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QR codes: (not) the next big thing?

Submitted by Steve Smith on Fri, 22/07/2011 - 14:01
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You may have seen those odd looking black and white labels around. On outdoor posters, in magazines, in shop windows, on packaging and so on.

Problem is, they aren’t very user friendly. It’s almost ironic that QR stands for Quick Response. For many people, they are anything but. Before scanning your first code, you have to download some software then load it up. Subsequently, you have to find the app, get the right distance away, take a photo, hope your network responds, then wait for a web page to load. Which is all a little awkward.

When Google Places launched, a business could put a sign with a QR code in its front window. People were able to scan the sign and their mobile browser would launch the Google Places page for the business. Not any more. Google quietly phased out support for QR Codes from its Google Places service in March this year.

Then what did Google do? It became a principal member of the NFC Forum. NFC (Near Field Communications) chips are set to ship with smartphones and provide a much simpler way to achieve many of the tasks QR codes can. But instead of pointing your phone at a QR code, scanning it, and waiting, you need to hold your phone near to a sign with an NFC chip and get the same results.

But NFC has its problems. It will only work for those phones that have the chip. And then there are issues of permissions and security.

Perhaps a third way is Google Goggles. Point your phone at an image and Google will search for it. Although, as with QR codes, you need a signal (which means the London Tube is out), this seems to be the most simple solution. Point and shoot, whether the image is right in front of you or across the road.

An issue with Google Goggles is that people need to know to use it. A QR code is a call to action. The very simplicity of Google Goggles is that it doesn’t need one. To get the ball rolling, brands should consider using the Google Goggles logo and name.

In the short term, QR codes, NFC and Google Goggles will exist alongside each other, but will make life just that little bit more complicated.

Out of the three, I’d put a small bet on Google Goggles.

Well, until something else comes along.
Steve is Head of Thought Leadership at Starcom MediaVest Group, London

Brands and smartphones

Submitted by Steve Smith on Sat, 16/07/2011 - 14:37
Steve Smith's picture

Working in media, it’s easy to think that almost everyone owns an iPhone or Android smartphone.

This isn’t the case.

The UK is at least eighteen months away from when half of all mobile phone users are smart phone owners, and in the US, penetration stands at about 38%. In APAC, smartphone penetration is even lower (South Korea and Japan not withstanding).

Of course, people with smartphones represent an attractive audience because they tend to be more wealthy. However, it is easy to overlook how some brands are clearly missing out on a large number of people if those brands’ mobile services are only accessible via smartphones.

Enter Facebook, which has launched ‘Facebook for Every Phone’, a Java-based app which works on feature phones that are app enabled. Despite requiring less processing power than smart phones, it still has inbox, ‘find friends’, photos and news feed functionality.

Facebook for Every Phone is also more data efficient than its smartphone counterpart, which is useful for customers without comprehensive data plans to keep costs down.

Facebook is working with carriers worldwide. Although take up is likely to be concentrated in countries with low smartphone penetrations, Three in the UK is one of the Facebook for Every Phone partners, which also plans to give users free data access to the app for 90 days.

Facebook demonstrates that brands need to at least consider making sure their services are available on internet enabled feature phones, especially their social media services. If they don't, they may be missing out on a considerable section of society.

Tech Tuesday 5-7-11

Submitted by Scott Thompson on Tue, 05/07/2011 - 21:54
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BARB announce rollout of web viewing meter. Following a trial project which ended in May this year, TV measurement body BARB will be rolling out a web TV viewing meter in 100 BARB panel homes during the second half of this year. BARB then plans to extend it to up to 1,100 homes during 2012, with around 2,500 people participating in the combined measurement process in a staged approach, to ensure that the existing quality of TV audience measurement and reporting is not compromised.

The announcement has been welcomed by the IPA, with Research Director Lynne Robinson calling it a significant step for the television industry.

In the online world of advertising, although Amazon has been selling ads for some time, they have been limited to ads on its own sites (such as Amazon itself and IMDB.) But news this week is that Amazon is partnering with the Triggit DSP.

Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal's "AllThingsD" carries the headline is that Amazon is creating an ad network– which perhaps undervalues the key differences between ad exchanges and ad networks; the technology of a DSP gives Amazon much clearer understanding of the value of its data and how it is being used. I've written here before about the value of Amazon's customer database, and I would expect to see this being just the first step by Amazon towards making the most of this locked-away value beyond on-site suggestions.

In a blog post, Twitter has announced that it has hit the milestone of 200 million tweets per day. As seems to be traditional when big numbers are announced, Twitter provide some real-world equivalents to help visualise what that means (along with some nice graphics and the top trending topics);

For perspective, every day, the world writes the equivalent of a 10 million-page book in Tweets or 8,163 copies of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Reading this much text would take more than 31 years and stacking this many copies of War and Peace would reach the height of about 1,470 feet, nearly the ground-to-roof height of Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the world.

Meanwhile, the company is facing more serious issues, as it is under investigation by the FTC for its business practices, apparently due to the way it is dealing with developers of 3rd party applications. This follows some interesting movements, as Ubermedia (a company that owns a number of Twitter clients) looked set to take advantage of Twitters "open" platform and potentially build their own business around users' end experience (for example, by selling their own advertising into users' Twitter streams, bypassing Twitters ad model.) This culminated when Twitter bought Tweedeck for $40 million- apparently in a defensive move against Ubermedia.

Another Twitter partnership is looking like it might be on shaky ground as its search deal with Google has expired. Google's "realtime" search has quietly disappeared, as the deal with Twitter to include Twitter results apparently expired on July 2nd. Although there is no official news on what Google plan to replace it with, it seems likely that it will involve the recently announced "Google+" social 'project'- perhaps tying users' own social connections to make more relevant Tweets appear in search listings? I'm sure we will see soon…

On the mobile side of things, a large patent portfolio has been up for auction in the US, where Google put forward a $4 billion bid… and lost. A consortium of six companies (Apple, Microsoft, RIM, EMC, Ericsson and Sony) won the auction of 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications with a $4.5 billion bid. The auction (and partnerships) highlights the complexity of the mobile marketplace; the value of the smartphone market goes beyond simply selling handsets; patents on hardware and software are creating complicated deals between platform owners, and the value of patents alone can be more profitable than selling handsets- recent analysis at Asymco.com indicate that Microsoft make more money from Android than Windows Mobile.

Some interesting things have been happening in the world of mobile games– specifically with what must be one of the biggest mobile games ever; Angry Birds. Developer Rovio have already been learning interesting lessons about the mobile applications platform – apparently making over £600,000 a month from the free, ad-supported Android version (which followed the paid-for iPhone edition.) In a deal with Barnes and Noble announced this week, Angry Birds on the Nook e-reader platform will now include a location-based feature; play the game in a Barnes & Noble store, and gamers will get a free Mighty Eagle bonus…

If you don't know what the Mighty Eagle is, then you probably aren't one of the 75 million people who are spending 200 million minutes a day playing the game.) But you could always wait for Angry Birds the movie, which is apparently going to become a reality soon.

The mind boggles…

Some implications of the ‘cloud’ for brand owners

Submitted by Steve Smith on Fri, 01/07/2011 - 09:21
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The cloud is big news. For the consumer, Apple announced the launch of iCloud, on 6 June. And on 28 June, Microsoft launched Office 365, that makes its flagship applications available to professionals and small businesses via the internet.

But what is the cloud? In brief, it includes:

  1. Remote storage of data (such as office files, music, photos, and movies) for individuals and organisations, away from the PC and on-site servers
  2. 'Software as a service', in which people access and use software on an ‘on-demand’ basis
  3. 'Platform as a service', which enables applications to be used (and designed) via the internet without having to purchase and manage underlying hardware and software.
  4. Business process as a service, in which an organization provides a service via the cloud to other businesses, employees and consumers

For the consumer

The cloud marks a significant change for brands’ customers. The importance for them is that the internet becomes a hub for creating and storing content, and for communications. Rather than being tied to a particular computer, they are able to access and use programs, files, music, video, photos, social media other data across a variety of devices including laptops, tablets and smartphones.

In reality, many people have been using the cloud for a while, such as through Gmail, Facebook and Flickr. The desire to communicate and maintain personal communities online will be drivers to using the cloud, and people will use the cloud as a catalyst to sharing even more content even more frequently, and collaborate with other people in its production and dissemination.

Contrary to many commentators, the cloud does not mean we will ‘live our lives online’. Rather, users will use the cloud to bring offline and online together. A cited fear about the cloud is that programs and content are somewhere ‘out there’. But in terms of people’s experiences, data ‘out there’ in the cloud means data on their devices wherever they are 24/7 (subject of course to connectivity and other vital caveats).

Implications for brand owners

As people use the cloud more and more and integrate it into their everyday lives, then so they open up for brands a much wider online channel for them to engage people. People’s use of the cloud to maintain personal communities provides huge opportunities for brand owners to facilitate this maintenance, such as through content, services, relevant and immersive experiences, and carefully targeted advertising.

More fundamentally, we see a new relationship emerging between brand owners and people marked by collaboration – people and brands interacting, conversing and working together to produce content and solutions. Centring on social, this means it is not only imperative that brand owners have a social strategy, they must understand what having a social strategy is for. Vitally, social should be integral part of each marketing campaign, and not a ‘bolt-on’.

Benefits of using the cloud for businesses

Two benefits to businesses are around cost and scalability.

Cost

Outlay and expenditure on computing hardware, software and expertise in maintaining computer systems is a big drawback of conventional computing. The requirement for specialist IT skills to operate data centres and complex IT infrastructures and maintain network operations can decline significantly for organisations that use cloud computing. Difference between cloud software costs and in-house applications can be up to 180% in their third year for a medium size organisation.

Scalability

Cloud services are provided on a self-service basis, on-demand and in real time. The degree of flexibility that this enables impacts cost, and users only pay for the resources they consume. For example, users of Amazon's cloud service set up a virtual server that acts in the same way as a regular server. But unlike a regular server, users can add more or less CPU power, memory, and storage space, and only pay for what they use; they don’t pay for the time that servers aren’t used.

Concerns about using the cloud for businesses

Two major concerns that consistently come up in interviews with organisations are security and vendor lock-in.

Security

Security is the biggest concern, particularly for holders of sensitive data, such as financial and health services. Yet in most instances, cloud suppliers will have better security that their clients would ever have, and a distinct advantage of using the cloud once logged off, there is nothing to be hacked into, lost or stolen. Two things suppliers can do are to ensure that clients' data and applications are more secure than if stored locally, and instil confidence through transparency and communicating the processes and procedures in place.

Vendor lock-in

Another criticism is that cloud computing potentially locks users in to providers' services, making users dependent upon them. But how different is this from much conventional software? Nevertheless, potential cloud users should find out how easy it is to migrate their data to other suppliers, and suppliers should not to lock customers into their platforms. Providers need to facilitate migration.

Conclusion

For the consumer, the cloud means access to and sharing of content among their personal communities wherever they are, 24/7 across their eco-system of devices – computers, laptops, smartphones, tablets and media players (including TV). This behaviour means significant widening of the online channel for brand owners to engage and collaborate with them.

For IT buyers, cloud services enable them to move resources away from secondary business processes toward their core business propositions, releasing much needed cash. Suppliers must help buyers to help them understand and quantify the benefits of employing cloud services.



Steve is Head of Thought Leadership at Starcom MediaVest Group, London

What having a social strategy should really be about

Submitted by Steve Smith on Thu, 30/06/2011 - 09:53
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Having a social strategy is a strategic imperative, and organisations need help. According to a survey just released , over three quarters (78%) of business executives say that having a social strategy is critical to the future success of their businesses. Yet only 17% of the same executives believe that their companies are "ahead of the curve" in terms of adequate adoption of a social strategy.

But why have a social strategy?

In the same survey, 66% believe that social applications for business represent a fundamental shift in how work will get done and how companies will engage with customers; 53% believe they must adopt a social business model or risk falling behind; 62% cite the potential to achieve "better customer loyalty and service levels"; 57% anticipate "increased revenue or sales" as a result of implementing a social strategy; and 62% think that businesses need to leverage social software inside and outside their organizations in order to remain competitive.

Further, 70% of executives have downloaded at least 1 web-based application for work use either on their mobile device or personal computer; and 92% believe that work-related web-based apps greatly or somewhat increases their productivity.

Communication remains one of the top work challenges. 77% of executives indicate that email usage in the workplace has increased in the last two years, but 89% say that they and their teams would be more productive if they could dramatically reduce the time spent writing and reading emails.

Most importantly however, is that 73% of executives agree that social platforms will fundamentally change the way people share, connect and learn at work and with companies.

This point is the crux. Social platforms represent a paradigm shift away from merely communicating, toward embracing collaboration within businesses, between businesses, and vitally, between businesses and people. And by ‘collaboration’ I mean ‘working with’, ‘adding to something’ and 'creating conversations', most obviously around content, but also ideas and solutions. Collaboration should be the top reason brand owners have in mind when designing content and experiences. It's about working with people. Sometimes we want facts, but the greatest value achieved for brand owners and us as individuals is when we participate in brands, content and experiences. We want to add to our world and the world of others; we want to make a difference.

The message is that people collaborate all the time. Businesses have to do the same. Social media provide that opportunity.

Steve is Head of Thought Leadership at Starcom MediaVest Group, London.

Tech Tuesday, 28-6-11

Submitted by Scott Thompson on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 21:28
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It must have been a busy week over at Google. Although the inclusion of behavioral targeting in AdWords (or "interest based advertising" as Google prefer to call it), a first glimpse at the next generation of Google TV, and a tool to convert Flash to HTML5 would in most weeks be worth putting at the top of Tech Tuesday's round-up, what will no doubt be seen as the big news this week came out just a few hours ago, when Google announced the "Google+" project.

Their latest and most comprehensive effort in the "social" space, the project (note- not "product" or "service") ties together a number of different areas, aimed at replicating the way we share and communicate offline in a suite of online products; "+circles" (which is the most recognisable as a traditional "social network- ie. Facebook), "+sparks" (which sounds very similar to Quora), "+hangouts" (which sound similar to chartrooms), "+huddle" (a real-time instant message for groups) and "+mobile" (which seems to bring everything together in a mobile app.) Although the mobile app is available for Android now with iOS version(s?) to follow shortly, the Google+ service is currently invite-only.

Google explains it here in some more depth. Some more analysis from Om Malik at GigaOm explains why he sees the service as being no significant threat to Facebook, but with a greater potential impact on Skype.

Meanwhile, despite some recent speculation about Facebook's audience diminishing, figures from UKOM indicate that it now has a larger UK audience than MSN, making it the second biggest site in the UK in terms of monthly users.

Of course, the panel-based measurement system that UKOM currently uses in the UK probably under-represents Facebook's total audience and usage figures; as it is built around a PC meter, it doesn't include traffic from other devices, such as Macs, mobile phones, tablets or other "non-PC" devices. At least, not yet— Nielsen (the data provider for UKOM) have announced details of their planned move into a hybrid measurement system, combining panel-based measurement with site-centric tagging. MediaTel reports on the briefing Nielsen hosted earlier this week.

Nielsen aren't the first to launch a hybrid measurement system in the UK- comScore have been doing something similar for almost 2 years, and last week announced a new product built around this measurement, tracking non-PC devices usage. This included some surprising figures showing just how much traffic the iPad is accounting for, and I took a look at how  Apple devices dominate the UK's non-PC web traffic here last week.

Also on the topic of research, the IPA have announced some planned new features in IPA Touchpoints 4, the latest wave of a research project that looks at where different types of media fit into peoples' lives, which will add shopping behaviours, tablet usage and experiential events to the range of media that Touchpoints has already been covering since it's launch in 2005. (Naturally, at SMG, we will be involved in both of these research projects, with involvement in UKOM's technical group and liasing with the IPA in the development of Touchpoints 4.)

Over at Twitter, there are plans for new ad formats, including bringing "promoted" messages to users' main news stream. Perhaps the challenge of finding interesting ways to monetise Twitter's growth is a less exciting challenge than building up the service, as meanwhile Twitter's founders are taking a step back, returning to "Obvious"- the project they were working on originally where Twitter started life as a side-project.

The continued growth of online "social" sites and activities certainly looks set to grow. Which raises some interesting questions about what the future of "non-social" online activities are going to look like. With the growth of both social and digital, a report from the Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD suggests that the non-social web is actually shrinking.

So, a busy week! We will be taking a closer look at the Google+ project over the coming weeks as we get some more information about the different products (and hopefully some invitations!)

IAB and the "Worlds largest ever mobile event"

Submitted by Jennifer Craine on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 13:00
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Last week I joined 499 others to attend what was coined the ‘World’s largest ever mobile event’ and it appears that the clichéd ‘year of mobile’ might be finally upon us. Microsoft's Ashley Highfield opened the conference by pronouncing that 2011 is going to be the ‘tipping point of mobile.’

This year we have seen smart phone sales exceed PC purchases for the first time - nearly doubling from 55m to 100m ad spend has also doubled with a 116% increase from 2009 to 2010.

Ian Carrington, the Head of Mobile at Google then went on to explain how this year we are going to see the take off of NFC (near field communication) chips meaning our mobiles will affectively become our wallets allowing us to make secure payments direct from our smart phones. Being able to be so close to point of sale is going to lead to a real increase in mobile vouchering which, somewhat unsurprisingly, 63% of consumers believe to be the most affective form of mobile marketing. Carrington also showed us how advertisers are going to be able to amplify their print ads using mobile by putting RFID chips into print display ads which, when scanned, will provide more information and allow the consumer to click through to buy, effectively direct from the print ad.

Other key stats of interest included:

  • 1 in 4 mobile searches are voice activated, Google functions make it possible for you to just look at your phone, say the word ‘pizza’ and it will link with the Google map functionality and direct you to pizzerias in close proximity to where you are.
  • 86% of clients would be willing to pay more for location based advertising as it delivers better ROI. This is probably linked to the fact that 1 in 3 mobile searches has a location specific element to it and 81% of mobile users use mobile devices while shopping.
  • The average time from search on a PC to purchase is one month however, on mobile, it's just 1hr. Mobile search strategies need to recognise in this fact that they are much further down the purchase funnel as use this to their advantage with vouchering, special deals etc.
  • 20% of Internet time is spent on mobile, of that 50% is spent on Facebook proving that mobiles are still predominantly a social device.
  • 33% of all flowers bought online are bought on mobile, I assume these are mainly being bought by forgetful men.
  • 51% of phone owners have engaged with m.commerce.
  • Ebay reported selling three to four Ferraris via mobile a month. This was being used to sell in the point that mobile is not just being used to buy low involvement products, you could question this however as the ‘bid to buy’ model of ebay lends itself very well to mobile, much more so than other high worth retailers.

There are some nice infographics on the use of mobile available on the link below.

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7697-10-mind-blowing-mobile-infographics

Apple dominates UK's non-PC web traffic

Submitted by Scott Thompson on Fri, 24/06/2011 - 15:50
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ComScore have introduced a new measurement tool for web traffic to non-PC devices, and to announce the launch have published some very interesting figures from the tool.

One of the most astonishing trends is the significance of tablets - mainly the iPad - in terms of the volume of web traffic. In the UK, tablets already accounts for 21.6% of non-PC web traffic- just under a third of all mobile phones.

Considering that the tablet platform is barely a year old, this shows not just a remarkable adoption rate, but a remarkable amount of usage by these early adopters. A recent report from Enders Analysis estimated that around 1-1.5m tablets have been sold in the UK- and that 6% of adult mobile users claimed to own one (indicating a large degree of sharing within households.)

As well as dominating the huge volume of tablet traffic, Apple's iPhone is dominating the mobile traffic in the UK, accounting for 44% of all mobile traffic.

This means that, taking iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches, we see that Apple devices account for a remarkable 59.9% of non-PC web traffic.

For me, these figures really highlight the pace of change in the digital market- it isn't just what is happening online that we need to understand (a big enough problem on its own), but understanding the different devices and the opportunities (and threats) that they present.

Tech Tuesday 21-6-11

Submitted by Scott Thompson on Tue, 21/06/2011 - 18:57
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Online business continues to grow

Its a story that never seems to get old, but with a few reports published this week looking into different areas of growth of online business, it seems worth the occasional reminder that digital is still growing.

Firstly, the Global entertainment and media outlook from PwC outlines an expected growth of digital's share of all entertainment & media spending from 26% to 33%.

For the UK, PwC forecast a 4.8% increase over the next 4 years to £17.7 billion, with a rise of 11.2% for the online market (the only segment to be forecasted double digit growth.) However, although search advertising has previously been the main driver for the UK's online growth, social media and classified advertising are expected to be the source of the next wave of digital expansion.

Consumer spending on media and entertainment is expected to show slower growth of 2.7%, to hit £32.7bn by 2015, with £9.2bn being spent on accessing online media.

(Figures reported by NMA.co.uk)

Meanwhile, the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail index reported that online consumer spend in May was up 18% on last year to £5.3bn – equating to an average spend of £85 per person, with a total of £27.5 billion spent by consumers this year so far. By omitting travel (with "big ticket" spending in categories such as travel, electrical and home & garden still seeing the impact of the recession), an even more impressive growth of 21.5% is reported.

A similar report from the Office of National Statistics (PDF link) claims that ecommerce now accounts for 9.4% of the total retail market (excluding automotive fuel), up from 7.4% last year and 8.5% in April.

Guardian goes "Digital First"

But that's not to say that everything touched by digital turns to gold, as the chief executive of Guardian Media Group announced £33m in losses for last year, as while readership is moving online, revenues aren't following at the same pace, saying that they could run out of cash in three to five years if the business operations did not change.

The group is now committed to a "digital first" strategy, aiming to double digital revenues to nearly £100m by 2016. Editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said that an "open" digital philosophy would be embraced, bringing in contributions from beyond the ranks of its own journalists.

The move indicates that the Guardian doesn't believe that the decline in the print edition can be stopped or reversed, with Miller saying that "All newspapers will ultimately exit print, but we’re putting no timeframe on that.", and Rusbridger saying that "Every newspaper is on a journey into some kind of digital future. That doesn't mean getting out of print, but it does require a greater focus of attention, imagination and resource on the various forms that digital future is likely to take."

But rather than abandon the physical product, the newspaper could expect to see a redesign, aiming to be "as relevant at 9am as 9pm" and aiming to emulate "Newsnight not News at Ten."

ICANN opens new opportunities for web domain names

Top Level Domain Names (the last part of web addresses- ".com", ".org", ".int" etc.) have, until now, been intended to refer to either the geographic location of the web services, or provide information about the sort of services on offer (for example ".gov" indicating a US governmental agency, ".biz" indicating a business, ".mobi" indicating a site for mobile devices etc.)

ICANN – the body that oversees the management of internet names and addresses – have changed the system, allowing "groups" to create top level domains in any language or script.

What this means is that – in theory – large corporations (with $180,000+ to spare) will be able to set up a top level ".google" or ".msn" domain for their own use. What is more likely is that we will see more useful naming systems- so perhaps in a few years, you will get Premiership football updates from "premiership.sport" or "football.news", listen to music from "itunes.music", or find a nearby restaurant at "london.food" or "food.london". (Maybe you will end up finding us at "emergingspaces.media" – unless we can find the cash for "emerging.spaces"…)

ICANN have published a full guide (PDF link) to how the new system will work, and there is a useful 9 things you need to know post over at Mashable.com.

Mobile applications for catch-up TV

An ITV Player Android application has been launched, giving mobile access to ITV's catch-up TV services. Available across all Android 2.2-compatible devices, the app is free, although ITV haven't ruled out micropayments for content in the future.

With similar apps expected for Apple tablets and smartphones later in the year, this follows releases earlier this year of mobile applications for iPlayer and 4OD.

4OD's application is currently free, carrying sponsorship from Heineken, but it is understood that the long term strategy is to provide access for a one-off payment.

iPlayer is free for UK users but also this week, the BBC announced the first stage of a global rollout would begin with Western Europe. (Source: NMA.com) The international iPlayer would be a "different proposition" to the UK version– instead of serving as a catch-up service for broadcast TV content, the iPlayer will be the only way of accessing BBC content, which will be available for a monthly subscription of "less than £6", with a definitive amount yet to be announced.

Disclosure: Heineken is a Starcom MediaVest Group client.

Facebook, iPad Apps and HTML5

A year since the launch of the iPad, and still no official Facebook iPad app- even though the iPhone app was ready as soon as the App Store opened.

Apparently, not for long though. According to a New York times report, an official Facebook iPad app is understood to be in the final stages of testing- although the official word from Facebook is "nothing to announce now."

But there is some interesting discussion going on around Facebook's future involvement with native apps for iOS devices.

TechCrunch has reported about a project at Facebook going under the codename "Project Spartan", aimed at building a web application in HTML5, targeted at Mobile Safari users. Like the FT app we noted recently, the web app would bypass Apple's App Store, creating a platform that Facebook would be able to build on without having to follow Apple's rules and guidelines.

This highlights some important shifts that are going on with online platforms. As a platform owner, Apple are in control of what goes onto iOS– whether that is the recently announced integration with Twitter in iOS5, or the Apps that are allowed in the App Store.

But Facebook are a software platform– developers can build applications that work within Facebook. For their platform to work effectively across both desktop and mobile devices, they need to have control over it. On the technical front, this means that applications that work within Facebook need to be able to work on all sorts of devices– including ones that can't/won't/don't support technology like Flash (which appears to be the main drive behind the Spartan project.)

Another post over at Techcrunch suggests that Facebook's PR is none too happy about the news being broken, suggesting that Apple aren't aware of what a Facebook platform that bypasses Apple's App Store might be able to offer. Because if Facebook want to develop features like Facebook Credits which allow for payments within Facebook, then they will need to either figure a way to operate within Apple's guidelines (which includes Apple's 30% cut of in-app payments), or find an alternative way of reaching users of Apple's applications.

Perhaps Apple won't mind payments made in Facebook credits (provided Facebook don't directly sell them within the application.) But it seems a safe bet that Facebook won't want to be building all their future plans on assumptions of what Apple might or might not allow– both now and in the future.

New York Post blocks iPad users from website

But Apple aren't the only ones who can control what goes onto their platform– as a surprising story from the US shows, where the New York Post is apparently blocking iPad users from accessing their website.

Although access to the site is free to web browsers on the desktop and other mobile devices (including the iPhone), iPad users attempting to visit the site (either the homepage, or following links posted elsewhere) will see a message asking them to download the iPad application from the App Store – and pay either a subscription of $6.99/month or $74.99/year to access the content.

Currently, iPad users can still use a browser other than Safari (the iPads default) to access the website– or use an alternative device. We can only assume that this is not a strategic decision in itself, but simply a step towards the implementation of a full paywall strategy and other devices will see similar blocks as soon as alternative applications are in place.

Top 5 facts about Mobile Advertising

Submitted by Oliver Newton on Mon, 20/06/2011 - 11:26

Performics have just released some research data that continue to show how mobile is now too big to ignore and is only going to get bigger and at an ever increasing rate. Consumers have shown that they want to be able to access things via their phones and they will, to a degree, wade through poorly optimised sites to spend their money. But if you make it easy for them, they will spend more and come back more often.

  1. 49% of heavy mobile users have purchased via their phone in the last month
  2. 84% look for local retailer information (phone, address, hours)
  3. 73% find a specific manufacturer or product web site
  4. 68% search for the best price for a product or service
  5. 63% search before purchasing off-line in a store or from a catalogue
Source: Performics

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