Crisp Voices Blog

Google Chrome More of a Dream than Android Phone

19 Sep 2008 - Xavier Facon

Personally, I wish I wasn't asked to write anything about Android. I tend to be more interested in technology the consumer is actually waiting for, rather than announcements that are simply hyped by this huge corporation. But I’ve been surprised by Google a couple of times. First, Chrome on Windows. Next, Chrome on Android. I can summarize my surprise as follows, "Google, Apple work towards mobile content platform homogeneity!" Now, we have something to blog about.

In the very fragmented mobile space the amount of development platforms that developers are recruited to use has always been a problem. There are enough mobile operating systems and mobile device models to keep a small army of developers busy with simply porting code for one device to another. Having been involved in those types of projects, I can say that the porting ends up being a very large part of the cost of the whole production. --end rant--

Let me clarify my observation. The iPhone web applications that we have developed run as good on Chrome as they do on the Safari iPhone browser. Both browsers use the WebKit browser engine. And, both Chrome and iPhone Safari can provide solid ways to bring important features to these web apps. For example: off-line browsing, AJAX, and rich media. If you look back at mobile technologies over the past eight years you won’t find this “accidental” agreement between phone platforms happened very often.

To repeat myself, I'm not someone that's anticipating HTC's Dream T-Mobile announcement. In fact, I'm almost more interested in when the next Android based phone is launched after the Dream. As a company that mobilizes and monetizes mobile content, we like to see real numbers on consumer adoption – not predictions. As far as we can tell, we'll be waiting on adoption of Android by consumers for a while.

So how important is Chrome on Android? I believe it is very significant to see a next generation web application capability which is similar on all new and popular mobile devices. It is important both for the successful distribution of content to a wide audience and for the development of a powerful advertising channel to monetize that content. Google ... Ads ... Anyone?

Crisp Wireless has created SDK based downloadable applications and web applications for a long time and we believe the content publishers who work with us, have seen much more benefit and revenue out of web applications than the downloadable applications. Google gets that. It is no wonder they look to build on top of the iPhone's success rather than to fragment the mobile internet.

2nd Crisp Wireless Index Released – Shows More Traffic Moving Off Deck

10 Sep 2008 - Tamara Gruber

We recently released the 2^nd edition of the Crisp Wireless Index, showing mobile web traffic trends across our Mobile Publisher Network for Q2 2008. Of the many findings outlined in the report, we see mobile web traffic growing 29.4 percent across the network, with more and more traffic coming from “off-deck” vs. via the carrier decks.

While traffic driven by search continued to grow to 9.45 percent, nearly a third of all searches are for the brand or site name. However, local news, autos, and sports generate the highest amount of traffic from mobile search.

This issue of the report adds new data about the time of day and day of week mobile web usage by category. Similar to online, women and youth are more likely to surf the mobile web late at night. However, whereas online news sites see the most traffic in the morning, lunch, and afternoon rush, mobile news sites see steady traffic throughout the day, eliminating day part separations.

The top mobile search term(s) in Q2 2008 was movies or movie listings. Not surprising, especially considering how the Direct Marketing Association recently reported that buyers of entertainment/music/video products were the most likely to respond to mobile offers – showing a clear interest in entertainment content and information on-the-go.

To receive the full report, register online at http://www.crispwireless.com/analytics/register.

Things to Consider Before Publishing and Advertising on the Mobile Web

1 Sep 2008 - Michael Weaver

Recently, I wrote an article for Mobile Marketer about the best practices for placing content and ads on the mobile Internet. I’m asked this all the time and thought the best way for me to explain it is to break down all the variables for publishers and advertisers.

Publishers, for example, should first approach their endeavor from the consumer’s point of view. Advertisers should first educate themselves with the rules of different phone carriers. But there are so many other things to consider! Check out the article for all my tips and leave some comments here or on Mobile Marketer with your thoughts and suggestions.