How Does The Developing Smartphone Market Affect Website Marketing?
Microsoft used today's Mobile World Congress to unveil its latest attempt to break into the mobile phone industry.
Windows Mobile 7 - or Windows Phone, as Microsoft has dubbed it - includes an application store that allows users of Microsoft devices to download a host of games and other applications.
It is the latest move in an "apps explosion" which has taken the mobile phone sector by storm. However, the surge in new mobile applications technology also spells good news for website marketing.
Let's first take a look at some of most the successful apps created by those working in website promotion
Since launching at the end of January 2010, freesheet Metro's iPhone app has been downloaded a whopping 100,000 times, making it number one in the free news app category as well as catapulting it to the top ten of free apps overall.
Others featuring in the top ten most downloaded free apps include Facebook (no surprises there), thetrainline.com and Skype, according to Techradar.
But it is not just Google and Apple that are profiting from world's love of apps. Even phone manufacturers such as Samsung and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, are getting in on the app act, while Nokia already has its Ovi store open for business.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen of the world's biggest mobile phone companies, including O2 and Orange, this week announced they had joined forced to tackle the iPhone's dominance of the smartphone market by pooling resources and creating 'app'-style services across their range of handsets.
For people involved in website marketing, a mobile app can be a great way to expand a product or service to ensure its at the very fingertips of a company's target audience - literally.
However, as lead website marketing advisor Davis Brewer points out, with more than 50,000 applications in the iTunes app store, organisations need to do something to help them stand out.
"If you elect to build a BlackBerry, Android, or Windows Mobile application, the marketplace won't be quite as crowded, but you will still need to find a way to reach people," adds Mr Brewer.
The first step should be to consider how consumers will find the application and what they may use it for, he explains. It is also important to measure the success of an app once it's on the market to consider ways in which it could be developed.
Thinking about these challenges before your application launches will help you get started on the right foot and get the most of out of your campaign.
Windows Mobile 7 - or Windows Phone, as Microsoft has dubbed it - includes an application store that allows users of Microsoft devices to download a host of games and other applications.
It is the latest move in an "apps explosion" which has taken the mobile phone sector by storm. However, the surge in new mobile applications technology also spells good news for website marketing.
Let's first take a look at some of most the successful apps created by those working in website promotion
Since launching at the end of January 2010, freesheet Metro's iPhone app has been downloaded a whopping 100,000 times, making it number one in the free news app category as well as catapulting it to the top ten of free apps overall.
Others featuring in the top ten most downloaded free apps include Facebook (no surprises there), thetrainline.com and Skype, according to Techradar.
But it is not just Google and Apple that are profiting from world's love of apps. Even phone manufacturers such as Samsung and RIM, maker of the BlackBerry, are getting in on the app act, while Nokia already has its Ovi store open for business.
Meanwhile, more than a dozen of the world's biggest mobile phone companies, including O2 and Orange, this week announced they had joined forced to tackle the iPhone's dominance of the smartphone market by pooling resources and creating 'app'-style services across their range of handsets.
For people involved in website marketing, a mobile app can be a great way to expand a product or service to ensure its at the very fingertips of a company's target audience - literally.
However, as lead website marketing advisor Davis Brewer points out, with more than 50,000 applications in the iTunes app store, organisations need to do something to help them stand out.
"If you elect to build a BlackBerry, Android, or Windows Mobile application, the marketplace won't be quite as crowded, but you will still need to find a way to reach people," adds Mr Brewer.
The first step should be to consider how consumers will find the application and what they may use it for, he explains. It is also important to measure the success of an app once it's on the market to consider ways in which it could be developed.
Thinking about these challenges before your application launches will help you get started on the right foot and get the most of out of your campaign.
