Posts tagged there
There Is Opportunity In Diversifying Your Android Publishing Strategy
Jan 25th
Mobile marketing company Tapjoy has had a tumultuous ride in the last year. It has been bounced around by Apple and its App Store terms of service, has gone to the Web to skirt Apple’s policies, integrated mobile video ads and set up a fund for iOS developers to port their games to Android. It has been scattershot and frenetic but it appears that, finally, the company is starting to see some success.
Tapjoy launched a mobile Web-based application store late in 2011 with the intention of skirting Apple and bringing iOS, Android and HTML5-based Facebook games to one central location. Through its Android Fund, Tapjoy now has 130 applications that includes several million user editions. So much for the notion that 2012 would be the death of the third-party app store.
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For the record, I still believe that many third-party app stores will eventually get pushed out the ecosystem. It seems now that the market is still in its boom phase where many parties believe there is money to be made by living off the scraps from the Android Market and Apple App Store. And hey, why not? If Apple proved anything with its $700 million paid to iOS developers last quarter, it is that there is a healthy and vibrant demand for mobile applications and that there is money to be made by all.
Despite its bumpy ride, Tapjoy has been growing quickly. Its Android network reached 25 million monthly active users in December 2011. That is, of course, thanks to its focus on Android after iOS kicked the company and its virtual currency out of the App Store. Tapjoy then partnered with PapayaMobile to bring social discovery to mobile apps through its Web-based store.
“Our goal for the Tapjoy Android Fund was to help enhance the Android ecosystem by bringing great games from Facebook, iOS and other platforms to the Android Market,” said Rob Carroll, Tapjoy’s director of publishing, in a press release.
So, Tapjoy has been growing. So, it has had some success with Android apps. So what? Tapjoy in and of itself is only one player, and a smaller one, in the larger sea that is the Empire Of Android. Tapjoy’s recent success actually has a lot less to do with the company than the trend it represents.
What is the biggest problem facing Android developers? Making money. The Android Market has not been conducive helping publishers to that end. We expect Google to help change that in 2012 but right now there is an ecosystem building around Android that can help developers get their apps discovered and get paid. While there is basically zero grey market for iOS apps, the grey market for Android is a viable place for publishers to turn to. Whether it is the Tapjoy Android Fund and its repository of apps or the Amazon Android Appstore or GetJar (which just signed a deal with GameLoft) there are alternatives.
Android publishers have opportunities to make money. It is not as streamlined as iOS and some creativity will be needed. Diversifying your Android strategy can help you put apps on users’ smartphones and dollars in your pocket.
Developers: What is your Android strategy? Do you rely on the Android Market or ar you actively pursuing outside opportunities in third party application stores? Let us know in the comments.
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The Power Of Online Video Can Prove That There Is Life After Death – ReelSEO Online Video News
Jan 2nd
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The Power Of Online Video Can Prove That There Is Life After Death
ReelSEO Online Video News The following is an index of our more popular video search engine optimization (Video SEO, VSEO,… Many of us here at ReelSEO are still settling back into our routines following the awesome SMX West… We had the privilege of speaking with Bruce Clay … |
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There Is A Huge Market For iOS & Android Apps Overseas, Report Says
Dec 23rd
Mobile analytics company Flurry has been tracking the progression of iOS and Android application penetration across the world. No surprise, the United States is the most mature smartphone market on the planet. The rest of the world is catching up though. China and South Korea both have made great leaps in 2011 to bring smart devices to users and where there is a smartphone, there is an app for that.
The U.S. has the highest install base of Android and iOS devices running apps in the world at 109 million. China is second at 35 million with the United Kingdom third at 17 million. The mobile app market is by no means saturated. Flurry still sees lots of room for it to grow.
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Flurry tracks 140,000 apps across Android and iOS devices worldwide. The snapshot of what the company calls the “addressable market” – people not yet using Android or iOS apps – was taken during the last 30 days. Flurry is only counting phone currently in use, skirting the numbers that Apple and Google has said they have sold to date that have been replaced for new models.
Flurry encourages app developers to look overseas for potential growth markets. For instance, in China there are 122 million middle class adults age 15-64 that are not using iOS or Android. In the U.S. that number is 91 million (figuring a 200 million potential smartphone user base or about 60% of the population).
This brings us to the “addressable market.” Right now, the most mature markets are the ones that have the highest penetration per, population. That means that the U.S., Sweden, Hong Kong and Sweden are the most mature. At the same time, the U.S. still has lots of potential to grow in iOS and Android adoption. Take a look at the chart below.
This chart is a little confusing if you do not know exactly what you are looking at. Here is the explanation from Flurry:
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The vertical axis measures our total addressable audience (TAM), which we define as adults, 15 – 64, who are at least middle-class. The TAM per country is represented by the larger, light blue circles. The U.S., with the largest light blue circle, has the largest TAM at 200 million. The horizontal axis shows percent penetration, which is the active user (iOS or Android device that used an app over the last 30 days) divided by the TAM
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Now that we have a look at the mature markets, which ones have the most potential? The light blue portions of the circles show the potential for the apps ecosystem to grow. In this chart, the U.S., Japan, China and India have the highest potential. Sweden and Hong Kong drop right off the map.
Expect developers to start focusing on more emerging markets in 2012. The U.S. may be the test bed for popular apps, but there is big money to be made overseas. Is your studio planning on taking advantage? Let us know in the comments.
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Is There A Future For Social TV?
Dec 9th
People today are sharing to social networks while they’re watching TV. They’re communicating with friends in real time (chatting, IM, tweeting) an asynchronously (commenting and posting). A new report from Ooyala predicts that these social elements become a part of the content itself, appearing inside video players, in apps or on second screens such as tablets or smartphones. This vision for the future of social TV focuses mostlhy on sharing and discovering while watching. How does this vision differ for viewers and publishers?
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Social TV is about sharing. A study published in January by Yahoo’s advertising division found that 86% of people use the Internet on their mobile devices. Of those numbers, 40% are using social networking sites, 33% are using mobile apps and 37% are browsing the Internet.
In the land of social TV sharing, people are communicating with friends in real-time (chatting, IM, tweeting) while they comment on the content they’re watching. Eventually there may be a synchronization of sharing with video, which means users will be able to comment specifically on what they’re watching when they’re watching, check in to content and invite others to do the same, actually affect the outcome of a show as if it’s a “Name Your Own Adventure” story, earn badges and other social rewards that revolve around the show and in fact build a new social network completely focused around content interests.
With the new YouTube re-design and the idea that YouTube may produce its own content, video and social just got one step closer to each other.
Social TV is about discovery. The report also mentions discovery as a major reason for why people use social networks. The StumbleUpon and Twitter redesigns make clear that the user interface of social is becoming more about discovery.
In the age of social discovery, users will be able to request recommendations based on their social graph (think Facebook, especially) or specific social circles on networks like Google+. Social TV will be curated by you and your friends. Of course, this runs into the wrong idea of conflating the social graph with the interest graph. You and your friends do not necessarily share the same interests, though you may share the same social graph. This aspect of social TV will need more tweaking if it is truly going to work – it cannot assume that people who are friends share all of the same interests.
For publishers, the idea of social TV is stellar. If it works, it would make finding target audiences that much easier. Everything is based around the social graph. And with targeted program comes more highly targeted advertising, like users are already seeing on Facebook.
The second screen trend, which we cited back in July, relies on users watching TV while concurrently using a tablet or smartphone. Twitter has embraced its social role in TV, making it a natural place to go if you want to post thoughts and feedback about something you’re watching.
Rumors have circulated about Apple jumping into the social TV game. Will they launch the HDTV set sometime next year?
Readers, do you think there’s a future for social TV? Give us your thoughts in the comments section.
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Manual Link Building Is Hard, But There Are No Shortcuts To Value
Nov 29th
Link building is hard work. Allow me to clarify that: Building legitimate links that have genuine value in search is hard work. Some folks don’t have patience for that hard work, so they turn to alternative means to acquire links. Sometimes they simply do ineffective work. Sometimes they seek links…
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NPD’s Ross Rubin: Is There No ‘Joy’ in Android?
Nov 23rd
Last month, Android’s user experience lead, Matias Duarte, spoke to The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky about the emerging design ethic for the mobile operating system, which Google hired him to help create. At that time, Duarte told Topolsky that there’s a special difficulty in maintaining a single design ethic that must be applied to multiple variations of an operating system simultaneously. “You want to be sure that your design ideas will survive, and also allow for customization,” he said.
Topolsky’s story inspired Slate’s Farhad Manjoo on Monday to write that even Android 4.0, whose design was influenced by Duarte’s contributions, does not have a consistency of overall experience that evokes an experience, as Duarte described it, of “love.” “Of the three major smartphone operating systems,” Manjoo wrote, “Android is still by far the most confusing. It’s also the least likely to inspire joy.” (For those of you keeping score at home, the #3 system on Manjoo’s list is Windows Phone, not BB OS.)
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“There’s a dichotomy. Specific implementations of products that consumers ultimately use are generally the product of many cooks being in the kitchen: the carrier and the handset maker being the two most prominent,” explains the Executive Director of Industry Analysis for NPD Connected Intelligence, Ross Rubin, in a discussion with RWW this afternoon. “But Android as an offering from Google is really beholden to nobody. And as a result, it’s been able to be adapted to a wide range of experiences, and that’s ultimately what consumers fall in love with. It’s the experience, not any particular element of it such as the consistency of the user interface – that’s a component. Consumers may have a strong emotional reaction to having a first-class Gmail client, if that’s where they’re living their lives.”
Divvying up the joy
Variation of implementation is no stranger to the iPhone, added Rubin, especially with respect to all the games that don’t have to follow a standard usage model. In fact, if they did, they wouldn’t be unique and valuable. Individual PC games over the last three decades have had highly stylized usage models; when they look and feel like Windows, frankly, they’re no fun.
“Certainly what Microsoft has tried to do is simplify the experience, and one way they’ve done that is maintaining more consistency among the various handset brands, setting a higher bar for minimum specifications in terms of screen resolution, camera resolution, etc. But what Microsoft is doing now is expanding the degree of supported hardware to appeal to a wide audience.”
Perhaps the increased degree of consistency and attention to specifications that Microsoft has shown with respect to Windows Phone 7 should mean it loves its phones even more than Apple. But maybe it’s easier to talk about love as a component in the context of Apple.
Rubin concedes that UX consistency implies a certain degree of forethought, which some may rightly conclude comes from care. But Google, he adds, may be a world leader in forethought. “They’re putting more forethought into supporting a wider range of devices and scenarios. You could argue that what they should be thinking about is the end user experience, not what’s important to their licensees. Historically, that’s where Apple has focused; and increasingly, it’s where Microsoft is focusing.”
Android remains in a transition period (“maybe one that it will never exit,” quips Rubin). Currently, it’s adapting lessons learned from the Android 3.2 “Honeycomb” tablet platform to the forthcoming 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” platform, which will tie together both form factors. That’s an added element of consistency that Slate’s Manjoo may have neglected, says Rubin. “Now that everything is unified on the same software release, [Google] can bring together all of the mobile devices instead of just some of them reaping the benefits of that greater consistency.”
Would consistency mandates constitute affection or punishment?
I suggested to Rubin that, if four years ago, Google had published a massive set of software and hardware specifications for how Android phones and apps must look and feel – how buttons must appear, how sliders must work – the degree of consistency the company would have been perceived to enforce would not have evoked feelings of “love,” but rather quite the opposite. “Fragmentation is a high-class problem,” NPD’s Rubin responded. “You need to have a large number of devices out there in order for the issue of them having such significant variation to register with developers. If some of those form factors are shipping in such low volume, then it’s not a priority for developers.”
Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, both of which are Android-based, don’t rely on Google’s services or Android Market, he reminds us. But both manufacturers allow Google’s developers to leverage their knowledge in developing for their tablets. This kind of “sub-ecosystem” established by B&N and Amazon speaks to the wide range of Android flexibility, says Google – something never before seen within any Linux-based platform heretofore.
In the end, I asked Ross Rubin, is “joy” – the missing element in Manjoo’s story – only a prerequisite for an Apple phone, as opposed to a phone that a guy like me would use. (I can be happy enough using a phone without feeling I haven’t received my daily dose of joy.)
“What Apple has been very good at is reinforcing each element of the experience with the other elements,” he responds. “The design of the device reinforces the design of the software, which reinforces the design of the retail experience. And it’s all a virtuous circle, so that if you’re looking for a well-curated experience, something that is torn down to its essentials but executes those essentials with very high quality, then you’re going to get a heavy reinforcement of those attributes through the entire Apple product experience. But there’s a wide array of experiences. You have to believe that a phone that can execute well on providing video chat between a grandparent and grandchild is going to provide a lot of joy to that grandparent. You can’t underestimate the value that compelling content and services have to play.”
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Barack Obama Joins Google+, White House Itself Still Not There
Nov 23rd
First Britney Spears takes the top Google+ spot away from Google CEO Larry Page today. Now the President of the United States, Barack Obama, has opened an account. Not Yet Verified, But Yes, Real Is it really him? It’s actually a Google+ brand page for the Obama For America campaign, and not…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Yahoo Site Explorer Shuts Down Today: What Alternatives Are There?
Nov 21st
With the demise of Yahoo Site Explorer today, SEOs and online marketers will be wondering where to go now for free access to the invaluable information it provided over the past 6 years. The companies that sell this information as part of their ma…
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Is There a Future For Voting on iPads?
Nov 8th
Today is Election Day in the United States and for the first time ever, some voters are casting their ballot using the iPad, the Associated Press reports. In a special primary election in Oregon, disabled residents will have the option of voting on Apple’s tablet computer, which has several accessibility advantages for such voters.
As revolutionary and exciting as this may sound at first blush, the program is pretty limited. The iPads are administered by the state and voters have to have one brought to their homes. The final votes are printed out and sent in via mail. Still, this is the first time a tablet voting initiative of this kind has been used in the United States. Is tablet-based voting something we should expect to see more of in the future?
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It’s worth noting that the United States falls behind a few other Western democracies when it comes to online voting. Aside from a few experiments here and there, U.S. voters cannot cast their ballots via the Internet, due primarily to security and fraud-related concerns. Even so, Canada and a handful of European countries have implemented Web-based voting to some degree.
Blazing the trail in online voting is Estonia, according to CNN. The small baltic state has allowed its citizens to cast ballots on the Web for four years.
If security is such a serious impediment to browser-based voting, perhaps Apple’s much-maligned “closed” ecosystem can provide an antidote to the wild, open Web.
We could imagine a state-developed voter registration and balloting app down the line, but such a solution wouldn’t be without it’s challenges. For one, the iPad still costs $500 and tablet user adoption is only at 11% in the U.S. So much for a revolutionary explosion is democratic participation.
Even though iOS is typically viewed as more secure than some other platforms, no system is free of malware or hackers. Anybody who’s had their iTunes account hacked knows this all too well. For any kind of Internet-based ballot box to work, whether its based on desktops, tablets, smartphones or all three, will need some serious security measures in place. Even the multi-tiered security on banking apps wouldn’t be enough to ensure votes are cast and counted fairly.
That’s not to say that such a challenge is insurmountable. Developers have solved so many of life’s little problems, and even a few big ones. Whose to say democracy can’t be next?
What do you think? Can you see a future in which mobile and tablet-based voting is a reality? Would you want to do it? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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