This is very much in line with what we are seeing over here at DudaMobile in regards to the increase in the number of visitors to our mobile sites originating from Android devices. With the increase in sales, it was very much expected that many of these new Android users will be accessing the web from their mobile devices (see previous blog 38% of US cell phone owners use their device to access the web).

An interesting aspect of the survey shows that iPhone owners tend to be much more loyal to the iPhone device. When asked what will be their next desired device, 89% of iPhone owners said that it will be an iPhone compared to only 71% of Android owners who said they would stick with Android. This is one area where we see it’s going to be very difficult for Android to compete with iPhone.

The fact the iPhone is an OS that is built for one specific device gives Apple an advantage in terms of creating a cohesive product where user experience is controlled by it engineers from A to Z. Google on the other hand only controls the OS and gives the device manufacturers and carriers the flexibility of porting the OS and configuring it to fit their needs. So although working with multiple manufacturers and carriers give Android a significant distribution advantage the trade-off is the amount of control over the end product that they have. Apple and Google have different strategies and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

One other significant player that is mentioned in the report is Blackberry. According to the report Blackberry’s position as a leader in the Smartphone market has significantly declined in the  past year. In addition, only 42% of Blackberry users claimed they would stick with a Blackberry as their next device. With good timing RIM introduced the new Blackberry Torch this week and support for the Webkit browser (similar browser used by iPhone and Android) which was much awaited, as many regarded existing Internet browsing experience on Blackberries to be unsatisfactory.

Who’s going to win, well there may be more than one winner. If rumors have it right and iPhone will become available on other carriers besides AT&T then that would be a major win for Apple and many consumers who don’t want to transfer to the AT&T network. On the other hand Android’s growing ecosystem of carriers and device manufacturers might be a hard match for any single device, no matter how good it is.  Blackberry has a strong foot hold in the enterprise and both Google and Apple would need to strategically target IT departments in order to succeed on that front. One thing for sure, it’s going to be very interesting to monitor the Smartphone space, as the amount of innovation and changes are happing at a staggering pace.

The statistics are even higher when looking at the age group of 18-29 years old cell phone owners, as 65% of them access the Internet from their mobile device.

For all the businesses that are still thinking about their mobile strategy (”we want to do it, it’s on our roadmap…”), it’s time to get moving.

[update] Comscore released a similar survey showing that 32% of US mobile subscribers use the mobile browser to access the Internet

In a previous blog I wrote about mobile users and the on-the-go type of usage that differentiates them from regular type of Internet users. One of the areas where this is most notable is Search. It relates to the keywords that mobile users type when searching for something, be it movie tickets, a restaurant menu or a local florist. It also pertains to the search results that they will get when clicking on the Search button.

Two interesting statistics show that there is a huge uptake in mobile search and especially in its local nature.

The first is from comScore M:Metrics that reported that in June 2008, 20.8 million U.S. mobile subscribers and 4.5 million European mobile phone subscribers accessed search during the month, an increase of 68 and 38 percent from June 2007, respectively.

The second is from The Kelsey Group which is forecasting that the percentage of mobile searches that have local intent will increase from 28 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2013.

So given this information, I want to explain why I believe it  is important for local businesses to take advantage of the soar in Mobile Search by creating a mobile website that is tailored for mobile users.

• Users searching from a mobile device require quick and reliable information. In many cases it is a very impulsive need and if your website doesn’t provide them with the information that they are looking for, they will quickly move to the next search result. A survey conducted by Gomez Inc. discovered that mobile web users do not have much patience for retrying a website that is slow or not functioning. 40 percent of the respondent to the survey said they’d likely visit a competitor’s mobile website instead.

• A small local business website has a much higher chance of ranking high for local searches than regular searches. Mobile users searching for businesses in a certain category and that are located in the geographical vicinity to a certain business should see that business rank higher in their results compared to running the same search from a desktop computer. This is due to Google’s ability to use the location of the device conducting the search (upon the user’s approval). Google can do this  either by using the GPS capabilities embedded in Smartphones or for mobile devices without GPS, users can update their current location manually.
• Google has added a small icon that identifies websites that are tailored for mobile devices in order to help mobile users using Google Search for Mobile focus on the sites that will display well on their devices. An example below shows the result when searching for Pizza. Notice the “little green icon” next to the URL indicating that this is a mobile friendly site.In order for Google to identify your site as mobile friendly, you need to submit your mobile sitemap to the Google Webmaster Tool. See instruction how to do it.

Google Green Mobile Icon

• Lastly Google has also recently launched (Sep 09) a new redesigned experience for Local Search for mobile. If you go to google.com from a mobile device you will notice a link labeled “Local” on the top. Clicking on it will lead you to a directory structure (restaurants, shopping, gas etc.). When you either perform a query search or browse through the directory Google will list only businesses in your geographical vicinity. The main benefit is that mobile users can now search for businesses without typing.

Google Local Search for Mobile

So it’s now easier for mobile users to find your business, only question is if your website is ready for mobile?

To mobilize your website contact us at www.dudamobile.com, we have created mobile sites for several local businesses and would be glad to help you out.

With the huge buzz around Apple’s App Store and Blackberry’s App World it seems that mobile applications are taking over, but is an app the right solution for everyone? Doesn’t it seem like we have gone back fifteen years and once again being required to install packaged software? An interesting research by Pinch Media shows that less than 5% of downloaded apps continue to be used 20 days after being downloaded.

There are some cases where an app makes more sense as for example: businesses who have a very large and dedicated user base (e.g . Facebook) or solutions that requires special capabilities of the mobile device that are not accessible through the web (e.g. gaming).

But in the majority of the cases businesses and individuals will gain more from going through the mobile web route. The development costs will be lower, the potential market size will be bigger and it will be much easier for people to find your site by using any search engine.

Before making a decision several criteria should be considered. Below I summarized some of the main points to help you make the right decision for your business. Feel free to comment or add to my list.

The answer is simple, it’s all about REACH and ENGAGEMENT.

Reach

According to Comscore 63 million US mobile phone users accessed news and information from their mobile devices in Jan 09. This is no surprise with new versions of internet enabled mobile phones entering the market this year like mushrooms after the rain (iPhone 3G, Palm Pre, Google Android etc). The internet is now in the grasp of many hands. It is today by far the most personal gadget, accompanying us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week wherever we go. Businesses understand this and have followed by creating websites that are tailored to the mobile user. A reports by Nielsen Mobile show that businesses that have added a mobile website have increased overall traffic to their website by 13%.

Engagement

Now fact is that most website display pretty poorly on mobile devices as they were not built to fit a small screen. A recent study shows that the average success rate for a user to complete a task via his mobile device was only 59%. The reason is that websites were not tailored for a mobile on-the-go type of interaction. Mobile users have different needs, they might be standing in the corner of a street trying to get precise information like your businesses address or the price of a product. How long will it take them to get to that information? If the information is not visible and the site is not appealing, chances are that they will just give up and search for a more mobile-friendly website that is willing to provide them with that information and keep them engaged.

So what do you do about it?

You basically have two options:

• Do nothing and hope that the mobile browsers will improve with time
• Create an optimized site for mobile

I will cover both these options in my next post: Better mobile browsers won’t solve the mobile web problem

A mobile browser is an automated machine that only knows how to squeeze a websites into a small mobile screen. A good mobile solution will have to include some degree of configuration to select and prioritize the content. It requires someone who is intimately involved with the website and understands the business and can make such decisions. There is a lot of clutter in regular websites, usually created by large banners, jumping ads and promotions that just add to the noise and confusion in a mobile device.  Only a human can make the decision what content is relevant and should be “mobilized” and what not.

Now some people might say that the iPhone provides exceptional user experience. I agree that it is indeed an improvement compared to other mobile browsers, but it is far from being optimal. I like to compare the iPhone browsing experience to reading a newspaper in a dark room with a flash light. At any moment you can only see a limited part of the page, usually caused by the need to zoom-in and zoom-out in order to read the text. You wouldn’t agree to read your newspaper like that, so why accept it on your mobile device?

This is something that many businesses have understood and for the reason they have built dedicated iPhone websites (e.g. m.ebay.com, m.nbc.com, mobile.fandango.com) that are very different from their regular internet website. In addition business would like to add mobile specific features like mobile ads, location based services that use GPS functionality, click-to-call etc. All these features are not available on the PC website.

Creating an Optimized Site for Mobile

Creating a mobile optimized site can be a daunting task. You need to think about supporting multiple devices and multiple browsers. Then you get to the topic of maintenance, how do you keep your regular website and your mobile site in sync? And the biggest question is how do you achieve all this without getting into a heavy investment. This is exactly the pain we identified and solved at DudaMobile. Using our platform we are able to build mobile website that are based on your existing website. What that means is that you only have to maintain your regular website. Any changes you make will automatically be propagated into your mobile site. How do we do that? Well that’s the uniqueness of the technology we have developed. The good thing is that you don’t need to care about that. We take care of building, hosting, maintaining and supporting your mobile site. All you need to do is just promote it.