Five Tips for Successful Multi-Channel Conversion

With smartphone use growing and tablet sales set to hit 126 million this year, it’s all too easy for marketers to become overwhelmed by the challenges of multi-channel retailing and e-Commerce. But multi-channel commerce need not need be complex if we remind ourselves that it’s for people that interact with brands, not algorithms or stats on a dashboard.

These five tips, gleaned from our work with leading multi-channel brands, will help make the challenges of multi-channel retail surmountable, by bringing users into focus.

1. Act on Insight and Data, not Hype

It’s all too easy to get carried along by technical hype. Although this can be exciting and enjoyable, it’s fraught with danger if you don’t measure impact and base your business decisions on data, rather than what’s cool.

In a recent Forrester study this conclusion rings very true: “that in spite of technology advances and more sophisticated marketing techniques — nothing has really changed when it comes to what drives people to buy online.”

2. Do as Little as You Can for Tablets

You probably need to do very little to optimize the user experience for tablets. Just identify the big usability problems and fix them — such as removing Flash and adjusting presentational elements that may prove fiddly. And don’t yawn next time your tech team reminds you of the importance of standards compliance.

3. Focus Smartphones on Existing Usage Patterns

Smartphones need more attention. Let your existing data guide how you tailor for this touch point: are users primarily searching on smartphones and purchasing (later) on another device (e.g. tablet or pc/Mac)? We’ve observed this pattern in the fashion sector in particular.

The good news is you can already compare usage patterns between smartphones and fixed web using your web stats package by filtering by device type.

4. Think About Donald Rumsfeld when Choosing Your Data Analysis Tool

As touch-points multiply it’s tempting to seek out an analysis tool that can help make sense of this multitude of unstructured data by applying some form of sentiment analysis. But, as exciting as many of these tools are, they tend to only reveal “known-knowns.” We’ve never heard of a single client reveal a single “unknown-unknown.”

You’re probably better off talking to your call center staff for an hour each week — since they, as humans, can interpret other people’s sentiment better than machines.

5. Observe Your Customers

There’s no substitute to observing behavior: be that in-store, on-line or on a mobile. Whether it’s in a usability lab or conducted remotely getting into the heads of real users completing tasks (using whatever touch point they’d like), this will be a great source of qualitative data to see how to optimize each of your channels.

Image courtesy of CLIPAREA/ Custom Media (Shutterstock)

Editor's Note: Interested in reading more on multi-channel marketing? Check out these tips from @kevinc2003: Multichannel Marketing in 2012: 3 Key Insights
 

About the Author

I founded WhatUsersDo so that organizations can base digital design decisions on UX insight (and not hunches).

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Apple Selling A Million New iPads Per Day

 Continuing to dominate the tablet market, Apple has announced sales of three million new iPads over the three days launch. That's double the sales of the previous iPad launch, but with two models to choose from, which was more popular? 

They Fly Off Shelves, But Which Flies Further?

Apple has made its usual post-launch sales announcement, with the news that it sold three million fourth-generation and mini iPads over the launch weekend. Apple provided no breakdown of the sales, which hit 34 countries on Friday, and with the launch of the cellular models still to come, there could be a lot of market confusion as the tablet sales shake out into the holiday season.

Were the same 1.5 million buyers who turned up for the iPad 3 launch buying one of each model to round out their collection? Apple's brief release fails to enlighten us, probably as it won't want rivals to know which of its products is delivering the best sales.

Given the appalling east coast weather during the launch, Apple would likely have sold more, even though trade was reported as brisk at its New York outlets. There is also no word on Mac or iPod sales, which were also refreshed at Apple's October event.  

Tablet Market Warfare

After the immense battery of launches and sales in October, Apple now faces major competition in the tablet market. To highlight that point, IDC's latest stats show Apple's tablet market share down to just over 50%, down from 60% this time last year. No matter, how good the reviews, sheer choice will dilute Apple's sales. 

Chart: Worldwide Tablet Vendors Market Share, 2012Q3 Description: Worldwide Quarterly Tablet TrackerIDC's Worldwide Quarterly Tracker provides total market size and vendor share for both the Tablet and eReader markets in 46 countries. Detailed segmentation is provided by CPU, operating system, connectivity type, screen size and resolution, storage, distribution channel, and customer segment. Measurement for this tracker is in units, value, and end-user price. For more information, or to subscribe to the research, please contact Kathy Nagamine at 1-650-350-6423 or knagamine@idc.com. Further detail about this tracker can be found at:http://www.idc.com/tracker/showproductinfo.jsp?prod_id=81 Tags: Samsung, Apple, Amazon, Asus, Lenovo, Tablet, IDC, tracker, Q3 2012, 3Q 2012, market share, galaxy, iPad, Kindle, Transformer, ideapad, 2012Q3 Author: IDC charts powered by iCharts

While second place Samsung can only manage 5%, expect Microsoft and partners to make a sizeable entrance in the next set of figures. On a positive note for the major players, shipments are up across the board, and Apple's new numbers might shift the balance back up. 

Meanwhile Apple is still rolling on, with moves toward a 6.10 release of iOS via a new beta, and the release of the cellular-equipped tablets. It will soon however be having to defend its tax position with stories around the world about its paltry (but completely legal) contributions in some countries. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Below The Surface: Microsoft Is Why Samsung, Dell And Others Didn't Invent The iPad

There's plenty of handwringing and tech speculating around the launch of Microsoft's Surface tablet--most of it about whether consumers are interested in coughing up $499 for the new toy. But the true star of the Surface--its new Windows 8 operating system, which launches today--means infinitely more to a swath of tech giants that include Acer, HP, and Toshiba. Microsoft's Windows 8 could fuel their success, and yet for the first time ever, they'll compete with Microsoft in hardware.

Below The Surface

Around Microsoft's launch of Windows 8 and Surface, Fast Company asks hardware giants tough questions about innovation, disruption, and their future.

Today: Dell, Samsung On Why Didn't You Invent The iPad
Next: The Impossible Challenge Of Competing With Apple
Previously:
Windows 8: The Boldest, Biggest Redesign In Microsoft's History
Why Windows 8 And Apple's Tacky Philosophy Caused A Design Revolt

Then there's Apple, which looms over the launch of any new device that isn't an iGadget. Windows 8, while certainly an elegant entry to the software space that will enable more mobile consumption, is also arriving years late to the industry, after Apple has struck a commanding lead in the smartphone and tablet markets. Just this week, for example, Tim Cook boasted that Apple sells more iPads now than any OEM competitor sells PCs. Pressured from all sides, OEMs will now be competing with each other on Windows 8; with their own software partner Microsoft for the Surface; with their own Android-powered products; and most dauntingly, with Apple.

So the question now is whether traditional hardware manufacturers--those long dependent on licensing third-party software and pushing low-cost hardware at high volumes--have finally reached an inflection point. And if so, why didn't they see it coming?

In a series of recent interviews with executives and top players from hardware giants--including Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba--Fast Company asked about industry disruptions, about their dependency on third-party software makers such Google and Microsoft, and whether they are experiencing the Innovator's Dilemma, the term coined by Harvard professor and author Clayton Christensen to describe when companies put too much emphasis on current current needs rather than adapting to the technology needs of tomorrow. At a moment when most pundits are scrutinizing processor speeds, price points, and device performance, we asked how these companies now approach innovation in a world increasingly dominated by mobile, and in a mobile world increasingly dominated by Apple. We'll be rolling out the full series in the coming days.

I can simplify it to say that the Android system didn't work in a tablet form factor, Microsoft wasn't ready, and we're not an OS provider--we had a dependency on the OS providers

Given Apple's announcement this week that it has sold 100 million iPads to date, we started by asking hardware manufacturers one question: Why didn't they--and not Apple--invent the iPad first?

It's a tough one. But as nuanced as the answers may be, most can be summed up in two words: Blame Microsoft.

Hardware makers like Dell and Toshiba have relied on Microsoft's operating system for decades. This culture of dependency means innovation is essentially limited by what Microsoft says is possible. Apple, on the other hand, has controlled both the hardware and software, allowing it the freedom to dream up and developed game-changing products such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. As David Johnson, Dell's SVP of corporate strategy, told me, "Apple has a different business model than the Dell business model ... The reason we didn't come up with [the iPad] is because there wasn't an OS provider that could work with a tablet."

"In order to come out with a tablet, you had to have the ability at that time to influence and manage the power architecture, as well as a software layer," Johnson continues. "The reason why Apple has had so much success is because they've vertically integrated all of that into their environment. If you step back and look, that's not been Dell's historical model. We leverage and integrate others' technologies. But in this particular case, those other technologies didn't exist until now. I can simplify it to say that the Android system didn't work in a tablet form factor, Microsoft wasn't ready, and we're not an OS provider--we had a dependency on the OS providers."

Samsung mostly echoes Johnson's sentiment. "I think it's a matter of timing," says Samsung SVP David Song. "For instance, with the PC, without Windows 8, it's very hard to make such kinds of tablets--that type of hardware. Apple and Android provided ecosystems, and with Windows 8, Microsoft has just opened a new ecosystem. But before having that ecosystem, it was very hard to deliver these types of devices. That's why [a Windows 8] tablet like the iPad or an Android tablet has just been launched."

Peter Hortensius, president of Lenovo's global product group, says, "I think the global view is that everyone got a little bit surprised by touch [technology]. We had touch devices, but the industry just didn't connect the dots like [Apple]."

Hortensius lets out a short chuckle when I ask him why Lenovo didn't create the iPad before Apple.

"Well, if I knew that I might be living on a beach somewhere in a tiki hut retired," he says.

Stay tuned for more thoughts in the coming days on innovation and disruption from HP, Acer, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, Dell, and Toshiba.

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

All About Apple's 7.9-inch iPad Mini: Starts At $329

Apple unveiled a smaller version of its magic tablet, the iPad Mini. It's 7.9-inches and will start at $329. Should you buy one?

This article will be updated throughout today with the latest news, funny tweets, bon mots and geeky specs surrounding Apple's "Little" event in Cupertino. It turns out that Apple will also offer a live video stream for you to watch along with me.

iPad Mini

• $329-$659, pre-order starts this Friday
• LTE (4G wireless) and 802.11n Wi-Fi
• 7.9-inch screen, 7.2mm thick, .68 lbs
• Dual-core A5 chip
• FaceTime HD cam
• .5 megapixel iSight camera on the back
• 10 hour battery life

The iPad Mini has been announced--that's the correct name--and it's everything you heard (and maybe a bit more). What can you do with an iPad Mini that you can't already do with an iPad? Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller asked that on stage, and many of you have the same question. His answer: Hold it in one hand. "Fantastic for kicking back and reading a magazine," says Schiller. Power user tip: You can download Fast Company for your iPad right here.

The iPad Mini is 7.2mm thick. That's about as thin as a pencil. It's only .68 lbs -- that's 53% lighter than the fourth generation iPad. As light as a pad of paper. Comes in black and white. The resolution is 1024x768 and it's 7.9-inches diagonally.

There is no retina display on the Mini. But a lot of the other leaks proved accurate.

Should you buy an iPad Mini? Think back to when the first iPad came out... a lot of people didn't think a tablet computer would have a place next to their iPhone and Macbook. A lighter, thinner iPad might seem extravagant, but turn out to be quite handy--even though the Kindle Fire, Windows Surface and Nexus 7 are all likely to be less expensive.

But the real question is, should you buy one of the 10 million iPad Minis currently being produced by low-wage Chinese labor? I had a dream that Fred Armisen liveblogged this event in his SNL "Tech Talk" character of a Chinese factory worker (see the video below).

Hey look!

My bed is made from scraps from Mac notebook casings. Oh, and tears.

— Foxconn Worker (@FoxconnEmployee) October 23, 2012

As it turns out, Apple's Chinese manufacturing partners, including Foxconn, treat workers fairly well when compared with many other industries. That hasn't stopped the obsessive world of tech-news from telling you otherwise, as The Awl proves in this finger-wagging story about the "the media's thriving Foxconnomy." Which is to say that you don't need to feel guilty about wanting an iPad Mini, but maybe the media should feel bad for making you want one.

Now don't you feel a whole lot better about wanting a smaller iPad?

Or maybe it's time to reconsider the Surface tablet, which is powered by the boldest redesign in Microsoft's history.

There was a lot more hardware--even more than expected--announced today along with the iPad Mini. The iMac refresh was the most unexpected, while the 13-inch MacBook Pro with retina was the most obvious.

13-Inch MacBook Pro with Retina

• $1,699, available starting today
• 2560x1600 retina resolution
• Dual microphones, stereo speakers
• .75 inches thick, 3.75 lbs

Those 13-inch MacBook Pro with retina display hits I found earlier on Google? That was the first hardware announcement during today's event. This is a serious laptop: 20 percent thinner than the previous 13-inch Pro, and four times the number of pixels. At 2560x1600 this screen has about double the number of pixels on my HDTV.

Resolution alone doesn't make the image work. This also has 29 percent higher contrast ratio, and 75 percent reduced glare with a 178-degree viewing angle.

It's available starting today for $1699. The old 13-inch MacBook Pro stays in the store for $1199.

iMac

• 27-inch model is $1799, and 21.5-inch model is $1299
• 2.7 GHz quad-core i5
• Available next month
• 1TB - 3TB HDD
• Wireless keyboard and mouse

Here's a surprise that wasn't on the rumor mill: A brand new iMac.

This is an incredibly thin computer, and Schiller rightly spends a lot of time talking about just how much engineering--"friction stir welding"--went into making it so slim. It's 45 percent thinner display. There are two sizes available. The 27-inch model is 2560x1440--note that that is still less than the 13-inch MacBook Pro--and a 21.5-inch model with 1920x1080.

The iMac will also have a new "Fusion Drive." It's 128GB of flash storage fused into a single volume with a HDD that is 1TB or 3TB (that's a lot of space).

A refreshed Mac Mini lineup matches the specs that were leaked earlier this morning. There are three models:

• 2.5 GHz dual-core, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard drive for $599
• 2.3 GHz quad-core, 4GB RAM, 1TB Hard drive for $799
• Server: 2.3 GHz quad-core 4GB of RAM, 2TB Hard drive for $999

How can I turn the Mac Mini server into an Apple TV?

Another surprise: the fourth generation iPad. It's largely the same but the components have been updated to include a new A6x processor for improved CPU performance (2x the speed of the version in your now-outdated iPad that's less than a year old). 10 hours of battery life. 16GB hard drive with wi-fi for $499 and 16GB with Wi-Fi and Cellular for $629.

What was missing from today's announcement? Scott Forstall, the senior vice president of iOS Software at Apple, who was expected to make the iTunes 11 update official (or perhaps add some new details).

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

War On Sesame Street

The Sesame Workshop has launched one of their very first smartphone and tablet apps: A resource kit enlists Elmo in helping kids and families cope with deployment, homecoming, injury, and loss.

Children in military families with loved ones serving abroad face many unique challenges. Deployment is stressful and homecoming requires readjustments. Contingency plans need to be made if a parent is injured, and the worry of a loved one passing away is always there.

Elmo might be able to help.

The Sesame Workshop, which has been actively serving military families for years, recently launched a Sesame Street for Military Families app designed for both children and adults; it is currently available in iOS, Kindle Fire, and Android formats.

The bilingual English- and Spanish-language app launched in late September and is part of a larger multimedia project that also includes DVDs, Internet programming, and an active community page with resources on Facebook. Users can select from five different subject areas: Deployment, homecoming, self-expression for children, injuries, and grief. Although the Sesame Street app contains many child-friendly materials, the app's layout is intended for viewing with a parent or caregiver.

Where there's Sesame Street, of course, there's Elmo. The Muppet icon shows up in numerous places in the app, performing songs and skits about his father going away for duty and his Uncle Jack passing away. Another Muppet, Rosita, shows up in segments about her father using her wheelchair after becoming injured.

Portions of the app discussing loved ones being injured or killed come with disclaimers and require "unlocking" every time they are clicked on. Parent and caregiver-oriented segments of the app offer advice on managing multiple military deployments, letting children vent their emotions, dealing with children while in physical rehabilitation, and managing the grieving process for children.

This app is the latest installment in a longstanding Sesame Workshop project to assist children with loved ones serving overseas. The clip above shows scenes from the Sesame Street for Military Families DVD, many of which were also used in the app. Advocacy groups for military families and disabled veterans assisted the Sesame Workshop in developing original content. Sesame Street characters are also hitting the road for family-oriented USO tours as well; the “Sesame Street/USO Experience” tour started in April 2012 and regularly visits domestic and foreign U.S. military bases.

One noteworthy aspect of Sesame Street for Military Families is that it's one of the first official Sesame Street apps; the only other Sesame Workshop-developed app currently on market is a financial literacy application launched in early in 2012.

In case readers were wondering, the Pentagon stands by its relationship with Sesame Street and does not want to ruffle any feathers in the Mitt Romney-Big Bird scuffle.

[Images: Sesame Workshop]

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

Netbiscuits Wins Further Funding for Mobile HTML5 Play

Netbiscuits and its mobile development platform are more in demand as the smartphone and tablet boom continues, tempting investors who have put another $27 million behind the company. 

Heading to A HTML5 Future?

For some high-profile sites and apps, only native code will do, but there is a huge army of coders, companies and users that are happy with a app or mobile web port of their existing web product. Netbiscuits has been hosting many thousands of these products for some high-profile clients and is expanding fast.  

To support that expansion, enter US$ 27 million worth of new funding from the likes of Stripes Group, T-Venture and Creathor, with the German-heavy nature of the investment hinting at the origins of this now globally successful company. The additional cash will be used for marketing and R&D as the company looks to expand both business and consumer offerings. 

With the company's BiscuitsML code and components enabling development on any phone or device, Netbiscuits should be an ideal solution for those who don't have the time or resources to focus on a native service or app for each OS. 

In The World of Responsive Design

With responsive design becoming an increasingly important factor in helping to overcome the myriad of mobile devices formats and screen sizes (iPad Mini and Microsoft Surface anyone?), the more a company like Netbiscuits can do to simplify things the better. 

And, if Microsoft does get a major foothold in the mobile space, having three different platforms to work to could become too much effort for even large developers. So, HTML5 seems like the logical solution, allowing write-once-deploy-anywhere code with a minimum of fuss. 

Recent improvements in the world of Netbiscuits include: a new Application Management API that allows for easy and secure integration of the its cloud platform into existing company IT administration and development environments.

Netbiscuits Accelerated is a new feature that integrates with popular content delivery network providers to help enterprises reduce load times for rich media files. While coders will benefits from improvements to the integrated development environment plug-ins, enabling developers to build rich web interfaces across multiple platforms faster.

These and other improvements could see Netbiscuits relevance appeal to more and more codeshops as the net moves further towards a mobile-first mindset. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Jive's New iPad 'Present' App Keeps Sales Professionals Up to Date

Enterprise social software provider Jive Software is introducing Jive Present, a tablet application designed to assist sales presentation and training efforts. The company is also releasing new enhancements to its core platform.

There's reason we constantly see Jive in the leader position of reports like Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Social CRM and for Social Software. It's because the social business software provider is constantly updating their platform to include features necessary for a social enterprise.

Making Tablets More Social

Jive Present extends the Jive social business platform to sales professionals who use iPads and gives corporate managers the ability to monitor how end-users consume data, comply with best practices and regulations and follow educational programs.

Jive Present

The app can:

• Distribute data including rich multimedia, audio and visual content
• Centrally manage the distribution of customized data to individual end users
• Mark up and distribute specific sales content to customers and prospects in the field in real time
• Enable real-time mobile collaboration among end users 

Essentially this iPad application gives sales professionals who are on the go, direct access to the most recent content they need for sales presentations. There are automatic notifications of updates and the app is integrated with the Jive network so you can share and get information from other team members or departments quickly.

Jive Present Notifications

Jive Beefs Up Platform

Jive is also making what it says are “hundreds” of enhancements to its core platform (including updates to many apps we talked about back in May). Some of the more noteworthy upgrades include Jive Anywhere, which provides platform access from any website or app, Jive App Experience, a feature that enables app integration into Jive with one keystroke, the Jive Edge social intelligence engine, which offers customizable “attention streams” that allow focus on specific processes and people within activity streams, the Jive for Teams group collaboration solution and a redesigned user experience. 

Jive Drives Engagement

Jive’s new tablet app and platform features, such as Jive App Experience, are part of what appears to be a larger strategy of driving higher engagement with the Jive platform. Earlier this week, we learned about partnership between Jive and gamification software maker Badgeville. The new Badgeville for Jive integrates game mechanics into the Jive Software social collaboration platform as a method to increase engagement and encourage adoption for those using the system on a daily basis.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

Zeebox Brings Social Media to American TV via Smartphones and Tablets

 Having proved a success in the U.K., Zeebox is coming to America, partnering with Comcast and other broadcasters. The Zeebox app helps friends use their phone or tablet as a second social screen while enjoying their TV viewing, and creating a potential goldmine in the interactive link between the viewer and content providers and advertisers. 

When Boxes Collide

Zeebox launched as an iOS app last year for British users and created a clever link between those watching a show, your social networks and other folks viewing. It helps people to discuss the show, follow various tweet streams related to it, find news about the cast, teams in sports events and so on.

You can also download apps, films, episodes and other content related to that show or channel, and even use Zeebox as a remote control if you have a connected TV set. You can find shows by navigating the channels, checking out what is popular at the time or creating your own "My TV" favorites. 

The app now runs on all iOS and Android devices and is available as a web service if you're on the couch with a laptop. Linking to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, it makes for an engaging link between TV and the web. 

TV Isn't Dead

Some stats from the U.K. side show that the old tube is still a mighty force in media. 30% of all Internet usage happens while watching TV, 59% of the population now regularly chat through email, Facebook, or Twitter while watching TV, and 57% regularly check out news or shop online while in front of the TV.

Having proved the concept in Britain, Zeebox is now launching in America, with support from Comcast, NBC/Universal and HBO. With heavy promotion coming on NBC it will be hard to miss and if the user base rises as expected, it could become a de-facto standard to rule over any dedicated-service apps that focus on just one set of channels.

With the stickiness of social interaction, the ultimate aim will be clickable adverts that match the content shown on TV and during ad breaks, allowing for interactive breaks and greater chance of a sale, or improved awareness. Why just show a product, when you can offer instant discount vouchers for a there-and-then purchase, or instant links to an app that better shows a product?

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Amazon's Kindle Fire 2 and A New Smartphone To Be Unveiled Today

 Amazon will show off its new hardware later, as it tries to capture more of the tablet market, and attract further users to its huge digital market place and store. But, the star of the show could be a new smartphone which could dominate Amazon's store front for Christmas. 

The Amazon Hardware Warrior

Driven by its huge content ecosystem, Amazon will be looking to increase its userbase with more powerful hardware in a wider range of formats at an event in Santa Monica, being held shortly. That includes a new, more powerful, Kindle Fire, a larger version of the tablet (shown off in a TV advert aired during the NFL season's opener between the Cowboys and Giants) and a smartphone to take on the likes of Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy range. 

The advert also showed off a "paperwhite" model of the popular Kindle device, showing that Amazon won't leave behind the product that launched it into the gadget market. But, it is the prospect of a more powerful tablet, a larger brother for it and a smartphone that paints a tempting picture for Amazon customers in the run up to Christmas. 

Power of the Amazonites

With all these devices splashed across the front page of Amazon's web stores (and it is highly likely that Kindle Fire will see a worldwide release this time around), the company can bank on massive multiple sales as folks pick them up for friends and family Christmas presents.

With Amazon, there won't be any fuss about new proprietary charging leads (which Apple will no doubt suffer from next week), there won't be any hype about fantastic new camera capabilities, expect a decent specification across the range of devices that will run a modified version of Android to leave as many hooks as possible to Amazon's stores and services. 

Since Amazon can't use Google Maps on modified Android devices, it is likely to partner with Nokia (who launched its own Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia 920 yesterday) to provide the high-quality Nokia Maps app. 

We'll have news from Amazon's event as it happens (things kick off at 10:30AM PST):

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Google Takes The Nexus 7 Tablet To Some Of Europe

Google has, with little fuss, expanded the international availability of its Nexus 7 7-inch Android tablet to include France, Germany and Spain. That exposes some 200 million people to the device, which until now had only been available in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. The tablet is selling for €199 for 8GB and €249 for the 16GB model ($249 and $311 equivalent price, likely including sales tax).

Google's Nexus 7 may be one of the most interesting Android tablets around, thanks to its low U.S. price of just $199 and the fact it's an official own-brand product--a cheap flagship, if you will. Amazon, Google's biggest rival in the 7-inch tablet game with its heavily-skinned U.S-only Kindle Fire device, is expected to release its updated Fire lineup in early September. An updated Fire may be joined by a larger tablet approaching the iPad's size. Apple, leader in the entire tablet game, is now rumored to have its own small format iPad launch in October.

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

Amazon Joins the Event Party, 6 September for Kindle Fire 2 and, Perhaps, A Smartphone

 It is officially party season for gadget lovers, as Amazon joins all the other major smartphone and tablet makers with an event to announce its latest wares, scheduled for early next month. 

Reorganize Your Diary

Add another date to your burgeoning diary for media phone or tablet events in the next few weeks. Amazon is inviting the press to a major launch on 6 September in Santa Monica, with the likely topic of discussion being the Kindle Fire 2 and, maybe, an Amazon smartphone. 

So, just to refresh your memory, the launch event line up is as follows:

29 August - Samsung Galaxy Note 2

5 September - Microsoft/Nokia Windows Phone 8

6 September - Amazon Kindle Fire 2, possibly a smartphone

12 September - Apple iPhone 5, possibly iPad Mini

Device Frenzy

With all these devices hitting the shelves shortly after their announcements, the stores will be packed with new product, review sites will be screaming the scores out, and the typical consumer might feel rather put upon by all the pressure to upgrade to a new phone. 

We also have HTC possibly launching a 5inch-screen One X model, then there's the Windows 8 tablet launch in October, making it a very busy selling period. What it does mean is that the older generations of devices will be being sold for great bargain prices come the Black Friday holiday sales, as stores try to clear old stock.  

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Adobe 2012 Mobile Survey Highlights the Rise of Mobile and the Demise of the User Experience

Results from Adobe’s recent 2012 Mobile Consumer Survey show that consumers are using their smartphones and tablet devices to connect with brands in a variety of ways. However, many companies aren’t yet providing optimized experiences that leverage these different devices. And while it seems fairly obvious that businesses should not approach their mobile strategy in an identical manner as the desktop, many still are.

An Uneven Mobile Landscape

Adobe surveyed more than 1,200 mobile users in the United States in an effort to learn what mobile devices they use, how they interact with websites and applications, and what they want most out of their mobile experiences. What they found out highlights the inevitable rise of mobile devices, with smartphones becoming the preferred form of web access for consumers. However, the overall mobile landscape is not as well developed and hardly in tune to how, when and where consumers are using their mobile devices.

So what exactly did they find?

Mobile Usage

• For consumers who own both a smartphone and tablet, the primary device is still the smartphone (88%).

• Android devices lead the way in overall popularity at 51%, followed by iPhones at 38%.
• The numbers for Android devices skewed even higher for the young age group at 58%.
• Tablet users are more likely to be home-based (70%), while 24% use tablets on the go. Consumers devote a significant amount of time to their tablets, with 31% using them daily between 1 to 4 hours.
• Tablets are more likely to be shared devices, with a majority of tablet users (56%) stating that they allow other members of the family, such as children, to use their tablet.
• iPad users (62%) and Android tablet users (56%) reported spending more than $250 on consumer products via their devices over the past 12 months, compared to 58% of iPhone users and 53% of Android smartphone users.

User Experiences

• Consumers who shop via mobile applications on Android tablets report the highest percentage levels of satisfaction at 88% versus iPad users at 71%, and Android smartphone users at 69% versus iPhone users at 66%.

• When it comes to shopping for consumer products via mobile websites, iPad users reported the highest satisfaction levels at 75%, followed by Amazon Kindle at 73%, iPhone at 66%, Android tablet at 66%, and Android smartphone at 60%.
• When asked why they prefer a regular website when shopping on your mobile device, a majority of respondents indicated convenience (39%), followed by access to more features (21%).

Social Media Engagement

• Facebook is the dominant social network accessed by mobile (85%), followed by Twitter (35%), and then Google+ (21%).
• While users’ most popular activity is to read status updates (85%), consumers are also using their mobile devices to view Facebook fan pages of their favorite brands.
• While 53% of consumers who view a Facebook fan page receive an offer or promotion, one in five consumers report that they do not have a mobile-optimized experience when linking from Facebook to a brand’s site.
• Location services are on the rise and are being driven by consumer incentives to check in. Younger demographics are more likely to check in (35%) versus senior at 18%.

Mobilize & Optimize

Put together, these results indicate that different devices deserve different experiences. Regardless of the device they use, consumers expect to visit optimized websites. As a result, brands are behooved to offer an engaging and dynamic mobile user experience design that corresponds with the experience users expect to receive. To do this, however, is more complicated. To help organization design better user experiences Adobe shares a few tips to incorporate into their mobile strategy: 

• Reduce touch events to conversion.
• Design for mobile interactions.
• Optimize for speed.
• Make content “findability” easy.
• Don’t launch mobile channels without analytics.
• Plan and prioritize optimization efforts for tablet experiences that are unique and different from smartphones, given the larger screen size.
• Don’t launch a social mobile presence that is not mobile optimized.
• Don’t run mobile advertising campaigns that link to a desktop site.

They say knowing is half the battle. The more important part is putting that knowledge into action. As mobile devices continue to infiltrate the customer experience, companies must make a concerted effort to keep up or suffer the consequences.
 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Everyone Has A Tablet. Samsung Launched A Pen

At the unveiling of the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet today, Samsung set out to prove that the S Pen is mightier than the iPad.

Only the geekiest of the tech press attended Samsung’s U.S. launch event for the Galaxy Note 10.1 on Wednesday. The kind of gizmo-sapians who wrote their first hands-on previews of the tablet when Samsung debuted it at Mobile World Congress in February, and published their second-round reviews--with a multitude of pictures from every conceivable angle--before today's event had even begun.

But even though most of them can rattle off the device's clockspeed with ease, they were at a loss when asked to explain the difference between the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, a tablet Samsung launched earlier this year, and the newly unveiled Galaxy Note 10.1.

“It’s the pen,” said one reporter from a publication that specializes in mobile device reviews.

Ok, the Galaxy Note 10.1 has a pen. More specifically an “S Pen,” as the company termed it when the feature was originally introduced with the Galaxy Note Smartphone in February. But if you took the pen away, would this tablet be any different than Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2?

“There are some cool side-by-side features,” the reporter adds, referring to the tablet’s ability to run two apps at once.

“I think the trim is different,” offers another from a competing technology-focused publication.

Samsung’s presentation didn’t offer much more distinction. The S Pen stole the show.

“What makes the Galaxy Note 10.1 possible is the S Pen, which really, truly changes the game,” said President of Samsung Electronics America Tim Baxter during an on-stage presentation.

One important thing you need to know about the S Pen is that it is not a stylus. “Make no mistake, this is not a stylus,” said Travis Merrill, Samsung’s director of tablet marketing, during the same presentation. “Our competitors have nothing like it. The S Pen looks and feels like a pen, yet it’s packed with advanced technology.”

To be fair, it’s a pretty cool stylu—er, “S-Pen.” For one, it uses electromagnetic technology to wirelessly sync with the screen, which helps accuracy. If you increase pressure on the S Pen, for instance, the line will be thicker on the screen. The screen distinguishes between more than 1,000 levels of pressure sensitivity.

The Galaxy Note 10.1's screen can also tell the difference between the pen and your hand, so you won’t see marks from where your hand touches when you write. And the built-in software works with the pen to translate hand-drawn math problems, text and shapes into type.

But no matter how you spin it, the S Pen is a stylus. Which is why Samsung is positioning the Galaxy Note 10.1 as a tablet for content creators. Instead of just consuming content, this feature allows them to easily sketch, take notes or write math problems.

So what’s new in the tablet itself? The Galaxy Tab 2, which does not include an S Pen, measures 10.1 inches diagonally. The Galaxy Note measures 10.1 inches diagonally. The Tab 2 has a screen resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. The Note has a screen resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. The Tab weights 1.24 pounds, the Note weights 1.3 pounds. Both tablets run Android 4.0 and have similar audio, video and camera features. It’s a good thing the color choices are different (the Note comes in white and dark grey, the Tab in white and titanium silver).

Merrill tells Fast Company the biggest distinction between the Galaxy Note 10.1 and the stylus-less Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is the device’s quad-core 1.4GHz Exynos processor and 2 GB of RAM. Translated from Greek--"Exynos originates from the Greek words smart (exypnos) and green (prasinos)," according to Samsung--that means it's more powerful than any of its predecessors, which allows it to run two apps simultaneously.

“Think about it like the car industry.” Samsung Director of Public Relations Ethan Rasiel tells Fast Company. “When you go to buy a car, there’s not just one car, you might have a hatchback, you might have an SUV or a convertible. That’s what you’re doing for different lifestyles and different needs.”

Baxter jumps in: “And then within the SUV market, now you have the small, the big and the supersize. As those categories are emerging, and as we’re looking at a 25-million unit market of tablets in the U.S. this year, consumers are all not using them in the same way.”

While Apple has earned a 65% worldwide tablet market share with one line of iPads, Samsung aims to serve a segmenting market. It started by offering two different size Galaxy Tabs. Now it's aiming to tackle different styles of tablet use.

Source : fastcompany[dot]com

Pinterest Evolves for the Mobile User with iPad and Android Versions

With the tablet market about to go into overdrive, Pinterest has updated its mobile apps to offer distinct iPad and Android versions, to cater for those shiny new media-rich screens.

Pinning Is Winning

With Pinterest's phenomenal growth, the service is making new users and friends at a huge rate. And, as the leading social concept for a female audience, it can look rather hectic judging by its front page. There's some fashion, fancy cakes, Orlando Bloom and much more going on. 

It starts to make more sense when you sign up and start posting, and it makes even more sense when you try it with a mobile, able to take your own pictures. But the apps have lagged behind the service's ambitions recently. But the new updates bring things firmly into focus. With a huge boost in tablet users coming, Pinterest is now ready to cater for even more users. 

For the iOS user, there is an all-new iPad app that makes it easy to pin, repin and browse the web, wheil the iPhone gets improved usability and improvements for better stability and performance. New users can also sign up from within the app, for an all-mobile experience. 

Pinterest debuts of Android
 

Android users get their first native Pinterest app which offers a world of discovery, collecting, and sharing of both information and inspiration. All of this as the service recently opened up for all, without the need for an invite. 

The Quest for Numbers

This drive is about Pinterest ramping up the numbers of users as quickly as possible, so that it gets to a state where it can introduce sufficient revenue from advertising or another avenue, look good for a possible acquisition, or perhaps even, one day, an IPO. 

To cater for the growing user base, Pinterest is adding new content categories all the time with weddings, tattoos and quotations the most recent additions. By growing users and the amount of content they can add, the slightly crazy world of Pinterest should continue to grow and endear its users (not something you can really say about Facebook now). 

Time will tell if this is the next big social media event, but for now things are looking pretty good and with huge numbers of tablet users about to appear, it could easily become one of the most popular apps as word spreads. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

iPad Mini to Trigger Content Battle Among Small Tablets

 Google's Nexus 7 is a powerful, well-priced tablet winning great sales and reviews. Amazon is preparing a new Kindle Fire, while Barnes and Noble has just trimmed the price of the Nook. So, how will the Mini iPad fare when Apple isn't first to market and what can Apple do to sweeten the deal?

Not Just a Mini

The iPad Mini could still be a collective hallucination experienced by the tech world. While we've seen enough parts of an iPhone 5 that you can practically build your own (if you have the right contacts in enough Asian factories) the diet iPad remains a ghostly enigma. Sure, case makers are selling protective add-ons based on the likely size, but that didn't stop them being wrong about last year's abortive iPhone 5 launch.

Even so, working on the assumption that Apple does launch a Mini iPad in September or October, it will place the company in an interesting position, where it won't be the first to market in the category. Also, going on the fairly firm rumor of a 7.85-inch, non-Retina display, at around $200, its rivals will be well entrenched and Apple will lack a killer hardware feature. 

Playing the Software/Content Game

Magic is all about misdirection, as any good Magic's Secrets Revealed viewer knows. Despite their best efforts, we see Apple building desirable hardware with one hand, but we rarely hear about the software and services being sneakily dealt with by the other, until the official news and there is plenty Apple could add to iOS 6.

Having concluded that it is in the software arena that the Mini iPad will need to stand out, and after years of rumors, how likely is it that Apple will either finally buy Spotify, or launch a comparable service across all media? That could provide a monstrous amount of content for users and put it on a par with Amazon's hit services. 

Or, it could work along the lines of Sony's PlayStation Plus service, offering a number of the better quality iOS games, some films and the latest music, all for a monthly subscription. These offerings are key in a market now dominated by content and not technology, and is an area where Apple is lagging behind.

Finally, there's the ever nagging feeling that Apple has a big gaming play up its sleeve, and with Amazon now entering the games developer arena, could Apple follow in some capacity? An iPad Mini would make the ideal unobtrusive console, connected to a big screen via HDMI and played through wireless controllers. 

Pre-Game Hype

While there are some flamebait headlines doing the rounds based on a recent consumer survey, the iPad Mini will likely do a roaring trade on launch, as the Google Nexus 7 did. But as the Kindle Fire has proved, good content makes the tablet experience, and that's more important to end users than it is to the critics.

If Apple delivers some new compelling opportunity for those who found the full-size iPad too expensive, it could carve out huge amounts of revenue on a monthly basis from those users. Without it, Apple could find the new iPad looking decidedly plain in the view of price-concious consumers. 

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com