Believe it or not, mobile applications existed before Apple told the world there was an app for that. Below are a few of the stories from the past 5 years of mobile app development at Golden Gekko.
It all began with a mobile cookbook
Golden Gekko was one of the first companies to believe in mobile marketing and to concentrate on the development of mobile marketing applications. In 2005, this seemed like an absurd idea to most people and businesses.
Arla Food Group, Europe’s second largest dairy company, was the first to make a bet based on the crazy an un-proven idea of mobile apps used in marketing presented by Magnus Jern, Jimmy Nordbeck and Daniel Karlström.
Arla’s website is among the most popular websites in Sweden. The Online Cookbook is one of the main attractions. To further extend the reach of the brand and to bring their services closer to their clients, Arla decided to explore the mobile channel.
The result was a mobile application, based on the online cookbook, including a selection of 330 popular recipes all including one or more Arla products. The app was produced for Java and compatible with over 800 phones covering 95% of all devices in use in Sweden at the time.
During the first 3 months, the mobile cookbook had more than 10.000 downloads and by 2007 Arla Mobile Cookbook was one of the most downloaded mobile applications in Sweden with over 80.000 downloads, mainly thanks to it’s exposure on more than 1 million milk bricks distributed in Sweden.
Read CASE STUDY
Mobile tamagotchi for Pop Idol
In 2008, the TV channel running the Swedish version of Pop Idol, approached Golden Gekko to promote the show. The application we developed was an early example of what today is known and buzzed as “gamification”. A Tamagotchi-type game allowed viewers to compete with other fans in managing a virtual idol.
In the first 4 weeks, Idol Manager had more than 15.000 downloads making it one of the most downloaded connected games ever launched in Sweden. 50% of users registered for the chance to win a date with an Idol and played the game at least twice. The app leveraged social network components at an early stage of their marketing exploitation: the average customer shared the app with about 3 people.
Read CASE STUDY
Mobile apps lead the way in mobile marketing
Golden Gekko stayed on the viral train when teaming up with Unilever to create an app for the Lynx effect campaign. The Lynx campaign's claim “Weapons of Mass Seduction” was also used as the motto of the app. Golden Gekko created an application that turned mobile phones into pulling machines and reached over 150k unique downloads. In 2009, the campaign was extended due to its great success. The Lynx campaign won lots of awards and fame for Golden Gekko and BBH and is still one of the most talked about mobile app campaigns in Europe.
Read CASE STUDY
Mobile apps accelerate to Formula 1
In 2009 Vodafone was the first to fully tap Golden Gekko’s cross platform competences. The Vodafone McLaren app was developed across iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Java and Symbian. It was launched for 10 territories and has hit over 520.000 successful downloads to date. 70% of the users reached were non-Vodafone customers. 1.2m sessions indicate that the average user used the app 2.3 times. Data that exceeded the agreed objectives and expectations for the app.
Building a business on mobile apps and mobile web
In 2010, Golden Gekko launched our first app for European Directories, the publisher of yellow pages in eight countries and our biggest client to date. Golden Gekko has now developed over 150 applications for them, including the 56 core yellow page apps and over 100 verticals, many of which are already in their second version. Today 1.7 million unique users make over 3 million search queries and generate more than 7 million page views in any given month. Since our cooperation began, European Directories has seen constant growth averaging 788%. For European Directories mobile has become a core part of their service offering and the fastest growing area of the business.
Read CASE STUDY
Consumers embrace the value of mobile coupons
Launched on the 14th of July 2011, we supported O2 UK in the delivery of O2 Priority Moments across iPhone, Android, and the servers that tie it all together. Through the app, O2 offers real-time, location-based deals to their over 22 million customers, and the apps have already been downloaded 200.000 times in less than two weeks. For O2 this is only the beginning of the journey and we look forward to being involved in the growth of local offers services in the coming months and years.
Where are we going next?
Mobile has come a long way. It is believed to be the fastest growing market worldwide. Mobile Marketing has evolved tremendously since the first apps we launched five years back and so has Golden Gekko. We have multiplied our staff by 50 in only five years, now being a team of near to 150 talented and engaged people. We are prepared to keep moving at this pace and are excited about all the new and old things to come in the mobile universe.
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Web or App? Mobile HTML or HTML5 Sites Vs. Mobile Apps Part 2
Our clients, analysts, partners, media and technical nerds all agree on one thing: there is no agreement on mobile apps vs. mobile web. Last week, our Account Director Caroline van den Bergh spoke at the Getjar Conference in London to shed light on the current situation.
Her speech makes clear why there will be no winner in the near future:
1. Rate of Technology Improvement
- HTML5 is a common standard by WC3 that took 5 years to develop. Getting to the next major release of HTML will take just as long.
iOS and Android are proprietary development standards with at least one major and several minor releases a year (iOS 5 had more than 1500 new APIs)
Innovation will continue to happen at a much faster pace for apps than for the mobile web. To deliver the latest and greatest new features, hardware, user experience and speed, the only option is apps.
2. Discovery
It is still easier to drive traffic to an app than to a mobile website without spending money on advertising. An app is promoted through the appstores, especially when launched. External sites often review and suggest apps to their readers. This creates natural exposure, that is not present for sites.
3. Purpose
Frequently used utilities whose features don’t require an internet connection will benefit greatly from apps. Services that are almost completely updated every day such as news may be easier to deliver through a mobile website, although stickiness may increase with an app.
If you are a well known brand and want to benefit from the mobile channel you probably need to invest in both mobile web and apps. In terms of budget, mobile websites are generally much simpler and therefore cheaper. That said, a mobile website and an app of the same complexity will cost about the same, but you'll have to develop the app again for each new platform – porting between platforms simply doesn't get the quality level that our brands expect.
For more about the cost of developing mobile apps see our previous blogs.
To find out more about mobile web vs apps download the full presentation here.
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Content Marketing for Mobile: Is Republishing RSS Feeds Legal?
In mobile marketing, content is king. Content that provides added value, for example in terms of relevant information, is a strong incentive for customers to consume branded information. Republishing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds is an easy and popular form to provide such content, but is it really legal?
Agathe Caffier, part of the legal department of Golden Gekko, takes a look at the legal situation when republishing RSS feeds:
- In a world where we are spammed by tons of information every day, RSS feeds simply make sense. I read this very interesting comparison on Master New Media website stating that RSS was like fishing. Their explanation was; “Just like when you go fishing, you give out a lot of free fish food in exchange for a smaller and very targeted crowd waiting to jump and bite your next unique offering. As for the fish gathering around your free food give out, RSS is a tremendously powerful vehicle not only to deliver more efficiently your content but also to enable a self-sufficient army of individual publishers, reporters, bloggers and other news publishers to further spread and deliver it to an infinite number of otherwise unreachable audiences out there.-
The question is: Once the RSS is published, can anyone republish it without permission?
Legally there is a debate. On the one hand some argue that the information contained in the RSS is protected under copyright law, hence cannot be freely republished. However this argument raises another issue. Since the Internet is global, it is unclear which national copyright law applies. On the other hand some say that by distributing your content via an RSS feed, you are giving an implied permission to the reader to republish it.
Some publishers get very irritated by the plagiarism of their RSS content. Websites use the published RSS feeds and republish them to generate traffic for their website or display their ads and hereby generate money.
I think the operative point is the objective that is pursued. If an RSS aggregator republishes the RSS with the intention of sharing information and makes a reference to its originator there are no legal caveats. The line is drawn where republishing is used for advertising or generating money purposes. In fact, you can now find in the terms and conditions of some news publishers' websites a section where with an explicit permission to republish the RSS under the condition that an appropriate attribution to the author is added when appearing on the website. Another possible solution is that news aggregators could contact publishers of RSS directly to obtain their permission for using their content.
In conclusion, if not explicitly indicated, the legal position of aggregation and republishing of RSS feeds is unclear. One should therefore always read the terms and conditions and respect the content author’s wishes. In my opinion republishing the RSS via an aggregator with no profit-making purposes can create a win-win situation.
Thursday, 7 July 2011
Guide to Mocial: How to Get Social Media in Your Mobile Strategy
“Social Media is like teenage sex, everyone wants to do it but nobody really knows how” (anonymous)
Social Facts
Facebook, Twitter and Co, are cues that make marketer’s hearts beat faster and hands get sweaty these days.
There are more than 500 million active users on Facebook who spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the social network. (Facebook.com) 140 million Tweets are send out each day and 460 000 new accounts per day are created.
Social networks have an incredible potential, not only in terms of reach. The activities on social networks are what marketers have always dreamt of: People share and recommend content voluntarily and publicly. An average user creates about 90 pieces of content each month and shares it with an average of 130 friends. About 30 billion web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc. are shared on a monthly basis.
Show me love
Sharing branded content is not only mere interaction with the brand, its evangelism. For a brand to show up on a fan’s newsfeed is like a public love declaration. The user publicly commits to the brand or product and lets all their friends know, they love them. The marketing effect goes way beyond multiplying impressions. As information usually is most trusted when it comes from friends, a shared link by a friend raises much more curiosity than any ad could ever do. And since humans are gregarious creatures, a simple “like” can create a form of “peer pressure” effect in favour of the brand.
Mobile and Social Media – the Arranged Wedding
Social media is moving mobile. One third of Facebook posts and half of all Tweets are already coming from a mobile device. And mobile has always been social. 91% of mobile internet access is to socialize. After gaming, social networking is the second most popular mobile app category. 20% of smartphone users check social media apps before getting up in the morning and last thing before going to sleep and night.
How to Mocial with Branded Apps
To leverage social media in a branded app it is not enough to just include a Facebook “share” button. Think social from the very beginning and include sharable content:
- Pre- produced content like news, blogs, videos, fun facts, other type of information
- App generated content like game scores, manipulated pictures, audio, etc.
Most importantly is to know your target group and consider which content they would share with others. Generally people are more likely to share content that is either entertaining or provides a real value in terms of utility or information. Most and foremost men like to share content that positions themselves as experts. Give them content that makes them look good! Women rather share content of common interest, information on social topics, local events, etc.
Golden Gekko has created some apps that have generated great viral effects and we are currently exploring more ways to mocial for our customers.
See example from Heineken’s Star Player App
See example from Lynx Stream App
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Yes we scan! Marketing with QR Codes
About 2 years ago I dubbed QR codes* a dead concept outside of Japan.
To take off, the technology would need to be embedded in every smartphone operating system and two years ago this did not happen. Even though it is easy to download an app that reads QR codes using the phone’s camera, the app needs to be opened separately every time. To make it simple and encourage people to us it every day, the reader must be fully integrated with the camera.
Today penetration of QR code readers is as low as 1% in the US and Europe while it amounts to 70% in Japan (Source: IMC). This is slowly changing while more device manufacturers embed QR code readers directly to the phone. Based on current trends I might have been wrong. Examples of devices with embedded QR readers are the Motorola Droid and all Blackberry OS 6.x+, though slightly oddly placed in Blackberry App World rather than in the camera menu.
The big advantage of QR codes -when they work- is that they provide an instant method to interact with a brand without having to type a single letter or number. Just point your camera at it - that’s all!
Where to use QR-codes
1. Product Packaging
As they are still relatively new for the masses, QR codes on a product raise curiosity and call to action. Curiosity and the flair of “new and cool” increase the willingness to interact with the brand – a great opportunity that shall be rewarded from the brand side.
The code can redirect to a website or microsite, providing relevant information about the product without interrupting the package design too much. Or it can extend the brand experience in-store as well as outside. Coca Cola for example added QR codes to coke cans this spring in Germany, redirecting customers to a music portal. Selected music of participating bands added another sensual dimension to the coke experience and at the same time promoted the Coke Sound Up campaign they were running at the time. Read article
2. Outdoor and posters, TV ads
QR codes on posters or billboards can, just like in-store, provide more information about the car, TV-show, movie or whatever the product might be. Other than in- store though, users will expect something fancy to happen and might be disappointed to “only” find plain product info and package slips. The code can be used to distribute coupons, unveil videos or other digital gimmicks. Important is to raise curiosity for the content and give an idea what to expect.
Calvin Klein for instance got loads of media attention with giant billboards on popular places around the US, like Times Square, New York, featuring a QR code with the headline “Get It Uncensored”. The code gave access to a sexy mobile video with model Lara Stone and was a huge success. Read article
Paramount Pictures used QR codes to give by passers instant access to the trailer of the new Indiana Jones movie and at the same time provided coupons for popcorn at the theatre to drive traffic to theatres. See example
3. Magazines, Brochures, Business cards
Other than leading to a web- or microsite, QR codes can be used to invoke writing an e-mail, call a phone number or send a SMS message. “Scan to win” campaigns require the user to fill in personal information. Magazines and brochures therefore are the perfect medium since they are mostly read at a quiet, private place, where people feel save and are more likely to share those kind of info.
4. Indoor & Outdoor points of interest
Points of interest like Museums and parks can let the visitors decide for themselves when they want more information about a painting, the place or other exhibitions. It is a fun way to engage younger audiences that are already tight to the mobile medium and extend the available information, providing media like audio guides, videos, text and images.
The World Park campaign for example invited visitors of New York’s Central Park to interact with the park’s history and offerings. Over 50 QR Codes were placed all over the park and provided user with multi- media information about the current location. This includes former exhibitions, concerts, film scenes shot at the exact same spot, but also information about flora and fauna or the history of the park. Watch Video
5. Sharing
You want to share a great app or mobile website with someone right next to you. Rather than sending a text message or email with the link the app displays the QR code which the other person reads using the camera and the download starts or mobile website is displayed almost instantly.
Conclusion:
In conclusion there are some great opportunities with QR codes for mobile but we don't see a big boom in usage uptake in the near future. First device manufacturers must integrate the functionality into the core camera function of all their devices. In the meantime we recommend using a combination of SMS short codes, mobile website address, search and QR codes to help people easily find and access your app or mobile website.
QR codes are can work as a bridge between different marketing channels. It is an easy way to provide a multi- media and therefore more intense brand experience. Curiosity can be an engaging factor en be turned real interaction with the brand. Important to keep in mind though, that the delivered experience shall be coherent with the brand’s image. If you redirect to a website, it should be optimised for mobile, since otherwise the user may get frustrated.
- Call- to– action with coupons, vouchers, store locator, etc.
- Redirect to other media website, social media sites, etc.
- Give added value such as games, videos, pics, etc.
- Provide more information
And there are lots of other great examples in the blog post 101 uses of QR codes and 50 creative uses of QR codes.
* QR which stands for “Quick Response” was created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code).
For further reading Proximity London has a great article on QR codes available here:
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
SIME Barcelona Wrap Up: The Universal Yes, Press Release and Two Pizza Rule
Amazon CTO, Werner Vogels, explains three keys to driving success at Amazon
Golden Gekko’s recently attended SIME Barcelona, an event that brought together thought leaders from around the globe to discuss the latest trends in digital. The event featured an impressive array of entrepreneurs, investors and marketing professionals from various industries including media, telecom, e-commerce and mobile.
The event was highly inspirational. Countless tales of entrepreneurial successes and failures make any corporate drone dream of quitting their job and founding the next Google in their garage. Highlights from the day included co-founder of Flickr, Caterina Fake. She candidly recounted how the start-up overcame early obstacles and financial woes (think - mortgaging the house to keep business afloat) to beat the odds. Now Flickr is one of the world’s most popular photo sharing websites. Another memorable story was told by John Hanke, VP of Geo at Google. Hanke vividly retold the story of pitching the “crazy concept” of a 3D map of the globe to Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Google Earth has now been downloaded by over 700 million unique users.
While these talks were inspiring, the highlight of the day and most tangible takeaways were delivered by Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogels. Mr. Vogel outlined three bold management strategies that have propelled Amazon to success and could be worth considering for your organization as well:
· The Universal Yes – In order to encourage innovation and empower employees, Amazon has implemented a policy whereby all new ideas presented will be given the go ahead. If a co-worker disagrees with the idea, he/she must write a 6-page report outlining their reasoning. This a clear break from the traditional norm in large corporations where new ideas are many times suppressed or rejected with little explanation. This attitude has helped Amazon continuously to be a leader in innovation.
· Two Pizza Rule – Large, global corporations face tough challenges. In order to effectively tackle issues, Vogel argues that problems should be broken down and divided among smaller teams: teams no bigger than two large pizzas can feed. This way, teams can focus and isolate on a specific issue without being bogged down in corporate bureaucracy.
· Press Release – As everyone knows, Amazon prides itself on being customer centric. Before making a business decision, Amazon always asks, “How will this add value for our customers?” In this spirit, Vogel explained their atypical product development process, which starts with a mock press release and FAQ of the new product. Writing a press release and FAQ document before the development phase forces developers to envision the end result of the product and how it will be received by customers. This important step in the process helps Amazon align new products with customer needs.
Overall, SIME Barcelona was a great break from the daily grind to listen and reflect on the rapidly changing digital industry. It’s amazing to see how quickly the digital landscape is evolving and we were encouraged to repeatedly hear that mobile apps will be an ever-growing force. We look forward to attending next year.
By Anna Satterfield, Jeffrey McAndrew and Charles Murphy
By Anna Satterfield, Jeffrey McAndrew and Charles Murphy
Friday, 17 June 2011
Money in Mobile- Key Insights from the BLN conference
The world becomes a bit more mobile each day. Brands need to catch up and show creativity in using mobile for business. The Business Leader Network, BLN, called for ideas and inspiration in a one-day conference in London, June 14th dubbed “Money in Mobile”. Renowned experts and entrepreneurs from the mobile business were invited to share their knowledge and insights with leading consumer brands, seeking innovative strategies for how to mobilize their brand.
I attended the seminar together with speakers from Google, Tesco and Snaptu (recently acquired by Facebook) and had a great discussion at the panel. Here are the most interesting insights:
Jeremy Coop from market research company Comscore shared his key insights:
Browser and Apps are head to head in general usage or traffic but there are enormous differences depending on the brand:
- Sky has 83% of traffic through apps
- BBC has 89% of traffic through mobile web
Operator are still among the top mobile websites
- Vodafone group was the 4th most visited mobile website in the uk (6th in time spent online)
- Telefonica/ O2 was the 5th (11th in time spent online)
Here is the graph for minute spent on mobile sites
Most used apps by reach and not traffic
1. Google maps
2. Yahoo weather (pre-embedded on all iPhones)
3. Facebook
4. Google (other)
5. Youtube
6. Ebay
7. Yahoo stocks
8. BBC
9. Sky
10. Whatsapp
11. Shazam
Social networking stats
- Social networking spearheads mobile usage, in Europe most and foremost the UK : 40% of mobile traffic in minutes is generated by Facebook, according to Comscore
- Apps drive social networking: 160% increase in apps vs 25% increase for browser the last year
- 96.6% of checkins are through Facebook. Checkins through foursquare feature second place with 2.5%
The minutes spend on Facebook from a mobile phone surpass thosem the page is being accessed from a Desktop Computer.
Other UK stats
- Every month mobile counts 13 billion page views
90% of iPhone users use apps vs 39% of Symbian users
- 70% of mobile users in Europe don't use apps (but 30% do)
Comscore and GSMA get mobile usage data from operators in the UK to track
top mobile sites.
Ilja from Getjar presented insights on how to make money from mobile apps. Here are some of the key things we picked up:
- Revenue from paid app is increasing but proportionally going down. Ads and virtual goods grow significantly from 2009 (4.1bn USD) to 2012 (17.5 Bn USD). The biggest growth is in advertising followed by virtual goods.
- The entire music industry generate 25bn USD per year in comparison
Brief guide on what monetization model should you use
- High Utility and low stickiness = paid
- Low utility, high stickiness and moderate user value = ad based
- High utility and high stickiness and high user value = Freemium incl. virtual goods, in-app payments and subscription
Other payment insights
- Billing conversion is a key component of deciding business model (paid vs ads)
- 7x higher payment conversion for one button purchase vs premium SMS
- Revenue share from advertising vs. paid model (e.g. India has very low pay-out)
- Marketability - potential reach should decided monetization method (free, freemium or paid)
Other key insights
- Angry Bird was the 57th game of a 10 year old gaming company and very carefully planned
- Symbian ad spend dropped to almost zero when Nokia announced the drop of Symbian even if it is in 2016.
I attended the seminar together with speakers from Google, Tesco and Snaptu (recently acquired by Facebook) and had a great discussion at the panel. Here are the most interesting insights:
Jeremy Coop from market research company Comscore shared his key insights:
Browser and Apps are head to head in general usage or traffic but there are enormous differences depending on the brand:
- Sky has 83% of traffic through apps
- BBC has 89% of traffic through mobile web
Operator are still among the top mobile websites
- Vodafone group was the 4th most visited mobile website in the uk (6th in time spent online)
- Telefonica/ O2 was the 5th (11th in time spent online)
Here is the graph for minute spent on mobile sites
Most used apps by reach and not traffic
1. Google maps
2. Yahoo weather (pre-embedded on all iPhones)
3. Facebook
4. Google (other)
5. Youtube
6. Ebay
7. Yahoo stocks
8. BBC
9. Sky
10. Whatsapp
11. Shazam
Social networking stats
- Social networking spearheads mobile usage, in Europe most and foremost the UK : 40% of mobile traffic in minutes is generated by Facebook, according to Comscore
- Apps drive social networking: 160% increase in apps vs 25% increase for browser the last year
- 96.6% of checkins are through Facebook. Checkins through foursquare feature second place with 2.5%
The minutes spend on Facebook from a mobile phone surpass thosem the page is being accessed from a Desktop Computer.
Other UK stats
- Every month mobile counts 13 billion page views
90% of iPhone users use apps vs 39% of Symbian users
- 70% of mobile users in Europe don't use apps (but 30% do)
Comscore and GSMA get mobile usage data from operators in the UK to track
top mobile sites.
Ilja from Getjar presented insights on how to make money from mobile apps. Here are some of the key things we picked up:
- Revenue from paid app is increasing but proportionally going down. Ads and virtual goods grow significantly from 2009 (4.1bn USD) to 2012 (17.5 Bn USD). The biggest growth is in advertising followed by virtual goods.
- The entire music industry generate 25bn USD per year in comparison
Brief guide on what monetization model should you use
- High Utility and low stickiness = paid
- Low utility, high stickiness and moderate user value = ad based
- High utility and high stickiness and high user value = Freemium incl. virtual goods, in-app payments and subscription
Other payment insights
- Billing conversion is a key component of deciding business model (paid vs ads)
- 7x higher payment conversion for one button purchase vs premium SMS
- Revenue share from advertising vs. paid model (e.g. India has very low pay-out)
- Marketability - potential reach should decided monetization method (free, freemium or paid)
Other key insights
- Angry Bird was the 57th game of a 10 year old gaming company and very carefully planned
- Symbian ad spend dropped to almost zero when Nokia announced the drop of Symbian even if it is in 2016.
Location Based Is Not A Service
Ric Ferraro, Account Director at Golden Gekko, gives a resume of his speech at AppWorks in Oslo
OSLO- Appworks is one of the leading mobile conferences in Scandinavia (organized by Mobilen.no, famous for their Telecruise conference that takes place on a cruise ship) and it was a real pleasure to speak about Location-Aware apps during the 1-day event at the end of May.
The conference attracted a great mix of mobile entrepreneurs, developers and 'big guns' like Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Nokia and HTC, with a conference format running in parallel to a workshop format (Klubbscenen).
Location-based services were one of the main items on the day's agenda, so it was perhaps provocative of me to kick off my keynote by stating that Location-Based Services were extinct today. The reasons for stating this is that location is no longer a service but a feature that is embedded everywhere. You can see the full slide deck here:
Location on mobile is also firmly in the mainstream today -with Facebook in particular achieving what Foursquare couldn't.I'm a big believer in the fact that contextual search (with mobile apps knowing what I'm more likely to be interested in according to time of day, previous searches, ambient temperature etc) will unlock the full potential of location. It is still early days for this, but as Google (and others) invest in research in this area and processing power on mobile devices keeps increasing, we will see some real examples of this soon.
There were some great presentations at the event by other speakers - I particularly enjoyed the ones by John Valentine (from SCVNGR), Megan Miller (on usability of iPad apps) and Ola Larsen (from RIM). Ola showed a video that I thought was pretty cool, on Hyper-Augmented Reality. You can see the video below and get an insight into what one version of the future of AR could be like. Enjoy!
OSLO- Appworks is one of the leading mobile conferences in Scandinavia (organized by Mobilen.no, famous for their Telecruise conference that takes place on a cruise ship) and it was a real pleasure to speak about Location-Aware apps during the 1-day event at the end of May.
The conference attracted a great mix of mobile entrepreneurs, developers and 'big guns' like Samsung, LG, Blackberry, Nokia and HTC, with a conference format running in parallel to a workshop format (Klubbscenen).
Location-based services were one of the main items on the day's agenda, so it was perhaps provocative of me to kick off my keynote by stating that Location-Based Services were extinct today. The reasons for stating this is that location is no longer a service but a feature that is embedded everywhere. You can see the full slide deck here:
Location on mobile is also firmly in the mainstream today -with Facebook in particular achieving what Foursquare couldn't.I'm a big believer in the fact that contextual search (with mobile apps knowing what I'm more likely to be interested in according to time of day, previous searches, ambient temperature etc) will unlock the full potential of location. It is still early days for this, but as Google (and others) invest in research in this area and processing power on mobile devices keeps increasing, we will see some real examples of this soon.
There were some great presentations at the event by other speakers - I particularly enjoyed the ones by John Valentine (from SCVNGR), Megan Miller (on usability of iPad apps) and Ola Larsen (from RIM). Ola showed a video that I thought was pretty cool, on Hyper-Augmented Reality. You can see the video below and get an insight into what one version of the future of AR could be like. Enjoy!
Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Key iOS 5 Developer features - a CEO’s perspective
Most of the news leaving the hallowed halls of the Moscone West building in San Francisco, where Apple’s Developer Conference - WWDC 2011 - is taking place, centres around the announcement of iOS 5 and its fluffy new features and services such as iCloud, iMessage, Newsstand, and Reminders. Surprisingly, very little has been reported on the major technical improvements in iOS 5 from a developer perspective. And iOS 5 has a lot of big improvements for developers.
Here are the features that I truly believe will make a major improvement to a developer’s life:
1. Notification Center
One of the main complaints over iOS in the last six months has been the inflation of push notifications that disturb the user experience with an iPhone or iPad. Notification Center in iOS 5 builds on the existing notification system with provisioning now built right into Xcode, making it easier to implement.
With the new Notification Center in iOS 5 you can display and manage notifications without interrupting the user. The user can see all notifications in a single place via the Notification Center from the home screen or from any app by swiping down the status bar. When the user gets a new notification it will briefly appear at the top of the screen instead of a popup. The lock screen also displays the notifications so you can respond to them quickly with just a swipe.
To read more about the Notification Center visit here.
2. Automatic Reference Counting (ARC)
I might be going out on a limb here, but in my opinion the ARC is what is normally referred to as garbage collector. One of the key complaints by Android developers, particularly when developing for iOS, is the difficult of memory management in iOS. This also affects users since apps constantly crash. With ARC though, the developer no longer needs to be an expert in memory management as the compiler does the job for you. In theory this should allow apps to run faster and more reliably. Whether it will make apps more stable in general or cause developers to become sloppy remains to be seen.
3. Twitter integration
To be fair this has been one of the main features discussed in the media. But I believe this is more due to the fact that the media loves Twitter. What they don’t say though is that Android has supported Twitter and other social networking integration for over a year, as Android allows apps to interact with each other. Nevertheless, iOS now provides the key features of Twitter as well. The deep integration allows the association of a Twitter account within iOS settings. So now the integration with an app does not have to be done by the user by logging in and or adding an account manually. Since most apps nowadays provide sharing through Twitter, this will enhance the user’s experience enormously.
To be fair this has been one of the main features discussed in the media. But I believe this is more due to the fact that the media loves Twitter. What they don’t say though is that Android has supported Twitter and other social networking integration for over a year, as Android allows apps to interact with each other. Nevertheless, iOS now provides the key features of Twitter as well. The deep integration allows the association of a Twitter account within iOS settings. So now the integration with an app does not have to be done by the user by logging in and or adding an account manually. Since most apps nowadays provide sharing through Twitter, this will enhance the user’s experience enormously.
4. Core Image
During the last year some of the coolest and most popular apps have been photo editing or photo filtering apps such as Instagram, Hipstamatic, Camerabag, Photogene and many more. Core Image provides a framework for editing images and videos, making it a lot easier to implement these features into any app. In addition to this, the framework is tightly integrated with the hardware to make performance even better.
5. OpenGL ES
The new OpenGL capabilities are what really excite game developers and 3D animators.
With the GL Kit in iOS 5 the capabilities for advanced rendering and texture techniques have become even better, and we are yet to see how those capabilities can be utilised.
6. PC Free
The sixth and last feature I want to highlight has little to do with the developer SDK but may turn out to become one of the biggest advantages. Today the majority of users upgrade to the latest iOS within the first couple of months. Some though, will still stick to an older version and cause headaches for developers in terms of backwards interoperability support. Hopefully PC Free will be so tempting a feature that only a small share of users will remain with older versions of the OS. Unfortunately, however, Apple also announced that the oldest iPhones cannot be upgraded to iOS 5 so some legacy issues will still remain.
So there you have a CEO’s perspective on iOS 5. Let’s start making use of it when it’s launched (hopefully) in September.
Golden Gekko is attending WWDC but it seems, playing with the SDK and Apple’s other new toys has kept them too busy to give us a full report yet.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
NFC and Co.: The Most Promising Mobile Payment Solutions
NFC has created a lot of buzz lately. But will Near- Field –Communication become the number one solution for all mobile payments? The last 6-12 months showed the mobile payment ecosystem is taking shape with or without NFC. As operators, banks and credit card companies still fight over the biggest piece of the NFC revenue cake, other standards as proprietary and complementary technologies are developing at a much faster pace.
The term “Mobile Payment” refers to all payments and transactions carried out from and through a mobile phone for services, content and physical goods.
1. Credit card payments
Credit card payment is without a doubt the most common mobile payment solution. Apple is one of the biggest providers, using iTunes as the standard method for all payments other than vouchers. Credit card payment is also the standard method for most if not all m-Commerce applications, including retailers, travel bookings and more. One of the barriers for making credit card payments through mobile apps easy, is the requirement of PKI certification. This usually costs the developer up to 50.000 euro or more. Most merchants and developers get around installing a proper in-app solution by using a website or mobile website for the payment part. The disadvantage hereby
is that the user in most cases has to enter a lot of data every time they make a payment.
Credit card payment is without a doubt the most common mobile payment solution. Apple is one of the biggest providers, using iTunes as the standard method for all payments other than vouchers. Credit card payment is also the standard method for most if not all m-Commerce applications, including retailers, travel bookings and more. One of the barriers for making credit card payments through mobile apps easy, is the requirement of PKI certification. This usually costs the developer up to 50.000 euro or more. Most merchants and developers get around installing a proper in-app solution by using a website or mobile website for the payment part. The disadvantage hereby
is that the user in most cases has to enter a lot of data every time they make a payment.
2. Premium SMS payments
Still a very widely used payment method for micropayments is Premium SMS. It is broadly used for instance for parking, bus tickets, content purchases, vending machines, etc. To make this work operators in several countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, UK, etc) have changed their standard revenue share models and created what resembles a credit card payment. The main handicap is the limit of about 5 euro per transaction, which restricts long term growth. But the simplicity of premium SMS payments for small and simple things should not be underestimated.
Still a very widely used payment method for micropayments is Premium SMS. It is broadly used for instance for parking, bus tickets, content purchases, vending machines, etc. To make this work operators in several countries (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, UK, etc) have changed their standard revenue share models and created what resembles a credit card payment. The main handicap is the limit of about 5 euro per transaction, which restricts long term growth. But the simplicity of premium SMS payments for small and simple things should not be underestimated.
3. Paypal
Paypal was actually founded based on the concept of mobile money transfers between PDAs before it was evolved to its current service. It’s deployment for mobile payment therefore means a return to its roots. Being an established brand with a trusted technology and over 100m users put Paypal into a pole position for becoming a major mobile payment player. Nevertheless most users have never made use of Paypal on their mobile.
Paypal was actually founded based on the concept of mobile money transfers between PDAs before it was evolved to its current service. It’s deployment for mobile payment therefore means a return to its roots. Being an established brand with a trusted technology and over 100m users put Paypal into a pole position for becoming a major mobile payment player. Nevertheless most users have never made use of Paypal on their mobile.
Paypal is used as the standard method for Blackberry World. But still most Paypal transactions take place on eBay and Skype. Recently Paypal sued Google for copying their mobile payment technology. Paypal however, is not likely to benefit from the trial in terms of growing usage of the platform. Yet Paypal has a massive growth potential in the mobile payment space thanks to its secure and easy payments, leveraging direct links to bank accounts.
4. Google Wallet
Wherever there is an opportunity to collect customer data, Google will come running. For the last couple of years Google has slowly grown Google Checkouts as a solution for online stores. Now they are rapidly moving into the mobile payment space leveraging the growth of Android. The most recent initiative is a partnership with several of the top banks in the US, providing built-in NFC chips and NFC stickers attached to the back of Android devices. A lot more will certainly follow soon.
Wherever there is an opportunity to collect customer data, Google will come running. For the last couple of years Google has slowly grown Google Checkouts as a solution for online stores. Now they are rapidly moving into the mobile payment space leveraging the growth of Android. The most recent initiative is a partnership with several of the top banks in the US, providing built-in NFC chips and NFC stickers attached to the back of Android devices. A lot more will certainly follow soon.
5. Square
Thanks to the partnership with and support from Apple, Square as become a leading player in the mobile payment space. One of the interesting things about Square is that it enables small businesses to accept credit card payments in a very cost efficient way. The only props needed are a standard iPad, iPhone or Android device and a small reader that can be plugged into the audio jack.
Thanks to the partnership with and support from Apple, Square as become a leading player in the mobile payment space. One of the interesting things about Square is that it enables small businesses to accept credit card payments in a very cost efficient way. The only props needed are a standard iPad, iPhone or Android device and a small reader that can be plugged into the audio jack.
6. Local partnerships/ initiatives between operators and banks
Some markets have been quicker than others to establish mobile payment solutions. First and foremost Japan and Korea act as the leaders in this space. Similar initiatives in Belgium and France put those local markets ahead of the game on a European level. Partnerships and standards though are usually local with limited potential to grow beyond their domestic market.
Some markets have been quicker than others to establish mobile payment solutions. First and foremost Japan and Korea act as the leaders in this space. Similar initiatives in Belgium and France put those local markets ahead of the game on a European level. Partnerships and standards though are usually local with limited potential to grow beyond their domestic market.
Other interesting companies to watch for mobile payment include mFoundry, Zong, Boku, etc.
So what about NFC then?
NFC is really an enabler and not a mobile payment platform or method. The success of NFC will depend on device manufacturer adopting the technology as well as the integration of banks and credit card companies. It is also interesting to note that the implementations are primarily being driven by companies that monitor and store customer behaviour and data (e.g. Google). This may not always be in the interest of the end users. Nevertheless, penetration of NFC is increasing and we believe that it has a good chance to become a key enabler for mobile payments in the future. In the meantime however, mobile payments will happen with or without NFC.
NFC is really an enabler and not a mobile payment platform or method. The success of NFC will depend on device manufacturer adopting the technology as well as the integration of banks and credit card companies. It is also interesting to note that the implementations are primarily being driven by companies that monitor and store customer behaviour and data (e.g. Google). This may not always be in the interest of the end users. Nevertheless, penetration of NFC is increasing and we believe that it has a good chance to become a key enabler for mobile payments in the future. In the meantime however, mobile payments will happen with or without NFC.
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
How to Make Money off Apps: Monetising Models for Mobile Applications
Frankly, most app and game developers don’t make any money with their apps. This is not very surprising, considering that:
- 250.000 mobile apps are already available on Apple Appstore and Android Market respectively
- Marketing an app can be expensive if you don’t know the tricks
- Size matters – it is easier to promote an app if you have 10 apps that you can cross-promote than if you only have one
AdMob App Usage Study Feb. 2010
There are 5 basic ways of monetizing apps:
1. Paid apps
The most direct way to monetize an app is to charge for it. Paid-for apps though, compete with a broad variety of free apps and free alternatives. Still, AdMob found that 50% of iPhone owners buy at least one paid app a month and the average paid iPhone app has sold 101,024 copies over a lifetime of 261 days. So despite a low average price of $ 2,33 per app developers can still hope for a decent revenue, if the content is relevant and offers great value to users.
2. Subscriptions
Instead of charging for one-time download, subscription models charge for content within an app. Particularly reasonable for apps that offer a lot and fast changing content like magazines or newspapers, virus protection, music streaming and more.
3. In-app payments/ sales
14% of the daily revenue on the Android Market is generated with in-app purchases, including the purchase of virtual goods, unlocking features, promoting oneself in communities, access to content and more. In-app purchases are available for iOS and Android and can be implemented in both free and paid apps.
4. In app advertising
If providing interesting content or offers, in-app advertising is great for apps with high and frequent usage such as news, sport, weather, social networking, etc.. Ad space can be sold via ad networks like AdMob, inMobi, iAd (Apple) etc. Customers are paying based on impressions or per click on the ad, so for this model to work, high usage rate is essential in order generate substantial revenues.
GomoNews have published a list of ad networks here http://www.gomonews.com/mads/
5. Sponsored apps
e.g. Timeout UK, Cocktail guides, Cookbooks, Racing games, etc. One of the most common ways of monetizing an app. If a company sponsors or fully pays for an app as a way to promote their brand, there is little risk for the developer, but also little space for unexpected wealth.
The most successful app developers such as Rovio (Angry Birds) use a combination of paid apps and free apps with advertising. The free app targets a wide audience and makes money through adverts and then promotes the full pro version. This is usually referred to as the freemium model.
Some key stats:
- Apple has paid out more than $2bn to iOS app developers (Press Conference Apple, Dec 2010)[ii]
- 7% of iPhone and iPod touch owners have spent more than $50 on games in the last three months (DFC, March 2010)[iii]
- iOS users have an average of 37 apps on their devices, compared to 22 for Android users and 10 for BlackBerry users (Nielsen, USA, Sep 2010)[iv]
- The average smartphone owner downloads 15 apps to their handset, keeps 12 of them, and uses 5 every day (GfK, UK, Sep 2010)[v]
- US iPhone users download 60 apps a year (YG, USA, Sep 2010)[vi]
- iPod touch users that purchase paid apps spend $11.39 vs. $9.55 webOS vs. $8.36 Android, vs. $8.18 iPhone (AdMob, Feb 2010)
Some other key insights are:
- To make money, the app needs to offer something beyond what other free apps in the same category offer
- When offering a lite and a pro version of an app, it is essential that the pro version really offers more value than the lite version
- Great ratings and updates are critical in keeping people buying apps
- The majority of premium app revenue comes from games
- Many apps generate a lot of revenue the first month when it’s new. Unless constantly updated and promoted it then dies a slow death
So how do you make money from mobile apps then?
The answer is simply that you can make money from apps through a combination of creativity, hard work and a bit of luck. The key ingredients to success however are:
a) Make sure you have a great idea/concept for your app to begin with
b) Know who your target audience is and come up with a marketing and PR plan focused on them
c) Try different types of monetising methods depending on the app and target audience
d) Experiment, experiment and experiment more with updates, pricing, marketing, etc
Good luck and tell us if you find a secret way of making money!
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