Tag Archives: tablets Blog

Internet Trends Report

Knowing how and where people get information tells us how and where to deliver our messages and services. With that in mind, Kleiner Perkins analyst Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report is a valuable compilation of research and observation. It sheds light on these areas to help us keep up with the ever-changing business/tech landscape. This year’s report, delivered at the recent “All Things Digital” conference, highlights several notable trends.

The move to mobile is in full throttle. Laptop and desktop sales will continue to decline as smartphones and tablets become the devices of choice in the “Post PC” era. Apple and Samsung claimed a combined 51% market share of global smartphone unit sales in Q4 2012, making them the dominant players in the field.

  • Tablets are being adopted even more quickly than smartphones. For the first 12 quarters after launch, iPads have sold 3-times faster than iPhones. Tablet sales also eclipsed sales of desktops and laptops for Q4 2012, and projections are that annual tablet shipments will surpass laptops in 2013 and total PCs in 2015.
  • Mobile Internet traffic is now 15% of total global internet traffic.
  • Time spent with print and radio continues to trend downward while TV and Internet remain steady. Mobile, on the other hand, continues to trend upward. Interestingly, the money that advertisers spend on print is 4-times greater than the time users spend there, while money spent on mobile advertising is one-fourth of the time spent, pointing to a $20B opportunity as advertisers catch up.

The entire presentation is 117 slides and provides information on media, global browsing, and wearable tech.

View full report: [no longer available]

The Mobile Challenge and Opportunity

Everyone is talking about the shift to mobile. We can expect changes in how we do business and get information as smartphones and tablets proliferate. This article points to three strategic problems businesses must solve as workforces become more mobile.

Just as the internet fundamentally changed consumer behaviour and the way we do business in the 1990s, the continued rise of mobile is set to be a major disruptive force over the next decade … That is backed up by a recent Gartner survey of 2,000 chief information officers (CIOs) worldwide, with 70% putting mobile top of the list ahead of other trends such as big data, social media and cloud computing as the technology that will disrupt established business models most for the next 10 years.

Many economic benefits will drive the spread of mobile technology. For our businesses, it’s an excellent time to develop strategies to connect with customers and partners when they’re on the go.

Read full article: http://linkd.in/130cV6a

Apps vs Browsers? No Contest. It’s Apps!

When apps, those little applications that run on smartphones and tablets, first came out a few years ago, a debate arose over which were better, apps or mobile websites, and which would consumers prefer. Developers thought that offering tailored services through a browser was much more desirable, from both cost and usability standpoints, rather than apps, which users would have to update continually, and developers would have to maintain for several platforms. But consumers, hands down, have chosen apps. There’s something about these little one-trick ponies that people have come to love.

In this recent report from Flurry, a mobile analytics and advertising platform, it’s clear that apps command the most time spent on mobile devices by a whopping 4-to-1 ratio. Apps are obviously something consumers want.

Today, the U.S. consumer spends an average of 2 hours and 38 minutes per day on smartphones and tablets. 80% of that time (2 hours and 7 minutes) is spent inside apps and 20% (31 minutes) is spent on the mobile web. Apps (and Facebook) are commanding a meaningful amount of consumers’ time. All mobile browsers combined … control 20% of consumers’ time. Gaming apps remain the largest category of all apps with 32% of time spent. Facebook is second with 18%, and Safari is 3rd with 12%. Worth noting is that a lot of people are consuming web content from inside the Facebook app. For example, when a Facebook user clicks on a friend’s link or article, that content is shown inside its web view without launching a native web browser, which keeps the user in the app. So if we consider the proportion of Facebook app usage that is within their web view,  we can assert that Facebook has become the most adopted browser in terms of consumer time spent.

The article covers several additional points of interest regarding apps, but the takeaway is that it’s time to think about how to use apps to best serve customers. There’s also an opportunity to explore what other economies apps can provide. People are using them, so offering them will become a differentiator in the burgeoning mobile world.

Read full article: [no longer available]

The Post PC Era

 “Post-PC Era: a social and technological phenomenon in which computing experiences become ubiquitous, casual, intimate, and physical.”

It’s upon us. But why the big deal. Does anyone really “like” PCs? Yes, they help us do lots of creative, productive things — when they work. And computing power keeps increasing while the chips they run on get smaller and smaller, just as it always has. Isn’t it just a matter of time before we can have an entire system with terabytes of data embedded into a wristwatch? So why the hype?

But of course, it’s not as simple as that. With heightened technology comes shifts in the way we do things. And when this happens on a mass scale, business, society, and culture all end up changing as well, and not always without some pain.

“Tablets are breakthrough devices. You can see that in the way that people have adopted them into their daily lives. Their deep functionality and highly attractive form (plus the cool quotient of simply being seen with one) have made tablets a normal element in many backpacks, briefcases, and fancy purses, and with good reason: with the iPad and the many other tablet offerings, we finally see the transition of computing ability away from being a distinct activity (“I’m going to the living room to surf the web”) to simply being a thing we can do whenever, wherever, and whyever we want.”

The Post PC Era means that more people will be connected and have access to in-depth information more of the time, on smaller and cheaper (and hopefully easier to use) devices. And it will come faster than anyone expects. It’s upon us.

Read full article: http://bit.ly/riwmRK

Tablet Content: Apps or Browser?

We all know that the success of tablet computers is tied to the content they deliver. We never hear the whizzy specs typically touted for desktop and laptop computers in selling tablets. We see people on the go, happily bringing their content with them. Tablets allow us to go anywhere and have all our books, movies, photos, music, magazines, and newspapers available in a lightweight, instant-on, easy-to-carry, and easy-to-use device. However, the problem for publishers is to create a user experience that’s as satisfying as the original medium. And that can be difficult when it comes to reading. How should pages turn? How should they be numbered? What about fonts? And is it even possible to “curl up” with an electronic device?

Consumers are offering answers to these questions, but are publishers listening? Or are they trying to create a “value-added” experience that exploits the new technologies to “wow” consumers into buying? The following article addresses this concern and shows how publishers, in their efforts to “enhance” the reading experience, may be giving consumers far more than they want when all they want is content. A question arises: is it worth delivering textual content in apps, or is it better through the browser?

Developers on the mobile web know how problematic app development is. Separate apps must be created and maintained for each platform, and consumers must purchase, install, and maintain the apps. On the other hand, browsers provide much more reliable delivery, more easily shared content, and a much wider audience that can be reached. Presently publishers seem to be favoring apps for the “rich experience” they offer. Are consumers being properly served?

Read full article: Publishers Should Be Developing for the Mobile Web Instead of Making Replica Apps