Three Indicators Your Brand is Ready to Go Mobile
Here are three indicators that suggest you should begin to develop a mobile strategy to launch your mobile presence. Consider if any of these scenarios apply to your brand:
1. You’ve been looking at the analytics for your website and notice your web traffic is increasingly coming from smart phones and mobile devices.
What this indicates: You could be missing opportunities to give your audience a rich mobile web experience. Mobile users visit a huge variety of websites from their mobile phone, so having a functional mobile site makes your brand highly accessible—something critical for marketers in this digital era. Of course, you’ll want to understand your audience base (i.e., High smartphone usage? Feature phone users?) and strive for a mobile web interface that will function seamlessly on a broad range of handsets.
2. Your service is community-based or requires a user to log in.
What this indicates: If your service is a self-contained experience, like a game or a social networking interface, you would want to develop an environment that your users could access on their phone, without sacrificing the display, formatting, and overall user experience. Ignoring the limitations of the mobile screen could lead to a loss of essential information and a poorer user experience for your dedicated users.
3. You offer products for sale or accept donations on your website, but you’re missing opportunities for your buying cycle to come full circle through the mobile channel.
What this means: Neglecting a mobile component in your marketing mix you could lead to missed opportunities to grow your revenue and donor base. Consider a brand that accepts donations on its desktop website. Not having a mobile site with donation-capabilities could literally exclude that brand from an enormous revenue stream. Verify that your shopping cart or donation features are fully functional through a broad range of mobile handsets.
Starbucks makes hire via iPhone app
Starbucks spokeswoman Stacey Krum writes: 
This was the first person that told us they found the job listing
through the myStarbucks iPhone app. Of course, there may be others but not that we’re aware. With an increasing number of people relying on their mobile phones for information, we thought it made sense to tap into a pool of potential employees directly. It’s a great way for us to reach out to job candidates who are already interested in Starbucks and we hope the popularity of the app will help us find the right people for our business.
Source: http://goo.gl/LD7k
Rage Now Available In All 50 States!
The advertisement for mobile service provider Cricket is supposed to read “Coverage now in all 50 states” but due to some unfortunate (but hilarious) placement, the poster reads “Rage now in all 50 states.”
A traditional ad for mobile service provider Cricket on Chicago's Red Line.
Mobile Applications Program at Hyper Island
Recently a team of students from the Mobile Applications program at Hyper Island Karlskrona (Sweden) reached out to us with questions about mobile trends for a research report and presentation. You can read what we–and others in our industry–had to say on their blog: http://ma11kna.tumblr.com/
The folks at Hyper Island are clearly passionate about understanding this space. Best of luck to everyone there!
Thanks to Andrea, Joakim, Kasper, Carl, Jakub & Sarp.
Is There Anything Mobile Phones Can’t Do?
Here’s a unique musical contraption combining a variety of smart phones. My favorite part of this instrument is the portable speaker at the base of the “guitar.” Classic.
…or should I say neo-classic?
3D Mobile Is Coming, No Funky Glasses Required
Japanese electronics-giant Sharp recently unveiled an LCD touchscreen that displays 3D images without requiring special glasses. Sharp identified mobile phones as a potential outlet for this technology, and this week announced the first 3D camera to be used in mobile devices.
In a press release, Sharp explained how its 3D technology works:
“3D images are composed of two views taken using two cameras that simultaneously capture separate images for the right and left eyes. Consequently, a 3D camera requires peripheral circuitry to apply image processing to the two images, for example, to adjust color or to correct positioning between the images from the two cameras.”
The glasses used to view 3D images have lenses with colored filters. This creates the illusion of something popping off the screen known as parallax. The left and right eyes see separate images because of the apparent displacement of an object as seen from two different points.
The reason 3D technology did not successfully gain widespread use in the 1970s was because technologists failed to create a 3D user experience without the need for funky glasses. In order for parallax to work without glasses on mobile, viewers will hold a mobile device 12 inches (30 centimeters) in front of their face – approximately the same distance a mobile phone is typically held.
Sharp plans to ship the cameras as soon as July, and will begin mass-producing the product this year. Could we be on the verge of capturing and presenting eye-catching 3D images and video with our mobile phones? It’s an exciting prospect.
How will 3D content change our mobile experience?
Three-dimensional imaging technologies are changing the way we experience media, first in movie theaters, now in our homes, and soon in our hands. If 3D cameras become standard in our mobile devices, a wave of new content would contribute to the refinement of the technology.
Here are five ways we’d like to see 3D cameras and imaging for mobile applications:
1. Games. (Did we hear someone say Nintendo 3DS?)
2. Data charts and interactive surveys. Information architecture in 3D would be amazing.
3. Product previews for smaller items like jewelry could change the way we pop the question.
4. 3D profile pictures and video chat.
5. Navigation and maps with pop-up landmarks to guide viewers along.
What are some of your ideas for 3D imaging in mobile applications? Tell us what you’re thinking in the comments section.
Looking Forward to ‘Mobile University’ One-Day Event
We’re excited about the Mobile University event that’s being put on by the Heartland Mobile Council. The one-day Chicago event promises to address the importance of a long-term strategic approach to mobile marketing, as well as demonstrate how to integrate mobile into your business.
Here’s a description of the event by the Heartland Mobile Council:
“Mobile University 101 is the interactive one day educational event that will address the importance of a long-term strategic approach to mobile within your business. Whether you’re interested in creating a mobile marketing campaign, or understanding the various kinds of rapidly evolving mobile technologies, Mobile University is the place to get started with a mobile strategy, and begin to leverage mobility to improve your bottom line.”
There are going to be some great educational topics covered at the event, and both Ryan and I will be leading a break-out session focused on different ways to successfully integrate mobile within an overall marketing strategy.
Pre-registration tickets for the event are $99 and can be purchased here.
If you’re interested in reading the official release for the event, click here.
Hiring an iPhone Developer? Read This First.
The Business Insider has posted an article titled How To Hire A Great iPhone Developer and it features a few quotes from our creative director, Ryan Unger. It’s a good read with some valuable insight, so feel free to give it a look.
Hampshire, UK – 4th November 2009: A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com), forecasts that consumer usage of mobile coupons will generate close to $6 billion globally in retail redemption value by 2014.
Juniper Research’s new report – ‘Mobile Coupons & NFC Smart Posters: Strategies, Applications & Forecasts 2009-2014’ cautions that user apathy amongst the wider public, as well as lack of willingness to change and learn a new method of making financial transactions are potential stumbling blocks. This is despite NFC trial results which show very high levels of user acceptance.
“Marketers can use the mobile device as the ultimate personal marketing channel. It is almost permanently switched on and physically with the consumer. This makes a great opportunity for brands and marketing agencies to access clients immediately, driving footfall and encouraging an instant decision,” explained Howard Wilcox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research and lead report author.
Smart posters with embedded NFC tags will bring to life static billboards, creating immediate interaction between potential customers and their prospective purchases. By simply passing their device close to the tag, users can take away a coupon or product information that can result in purchase decisions.
Further findings from the Mobile Coupons and Smart Posters report include:
- ARPU from NFC coupons and smart posters will exceed ARPU from NFC payment transactions
- The vast majority of mobile coupon redemption value will be generated by the Far East & China, Western Europe and North America in 2014
The report, launched globally today, contains comprehensive six year forecasting for all the key market parameters including users, redemption rates, values and incremental ARPU for all mobile coupons, NFC coupons and NFC smart posters.
The Mobile Coupons & Smart Posters whitepaper and further details of the study, ‘Mobile Coupons & NFC Smart Posters: Strategies, Applications & Forecasts 2009-2014’ can be freely downloaded from the Juniper website.
Get Well Soon, iPhone 3G Network!
When I first got my iPhone some two years ago, I rarely experienced connectivity issues. In fact, I was pretty proud of the fact that my phone and data service were so consistent. Flash forward to today, and I’ve moved from Cleveland (population: 500,000) to Chicago (population: 2.9 million), and the number of iPhone users has increased many, many times over.
Increasingly, I can’t hold on to a call. No joke—I drop calls every single day. And 3G data service? At this point, I feel like I’ve won the lottery when I see that beautiful little 3G icon instead of the letter “E” at the top of my screen. The other day, a friend of mine received nine visual voicemails all at once…and they had been left by recipients four days prior!
Make no mistake. Despite these issues, I absolutely love my iPhone. And thankfully, a recent article over at the NY Times has shed some light on why these issues are occurring.
You can read the article here.
Clearly, no one could have predicted the success of the iPhone. With a little patience, it looks like all of these issues will be ultimately resolved.
