Little Love for the Mobile Web in App-Adoring World

April 11th, 2010 • mobile • No comments

Here’s an article written by Kunur Patel for AdAge which I recently participated in that speaks to the raging apps versus mobile web debate. Personally I’m in favor of a hybrid approach (for now atleast):

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The love affair between marketers and mobile apps is in full bloom, but the obsession with apps and the niche market they represent is coming at the expense of the mobile web, which is exponentially bigger and starving for brand dollars.

Nearly 20% of U.S. mobile subscribers used a downloaded app in January, according to ComScore, but that audience is spread across myriad devices; no one app can reach that entire population unless it is reformatted a number of times. Yet marketers are throwing their relatively tiny mobile budgets behind iPhone apps rather than mobile websites that have the potential to get in front of more consumers.

Consider: the largest app category, iPhone apps, at best only reaches 25% of smartphone users — a fast-growing segment that represented 42.7 million Americans in January, according to ComScore.

Compare that to nearly 30% of all mobile subscribers that used a phone’s web browser on any device accessing the internet, from iPhones and BlackBerrys to Android phones. What’s more, phones will overtake PCs as the most common device to access the internet worldwide by 2013, according to a study from information-technology research company Gartner.

So why are mobile sites taking a backseat to iPhone apps? Blame the Apple aura. Read More

Mobile phone as a second opinion

March 27th, 2010 • automotive, mobile • 1 comment

Originally published in Headlight Blog. Editor’s Note: Headlightblog.com recently caught up with James Spahr, a UX Lead at Razorfish and pictured below, who has been working on the Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) account since Razorfish was selected as the digital agency of record in January 2009. This past summer James worked on a mobile website for MBUSA as part of the agency’s work to support the 2010 E-Class launch. He was interviewed for Headlightblog.com by Kyle Outlaw, a regular Headlightblog.com contributor who is also a UX lead at Razorfish and one of the agency’s mobile subject matter experts.

Headlightblog.com: What were the key business drivers behind the creation of the mobile website for MBUSA?
James Spahr: The goal of the mobile website was to create a destination that mobile advertising could ultimately be driven toward. The point was to deliver products and information about the new E-Class, whether you were directed to the site from a mobile ad, accessed the site directly on your mobile phone or, while sitting in front of the TV, saw the URL and typed it in. Read More

A more connected car: On Mercedes-Benz, mobile and vehicle telematics

March 27th, 2010 • automotive, mobile • No comments

Originally published in Headlight Blog. Mercedes-Benz mbrace, a new telematics platform that Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) launched recently, is the first such system to have a companion mobile application. The app lets registered mbrace customers lock and unlock vehicle doors as well as locate their vehicle from within the vicinity of one mile. The app also lets owners contact their preferred Mercedes-Benz dealership or locate dealers in the U.S. by proximity. It provides dealer name, address, phone number and even pinpoints their location on a map. The click-to-call functionality allows for easy access to the mbrace Customer Response Center, Mercedes-Benz Customer Assistance Center and Mercedes-Benz Financial. Users must be active Mercedes-Benz mbrace subscribers to use the companion mobile application.  Read More

If You Build It, Will They Come? Web Usability v.2009

October 3rd, 2009 • Uncategorized • 4 comments

Here’s an article by Ned Smith for Digital Media Buzz which I recently participated in that speaks to the changing nature of usability in the face of emerging technology, social media, and mobile:

“Though Nielsen Norman is still the éminence grise looming over Web design, time and the Web have moved on. Flash and other digital razzmatazz are no longer beyond the Web design pale and new technologies and devices such as notebooks and smart phones have arrived on the scene. Increasingly, the digital world is going mobile.

So, how is usability faring these days? Do the old verities preached by Nielson still hold true? Alex Wright is the director of User Experience and Product Research at The New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. He began his Web work in the anything-goes pre-Nielsen days. “Like a lot of folks in the Web business, I’ve had a bit of a circuitous career, working at various times as a journalist, librarian, designer, researcher ― and once upon a time, burger flipper,” he says. “I started my first Web job back in 1995 at IBM, during the Wild West era of the Web. Back then we were all making it up as we went along, but over the next few years I began to work with some of the human factors engineers in the company’s software group, where I received some on-the-job-training in user-centered design techniques.”

Read More

Is the iPhone a Big Shiny Distraction?

October 3rd, 2009 • Uncategorized • No comments

Here’s a write up of a recent panel I participated in as a part of  OMMA Global 2009 here in New York. The title of the panel was “Is the iPhone a Big Shiny Distraction?”

“There was a lively discussion around the iphone which was less about the platform and who drives the technology behind the phone and more about the reach of the iphone and iphone apps. Although it may seem like everyone has one of these big shiny distractions – ultimately the market share for the iphone represents 2.8% of US handsets (comScore 7/2009). So the panel argued if you really want to reach your audience you’ll need to look across the multiple mobile devices that are in market today. However they did say that the app store can be a good way to drive PR buzz if you can get past and climb to the top of the app popularity list.” Read More

Design Matters: A Mobile UX Manifesto

October 3rd, 2009 • Uncategorized • 3 comments

Disruptive Mobility Roundup: Mobile Banking, SXSW, and the User Experience of Money

March 14th, 2009 • Future of Money, mobile • 1 comment

Here in my car 2.0: Rinspeed’s shape-shifting, taboo-breaking, iPhone-enabled concept car

March 8th, 2009 • automotive, mobile • No comments

Originally published in Headlight Blog. In previous installments of this series, we’ve covered a few examples of phone-car convergence such as the Land Rover LRX. We would be remiss if we did not report on the iChange, the latest concept car developed by Rinspeed that was recently unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.

Rinspeed is a Swiss automobile design firm and manufacturer established by Frank M. Rinderknect. In addition to restoring classic cars and modifying Porsches and Subarus, Rinspeed creates a concept car each year for the Geneva Motor Show. Automotive enthusiasts might recall some of Rinspeed’s previous concept cars, such as the sQuba — which was based on the Lotus Elise and doubled as a submarine — and the Splash, an amphibian vehicle with a top speed of 124 miles per hour on land and 45 knots on water.¹

Now comes the iChange, a single-seat concept car that can adjust its shape to accommodate up to two  passengers. The iChange is capable of reaching 62 mph in four seconds and a top speed of 137 mph.² According to Rinderknect, “the iChange is a symbol for the fundamental changes the auto industry [is undergoing] worldwide.” From Rinderknect’s perspective, the automobile manufacturers that will make it through these turbulent times will be the ones focused on radical innovation in the industry.³

More in Headlight

Disruptive Mobility Roundup: Mobile Banking Arrives, Plus Facebook’s Mobile Future

March 2nd, 2009 • mobile • 4 comments

Originally published in Digital Design Blog. Mobile banking is beginning to break in the US, if Bank of America’s recently published stats are any indication. According to Netbanker, 40% of Bank of America’s 2 million mobile bankers use iPhone or iPod Touch. Also 8 to 10% of mobile bankers signed up for the mobile service within 90 days of opening a BofA account. In a related article the Wall Street Journal reports on how improved technology is helping banks to attract customers despite the economic downturn…

Crunch Gear reports on details of a recent patent granted to Apple which describes a video conferencing application for the iPhone. According to the patent “an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user’s image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display.” It’s worth noting that last year hackers Glen and Ken Aspeslagh actually beat Apple to the punch by creating their own videoconference application of their own using the iPhone’s speakerphone call and a mirror…

Six trends are conspiring to drive electronic books into the mainstream according to Mike Elgan at Computerworld. The article points out that despite the fact that Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims that “people don’t read any more”, the iPhone may yet prove to be a Kindle killer. Elgan also predicts that Apple will release a tablet, ideal for reading e-books. The Economist is on top of this trend with its article on the popularity of electronic books and what this could mean for newspapers, also Jeff Bezo’s Worst Nightmare…

Speculation in GigaOm that Facebook’s Future is Mobile. Om Malik writes “As we transition to an increasingly mobile world, the location beacon takes the role of the TCP, and most mobile services (and applications) find their context from this location beacon”. Malik prefers the iPhone version of Facebook to the web version, citing that the combination of the social graph and the phone’s address book make the mobile version more “socially relevant”.