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Archive for the ‘mobile’ Category

Smartphones – App vs Mobile Sites

Jim DelPizzo Monday, November 15th, 2010

Most companies have realized the shift, the shift that smartphones are here to stay. More and more people are using their smart phones to surf the web, download apps, play games, and check email. The smartphone is taking over what people used to do on a laptop to some extent.

Here is some information on the increase of smartphones and the projections of 2011.

“65 percent of people 18 to 29 years old use their smartphone to access the Internet. Just under 50 percent of people 30 to 39 do the same. Expect those numbers to grow.”
- from the Pew Internet and American Life Project reported in July

There are over 60 million US smart phone users.

2011 smartphones will surpass featured phones by Q3.

Now that companies realize that and finally want to go mobile where do they start? Do they need a mobile website? An App?

Build Apps
Building apps for each device might be time consuming considering as of right now there are iPhones, Andriods, Blackberries, and soon to be released Windows. So you would need to build an application for each device. Though for each device you could use the rich hardware feature of your phone like GPS, maps, and the camera.

Mobile WebSites
Building a mobile web site would be less programming but you would lose out on the hardware features of the phone. Also the display across all the phones might be off, since there are high end smartphones like the iPhone, Andriod, and Blackberry and the low end smartphones that don’t have the display as the high end phones. With the introduction to HTML5 a lot of the mobile sites can act like mobile Apps.

Conclusion
The first thing a company should ask themselves is what are the reason they want a smartphone app or website. From the chart below we can see the breakdown of Apple’s App Store compared to mobile sites

If you are going to use Mobile apps do research on people who are currently using your site, questions to ask – are they iPhone User or Blackberry Users?

My suggestion would be to build a Mobile website first and then if you are in need of an App, you will know which smartphone most of the users of the mobile website use.

**UPDATE pretty cool video on mobile devices:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aUQLIPdtg8&feature=player_embedded

Posted in digital marketing, gaming, mobile, strategy, web dev | No Comments »

Bing Available On The iPhone 4

Mark Barletta Monday, June 7th, 2010

Steve Jobs just announced that Bing will now be a search choice for the iPhone.

Google remains the “default” option on Safari. But Bing now becomes the third search option after Google and Yahoo.

Posted in mobile, news | No Comments »

Web Development News, Tips, and Tricks

Jim DelPizzo Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Where in the World Are You?

Have you heard of Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Britekite, Google latitude, twitter location, Facebook location (which is due out soon); the new buzz of the web is who will be the leader on keeping tabs on your location. I have joined foursquare and google latitude and started checking in for a few locations around the office and my house, which begs the question how “social” do i want social networking?

For example Foursquare wants you to unlock your world, using your cell phone or text message (US only) by checking in to locations. Using your cell phone’s GPS functionality to tell you what is close to you, suggestions from other Foursquare users, and the ability to add locations. Once you check in you can let your friends know and also share this information on twitter and Facebook. If you have checked into a location the most you become the Mayor of that location. There are also discounts on some Foursquare locations where you could get drink specials if you check in to a location. Check out the video on Foursquare here.

Facebook will be launching their Geolocation based software soon which will integrate with the most popular site on the web. So what will happen when Geolocation hits the mainstream? How will brands use this information? Could be the rise of geotargeted pay per click or location based services; what a great way to target your customers.

This is going to be great for marketers but what about privacy? Do I really want the world and markets to know where i am all the time. If i am at the mall I don’t want text messages from say the Gap saying i could get a discount if i could stop in the store. Imagine all the junk text, emails, tweets, fB messages you would get by just walking around in the King of Prussia Mall. It would be nuts.

There will be a thin line on how people will want their information used. So there are a lot of i’s to dot and t’s to be crossed before everyone is loving geolocation. I think it will be here to stay…What are your thoughts? Concerns? Excited?

Check out Foursquare, Google Latitude, Gowalla, Loopt, and Britekite below

Posted in articles, facebook, mobile, social media, twitter, web dev | No Comments »

QR Codes

Jody Pirrello Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

What is a QR Code?

It’s the next step up from a bar code and holds a lot more information than a bar code – 7,098 numeric characters or 4,296 alphanumeric characters.

Readers are available for most smartphones and mobile devices so they can be used to bridge the gap between offline and online via in-store signage, business cards, trade show flyers, etc.

QR codes originated in Japan and they’re highly popular in that country.

How can you use a QR Code?

QR codes can store URLs, text or phone numbers. In this way they’re very handy for mobile because they eliminate the need for the user to type – a big usability/user experience improvement.

Several sites that provide content are adding QR codes – Facebook (for fan pages and individual statuses) and Google places (links to your Google places page).

There’s also speculation that QR codes will influence SEO over time.

Why haven’t I heard of a QR code before?

They’re slowly gaining popularity in the US and Europe. Currently, most smartphones don’t come with a QR code reader pre-installed. This is a big barrier. If a user needs to install a new app they have to be motivated to do so. It’s not as simple as scan and go. And as you all know, in mobile it needs to be simple.

Qdoba did a Buy 1 Get 1 Free mobile advertising campaign last year and got a 52% redemption rate on approximately 4,000 scans. Lesson – if you give users a good reason to download an app they will.

Look for more smartphones to come with a QR reader in the near future before this technology really takes off. As a comparison, 70% of smartphones in Japan come with a QR reader pre-installed.

And just to keep things interesting, Microsoft released their own 2D bar code (theirs has color).

Where can I get a QR Code reader?

Android – Google Goggles (installed by default on Android phones) will scan QR Codes
iPhone – link runs an App Store search for QR Code
Blackberry – There a good list at RIMarkable (be sure to check the comments too)
Kaywa – supports Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony

Posted in mobile, search, SEO | 1 Comment »

iPhone 4.0 Leaked?

Bob Clements Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

This is either a brilliant PR stunt or a huge mistake – but news broke the other day that Apple’s next iPhone has been leaked. Was this done intentionally to communicate the new features without an official “announcement” (To keep people away from Droids or the Nexus One)? Or was the disguised prototype iPhone actually left behind in a bar accidentally?

Here’s the detailed article at Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

Complete with the updated iPhone OS 4.0: Front facing camera, larger rear camera lens, integrated flash, micro SIM, higher screen resolution and a new exterior design/finish are just some of the new features included. While the hardware updates are certainly interesting, we’re staying on top of the implications surrounding iPhone OS 4.0 + iAds functionality. What kind of ads campaigns will be possible with the new front facing camera? What kind of targeting will be available? What about the pricing model?

The new iAd platform will require collaboration across a wide variety of interactive disciplines – creative, media, and tech teams will need to work seamlessly to develop strategic, goal oriented campaigns within the iPad and iPhone OS 4.0 environments; which puts NetPlus in the ideal position to deliver such campaigns.

More to come as details emerge…

Posted in advertising, articles, digital marketing, mobile | No Comments »

Archive for the ‘mobile’ Category

Smartphones – App vs Mobile Sites

Bing Available On The iPhone 4

QR Codes

What is a QR Code?

How can you use a QR Code?

Why haven’t I heard of a QR code before?

Where can I get a QR Code reader?

iPhone 4.0 Leaked?

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