As most of my work is for UK companies, it’s useful to have UK specific market stats. There’s an interesting article at the Guardian on how Android has taken over the UK Smartphone Market here in the UK… 

 

Half the people here now have a Smartphone and half of these have Android. For companies targetting the UK, this shows that if you develop for Android, iPhone and BackBerry you cover the majority of the population. Symbian, Windows Phone and Bada are irrelevant.

When talking to prospective clients I often point people to Google’s platform versions web page. However, a comment today on twitter has made me think about this information in a slightly different way.

If you take a look at the Facebook statistics page you will find that it has over 800 million active users with over 350 million active users currently accessing through their mobile devices. This is fairly high proportion of users.

What does this mean for developers? For most it means having some way of sharing app specific data via Facebook. However, you can do a lot better than this. Here are some ways I have seen my clients piggy back on Facebook’s success:

• Marketing: There’s a better correlation between people who use facebook and those who access the internet/apps on their phone than there is for most other media. This means Facebook is a great place to promote your apps. Set up a Facebook page and devise innovative ways to spread the word.
• Authentication: The problem with many apps is the multiple stage process necessary to register and validate people. I once read a Nokia survey that concluded that you lost half your people for every extra stage. Facebook has already solved this problem for you. Use the Facebook APIs to quickly and effortlessly pre-authenicate people. However, don’t forget to also include a backstop registration process for those not on Facebook or those that don’t want to share their login details with your app.
• Personalisation: Use the Facebook APIs (the graph API) to learn more about your users to adapt the app to their needs.
• Viral Marketing: Use Facebook to creatively push stories back via feed forms. I say ‘creatively’ because your users won’t thank you for blatant product promotion. Instead, include it as part of sharing app specific data via Facebook.

The understatement site has an enlightening survey on how (US) phones have (or haven’t) been able to be updated to later versions of Android.

Last May, I covered the same topic and concluded that consumers have expectations that probably aren’t viable. I also mooted the idea that maybe OEMs might abandon major upgrades and only provide bug fixes. This turned out to be very contentious and I got a lot of angry feedback! Since then, upgrades have made many older Android devices easier to program for developers so I now I see the failure of this track of thinking.

Nevertheless, I know it’s very difficult and not financially viable for some OEMs to upgrade phones. Their source control practices and types of change to Android (within rather than on top of) make adding older Android version specific bug fixes and enhancements, to newer versions of the OS, difficult. It’s a problem waiting for a clever solution.

I have been following the news out of Nokia World and have been asking myself why people buy Nokia. My previous criticisms of the Nokia/Microsoft tie-up have been based more on a technical/developer/UI viewpoint. However, most people aren’t like me. What makes people buy Nokia phones?

Firstly, there is actually a technical aspect. For example, people who want a great camera might choose a Nokia. However I suspect such people are in the minority and could be classed at geeks and/or early adopters.

A larger group of users comes from Nokia phones being pushed by network operators. Will network operators want to promote Windows Phone more than say iOS and Android? It’s hard to say. Most operators have already dropped Nokia S60 so it will now be more difficult to get them re-engaged.

Linked to network operators are upgrades. In many countries users get pushed new phones at the end of a fixed term tariff so as to keep customer loyalty. Many Nokia S60 phones were distributed this way with most users not even knowing their new phone was a smartphone. Related to this is the end-user perception that if they select a phone from the same brand it will work in the same way and they won’t have to learn new stuff. Nokia Windows Phone will get some converts this way even if the people end up surprised at what they receive.

People also buy Nokia because of the brand. It’s trusted and actually has some credibility as a fashionable item (ok, not so much as Apple but definitely more than many Android brands). Nokia will definitely get a few sales this way. However, there’s evidence that brand is becoming less important and people are chosing a phone based on the OS. 

The final possibility is marketing. Microsoft will invest a huge amount of money in marketing via its OEMs. This has the possibility to cause a consumer led push for Windows Phone rather than an operator initiated pull. However, will this have any affect on a market that is already awash with iOS and Android and a mass market of consumers that are going through global financial hard times? Again, it’s difficult to say.

MEF’s Global Consumer Survey has reported that mobile Internet access is outpacing fixed-line Internet access. 72% use mobile Internet on a daily basis with 18% no longer using fixed line to access the Internet at all. It’s interesting that only a few years ago it was difficult to get people to use the Internet on mobile phones. The reasons were cost and small screen size.

Today, 27% of consumers say they would use mobile to make more purchases if security was addressed. I believe this is more due to false perception rather than fact. People used to say this of desktop browsing/purchasing and not a lot changed technically before ecommerce took off. I’d even go as far to say the mobile Internet is probably safer than desktop due to all the malware that infects so many desktops.

If mobile replaces fixed for a larger number of people then this has some implications for mobile developers. For example, cut down versions of functionality might no longer be acceptable. Productivity apps might also become more essential on mobile. Plugging your mobile into a larger screen at home might become commonplace. Developing for mobile first might become prevalent. Ironically, mobile might become a greater target for malware and become less safe for purchasing.