Mobile Applications - TheWayoftheWeb

Global mobile web usage reality check

November 25, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

When it comes to the mobile web, it’s easy to presume that the world is dominated by North America and Europe, and the leading companies are Apple and Google (Android).

Handily, Royal Pingdom just did a nice bit of analysis showing exactly how far that is from the truth, based on figures from Statcounter and 3 million websites:

And in more detail:

Mobile web makes up around 3.81% of all global web usage
Web usage isn’t uniform across regions. In Africa, Chad has close to 29% mobile web usage, Nigeria just over 25%, Sudan just over 22%.
India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Turkmenistan and Bangladesh are all around 15%
Japan? 2.17% mobile web traffic.
Nokia phones dominate in these countries with unusually high shares, often more than 90% of traffic coming from Symbian phones. Then it’s usually Sony Ericsson, or Samsung handsets

Many businesses are concentrating on one territory at a time, and therefore global stats might not change your perception that much, but it’s important to note the manufacturer share globally and outside of the U.S (Where Nokia doesn’t really exist), before you make predictions of manufacturer viability for the future.

When you’re considering mobile websites and mobile applications, do you actually know which platform your consumers own and use?

Buffer

Filed Under: mobile, Mobile Applications Tagged With: android, apple, global mobile manufacturer shares, global mobile stats, global mobile web, mobile web, nokia, rim

Live cross-platform mobile gaming arrives

July 16, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

The idea of gaming with all your friends regardless of which console they use is fairly unusual, even today, but it’s already a reality in the mobile games market.

SGN launched plane combat game Skies of Glory on the iPhone last autumn, and now that the Android version has arrived today, owners of either OS can play against each other in real time. And you can either fight as mixed teams, or even have Apple owners taking on Android fans.

You’ll need to have Android 2.0 or higher, but the interesting thing is the open multiplayer platform framework which supports the different platforms, and also the range of wireless connectivity, including 3G and Wifi.

It’s a really cool and interesting move, and considering SGN and developers Revo Solutions have already come up with 18 million downloads on the iPhone and iPod Touch, it’s likely to be followed by more companies as mobile gaming continues to evolve.

Maybe the platform wars will finally come to an end if this becomes normal (mobile or console). Or at least the battles will go real-time online!

And why shouldn’t we interact regardless of platform. I can email a Mac user, call anyone on any make of handset, and see tweets, Facebook updates and location check-ins regardless of the technology I’m using. So why have consoles been so resolutely different?

Buffer

Filed Under: mobile, Mobile Applications, Videogames Tagged With: android, consoles, cross platform, gaming, iphone, mobile apps, skies of glory

HTML5 and a new mobile app from Absolute Radio

May 21, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

The Apple iPad is about to launch in the UK, and in preparation, Absolute Radio is now available in a HTML5 version for all you iPad and iPhone owners to be able to listen to all the audio and see all the videos.

And in case you’re wondering, that’s all the audio and video throughout the whole site – not just the first couple of pages.

And that’s in addition to the release of the all new Baddiel & Skinner Football Kit App for iPhone and Android, with support from Sony-Ericsson for the Android version.

It’s got the Baddiel & Skinner Absolute Radio Podcasts, a pub locator, score prediction game, red and yellow cards, football soundboard, an illustrated guide for doing goal celebrations, and a football rattle when you shake your phone!

This is the link for iTunes. And you can find it via your handset on Android. The great news is that it went straight into the Top 20 Paid Sports Apps on the UK iTunes store, and it’s currently floating around the Top Ten.

(Disclosure: I work for Absolute Radio as Digital Marketing Manager.)

And in case I forget, I’m out and about over the next couple of weeks, so feel free to grab me for a chat etc if you see me at:

Specialist Media Show, May 25th, Peterborough (Hosting a round table on mobile)

Open Mobile Summit, May 26th, London (Doing a quick 2 minute piece on our work on Nokia platforms at a couple of different times during the day in the Nokia lounge.)

M-Publishing, June 1, London (Hosting a round table on mobile publishing).

So come chat if you spot me…

Buffer

Filed Under: mobile, Mobile Applications Tagged With: absolute radio, android, app, baddiel & skinner, football kit, html5, ipad, iphone, m-publishing, mobile apps, mobile publishing, nokia, open mobile, optimisation, website

M-Publishing – a must attend event for publishers…

April 21, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

Most media companies are either publishing mobile applications or looking to increase their activity on mobile handsets – so where can you get some insight into the best ways to get mobile successfully?

Looking at the line-up and agenda, M-Publishing on June 1st at RIBA in London will be one of the best ways to find out in a short space of time – which is all most people have at the moment. I’m always impressed at the quality of people speaking and hosting round tables at Camerjam events and this one is no exception (Disclosure – I’m friends with Camerjam founder James Cameron – which came about after seeing his previous events).

So you get a mix of speakers, panels and roundtables – with speakers and hosts from companies including the Evening Standard, Nokia, Admob, Microsoft, Harper Collins, Guardian, FT, Thomson Reuters, and a range of mobile developers and specialists.

Plus I’m hosting one of six roundtables which aim to create a mobile strategy for fictional publisher, aiming to get into specific challenges to develop more insight. Other roundtable hosts include my good friends Jonathan MacDonald and Neil Perkin.

So you should be interested by now – and there’s more good news. James has given me a discount code so you can save on the £292.58 price, and get tickets for just £199 +VAT. Just go to M-Publishing Tickets, and enter the code ‘mobiPUB’.

Buffer