Mobile Application Development Archive

Marketers and their agency partners always seem to have smartphone demographics top of mind when discussions turn to mobile projects, and rightly so.  Until such time that applications are as universally accessible as on desktop computers, marketers need to make choices with respect to mobile strategy.

This article today on AdAge.com presents some generalizations to describe typical smartphone users:

iPod Touch: “The Touch user is young — according to AdMob, 65% of iPod Touch users are under 17 — and likes to game and listen to music.”

Blackberry: “The BlackBerry user is still very much a business user who uses the phone primarily for e-mail, instant messages and viewing attachments.”

Android: “According to Nielsen, 33% of Android users are single and, by Ad Mob’s count, 73% are male. Millennial’s Mr. Startzel calls it the ‘tough, terminator-like robot phone…’”

iPhone: “The iPhone user is tech-obsessed, wealthy and is less likely to have kids than other smartphone users… iPhoners are also using the device for much more than e-mail or messaging and are very active web surfers. They’re also more likely to buy things from their phones, download apps and content, according to Nielsen.”

While certainly good to know, such information doesn’t paint a full picture.  No matter what the generic user profile for a particular smartphone device looks like, it’s important to also consider whether or not consumers perceive a particular device as a viable application platform.  Although Google Android device shipments have been strong and are capable app platforms, the available market for applications pales in comparison to Apple’s App Store for the iPhone.

Right or wrong, currently the iPhone is perceived as the mobile app platform for consumers, due as much to its features and capabilities as the hundred+ thousand applications currently offered.  Some marketers invest in iPhone apps to reach their target demographic, others for the publicity which can accompany novel or interesting apps regardless of how well they are aligned to buyers.

Where trade-offs are not required is with SMS text message marketing programs.  These not only offer universal reach, but provide marketers the unique opportunity to learn more about their customers via direct engagement.  Marketers are not afforded the luxury of knowing who downloads their applications.

Today on my iPhone, browsing news on an application designed by Interactive Mediums for Newser, I came across this interesting article about a “Minority Report”-like mobile marketing trial taking place in Japan that will soon be brought to the U.S.

If not familiar with the movie reference, futuristic billboards presented personalized ads based on your actual identify as you walked by them.  The trial taking place in Japan is similar in that it features facial recognition capabilities to understand age and gender, and use these as inputs into personalized advertisements.

Although an interesting, if not very exciting marketing advancement, the article raises logical privacy concerns that arise with anything which consumers have little control over.  In this case, identities remain private and the scans are not saved following delivery of personalized messages.

Whatever form this takes in the U.S. or elsewhere, you can be certain that it will be followed by integration with location aware smartphones so that consumers may opt into being recognized and presented with personalized offers and messages based on actual identity, not just age or gender.

Preparing for this future now, marketers would be wise to develop mobile relationships with their customers using commonly available SMS text message marketing capabilities as offered by companies like Interactive Mediums.   Doing so successfully is equally a function of adhering to opt in standards which will not likely change even in the face of advancements like intelligent billboards.

In October of 2009 we mentioned a great example of mobile as part of a casino’s customer engagement strategy.  Good case studies are easy to remember, so I was not surprised to see this article today on MobileMarketer.com about where this business is evolving its approach to mobile.

I thought this was worth highlighting to show that mobile is not an “all or nothing” proposition, but that a phased approach to engaging customers in the mobile channel often makes the most sense.

Within the casino itself, mobile gaming is being introduced via proprietary mobile devices from a firm called eDeck.  These will provide on the go access to a variety of traditional games such that patrons can enjoy gambling wherever they may be within the property.  It’s an example of “micro mobile marketing,” in that customers are confined to a particular space that lends itself to mobile enablement in this fashion.  The upside for the casino will surely be more revenue while offering another channel of interaction with its customers.  Those two objectives are common among leading mobile marketers, whether their customers are more or less confined to a particular space or not.

While the article does not say so, this statement suggests the casino’s prior efforts around SMS text messaging programs to create an opt-in database of mobile subscribers will be used to help promote the new offering:

“Hard Rock will target its existing database and create eDeck awareness throughout the property.”

Other casinos will probably follow suit, or perhaps develop smartphone applications offering a similar experience in order to reach a greater number of potential customers than with a limited number of proprietary devices.

In an article published last Monday, Adage identified 6 applications created independently of retailers that are making a significant impact on the shopping experience. The article speaks to the challenge of retailers to adopt not fight this new transparency.  The applications reviewed are some of the very best at putting the power in the hands of the consumer by offering real-time coupons, in-store product reviews, competitive pricing, alternative store locations and more.

With 41% of iPhone users apparently actively checking prices, it’s obvious some retail CMO’s see these competitive applications as a threat. However the majority of big name retailers have already adopted and created their own integrated shopping applications to compete with these consumer advocate apps that threaten their pricing. North Face, Best Buy, Home Depot, Target, Nike, Gap, Wal-Mart, and Banana Republic all have integrated shopping applications, while Crate & Barrel, and Disney stores have their applications in development.

The challenge however is not to just develop a mobile shopping application, it is to create an incredible user interface that makes it simple and fun for your customers to shop with you. It is to create a fundamentally different way for customers to interact with your store.

For example, the NikeID store let’s you pick shoes out based on colors from photos in your phone. I found some great Nike Dunks just by showing a photo of a Fuji apple. Wal-Mart’s application lets you snap a picture of your living room wall to figure out an appropriate television size.

As more retailers enter the mobile ecosystem, it becomes clear that they must create a mobile shopping experience that goes above and beyond just acting as a portal if they want to keep their customers shopping with them over strictly shopping by price. With a combination of loyalty points, cool customization, interactive features, and convenience it’s still possible for the big name retailers (and brands) to win out.

Learn more about mobile application development at our resource center.

The other day my colleague Drew Myler posted about HTML5 and its ability to serve as a basis for mobile web applications offering a very similar user experience as native applications for the iPhone and other smartphones.   A lot has been written about mobile web browser-dependent applications offering a less ideal basis for engaging experiences due to the latency around data transfer involved in loading pages that a user links to in the browser.

Moreover, should the network connection be lost, a user must re-start the browser session, which does not occur with native mobile applications.  HTML5 apparently has the ability to stage data in memory on a device such that the user cannot perceive the data transfer usually associate with web browsing.

Drew points out HTML5’s ability as well to access device functions that historically were the domain of native apps, such as the built in GPS capabilities of the iPhone.  What this all means for marketers, agencies and others considering mobile application development projects is that the mobile web offers essentially a “write once, run anywhere” experience that alleviates the need to create unique applications for different smartphone platforms.   At least for those devices with browsers supporting HTML5.  Of course, were it that simple, demand for iPhone applications would not be so strong, which Drew correctly identifies as a strength Apple brings to the table via the App Store.

This article I came across yesterday on InternetRetailer.com titled, “Apps versus sites,” doesn’t discuss recent developments aimed at closing the gap between the mobile web and applications, which illustrates how important maintaining touch with the technical community is so critical to success in the mobile channel.  Things are happening so fast, that once defacto stances around what works/what doesn’t are constantly being revised.  For example:

“M-commerce sites and apps differ in four fundamental ways: reach and discoverability, which favor sites, and experience and performance, which favor apps.”

In reality, apps are probably as “discoverable” as mobile websites given the visibility of the App Store.  Their point is that just like SMS text messaging, smartphones of all varieties have web browsers.  But with “experience” and “performance” becoming an immaterial aspect of the debate, it will be interesting to see what decisions marketers make with respect to mobile web and application projects.

Here’s a suggestion:  If torn between smartphone application development platforms due to the demographics and reach associated with each, why not create a rich web-based application that is universally accessible.  Then, in order to leverage the marketing-might of the App Store and other smartphone application stores, simply create small applications that offer a gateway to the mobile web app.  In this way, you lower your costs, ensure access to the widest audience possible while tapping into the demographic niches associated with different smartphones.  Don’t be surprised to see more than a few retailers and other industries begin taking this approach as HTML5 becomes more mainstream.

nextstop offers a smartphone app that finds your location and recommends entertainment spots and restaurants near you. The app is easy to use and blazingly fast — but it can’t be found in Apple’s App Store or in Google’s Android App Marketplace. Instead, nextstop built the app using HTML5 and delivers it via the mobile web. (Learn more about nextstop’s decision to forego the App Store.)

We’ll no doubt see more companies follow suit if for no other reason than economics. Google reports that 60,000 phones running Android are shipped every day. That’s a far cry from the 40 million iPhones in circulation, but it isn’t a drop in the bucket, either. The smartphone playing field is starting to level, and companies that want to reach the growing non-iPhone smartphone market will either need to build another app — which will double development costs — or find another solution. (Even Google agrees that native application development will be too costly to remain sustainable in the long term.)

It’ll be interesting to see if nextstop has timed this move correctly — will the public understand an app outside of the store? Will mobile apps be as successful in their adoption rates? I hope so, but I foresee some hurdles.

The largest challenge: marketing and distribution. People know the app store and rely on it to find and categorize apps. Using the App Store is largely a discovery process; I’m a news junkie, so show me popular news apps. I may never know your company until I stumble across your app in the store. That’s a potential customer/user base of 40 million people, and it’s hard to ignore that kind of exposure. With a mobile web app, the opposite is true; I have to start with you in mind, and know (or hope) that you have a mobile app.

There’s also an existing understanding of how you ‘get’ an app. With native apps, you visit the store, find an app and install it. The process is entirely different with the mobile web. There’s no central, trusted repository, nothing to download, no recommendations, and nothing to ‘open’ on your phone (though you can add a shortcut to the mobile app on your phone’s home screen). Instead you fire up your mobile browser and navigate to the app. An evolution in the perception of what an app ‘is’ has to occur so users realize your mobile app is the same thing they would’ve gotten in the store.

I hope the early adopters of mobile web apps succeed, because the benefits to mobile web application development using HTML5 are pretty enticing (and yes, I’m aware the HTML5 spec is far from finalized):

• It’s easier to deploy. Launching and releasing updates to the app is dependent solely on you, not a third party’s review process.
• It’s cheaper. Supporting multiple mobile browsers is more cost-effective than supporting multiple apps and code bases.
• It’s native app-esque. HTML5 lets developers tap into many of the phone’s functions, including location awareness, thus blurring the lines between mobile and native app.
• It’s fast. HTML5’s offline storage makes the mobile app as responsive as a native app when loading new pages.

Until there’s a distribution model for mobile apps that mirrors the popularity of Apple’s app store, are we largely stuck building native apps? I’m curious as to whether other mobile developers are building web apps instead of native ones, or if you’re holding back for specific reasons. Hope you’ll chime in.

Having been in meetings with marketers and via anecdotal third party comments, I know many are sitting on the fence with respect to mobile, uncertain whether it’s a novelty, tactic, strategy, channel or alternative to email.  For better or worse, it can be some or all of these.

When you add to this mix that many businesses are reaping mobile marketing benefits, as shown every day on MobileMarketer.com and other sites, marketers in all industries sense urgency to at least try mobile marketing – be it developing a mobile optimized version of their website, an iPhone application or trying to employ SMS text messaging simply due to its reach.

I think this is the landscape documented in research covered today on eMarketer.com, in an article titled, “Mobile Marketers Demand ROI.”  Results of a survey suggest marketers will pursue mobile marketing efforts in 2010 – even allocating budget – but obstacles remain (as shown in the diagram included in this post).

“It appears that 2010 will be a year of experimentation and education on mobile marketing as marketers struggle to come to terms with its practicality and ROI.”

The greatest challenge – not surprisingly – is uncertainty around building the business case for mobile marketing, followed closely by a lack of ROI metrics and mobile not a part of the “strategic roadmap.”  I’d argue all of these issues fall under the heading of simply “I don’t know where to start, given my business, my product or service and customer base.”

For this reason, Interactive Mediums developed an exercise called “Mapping Mobile to Your Marketing Strategy,” that when complete identifies the best candidate projects that align with your existing marketing plans and channels.  This is based on our direct experience and observation of the ways leading companies are going to market with mobile as strategic elements of their business.

Taking time to experiment and educate is simply not an option for marketers given the pace of advancement among leading mobile marketers.  Even trialing various approaches will leave you behind the curve as competition for consumer mobile mindshare escalates.  Taking a thoughtful approach to mapping out a strategy can ensure your business plays a role in the mobile customer relationships that will surely separate the winners from losers.

This January 20, 2010 article on Mobile-Financial.com features results of a survey of mobile commerce shoppers that retailers would be wise to review.  As we have blogged about before, comparison shopping on mobile devices represents a challenge to retail marketers, one that begs for compelling engagement strategies to keep customers from leaving stores for better deals elsewhere.

The survey finds product recommendations accessible via mobile devices as a huge opportunity for retailers, with 65 percent of those surveyed saying they would make purchases were it easier to find products of interest.  Retailers heeding this advice will implement mobile-accessible product reviews and recommendations based on factors such as real time inputs by a consumer (looking for a plasma screen TV, what are my options?) and historical transaction data if available (purchased TV in the past, suggest a DVD player).

A potential battleground retailers need to keep eyes on is the mobile product reviews/recommendations/comparison space.  On one hand, retailers can develop branded mobile experiences for their customers that are essentially “closed” environments by virtue of product selection limited to that one retailer.  Combined with clever engagement strategies such as mobile promotions, this can effectively combat third parties that aggregate product information, prices and reviews across retailers.

These services could render retail store environments as mere “pick up” spots for products browsed, reviewed, and compared by mobile shoppers.  The retail sector may be in store for a complete shift in power unless mobile engagement strategies rise to the top of marketing plans and priorities.

With mobile application investments set to escalate this year, along with an already huge diversity of apps available for the iPhone, promotion and marketing will take center stage in ensuring these investments pay off.  That’s the implication of this article today on eMarketer.com, titled “Mobile to fare better than social.”

“According to DM2PRO and Quattro, 15% of advertisers and agencies spent more than 60% of their app budgets on promotion in 2009, but more than one-third spent less than 5%.  Promotional budgets will need to increase along with overall investment for apps to find their way to users.”

Marketers would be wise to consider the immediacy of text messaging to communicate mobile application availability and directly link consumers to download and install it.  Consider the ease by which signage in store can point customers to a text interaction that includes a direct link to download the application.  Convenience is key to entice consumers to take action and matching their behavior (out and about) with a device in hand is a recipe for success.

At the same time, marketers have the chance to create or build upon their opt in database of mobile subscribers, and learn more about them using engagement techniques like surveys and others that collect information about mobile consumers (like their zip codes or product preferences).  This data can in turn be used to segment the mobile audience in ways aligned with unique offers and calls to action.

Standing out from the crowd is already key to app success, so hoping your effort is discovered in the App Store can no longer be considered an effective strategy to ensuring ROI.  I say “App Store,” because the article points to the iPhone as the platform of choice for the time being, well ahead of Android and others.  Remember, when it comes to budgeting for the promotion of your application, among the most effective means to do so is to connect consumers with your app via creative use of text messaging programs.

This post today on MobileMarketingWatch.com cites a Business Week article in which the Apple honcho bluntly describes his view of the utility offered by current mobile advertising formats.  He also apparently sees this as an opportunity for Apple to innovate and ultimately dominate the mobile ad medium, even in the face of online ad champ Google and its mobile focus.  We have speculated as much here.

Just the other day we blogged about the hype around mobile advertising created by recent acquisitions.  We’ve also covered issues surrounding mobile ad metrics.

We’re keeping close tabs on developments in this area for our customers so they understand where to prioritize mobile advertising alongside their broader customer engagement charters inclusive of SMS text messaging, mobile optimized websites, smartphone applications and social media.

An integrated approach to mobile channel marketing – akin to creating more effective mobile ads – is an innovation which greatly increases the likelihood your mobile marketing efforts won’t suck.