The FT.com web app shows how HTML5 may make support for different mobile OS easier in future
There are so many posts and articles rating the top iPhone/iPad/Android/Windows Mobile app that it might seem that marketers looking to create the widest audience have to develop specific version available through the app store of each platform.
But, the success of the FT.com web app shows that it doesn't have to be this way and in the future it may not be; the dependence on app stores for each mobile native OS may seem quaint. Here are the latest (July 27th) figures on digital publishing by FT.com
Digital subscriptions to the title, which operates behind a metered paywall increased 31% year on year to more than 300,000.
The number of registered users climbed 29% to 4.8 million.
Mobile devices now account for 25% of traffic to FT.com, while there are 2.7 million FT web app users.
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Insights and examples show why a mobile-optimised experience is becoming essential
The focus for many brands over the past ten years has been getting the fixed line website right. This is often the reason brands give for delivering their full site to customers browsing on mobiles.
The vast majority of brands - 83% according to research on UK smartphone usage by Google - still have not optimised their websites for mobile. This stat is mirrored by dismal bounce-rates for mobile sites, which stand at 88% on average. Clearly, consumers won't hang around on a mobile site which gives a poor browsing experience!
New Forrester research forecasts, published this week, shows that by 2016, one billion people will own smartphones, many of whom will be professionals taking these devices to work. By that year, consumer spending in the mobile app market will amount to $56 billion, and business spending on mobile projects will have doubled
As…
A key mobile design trend in 2013
Mobile usage is only going one way. Up. Rapidly.
[caption id="attachment_9550" align="aligncenter" width="537" caption="UK mobile adoption exploding: 27 million regular users, 54% of all mobile users. Source: Comscore."][/caption]
But how good are the experiences we're building for customers? Designing experiences on mobile is challenging because of the form factor and because it's a relatively new design approach with the tools and technologies evolving fast. Brands also want to get to market fast.
Today's mobile designs often fail to differentiate brands
These challenges can lead to some "screen scrape" design approaches where every site looks similar, with little differentiation of brand or experience. These 4 retail sites show this:
Don't get be wrong, these sites show a lot of features of good…
Value: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Google GoMo site
We’ve seen a lot of interest in our posts on mobile marketing options and mobile adoption stats this year, so thought it would be useful to flag this new site to you.
If you’re reviewing your mobile strategy, this is worth reviewing, but be warned, the site is bizarrely designed as “a Flash horror show” so is light on in-depth technical information and marketing ideas.
However, there are useful features which you may find helpful. We think these are the most useful ones:
Test your current site feature
10 mobile best practices
Suppliers - not comprehensive
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