Top Smartphone OS in US: Android

According to a report released by Nielsen today, Android is still the number one smartphone OS in US in Q3 of 2011. As per the data, Android accounts for 43% of the smartphones OS in US. iOS is a distant second with 28%. Android has jumped from 39% in Q2 of 2011 based on the data released by Neilsen in July. iOS has maintained its 28% share since last quarter.

While Apple holds a second spot on the smartphone OS front, it is in the lead as the smartphone manufacturer. The obvious reason is the fragmented Android manufacturer market. RIM's Blackberry OS has fallen from 20% to 18% in Q3. Windows Mobile has also fallen from 9% to 7%. It is interesting how the share lost by RIM and Windows Mobile has been picked by Android with iOS reamining constant. However with the new hardware and OS version announcements, Q4 will definitely show some more changes.

Brands in App Stores

As per a report released today by the mobile analytics firm Distimo, a mobile 91% of the top 100 brands have a presence in atleast one mobile app store. This is huge increased compare to only 51% having a mobile app around 18 months back.

Most brands have free apps and look at the app stores to establish a presence of their brand rather than making money.

The average number of apps per brand is 24! Some of the most active brands are Disney (636 apps) and Sony (285). The 3rd on the list if BMW at 63.



It doesn't come as a surprise that Apple’s App Store is the number one pick. 86% of the top brands have a presence in Apple’s iPhone App Store, 66% are in the Apple iPad App Store, 59% have a presence in the Android Market and a low 26% are in BlackBerry’s App World.

Apple's Latest Stats!

Here is a consolidation of all sales numbers disclosed by Apple in yesterday's event. Some of the number are mind boggling!

iOS devices
(iPhones, iPads & iPod Touches):

• 250 mn devices sold (and NOT shipped) till date
• iPhone 4 makes more than half of total iPhones sold
  

App Store

• 18 bn downloads till date
• Current rate of 1 bn download per month (compare this with the 9 months is took to download the 1st billionth app in April 2009!!)
  
• 500,000 apps out of which 140,000 are made for the iPad
• $3bn has been distributed to 3rd party developers

iPods

• 300 mn iPods sold in 10 years (compare to quarter million cassette players sold by Sony in 30 years)
  
• 45 mn last year itself (July 2010-June 2011)
  
• 20 mn songs on iTunes
• 16 bn downloads

iPhone has 5% of mobile market share world wide - "An Enormous Opportunity" according to Tim Cook.

Siri for iPhone 4S: Your new PA

It was a big disappointment not to see the iPhone 5 launch today and the Wall Street also made this clear. However, the announcement of Siri for iPhone along with a few other features reduces this slightly. This is the name of the app Apple bought for $200 million a couple of years ago.

Siri launches with a long press of the home button, just like Voice Control, but after that the options are huge. Some questions for the demo today makes this interface much awaited in the new iPhone 4S. “Wake me up at 6 a.m." “What time is it in Paris?” “Set my alarm for…” “Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto.” “Do I have any meetings this Friday at noon?”

One Q & A gives away the deal on what Siri is exactly:
“Siri, who are you?” Siri responds: “I am your humble personal assistant.

Freemium : $$$ v/s Time

Last week Flurry released an interesting chart on the Freemium games .


As evident, the data suggests that max amount of money (49%) is spent by users in the 25-34 age group. They play only for 29% of the relative time. One possible reason is that this demographic prefers to buy upgrades and special powers to help them cross levels faster. In the same light, the 18-24 years age group spends the max amount of time (32%) but only 16% of the relative revenue comes from them. This is even lower than than the 28% revenue coming from the 35-54 year age group which spends only 14% of the relative time.

While 13-24 year olds constitute more than 50% of the time spent, they contribute only 21% to the revenue. This is an interesting observations for gaming companies. It helps them understand that they can make more money by catering to the in-app purchases of this higher age group (24-54 years).

Flurry had earlier published that consumers spend an average of $14 per transaction when making in-app purchases in freemium games. What items does this money go to? Another interesting chart shows the spending on durable v/s consumable good.


Durable goods are those which can be use to provide permanent benefit in the game play and consumable provide only one time benefit. Personalized are those which are only for a purely decorative purpose. Consumable goods constitute more than 50% of all in-app purchased in freemium games. A majority of this is a towards game currency which can be used in multiple ways within the game.

The data cannot be generalized completely and should be taken with a pinch of salt. Depending on the actual game needs the attractiveness of the durable and goods will change.

The two sets of analysis above are important when trying to decide what in-app purchases to offer and what age groups to cater to. With 65% of all revenue generated among the top 100 games now coming from freemium games these numbers become even more important to understand.

HTML5 v/s Native Apps

With more and more companies putting in thousands and thousands of $$$ on their mobile initiatives, the big question about the mobile road map is : HTML5 or Native Mobile apps?

In one of my earlier posts, I discussed some factors which will help a company decide whether to opt for a Mobile website or a Native app. The current question becomes more interesting because of the present state and buzz about HTML5.

What is HTML5?

HTML5 is the fifth version of the HTML language that provides the basic building blocks of web pages. It will support multimedia without plugins and has the ability to work on all computers and devices.



Advantages of HTML5

• Portability: HTML5 web apps can be accessed and used on any device via a web browser, much like a mobile website
• Cost effective: They can turn out to be significantly cheaper that developing native apps for various devices
• Offline access: Web apps also provide the capability for offline access and usage via application cache, meaning you don’t have to have a network connection to use them.
• HTML5 introduces new APIs to access mobile device functionality, in particular sensors such as accelerometer and GPS
  

Few HTML5 Limitations

• Security issues: Users could tamper with processing scripts, which might allow unauthorized access. Hackers can get access to perks, discounts, etc. for which they really aren’t eligible.
• Synchronization challenges: While the app is connected, it can save data to the cloud however if it goes offline, changes will not get saved. Synchronization can become a challenge when people access from different devices.
• User Experience: Mobile apps are a lot about the user experience. Its really crucial how well you can engage your user with such a small screen. Native apps till date offer a better user experience, ease of use and convenience.
• Standard Gestures: Some standard actions specific to a device will not be supported by HTML5. For eg: iPhone has the standard 'long hold' which is used for many actions. The HTML5 look and feel will be like the web feel.
  
• Marketing effort: This is specially crucial for smaller companies who attract many of their users from the various app stores.
• Monetization: The fact that apps like Angry Birds have made millions of $ is possible only because of an app store which lets people discover them and developer monetize them. This is not so easy on HTML5.

HTML5 believers say it could destroy the native app by 2014. However, there is a lot of work to be done on the HTML5 front to remove the 'clunky' behavior of the technology.

Some quick tips to help you decide:

• If your app is very complex and highly interactive, use native
• If you are targeting multiple platforms and your offering/ value is web-centric, use HTML5
• A native app can also have web view, so consider a 'hybrid app', if required
• Consider one or both options based on the company and user requirements and your budget and target.
  

Only time will say which will rule after the next few years. For now, the native app market is here to stay and flourish.

The 4 Pillars of Mobile Apps

With about 14 bn app downloads from the iPhone app store alone, one thing is obvious - the market for Mobile Apps is here to stay. Gartner estimates the total mobile app downloads since 2008 to reach 185 bn in 2014. It is becoming increasing important for marketeers and product managers to understand the basic things that make a mobile app successful.

Here are the 4 pillars which are crucial to create a successful mobile strategy for any company. I am not explaining any of these in detail since that will take several long posts. The objective of this post is to give you some Food For Thought - what to think about when you decide on your mobile app strategy??

1) User Experience and Design

The small screen real-estate makes this one of the most important thing for a mobile device.
This starts from a high level overview - understanding the main features for your target user, using metaphors for design and creating the main app flow and the side flows - to getting into very specific details like managing user data entry well - should it be a keyboard or keypad or scroll wheel/ picker? When will the app sue swipe v/s flick v/s pinch? What alerts, action sheets, tool bars will be used? Apple HCI Guidelines explain some of these very well. Here are some more details.

2) Application Performance

This is the software that runs the app. Most crashes of app happen due to mismanaged memory. It is important to ensure the iPhone memory is managed properly. What features work when the app is offline? What information needs to be cached - when the app is pulled from the background v/s when a new instance is charged? How important is data security? Do the API calls need to be asynchronous? There are many more such questions which need to be answered to help create a great performing app.


3) Monetization

The decision to make the app free or paid is a difficult one, yet very important to an app's acceptance in the market. With the new trends of Freemium apps, this becomes even more confusing.

Options - Free always!! (with or without ads) OR Freemium with in-app purchase for subscription or lite version OR Freemium with in-app purchase for virtual goods OR Paid

Some things to consider - how do you compare to competition? (If you are far better then you can charge a premium provided you have some marketing budget to get the word out there and to make the app viral). Is the app more for a branding experience and hence needs to be free? Is your user base big enough to make adding ads sensible? (tip: If its not, don't spoil the user experience for a few dollars everyday)

4) Analytics


Last but not the least, this is the feedback loop to track your app success. What are your engagement and retention metrics looking like? How many new users are you adding? How many sessions and what is the session length? How many repeat users do you have? What demographics does your app cater to? How do these metrics compare against those for competition? With companies like Flurry, this process has become less complex than what it seems. Read more on the need for analytics here.

Feel free to post any questions you have on this.