveals that the UK’s Pre-Family Men (PFM) – young males who have completed their education but not yet started a family – are heavily engaged in technology and always online.
PFM are interacting with technology in some way during every waking hour (anyone who has a boyfriend knows that). They are the first generation to have grown up with the internet, and with the majority (99%) claiming to go online either every day or nearly every day and half using their mobile phones to do so.
The research shows that they are increasingly reliant on the Internet for entertainment, information and communication, with 80% going so far as to state that they would be lost without it.
In fact, the internet is the technology 57% of PFM are most attached to, closely followed by mobile phones (49%) and TV (46%).
PFM are apparently never ‘doing nothing’, and even downtime is filled by some activity, more often than not facilitated by technology. It’s also often also the first thing they think about when they wake up with a quarter of PFM admitting to checking their email and 18% looking at social networking sites on their mobile phone before they get out of bed in the morning.
Despite the popularity of social networks and the perception that traditional social email is dying, email remains the most valued online tool amongst PFM, with 52% of respondents rating it above all others (compared with 25% for search and 12% for social networking sites) and 87% stating their use of email had stayed the same or increased over the last year. 94% use email at least once per day, compared with 60% that go on to a social network.
Technology is fuelling the blurring of work and play as modes of behaviour overlap. While 43% of the men surveyed admitted occasionally browsing the internet during afternoons at work, PFM is also checking his work email in the evenings, on his way to and from work and before he gets out of bed in the morning.
Online video content is an important source of entertainment for PFM and it’s no longer just limited to short clips- 73% of PFMs will watch video-on-demand (VOD) at least once a week with nearly half watching full length TV programs. Catching up on TV shows they’ve missed and watching archive shows were the main drivers to viewing online and the majority (59%) viewed on a laptop.
The ‘PFM Unplugged’ report from Microsoft Advertising also provides advertisers with a series of recommendations on how they may reach and engage with PFM based on the insights uncovered in the research. You can download it here.
Too sexy for Apple?
Feb 22nd
Believe it or not but Apple has finally got something wrong, upsetting customers - and no, I’m not talking about the iPad.
Apple has begun enforcing stricter policies around apps available from its app store in a move that could see some apps removed entirely.
While the tech giant has so far only removed adult-themed apps, some games have also been removed.
Techcrunch reports that no more applications with “overtly sexual content” will be allowed, however, the criteria in which apps on the Apple store will be measured remain unclear.
The policy is expected to alarm some developers, and like other attempts to censor internet content, could see some apps banned for no reason at all - or at least in a case of misunderstanding (think of how in India you can’t look up ‘sex discrimination laws’ because the search term ‘sex’ is banned.
The news has already prompted many scathing opinions and blog posts on Mac enthusiasts sites such as cultofmac.com and 9to5mac.com. Blog posts on the sites are warning developers to make sure they don’t feature any “sexy women in apps” deeming the bans “ridiculous”.
The pulling of apps is in response to what is being dubbed as “sexy apps”, which also includes porn.
The move comes at a rather convenient time, with many touting that the clean-up attempt is to ready the market for its iPad, which is due to hit stores next month.
The iPad is expected to be popular with schools - carrying textbooks.
It seems that no medium is safe from censorship these days. And it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. For years, the internet has known no or little inhibitions - there were no clear boundaries and anything and everything was available for download. We called it freedom. And until the internet giants got on board with censoring content available through their sites, there was no way to apply any laws on the world wide web as it isn’t confined to any one jurisdiction.
But the question is now, how much power should these ‘internet giants’ have over what content can and can’t be seen - and furthermore, what is too “sexy”?
Media rivals fear the great (free) power of the BBC
Feb 18th
The BBC is gearing up for the launch of its first iPhone app, which will also include the iPlayer catch-up service in what is the latest example of traditional media outlets embracing mobile and digital.
In a bid to capture audiences that have started consuming content in different ways, the BBC will launch applications based on its news, sport and iPlayer video services and will offer the content free.
But the move could put more strain on mobile networks that have struggled to handle the amount of data traffic, particularly bandwidth-heavy services such as video.
To be honest, it’s about time catch-up services caught up with smartphones (iPhone, Androids). However, the move is touted to intensify the debate about paid-for content.
However, rival media outlets have suggested that the BBC’s plans for a range of apps is a demonstration of the corporation exceeding its remit.
By offering free news and sports service, rival media groups will find it difficult to compete, generate advertising revenue and sell their paid-for apps.
The Newspaper Publishers Association told the Financial Times that the BBC’s apps would “strangle an important new market for news and information” and so “reduce members’ ability to invest in quality journalism”.
Britons already pay for the BBC through a license fee and programmes are ad free, so it will indeed be hard to compete with.
Meanwhile, we are all waiting to see what newspapers and magazines can offer on the iPad platform – the perceived silver bullet that will save the media industry. Time will tell…
Windows Phone 7 – in detail
Feb 15th
Following reports yesterday that Microsoft was to launch a challenger to the smartphone market currently dominated by Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Andriod and RIM’s Blackberry, the tech giant has unveiled the details of its closely kept mobile secret.
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 7 for the first time. The handset will pull together content from social networking sites and other web services on a scale unseen on competing platforms and will most likely pose a serious threat to its competitors RIM, Apple and Google.
Why?
It’s flashy and new and has been designed with the user in mind, making all those things we use our mobile for more accessible, easier to use and to navigate.
Previous Windows Mobile versions were scrapped to make way for a completely new design that integrates Microsoft’s Zune music player and the Xbox Live gaming service.
The tech giant is ready to hit the smartphone market big time and has already secured partners including Samsung, HTC, HP, Sony Ericsson, Dell, LG and Toshiba.
At the Windows Phone 7 unveiling, Joe Belfiore, VP for Microsoft’s Windows Phone division, said the explosion of applications and web services available on mobile phones meant devices had become far too complex claiming that that phones had started to resemble PCs but “a phone’s just not a PC – it’s a smaller, more intimate device”.
Microsoft wanted a smart design that would separate applications and bring together some of the key things that are most important to people.
It’s five key hubs, that feature on a completely new interface with a ‘start’ page based around live ‘tiles’ representing the most common tasks include people, pictures, office, music + video and games.
The ‘people’ tile is all of a users contacts from Outlook, social networking sites and web mail services – pulled together with thumbnail images into one interface. People the user has recently communicated with rise to the top and for each contact the phone can display their recent activity on various social networking sites.
Under the ‘pictures’ tile is all of the users photos taken with the phone, synced from a PC or uploaded to social networking sites. Photos uploaded by friends to their social media profiles can also be accessed.
The Office’ tile is pretty self-explanatory, it allows users to view and edit documents or make voice, text and picture notes.
Every Windows Phone 7 will essentially be a Zune music player, with users able to sync music and videos using PC software similar to iTunes under the ‘music + video’ tile. Third-party music and video applications such as Pandora are also integrated.
Lastly, finally finding a way to take Xbox to the next level, under the ‘games’ tile users will be able to play games against other Xbox Live users.
Microsoft has said a key priority with the new operating system was maintaining consistency in design. Each Windows Phone 7 device will have three buttons on the front - Start, Search and Back. The tile menu interface will also be virtually the same on all handsets.
The built-in calendar pulls together appointments from both web-based personal calendars and from Microsoft Exchange, while addresses and phone numbers are automatically hyperlinked. Clicking on an address brings it up on Bing Maps.
The maps feature is interesting, and will be a major competitor to Google Maps. By simply typing “sushi” into the search function – which is of course powered by Bing – the user is shown all of the sushi restaurants in the immediate area plotted on a map. From that screen the user can get directions, ring a restaurant or read reviews.
The web browser is based around the same code as the desktop Internet Explorer, and there is full support for multi-touch gestures such as pinching to zoom. But just like the iPhone, Adobe Flash support won’t be present at launch.
So that’s it. It all looks pretty simple to use, and smart too. But one burning question remains: what about apps?
With the actual launch to consumers still so far away, Microsoft said it would reveal more details about the applications that will be available on the platform at its Remix conference later this year.
Mobile apps could threaten Google, Yahoo and Bing’s search future
Jan 7th
As the internet goes mobile, apps could be replacing the need for search
Applications that take users directly to e-commerce sites and other web service destinations threaten search providers such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing, according to BroadPoint AmTech.
Some retailers including Amazon and eBay are making it even easier for consumers to visit their site and make purchases by offering mobile apps that enable full browsing and purchasing functionality.
Consumers who download these mobile apps directly to their iPhones and other smartphones and can then go straight to the source website and buy what they need. So will the search box be a redundant feature of the internet in the future?
There are several opportunities to make money from pairing ads with search engines on smartphones and other mobile computing gadgets, but applications that take users directly to e-commerce sites and other web service destinations threaten search providers, says BroadPoint AmTech.
Mobile web search and queries are on the rise and will continue to soar once consumers begin to leverage more location-based mobile services. It’s no wonder Google swore its allegiance for the space by bidding $750 million for mobile ad maker AdMob.
BroadPoint AmTech said 10 to 30% of the mobile searches consumers trigger for Amazon.com, eBay and the like go through the Google, Yahoo or Bing search box on their iPhones, Google Android devices and other smartphones. Ads served with these navigational queries cultivate decent click-through rates.
But many vendors are making it even easier for consumers to visit their sites and make purchases and it isn’t just the big companies that are creating mobile apps to drive e-commerce to their websites.
This presents Google, Yahoo, Bing and other mobile search engine providers with an interesting quandary, or intriguing options, depending on how they choose to approach this new turf war.
These providers can secure search toolbar distribution deals with phone makers such as Apple and wireless carriers, grabbing the scraps from the tables of mobile app providers.
Or these internet companies can build their own mobile apps for prominent placement on smartphone decks. For example, Google has recently released two powerful apps, the Google Maps Navigation turn-by-turn GPS program and the Google Goggles visual search app.
Both are currently available only on Android. Google hasn’t discussed how it might make money from these free apps, but serving local ads with its GPS app and its visual search app seems to be such an intuitive task that it would be surprising if Google did not undertake it.
In any case, Google is headed in the right direction with the impending Nexus One smartphone, a fast-performing HTC device. The search giant seems to be focused on making sure it can guide the development of the mobile web while protecting and expanding its own business model.
Could other search companies follow suit to protect their online futures?
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