Tag Archives: mobile

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Google Creates Free Mobile Resource

Google has launched GoMo, a free website resource that seeks to encourage businesses to create mobile options. “Every day more and more of your customers are looking for you on mobile devices,” Google writes in an official blog post. “If you don’t have a site that works for mobile, you’re missing out.”

Google GoMo

Google GoMo

Located at HowToGoMo.com, GoMo presents data Google uses to make the argument that businesses need to go mobile. It offers a tool that shows how a business’s website currently looks on a smartphone and provides tips on areas for improvement. It showcases exemplary mobile websites and highlights case studies of businesses on the mobile Web. And it includes a list of 12 vendors that can help a business craft a mobile website.

At a minimum, every agency should go to “Test Your Site” to see how your agency website would look to a prospect or customer who uses their mobile device.

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Mobile Broadband Users to Hit One Billion in 2011

The mobile Internet is about to get bigger. According to a recent report from global telecom equipment provider Ericsson, the number of mobile broadband subscribers reached 500 million in 2010 and they expect that number to double in 2011, bringing the total to an even billion.

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Mobile broadband adoption has accelerated with the strong growth of smartphones, connected laptops, and tablets, supported by the introduction of high-performance networks. Smartphone users are increasingly using applications and Internet services on the go. Global mobile data traffic continues to grow rapidly, with Ericsson announcing in August 2010 that it had tripled in just one year.

Last year was also a good one for Long Term Evolution (LTE). Verizon is beginning to roll out this higher speed mobile network. Ericsson has been a supplier for the majority of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) Evolution networks operating at speeds of 21 Mbps or higher.

By 2015, Ericsson believes mobile broadband subscriptions will top 3.8 billion, with 95% driven by HSPA, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and LTE networks.

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Consumers Under Age 35 Prefer Apps

Data collected by market research and consulting firm Parks Associates, found that Generations X and Y tend to prefer using mobile applications over Web browsers on smartphones, as compared with older mobile users. This group is especially put off by mobile Web sites not designed for the small mobile screen.

mobile applications

The preference for native mobile applications is growing because apps don’t require users to enter Web addresses or to deal with slow browser speeds. An application can provide a better experience than mobile-friendly Web sites.

When I look at how I use my iPhone, I find I use downloaded applications more often to read information. When I want to look up information, I may use the mobile browser or a search application. It seems to me that native mobile apps will always be preferred when the mobile Web experience (slow loading times, no mobile site) remains poor.

What does this mean for you?

  1. Make sure your existing Web site is mobile friendly.
  2. Consider obtaining or creating a mobile application customized for your agency.
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Visa Launching Contactless Mobile Payments for iPhone

Paying for purchases at the checkout counter by waving your iPhone in front of a payment terminal will soon be a reality, thanks to a new partnership between Visa, Inc. and DeviceFidelity. They have teamed to launch a mobile payment technology for iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and (one would assume) iPhone 4.

According to a press release, the new Apple-certified technology combines a protective iPhone case with a secure memory card that will host Visa’s contactless payment application, Visa payWave.

Introduced in September 2007, payWave allows cardholders to wave their cards in front of terminals in order to pay for purchases at point-of-sale. The technology is similar to MasterCard’s PayPass solution, which rolled out to select markets in 2005. This technology already works at over 32,000 retailers, notes the company’s corporate Web site, and the list is “rapidly growing.”

This mobile payment technology won’t be limited to iPhones. To use Visa’s technology on non-iPhones, users can insert the card into phone memory slots to transform them into mobile payment devices.

Considering that people often lose their mobile phones, the application is designed so that it can be password protected and uses “advanced security technology,” according to the release, to uniquely identify each transaction. If a phone is lost or stolen, the phone’s owner would simply call their provider, who could then immediately deactivate the account, just as they would do if a credit card was lost or stolen.

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New iPhone Application for Insurance Quotes Available

OK, so I don’t have an iPhone yet. But many people do.

2insure4less.com has released a new Insurance Shopper iPhone application. It is the first mobile phone application of its kind. Now, iPhone and iPod Touch owners can receive insurance quotes directly through their mobile devices. The Insurance Shopper application helps individuals save time when searching for affordable insurance quotes by storing their information on the company’s Web site and helping them obtain quotes. This iPhone application connects with the Web site to allow searches for a full range of personal insurance policies. The Insurance Shopper is an unbiased insurance quotes finder that locates the most competitive insurance quote based on the information submitted through the application. Within minutes, the iPhone user receives insurance quotes from multiple insurers to compare.