Vision Mobile’s Developer Economics report is very revealing. Amongst the interesting information in it, is a section on developers’ preconceived notions about their expected revenues in mobile. Not surprising to those of us who have shipped many mobile products, most developers are not jumping for joy over the revenues they’ve made on their mobile apps. In fact, more than many are quite disappointed. Is that a function of bad apps, or unrealistic expectations? read more »

The first large, successful computer companies were hardware manufacturers. IBM, DEC, HP, Apple, etc. It was a new field and the pace of technological change — and the differences between one hardware generation and another — were substantial enough that just upgrading the computer’s hardware gave people significant new functionality and features. Over time, the practical differences in the generations of new hardware decreased to the point where many people didn’t get the extra functionality in a single hardware generation — they got it by updating to the newest version of their software packages. Ultimately that’s where the largest tech companies have generated the greatest profits, and why Amazon might be able to slip in the back-door of mobile and usurp the incumbent giants of the industry. read more »

Almost 400 million people will buy a smartphones and tablets in 2011 – how many of them will be your customers?

Mobile devices provide a wealth of new revenue and communication opportunities for marketers and advertisers. By leveraging this new channel for interaction, brands and businesses can increase awareness, loyalty and brand equity.

Join us for this complimentary webinar where mobile expert Jeff Bacon (www.BaconOnTheGo.com) highlights the best strategies for marketing your business or brand on mobile. How and why you choose to leverage LBS (location-based services), NFC (near field communications), Social Network check-ins, and personalization options in your mobile app makes a huge impact on the ultimate success your business will have in mobile. By attending this free webinar you will learn:

• How customer engagement on mobile is unique
• Different techniques you can use to engage you mobile customers
• About a variety of real-world companies that have used mobile to drive their business forward

RIM’s inaugural attempt at entering the tablet market with the BlackBerry PlayBook is providing developers with many more options to entering the BlackBerry ecosystem. While previously BlackBerry devices required developers to build apps in Java, the PlayBook is providing a multitude of options for developers to join the BlackBerry community. But how do you make the choice? How do you know which option that you’ve heard of is the right choice for your PlayBook development? Let’s take a brief look at the various options for developing for BlackBerry PlayBook and consider how to decide which option is right for you. read more »

Which mobile platform will best reflect your brand identity – BlackBerry, iPhone or Android, or do you need all of them? The answer is among the most important when planning your mobile app because how it looks or runs on each of these platforms creates a positive or negative impression on the user’s perception of your brand.

Join us for this complimentary webinar where Mobile expert Jeff Bacon (www.BaconOnTheGo.com) sorts through the madness with some practical considerations for choosing between Mobile web, HTML5, and Native app (code in the supported language of the Operating System) options on the different platforms. In addition we’ll have a case study on how Rent.com made their mobile platform choices. read more »

Every new platform has to start somewhere, and find a niche. RIM successfully launched the BlackBerry platform into businesses and then transitioned it out to the consumer space when business users realized how much better the platform was than the other mobile offerings at the time. Apple decided that the high-end user was the place to be and have successfully been pulling customers up into the high-end space that weren’t sure about spending that much money on a cell-phone in the past. But what about Android? With 60% of Android users under the age of 35, is Android’s niche a less valuable as a low-income niche or more valuable as a prized advertising demographic? read more »

If you’re marketing a brand or product on mobile, you’re not alone. Unica’s 2011 Survey of Marketers shows that 43% of marketers are currently using mobile as part of their marketing strategy — with 41% planning on doing so soon. But what’s more interesting is that only around half of those mobile marketing activities are integrated into larger, general marketing campaigns. Mobile is more important than that and there’s still opportunities to stand out from the crowd by effectively leveraging mobile as part of your marketing campaign — even if that really means building a mobile product to go along with it. read more »

This week at BlackBerry World, RIM announced two new smartphones that fit into the top-tier of the BlackBerry market. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 (the same phone, the xx30 models are simply the CDMA versions of BlackBerries) are slightly wider than existing BlackBerry models but quite thin and include a touch screen plus keyboard.

You can read more about them and there are some links to full reviews after the jump but these are essentially RIM’s flagship BlackBerry devices. They represent the best of what BlackBerry has to offer and are styled to show off the premium look and brand that the BlackBerry Bold is known for. The keyboard is 6% bigger than the previous Bold models and the reception from pretty much everyone I’ve spoken to here at BlackBerry World has been very positive after getting a hands-on experience with the device. read more »

HTML5 versus native apps. It’s a debate as old as — well, at least three years ago. And pretty much since the beginning of that debate, there has been a general underlying current among the geek community that HTML5 is good and native is bad. Native is what we have to deal with as we wait for HTML5 to prevail.

But what if that never happens?

Let’s be honest: right now, most HTML-based mobile apps are a joke when compared to their native counterparts. It’s not even remotely close. In fact, you could argue that the discrepancy isn’t much smaller than it was three years ago. And considering that the App Store was only on the verge of launching at that point, in many ways, the discrepancy is even bigger. Just look at mobile games now, for example. read more »

By the end of 2014, Gartner forecasts there will be more than 185 billion applications downloaded since the launch of the first app store in July 2008.

With the proliferation of mobile apps, mobile has quickly become a critical channel for retailers and brands to reach their mobile customers.

In the rush to deploy mobile apps, however, it is important to remember that there are two primary types: custom-branded apps as well as group apps that take a shopping-mall approach (think Groupon, LivingSocial or BuyWithMe.)

And while most companies have focused on developing their own branded app, there is room for both kinds of applications in a well-rounded mobile strategy.

Whether you are deploying branded mobile apps, group apps or both, here are several principles to keep in mind when developing and deploying an effective mobile strategy.

First, active users are more important than the number of downloads.

Make sure your app supports a strategy to drive continued usage.

What will engage the customer and provide unique value? Mobile coupons, loyalty offers and other forms of mobile marketing can keep your users engaged.

Next, keep it simple. Users will adopt whatever is easier or more convenient for them on their mobile devices.

Full Article… [mobilemarketer.com]