By now you have probably heard of the Internet of Things many times.
But you may not yet understand what it is. Maybe the simplest way to think about it is realize houses and other buildings are going to become much smarter and more connected over the upcoming years. You may have already seen this with thermostats.
While many don’t understand the Internet of Things now they will soon as growth is predicted to be tremendous.
Business Insider predicts that connected home device shipments will increase at a compound annual rate of 67% over the next five years (this is faster than smartphones or tablets). This results in an astounding 1.8 billion units they are predicting to be shipped in 2019. They describe connected home devices as all smart appliances (such as washers or refrigerators) and energy related devices such as smart thermostats and smart lighting.
In terms of sales, connected-home device sales will account for over $61 billion in revenue this year, but that number will skyrocket at a 52% compound annual growth rate to $490 billion in the year 2019.
There are great opportunities for forward thinking businesses.
But how do you seize your opportunity?
Start by evaluating the market to look for opportunities that overlap with your business capabilities. Many businesses will have new opportunities where they can extend their products and services in a meaningful way into their consumers homes. For instance, look at Amazon’s Dash Button that lets customers order Tide, Glad trash bags and more than 250 other brands with the touch of a finger.
Are their area of your business that overlap with the opportunities presented by the Internet of Things? Sometimes the answers aren’t always obvious, try to think out side the box and see if you can find a connection that isn’t necessarily the first and most obvious idea. Perhaps speak with an iPhone application developer or Android application developer to see if they have ideas of how to integrate external devices with mobile applications and your products. Application developers are are the front lines and understand the industry trends.
Once you identify areas of opportunity remember that it is all about the execution.
How do you make your idea the most user friendly? How do you make your user experience intuitive? Do you have the feature set and hardware that is right for your opportunity? Are you giving your consumers what they want? or will your idea fall flat because you failed to consider how your customers interact with your brand?
Having and idea is only part of the battle as execution is essential.
Photo: Scott Cawley (Flikr) http://bit.ly/1QXavNW
When it comes to mobile, usability certainly is crucial, but you also need to know how to create content for your mobile users.
Reading content from a mobile device is different from reading content on a laptop. Users interact differently with mobile data than they traditionally have done with web based data and content must be created with that in mind. For instance, studies have shown that users pay most attention to the top two-thirds of the screen and content should be optimized with that in mind.
Consider these issues and create a strategy for content before you begin start building your mobile application and then your iPhone application developer or Android application developer can help build an application that works with your strategy.
Here are 4 tips to help you write mobile content like a pro.
Start with a Killer Headline
First of all make sure that you keep you headlines short and sweet. You don’t want headlines that take up half the space on your screen and push key content down below the fold. Beyond that, you want to make sure that a busy mobile user can take a quick look at your title and not only know what the story is about but be interested in it. Assume that your users are busy and distracted while reading your content and that you need something brief with a lot of pop to grab their attention.
Grab Their Attention Early
Space is limited on mobile screens so you want to make sure you start off with key points and information that will grab a user’s attention. If your headline can spark some interest you must have strong enough early content to keep them reading. Its an old copywriters adage that the point of each line of copy is to keep the user reading the next. Perhaps no where is this more true than with mobile.
Don’t Forget Images
It has been shown in studies that on mobile devices people view images more than they look at text. Their eyes are just naturally drawn to the images over text. Don’t forget that it is the natural tendency of human eyes to be drawn to images and keep that in mind while creating content. A well placed and relevant image can help interest in your article.
Make It Concise
Writing more isn’t necessarily better. It’s easy to ramble on; it takes effort to be succinct. Concise writing takes time and work and when it come mobile, concise writing is indispensable. Think about the size of the screen and you will understand why. The key isn’t just to try and be short but rather to write what is needed and carefully edit so you can express the ideas in a succinct, cogent way. Make your content as long as it needs to be without wasting space. Make sure you format your text in short paragraphs that aren’t intimidating to readers. Short paragraphs require less concentration and are preferred by mobile readers.
Like anything else writing great mobile copy requires practice. There isn’t a magic wand you can wave and be a master but if you follow these principles and focus on writing copy that complies with these ideas you will find more users reading your copy on their mobile devices.
Photo: William Hook (Flikr) http://bit.ly/1PEwXJf
Over the past couple years the trends have been obvious when it comes to mobile devices… Big is in.
It seems like mobile phones get bigger every day. These phones have captured the interest of the market and seem to be in the driver’s seat.
Interestingly larger phones create several opportunities for marketers as these devices show some exciting trends. For instance, larger screen sizes strongly correlate with increased minutes of app usage. (Modida) These larger screen devices increase engagement and increase engagement creates revenues as well.
Remember that what worked when you originally released your app for the iPhone 4 may not be the best solution now. Its time to update your app and rather than just giving it a minor facelift, you may will want to look at changes in the market and adapt. You will reap the rewards of doing this before starting your mobile application development project.
Big phones and phablets are everywhere we look, but how do brands and marketers take advantage of this trend?
Use the space
You have more space—use it. When it comes to mobile applications this trend presents some exciting new opportunities for mobile application development. More space means more opportunity – go bigger and go bolder. Don’t be afraid to make navigation or social buttons big enough to tap with ease. Interactive features and calls to action should be easy to spot. No user likes to accidentally click the wrong button and you don’t want to put them into the position to do so.
Let creative stretch its legs with big, bold offers and recommendations. The space is there so you might as well use it.
Understand the size difference
Often users use larger phones or phablets different than they would a smaller device. Make sure you keep that in mind as you layout navigation and organize your application. A layout that worked well on an iPhone 4 may not be optimum for the current market. Don’t just stick with what worked in the past. You may want to consider moving important controls from the top of the screen down to improve reachability.
Look at your media
Users love watching videos on phablet and tablet screens—don’t leave them wanting. Mobile is maturing and so should your applications and media. Not only do your controls need to take into account the larger device size but you need to consider that users will interact with a larger device differently and have different exceptions from it content wise as well.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns (Flikr) http://bit.ly/1FQlPIy