Insights For Success

Strategy, Innovation, Leadership and Security

Android

Smartphone activations don't matter (iphone or android)

Android, Apple, Cell Phones, Google, IOS, Microsoft, WP7, WebOS, iPhoneEdward Kiledjian

Whether you’re in the Apple or Android smartphone camp, at one time or another, your side used creative statistics interpretation to justify why you are the market favorite. The numbers used most often are total activations or total devices sold. But how important are these numbers?

Until a platform reaches critical mass, it is very important for the manufacturer to keep pushing the platform forward. With critical user mass come the apps which in turn will drive additional growth.  So a platform needs enough users to make the platform interesting to developers but after that point, who cares!

I want Google and Apple to spend less time trying to creatively interpret statistics and more time improving their user experience.

Good shows iPad's dominating the enterprise environment

Amazon, Android, Apple, Good Technologies, IOS, Tablet, WP7, iPad, iPhoneEdward Kiledjian

A recent activation report by Good Techbologies showed that the iPad and iPad 2 continue to dominate the tablet in the enterprise market (96% of all activations on Q3 2011 compared to just 4% for Andoird). On the handset front, the iphone commanded 28%. The most popular Android phone was the Evo 4G at 1.6%.

“This quarter, we saw Android smartphones gain in percentage of total activations,” Good Technology senior vice president of corporate strategy John Herrema said. “This is likely due to the consumers holding back purchases of new iPhones in anticipation of Apple’s latest release (the iPhone 4S) — as our reports indiciate, consumers are setting the agenda for enterprise mobility.” IPhone 4 activations fell from 32.4% during the second quarter to 28.3% during the third quarter as a result of that anticipation.

Important Note: Good's numbers do not include Blackberry or Win Phone 7 devices (since RIM uses BES).

You can download the full report here.

 

 

GHSA determines road risk of using a mobile phone while driving

Android, Apple, Behavior, Driving, Google, IOS, Microsoft, Risk Management, WP7, WebOS, iPhoneEdward Kiledjian
An American association called the Governor’s Highway Safety Association recently released a report that use of a mobile phone correlates with increased risk of accidents in the United States of America (USA).
To arrive at their conclusion, the association reviewed 350 scientific papers, published between 2000 and 2010, related to highway safety. Their review clearly showed that distracted driving accounts for 15-25% of all crashes (ranging from small fender benders to accidents with fatalities). Nothing here should be surprising as it based on common sense. What was interesting however was their assertion that “no conclusive evidence on whether hands-free systems [are] less risky than hand-held use”. 
They determined that text messaging (SMS) posses the highest and longest risk since it required the driver to stare at the mobile screen for long periods while composing and sending the message. The next highest risk was dialing a number but the risk duration was [understandably shorter]. Finally they determined that talking on the phone posed the lowest but longest duration risk.
Even with the release of this report, the GHSA stated that they would like to see more research conducted into this subject with more emphasis on prevention.
GHSA Report : Link 

Facebook has identity and your attention

Android, Apple, Facebook, Google, IOS, Identity, Marketing, iPhoneEdward Kiledjian

Facebook has become the premium identity management company on the web with 500 million+ users. Just think of how many apps allow you to log-in using your facebook ID (aka Facebook Connect). In late 2010, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) stated that 10,000 websites integrate with Facebook everyday (that is over 3.6 million new sites every year).

Facebook knows who you are, what you like, who your friends are, where you have been (Places) and what you are thinking about (status updates). Do you think that helps when targeting advertising?

Remember that Facebook posts are [mostly] off limits to search engines which means Google can’t leverage your info to sell search, offer their services, create user profiles for better targeting, etc.

They want to know who you are and what you like so that they can profile and target you more accurately.

How much time do you spend on Facebook as opposed to checking email, searching the web, etc? Comscore says the average user spends 375 minutes per month browsing Facebook and only 231 minutes on Google services.

This “lost screentime” for Google means less opportunity to advertise.

Many users use to search the web for provider recommendations (aka doctors, lawyer, restaurants, barbers, etc), but now turn to their network on Facebook.

Facebook is now the number 1 source for product and service recommendations

Google is not standing still and is willing to try almost anything to convince you to move your identity over to them. They released +1 and opened Google Plus (Google+) to a limited beta group.

They also understand that in the next 5 -7 years, our mobile phones will become hub of our digital identity. As more and more users shift to smartphones, a new opportunity may open up identity management domination (Apple, Google or HP). Don’t forget every iPhone or Android device requires an ID with the publisher to work.

IDC predicts users will download 183 billion apps by 2015

Android, Apple, IOS, Microsoft, WP7, WebOS, iPhoneEdward Kiledjian

June 28 2011, IDC released an interesting report entitled “Worldwide and U.S. Mobile Applications, Storefronts, Developer, and In-App Advertising 2011–2015 Forecast: Emergence of Postdownload Business Models”.

They make a bold prediction that users will download 183 billion apps by 2015 (compared to 10.7 billion in 2010).  They further predict that the revenue model is changing from the traditional model (fee charged during initial purchase) to a freemium model (where the app is free but users may purchase additional functions though in-app purchases and advertising). 

A September 2010 Pew report suggests that 35% of the US adult population has a phone with applications. They further refine the statistic by stating “that means that 24% of U.S. adults are active apps users”. App users are also desirable consumers because they “[…] are younger, more educated, and more affluent than other cell phone users”.

Combine all of the above and it is clear that apps are money makers and are here to stay.