Tools of Change Keynote 2: Andrew Bud - Mobile Content and Commerce: A Global Commerce

In the second keynote session at the Frankfurt Tools of Change conference, Andrew Bud from MEF - the global community for mobile content and commerce - presented early results of their global research.

It is a study of 10,000 mobile media users across ten countries - they tend to be mobile first economies - providing insight into the state of the market and how it is evolving. What makes mobile special?

• Consumer's relationship to device
• Ability to engage the consumer
• 100% payment reach
• Multiple, fragmented centres of commercial power
• Technical fragmentation and constant change

The consumer relationship is key: the mobile is always there, is instantly accessible for immediate gratification. It's becoming the first screen due to it's immediacy and personal and that is becoming the case everywhere.

When consuming content on the phone, there is a significant long tail of genres catering for different segments of the market. Games are primary form of content with 59%. They are followed by social networks (49%), music (47%),  photos (41%), news (31%),  weather (25%), sport (21%), navigation (20%) and books are further down the ranking (17%).

The mobile is the ultimate engagement engine. It has the ability to drive the cycle - through SMS and push. It has known content using location, network and behaviour. There are accessible calls to action such as opening an app and you are only three clicks from desire to purchase: a feature that has driven the $30bn mobile content market.

88% of mobile media users are now using mobile commerce and it is ubiquitous in the first mobile markets. The reason? Proximity, convenience and immediacy of having that particular device so you can go from desire to gratification in the shortest possible time.

Mobile carrier billing provides a retailer with the ability to charge consumer up to c.$15 immediately without any needing verification. The price is steep - mobile operators in the value chain take 20-30% in charges - but it helps establish new retail channels.

There are multiple and fragmented shifting centres of power:

1. mobile operators (banks coming in to this)
2. handset vendors (social networks)
3. O/S controllers
4. online retailers (local providers)

Purchase location is shifting, consumers no longer buy via mobile web, but from places and brands they know and trust including 29% from app stores, 27% in app/game purchase, 26% on the mobile web and increasingly retailer mobile storefront (15%).

Technical fragmentation is key. Not all smartphones are equal. What is also interesting to note, despite the lower use of books on mobile, the kind of people who buy smartphones are the type of people who are likely to buy books.

Mobile is fast becoming the central ecosystem for digital content everywhere. There are opportunities to create new retail channels, powered by engagement and mobile billing, powered by its fluidity. Books are a small part of what is happening on mobile media and the mobile ecosystem is a small part of books today, but that is temporary and presents a big opportunity.

ALPSP Conference Day 2: Apportunity Knocks - advice from Semantico's Rob Virkar-Yates

Rob Virkar-Yates shares Semantico wisdom

Rob Virkar-Yates provided advice on mobile digital strategy from an industry supplier perspective for delegates at last week's ALPSP conference.

He questioned whether apps are the VHS or Betamax to the academic world and asked whether apps represent an opportunity for the scholarly market and can you make any money out of them? He presented Semantico statistics to illustrate some of the issues to consider:

• 68% of 15-24 year olds (UK) use the internet on mobile phones
• 11% of UK households have a tablet
• Younger audience are heavy users of mobile
• Only 5% of sessions served in 12 month period for some big publishers has been from mobile site
• 50% of people have downloaded an application and actually used it.

The type of apps that tend to be most successful are those that deliver micro-experiences. These are experiences that do not overwhelm or perplex the customer, are relevant, small and beautifully formed. He cited good micro-experiences as: Tools of Change app, his bank's fast balance app and Spotify (amongst others) as they are focused, they do one thing, but they do it well. With the arrival of the iPad comes the macro-experience: that adds significant value and richness and provides experiences that go beyond the text. Good macro-experiences included: The Wasteland app.

He went on to define the recipe for a good micro-experience as:

1. take on sharpened proposition - do one thing really well, fight one battle
2. reduce content aggressivly - content should be be ‘glanceable’
3. think small - architect from the ground up
4. push back - resist pressure to add more
5. be agile - not software, move fast, iterate.

Consider content that is location specific or for quick reference. Think about discovery and bookmarking, cost and value. Understand your options and don't forget the cost of reach through an app or via a mobile website. If you already have a mobile site what can you do? Make an ‘app’ with a responsive design solution: a web app! This can serve a single source of content and be laid out so as to be easy to read and navigate with a minimum of resizing, panning and scrolling, on any device. When you get it right, you get a really nice, simple app site which is like a micro-experience app. While this can be seen as a defensive move, the pros are that it is low risk and high reach, has comprehensive browser support, is future proof and has a single code base. The cons: it's not a specific content set, it front loads process, is network dependent and isn't an ‘app’!

Is there an opportunity? Probably. But micro- or macro-experiences will depend on the nature of your content. Can you make money? The low cost and potential reach of web apps might be the best option for the majority.

ALPSP Conference Day 2: Apportunity Knocks - Will Russell with the RSC Publishing view

Will Russell showcases ChemGoggles

In Wednesday’s parallel session Apportunity Knocks, Will Russell, Manager of Innovation and Technical Development at RSC Publishing provided an overview of their approach to develop mobile apps for their members. They started their mobile timeline in 2010 with Chemistry World (mark 1) following in the same year with Publishing Platform and ChemSpider mobile sites. In 2011 they launched RSCMobile, ChemSpider and Chemistry World (mark 2) mobile apps.

They believe the future is multi-device so their aim is to be device independent. The mobile market is large and still growing with app usage time exceeding mobile website usage. In this landscape, browser-less discovery is key.

They aim to keep customer needs at the heart of what they do.
Chemistry World now has a full mobile app to respond to reader demand. They have optimised content for smaller handsets, but it is more like reading the magazine on a tablet. ChemSpider 2010 had a mobile optimised website but has now moved to the ChemSpider Mobile App. Why? Because of the mobility of scientists. Whether in a lab or at a seminar - you can put content in their hands. They have received great anecdotal feedback at conference: people speaking positively about ChemSpider because of the app.

They keep the strategy and products under constant review. Developments to consider include APIs that will generate the most useful apps with your/our content and the use of information available free of charge to create apps such as UK Government Data.

Russell reflected on some of the challenges they have faced:

• authentication
• number of new devices and variety of functionality set on each one
• testing on devices (availability)
• supporting devices and staff training
• app store approval
• on-going future maintenance - more technologies than just a hosted website.

He concluded with some advice. Make your approach to apps part of your digital strategy - not separate. Think about what it offers over a mobile website. Release on one platform first and limit the initial approach on delivery: wait for customer information to help you prioritise what is being asked for and what works. Keep a close eye on KPIs, ROI and analytics. Understand that separate mobile websites may not be scalable. Think about how many devices and screen sizes are you going to need to support in the future. Other issues to consider include:

• for usage: it’s not as simple as reproducing the website 
• how can you support others to build apps?
• impact of support for app development
• traditional channels still serve the highest usage
• we will never have such a long period with the same interface again - in two years we could be talking glasses in the mainstream.

ALPSP Conference Day 2: Apportunity knocks? Mobile as part of your digital strategy

Apportunity Knocks was a session focusing on apps as part of a mobile development strategy for publishers. This is a summary of Mark Ware from Outsell's  data insight into mobile traffic and usage.

Tablet sales exceed smartphones and PC sales are dropping off. Mobile traffic is doubling year on year because of i) adoption of devices and ii) improvement of mobile networks. The rise of the fourth screen is here. A quarter of devices in workplace are now tablets or mobile devices.

Ware mentioned some interesting industry developments and useful articles including:

• Forrester’s George Colony Forbes' article: Hello, App Internet, Goobye, Web
• The Lancet have their own custom app
• Gray’s Anatomy - books and reference works converting to apps that blur with an ebook
• SciVerse Science Direct
• First Consult - diagnostic tool on an app
• Wolters Kluwer have become powerful advocate of the app with tablets
• Elsevier have launched an iPad subscription - content plan - from as little as 75 euros per month
• The Oncologist's production values are getting closer to TV on video
• Interested to watch the BMJ - average reading time for a page report is 15 minutes.

Case study: Epocrates is their point-of-care drug information and identification of pills app. It has built up >1million users with half of all US doctors as users. They have a 'freemium' version supported by advertising. Most users use it for 30 seconds at a time on average five times a day.

Mobile can be used for discovery and as a sales channel. There is renewed interest in individual purchasers. But should we consider a cynic's view of mobile apps? Are they the CD-Roms of mobile? And what about app versus app? The FT removed the iOS app as they didn’t want to lose a third of revenue and the marketing controlled by Apple.

He summarised the evolution of apps as:

• looking up
• keeping up
• long-form reading (tablet)
• self-study, CME, educational
• swivel apps (sharing information, e.g. doctors share information with patient to help them influence their own outcomes)
• interacting (with research information) still in infancy for annotation, tag, add abstractions, but only if synched through the cloud
• and true workflow integration for STM, which is still to come.

What do users want? And do they know? Is it mobility, social media computing, cloud storage or multiple use? It has been a commonly held view for several years that knowledge workers are overloaded. The top obstacle to getting information in 2008 was not enough budget. In 2011 it was not enough time.

The key challenges for STM publishers include re-imaging content for use case versus repackaging products in digital facsimiles and supporting widespread adoption in institution and hospitals. Business models to consider are: adding value to subscriptions; improving customer experience; advertising and sponsorship; 'freemium' model; individual tablet subscriptions; paid for apps and ebooks. He closed with a list of essential actions for STM publishers:

• mobile development is a core competence 
• adopt multi-channel content systems
• mobile optimisation is critical
• experiment with business models
• manage the costs.