Episode 18: Heavily Mobile Focused
Manage episode 157478072 series 1222934
We’re back after a month and half break with a massive pack of mobile news! We discuss a recent Adobe acquisition, the Kindle Fire, new advances in HTML5 that promise to make mobile development better, and how shopping on the iPad means you’re gonna buy more stuff!
Enjoy!
- Steve & Ron
News Items:
- PhoneGap acquired by Adobe
- http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/201110/AdobeAcquiresNitobi.html
- Adobe recently acquired Nitobi, maker of PhoneGap.
- PhoneGap allows creation of Native iOS and Android apps using HTML and Javascript. Also supports apps for Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, and WebOS. One code base to create apps on multiple platforms.
- Just prior to the acquisition, Nitobi contributed the PhoneGap code to the Apache Software Foundation. Adobe is supportive of the move and this will allow the Open Source community to contribute to PhoneGap which will now be called Apache Callback
- Kindle fire released
- What impact is there for developers, both web and app?
- HTML5 Advances for Mobile
- AppMobi PhoneGap XDK
- A limitation of using PhoneGap has been that developers still had to set up native SDK-based development environments, there are few debugging tools, and you had to develop your own web view containers for each platform you wish to support.
- The PhoneGap XDK Provides All the Missing Pieces, in an Integrated Tool
- If you have a favorite IDE, you can use it, or you can use the XDK’s built in editor. Multi-device simulation and debugging are all integrated, even including local and remote on-device testing. appMobi’s cloud-based build system lets you build your project for iOS, Android, and of course, for the open web.
- MobiUs Accelerates Mobile HTML5 Development
- http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2011/10/mobius-accelerates-mobile-html.php
- One of the problems for HTML5 mobile Web developers though is that monetizing apps is more difficult than it is for the platforms that have payment systems tied to them like the Apple App Store, Android Market and other native application stores.
- AppMobi uses its 1Touch platform to emulate the same type of payment process that users are familiar with between Amazon, Apple and the Android Market.
- Card data is stored on the users phone, never on a web server like at Amazon or Apple.
- 1Touch can be used for payments through web apps (including native iOS and Android apps) as well as through regular web sites for app content, subscriptions and merchandise
- It remains to be seen if users will flock to mobile Web apps as opposed to those from the native platforms. What is the incentive to the user? The advantage to the developer is clear with the ability to cut out the 30% cut that Apple takes.
- Discoverability of Web Apps is still a big issue.
- Summary:
- Now web apps can have same capabilities as native apps – that used to be a huge difference between HTML5 Web Apps and native apps
- appMobi tools (as well as others like PhoneGap / Apache Callback) allow creation of an HTML5 Web App that can also be published (and sold) through the Apple App Store and Android Marketplace.
- 1Touch platform for payments through webapps is a step in the right direction, but probably not the final answer.
- Native Apps still have a huge advantage with respect to “findability” due to dominance of app stores & marketplaces. Need something similar for Web Apps.
- Study: Shoppers with iPads spend more
- http://www.macworld.com/article/163537/2011/11/study_shoppers_with_ipads_spend_more.html
- People who shop for products on an iPad are almost twice as likely as people who shop on other platforms (including Android or PC) to actually buy the item they’re looking for.
- Record numbers of consumers are already shifting their shopping from PCs to mobile devices, IBM says. In October, nearly 11 percent of online shoppers used a mobile device to visit a retailer’s site, up from 4.2 percent in October 2010 and less than 1 percent in the 2009 holiday shopping season. This month, 15 percent of people in the U.S. who log onto a retailer’s Web site are expected to do so through a mobile device, IBM predicts.
- Another shopping segment retailers are watching is social networking-driven buyers. These shoppers, who are referred to a site directly from a social network such as Facebook or Twitter, convert at a higher rate (9.2 percent) than the industry average for all online shoppers (5.5 percent). Consumers who click through from a social site represent only about 1 percent of traffic to retail sites today, but they’re very attractive consumers
- More info… http://gigaom.com/2011/11/25/this-holiday-season-shopping-has-gone-mobile-in-a-big-way/
- GSI Commerce, a division of eBay that hosts commerce-related websites for several large retailers says that it saw a 345 percent increase in US mobile sales compared to last year’s Black Friday.
Podcast Sponsor
- For the listeners of Einstein & Sock Monkey, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 14-day trial to give you a chance to check out their service.
- My audible pick this episode is:
- The Thank You Economy, by Gary Vaynerchuk
- To download your free audiobook today go to http://www.audibletrial.com/einstein
Blog Picks
- http://www.uxmatters.com/
- Dave Thomas – The Pragmatic Programmer
- Subject: I’m on vacation, and I’ve deleted your message—really
- http://pragdave.blogs.pragprog.com/pragdave/2011/04/so-im-trying-an-email-experiment.html
- 24Ways.org (Coming this week!)
Contact Us
- einsteinandsockmonkey.com
- @einsteinmonkey
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- Ron Zasadzinski
- @ron_z
- www.codegeek.net
- Steve Martin
- @clevercubed
- www.clevercubed.com
- Nick Armstrong
- @imnickarmstrong
- www.iamnickarmstrong.com
- Josh Mulligan
- @JoshuaMulligan
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