Nov 26, 2013

Social Networking Addicted countries - Daily Social Networking on smartphones

Social media users in Mexico and Thailand could easily be called "Addicted users". 
In these countries 82% of smartphone users visit their social network accounts DAILY!
These countries are followed by Indonesia and Turkey, in which 79% and 75% of the smartphone users check their social networks daily.

Number of Mobile Apps per Phone by Country

Average number of application per phone in Japan is more than 40.
It is around 33 in United States and it is only 18 in Turkey.

Number of Mobile Apps per Phone (via http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com)



Security and privacy issues on NFC enabled phones and credit cards

According to plans of GSM operators, in a year or two everyone would be using NFC enabled cellphones and they would be able to define several credit cards on them. NFC feature will either be provided by the device manufacturers like Apple, Samsung and others or GSM operators will have to produce their own Rfid enabled smart simcards. How ever it will be, there will certainly be more security and privacy concerns all over.
Discussions over the location tracking feature of mobile devices are just getting started and tempers will rise more after more and more people sue operators and device manufacturers. 
But this is only a beginning and soon banks would be looking to track their credit card users via applications uploaded on NFC enabled phones. If you do not read the terms on your credit card agreement well enough, you might be signing a permission to be tracked.

The other and the bigger risk is the hacking of RFID enabled smart simcards. For hackers that is a dream come true; they will not need to hack your computer or your mobile device. All they have to do is to use an RFID reader and develop a simple programme to hack your RFID card. Watch how easy it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj0twFdFgg8

Nov 25, 2013

Still a long way to go for Mobile device dominance? not really


Although Mobile Phone usage has already passed fixed phone usage, mobile devices are still way behind laptops and PCs.  A new data from  Monetate Q1 2013 Ecommerce Quarterly shows that only 21% of the website traffic is via tablets and smartphones. 

But we can still be optimistic on the rise of "mobile", since only 20% of mobile device usage is for browsing and 82% of the mobile media time is used on mobile apps. So be prepared to switch your mobile marketing from mobile browsers to mobile apps..

For more on the subject: http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-analytics/social-media-ecommerce/

Nov 21, 2013

DO IT YOURSELF MOBILE APPS FOR NON CODERS

For us who cannot write, code or develop anything, there are still options to create our own simple application. But please do not expect anything complicated, since most of them are simple mobile site builders.

Lets start with the free ones. (But of course your app will be fully loaded with ads :)

- Conduit Mobile: simple content management, easy monetization and social integration. Here is a demo of their service: http://youtu.be/mKMrD6k_33o
Mobile site is free, but if you'd like your app to be submitted to ios-android and windows you need to pay 39$/month. http://mobilecp.conduit.com

- ibuildapp: They have their own appstore/marketplace and if you do not need your app to be submitted to itunes or google play you don't have to pay anything. But your app will carry an "ibuildapp" brand name on it. http://ibuildapp.com/
If you'd like to white label it and sell it on the itunes or google play you have to pay 29$/month. Here is a demo video: http://youtu.be/c7zlbgqHOSc

- Infinite Monkey: Just like the others this one does not need any coding background as well.. If you'd like to earn money by selling your application you need to pay 99$/month and you need to submit your app yourself. For 9 dollars they submit it for you, but the app has to be free to install... (their web page does not look trustworthy enough!)
Infinte Monkey has also acquired Appmakr, another app builder for non coders.

- GameSalad: Lots of free features, but if you'd like to go pro you have to pay 299$ !! It is specialized in games and it has more professional usability.