Last week, details were released of the next generation Microsoft video games console, Xbox One. As with the announcement of the release of the new Sony console (PlayStation 4) earlier this year, there was a great sense of anticipation. The video games market has changed a lot in the last few years, with a greater level of choice than ever before.
Everyone is always going on about apps, especially people like me in mobile marketing but what are the public actually downloading?
With the average number of apps that people have being 41 what are the most popular apps in Singapore and the by comparison the UK? Are they the same? What local differences are there?
Customer service has now irrevocably changed from call centres to apps. More and more people demand instant information rather than a distant security obsessed call centres who probably can’t help you anyway!
Instant customer feedback, transactional changes, information on the go is the new customer service that people expect. Unfortunately this is not available from a call centre. Only an app can give you this.
In a recent survey by Nuance Communications for example more half of Australians (2nd highest penetration of smartphones in the world behind Singapore) preferred to access customer service information through an app rather than a call centre.
Tablets are not killing newspapers, they’re offering a lifeline to the revitalisation and rebirth of ‘news brands’ beyond the dreaded paywall, say the experts. Assembled at Newsworks’ Tablet Summit, representatives from the likes of Guardian Media Group, Mail Newspapers, The Independent, Expedia and News International gave their take on the future of the newspaper industry as tablet take-up rockets. Guy Zitter group managing director at the Mail put it starkly. He said it was a case of ”Adapt or die”.
Instagram is the darling of tech, and the king of all photo apps. It made its founders millions of dollars, and made each of us into top artistic photographers with just our iPhone.
Or so the story goes.
What that simplistic narrative ignores though is that Instagram is being pushed very hard indeed, and its competitor is not another Silicon Valley darling, but a European start-up called EyeEm.
Over the last few months we have been closely monitoring Facebook’s determined efforts to improve its standing in the mobile space here on The Wall. The company are desperately trying to monetise mobile ads, and find other ways to bring in revenue via people’s phones. For example they are building relationships with mobile carriers around billing.
So what are the main specific areas where mobile users are expanding their horizon’s by using mobile apps? Well photography, travel and finance lead the way with above 100% year on year increases in app use.
Photography is being fueled by Instagram amongst others as mobile phones develop more sophisticated and powerful cameras.
People are using travel apps to do everything from researching hotels to booking flights, reading reviews to redeeming offers, all on their mobiles, ironically while travelling.
In June, sales via smartphones and tablets leapt 356% compared to the same month last year, according to a new report by IMRG Capgemini. The total online spend in the UK for June was £6bn, a 13% increase compared to last year.
What’s more, based on the current rate of change and adoption, Morgan Stanley analysts believe mobile web browsing will outstrip desktop Internet use by 2015.
This explosive demand calls for a suitably dynamic new way of delivering what people expect from website usability, whatever device they’re using – PC, laptop, smartphone or tablet. Read More
There’s a famous phrase from Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan that gets a regular workout in media columns. “The medium is the message” has been quoted so many times that using it is almost a cliché. People attempt to explain and interpret this phrase in a number of different ways.
The phrase even has its own Wikipedia article that contains the extraordinary phrase: “McLuhan describes the “content” of a medium as a juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.”
But looking past the florid writing style and larceny metaphors for one moment, McLuhan’s point that while we get distracted by content, we can miss the changes and developments that are instigated by the medium itself. Read More
Online advertising, and paid search advertising in particular, has been held up as the ideal for marketing because of its measurability and the level of tracking it offers. Conversely, offline advertising is inherently difficult to track.
TV advertising offers a fantastic medium for brands to reach a mass audience and raise awareness of the brand and its product range. However, until now it has not been able to provide the same level of measurability as online. The arrival of smart TVs is set to change that.
The launch of Google TV in the UK, expected over the next six months, along with Apple’s rumoured move to launch its own internet-enabled TVs, mark a pivotal moment for brands looking to recreate the level of measurement associated with online, in a world that was typically known as offline. Read More
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