The Appscape

Here are a number of interesting facts concerning the growth of mobile marketing and in particular the App market.

• Apple Apps – 700,000 (Nov 2012)
• Android Apps – 700,000 (Nov 2012)
• Microsoft – 120,000 (Dec 2012)
• 37mins the average time spent on apps per day
• Mobile apps will grow from a $6 billion industry today to $55.7 billion industry by 2015 (Forrester)
• The average Android smartphone user has downloaded 44 apps onto their phone
• 53% of American cellphone users now have a smartphone
• 38% of people who use social media on mobile devices cite general browsing as their main activity

The rapid growth of Android apps is very impressive, having caught up with Apple so quickly and will undoubtedly pass Apple in 2013.  The fact that Apple apply rigid "quality control" as to which apps make it on to the iPhone and Google pretty much set a minimum compliance approach cannot be the only reason Android has blossomed since Microsoft has failed to grow in quite the same way.  Apple need to decide whether they are going to carry denying other smartphone users the chance to use the Apple IOS and ultimately see the market they have owned slowly (or maybe not so slowly) eroded by Android as they did twenty years ago during the PC wars.

Latest Trends online according to Razorfish

Each year Razorfish, an interactive marketing company, publishes its “Digital Outlook Report.”  The report is very interesting for anyone who is interested in making a living from the internet.

The first section identifies the key trends to watch over the coming year before examining them in greater depth.  They are:-

Trends to Watch

1.      Advertisers will turn to “measurability” and “differentiation”
in the recession.

2.      Search will not be immune to the impact of the economy.

3.      Social Influence Marketing will go mainstream.

4.      Online ad networks will contract; open ad exchanges will expand.

5.      This year, mobile will get smarter.

6.      Research and measurement will enter the digital age.

7.      “Portable” and “beyond-the-browser” opportunities will create new touch points for brands and content owners.

8.      Going digital will help TV modernize.

Whilst the document is overly long at 180 pages and does offer a very US centric view, it is definitely worth a look and ties up with many of the issues that I have been looking at over the past three years on this blog.  Get your copy from this link:-  Razorfish : Digital Outlook Report 2009

Skype and Nokia are bonding – will it lead to marriage?

Latest news from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is that Skype and Nokia have announced a partnership to provide free and low-cost calling for Nokia's N-series of Smartphones, starting with the N97 later this year.  Skype’s software will be integrated into the phone's address book, providing presence detection when other Skype contacts are online, as well as enabling use of the Skype instant messaging client.  Significantly, the Skype service will be available both over Wi-Fi and 3G high-speed networks, so users won't need to be near a wireless hotspot to make Skype voice calls. Users will be able to communicate with Skype-to-Skype voice calls, as well as make mobile and landline Skype calls at their low VoIP prices.  Sony Ericsson also has a Skype on its Xperia  X1 device, running Windows Mobile 6.1 and Skype has a mobile ‘lite’ version running in beta on LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson phones.

How will this go down with the operators I wonder?  I suspect this will not be viewed as such great news by the operators, who may view this as an attempt by Skype and Nokia to eat their lunch.  In future I expect that the major operators will be less than happy to offer subsidised VoIP capable Nokia phones to their users.  This story clearly has legs and given that eBay have indicated that Skype is no longer compatible with their long term strategy and have effectively hoisted a large “For Sale” sign over them, this move just might make Skype a good fit with either a hungry operator or an aggressive handset manufacturer.