MobileBizBuzz

June 30, 2010

To Develop, Or Not Too Develop…That Is The Question

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps — Tags: , , , — Mike @ 8:53 am

It’s generally recognized that part of Apple’s success with the iPhone is due to their focus on applications. The App Store was the first of a kind, and is still a leader in mobile phone applications with over 225,000 apps available.  Android has been coming on strong, but is still a distant second place with over 50,000 apps. No other smartphone platform even comes close to this type of application availability, including Microsoft and BlackBerry.

I’m sure most of the people who read this blog are not developers…that’s not our intended audience. But I think it’s instructive to understand what developers are thinking.  Recently a company called Appcelerator published a survey of developers and their view of the various platforms.  I’d recommend you at least read the overview.  They also have a pdf to download if you want more detail. As you read it, just remember that Appcelerator makes a cross platform development tool called Titanium. So they have a specific point of view that influences the questions they ask. They also have a specific type of developer that uses their tool. Regardless, the information is interesting.

The chart to the left is one of the most interesting segments of the survey. What it shows is a very focused interest in Apple and Android. Everything else is waning.  Pretty interesting stuff given BlackBerry is still the leading smartphone seller by far. However, they have lagged and continue to lag in the application development game. They also have not done much with novel handset delivery.

For those in the industry, we should pay attention to what the huge development community is doing. While developer acceptance has helped to boost Apple, lack of developer acceptance played at least some role in the demise of Palm.  Developers are not the only barometer of trends in the mobile industry, but they are one of the key metrics we should all be paying attention to.

May 12, 2010

Something Sneaky This Way Comes

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile App Dev,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , , — Mike @ 9:18 am

Release the Kraken! Scratch that. Just a minute here…um, uh…OK, let’s try this again. Look out for Android! I know, I know…that’s not nearly as dramatic as commanding the release of the mythical Kraken, but it’s certainly something those of us in the industry should heed.

If I were to ask almost anybody on the street what the most popular smartphone is today, I bet that 9 out of 10 people would say the iPhone. And why not? There are several reasons to think that:

  1. Apple has smartphone market share that is second only to RIM (BlackBerry).
  2. Apple invented the whole App Store concept as we all now know it, and it boasts over 200,000 applications.
  3. Apple ships a lot of phones. According to  Canalys, over 25 million iPhones were shipped in 2009 alone.

Now let’s change the question a bit. What if I were to ask what the most popular operating system is for a smartphone? Admittedly, the average person does not think about smartphones in this way, but the average application developer does. The answer to this question would not be too surprising for the most part. According to data just released by NPD Group, RIM still leads in this game with 36% of all smartphones sold in the US in the first quarter of 2010 running the BlackBerry OS. It probably also wouldn’t surprise anybody to know that Apple came in at 21% in the same study. Very impressive for a company that has essentially a couple of different flavors of the same smartphone. And remember, in the US Apple only runs on one carrier…AT&T.

There was a bit of a surprise in this most recent data though, and that was Android. Android is the open OS backed by Google. Like BlackBerrys, Android devices run on all the carriers and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Unlike BlackBerrys, Android devices are made by several manufacturers including the likes of Motorola and HTC. Here’s the surprising part…in the first quarter of 2010, 28% of all smartphones sold in the US were Android devices.  That’s right, there are now more Android devices being sold in the US than there are iPhones being sold in the US.  And guess what else. Android Marketplace (the Android App Store), now has over 50,000 applications listed on it.

Not only does Android have this type of momentum, but it has other things going for it:

  1. Many of the newest and slickest devices are Android devices. For instance, this summer Sprint and HTC will introduce the first WiMAX phone and it will be an Android device.
  2. AT&T just started offering Android devices in the last month or so. That means Android devices have lots of room to grow with AT&T subscribers.
  3. With Android 2.1, Android devices are starting to surpass some of the capabilities of the iPhone.

This doesn’t mean we should all sell our Apple stock. Far from it. So far Apple continues to innovate and make some interesting decisions in the market. Couple that with well designed devices, and a powerful brand, and Apple will continue to be a leader in the smartphone market. At least for the time being. But don’t count out Android. Android isn’t making as much noise as Apple, but they are quietly making their presence know in a big way in the market.

April 9, 2010

Apple’s iPad for Businesses?

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps,Mobile Devices — Tags: — Mike @ 1:21 pm

There has certainly been a lot of hoopla over Apple’s launch of the iPad.  Reports are they sold 300,000 of them in the first day, including those that were pre-ordered, bought in Apple stores, or sold to retailers such as Best Buy.  At a local Apple event yesterday, Apple personnel said that number had now climbed to 450,000.  Pretty impressive for a device that starts at $499 for the entry model.

I teased a couple of my friends who are huge Apple fans that it was a giant iPhone.  In fact, one of the folks I work with said when he arrived at home last night with a new iPad, his young son jumped up and down and said “It’s a giant iPhone, yay!”  But all kidding aside, I was really interested in what new niche this product might carve for itself. After all, it is an Apple product, and they have an almost fanatical following. And let’s not forget, they didn’t get that following by accident. They typically produce good products, and they do a great job marketing them.

As a few of us were playing with the new device (I could use a more sophisticated term such as “experimenting”, but let’s face it, we were “playing”), a friend of mine dropped by.  He has been developing business applications for the iPhone for some time now, and has had some success with those.  Since the announcement of the iPad, he has been working on an idea to build a more sophisticated business application for the iPad.   He dropped in to show me what he already had working.

What he showed me was really impressive. Part of that is because he’s a pretty talented guy. His iPhone apps are pretty slick as well.  But a big part of what caught my attention was what types of applications were now possible with a mobile device.  I had one of those “Aha” moments. I realized just how much of a groundbreaking platform the iPad could be serving as a platform for select business applications. It won’t be easy getting there though.

Here’s the deal. The iPad has a much larger screen than a smartphone, while still being very portable. You don’t have to wag anything along with it for it to be useful. And, you have network access. Yes I know about the WiFi problems, but Apple will fix that. The larger form factor makes it possible to put much more information on the screen at a given time, so the applications can tend to be much more sophisticated. Cool, right? Yep.

It doesn’t come without issues though. The onscreen keyboard is not something anybody will want to do much typing on. Fine, that’s a user interface design issue, right?  Right. Mobile developers tackle those issues every day.  Here’s another one for you though. Once the developer begins to put more information on the screen, the application itself tends to get more capable. It grows in scope…so much so, that it approaches the scope of more traditional business apps. I believe this means many iPad business applications will not be residing completely on the iPad itself. They will demand a server component, and likely even a component that will be accessed by more traditional computers with physical keyboards and mice.

So what does all this mean? I believe it means that traditional application developers will begin to migrate into the mobile market more quickly, at least for this form factor. That means they will need to learn all those user interface, and communication rules that mobile developers already know. It also means that strictly mobile developers will have to enlarge their thinking to incorporate non-mobile aspects of these more sophisticated applications.

Smartphones and applications on them aren’t going away. In fact, comScore predicts there will be about 65 million smartphones shipped in 2010 for North America alone. Laptops and desktop computers aren’t going away either.  What most “experts” expect to happen is that the iPad will create a new market segment. We all know that Apple is fully expecting that. No surprises on any of those points. What did surprise me, however, is I caught a glimpse of how powerful this new form factor could be for the business environment right now.

March 24, 2010

SRSLY- W@ wr u smokn?

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , — Chris @ 7:58 am

asotv_main200It amazes me to see so many poorly designed apps.  OK, so maybe “poorly designed” isn’t the right phrase.  How about saying, ”It amazes me to see so many full featured and cool apps that don’t take into consideration the unique strengths, and inherent limitations, of the mobile platform.”  Better?  No?  Let me be clear - for any budding app developers or product managers out there, let me offer up some advice:

Mobile App ≠ Web App

It’s not the same platform and the web rules do not apply.  Functionality, core content, ad placement, ease of use, screen real estate, etc. between a web app and mobile app must be reconciled to some extent.  That doesn’t mean that any web app’s functionality should be curtailed to match the mobile app.  I think Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley and head of mobile at Publicis Groupe, said it best:  ’When approaching mobile, “you need to forget your web education.’ 

So what’s up with the post heading?  Read this article from MediaPost’s Online Media Daily for a classic quote (you’ll know it when you see it):  http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=124450&nid=112354

February 15, 2010

Here We Go Again

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps,Mobile Devices — Tags: , — Mike @ 2:57 pm

lots-of-phonesTwenty-four wireless telecommunications companies united to announce the Wholesale Applications Community at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  Gizmodo has a good overview of the announcement on one of its blogs.  The concept sounds great on the surface, but I am less than enthusiastic they will have any meaningful success.

They are attempting to solve a worthy problem. Every mobile application developer faces a huge hill to climb every time they want to develop a new application.  If you want to write a piece of software that will run on most of the smartphones out there so you have a large market, here is what you have to do:

  • Design the application
  • If you want to develop for the iPhone:
    1. Download the Software Developer’s Kit
    2. Write the application
    3. Test the application
    4. Sign up as a developer on the App Store
    5. Pay your fee
    6. Agree to all the contractual obligations
    7. Submit you application for approval
    8. Wait, wait, and then wait some more
    9. Celebrate when your application is finally approved
    10. Hopefully begin selling your software
  • If you want to develop for the BlackBerry, repeat steps 1-10 above
  • If you want to develop for Android, repeat steps 1-10 above
  • I could go on, but I think you get the idea

Conceptually what the Wholesale Applications Community wants to do is great. They want to make an environment where a developer can write a piece of software once, and then be able to port (technical term for copy) the application to multiple other types of phones on multiple other carriers (Verizon, Sprint, etc.).  They also want the developer to not have to deal with multiple app stores from multiple device makers.  Sounds great, right?

Problem is, it won’t work. If you know me personally, you would know that I am a very optimistic person. So why do I think this is a lost cause. Because it has been tried before in many situations other than mobile applications, and it has always failed.  There are many reasons for this, but here are my top three for this specific instance:

  1. Even though you provide a common software development environment, by definition it must support devices with a least common denominator approach. As soon as a device maker offers, and a developer takes advantage of, a unique feature on a specific device, the application is no longer portable to other devices.
  2. Apple, BlackBerry, and Google already have pretty well established App Stores. Introducing a new app store alternative will be pretty difficult, even if it helps the developer community. Let’s face it, there are technology bigots who are in love with devices from a specific maker, and they are very unlikely to be open to trying other environments.
  3. Look at who is missing from the list of supporters for this effort. No Apple. No BlackBerry (RIM for you industry folks). No Google. No Microsoft. Nuff said.

Once you have been around information technology for a while, you see trends repeat themselves over an over. The whole concept of a common development environment has been attempted many times. It really started common programming languages like FORTRAN, and with Operating Systems like Unix.  The idea of a common app store married with a common development environment is just a different spin on the same theme.  I get why they are doing it. I just don’t think it will succeed.

Remember, this is just my opinion, and your mileage may vary.

February 10, 2010

Mobile Market Changes

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Devices — Tags: , — Chris @ 9:23 am

Well, it’s been a while since I posted, but that’s not because nothing has been going on in the mobile world (was that a double or triple negative?). There continue to be changes in device popularity and availability which is having an impact on the smartphone market. For instance, back in September of last year Android was just beginning to gain traction with a couple of Android phones and about 8,000 applications in the Android Market.  The only mobile device Apple made was the iPhone.  And most of us would not have had a clue as to what AT&T and Verizon’s 3G coverage maps looked like.

Today there are about 25,000 apps in the Android Market, and there are several Android phones available, including one from Google itself. Apple just recently announced the iPad (insert your favorite product name joke here), which is truly a mobile device. It’s relatively small and light, and supports not just WiFi, but also cellular data connections. And we are all probably sick of seeing the coverage map wars between AT&T and Verizon, though some of the commercials have been pretty creative.

smartphone_1209As the industry continues to evolve, it would be a good idea to remember that the more things stay the same, the more they change. Actually I think the phrase goes the other way around, but stating it this way suits my purposes for this post. ComScore just recently released a report showing the US smartphone marketshare by operating system. Ars Technica was kind enough to put together the chart you see to the left.

There are several things about this chart that are interesting. Two items come to mind with regards to the iPhone. First of all, we all have come to accept that Apple is a huge player in the mobile market. The thing I think that bears remembering is that three years ago the iPhone had just been announced, but had not yet appeared in the market. That wouldn’t even happen till the end of June in 2007. Now look at it. Three years later and it has 25% market share for smartphones in the US.

The second item about the iPhone that is interesting is that even for all of it’s success, it is still dwarfed by BlackBerry (RIM for those of you in the industry). BlackBerry is still king, and though it has lost some ground to other players, Apple still has a long way to go to catch them.  For people developing software, this is an important point. Apple has gotten a ton of traction in the application world, but developing a great app for BlackBerry opens up a huge market to developers.

The third item I wanted to point out in this chart was Android. Listed in the chart as Google (because they are the force behind Android), it has made amazing strides since September. For the better part of a calendar year, there was only one Android phone available. It was the G1. It was available only on T-Mobile, and let’s face it…the phone wasn’t very good. Now several big players such as HTC and Motorola have multiple Android phones, and Google even has one. As a result of this push, Android market share has doubled in just 4 months. I’ll go out on a limb and say you should look for this to continue.

I hadn’t posted in several months before today. And look at what has happened in the market in that time. It’s only going to continue to accelerate. So strap on your helmet, and fasten your seat belt. It’s going to continue to be a wild ride.

September 15, 2009

It’s Getting Crowded in Here

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps,Mobile Devices — Tags: — Mike @ 9:00 am

imagesThe last couple of weeks have been interesting in the world of smart phones.  Motorola/T-Mobile, HTC/Sprint, and LG have all announced the upcoming release of new Android smart phones.  If you don’t know much about Android, that’s not surprising. It is a smart phone operating system announced with a lot of fanfare quite a while back. It is backed by Google, and supported by several large wireless industry players.  The idea is to provide a platform that will run on a lot of different phones, from different manufacturers, and different carriers, making it easier for developers to write software that will support a wide variety of users.

The problem to date has been that you could get any Android phone you wanted as long as it was the G1 from T-Mobile. Yep that’s right.  For all the hoopla, there has been only one Android phone on the market since Android was introduced.  Even with that huge limitation, the Android Market (their version of an App Store) now has about 10,000 applications on it.  The availability of more phones should provide additional momentum to encourage more developers to jump on the Android bandwagon.

The market trends with mobile applications are truly staggering.  Consider for a moment that just a little over one year ago there was not a single app store out there.  Sure, there were some smart phone catalogs, but they were mainly used by techies, and there was no way an average person could easily get access to software for their phone.  Enter Apple, and the App Store.  Since its introduction last summer there has been a proliferation of applications for smart devices. In addition to the 70,000+ for iPhones, and the 10,000+ for Android, there are a projected 20,000+ for Windows Mobile, a few thousand on BlackBerry App World, and a rapidly growing number of applications for the new Palm Pre and Pixi.

What does this all mean for us users?  It means that we are being presented with a rapidly growing number of software choices for our phones.  And more choices means more functionality.  More functionality means more usefulness.  More usefulness means more use.  The way we use our smart phones is growing rapidly, as is the amount of time we spend on them.  They are becoming our main vehicle of communications and “computing” at a rate that makes the evolution of PC and software look like it occured over eons.

We are rapidly being presented with many choices of software which make our phones more useful devices.  And that’s a good thing not only for consumers, but also for businesses.

September 2, 2009

Another App Store?

Filed under: Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps — Tags: , — Chris @ 8:40 am

According to a press release yesterday, Microsoft has finally driven a stake in the ground and will be delivering new phones with Windows Mobile 6.5, as well as the Windows Mobilewinmo-65Marketplace on October 6th.  Windows Mobile 6.5 is the newest version of the Windows operating systems for smartphones and related devices that has been promised since very early this year.

If you take a look at what Microsoft is doing with this launch, it is pretty aggressive.  In North America alone, it will be released on the 3 largest carriers in the US, along with about half a dozen device manufacturers.  Pretty impressive, and definitely a non-trivial undertaking.  But probably the most interesting thing coming in the announcement is the launch of the new Windows Mobile Marketplace.

It’s hard to realize that with almost 65,000 titles online today, Apple just launched the App Store a year ago July.  That’s right.  It’s only been a year, and now all new devices are being judged as to whether or not they have a good app store.  One of the few criticisms I continually read about the Palm Pre is that there are very few applications for it.  I say that not to throw rocks at Palm, but to illustrate how much the market now demands applications for smart phones.

What makes Windows Mobile Marketplace so interesting is that Microsoft has a ready made set of applications for Windows Mobile devices already.  Estimates put the number of Windows Mobile applications at about 20,000.  More interesting is the fact many of these applications run on more rugged devices from Intermec and Symbol.  By definition many of the applications are business oriented vs. consumer oriented.  The App Store is extremely consumer oriented.  It will be interesting to see how Microsoft’s entry into the environment changes things.  I think they may have enough critical mass to swing the pendulum at least somewhat toward business applications.

June 12, 2009

Smartphone Shootout

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile App Dev,Mobile Apps,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , , , , , — Chris @ 11:43 am

pre-and-iphoneWell, it’s finally here.  Palm launched the Pre last Saturday, and they are now finally in direct competition with Apple and the iPhone.  So which one’s better?  For me, I think the verdict is still out.

By now, unless you live under a rock somewhere, I’m sure you know how successful the iPhone has been.  They have sold millions of devices in the two years the phone has been out, and users have downloaded over 1 billion applications in the year since the App Store was available.  Apple also broke a lot of long standing rules in the cellular industry by having the phone activated through iTunes instead of directly with AT&T, and also by funneling users through iTunes for content instead of through AT&T.  The iPhone was also ground breaking in that it introduced the concept of using gestures via a touch screen to interact with the device.  What they have accomplished is truly amazing.

Don’t count out Palm just yet.  Palm has traditionally been very strong with “prosumers”.  This is a term they coined to talk about their sweet spot in terms of users.  The demographic Palm originally catered to with the Treo was professional people who purchased their own devices and used it both for work and personal purposes.  Add to that the fact that they pioneered the whole smartphone segment 5 years ago, and you have a pretty accomplished competitor for Apple.  The new Pre has a slick little physical keyboard, a very nice touch screen, and a gesture base user interface.  Sprint says the Pre broke all of their sales records for new devices.  Sounds kind of like the iPhone, doesn’t it?

I think the real battle is still to come.  WebOS has some very interesting capabilities with it’s application platform.  It allows applications to integrate with the web, on device information, and across applications.  Of course there aren’t many applications on the device yet.  It will be interesting to see what developers come up with on the Pre.  Part of what has made the iPhone successful is the slew of applications that have been introduced by developers outside of Apple.  I’ll be curious to see how many, and what types of applications get introduced for the Pre.

February 26, 2009

No Microsoft Smartphone Coming

Filed under: Industry News,Mobile App Dev,Mobile Devices — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Chris @ 2:24 pm
2009 Mobile World Congress

Steve Ballmer

After months of speculation and rumors about a new Microsoft smartphone, and months of Microsoft denying said speculation and rumors, Steve Ballmer finally made it clear that Microsoft will not release a smartphone.

Seems like a smart move as I really don’t hear a lot of people clamoring for one. Even so, many analysts and bloggers expected a 2009 release to compete with RIM/BlackBerry and Apple/iPhone.

Apple still has the device to beat and Ballmer seems to be happy to let them keep the current “mojo” in the consumer market. Ballmer’s strategy is to continue to build upon the Windows Mobile (actually now Windows Phones) platform and make it as compatible with as many devices as possible. Though not unique, this strategy is very different from Apple’s and RIM’s, whereby they both have a proprietary device and proprietary operating system. Stirring it up even more, Palm recently announced the Pre as well as a new mobile platform called webOS.

Historically, the proprietary device/OS strategy has worked for many mobile phone providers, but I believe this may be changing. From a business user’s perspective (me), the real value in “smartdevices” comes from the business applications (increasing productivity and reducing costs) that run on it. Highly restrictive access to the OS or having to develop across an endless sea of proprietary platforms makes it difficult for mobile application companies to create solutions that can run on every device. 

I would personally like to see a handful of the best OS platforms be able to run across all the devices – and carrier networks. But I won’t hold my breath just yet.

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