Link Digest V1.4
Excellent guides to digital marketing from Kissmetrics.
Great post from Brick&Mobile about how poorly the restaurant industry has taken to mobile. Ten years ago lots of independent restaurants got burned paying for fancy but not particularly useful flash websites with no tools to measure their ROI. Now the with digital marketing metrics becoming mature and a number of affordable tools to create mobile sites (Mobify, Dudamobile, Brick&Mobile) there is no real excuse for not having a mobile presence; however a study from Restaurant Sciences indicated that 95% of the independent restaurants in their wide ranging survey in the US did not have a mobile optimized website, nor did 1/8 of franchised restaurants. With potential diners checking out ratings from Yelp, Urbanspoon, Google and others on their mobile phones to make their eating out decisions, can they afford to not have a good mobile site to help sell to their potential customers?
Building an app Apprentice style (BBC version). I think we can all relate to this.
An in-detail look at the cross-platform solutions offered by Titanium and PhoneGap from a contributor to Titanium.
Facebook is going to be launching an App Center to curate and promote applications for the web, iOS and Android with Facebook integration in the coming weeks. (BGR)
Foursquare has done a great job building out a location services product, but now they are trying to figure out how to monetize their service. One way will now be offering sponsored personalized offerings to their users. (GigaOM)
Wired shows us an insider view of A/B testing using the IGN website as the guinea pig. (Wired)
Techcrunch set off a firestorm of controversy when they posted an image of a pile of Android handsets and tables that Animoca uses for QC (apparently they test against 400 devices). Animoca wrote a follow up post with their take in which they say that for them this amount of testing is worth it. Opensignalmaps published data on the 600,00+ Android devices which have downloaded their app and present some interesting graphics about the variety of devices and screen resolutions. The Samsung Galaxy SII was the most popular, making up about 10% of their total downloads so make sure your Android application works on that phone at least!
Be careful when parting with your Android devices. Your data might still be there even if you think it’s been wiped clean. (Techvibes)
Read MoreNews Digest V1.3
Social media is transforming how companies are interacting with their customers. The Globe and Mail explores the social media strategies of six Canadian companies. One of the featured entrepreneurs is Pierre Martell, brother of Dan Martell who last week released Clarity, a tool to connect you with advisors and mentors all over the world.
Apparently 95% of the new LinkedIn iPad application is built using HTML5 techniques. Check it out if you would like to see how it compares to native iOS applicatoins. In a sidenote, the lead engineer recommends not using responsive design techniques except in the case of relatively simple websites. – via VentureBeat
For all you Ruby fans out there, now you can make native iOS applications using your favorite language.
Influential UX designer Matt Gemell writes about what he uses to make his iPad a productivity device. Personally I use Keynote, Reeder and Tweetbot everyday as well.
An enthusiastic endorsement of the new E-Bay iPad app update.
Some Silicon Valley bigwigs are coming up with a creative solution to the pesky work visa issues foreign talent faces in the US. – via BGR
Mall operator General Growth Properties describes how their mobile app has massively enhanced their mobile marketing strategy and using a special in app game they are encouraging daily app opens from 18% of their users. There is a lot of detail about their end-to-end strategy from their E-mail news letters, to SMS campaigns, to QR code scanning. Most impressive is their 83% redemption rate on offers sent to customers who were willing to receive geofenced promotions to their phone. – via Mobile Commerce Daily
Zappos talks about their experiences with mobile apps. Takeaways – app consumers are better customers than those that use the mobile web, and push notifications are a whole new marketing channel but that enhancing the user experience with frequent updates and fun window dressing are key to the brand experience. - via Mobile Commerce Daily
Ben Sandofsky writes a great description of the trade offs you make when deciding to go with a crossplatform HTML5 solution versus native development. He is not enthusiastic about write once deploy everywhere solutions for apps with any level of complexity to say the least.
Read MorePowercents featured in the iTunes app store
Powercents, an app that we developed with EnergyMobile Studios Inc, has been released and is now featured in the Canadian app store New & Noteworthy section! Powercents educates on Time-of-Use energy rates and gives lots of tips on how to save money on energy costs. Check out more here: powercents.ca
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