Posts tagged mobile
How to be a digital ninja in 2012
Jan 16th
Looking to bolster your digital capabilities in 2012? There’s only one device you’ll need, and finally it is your mobile.
We’ve published many a headline over the years to the effect of “Is this the year of mobile?”
While we’ve all waited eagerly – knowing the broad capabilities our pocket devices hold – we have been disappointed year and year again.
But finally, it seems like 2012 is it for mobile.
And we’ve not waited because there hasn’t been cool stuff on mobile until now, we’ve just all been so caught up with devices that have come since mobile.
You have to remember that mobile is an old platform – reinvigorated perhaps by replacing ‘mobile’ with ‘smart’. The year of the smartphone has dawned.
Why?
Our insistent need to be socially connected at all times. But not only is social growing, content is.
Facebook currently boasts 800 million users worldwide. Of those, 350 million are using Facebook mobile – sharing news clips, photos and blogs.
We’ve said content is King before, but this will ring true more than ever in 2012 as internet users shy away from simple status updates.
Branded apps are also on the rise as smartphone take up steadily increases and the naysayers of the iPhone, HTC, iPads and other smart devices join the life of the living.
Brands have been trying to get into the pockets of consumers for years, but there has always been a challenge for some to do it in an organic, fun and engaging way.
So with the huge growth in online shopping outside of eBay, there’s never been a better time.
With this, brands will also become more creative when it come to geo-location platforms and there will be a smoother, more complete social integration.
I had never quite realised how much my phone could do until I was given an iPhone 4 recently. But it wasn’t until after my laptop and iPad were stolen in a break and enter until I realised I could actually do everything I wanted and needed to do from my phone – my iPhone 4.
I think others are starting to notice also…especially brands and marketers.
I can’t even catch public transport with checking the app to see how long I have to wait, go to dinner without checking out Yelp or start my morning without checking the latest specials on ASOS.
It’s an increasingly digitally mobile world.
Is Apple better by reputation…or its operating system?
Jul 29th
In June, Android was the most-used mobile operating system, according to Nielsen. The Google-run OS accounted for 39% of the market’s share, while Apple trailed by double digits at 28%. So why is the perception that Apple is the better/more popular smartphone?
What is important to note and continue watching is the distribution of device makers.
Apple manufactures all of its phones; it is still the undisputed king in that department. Whereas Android phones are made by a handful of companies.
However, whether or not a single manufacturer like Apple, with sole control over their product and OS, or a diversified portfolio of manufacturers like HTC, Motorola and Samsung that contract for Google’s Android is more beneficial and competitive, is yet to be seen.
Android’s getting a lot of attention for being forecast as becoming the OS for over half of all smartphones by 2012, but the real story in the report is that Gartner thinks Windows’ Windows Phone 7 will overtake iOS by 2015 and claim the number two spot.
Despite the skeptical reception the Nokia-Microsoft merger received, its long-term payoff will help drive Windows Phone 7 to a 19.5% market share come 2015.
Speculation from the report also hints that Apple won’t be so concerned with holding market share, instead preferring to maintain its own profit margins.
Although, Apple is busy forging partnerships with Twitter to share its iOS5.
The IDC recently forecast that Windows Phone 7 would also become the second most popular mobile OS in the world by 2015 too.
Time will tell…perception stands for a lot though. Don’t you think?
Where mobile marketers are missing opportunities
Jul 12th
Forrester Research has just come up with a new report that highlights were marketers are failing to leverage extra contextual opportunities when it comes to reaching their customers. And believe it or not, many still deem mobile as a low priority.
Advertisers will spend more than half a billion pounds this year on mobile display and search ads to reach consumers who will make more than £5 billion in retail purchases on their phones, according to a new report from Forrester Research.
The report, titled ‘eBusiness: The Future Of Mobile Is User Context’, reiterates that as the adoption of high-end mobile devices continues to rise, consumers will not only text and search the web for information, but consume content and media.
Mobile delivers immediacy, simplicity and context, making content relevant to individuals rather than the masses, say Forrester analysts in the report.
Furthermore, Consumers are on the verge of “voluntarily” relinquishing privacy in exchange for the benefits of mobile convenience.
But brands will need to keep a keen eye on privacy, while improving the convenience of mobile services by improving the use of context in delivering mobile experiences.
The report reveals that context is underused and during a series of interviews with several digital marketing and strategy professionals, only nine marketers said they used location-based context beyond GPS to find the nearest ATM, gas station, store or other physical location.
When marketers were asked why not leverage more context and user-content in the design or the delivery of mobile services, 17% of survey participants said it was too low a priority; 11% cited technical challenges and a lack of expertise; 3% noted privacy concerns; and a combined 6% pointed either toward financial resources and cost, or an inability to justify the return on investment.
While brands continue to increase their budgets for mobile and search engines integrate social signals into serving ads on computers, Forrester analysts view the lack of integrating user-generated content in search and display mobile ads as a missed opportunity.
How email redefined the mobile platform for marketers
May 23rd
A new mobile email study has revealed an 81% increase in email activity via mobile phones while iPad and other tablet viewership also increases. So why aren’t marketers paying attention?
Mobile email viewership is expected to continue to increase and webmail and desktop viewership isn’t going away anytime soon according to a new study.
The study, Email on the Move: The Future of Mobile Messaging, from Return Path, found that people are consuming email anywhere and everywhere they are – at home, in the office and on the road.
While this sounds like news from the bleeding obvious, what is interesting about this research is the finding that the leading platform for viewing email is webmail with 48% of the total.
Desktop use is a little more than 36% of views with mobile access coming in around 16%. When it comes to desktop access, Outlook owns 63% of the views.
The 81% growth in the accessing of email via a mobile device comes at the expense of webmail access, with desktop use remaining steady.
Not surprising, the study shows that mobile email activity occurs more when people are on the move with increased activity seen heading into the weekend – no matter where we are we’re addicted to checking our emails!
Bryan Dreller, product manager of Return Path, said: “The art of designing for the small screen may prove to be evolving to the art of designing for the reader on the go. While still critical to the email design process, rendering quality itself is still secondary to sending the right message at the right time.”
While still a small percentage of overall viewership, the use of mobile devices and in particular tablets is rising quickly. What is critical for marketers to know is that with the introduction of the tablet, the definition of mobile changed permanently.
As tablet use becomes more common, new kinds of email experiences in new places and times are now available to consumers. Marketers need to adapt to the ways consumers are viewing content as an important part of staying ahead of the curve.
“With the rise of the iPad and the tablet market, mobile has been redefined. According to our study, iPad viewership has grown 15% between October 2010 and March 2011 and we expect to continue to see this percentage grow in the coming months with the recent release of iPad 2. Marketers need to adapt to this change in where and when consumers are accessing email and online content.”
App app and away – how apps are making 2011 the year of mobile
May 4th
Apple, Google and other makers of smartphone operating systems are expecting to rake in $3.8 billion this year in sales from downloadable games, organizational tools and other applications, according to research from IHS ISuppli.
Sales of apps from stores run by Apple, Google, Nokia Oyj and Research In Motion will rise 78% in 2011 from $2.1 billion last year. With those figures in mind, the app market is expected to be worth a total of $8.3 billion by 2014.
Content is king, and this is the age of apps. Which in turn, has finally led to our much anticipated year of mobile.
So what does this mean for marketers? Marketing in the digital age, and the year of mobile, is all about connectivity. In the short term, the changes affecting how people interact with digital content will ultimately inspire new devices.
And the best devices will be the ones that provide a great platform for all these apps that we are buying – the connected experience.
By the end of this year, total app downloads will reach 18.1 billion, according to ISuppli. That’s up from 9.5 billion last year and 3.1 billion in 2009.
And despite talk of many a device that will challenge Apple, the tech giant has long been dubbed as the pioneer of the app industry and it continues to increase its reign.
The Apple App Store now accounts for more than three-quarters of total app revenue and is expected to bring in $2.91 billion in revenue in 2011, up 63% from last year, spurred by the popularity of the new iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
In comparison, Google’s Android service will almost quadruple to $425.4 million, putting it on pace to be the second-biggest application store.
Furthermore, the surge in application sales is leading companies such as Time Warner, Walt Disney and News Corp to adapt their content for smartphones and tablet computers.
The app market also has spawned successful start-ups, including Rovio Mobile, made famous by its phenomenal smash hit “Angry Birds.”
App app and away indeed.
Can Google keep up with mobile’s growth?
Mar 1st
When will the mobile web become universal? It could finally happen this year, which is sooner than most expect, according to Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Schmidt said yesterday at the 2011 IAB Annual Leadership Meeting that even Google’s supercomputers and brilliant employees haven’t been able to make accurate forecasts so far. Some facts: more than 200 million mobile YouTube playbacks occur every day and mobile searches for Chrysler were 102 times higher following the company’s Super Bowl ad (versus 48 times higher for desktop searches).
Consumers are, mobilised. And searches are happening in real time, on the go. With the booming popularity of smartphones the mobile market only has one place to go – up.
But can the industry keep up?
Schmidt said: “We look at the charts internally and it’s happening faster than all of our predictions.
“This is the future, and everybody will adapt.”
These statements may signal that Google will increase its commitment to exploring different types of mobile tech.
Meanwhile, last month at the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona WPP chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell said mobile phone apps were the “holy grail” for advertisers.
Sorrell said he was encouraging more WPP clients to embrace mobile app technology.
In terms of revenue potential from apps, Sorrell claimed “we’re still only at the top of the iceberg”.
So what is Facebook’s ad strategy?
Feb 24th
While the use of smartphones and tablets continues to grow, so does the volume of traffic reaching Facebook’s services from users on the go. So why hasn’t Facebook made attempts to monetize its growing audience?
Rival tech giants Apple and Google are making inroads when it comes to taking advantage of the mobile channel. And as Facebook begins to dip its toes in search and group buying, some are wondering why it doesn’t up the stakes on the playing field and finally figure out its strategy for making ad dollars.
According to Facebook, over 200m of its active users now access the network from mobile devices, representing 40% of its 500m total membership.
Furthermore, mobile users are also twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
Last year, Zuckerberg told Reuters, “We only want to launch stuff that we think is really good and that can be a stable building block for us in the future. And I think we just need to see what makes sense for mobile advertising. But in the short term there’s no pressing need for us to monetize that immediately.”
According to Clickz.com, Facebook is already monetizing its mobile audience, having launched the Deals platform in the US and across Europe with support from major brands. However, that product differs from a straight mobile advertising play.
Read the rest of this entry »
Microsoft goes in for battle with Apple – this time it may win
Oct 12th
Microsoft has finally entered a new era with the launch of its very own smartphone. The tech giant has already swayed Apple fan-boy Stephen Fry, but are its efforts enough to not only recruit ‘fans’ but keep its market share?
The software giant has launched its new Windows Phone 7 ahead of the busy Christmas period as its attempts to take on giants Apple, Google and RIM.
To help its plight, Microsoft’s launch was given the voice of reason by former Twinings brand ambassador and vocal Apple fan Stephen Fry (his powers on the Twitterverse are invaluable).
The nerdy brand has launched a total of nine new handsets that will be available in Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Australia. With more than 60 mobile operators in over 30 countries worldwide committed to bringing Windows Phones to market, “the millions of people around the world looking for a phone that plays as hard as it works will have a variety of phones from leading device-makers to choose from,” said Microsoft.
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, added: “Microsoft and its partners are delivering a different kind of mobile phone and experience — one that makes everyday tasks faster by getting more done in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format.”
While that may be true – Microsoft is still one of the best performing technology brand sin the world with over 90% of computer users utilising its software – there’s still that issue of ‘sexy’ sells. And let’s face it, Apple wins that competition hands down.
Microsoft has collaborated with Dell, HTC, LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, Three, T-Mobile USA and UK and Vodafone.
It’s hard to see how they can fail with so much back-up. But only half the battle is over.
Microsoft has a way to go in topping Apple’s iPhone offering as well as beatng down snide remarks that its touch screen phones are simply ‘copycats’.
But in Microsoft’s words, it’s taking on Apple all guns blazing: “Windows Phone 7 breaks the current smartphone convention to help people quickly and easily find and consume data, information and services from the Web and applications. The new phones are distinguished by unique design and integrated experiences built from Microsoft’s deep portfolio such as Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Office Mobile, Zune, Windows Live, Bing and more.
“The customisable Start screen with Live Tiles is a personal experience, showing people their own content. The Live Tiles come to life with real-time updates from the Web such as news, appointments or the status of friends. New Live Tiles can be easily created from whatever content a consumer wants, such as applications, websites and music.”
Basically, its main selling point is that if you’ve ever used Windows Microsoft or Internet Explorer, the Windows Phone 7 will be pretty easy for you to get used and find your way around.
It should also entice Xbox fans with its games offering and those who use Windows Office will be pleased at the usability and sync capabilities.
So if you’re a PC users, you’ll love the Window Phone 7 – but if you’re a Mac user, you’ll love the iPhone. Two very split markets, one though, Microsoft actually has market share. Let the battle begin.
Why Europe is losing out to Japan in the mobile economy
Oct 11th
An analysis of mobile activities in Europe, Japan and the US has found significant differences among consumers by geography.
Mobile users in Japan are the “most connected”, with more than 75% using connected media (browsed, accessed applications or downloaded content) in June, compared to 43.7% in the US and 38.5% in Europe, according to a new report from comScore.
Japanese mobile users also had the strongest usage of both applications and browsers with 59.3% of the entire mobile population accessing their browsers in June and 42.3% accessing applications.
Comparatively 34% of mobile users in the US and 25.8% in Europe used their mobile browsers, with 31.1% in the US and 24.9% in Europe accessing applications. Europeans had the strongest use of text messaging with 81.7% sending a text in June, compared to 66.8% in the US and just 40.1% in Japan.
Japanese users exhibited the highest reach in the email category at 54%, while consumers in the US were most likely to use instant messaging services on their mobile (17.2%). Social networking/blogs reached the greatest percentage of mobile users in the US at 21.3 percent, followed by Japan at 17% and Europe at 14.7%.
Japanese users were most likely to capture photos (63%) and watch TV/video (22%) on their mobiles, while Europeans were most likely to listen to music (24.2%) and play games (24.1%). In all three markets, the top mobile social media brand mirrored the top PC-based social networking brand with Facebook leading in the US and Europe and Mixi leading in Japan.
Local brands Gree and Mobage Town were the #2 and #4 most accessed social networking brands in Japan. Twitter was the only brand to be ranked in the top four in all markets.
Mark Donovan, senior vice president of mobile at comScore, said: “Mobile media usage continues to accelerate across the globe, driven by advancing technologies and the growing number of content options available to consumers. As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behavior become evident.
“These differences are even more pronounced than they are for PC-based Internet usage due to the complex nature of mobile – including various device capabilities, operating systems and methods of accessing content. For brands seeking to establish a multi-market presence, understanding usage dynamics across geographies is essential to implementing a successful global mobile marketing strategy.”
Mobile Fragmentation: What marketers need to know
Oct 6th
By Simon Liss, Managing Director – We Love Mobile
Fragmentation. Sounds painful, and for those planning and implementing mobile campaigns and services, it presents a real and present challenge. It’s the technical term for the fact that we all have different phones, and that these phones tend to work differently. Take a look around a meeting room or a pub table: iPhones, Blackberrys, Nokias, each with their own operating system, applications and ways of displaying the web. For now and the medium term, there is no common format, apart from voice and text messaging that will work, 100%, across all your customers’ phones.
Getting round this problem requires a good deal of insight and strategy, based on a clear understanding of what your ‘mobile consumers’ look like, in terms of both the devices they own, and the ways in which they choose to use them.
Step One – Know your customer
To decide on a mobile strategy, you first need to know what mobiles your customers are using and how they use them. There are only three ways to do this, to my knowledge.
The first is to survey your customers directly, which is a fairly large undertaking, and would probably require re-running at regular intervals to keep up with changing trends.
The second is to look at mobile traffic on your website, which can show you what type of mobile devices are already trying to access your existing (probably PC facing) properties. However, this method only shows you a partial picture.
The third and most effective method is to pay for research data. At We Love Mobile we recently invested in the mobile usage survey, provided by Comscore , and we haven’t looked back. There is nothing else that can tell you what your particular customer base is likely to be doing on mobile to such a degree, and it has taken much of the guesswork out of approximating likely mobile ownership and usage across our client base. If your existing mobile agency isn’t using this product, then you should ask how they are making decisions around mobile technical strategy for you. And no, I am not on commission, but robust consumer mobile usage data is a must-have for anyone looking to make informed decisions in this space.
Whatever way you get the data, knowing your mobile customer means, at the very least, establishing some basics, including: what devices they own (Apple, Android, Blackberry etc) and how they use them (mobile internet, e-mail, games etc). You should also have an eye on general trends, which will either feed into your medium term planning or roadmap.
Step Two – Define and refine your objectives
Identifying the ultimate goal for the business is normally going to be the main driver in helping you decide on the most appropriate mobile route. Key areas to identify are: do you need to reach the maximum number of customers, or are you happy to target a defined segment? What type of engagement and interaction are you after? How important is it to preserve brand identity?
While we can all get excited by the technical possibilities presented by smartphones and apps, sometimes business objectives can be achieved using much simpler and ubiquitous technologies. Clients asking straight from the get-go for a specific technology solution is often a sign that the horse is being put before the cart, and something that a good mobile agency looking for long term client satisfaction should challenge.
Step Three – Choose your weapons Read the rest of this entry »
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