It is hardly surprising that “mobile” is becoming such a hot topic among digital marketers: comScore reported that in August 2012, 13% of total internet pageviews (roughly 1 in 8!) were from mobile devices (phones and tablets combined). And these numbers are increasing. Econsultancy’s Christmas Online Shopping Survey reported that 24% of shoppers used mobile devices for Christmas shopping in 2012. We are even starting to see a preference for mobile usage over desktops. A study by Nielsen and Google published last month found that 77% of mobile searches are performed in a location (home, work, etc.) where a PC is likely to have also been available.

While general form usability guidelines apply to mobile, there are some unique issues that occur with touch keyboards that you should anticipate and and properly handle in your code.

Today’s post highlights tips from the research findings of recently published m-Commerce Usability: Exploring the Mobile Shopping Experience by Baymard Institute.

Based on usability studies, Baymard Institute identifies 5 guidelines for touch keyboards (the report includes tutorials on how to code each tip properly):

Historically, most web designers and their clients have approached the desktop side of any project first, while leaving the mobile part as a secondary goal that gets accomplished later. Even with the rise of responsive design, many of us begin with the “full size” site and work our way down.

There’s a growing trend in the industry though to flip this workflow on its head and actually begin with mobile considerations and then work up to a larger desktop version. Why would you ever approach a project this way? What are some of the pros and cons of this strategy? Read on to find out!

The Girl Scouts continue to make use of technology and the internet to modernize their selling system. The organization has released a new app that focuses on their Girl Scouts cookie program. With the Cookie Locator people can find the nearest cookie seller in their area. The app uses GPS and vendors can choose to sign in and let their location be known to anyone using the app.

Worldwide Mobile Applications Market As per the analysis and growth forecasts for the Worldwide Mobile Applications Market the apps business has finally

As per the analysis and growth forecasts for the Worldwide Mobile Applications Market the apps business has finally ‘come of age’ and this worldwide success story is now growing fast.

Apps generated an impressive USD 12 billion in 2012, and in total 46 billion apps were downloaded in the year, taking the cumulative all-time total downloads since the app game began, to 83 billion. That is certainly a market in rapid growth.

The all-time cumulative total number of downloads stood at 37 billion at the end of 2011, but reached 83 billion by the end of 2012, more than doubling in one year. So in 2012, more apps were downloaded that in the previous 5 years all added together. The market is expected to be double in 2013.

From this doubling of the apps business in 2013, we forecast that downloads will continue to grow to exceed 200 billion per year by the end of full year 2017, and revenues in 2017 will reach 63.5 billion US dollars.

Yes the era of mobile commerce and the WWW converging on your Smartphone handset is here and this is not a passing fad but it is a hardcore reality of the future.

Focus on medium-sized smartphones and full-sized tablets and forget about “phablets."

That’s the conclusion of a new study by app advertising and analytics firm Flurry, which looked at how a device’s form factor and screen size relates to app usage on its network.
 
The study focused on the top 200 models, as measured by active users in Flurry’s systems, representing more than 80% of all usage. From that group, five basic device categories emerged: small phones, (3.5-inch or smaller screens), medium phones, (3.5 to 4.9-inch) Phablets (5 to 6.9-inch), small tablets (7 to 8.4-inch), full-size tablets (8.5 inches and up).
 
While small phones account for 16% of devices overall, they make up only 7% of active users and 4% of app sessions. Full-size tablets, by contrast, are overrepresented on Flurry’s network, reaching 1 billion smartphones and tablets monthly. They account for only 7% of the top 200 device models, but 15% of all active users, and 13% of app sessions.

We are witnessing a sweeping phenomenon play out before our eyes. An extraordinary medium called mobile has set the world ablaze with anytime-anywhere communications and placed unbelievable power into the palms of our hands. Via an unprecedented, unrelenting growth tear, mobile is currently clocking six billion subscriptions worldwide—with planet Earth shortly becoming home to more mobile-connected devices than human beings.
 
Our mobile devices are the first thing we reach for in the morning. They are the last thing we look at before we go to bed. And in between wake and sleep they are the one thing that we check 150 times a day, on average. When they are not our first-screen productivity tools, they are our second-screen TV companions. When we are not buying goods on them directly, they are our trusted shopping assistants. And when we are not using them as our phones, they transform into our alarm clocks, cameras, calendars, calculators, notepads, navigational devices, weather channels, and more. Much more.

Make no mistake. We are a planet that is enthralled with, mystified by, and absolutely, positively manic over our mobile media. Without rival, with nary even a close contender, mobile has rightly and categorically claimed its heavyweight title: Master of All Media, of All Time.

KFC is mobilizing a new children’s meal option via QR codes that provides easy access to product information and a way to enter a sweepstakes.

The QR codes appear on the Li’L Bucket Kids Meals, a new version of KFC’s traditional bucket that is meant just for kids. The outside of the bucket features word puzzles, riddles, colorful illustrations and the QR codes while inside is a Kentucky Grilled Chicken drumstick, green beans, GoGo SqueeZ applesauce and Capri flavored water.

“Including the QR code on Li’l Bucket Meals makes it easy for moms to access complete information on the product,” said Rick Maynard, senior manager of public relations at KFC Corp., Louisville, KY.

“The QR code links to a mobile page that includes product information – including the food options available in Li’l Bucket Meals – complete nutrition information, and a link to enter to win KFC’s ‘Ultimate Playground Experience,’” he said.

The mobile revolution is changing the way retailers display and sell goods as well as where and how they interact with customers. As consumers embrace mobile shopping, their behavior is also fundamentally evolving along with the new technology. In this month’s Visual Trends infographic we take a look at what this mobile revolution means for both customers and retailers and how retailers can prepare.

Whether it’s for email, social networking, search or online shopping, people simply can’t get away from their mobile devices. For marketers, this presents both a steep challenge and an incredible opportunity. How do you engage the right audience, with the right message, at the right time when people have so much control over the information they take in?

Implementing a flawless mobile marketing strategy is no simple task, but these 19 facts should help get you thinking about where to start.

1. 31% of cell internet users “mostly” access the internet via mobile devices. (Pew)
2. 75% of people favor mobile-friendly websites. (SnapHop)
3. Mobile internet usage is expected to surpass desktop internet usage by 2014. (Microsoft)
4. Mobile is responsible for 50% of local searches. (Microsoft)
5. 86% of mobile users are on their devices while watching television. (Yahoo)
6. More than 80% of mobile users claim a fast and reliable experience plays a role in how often they access a mobile website. (Gomez)
7. 24% of users expect a mobile website to load in 3 seconds or less. (Gomez)
8. 13% of mobile users say that they would never return to a mobile app if it did not work the first time. (Gomez)
9. Between 2010 and 2012, there was a 69% increase in mobile share of web traffic in North America. In Asia, there was a 192.46% increase. (Pingdom)
10. 21% of US tablet owners user their tablets to shop more than once a week. (emarketer)
11. 88% of people use their mobile phone to check email daily. (Return Path)
12. If all US mobile Internet time was condensed into one hour, 25 minutes would be spent on email. (Return Path)
13. 63% of Americans would close/delete an email that is not mobile-optimized. (Return Path)
14. Over half of US consumers who have purchased something using a smartphone have done so in response to a marketing message delivered by mobile email. (Return Path)
15. Mobile subscriptions will surpass World Population this year. (MarketingProfs)
16. The average American spends almost 3 hours per day socializing on his/her mobile device. (Microsoft)
17. More than 33% of Facebook users are on Facebook Mobile. (Microsoft)
18. Half of all Twitter users are on Twitter Mobile. (Microsoft)
19. US mobile ad spend is estimated to reach $10.83 billion in 2016. (Mobile Marketer)

Mobile Advertisign still a mystery? For me too. Use this excellent infographic to figure it out (some).

Call it an epiphany: Social is officially mobile. 

Several weeks ago, I was looking at the user data for one of the brands that I manage and one statistic stuck out more than others. Nearly 60 percent of the people who interact with that brand do so via smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device. I started checking other brands, and the numbers were all similar. 

The majority of people interacting with our content were doing so from a mobile device. 

In 2012, the time spent accessing

Facebook via mobile increased 85 percent

Twitter 140 percent

LinkedIn 114 percent

Pinterest 4,225 percent

That’s a staggering increase. Forty-six percent of social media users say they use their smartphone to access social media; 16 percent say they connect to social media using a tablet. 

Here are a five easy tips to help you optimize your social media content for mobile readers:

A new infographic based on New Media Consoritum’s 12 emerging technologies to watch highlights how mobile technologies will impact the future of higher learning.

From smartphones to smart wearable devices, there’s a wide assortment of gadgets and corresponding features that may change how we learn in the coming years.

So what are the 12 technologies to look out for? Check out the new infographic below, courtesy of OnlineDegrees.org.