Feb 3
Introducing the State of The Mobile Touch Web Report
Since Taptu began indexing the mobile web back in 2007, we have been in a position to see first hand how mobile-optimized content has grown, evolved and matured. Today, we are observing a new shift in content, one that is democratic, not tied to certain handsets or platforms and with no barriers to entry or gatekeepers to accept or reject your content.
For a while now the media has talked about the ‘app revolution’ or the ‘app economy’ and whilst this has been a revolution of sorts, the ‘app economy’ does not even make up half of the mobile touch ecosystem, that is, content specifically designed and optimized for mobile touchscreen devices.
The new phenomenon we have observed in the last six months is the rise of the mobile touch web. According to our most recent estimate there are around 326,000 touch-friendly sites whereas the total number of apps across all stores is only around 180,000.
Why are businesses embracing the mobile touch web? Because these touch-friendly sites can be consumed by any touchscreen device, they’re universally accessible. Building touch-friendly mobile content allows you to reach the widest possible audience in a way that apps can’t.
To date, there has been no detailed analysis of this big second wave of touch screen content so today we’re publishing the first in a monthly series of reports on “The State of the Mobile Touch Web”. In the report, we offer a slew of facts, figures, screenshots, together with our insights into which areas of the Mobile Touch Web are growing fastest and why certain categories are growing faster than others.
We’re expecting this report to generate a fair bit of debate and we’d like to include the most interesting feedback in a follow up paper that we’re compiling to issue just before Mobile World Congress so don’t forget to comment below or get in touch directly us on Twitter at @Taptu.
Check out the report and the accompanying slidedeck below, available on Slideshare
Feb 1
Confessions of An App Evangelist: Planes, Trains & iPhonemobiles
I have an addiction. It’s not a bad addiction, but it is an addiction. And it involves the iPhone, traveling alone and connecting with other iPhone users.
Spending the last two weeks traveling around the U.S of A, my addiction came out in full force. It is, I’m afraid to say, an addiction to broadcasting our Taptu iPhone application. Every time I see an iPhone in the hands of someone I don’t know, I spontaneously breakout into conversation. “I see you have an iPhone,” “ How do you get on with the iPhone?” and like clockwork “would you like to see our iPhone app…”.
The thing is, if you travel a lot, especially in the US, you see iPhones everywhere. At the check-in queue, on the bus transfer to the plane, in the seat in front of me and even my adjoining seat passengers. They are just everywhere, like cups of Starbucks-coloured water and Media Studies students.
Jan 28
Welcome To Our New Blog Design!
(image courtesy of photorisma)
Hello there! As if we haven’t all had enough excitement today we’ve got a little something to announce. For quite a while, the Taptu Blog has had the same look and feel so we decided recently it was time to give the blog a coat of paint and we embarked on a re-design project.
Since our corporate branding and color scheme has changed a bit , our blog now is complimented by the new color palette. Aside from the visual refresh, we have integrated some of our other channels of social media we have including YouTube, Flickr, and Delicious and these appear in the sidebars on the right hand side. Also, we have a special place for ‘Stuff We Like’ which will be full of…..well, stuff we like.
Introducing Charles
I also want to take this chance to introduce Charles into the Taptu family. Charles has been doing work with us since last November, so many of you are already familiar with him. He’s helping us reach out to the community and is an amazing talent to have on the team.
You’ve already seen Charles on this blog and on our Twitter stream, and Charles and I will be tag-teaming events as they come up as well.
Thanks To The Team
The main project team for Taptu on the blog re-fresh is Charles Olive, Chris Moisan, and Jason Harris (me). Additionally, we also want to give big props to the awesome designer we collaborated with, Vin Thomas.
Vin works out of Oregon (along with me) and specializes in Web Design, especially working with WordPress. He was awesome to work with and we would definitely recommend him for other organizations looking to do any type of work with WordPress and web design. Vin was timely, reliable, and put up with our demanding team with grace. Thanks Vin!
Jan 27
Wapedia Now Available For WebOS Including Palm Pre and Pixi
At Taptu, we’re big on making sure we meet our users where their needs lie.
This is why we have taken Wapedia from the mobile web to the iPhone platform, onto Android, and today we’re announcing the availability of Wapedia on our newest platform, WebOS!
We’re very excited about the new version that is available immediately in the Palm Catalog for the Palm Pre and the newly released Palm Pixi. Using Wapedia on WebOS, you can browse articles and search for the articles you’re interested in with predictive search (very cool!).
So, Palm Pre and Pixi users, welcome to the world of Wapedia – we believe using it is the best way to browse and experience Wikipedia (and other wikis, too!) on your mobile handset.
Since we started looking at the Palm community around WebOS…we found this really cool site we wanted to share. It’s called House of Palm and it is a great site to discover and find new apps for your beloved Palm device. The page for our Wapedia app is brand new (as our app is) and has fantastic info including ratings, screenshots, and other goodies for discovering new apps to trial.
As always, we’re always looking for feedback. Please email comments to jason@taptu.com and connect with us on Twitter.
UPDATE: As of Tuesday at around 8:00AM, we just learned that we already surpassed 10,000 downloads of the Wapedia app for WebOS! Thanks to everyone who has checked out the app!
More screenshots below:
Jan 25
Wapedia Reaches 250,000 Downloads!
A quick update regarding our popular Wikipedia-browsing app, Wapedia.
First of all, we have reached a major milestone with regards to our Wapedia app on Android. On Friday, we surpassed 250,000 downloads from the Android Market. This is a huge accomplishment for us and we’re very excited to thank our awesome Wapedia community for helping our Android app be so successful!
Secondly, on the Android platform, we are pleased to announce a brand new version of the Wapedia application, now available in the Android Market.
The biggest piece of new functionality with version 1.6 is a great new home screen widget that allows for searching Wapedia right from the home screen. This is perfect if you utilize Wikipedia for reference and don’t want to have to load the full Wapedia app every time.
Check the new app out and let us know if you have any feedback! We monitor the Android Market and also are on Twitter, if that tickles your fancy!
Jan 21
Case Study: Mobile Web Ads More Effective than Mobile Apps
This summer, Continental Airlines, a U.S. based airline, conducted a campaign to see whether a specific set of ads were more effective on a mobile website versus embedded in a mobile app on an iPhone.
Partnering with MediaVest, Continental ran an ad on WhitePages.com and inside WhitePages corresponding iPhone application. The summer campaign sought to advertise Continental’s fares to business and leisure travelers. As a surprise to Continental and Whitepages, the mobile web ads beat out the iPhone application for click through rates (CTR), meaning more users checked out the ad whilst surfing the mobile website.
Not only did more folks click on the mobile web ad, but the web ads sold a whopping 80% more airline tickets than ads in the iPhone app.
For advertisers, this story should serve as a motivator to remember the mobile web when you are planning your mobile advertising strategy. iPhone and also Android ads are very popular right now but these ad platforms present a problem that some advertisers don’t think about.
The iPhone (and Android, too) has a very minor market share in the global mobile market. However, the ‘mobile web’ is accessible by any smartphone or iPod Touch that has access to mobile-optimized website. And, at least according to Continental’s experience, mobile web users are more likely to click on an ad if it interests them.
(Photo credit: Flickr User Deanster198. Photo used under creative commons)
Jan 20
Surprising: One-Third of American 11-Year-Olds Carry A Mobile
Boy on a mobile phone, used via Creative Commons
eMarketer, an online research firm, has gathered some very interesting statistics about childhood use of mobile phones in the United States. It appears that American children are gaining access to the mobile world at a very young age, with about 35% of 10-11 year olds owning a mobile phone in 2009! That’s more than 1 in 3 having a mobile device in their pocket…astounding! Also, the numbers show that 20% (1 in 5) of children aged 6 to 11 owning mobile phones…yikes.
Why do these young children have mobile phones? In most cases, the survey respondents list the reasoning being to call their parents (88 percent report this), but a large number (68%) report that they use their phones to call their friends.
Also, according to eMarketer, there are differences on how boys and girls use their phones. For example, “Girls are more apt to make calls and send text messages while boys are more likely to instant message, access the Internet and download games, music and video.”
These are interesting statistics and should warrant further research on how young children use mobile phones and then track these same usage patterns as these same kids advance through adolescence. I have seen parents here in my corner of the U.S. give their kids an original iPhone as a ‘first phone” and thereby are engaging their kids into an early entry into the touch-friendly web and app world. Crazy!
Since we have such an international audience, I’m am interested: what is an appropriate age for children to receive their first mobile phone? What factors contribute to buying your young child a handset?
Please weigh in below in the comments!
(Photo credit: Flickr user bexross. Used under creative commons license)
Jan 15
New Version of Wapedia On Android: Now Featuring Portuguese!
Good day, Wapedia users! We are very pleased to hand over a new version of Wapedia on Android to our loyal users.
So, if you are so inclined, fire up the Android Market and download version 1.5.8 of our Wapedia application on Android. Among some other changes, the new Wapedia version features:
- An improved user interface.
- A Portuguese translation: including Portuguese (conventional as well as Brazilian)
- Several bugfixes.
Please take the new Wapedia for a spin. As always, we’re constantly looking for feedback. Please leave a comment below, email me, or connect with Taptu on Twitter.
Jan 12
CES Wrap-Up: Mobile Style
This last weekend, I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES is an amazing show – it’s the largest tech conference on the planet and it shows. So, amongst all the gadgets and gizmos, what were the amazing revelations to the world of mobile communications?
Going Android
To steal a little thunder from the huge show in Vegas, Google unveiled their Nexus One handset. This new mobile phone has some impressive specs and capabilities and is being sold unlocked, which is a major step in the US marketplace. You see, the innovation that Google pushed forward isn’t the Nexus One handset itself, but the fact that they’re selling an unlocked handset from their Google website. This is a new concept here in the carrier-dominated United States.
Also hopping on the Android bandwagon is Sony Ericsson. At CES, the company unveiled the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, a super sexy handset featuring Android 1.6 combined with a beautiful handset that features an 8 megapixel camera and the company’s special Timescape and Mediascape user interfaces.
Launching 4G In The US
At CES 2010, Sprint officially launched their 4G network. The number 3 US mobile carrier launched the Sprint Overdrive, a 4G capable MiFi like device that allows you to connect any Wi-Fi enabled device to Sprint’s superfast 4G network.
MocoNews covered the event very well, highlighting the odd event that otherwise effectively communicated the features of a “4G lifestyle”. Whereby any Wi-Fi enabled device can easily attach to a very quick network, sans the separate connection fee for each device.
A Wild West For Mobile Operating Systems
With the wide adoption and fragmentation of the Android OS, along with the change coming in Windows Mobile, it’s apparent that it’s anyone’s game in the mobile operating system market. The iPhone continues to grow fast along with BlackBerry OS. Also, Symbian is undergoing a huge remodel with the new Symbian UI and related touch devices.
So, in other words, no one knows what the mobile OS marketplace will be like in 2 or 5 years. The only common thread that I saw is that touch interfaces are here to stay because the engaging user experience that is associated with it is so inviting.
What Excited You?
Were there any CES announcements that excited you? Lets discuss in the comments below!
Jan 5
Smartphone Owners Like To Shop From Their Handsets
According to some new research from Compete, a research firm, mobile smartphone owners are fond of shopping form their mobile handsets. According to Compete, some 41 percent of iPhone users and 43 percent of Android users report that they check sale prices while they are shopping.
These figures come as no surprise to me, as increased functionality of new handsets are leading customers to do comparison shopping. For example, I have been trialing a Motorola Droid from Verizon Wireless here in the United States, and in the Android Market is an application called ‘Barcode Scanner’ that will scan any barcode and conduct a corresponding Google Product Search, showing product information. Additionally, the Amazon app on Android will scan any barcode and save the product into your Amazon wish list.
With these types of applications, combined with high quality cameras and fast 3G data connections, the mobile phone is the perfect shopping companion. Also, it is interesting to see how people are using their touch-friendly phones to gain intelligence whilst conducting their day-to-day business.
Another point of Compete’s study is how mobile customers are turned off when a company does not have a mobile-optimized site. In fact, shoppers report a high degree of abandonment when they have difficulty surfing a site on their mobile devices. As much as 45% of folks abandoned sites that weren’t optimized for mobile.
The lesson to be learned: more and more, research data and practical experience are pointing to a growing a population of mobile-savvy customers who are using their mobile phones to comparison shop. Also, these same customers are demanding that destination sites are designed to be tailored to mobile devices.
Is your site mobile-optimized and friendly to those with smart phones? The folks who carry these devices apparently like to spend money and use their devices on a regular basis. Come on – the touch friendly web is a fun place – join us! 
(photo credit: Flickr user avlxyz)
