Gotcha. PercentMobile spotted a Samsung Nexus S device running Android 2.3 on T-Mobile USA.

“Apps [Native] really aren’t necessary at a UI level. Good software engineering plus offerings like Sencha are making it clearer and clearer. Let’s pick away at the rest of the app process until it’s gone, and we’re back to the web.”

–

rafer:

Create Your Own QR Codes with Delivr.

In our last post, “QR Code Tracking for Everyone” we mentioned how easy it is to generate a QR Code using Delivr, a service of PercentMobile. This video produced for Ketchum by their intern shows how simple it is. Thank you unknown intern.

Delivr. Effortless sharing with a tricked-out, mobile-friendly URL.

mobileSQUARED Roadshow: USA

The Essential guide to communicating with the mobile consumer.

New York Academy of Sciences, November 2nd, 2010

The mobileSQUARED Roadshow: USA is an innovative 1-day event covering the essential aspects of connecting with mobile consumers.

http://www.mobilesquared.co.uk/roadshow/roadshow-us

DM @davidharper that day if you are attending and want to meet up.

PercentMobile offers a complete generation, management, and tracking solution for QR Codes that allows everyone to launch and analyze real-world QR Code campaigns. Tracking for QR Code campaigns is also available for integration into 3rd party QR Code and other 2D Barcode platforms. This service is currently available by request.

The 3 Steps of our QR Code Tracking Process Explained.

1. Create & Scan

   1. QR Code is created by PercentMobile with a short URL that redirects to the campaign landing page/media URL. This URL contains PercentMobile code that posts the visit to our Tracking Sever before the 301 redirect. You can also generate QR Codes elsewhere and add our tracking code to your own 301 redirect page.
   2. QR Code is distributed via ad, sticker, packaging, poster, publication, billboard, or wherever else you would include a URL.
   3. Consumer sees and scans QR Code using their phone and any 2D barcode reader capable of reading a QR Code.
   4. The QR Code reader decodes the embedded short URL, launches the phone’s mobile Web browser, and sends the consumer to the embedded URL.
2.  Track & Deliver
   1. Behind the scenes: Data about the scan and visit is posted to PercentMobile’s Tracking Server.
   2. Consumer experience: The embedded URL immediately redirects to the campaign landing page/media URL for the consumer to consume and enjoy.
3. Process & Report
   1. PercentMobile processes and reports the results of the QR Code campaign.

What are QR Codes?

QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are 2D Barcodes readable by mobile phones with a camera and QR Code Reader. The code consists of black (or other color) modules arranged in a square pattern on a white or high contrast background. The information encoded can be text, a URL, or other data.

Create a QR Code.

To see how easy it is to create a QR Code visit the free QR Code Generator at Delivr. Delivr is a service of PercentMobile.

Get QR Code Reader.

Scanning QR Codes requires the installation of a QR Code Reader on your phone. To find and download a QR Code Reader search your device’s App Store or visit http://percentmobile.com/getqr with your mobile phone. PercentMobile will identify your make/model device and provide you with a handpicked list of 3rd party QR Code Readers.

How to Get Started.

Learn more about how PercentMobile can provide rich mobile analytics for your QR Code Campaigns.

QR Code® is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated in Japan and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Install applications at your own risk.

“Jessica is on her phone and sees an interesting tweet from a friend with a link to MTV. But when she clicks on it, she’s taken to a crappy unoptimized web site, not the shiny app MTV she just installed.”

Social media giants Twitter and Facebook are deeply embedded in today’s mobile ecosystem through SMS, Mobile Sites, Apps/Widgets and OS level integration such as on the INQ1. They are imperative for marketing efforts of big brands. Messages in the stream often consist of a text message accompanied by a short URL linking to media on the web. URLs are always opened in the device’s main browser or an embedded browser in some twitter apps. URLs cannot be used to open applications, even if an application with the content is installed on the device.  As such, the mobile browser is central to consume information pushed through social networks on mobile devices.

Neglecting the Mobile Web for an app can thwart your Social Media Strategy. 

Mobile Web and Social Media form a synergistic relationship. A brand that understands this will direct efforts to appear as best as possible on all major mobile web browsers. The contradiction we have been noticing is that there are brands with a large social network following, but no mobile compatible URLs, due to their efforts going solely towards mobile application development.  Take MTV for example, with close to 900,000 followers on Twitter and close to 10,000 tweets. They also have a popular application on the Apple App Store. The trouble is that none of their links are mobilized. Any URL in their tweets brings you to a Web site solely designed for the desktop Web with a high reliance on Adobe Flash which is not compatible or does not work well on many mobile devices.

MTV is just one example that illustrates the need for brands to support their social efforts with an excellent, connected mobile Web experience.

We compiled a compact overview of the state of  the mobile Web in the USA for September 2010. Did you know that nearly 23% of mobile Web users in the US use phones that run Proprietary Operating Systems? Did you know that just under 13% of mobile Web browsing in the US is done using Non-Phones, like the Apple  IPad, iPod touch, and Sony PSP? 

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Since the first appearance of an Android OS Device in October 2008, PercentMobile has recorded mobile web activity for more than 100 different Android OS devices. This is roughly one new device per week over the past 2 years. Considering that it took almost 6 months for the second Android OS device to appear, the growth rate is nothing short of astonishing. Not everything that Google does such as Wave, Latitude, and Buzz is granted success and acceptance, but those were toys for the fringe. Globally dominating the future of Web with its open source operating system is what you call a good long term strategy. The first versions of the operating system weren’t as polished and perfect as its iOS counterpart, but the Google Android team is fast and agile as a lean startup. Android went through more iterations of its OS then any other competitor and is quickly approaching maturity. We don’t believe that they will simply out-muscle everyone else. Apple iOS and BlackBerry OS are formidable modern Operating Systems that run on amazing devices. Nokia, however, with its ancient Symbian OS running on mainly old-fashioned devices, will have an even harder time while they make it more difficult for future impostures such as Windows Phone to reach significant market share. It will still take time for Android to level with Apple and BlackBerry, but when they do, duck for cover.  Here is to the first 100!!

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We have been asked by our friends in São Paulo, Brazil to share PercentMobile findings in regards to global and Brazilian trends during ResultsON Week (September 21-23.) 

In the meantime, here are a few metrics about mobile Web access in Brazil over WiF:

• While only a bit over 10% of Brazilian visitors to sites tracked by Mobile Analytics by PercentMobile have WiFi capable phones, they represent over 50% of the mobile traffic to these sites.
• 1.4% of Brazilians are browsing the mobile Web over WiFi from non-phones, Apple iPod touch leads, then comes the Apple iPad, followed by the Sony PSP gaming device.

Learn more about ResultsON Week here: http://resultson.com.br/resultson-week/

This post has been sitting in our draft folder since April but with Apple and Google preparing for a mobile advertising battle we figured we would update it a bit and publish.

All watched over by machines of loving grace.

Several years ago Adam Greenfield wrote an article titled, “All watched over by machines of loving grace: Some ethical guidelines for user experience in ubiquitous-computing settings”. Adam provided some general principles for us to observe as designers and developers. We always keep these guidelines nearby. Here they are.

• Principle 0, Is, of course, first, do no harm.
• Principle 1. Default to harmlessness. Ubiquitous systems must default to a mode that ensures their users’ (physical, psychic and financial) safety.
• Principle 2. Be self-disclosing. Ubiquitous systems must contain provisions for immediate and transparent querying of their ownership, use, capabilities, etc., such that human beings encountering them are empowered to make informed decisions regarding exposure to same.
• Principle 3. Be conservative of face. Ubiquitous systems are always already social systems, and must contain provisions such that wherever possible they not unnecessarily embarrass, humiliate, or shame their users.
• Principle 4. Be conservative of time. Ubiquitous systems must not introduce undue complications into ordinary operations.
• Principle 5. Be deniable. Ubiquitous systems must offer users the ability to opt out, always and at any point.

What do these ethical guidelines have to do with Steve Jobs and Apple?

Along with Apple’s announcement of iPhone OS 4 in March the iPhone Developer Agreement was updated to restrict how device data is shared between applications and 3rd parties so to improve consumer privacy. Some have argued that Apple really doesn’t care about consumer privacy and that the intention of this update was to cripple competition to iAds, specifically Google. While that may be an outcome, the agreement changes do in our opinion represent an understandable step by Apple to watch over their carefully crafted user experience and coveted, insanely loyal consumer base.

Our mapping of the ethical guidelines above and the updated iPhone Developer Agreement.

Updated Section 3.3.9 of the iPhone Developer Agreement.

3.3.9 The following requirements apply to You and Your Application’s use, collection, processing, maintenance, uploading, syncing, storage, transmission, sharing and disclosure of User Data:

• All use of User Data collected or obtained through an Application must be limited to the same purpose as necessary to provide services or functionality for such Application. For example, the use of User Data collected on and used in a social networking Application could be used for the same purpose on the website version of that Application; however, the use of location-based User Data for enabling targeted advertising in an Application is prohibited unless targeted advertising is the purpose of such Application (e.g., a geo-location coupon application). - See Principle 4 above.
  
• You may only provide or disclose User Data to third parties as necessary for providing services or functionality for the Application that collected the User Data, and then only if You receive express user consent. For example, if Your Application would like to post a message from a user to a third party social networking site, then You may only share the message if the user has explicitly indicated an intention to share it by clicking or selecting a button or checking a box that clearly explains how the message will be shared. - See Principle 3 above.
  
• Notwithstanding anything else in this Agreement, Device Data may not be provided or disclosed to a third party without Apple’s prior written consent. Accordingly, the use of third party software in Your Application to collect and send Device Data to a third party for processing or analysis is expressly prohibited. - See Principle 1 above.
  
• You must provide information to users regarding Your use and/or Transmission of User Data and explain how Your Application will use User Data, e.g., by providing information in the App Store marketing text that accompanies Your Application on the App Store, by adding an About box within Your Application, or by adding a link to Your privacy policy on Your website. - See Principle 2 above.
  
• You and the Application must take appropriate steps to protect any User Data from unauthorized disclosure or access. If a user ceases to consent to Your use and/or Transmission of User Data, You must promptly cease all such use and/or Transmission and destroy any such information from Your records (except to the limited extent necessary for Your Application back- ups and record-keeping or as otherwise prohibited by law). - See Principle 5 above.

Note: PercentMobile provides mobile analytics for Desktop/Mobile Sites and Web Apps delivered via a phone’s Web Browser and have choosen not to be distracted by Mobile Application Tracking. The availability of hundreds of thousands of apps is great, but our interest is currently focused on helping people understand the mobile ecosystem and  behavior/actions of the mobile audience to billions of desktop and mobile Web pages.