By Nik Maguire, 2ergo
Evaluations of spending patterns over recent years have shown the increasing dominance of online sales, with retailers such as Amazon reporting strong results compared with retailers on the high street.
Google+Category Archives: Mobile Technology
Digital Marketing Show for the ‘majority’ of marketers
‘The fastest growing companies and marketing superstars are digital marketing powerhouses but the majority of businesses are playing catch-up’ according to Ray Clark from www.digitalmarketingshow.co.uk .
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Testing times for mobile app development
By Chris Livesey, VP of Borland Applications Management and Quality at Micro Focus
As mobile technology demands continue to accelerate, application developers and testers will struggle to keep pace without a shift in thinking when it comes to mobile quality, performance and development.
Creating effective apps for an increasingly competitive market depends on rigorous testing to minimise errors and failures. However, this is not as straightforward as it sounds as apps today may need to run smoothly across as many as 1,800 different device platforms. Developing apps for Android OS, for example, demands the consideration of over 130 different devices, running seven different platforms on two firmware sets.
The challenges for developers and testers in the new world of the mobile device app are daunting. Their products need to work smoothly across many existing device platforms while trying to predict the requirements of handsets currently in development – a sizable challenge for any organisation. Continue reading
Google+When two worlds collide
By James Passingham, Technical Services Director at Foehn
In a perfect world, Graham Alexander Bell, Almon Brown Strowger and Dr Martin Cooper would have lived at the same time and talked about their plans to develop modern day communications, including the phone, switch and cellular phone.
Unfortunately this wasn’t to be and telecommunications has developed in silos, with fixed telephony and mobile telephony two separate infrastructures.
Only now are we seeing a true melding of the two through Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC). Continue reading
Google+Mobile data recovery: a growing cause for concern
By Robert Winter, chief engineer, Kroll Ontrack
According to the International Telecommunication Union, the number of mobile phones worldwide is expected to exceed the world’s population by 2014, with overall penetration rates reaching 96 percent globally by the end of 2013.
Consistent with the widespread adoption of mobile devices, Kroll Ontrack saw a 55 percent increase in mobile device recoveries for phones and tablets from 2010 to 2011, and a 161 percent increase from 2011 to 2012. With more and more people storing valuable personal and business data on their mobile devices, there is no doubt the demand for recovery when something goes wrong will continue to climb. Continue reading
Google+Are PCs going the way of the dodo?
By Nathan Pearce, F5’s Senior Technical Marketing Manager
Over the last few months, there has been a huge amount of discussion in the media about the death of the PC. Despite Yahoo’s recent ban, mobile working has become the norm and many of us are choosing to invest in tablets and laptops rather than sedentary PCs so that we can work whenever and from wherever we want.
A recent Gartner report revealed that worldwide PC shipments declined by 4.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2012, while PC shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa fell by 9.6 per cent. This is more than the effect of a weak global economy – this is the sign of a genuine shift in working practice and buying behaviour. Continue reading
Google+Embrace Smartphone Users and Stop Sales Stagnating in 2013
By Michael Smith, a marketing executive at 9xb
Web use is changing. Think about how you access the internet now, compared to five years ago. Back then, it would be almost exclusively through a desktop or, at a push, laptop. Now, it’s more likely to be through a phone, a tablet or video game. A lot has changed in a short amount of time.
The stats back this up. According to the 2011 Horizon Report, by 2015, 80% of people accessing the internet will be doing so through a mobile device. Analysts from Morgan Stanley concurred with this, predicting that, based on the current rate of adoption, the mobile web will be bigger than desktop internet by 2015.
This presents a challenge and an opportunity for companies with an online presence (which is the vast majority in the 21st century). So how can businesses embrace mobile? Let’s look at one of the biggest opportunities here: smartphone users. Continue reading
Google+Tablets outperform smartphones for mobile advertising
By Wes Biggs, CTO and co-founder, Adfonic
We may only be in March, but there are already clear signs that 2013 will be the year of the tablet. This is highly significant for digital marketers as they look to plan around where value lies in mobile advertising.
By the end of 2012, tablets’ share of ad impressions across Adfonic’s buying platform stood at 14%, over 50% more than at the beginning of the year. We discovered this when compiling our Global AdMetrics Report for Q3 2012, as well as noting that tablets were the most popular mobile gift over the festive period.
Off the back of the AdMetrics findings, we drilled deeper with our Tablets AdSnap report. For this, our data scientists analysed billions of ad impressions bought and sold via our platform throughout December 2012 and identified a remarkable trend: that, despite being a relatively new addition to the mobile family, tablets outperform smartphones for every type of mobile advertising campaign. Continue reading
Google+Business mobile accessory trends: Round up from Mobile World Congress 2013
By Mohammed Hussain, Managing Director of international online retailer Mobile Fun
Wireless charging in cars
Unlike other major manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung, Nokia has embraced MWC and used it as a platform to launch a number of new devices. The most exciting has to be the Nokia Wireless Charging Car Holder.
The new kit works with Nokia Lumia devices, Qi standard wireless charging and has embedded NFC. It’s aimed at Lumia devices with built in wireless charging and other Nokia devices that are compatible with Nokia’s wireless charging shells. Good news though…the charger isn’t just for Nokia devices though. We expect it to work with other Qi compatible wireless charging devices too. Continue reading
Google+How to get your business ready for the mobile printing era
By Simon Hanly, product manager, Epson UK
It’s true that we’re now living in a “mobile first” era. According to Gartner1, 2013 will be the year when mobile phones overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide and tablets are rapidly replacing laptops in the home. With this trend reaching a tipping point, I do not think it will be long before we see printing from a mobile becoming as common as printing from a desktop or laptop, offering some great advantages – for instance, printing a picture from a phone instantly without uploading it to a laptop.
However, while the technology is already available, evidence suggests that businesses are not yet ready for the emergence of ‘on-the-go’ cloud-based printing, where an individual connects directly to their business printer via the web using their smartphone. In fact, our own research found that 64% do not have printers with the capability to print directly from e-mails2. However, a third (37%) believe that smartphones and tablets will have a significant impact on the ways any documents are printed in the future. Continue reading
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