Posts Tagged 'android'

Since the launch of the original iPhone in late 2007, heralding a brave new world of flat rate mobile internet access, touchscreens and apps, along with the first Android handsets in 2008, we’ve seen an explosion in mobile usage.

In September 2009, mobile traffic accounted for a fairly meagre 0.02% of all UK web traffic. This number has ballooned since and now accounts for 12.59% of all UK traffic. As a percentage increase that works out to a quite frankly mind boggling 62,850% rise over 2 years.

There always tends to be a lot of internet chatter about the on-going battle between Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS platform for market share, with most estimates now putting Android at around 42%, ahead of iOS on around 27%. What’s far more interesting to us is how those devices are actually being used, a metric that Apple appear to be dominating.

If we consider iPhones, iPads and iPods as one device then we see that it accounts for around 75% of ALL UK mobile traffic. That’s astounding. Android, despite its market share advantage, only accounts for around 10%. In fact, the iPad alone beats all other Android devices combined. Now, the numbers may not be the same for everybody but there’s definitely a trend here.

The interesting thing is that this iOS usage dominance doesn’t just relate to mobile web traffic. Taking a look at Flickr’s stats indicate that the top camera overall for Flickr submissions is the iPhone 4 and out of the top five cameraphones used to submit photos, Apple makes four of them. In fact, the iPod touch ranks higher than all but one Android smartphone.

The key thing to take away from numbers like this is that iOS consumers appear to be far more engaged and invested in their platform. That makes them far more valuable to brands trying to interact with them, and ensures that, for now at least, the future development of mobile platforms, both native apps and the mobile web, is likely to be driven by iOS users.

It’s all about usage, not units.

According to Comscore 17 million people in the UK have used an app in the last month; and while it has been the more consumer facing apps that have courted the limelight their B2B counterparts are quietly transforming the way people work facilitating busy B2B professionals with nomadic lifestyles to connect, close a deal, generate and convert leads in real-time, anytime, anywhere.

We were recently invited to talk to B2B Magazine about mobile apps for their feature “Apps: To be or not to be?” The feature lists seven golden rules for B2B brands before they take the plunge – here’s our thoughts and commentary added in for good measure:

OFFER SOMETHING OF VALUE
The challenge is looking beyond the apps function as a marketing tool and integrating it business process. This means having the infrastructure to support the app outside of the marketing department.

An app can’t be all things to all people. Focus on the function you want the app to perform and the desired outcome rather than trying to cram multiple features into one app. You need to strike a balance between monetizing the app and good user experience.

BE SURE YOU NEED AN APP
Avoid ‘me-too’ syndrome by defining clear use and purpose before you rush in. Be sure it’s integrated into your overall strategy and supports your core offering. That way your app will deliver value to the user and profit for the company.

PICK THE RIGHT PLATFORM
iPhones only account for 14.4% of the global market, developing your app for other handsets such as Android, Blackberry and Nokia will improve your customer reach.

SET THE RIGHT PRICE
Annette Ehrhardt, Director at pricing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Parners says “If you see your app as a revenue generating tool rather than purely a promotional one, you might want to consider offering a free version with limited content. After trying and liking a free app, nearly 80% of Apple users and over half of Google Android users were willing to pay for its premium counterpart.”

PROMOTE YOUR APP
There is a tendency to view getting an app in the app store as end result, but this is simply the beginning. Its how you market the app thereafter will influence its up-take and usage.

ENSURE IT INFRASTRUCTURE CAN SUPPORT IT
You’ve marketed and promoted your app drumming up significant interest in the process but these efforts are futile if you don’t have the instructure to support the download and usage of the app itself. Insufficient bandwidth, for example, will lead patchy performance or at worst prevent users from being able to download it at all.

ADAPT AND REFINE
In the words of Christian Howes, head of solutions engineering at Webtrends “Don’t be scared to change your app based on the analytical insight you can gain on the user experience. People will always find ways of engaging with and using your app in ways you didn’t anticipate; be prepared to adapt the app quickly to enhance the user experience.”

Here at Pancentric we’ve always got one eye fixed firmly on future developments and while first and foremost its about getting these 7 steps right it’s the technology that’s precluding the next wave of super-applications that excites me most. Over the next 6 months we can expect to see the spread of NFC (Near Field Communication) on smartphone handsets allowing for contactless, cashless payments.
Geofencing is another trend where consumer brands have been quicker off the mark but it will be interesting to see how B2B businesses can exploit this technology – the opportunities are there, just think about sponsorship, corporate events and conferences.
And with so many business professionals making important decisions on the move using mobile to inform decision making the opportunities for location-based marketing are plentiful.

While all the world is all a’twitter about Google Chrome OS, it is time to take a couple of minutes to reflect on Google’s other OS Android.

After a slowish start with only one handset available for a long time my impression is that there is a growing momentum behind Android. There are now 5 handsets available from HTC and Samsung, showing the flexibility of the platform.

And if the rumour mills are to believed (and they aren’t often wrong) Sony Ericcson and Nokia are also preparing Android phones, amongst others. Motorola are also poised to jettison Windows Mobile in favour of Android.

More importantly, with 02 getting the rights (not yet confirmed) to the Palm Pre and already having the exclusive on the iPhone – there is little choice of carrier if you want a state of the art smartphone.

Google aren’t talking much, but at a presentation I went to recently they were stressing mobile, particularly allied to maps, very strongly. And looking at the statistics they shared and some of the uses to which smartphones are being put to, it is hard not to see 2010 as the (takes a deep breath) year of the mobile.

So why not the iPhone? After all it is the leading player (in mindsets if not volume), has an large developer community around it, the oft quoted billion app downloads, and it looks great, (although the icons are starting to look a little bit Fisher-Price imho)

Well the answer is simple, pace of innovation. The open (linux based) platform of the Android means that developers can access the platform and add things to it. Unlike the iPhone with it’s annual June lovefest where Apple release their goodies, Android innovation happens daily, and it is mostly ported back to earlier handsets.And in less than a year (the G1 was introduced to the UK in September 2008) the OS has matured, is feature rich and has reached version 1.5 (approaching the magic 2.1 when things really work). Oh and it is natively multitasking, and has naturally great integration with Google products Gmail, Maps, Apps, Docs etc.

And whilst on the application side, whilst there is not the sheer number of fart machines and other useful apps (only joking) the ones that are appearing are very good. For example Wired says that Spotify for the Android should frighten Apple (http://bit.ly/e3gHO), and Nick Brown, Spotify’s MD says that they are able to do more with Android as they can integrate further into the OS. So it’s volume versus openness and only time will tell.

The other development byproduct that might help is that by having put your app on Android, it is not such a leap to put it on desktop linux (and Android is poised to make a move to nettops). This is where Chrome OS starts fitting in nicely.

This is probably the most interesting time for mobile for a few years, and I for one look forward to the innovations coming down the line.