Posts Tagged ‘iOS’

Guardian mobile site drives mores unique browsers & traffic than apps & tablets combined but where is the engagement?

Posted: May 17, 2012 in Digital Marketing, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Online, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Tablets, Technology, Uncategorized, User Experience & Usability
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Deutsch: logo der tageszeitung the guardian

the guardian (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It has been some time since I first remember trying to sign The Guardian to the YOC media network, sometime in 2009.  From memory at the time, 4th Screen were selling around 1 million page views per month.  I have posted below the latest figures from their site**, that figure now stands at 6.2 million and generates more unique browsers and monthly page views than their iOS, Android and iOS tablet apps combined.  These figures are somewhat surprising but not because their mobile internet has the biggest pull,  rather that their mobile traffic has only 6 fold in 4 or so years and all their mobile channels are not generating significant page impressions.

I have always been an advocate for mobile internet and I do get and understand that having an app strategy for print and digital publishers makes perfect sense.  After all, I have personally been involved in building so many for clients as such, why wouldn’t I think this.  My bigger question is why is their mobile internet site and apps not generating higher levels of uniques or monthly page impressions?  We know they have an award winning app and their paid for model seemed to work and made them a small profit after development costs.

But… why is their mobile internet site generating far less monthly page impressions in ratio to their applications? And… are their applications generating enough impressions in ratio to the unique users?

Mobile Internet

Generating 6.2 million page impressions from 2.5 million unique browsers can be averaged out that for every one customer visiting the site once a month is only generating 2.5 page impressions per visit.  I am guessing that their customers are visiting more than once a month which would mean they are generating even less impressions per visit (just divide the impression number by the number of visits).  As you can see from these states it becomes somewhat disappointing and raises some concern.  Maybe I am interpreting unique browsers wrongly as unique users, but it sounds like the same thing to me.

The iphone app is a little better…

Again applying the same principle generating 1 million page impressions from 34,000 uniques can be averaged out that for every 1 customer using the app once a month is generating about 30 impressions per visit.  Like their mobile internet users the reality is they are visiting more than once a month and therefore the impressions they generate per visit are even less.

Lets look at the rest, again applying the same methodology…

iPad app

45,113 monthly uniques generating 3.45 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 75 page impressions per visit.

Android app

11,000 monthly uniques are generating 1.2 million page impressions equates to 1 customer visiting once a month generating 110 page impressions per visit.

What does this all mean?

Image representing Android as depicted in Crun...

In summary, it shows that their Android app is generating a much richer experience than their other channels.  Or maybe Android users are just more engaged than iOS users.  We have to be careful here as their mobile internet site will have traffic from all devices but overall the statistics suggest that most of their mobile site users are less engaged than their app users.

In my experience, working with print and digital publishers it is typical for a user to generate up to 10 impressions per visit but at an absolute minimum of visiting the site or apps 2 to 3 times a week.  This would mean you would have to divide those impressions (generated by the users) by approximately 12.  In doing that, the numbers would suggest that only their Android app and iPad app are delivering a rich experience where the user is most engaged generating 9 to 6 impressions per visit respectively.  The others fall well short of this and their mobile internet site alarmingly so.

m.guardian**

A dedicated mobile site giving users access to guardiannews.comcontent any time and from any device. It is optimised for mobile screen sizes and connection speeds.

Traffic:

2.5 million monthly unique browsers
6.2 million monthly page views

m.guardian is showing incredible growth and almost doubled its traffic over the course of 2011 – growth that is outstripping total growth of the mobile internet market (+25% yr on yr).

Users are accessing a broad range of content through m.guardian with the top five most visited sections being world news, football, sport, technology and Comment is free. Comment is free alone delivers over 250,000 page views per month – an indication that users are valuable opinion leaders.

iPhone app

An award winning iPhone app featuring video, live blogs and more that is available free to users in the US.

Traffic:

34,000 monthly unique browsers

1 million monthly page views

With steady growth in unique browsers of almost 50% over the last four months, the iPhone app is another strong performer in GNM’s mobile portfolio. What’s more, the proportion of heavy users is high at just over 50%. That, combined with a strong frequency metric for user behaviour, indicates a very loyal and engaged audience.

In addition to the regular news content, users have a strong preference for football, sport and business content.

iPad app

We launched our critically acclaimed iPad app in October 2011 and since then it has been downloaded more than 500,000 times (globally). With a clean, modern design and easy navigation the Guardian iPad app is immensely readable.

Traffic:

45,113 monthly unique browsers

3.45 million monthly page views

Android App

Free to download and available from the Android market worldwide it contains the latest news, sport, comment, reviews, videos, podcasts and picture galleries from the Guardian website.

Traffic:

11,000 monthly unique browsers

1.2 million monthly page views

The app delivers a globally minded audience of opinion leaders and the most popular sections include football, Comment is free and world news.

Furthermore, over one in three are heavy users and this has steadily increased over the last few months – an indication that user loyalty and engagement is growing.

SOURCE**: Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/advertising/mobile?newsfeed=true)

Understanding Mobile Advertising

Posted: April 19, 2012 in Ad Industry, Advertising, Digital Display Advertising, Mobile Advertising, Online Advertising
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My Comments:

A nice article summing up the basics of mobile advertising.  I would point out that another Key Metric is Conversion i.e what happens after the click: download a piece of content, register to a service, make a transaction etc etc.

Posted By }  (@davidhillis)

So you have built your mobile website or app and now you want to monetize it. You have a few options: you can sell apps on iTunes or other stores, charge a subscription or paywall, or make your content free and subsidize it with advertising.

The best approach will be determined by your audience, the value of your content or service and your distribution model.

If you are looking to grow your user base substantially, advertising is one of the only effective approaches. By some estimates an app distributed for free will have 10 times more downloads compared with a paid application.

With the growth in smartphones, mobile sites and apps, mobile has become the fastest growing category in advertising. According to eMarketer, mobile advertising spending in the US will grow 80 percent to over US$ 2.6 billion in 2012. And many experts expect mobile advertising to exceed desktop web advertising in the next few years. Whether you are a developer, a publisher or marketer, mobile advertising is a hot topic.

Yet, despite the increased spending in mobile advertising, publishers and advertisers alike are challenged with understanding the key metrics in mobile advertising, as well as finding a reliable way to forecast mobile advertising revenues and ROI.

The opportunity for mobile advertising far exceeds display ads. From location-based services, to bluecasting, to video, to interstitial web pages, there are many ways to create sponsorship. But for most sites and apps, mobile advertising is still focused on display ads. When using display or banner advertising, there are a few key metrics that provide the foundation for nearly any mobile advertising campaign.

Key Mobile Ad Metrics

eCPM

The estimated cost-per-thousand (or Roman number M) is the key metric in mobile advertising. This is the amount that a publisher is paid on average per 1,000 impressions.

For publishers, bulk mobile eCPMs range on average between US$ 1.25 per thousand impressions to as little as US$ .25 per thousand. On the desktop web, advertising is usually sold by either CPM or PPC (pay-per-click). In PPC, also called CPC (cost-per-click), the publisher only gets paid when a user clicks on an ad.

Mobile advertising differs from the desktop Internet in that some networks, like Apple’s popular iAd program, provide a blended model that provides a minimum CPM rate as well as an incremental PPC fee. Of course Google is still one of the major advertising players in mobile and, as with desktop advertising, heavily slants towards PPC.

Regardless of whether you use CPM, PPC or a blended model, forecasting will still use CPM units with an assumed click-thru rate (CTR), which is why the “e” for estimated has been appended to the CPM metric.

CTR

The click-thru rate, or conversion rate, is how often a user actually clicks on an advertisement compared with how often an ad is shown. If an ad is clicked on one time per one hundred impressions, the CTR is one percent.

Impressions

Each time an ad is displayed it creates an impression. How a site or application is created and which ad network or server is utilized will impact the number of impressions.

Refresh Rate

Refresh rates are how often a new ad is loaded.

Many mobile ad networks have a refresh rate of 30 seconds. Thus, a two minute session on a mobile application will generate four impressions. However for Apple iAD the refresh rate is every three minutes, which would result in only one impression within a two minute session. Moreover, some ad services will create a new impression for every page view on a mobile website.

When forecasting your impressions you need to know the ad refresh rate, the average duration of an app session per user, and if page views and/or duration are used to create impressions. You also need to determine which refresh rate will create the most click-through rates for your ads.

Fill Rate

The fill rate is how often an ad is delivered compared to how many times it is requested.

Mobile usage far exceeds the amount of available paid advertising, and fill rates for mobile websites and applications are notoriously low. Although fill rates vary between networks, Apple iAD often only delivers a 25 percent fill rate, or in other words only one ad delivered per four requests. Other networks boast higher fill rates, but often with substantially lower CPMs.

Ideally, publishers will utilize multiple ad networks to fill 100 percent of the inventory. This may be supported through client-side script in the site or app, or by using a mobile ad server, such as AdWhirl, that can broker the ad requests.

Ad Units

The ad unit refers to the dimensions of the mobile ad.

Ad unit standards are in a bit of flux, complicated by the sheer number of handsets and screen sizes on the market. But the most popular smartphone banner size is 300 x 50 pixels.

The Mobile Marketing Association advocates the following ad units.

Full-Feature and Smartphone Standard Ad Units:

  • 120×20
  • 168×28
  • 216×36
  • 300×250 (Smartphones Only)
  • 300×50 (Smartphones Only)
  • 320×50 (Smartphones Only)

Tablet Standard Ad Units:

  • 300×250
  • 468×60
  • 728×90
  • 1024×90

Category

The subject of the app or mobile site is referred to as the “category.”

Some categories have much higher eCPMs compared to other categories. When purchasing mobile advertising you need to think about which categories you want to support based on the positioning and relevancy of your product or service.

Publishers need to understand that the topic of the app or site will dramatically affect the rate that advertisers will pay to place ads. For instance, according to a recent report published by Velti, the weather category averages over twice the eCPM of games.

Platform

The platform is the type of device that the mobile ad is delivered on.

Platform can impact the eCPM earned for ads as well as the ad units required to deliver those ads. The most popular platform is Apple iOS, accounting for over 50 percent of all mobile ad impressions and often generating the highest eCPMs for mobile ads.

Forecasting Mobile Ad Revenue for Publishers

As a mobile web or app publisher it can be challenging to forecast mobile ad revenue, especially if you are using multiple ad networks to fill the available advertising inventory, and if those networks use a CPM or PPC model. To make an accurate forecast you need to make some broad assumptions.

The first item to forecast is how many impressions you think you can generate. This will be calculated by:

  1. The number of times per month people will use your mobile site or app
  2. The average duration of each session of usage for your mobile site or app
  3. The refresh rate for how often the ads are loaded with the app or web page

Once you understand how many impressions you can generate, you need to calculate the eCPM rate for each thousand impressions. This will be impacted by:

  1. The category of your app or website
  2. The click-thru rate for ads on your app or site
  3. The platform(s) your app or site are delivered on

Lastly you need to calculate the fill rate for how much of the available ad inventory will be filled by an ad network. Assuming you are using multiple networks to increase your fill rate, you need to determine which percentage of requests will be filled by which network, and at which rates.

Conclusion

Mobile is the future of advertising. It delivers location, context, behavior and other dimensions that promise to make advertising more relevant for end users and more profitable for publishers.

Yet today mobile advertising is in a bit of a freefall, with mobile usage growing faster than available advertising, resulting in falling eCPM rates. On the other side, the growth of mobile is creating more impressions, which equates to more revenue for publishers. Deciding if mobile advertising fits your business requires building a strong forecast model and then testing those assumptions as you go to market.

Whatever direction you take, the one thing you can count on is that it will all change tomorrow. The mobile industry is evolving at such a fast pace that any advertising program will need to be readdressed on a near continual basis.

Feel free to share your thoughts and questions on mobile advertising in the comments below.

Via: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/understanding-mobile-advertising-015180.php

Google Ventures’ Rich Miner talks about the mobile revolution

Posted: September 13, 2011 in Industry News, Mergers & Acquisitions, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Technology, Venture Capitalism, Wireless Technologies
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Google Ventures announced recently that it is investing inAstrid, a task management app, and Crittercism, an SDK that helps provide customer support for mobile.

Google Ventures’ partner Rich Miner made the announcement during VentureBeat’s fourth annual MobileBeat conference. (We have a separate story withmore details on the Astrid investment.) We’ll be posting more on those companies throughout the day.

After the announcement, Miner answered the question on everyone’s mind: Where’s the Android fund? Kleiner Perkins has its Apple-focused iFund, but neither Google nor venture firms have anything similar for Android startups.

“I think the time has gone by,” said Miner. “It’s now all about mobile.”

The proof is in the pudding, er, funding: Astrid and Crittercism are both mobile companies.

Miner has a front seat to watch mobile phone market growth. He became a partner of Google Ventures after Android, the mobile platforms company he co-founded, was acquired six years ago. He has over 25 years of experience growing businesses with innovative communications and interface-intensive applications. During his early years at Google, he helped lead the development of the Android platform and ecosystem. Prior to Android, Rich was a Vice President at Orange, where he led R&D activities in North America and was an original principal at Orange Ventures when it was founded.

Miner recalled his early days at Google six years ago, when Android was “treated as a separate startup.” The company was self-funded when Google picked it up.

“It was Larry [Page, Google co-founder] who latched on first. He was our champion. He shared our strategic view,” said Miner. He says he was impressed that Page, his co-founder Sergey Brin and then-CEO-now-chairman Eric Schmidt understood the mobile industry. It was important for Android to have support and flexibility right from the start, and those ingredients are necessary today.

“There were skeptics about Android all the way through last year,” said Miner. “There has been a tipping point.”

That tipping point happened in the last six months, he explains. As a VC, Miner’s goal has always been to make money, and Apple’s App Store makes money. Up until last year he was recommending companies focus on iOS. Now, he says, Android is “on a rocket ship.”

Another hot topic: Where is Google going with Chrome?

Miner believes the line between Android and Chrome has been drawn: Android is for mobile, while Chrome is for desktop and laptop environments. The theme is that Google understands the open platform. Miner also believes native apps and HTML 5 both have their place. Android, however, supports both for the times you want or need to go offline.

Via: http://venturebeat.com/2011/07/12/google-ventures-rich-miner-on-the-mobile-revolution/

Apple Snubs The iAd & My Personal View on the Mobile Ad Market

Posted: June 7, 2011 in Developers, Digital Display Advertising, Digital Marketing, Digital Trends, Display advertising, E-Commerce, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Ad Networks, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Conference, Mobile Developers, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Retail, Smartphones, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies
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My Comments on the below:

It is very interesting that Apple have not mentioned iAD at the World Developer conference day in San Francisco yesterday as highlighted by Dan Frommer of Business Insider.  Especially, as they were so keen to raise the bar in the mobile ad industry when they announced its release last year. That said the mobile ad industry is moving at such a fast rate and I no doubt Apple are fine tuning their product from the learnings they would have taken to-date.

We are seeing first hand the mobile ad-market exploding into the desk of most Marketers & Media Planners and Buyers. This is a subject that has to be on the list rather than off the list.  There are dynamic shifts across regions in the type of advertisement whether it is brands, content companies or media owners all wanting to capitalise on the opportunity.

Mobile content companies that where present in the early stages are finding it hard to convert in the matured markets such as US and Western Europe.  I believe this is due to user desirability and general maturity of the market.  The old content subscription services are not so sought in markets with strong smartphone penetration.  As the mobile web and apps that are enabled by smartphones offer content that is ‘King’.  Whereas, in emerging markets like LATAM, ASIA, Indonesia with heavy feature phone penetration content is scarce and usability limited. Hence, the desire is still high for content companies to service this void.

Western society is dominated by the big Fortune 100 advertisers whether it is premium advertising with super sexy rich media and the explosion of HTML5 or more simple direct response campaigns pushing for an acquisition/sale of some sort.

We are starting to see the big brands shift some ad-spend into the emerging markets from certain sectors such as, Travel, Finance, Technology, Health and Automotive but this is still a small portion of the total ad spend in those markets that are dominated by content companies.  The end user is still considered as someone with limited or no disposable income unlike its more matured Western Societies. This is changing thanks to technology and many other factors and presents a huge opportunity for M-Commerce as this will in many emerging markets leapfrog e-commerce.

This is when everything changes…

When we consider there are 3 billion people in the world that are not even connected to online and that these 3 billion people in the next five years will become connected via cheaper and still sophisticated smartphones it presents a world of opportunity and excitement.  This is why I work in the most exciting and fastest growing industry of all time.

Posted By ] Dan Frommer

Remember Apple’s iAd? Apple might not, either.

A year after being shown off as a “tentpole” feature of iPhone software, Apple’s mobile advertising business didn’t earn a single mention today, as execs previewed a new version of iOS at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs even took the opportunity to trash ads.

While discussing Apple’s free, new iCloud email service, he took an apparent jab at Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and the others, which stuff ads in their free email services.

“No ads,” he boasted. ”We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don’t want ads.”

That’s obviously not the same thing as if Jobs were to say “we don’t like iAds” or “iAds stink.”

But it seems to underscore the awkwardness of Apple — a product-focused hardware and software company — trying to become an advertising company. (Much more about that here.)

Maybe there just weren’t any new iAd features to show off today. Apple certainly had a lot of more interesting new stuff to show off. But there wasn’t even a “hey, look how many ads we’re delivering every day” or “wow, we have all these amazing advertisers!” message. Or anything.

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-snubs-the-iad-2011-6#ixzz1OZxRyZFl

(VIDEO) Apple Introduces iOS 5

Posted: June 7, 2011 in Handset manufacturers, Industry News, Information communications technology, Mobile Developers, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Platforms, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies
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Scott Forstall took the stage at WWDC 2011 to introduce the new iOS 5 which boasts over 200 new features.  See the video below for the update.  It will be made available in Autumn.  The update will be compatible for the iPhone 4 and 3GS, iPad 1 and 2, and iPod touch 3rd and 4th generation.

An In-Depth Look at Safari and Mail in iOS 5

Posted: June 7, 2011 in Developers, Handset manufacturers, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies
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Posted By ] Juli

As you probably know, the details of iOS 5 were released today at the Wordlwide Developer’s conference, and while we’re covering all of the new features that are coming, we wanted to give you a more in depth look at Mail and Safari, both of which are getting exciting new changes.

iOS 5 won’t be released until the fall, but we’ve got a lot to look forward to. Safari is already a very popular web browser, and 2/3rds of all mobile web browsing is done with Safari. It’s always lacked some necessary features, and I’m pleased to say that iOS 5 changes all of that.

Currently, we can’t open tabs, which is possibly the most frustrating thing about using Safari on a mobile device. In iOS 5, tabbed browsing is fully supported and lightning fast. When fall rolls around, you’ll be able to browse the Internet on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch in the same way you browse on a PC or Mac.

Safari Reader is another new browser function that will make reading news articles more enjoyable. It strips out all distractions and excess content, presenting only the text of a web page. It even combines multiple page stories into one flowing piece. This feature will be accessible from a new button in the address bar.

A built in Reading List will allow you to mark pages that you want to read later, much like bookmarking. Your Reading List can sync across multiple devices, so you’ll always know just what you wanted to read, regardless of which device you’re using. Full story and website content can be emailed to anyone (instead of just sending a link), and Twitter integration is included.

Mail, like Safari, is one of iOS’s most used applications. In iOS 5 Mail will be receiving some significant changes, making it more user friendly. There is a new ergonomic split keyboard option, which can be accessed by dragging the keyboard up. This keyboard is smaller, and perfect for typing with your thumbs. Bringing up your Mail inbox in portrait mode is simple – it just takes a single swipe.

There is a new system-wide dictionary that functions like the one in iBooks. In Mail, if you don’t know a word, you can tap it and get a dictionary definition. Searching has been changed and enhanced, allowing you to search through entire messages as well as subject titles. I wasn’t aware that search wasn’t already doing this, but thinking about it, I haven’t always gotten great search results, so this should beef up searching quite a bit.

Messages can be flagged and marked unread, email addresses can be dragged from one field to another (such as to, cc, bcc, etc.) controlled indentation is supported, and most importantly, rich-text formatting has been added so that you can now use functions like bold, underline, and italics to emphasize your messages. Good news for exchange customers: S/MIME has been implemented, and a lock will appear when you’re sending an encrypted message.

These updates of Mail and Safari include some must have features that I have been sorely missing on my iDevices. In fact, a lot of these are things that should have been added years ago, and I’m certainly excited to welcome iOS 5. Are you happy with the feature set being added with iOS 5? Did Apple leave out anything you were expecting?

Via: http://www.padgadget.com/2011/06/06/an-in-depth-look-at-safari-and-mail-in-ios-5/

WWDC Keynote – What’s New in iOS 5?

Posted: June 7, 2011 in Developers, Handset manufacturers, Industry News, Information communications technology, Mobile Conference, Mobile Developers, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Phones, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Smartphones, Tablets, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies
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For the full video of the conference you can find it here:

http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/

Posted By ] Jillian

Yeah yeah yeah, Lion looks fantastic –but what about iOS 5? Many of us were not-so-patiently waiting to hear what would become of our iOS devices, and from the moment Scott Forstall took the stage we weren’t disappointed.

The address continued with an overview of the 10 key features among a noted 200 that will be included in the upgrade:

  1. Notifications
    1. Addition of a Notification Center, accessed by swiping down from the top of the screen
    2. No more annoying popups, a brief, non-persistent animation will alert you to a new notification
    3. All notifications will be itemized on the the lock screen, with a swipe bringing you to the correct app
    4. Can be cleared individually, but can easily be removed by tapping the [X] to dismiss
  2. Newsstand
    1. Easy access to all of your newspaper and magazine subscriptions
    2. New issues are automatically downloaded in the background and placed into a single location integrated with the home screen
  3. Twitter integration
    1. Full iOS integration with a single sign-on with interaction available for all apps, including Camera and Photos
    2. Add twitter account handles to your contacts
  4. Safari
    1. Safari Reader creates an uncluttered view of website story content, a 20-page review can be turned into a single longer page with one click
    2. Easy sharing of website content and links
    3. Tabbed browsing
    4. Reading List features allows you to save content for reading later
  5. Reminders
    1. Create lists with optional reminders by date and location (be reminded when you arrive or leave)
    2. Will sync across all devices including integration with Cal
  6. Camera
    1. Camera button added to the lock screen
    2. Use the volume-up button to take pictures –fully tactile approach for a shutter button
    3. More advanced features including pinch-to-zoom and manual exposure settings by tapping areas of your photo
    4. Editing directly on your device including crop, rotate, reduce red-eye, and one click enhance
  7. Mail
    1. Rich text formatting with indentation control
    2. Draggable addresses
    3. Search entire message content
    4. Flag as unread
    5. S/MIME support
    6. OS-wide dictionary that all apps can access with tap-to-define functionality
    7. A new keyboard can be split with your thumbs for faster on-screen typing
  8. PC Free
    1. No more PC required with activation, set-up, software updates all available Over-the-Air (OTA)
    2. Only download delta updates, meaning only the information that was changed –reducing the data downloaded
    3. More configuration available on the device itself including adding and removing calendars and mailboxes
  9. Game Center
    1. Purchase and download apps from within Game Center itself
    2. Increased social aspects including friend discovery, friend of friend discovery and enhanced score/achievement sharing
  10. iMessage
    1. Messaging platform supported by all iOS devices including iPod Touch, iPad and iPhone
    2. Send text messages (including group messages), photos, videos and contacts
    3. Includes delivery receipts, read receipts, and typing indication

Of course, we were teased with additional things that they didn’t cover in detail, such as AirPlay mirroring of your iOS device to your television, multitasking gestures and WiFi syncing.

In keeping with the theme of the conference, Apple promised over 1500 new API’s for developers. This will translate into a lot more apps with a lot more functionality and a lot more potential! Putting power in the hands of developers means we are looking foward an even more innovative future.

While the inevitable comparisons to other devices and their features will no doubt follow, I don’t think anybody can deny that iOS 5 is a giant leap forward on an already innovative and progressive platform.

With release of iOS 5 set for the fall, only one question remains… how can we possibly wait?

Via: http://www.padgadget.com/2011/06/06/wwdc-keynote-whats-new-in-ios-5/

IT’S OFFICIAL: Android Clobbering Everyone, iPhone Dead In The Water

Posted: April 27, 2011 in Digital Trends, Handset manufacturers, Industry News, Information communications technology, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Phones, Mobile Platforms, Technology, Telecommunications
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Posted By ] Henry Blodget

A few weeks ago, when Comscore’s mobile survey showed that Google’s Android smartphone platform had blown past BlackBerry and iPhone to dominate the US market, Apple fans temporarily panicked.

Smartphone Market Share -- Phones Bought In Past 6 Months

It was the 1990s all over again!

But then Apple posted another monster quarter with great iPhone sales, and Apple fans rejoiced (and lambasted anyone who had murmured word one about Android.)

(How could Apple possibly be losing share, Apple fans roared. Apple’s US iPhone sales grew 155% year over year!)

Well, now the Nielsen numbers are out. And they show the same trend Comscore’s numbers did:

Android is gaining share by leaps and bounds, and iPhone share is dead in the water.

Specifically, Nielsen’s numbers suggest that, of all the smartphones sold in the US in the past six months, fully 50% were based on the Android platform.  Meanwhile, only 25% of buyers bought an iPhone, and only 15% bought a BlackBerry:

Smartphone Market Share -- Phones Bought In Past 6 Months

Now, these numbers extend back beyond February, when Apple started selling the iPhone through Verizon (which helps). And another Nielsen survey, of purchasing intent, suggests that going forward the sales may be more evenly split. So Apple looks poised to regain some share, at least relative to RIM and other also-rans.

Here’s the purchasing intent of those who expect to buy a smartphone over the next year. Last year, iPhone was the big winner. Now, by a small margin, it’s Android:

Smartphone Purchase Intent -- March 2011
As for current platform market share (phones in use), Nielsen’s numbers look very similar to Comscore: In March, Android had 37% of the US market, iPhone had 27%, and BlackBerry had 22%:

Smartphone Market Share -- March 2011

After the initial Comscore numbers came out, Apple fans also made the perfectly reasonable point that, if you’re assessing platform market share, you should also include iPod touches and perhaps even iPads when looking at Apple’s numbers.  And, certainly, if you include both of those, Apple’s overall share looks better.  But, globally, if you add up iPhones and iPod touches, Apple still lost share to Android year over year.

Why do Android’s gains matter? Can’t Apple just hold onto the “premium” segment of the market?

The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search). And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more valuable it becomes and the harder it becomes to dislodge. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them.

(This has not happened yet. Developers are certainly gearing up to develop for Android, but most say that they develop for the iPhone first. And Apple’s app distribution and payment mechanism is still far superior to Android’s. But lots more developers now develop for Android than they did two years ago.)

Importantly, it’s not a question of which platform is “better.” (This is irrelevant.) It’s a question of which platform everyone else uses.  And increasingly, in the smartphone market, barring a radical change in trend, that’s Android.

So that’s why Android’s gains matter. And, yes, Apple fans should be scared about them.

As we’ve said before, Apple is fighting a very similar war to the one it fought–and lost–in the 1990s. It is trying to build the best integrated products, hardware and software, and maintain complete control over the ecosystem around them. This end-to-end control makes it easier for Apple to build products that are “better,” but it makes it much harder for the company to compete against a software platform that is standard across many hardware manufacturers (Windows in the 1990s, Android now).

As we explain here, two important things are different about the current Android - iPhone battle as compared to the Mac – Windows war in the 1990s. First, Apple is maintaining price parity (or better) with the leading Android phones. (Macs were always priced higher than PCs). Second, Android is still a fragmented platform, which significantly reduces the benefits of “interoperability” across multiple manufacturers.

Google is working to fix the second problem, though–enacting much tighter rules about how Android can be used. And if the platform is to become dominant and ubiquitous, it will likely continue to tighten these rules.

And Apple’s price parity certainly does not appear to have stopped the Android juggernaut so far. And the reported delay in the release of the iPhone 5 until September won’t help.

See Also: Android Is Destroying Everyone, Especially RIM — iPhone’s Dead In The Water

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/android-versus-iphone-smartphone-share-2011-4

Apple Clamps Down On Incentivized App Downloads

Posted: April 20, 2011 in Developers, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Applications, Mobile Developers, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology
Tags: , , , , , , ,
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My Comment on the below:

It is understandable that Apple are taking this approach but I do feel for the likes of Tapjoy and others of that ilk.  In the end, discoverability is a big issue for app developers and publishers.  However, there are channels to promote your app beyond incentivised downloads.  Incentivised downloads do not necessarily deliver the right user or indeed a user that has any interest in your product at all.  BUT (and a big but) it does push you up the App store listings which helps with discoverability.  This will only continue in the future and I do not see how Apple will come up with a solution better than Search.  As after all we can only compare this to the model of search online and how effective it is.  As more and more apps are developed the quicker they become part of a big pool of unknown services lost in the App store black hole.  This is a big challenge the industry is faced with.

Posted by ] Jason Kincaid

Bad news for Tapjoy, Flurry, and numerous other mobile advertising platforms that cater to iOS developers: Apple is clamping down on incentivized downloads. In other words, it’s now much harder to buy yourself popularity on the App Store. Developers who submit applications with these offer walls are having their applications rejected, on the grounds that they are violating section 3.10 of the developer guidelines (printed below).

If you’ve used many iPhone apps, there’s a good chance you’ve come across an incentivized download offer. These usually say something like “Install one of these apps, and you’ll get ten free gold coins!”, giving you a chance to acquire whatever virtual goods or currency you’re after without having to shell over real cash. And the process is as easy as they come: tap on one of the promoted applications, download and install it, then open it once, and you’re ten gold coins richer.

It’s a win-win situation for developers. The application that’s being promoted pays a fee to Tapjoy or one of its competitors, and the application that features the offer gets a cut. But these offers have apparently caused headaches for Apple.

Incentivized app installs are used on such a large scale that they are likely impacting the coveted Top Apps listings — pay a lot of money for a bunch of promotions, and you may be able to get your app in the top 10 on launch day. Hitting those lists leads to a huge surge in downloads that can make the initial promotional investment well worth it. In other words, they give well-funded developers a way to nearly guarantee traction (at a cost).

Apple also probably doesn’t like these systems because it doesn’t get a cut. Unlike in-app purchases, for which Apple gets 30% of every transaction, all of the money in these systems changes hands behind the scenes, between the developers and offer distributors.

Apple’s clampdown is a big deal because incentivized downloads have become a big business, and plenty of big-name iOS developers have integrated incentivized downloads into their applications, including Tapulous (maker of Tap Tap Revenge), Groupon, Playdom, and Pinger (which has a massively successful free texting/voice app). Tapjoy just raised $21 million, and there’s little doubt the success of their system played a big part in that.

It’s no coincidence that the news comes just a day after reports that Apple is now using different algorithms to decide how applications are ranked (and is presumably placing a higher emphasis on metrics other than downloads).

It isn’t particularly surprising that Apple is shutting this down, but the fact that it’s happeningnow, as opposed to months ago when these offers first took off, must be infuriating to developers and advertising platforms alike. Apple has to approve every application on the App Store, so it’s been aware of these offers from day one. And it’s not like Tapjoy and its ilk have been keeping them a secret, either.

Tapjoy says it was given no advance notice about the apparent shutdown.

Here’s Tapjoy’s statement on the news:

As you may have heard, a number of applications submitted for update have very recently been rejected from the Apple App Store based on the fact that they were running incentivized app installs within their apps. This is something new from Apple and we, along with every partner we’ve talked to, were unaware of this prior to these notices of rejection. Like many application developers, we have reached out directly to Apple and look forward to clarification.

To be clear, there is no new Apple policy that we are aware of. It seems there may be a new interpretation of the existing 3.10 clause, which is a bit surprising, as Tapjoy, AdMob, iAd, Flurry, W3i and others all power various forms of app install advertising. Many of the brands that promote their apps via Tapjoy also do the same on other major ad networks across the mobile advertiser ecosystem, and all of the apps we promote on iOS are Apple-approved. 3.10 reads:

3.10: Developers who attempt to manipulate or cheat the user reviews or chart ranking in the App Store with fake or paid reviews, or any other inappropriate methods will be removed from the iOS Developer Program

Unfortunately, we believe much of this is caused by misconceptions around pay-per-install, the free-to-play model, cross-app promotion and their collective value to the ecosystem. We believe there are significant benefits to the advertiser (only pay for what you get), the publisher (monetize users who otherwise wouldn’t pay), and perhaps most importantly to the users, who not only get to discover new, exciting applications, but receive what is essentially a coupon for ad-funded virtual currency inside one of their favorite apps. All of this, of course, adds up to value for Apple as well, by creating a viable and thriving ecosystem.

Tapjoy has been and continues to be very supportive of the Apple app ecosystem, and we were not surprised about the Top Free & Paid rankings algorithm changes – we’re all for incremental changes that add to the user experience and keep the environment dynamic. But banning the largest and most effective channel for application distribution, engagement and monetization has a significant and long-term negative impact on the user experience, developer innovation and advertiser utility.

As the market leader in application distribution and monetization of free-to-play games, Tapjoy is currently coordinating with a number of our developer partners, as well as others in the market, to get a clear understanding of the issues and to continue to partner with Apple to meet their needs, along with those of app advertisers, developers and users.

Via: http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/19/apple-clamps-down-on-incentivized-app-downloads/

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