“All the Numbers, All in One Place”

Every day we see new data declaring one platform the victor over the other. It’s never the same winner, but it’s always the same two players: iOS and Android. But basing the fight on data point by data point is useless. Time Magazine recently published an article with “all the numbers, all in one place.” The author noted that he wasn’t looking at “changes over time,” “why” the numbers looked a certain way, or “forecasts and other predictions.” Here’s the data:

“There are just too many ways to define “winning,” and neither platform leads in every area,” said the author, “Android if you’re talking about market share; iOS if you mean financial success. So far, this is a strikingly different market than the PC business back in the 1990s, when market share translated directly into financial success.”

So feel free to come to your own conclusion, both iOS and Android look to be doing very well.

“One of the biggest challenges facing the use of the mobile device as a marketing vehicle is deciding where in an organization mobile fits. Is it media, marketing or something else? Given that the best mobile executions to date have been highly integrated (not banners) or native experiences (applications), planning for mobile is challenging. The best advice I have for marketers is to shift your mentality from “winning in mobile” to “winning with experiences.” Although this may not address the challenge head on, it is a jumping-off point. If your north star is to provide great customer experiences, when it comes to planning for mobile, you will, at a baseline, ensure that you are not turning off potential customers — something that mobile marketing has a heightened potential of doing.”

“The mobile landscape changes more rapidly and more frequently than any other digital channel. Mobile technology and user consumption is constantly evolving. With so many available options, it can be difficult for marketers to determine which touchpoints create the most meaningful value for the consumer. Marketers know that mobile plays a large role in the day-to-day lives of consumers. But the key is to understand when and where they use it in order to develop a unique and engaging experience.”

“The biggest problem is, brands often don’t understand mobile or how their customers interact via mobile. All too often, you see brands trying to take their traditional content and slap it on mobile. Consumers digest content and interact with brands differently across mediums, even devices, and brands need to adapt based upon insight. Brands and marketers need to get away from the mindset of worrying about how technology impacts behavior and instead focus on how behavior impacts technology. Too many marketers fail to realize that technology changes, the one constant is human interaction.”

“The biggest challenge, after getting budget, is figuring out what role mobile is going to play for the organization. You can’t just replicate the programs you already have for online for mobile. Mobile’s a different use case. The other big issue is how they will prove mobile works. We don’t have the metrics now. My advice to brands is: continue to try and experiment with different things to see what works for your brand on mobile.”

“When customers are using their mobile devices, they are very task-oriented. Their goal is to achieve something. Customers want to be able to search for an item and buy it right away or move on. They are looking for a very simple and direct path to accomplish that task. Retailers and brands, on the other hand, try to incent customers to buy by throwing everything at them, including various offerings and coupons, ultimately distracting the customer and putting a roadblock between the customer and what they want to achieve. Instead, retailers [and brands] need to adjust their mindset and remember, less is more. The key to overcoming this hurdle is to give the customers what they want with the minimum number of steps possible. Let customers search your site, give them the top results, and make the payment process as simple as possible.”

“Everyone sees the importance of having a mobile presence, but not everyone knows how to take that first big step into the mobile world. The biggest challenge we see is being able to attribute revenue to mobile advertising due to consistency of cookies and tracking. Las Vegas Hotels are all about “heads in beds,” and if we aren’t able to prove we are meeting those goals, it is hard to push more dollars behind that effort. However, Palms Casino Resort understands the importance of having a mobile presence and is consistently working on building it. Since everyone is on their mobile devices nowadays, having a presence is a must. Budget is easier to get approved for something you are already doing vs. something new that you want to start. Start small, but end strong.”

“The biggest hurdle to integrating mobile is the need to make both the mindset as well as practical shift from thinking about it as “mobile” -– a whole separate bucket –- to thinking of it as something that has to be naturally if not centrally a part of the (digital) marketing mix. In other words, the strategy and planning question is no longer: “Is mobile part of my mix?” but rather: “If I’m doing display, or search, or social, how much of that is PC vs. mobile (and tablet), and how should my creative and media tactics vary based on the different ways consumers are going to interact with that messaging in each place.”

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“AMP™ Enterprise Drives Efficiency in Enterprise Mobile App Market”

AVAI Mobile Solutions, LLC announces a new version of its AMP™ mobile content and communication management system for enterprise companies wanting a more efficient and cost-effective way to create mobile applications.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Austin, TX – April 3, 2013 – AVAI Mobile Solutions, LLC (www.avaimobile.com), based in Austin, has announced a version of its AMP™ mobile application content management platform for the enterprise market. AMP enables enterprises to avoid the high cost and risk associated with custom app development and versioning by leveraging a proven platform as a service.

“We are announcing AMP Enterprise to address a very clear need among mid to large enterprises for a scalable yet customizable mobile app development platform which eliminates the need for custom development on every project,” says Rand Arnold, CEO of AVAI Mobile. “AMP Enterprise is an extension to our popular Cloud-based AMP™ solution already being successfully used as a development platform for our channel partners.”

According to a Q1 2013 Mobile Enterprise Report from Appcelerator, 44% of enterprise respondents surveyed said they plan to develop between 2 – 5 apps in 2013, while some plan to build as many as 20. The report notes that largest obstacle facing Enterprise is a scarcity of mobile development resources. AMP provides 80% of the solution, dramatically reducing the custom development required. Using AMP means enterprises can fast start mobile apps without having to hire a team of expensive programmers, or outsource mobile development.

AMP is available as a licensed platform allowing customers to host on internal servers, or bundled as a cloud based Platform-as-a-service (PaaS). Because AMP comes as a pre-built platform with easy customization tools, mobile apps can be created in a fraction of the time – and for significantly less money – than the average custom-developed app.

“AVAI Mobile’s AMP Platform allowed us to communicate the latest updates of our products and specifications more efficiently with our team and partners,” says John Hewson, Residential Solutions Marketing Manager for Lutron Electronics Co., Inc.

To learn more about AMP Enterprise please visit: www.avaimobile.com/enterprise/.

Austin-based AVAI Mobile Solutions, LLC, through its single-source mobile application development platform known as AMP™, has created over 230 mobile applications for a variety of popular visitor destinations, enterprises and associations. By using its proven AMP™ development and content management platform, AVAI Mobile is able to build stable, scalable and highly flexible mobile apps at a fraction of the cost of most custom-developed smartphone apps. For more information about AVAI Mobile, please visit our website: http://avaimobile.com/.

In a study, “Seven Shades of Mobile,” conducted by InsightsNow for AOL and BBDO, researchers derived seven overarching motivations consumers use their mobile devices for, parallel with average minutes per month in each category. Follows are the seven main areas:

• “Me Time” – 46%
• Socializing – 19%
• Shopping – 12%
• Accomplishing – 11%
• Preparation – 7%
• Discovery – 4%
• Self-Expression – 1%

The following graph layers ad effectiveness with the seven motivational stages. It’s evident that mobile ads do a poor job of engaging users during “Me Time.” This is mostly likely due to a lack of relevant messaging in the context of mobile usage.

The following graphs show time spent and page views on mobile, next to the ad spend and revenue of mobile. Clearly, there is a disconnect here.

Finally, marketers are making assumptions about how apps are used. The fact is simple, apps have multiple purposes, tied to different motivations. Consider the following example:

Source

10 Statistics About Mobile

Mobile is quickly becoming a must-have, and brands are acutely aware of the fact. Here are 10 stats to think about:

1. The U.S. is at 101% wireless penetration. (CTIA)

2. 1 billion smartphones will be shipped globally this year. (Gartner)

3. 85% of mobile users prefer mobile apps over the mobile Web. (Compuware)

4. Americans spend an average of 158 minutes every day on their smartphones and tablets. (Flurry)

5. 42% of consumers using a mobile device while in-store spend more than $1,000. (Digby)

6. 39% of mobile users access social networks from their phones. (Business Insider)

7. 59% of mobile users are as comfortable with mobile advertising as they are with TV and online ads. (InMobi)

8. Mobile drives 23% of paid-search clicks. (The Search Agency)

9. TMobile advertising revenue is expected to reach over $11 billion worldwide this year, up from over $9 billion last year. (Gartner)

10. Mobile now accounts for 12% of Americans’ media consumption time, triple its share in 2009. (eMarketer)

10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Mobile App Developer

With so many developers in the industry, finding the right one is not easy. Entrepreneur Media recently published 10 Questions to Ask When Hiring a Mobile App Developer:

Great mobile app developers should have lists of apps created they willingly and prominently display. Get links to these apps and try them. If you’re developing on multiple platforms, try the app in different platforms.

Another good way to access the validity of a developer is to talk to past and current clients. After all, when you hire a new employee, don’t you run background checks? Hiring a developer is no different. If you can get your hands on clients, check the references. Ask about the relationship, reliability, responsiveness, accuracy, flexibility, etc.

You can be sure that a qualified iOS developer owns and uses an iPhone and iPad. This is the same for Android devices. More professional firms own a library of devices for efficiency and testing purposes.

This question isn’t for everyone, BUT it should be asked IF your goal is to generate revenue from the app. The developer you choose should have the competencies to build the features you need to make money. If your app is free to download, make sure they can support in-app advertising.

Developing an app properly requires a great deal of communication and collaboration, especially if you require customized work or integration. Ask who will be responsible for your account, and if they are accessible in-person or by phone, email or instant messaging. You want a account manager who is available daily if necessary.

For apps to gain traction in the marketplace, your specific audience needs to find value in it. This is rarely done if the app features are not innovative and useful. And often, for features to truly attract a base of loyal users, custom features and data integrations are required. Make sure your developer can do what you need them to for the foreseeable future.

Know what you are purchasing. Are you buying a subscription or the source code? Who controls the content? How are changes made, and at what cost?

Make sure your developer completes thorough testing of your app before publishing it to the app store, AND while it is used in the marketplace. Ask your developers what sort of testing and monitoring they complete on a daily basis, and how bugs are resolved.

Submitting an app to the app store is a complex, and often overlooked process. While a seasoned developer should be capable of navigating the standard hurdles with relative ease, the average person is not. Make sure your developer will assist with the app store submission process, and make sure they have experience doing so.

Understand the payment terms each developer has in place. Are you paying a flat fee or hourly rate? This varies depending on the project type, but the important piece to keep in mind is your budget and how reliable your developer is at delivering your work around quota.

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If you would like to have us answer any of these questions about AVAI Mobile, please contact a representative today!

Flurry Five-Year Report: It’s an App World. The Web Just Lives in It

Yesterday, Flurry published a five year report on mobile devices and apps. “The past five years at Flurry have been wildly exciting. We joined an industry just as gas was forming to ignite a Big Bang, and we’re still orienting ourselves within its rapidly expanding universe. Since early 2008, we’ve worked with tens of thousands of developers to integrate our analytics and ad platforms into their apps,” said Flurry “…we took some time to reflect on the industry and share some insights. First, we studied the time U.S. consumers spend between mobile apps and mobile browsers, as well as within mobile app categories.”

As of today, the average U.S. user spends 2 hours and 38 minutes per day on their mobile devices. A significant 80% of that time (over 2 hours) is spent inside apps! The chart above illustrates the breakdown of this time. Aside from Games and Facebook, it’s still clear that consumers use apps for a variety of purposes.

The chart above shows the number of apps consumers use each day. As of late in 2012, users open nearly 8 unique apps each day, up from about 7 two years ago. Flurry recognizes that “this is not a material change… the steady growth rate indicates that the app economy is not yet experiencing saturation, as consumers steadily use more apps over time. And while there are more apps in the store, large numbers of them have short lifespans, such as books, shows and games.” Flurry went on to say that “while one could observe that consumers use only 8 apps per day among the million+ available between the AppStore and Google Play, one also needs to remember that the 8 apps each consumer uses varies widely. This creates a marketplace that can support diversified apps.”

In a sample of more than 2.2 million devices active for more than 2 years, it was discovered that 63% of the apps used in Q4 of 2012 were newly adopted, with a likely possibility that most apps were not even developed in 2011. “We believe that with consumers continuing to try so many new apps, the app market is still in early stages and there remains room for innovation as well as breakthrough new applications.”

See Full Article Here

]]> http://avaimobile.com/2013/04/04/flurry-its-app-world-web-lives-it/feed/ 0 http://avaimobile.com/2013/04/02/april-fools-laughs/ http://avaimobile.com/2013/04/02/april-fools-laughs/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:16:49 +0000 Josh http://avaimobile.com/?p=9651

April Fools Laughs from Google

Yesterday was April Fools Day, a chance for the young at heart to offer something unexpected. As always, Google delivered. Check out the following, they are worth a quick laugh!

Google Nose (beta)

Gmail Blue

Google Treasure Mode

Google Apps – Levity Algorithm

]]> http://avaimobile.com/2013/04/02/april-fools-laughs/feed/ 0 http://avaimobile.com/2013/03/29/infographic-exploring-mobile-landscape/ http://avaimobile.com/2013/03/29/infographic-exploring-mobile-landscape/#comments Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:26:48 +0000 Josh http://avaimobile.com/?p=9644

Exploring the Mobile Landscape

If I said that every day, more Android phones are activated than babies are born, would that surprise you?

Probably not, actually. What if I said 4 times as many Android devices are activated than babies are born? New Relic offers some surprising data around the mobile landscape.

Did you know, on average:

• Over 60% of apps in the Apple App Store have NEVER been downloaded
• Smartphone users have 41 apps
• Smartphone users spend 127 minutes on mobile apps a day
• Smartphone users check their phones 150 times per day

Enjoy!

]]> http://avaimobile.com/2013/03/29/infographic-exploring-mobile-landscape/feed/ 0 http://avaimobile.com/2013/03/20/9-reasons-mobile-apps-rejected-app-store/ http://avaimobile.com/2013/03/20/9-reasons-mobile-apps-rejected-app-store/#comments Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:17:59 +0000 Josh http://avaimobile.com/?p=9416 VentureBeat recently released an article about “9 surprising reasons mobile apps get rejected from the Apple app store.” Before you submit your app, take a quick look!

1. Indication the App is Unfinished

While the Play store might allows it, the Apple app store is very stringent about allowing an unfinished app into the app ecosystem. Avoid phrases like “Beta,” “Preview,” and even “Version x.x”.

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2. Load Time

iOS, like other mobile platforms, administer rules around maximum load times. The iOS limit is around 15 seconds, at which point Apple will kill the app.

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3. External Payment Links

If your app requires in-app purchasing, Apple requires ALL content be sold through their iTunes-based, in-app purchasing software. This applies to linked webpages as well.

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4. Reference to Rival Platforms

Apple, and every other platform, does not allow reference to a competing platform.

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5. Localization Bugs

Some apps are designed around a specific localized geography. However, even if this is the case, app store users are everywhere, and can use the app as they wish. Accordingly, the app store notices if your language and metrics are not compatible with a particular area.

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6. Misuse of Storage and File-systems

“Any data that can be re-generated because it is static, shipped with the application or is easily re-downloaded from a remote server, should not be able to be backed up.”

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7. Crashes from User Permissions

In newer versions of iOS, users must give the app permission to access their content or information. If a user denies your app permission, Apple requires your app to still function without error.

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8. Use of Icons and Buttons

Apple also monitors the UI appearance. Make sure your icons and buttons are standardized and uniform.

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9. Trademarks and Logos

Apple also has trademark rules and restrictions. Make sure you don’t use any Apple-branded materials or images.

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Source

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