The organizers of this week’s Unplugged conferences are presenting a hack day for mobile designers and developers this Saturday May 14th.
The Amped hack day challenges designers and developers to create mobile applications and games to explore the Seattle Center, site of the Seattle World’s Fair, and help visitors to engage and connect with the site, its history, and the future. Over 12 intense hours, participants will imagine, and create prototype apps, with the chance that their app will be part of the NextFifty celebrations, and be used by tens of thousands of visitors to the Seattle Center during NextFifty.
The event is free, and open to web and mobile designers and developers, both professionals and students, and supported by Sencha Inc and WAC. It would be great to see any of you Seattle folk there.
Amped Hack the World’s Fair
When: Saturday May 14th
Where: Seattle Center
Who: Mobile and Web Designers and Developers, Design and IT students
What: Hack day for mobile apps and games at Seattle Center
Cost: Free but RSVP
amped hack day mobile design mobile development
The Guardian just published a great article on some of the issues Google is facing with hardware and software fragmentation for Android. It’s a problem we’ve encountered as we’ve been developing for Android, trying to factor in different hardware, operating systems and even submitting to the various Android app stores. It’s definitely been an arduous process made complex by the variety of choice.
Software fragmentation is a particular problem for Android phone users, who wait endlessly for updates to the operating system so they can run the latest apps. This contrasts in big ways with Apple’s iOS mobile ecosystem. When Apple updates iOS, all reasonably recent iPhones and iPads get updated. Many powerful Android handsets – notably, Samsung’s Galaxy S line that was a hit last year – are still waiting for the most recent Android version.
The Guardian article does overstate the simplicity of developing for Apple. Yes there’s only two device sizes (iPad and iPhone) but there is still a surprising amount of fragmentation within those devices. The iPhone 4 has the retina display, which means supplying two sets of graphics for the iPhone 3/3GS and 4. We also need to factor in the iPod Touch, which has surprisingly high statistics and is a device often forgotten when discussing mobile. And with the iPad 2, testing time and tasks have increased for iPad apps. And not everybody updates their operating system automatically, meaning we still need to support older versions of the OS.
So saying, Apple is at a massive advantage by limiting consumer choice – by limiting choice, they’ve created a much bigger, more cohesive marketplace.
From what we’ve heard at Google IO this week, they’re very aware of their Android fragmentation issues and are making moves to try to counter the software side. I think the horse has already bolted though, and it’s going to be really difficult to rein it back in.
android fragmentation iOS
Google & AdMob provides us with a great starter for anyone looking to dive into mobile. With one of the best mobile slogans ever:
Don’t Just Build a Mobile App. Build a Business.
The site walks you through Promote, Earn, Measure and Evaluate your mobile products. And offers case studies from the creators of Angry Birds and other developers.
Sure it might be a little biased, but it’s a pleasure to poke around and check out this great HTML5 site.
Apps Guides HTML5
Yikes!
Over here in the States, we have mostly been immune to some of the security threats that have plagued mobile users abroad. It wasn’t that long ago that smartphone platforms like Symbian were prone to attacks via an open Bluetooth connection by side-loaded apps.
Pre-iPhone this was an increasing concern in the mobile community, but post-iPhone we stopped talking about it. Hmm, I wonder why?
Now a new report is out that says, that there is a huge increase in Android malware:
One of the most unsettling findings of the study was the fact that the greatest distribution point for mobile malware is the application download. With the 400-percent increase of Android malware, now would be as good a time as any to choose an antivirus app.
An anti-virus app for your phone? Seriously?
Android Security
When was the last time you heard anyone say that _War and Peace _ didn’t have enough pictures?
— Me to a client, trying to help them understand the differences and similarities of book design and iPad design.
Mobile Design
In accessibility news this morning, developer Jonathan Chacón has just released Accessible Minesweeper, an iOS game accesible for blind and deaf users, and people with motor disabilities. The game can be controlled by voiceOver, there is text feedback for sound events for deaf users, and apparently it’s designed for users with motor issues in mind.
Jonathan is blind himself, and apparently he’s the first blind developer to publish an app in the iTunes App Store (although subsequent posters claim he’s not the first). I’m always interested in seeing accessibility developments in iOS as it seems to be the perfect platform to really make the most of mobile accessibility. Hopefully this is the beginning of many more developments and apps.
The app can be downloaded from iTunes here.
accessibility iOS games
The Brandz Annual Top 100 Valuable Global Brands Report has just been released, with Apple ending Google’s four-year reign to become the world’s most valuable brand. According to their calculations, the Apple brand has increased in value by 859% since 2006 and now stands at $153.3 billion.
Technology and telecom brands dominate the ranking: Technology brands, which make up one-third of the Top 100 brands, continue to demonstrate their relevance in our daily lives. While Apple leads the ranking, it is followed in second place by Google, with a brand value of $111.5 billion, and IBM in third place with a brand value of $100.9 billion. Facebook makes its debut in the Top 100 ranking this year at No. 35 with the highest increase in brand value, 246 percent, making the brand worth $19.1 billion. Online retailer Amazon also edged past Walmart to become the No. 1 retail brand and 14th overall, with a 37 percent rise in brand value to $37.6 billion.
Apple seems to have taken the lead due to their understanding of the mobile market and consumers. As the report states, at the beginning of last year there were few (if any) people lamenting that their laptop was too big but mobile was too small, yet around 18 million iPads (and other tablets) were sold in 2010 alone. It reminds me a little of the Henry Ford quote, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”.
The report is also available as a mobile app for iOS, Android, Nokia and Blackberry.
Each quarter Chetan Sharma crunches the numbers and puts out a gem of a mobile report
Instead of hyperbole, speculation or conjecture that the market analysts use to sell reports, Chetan uses real data provided by each of the carriers to create a powerful tool to help you glimpse into where the mobile market is headed.
Here are some of my favorite quotes and highlights from the report:
On the mobile market…
2010 marked the milestone of the start of a new computing and communications era. For the first time in the US, the smartphones shipments exceeded the traditional computer segments (that consists of desktops, notebooks and netbooks). Smartphones and the connected devices now account for 51% of the computing devices revenue in the US.
This was mentioned in his previous report, but somehow we missed it. This is pretty big data point. We already knew that feature phones exceeded computers for some time now, but smartphones and connected devices at 51%?! We all knew it would happen at some point, but now it is fact.
On location-gate…
Current regulatory framework in the US seems ineffective to meet the demands of the digital age. The indecision and a weak regulatory framework can be harmful to the ecosystem.
I love that Chetan added this to his report. Location-gate opened the door for more legislation in mobile—already one of the most regulated markets in the country. But this time the eyes of Congress are on platforms and apps.
On the iPad…
Apple’s iPad has been, as expected, a runaway success. Several other tablets launched in 2011 but none has come close to being a credible challenge. OEMs will do well to segment the market and price accordingly rather than follow Apple in performance and pricing.
No surprises on the iPad, but I love that last line. It pretty much summarizes my entire Android Honeycomb experience thus far.
On connected devices…
The connected devices category is the fastest growing segment of the market. By the end of 2011, connected devices will be commanding double digit market share.
This is one of the most important data points from the report and for the future of everything. However since connected devices don’t come with an Apple or Google logo on it, we collectively go: meh.
On the market leaders, Apple, Amazon & Google…
While innovation is coming from all angles—fast and furious—the troika of Apple, Amazon, and Google is leading the way right now. Their interests are clashing in multiple dimensions—device, user data, cloud, advertising, local, commerce, books, etc.
Amazon really? I didn’t see that one coming. But Chetan provides an interesting perspective on who the key players are in mobile and why (it’s all about the data).
On the #3 spot…
There is a fight for the #3 spot and it is likely that Windows will fill that void. However, for developers, iOS and Android are the only platforms they need to worry about right now.
Windows Phone will be a platform we will have to contend with, I guarantee it. It isn’t just that it has the backing of Nokia, but most of the biggest OEMs, like HTC and Samsung too, that are shipping mostly Android units today. Speaking of…
The OEMs that have impressed the most are HTC and Samsung. The collapsed release cycles and the fierce pace of introduction of new devices have caught many of the traditional players unprepared. These things have a tendency of going in cycles so we expect the pendulum to swing again in the next 12-24 months.
This next pendulum swing will be towards Windows Phone. As Android further commoditizes itself, the Carriers and OEMs will need Windows Phone to help make their earnings in 2012.
On platforms…
Over the past few quarters, we have seen a fascinating battle brew between the horizontal (Android and Windows) and the vertical (Apple, RIM, Nokia) device platforms. In the US, in the smartphone category, the horizontal platforms (primarily Android) has been gaining significant share since Q1 2010 and now have over 65% share of the new devices sold while the vertical platforms’ share has declined to 35%. However, the revenues and profits are still dominated by the vertical platforms.
Another great data point. Why does the vertical platform strategy work? What makes it so compelling? And even with declining marketshare will it retain it’s revenue advantage?
The best part is that we can look forward to Chetan’s next report in three months and find out.
Read the report
Market Reports Chetan Sharma