Posts Tagged ‘mobile OS’
Written on August 29th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Last month, Opera released its findings and statistics related to its view of the mobile Web and stated that Opera Mini users had reached a milestone- 10 billion mobile pageviews in the month of June.
Yesterday, Opera released its “State of the mobile Web” for July and, among other interesting tidbits, stated that its users visited over 12 billion pages, a 15 percent jump over June, representing an even larger milestone for the mobile browser.
The report highlighted the large growth in the Middle East when it comes to mobile Web consumption, stating that in Iran, for example, there were more Opera Mini downloads in July than there were unique users in June, but Iran showed only a 32% growth in unique users from June to July. Furthermore, between July 2008 and July 2009, the number of unique users in Iran actually decreased by 22.4%, whereas the only other decreases were seen in Saudi Arabia and Israel (under 10% each).
Despite the decrease, Iran is still at the top of the list for the Middle East. Page-views per user in Iran went up from 119 to 188 between July 2008 and July 2009. In addition, the report also states that Google is by far the dominant search engine in all of the Middle East, and that Facebook is the reigning social network everywhere in the Middle East except for Saudi Arabia where Friendster is dominant.
As for Opera growth overall, the browser had nearly 29.1 million users in July 2009, a 9.9% increase from June 2009 and more than 145% compared to July 2008. As for data consumption, Opera Mini users generated nearly 187 million MB of data for operators worldwide in July. Since June, the data consumed went up by 11%. Data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 1.7 PB of data in July. Since July 2008, data traffic is up 223%.
While this in only a snapshot of a broader picture when it comes to mobile Web consumption, it’s still interesting to see the raw numbers. It would be nice if other browsers would take the time to release it’s usage data as well so we could have a decent comparison.
Share This
Written on August 19th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
The problem has been around forever, yet the mobile industry is still fighting for a solution to SMS spam. As such a quickly growing problem, the FCC and several mobile-specific organizations are still trying to define what is and what isn’t considered mobile SPAM- a process that’s easier said than done.
Mobile spam can be sub-divided into two general categories: legitimate marketers not following best practices and sending unsolicited messages, and the more devious malware attacks, in which malicious messages are sent through text or e-mail to attack a phone’s operating system. Either way, this spam is annoying to consumers, and is giving legitimate rule-following mobile marketers a bad name.
The MMA and other mobile communities have been busy creating industry best practices, rules and regulations to help legitimate marketers stay a step ahead of spammers and to remain transparent in their efforts, but the entire landscape changes so quickly that staying ahead of the curve is getting increasingly difficult.
Contributing to the intolerance of SMS spam is the fact that consumers often will stop what they are doing to read a new mobile message, and will likely have to pay a fee for receiving it. Getting more and more spam messages makes consumers that much more weary of opening any marketing-based SMS message, legitimate or not.
Wireless carriers are doing their part in trying to curb SMS spam, such as AT&T allowing customers to restrict the sources of email that can reach their devices, or replying BLOCK to any email or SMS message deemed unsolicited, but as it does via traditional spam, carriers are usually a step behind the spammers.
“Marketers should enable the end user to control the communications that are received at the device, and enable them as a user, not through the carrier or customer service, to say, ‘I don’t want any messages from short codes’ and also to create lists of who can get through,” says Daniel Hoffman, SVP of communications at SMobile Systems. ”As you eliminate the ability to do targeting what you are doing is making it closer to spam,” Wehrs adds. “So, there is a delicate balance to being targeted and relevant without going too far and making the user feel that their privacy is being invaded.”
It’s a delicate balance, and a problem that won’t be going away any time soon, but the carriers, the FCC and most mobile-based organizations are busy trying to distinguish, fight and regulate spam the best they can. It just reiterates the fact that if you’re a mobile marketer, industry best practices should be your number one concern at all times. Source: Marketing Watch.com
Written on August 19th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Cables Media, a new mobile marketing startup, has launched what they call “In Ur Face,” a customizable iPhone app platform that allows any “quick-serve” the ability to create their own coupon-based iPhone app on the fly.
“I don’t like calling it an iPhone application because it’s so much more,” says Jon Krutchik, president of Cables Media. “It’s really a mobile-marketing platform that happens to be disguised as an iPhone application.” The platform is aimed at giving chain-based businesses such as restaurants and other quick-serve services the ability to enter the world of iPhone advertising by pushing coupon notifications to willing consumers.
A team from Cables Media will meet with, and create a fully branded and customized iPhone app for new customers, and make it available in the App store within just a few weeks. Instead of being branded under the “In Ur Face” logo, any customized iPhone app will look like it was created by the customer solely, with their own logo and personal branding. From there, quick-serves pass along their coupon deals to Cables Media, which turns the deals around quickly and distributes them to app users—with no fee required from the consumer, unlike most text messaging systems.
“It’s really software as a service, and that’s exactly what we’re providing,” Krutchik says. “We handle everything from the customization to the deployment to even the campaign management itself. It’s hands-off for them because, again, let them focus on selling their food and doing what they do.”
The coupon messages, using patent-pending technology from Cables Media, delete themselves from each user’s device after they are redeemed or expire, leaving the customer with no responsibility aside from opting in to use the coupon. For quick-serve businesses, push-notification coupon distribution is a valuable asset, though it’s usually complicated and expensive for brands to go at alone. Cables Media has the right idea, it will be an interesting platform to watch in the near future. Source: Mobile Marketing Watch
Written on August 19th, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Smartphone apps are getting more and more comprehensive everyday it seems, and with the advent of location-based services, mobile social networking and other genres, privacy is becoming increasingly important.
There’s been a recent surge of developers and consumers that have noticed what some apps are doing behind the scenes in terms of gathering user information- and it’s raising concerns for those who value their privacy. A programmer recently discovered, for example, that Pre’s smartphone OS was sending users’ GPS information back to Palm, even though the company’s privacy policy revealed as much.
In addition, ReadWriteWeb is reporting that mobile analytics company Pinch Media allows developers to insert code into applications in order to create a user profile. The information is designed to help developers, although some consider the technique invasive. If the user profile is used with good intentions to help the app in what ever it’s supposed to accomplish, then so be it, but when that user information is used for other purposes without the user’s consent, it creates a big problem.
The regulations associated with this sort of thing are very ambiguous- app developers submitting to Apple’s App store, for example, aren’t required to reveal what types of data they’re tracking. Also, when users consent to have their location revealed, app developers don’t necessarily have to disclose what additional data they’re tracking.
Until regulation is put in place, the only defense is to go over every single line of your TOS and privacy policy associated with any new app you think will collect sensitive user information- since almost nobody will do such a thing, we’re still at the mercy of the app developers. Source: Mobile Marketing Watch
Written on August 3rd, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
I had a quick post-3GS look at the Flickr Camera stats and the results are telling. The iPhone beats every other device hands down. Even YouTube has taken notice of the iPhone since it got video recording. I get real tired of all the Nokia apologists saying that the iPhone is just a hyped fashion phone and that developers should actually target Nokia devices in order to reach the greatest number of users. I will willingly oblige when I see the metrics that support this view but until then our focus is on the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android.
29th June
13th May
Source: http://www.paxmodept.com/telesto/blogitem.htm?id=788
Written on August 1st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
At the Black Hat Security Conference that’s taking place 
today in Las Vegas, two security researchers are set to present on several SMS vulnerabilities that have been identified that could affect several major mobile operating systems- including Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile.
Using some sophisticated software and technical know-how, researchers are using what’s called the “Sully Fuzzing Framework” to point out any and all potential flaws and security loopholes present in various scenarios. ”Fuzzing” is a form of automated software testing that involves entering random or unexpected data. Crashes or unexpected behavior arising from such input can then be analyzed as a potential vulnerability.
More simply, the two researchers created a layer, called the “injector,” just above the bottom of the telephony stack that performs a “man-in-the-middle attack,” so to speak, by intercepting communication between a mobile device’s modem and multiplexer. By doing so, the pair found several SMS flaws on both Android and iPhone platforms, with Windows Mobile still being analyzed.
In iPhone OS 2.2 and 2.2.1, they were able to crash the iPhone’s SpringBoard window management application and the iPhone’s CommCenter, which manages iPhone connectivity- the heart of network connection for the iPhone, meaning vulnerabilities could be a serious problem.
This news comes on the heels of a report that Symbian-powered smartphones are likely to be infected with malware and spyware and doesn’t speak well of the security surrounding the devices that almost everyone in the world is carrying around with them at all times. It shows that, just like with computers, we should never keep our guard down from attacks of all kinds. Hopefully, patches and fixes can be introduced now that the vulnerabilities have been recognized, but that only means new loopholes and attacks will be along shortly. Source: www.marketingwatch.com
Written on August 1st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
A new study sponsored by SMobile Systems, a provider of mobile security solutions, has found that Symbian-based smartphones have a high risk of being infected with spyware and malware- in fact, one out of every 63 smartphones are already infected.
The study of 1,958 smartphones revealed infections by Spyware, Viruses Worms and Trojans, as well as hundreds of unlicensed software programs installed on the handsets reviewed. A comparison of these statistics to the worldwide smartphone population places the number of infected devices globally into the millions. Because the vast majority of these infections are designed to be stealthy and the fact that few smartphones posses Anti-Malware applications, most infected users are completely unaware their devices have been compromised.
Similar to the problem computer users have faced for decades, mobile spyware and malware creates an even bigger problem given the fact that mobile devices often times carry much more sensitive and personal information than computers do. In addition, the variety of ways mobile devices send and receive information leaves many doors wide open, so to speak, for hackers to spread their malware. The attacks have taken the form of worms and Trojans that are transmitted via Bluetooth, SMS, MMS, or email, as well as Spyware that is unwantedly being downloaded from various online application and shareware websites.
This raises concerns for the mobile marketing community as it will make consumers much more weary about opening SMS messages, email, Bluetooth connections and other forms of communication from advertisers, even though most will be legitimate. If the problem persists, and especially if other mobile operating systems are compromised, consumers will become very hesitant to interact with anyone other than people they know, making things even more difficult for brands and advertisers looking for personal and targeted ways to interact with consumers. Source: www.marketingwatch.com
Written on August 1st, 2009 by ADMINno shouts
Smartphones had done amazing this to the consumers in the past couple of years especially after the launch of iPhone. These days there is immense concentration on the development of quality applications Application which can lure the customers in real time and are useful to them. I remember initially mobile games created similar kind of furore but I personally believe that this is different. These days application are developed not only for fun sake but also providing the customers some really value added service. iPhone certainly is leading in the race in this regard and application developers are hugely receptive to the ideas which can be translated into a iPhone application.
Lance Stewart is one such person who came up with the idea of latest iPhone application called Tub
e Exits.
It came to him when he was trying to get out of Oxford Circus tube station in a hurry. Anybody who’s has experience the London’s train station during th rush hours knows very well that you find yourself behind a huge crowd of people blocking the way to the exit.
After experiencing similar, Stuart thought that what he needed was to get the jump on the crowds by knowing which carriage he should board to arrive at the platform exit. If he somehow knew, for every station platform on the London Underground network, which carriage would arrive at a station next to the platform exit, he would never be stuck behind foot-dragging tourists or daily commuters again.
He thought it would be good idea to put all this information into the form of an iPhone application for other commuters. Dreaming of making something out of it he compiled the information for more than 700 platforms at London Underground’s 268 stations. As he was not the person who can develop the app of his own so together with the collected information he approached an apps developer with his idea.
The outcome of this Stuart’s initiative and idea was the Tube Exits app for iPhone which was launched on 16ht June and has become very popular since then.
The app comes in two versions: One is free but only gives you the information for the Underground’s busiest 12 stations; the other costs £1.79 and covers the whole network. This price is probably a price of a zone 1 ticket, but you could use it again and again.Stewart is now involved in developing a similar app for the Paris Metro and sees no reason why his original idea can’t be applied to other metro networks around the world.
Tube Exits is just one of an estimated 100,000 apps that will exist by the end of this year. Most of the apps these days are mobile applications designed to be used on Smartphones such as iPhones or BlackBerrys.
Recently the apps industry has grown exponentially where the total number of Apple’s App Store downloads only recently passed the 1.5bn mark.
The App Store’s success is huge incentive for Apple and is really giving a tough time to its competitors such as Research in Motion (who make BlackBerrys) and Nokia (the world’s biggest mobile phone maker). The App Store’s staggering success has led nearly every maker of a smartphone operating system to mimic Apple’s business model: make it very easy for smartphone users to buy or freely download software created by from third-party developers.
Indeed Apple has become an icon phone and at the moment Apple has something of a stranglehold on apps e.g. Tube Exits can only be used on Apple mobile hardware (ie iPhones and iPod Touches).
What’s especially striking about apps is how quickly they have become popular and are the real money spinners for smartphone companies specially Apple. I remember it very well when the iPhone was launched, there were many sceptical voices. It was too expensive, too readily nickable, too much of a triumph of what techies could do over what customers wanted to be for it to be a success. Apps have changed all that where Apple gets a significant chunk of revenue from the sale of its Apps. Apple is smartly doing what Microsoft has been doing until now, binding the applications and software to its products.
Apple is also not leaving any stone unturned in fighting for the superiority of it’s application.
The Advertising Standards Authority rejected complaints from fans of Google’s G1 smartphone that a TV ad for Apple’s App Store was misleading.
“Yep, there’s an app for just about anything,” a voiceover in the advert said. “Only on the iPhone.”
The days ahead will be interesting and messier in terms Smartphone companies claiming for smart and beautiful apps.Source: Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jul/29/iphone-apps
Recent Comments