Which Mobile Platform should I start with? Part I

Whenever we talk to customers, one question that always comes up is "Should I build my iOS or Android app first?". It's a good question, one that we'll explore over the next few days. First, let's look at percentage share of smartphone users.

Source: comScore Reports April 2012 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

The first thing to notice is Google's Android platform has reached the 50% mark and is rising faster than any other smartphone. Apple's iPhone is rising at almost the same clip and now represents almost one third of the US Smartphone market. This increase comes mostly at the expense of Blackberry, which lost almost 4% of the market in only four months.

Now let's look at the share trend for the last two years.

From DigitalTrends

We can see that Since the beginning of 2010, Blackberry has been trading places almost 1:1 with Android, and the same is true between Microsoft and iPhone. So it's looking to be a two phone race between Android and iPhone in the US with Google on top by almost a 2:1 margin. So the choice of which phone to develop for first is an easy one, right?

Not so fast ... next time we'll look a the demographics of Android vs iPhone users. Stay tuned.

Mobile Marketing Trends for 2013

The three hottest mobile marketing trends to follow for 2013 are Engagement-Focused Content, MMS, Location-Based Services.

Engagement-Focused Content
The longer customers are engaged with a brand, the "stickier" the brand is in their mind. We all know that people love to play games on their phones, especially short games that are not too difficult with a reward at the end. In 2012-2013, we'll see an explosion of engagement-focused content. Retailers will deliver simple brand-focused games to their customers. The customers will play those games and receive a reward at the end -- perhaps an especially good coupon.

MMS
MMS (Multi-media messaging service) is the cell phone service that, among other things, lets you send pictures directly to other mobile phones. In 2012-2013, retailers will start using this service to send QR code based coupons, and to enable customers to send pictures of themselves using brands to participate in brand-based games.

Location-Based Services
Location-Based Services, the ability target highly relevant ads to customers who are physically close to the retailer, has yet to deliver on its full potential. In 2012-2013, we expect LBS to reach its full potential.

All of these trends require on-phone support. At sigseg, this is our specialty. We can help you understand the emerging mobile marketplace, and build the software to take full advantage of that market.

Smartphones are spreading faster than any other technology. Ever.

Here are some interesting facts:

• Landline phones reached saturation in the US in 80 years.
• Desktop computers reached saturation in 35 years.
• Mobile phones reached saturation in just 20 years. 
• Smart phones will reach saturation in about 10 years.
• Tablets will reach saturation in less than 10 years.

'Saturation' is the point at which demand begins to diminish.

Now here's the thing to remember -- we're just five years into the smartphone market -- we still have five years to go before saturation. The smartphone market began in earnest in 2007 when the iPhone was introduced.

Click here to read Michael Degusta's article from MIT's Technology Review.