Is your nonprofit ready for the mobile web?

Is your nonprofit ready for the mobile web? The reality is we are running out of time. If you don't have initiatives planned to move your infrastructure ahead in 2014, now is the time to start the planning. Here are some good reasons:

1. The mobile web will rule by 2014
2. Mobile email is on the rise
3. Social networks have gone mobile
4. Texting is a tool still not mastered
5. Ready or not, mobile giving is the future, but must be planned for now

The Mobile Web is often discussed as a future trend that nonprofits have time to prepare for, but the reality is that by the end of 2014, the majority of your supporters and donors will be viewing your website, email communications, blogs, and social media content on smartphones and tablets. In truth, the Mobile Web is already here. Going mobile will not be free and for many small nonprofits a costly upgrade, but to successfully communicate your mission and programs and fund-raise online in coming years, it is a necessary investment. Source: Five Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Must Prioritize the Mobile Web in 2014

As a nonprofit executive, what should you know about WebRTC?

[caption id="attachment_1071" align="alignright" width="259"] Ray Wang at Constellation Research[/caption]

Imagine holding video conferences with your volunteers across any device. That is bold and a game changer.

WebRTC is an emerging standard that enables real-time voice, video and data sharing in a Web browser without the need for browser plugins. Potentially billions of devices supporting a browser – PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets and a host of new devices – from a variety of manufacturers will be real-time communications-enabled. Whereas browsers have typically interacted only with one or more Web servers, WebRTC allows browsers to exchange media and data directly and in a secure manner.

This is big. Check out the detail from my friend Ray Wang at Constellation Research. More here: Ten Things CIOs Should Know about WebRTC | Constellation Research Inc..

What is your mobile strategy?

According to Latha Maripuri, Director of IBM Mobile and Security Services, mobile technology has unquestionably changed how we interact in both our business and personal lives. In fact, mobile devices have quickly moved from a nice-to-have technology to a necessity for most of us.

But the integration of mobile within our lives doesn’t stop there. We’re using mobile technology in innovative ways and countless places across every industry. For example, doctors can track therapeutic effectiveness through remote monitoring apps, keeping them updated on patients even when neither is in the hospital. The examples are endless.

More here: Mapping Out the Top 4 Strategies for the Mobile Enterprise « A Smarter Planet Blog.

Your desk job makes you fat, sick and dead ...

Podio co-founder Jon Froda along with panelists Cali Williams Yost, CEO and Founder of Work+Life Fit Inc, Kate Lister from Telework Research & Richard Leyland, Founder of Worksnug explored the potential of ‘workshifting‘ and how working from anywhere has immense possibilities when it comes to productivity & work-life balance.

[slideshare id=17140312&style=border:1px solid #CCC;border-width:1px 1px 0;margin-bottom:5px&sc=no]

Are there risks to mobile CRM?

There's no stopping the mobile CRM revolution, but those who rush into it headlong with an eye only to the many benefits may be in for an unpleasant shock. As if we didn't have enough to worry about, mobile CRM is laden with risks, too -- from getting on the wrong side of the customer to getting on the wrong side of the federal government. Then there are the myriad security concerns that go along with making sensitive company data accessible on a device that may be woefully insecure.

More here: The Hidden Risks of Mobile CRM, Part 1 | Mobile CRM | CRM Buyer.

What is the difference between responsive vs. adaptive web design?

Users who access your websites through their mobile devices or other display screens really do not care what method you use, just as long as that they can effectively navigate your website on whatever device they happen to be using.

For that reason, the two methods described in this article have been devised for web developers to meet the challenge, and while responsive (RWD) and adaptive (AWD) design methods are both addressing the issue for rendering websites on mobile devices, there are subtle differences between them that it helps to be aware of.

More here: What is the difference between responsive vs. adaptive web design? | TechRepublic.

Win a Copy of 'Lean In' by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer and Learn About Mobile Fundraising!

To celebrate Artez Interactive's brand new whitepaper, Mobile Matters, they're giving away a copy of Lean In, the #1 bestselling book by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's Chief Operating Officer and one of Time Magazine's 2012 Most Influential People!

Want to win? Here's how!

1) Download a free copy of their Mobile Matters whitepaper!

2) Head to Twitter and tweet the following, while filling in the blank:

"I learned about _________________________ from @artezonline's #MobileMatters whitepaper http://bit.ly/14j9eep"

The first 50 responses will be entered into a drawing, and they'll send the winner a free copy of Lean In!

Here is what they have discovered:

• 15% of traffic to fundraising and donation pages comes from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.


• 23% of participants in peer-driven events and campaigns choose to use mobile technology to help them fundraise for good causes.


• Participants who use mobile technology to fundraise in a campaign raise up to 2.95x more than those who do not.


• The percentage of donations made on mobile web browsers has grown 205% in the last 12 months!


• Event participants using iPhones raise just slightly more than participants on Android devices.

Learn more here: Win a Copy of 'Lean In' and Learn About Mobile Fundraising! - Artez Interactive

Is it productive to work at home or anywhere other than the office?

Certain subjects just naturally incite opinion wars. The big ones, like political preferences, or whether you’re Team A or Team B, are better left out of polite conversation. But when it comes to doing your job effectively, where do we draw the line? Should the nature of a person’s autonomy — or lack thereof — be at the whim of the boss, or the discernment of the employee?

The four corners of the Internet nearly came to blows recently when tech-world darling and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer boldly put a stop to employees working remotely. Needless to say, people are a little upset.

I'm definitely in the let them work at home camp. Here is a pretty good infographic on the state of things.

Twitter is set to grow it's income

Twitter is making some good progress. Much of this is coming from the mobile ad world.

Connected devices in 2014

Interesting take on where the mobile world is heading. Seems pretty clear.

Best of Tom Peters Cool Friends -- Sally Helgesen

Tom Peters has some very cool friends. He is also very kind to introduce us to them. I haven't read much from Sally Helgesen yet but she is going on my list. I am particularly intrigued by "The Web of Inclusion".

With three interviews to her credit, Sally Helgesen is not only one of our favorite Cool Friends, she's tied for first place in frequency of Cool Friends solo interviews (with the prolific Seth Godin!). She also has a section of Tom's Mother of All Presentations devoted to her work. Best known for her 1990 classic, The Female Advantage, Sally has a focus on women's work issues, but her insights are universal—perhaps essential for all who would succeed at work in the 21st Century.

Interview No.1, posted 2000. Book under discussion: The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations.

Interview No.2, posted 2002, and the book: Thriving in 24/7: Six Strategies for Taming the New World of Work.

Interview No.3, posted 2010, and the book featured (coauthored with Julie Johnson): The Female Vision: Women's Real Power at Work.

We'd suggest you read all three interviews and maybe pick up a couple of Sally's books, too!

via Best of the Cool FriendsSally Helgesen | tompeters!.

Samsung outsells Apple in 2012

Samsung capped an impressive year 2012 with record smartphone sales in the fourth quarter. The Korean company shipped 63.7 million smartphones during the holiday quarter, outselling its biggest rival Apple by more than 15 million units.

Samsung’s strong line-up of high-end and low-cost smartphones has helped the company to increase shipments by 76 percent over last year’s fourth quarter.

 

Apple sold 47.8 million smartphones, cementing its status as the second largest vendor. With an increase of 29 percent, the Cupertino-based company saw the lowest relative growth among the top 5 vendors though, a testament to the stronger competition from company’s such as Sony, Huawei and ZTE. The latter two, both Chinese manufacturers, entered the top 5 as the Chinese smartphone market continued to grow rapidly.

 

Overall, smartphone demand remains strong as overall shipments in the fourth quarter rose 36 percent to a total of 219 million units.

 

http://www.statista.com/topics/840/smartphones/chart/852/global-smartphone-shipments-in-q4-2012/

The power of mobile

It is hard to imagine a world without mobile computing. It’s funny to think back to when getting excited about technology was considered nerdy. These days, almost everyone is keen on the latest in devices particularly those of the mobile variety. Problem is, now that we’ve got the digital world in our pockets, we’d like to keep it there. This makes things a little sticky for reluctant business leaders, as the consumerization of the enterprise continues to hit them on all sides.



 

iPad eclipses iPhone launch

When Apple introduced the original iPad in January 2010, many analysts were sceptical whether the new device could replicate the iPhone’s success in establishing a new product category. Two and a half years and 100 million shipped iPads later, the answer has to be: yes!

Not only has the iPad redefined (or reignited) the tablet market, it even eclipsed the iPhone in terms of launch sales. In the first ten quarters after the iPad’s launch in April 2010, Apple shipped 98.16 million units of its popular tablet. During the same period after the iPhone’s launch in 2007, Apple shipped 33.75 million units of its popular smartphone. I.e. the iPad outsold the iPhone 3 to 1 in its first two and a half years on the market, making it one of the fastest consumer electronics launches ever. 

The recently launched iPad Mini could give iPad sales another boost, as the entry price to Apple’s tablet products dropped from $399 to $329.  This chart shows cumulative global unit shipments in the first 10 quarters after the launches of Apple's mobile gadgets: the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad.



http://www.statista.com/topics/847/apple/chart/753/apple-s-mobile-product-launches/

Related articles

• YouTube updates iOS app with iPad and iPhone 5 support, adds AirPlay, faster video loading, improved playlist management (9to5mac.com)


• Apple's iPad Grabs 98% Of Tablet Web Traffic (misco.co.uk)


• The New iPad vs. iPad 2 - What's Different & Should You Switch? (epicagear.com)


• iPad mini before Christmas has limitations (product-reviews.net)

Which mobile platform should you pick? Android, iOS, Windows 8 or HTML5?

The last month has introduced much new food for thought if you are trying to decide which mobile platform to build on first:

Thirty days ago, you were probably thinking to start with iOS, not just because of the launch of the iPad Mini but also the preponderance of Apps in iTunes

Then Microsoft launched Windows 8 (and the Surface), driving a full-court press to get developers to build apps for the Windows Store

A few days later, IDC came out with the latest numbers, showing Android was crushing everyone, with a 75% market share of new phones sold in Q3.

As a result, some declared that iOS was going the way of the Dodo–until last week, when iOS (especially the iPad) crushed the competition in online purposes purchases on Black Friday.

It has definitely been an eventful pre-Holiday Season in mobile.

With all these different metrics and shifts in leadership, which platform do you pick? The market share leader (Android)? The eCommerce leader (iOS)? The one most familiar to enterprise (Windows)? The one most open of all (HTML5)?

If you are Fortune-500 company with a big mobile budget the decision is easy: build on several. If you are smaller, you probably can only build one or two at most (or at least one to start on first). Which one do pick?

Question 1: What is the (Intended) Usage Pattern of Your Customers?

Question 2: If You ARE Building an App, What Are Your Customer Demographics?

Mobile Wallets are gaining traction

The potential of mobile payments is enormous: there are 1.3 billion active credit and debit accounts in the world, but more than 5 billion active mobile phone accounts.
In Africa and Asia, financial transactions via mobile phone are a widespread way to overcome deficits in banking infrastructure.

In the western world, the growing adoption of smartphones and the technological progress have given rise to the idea of mobile wallets.

This chart shows key facts about mobile wallets: adoption, benefits and opportunities.



http://www.statista.com/topics/982/mobile-payments/chart/739/key-facts-about-mobile-payments/

It is an iOS and Android developer world

The dominance of Android and iOS in the mobile landscape is evident. Despite all their efforts, RIM, Microsoft and others are currently only competing for third place. Not surprising at all when you think about it. I think the big question is whether RIM will survive at all. Unfortunately, it doesn't look it.

This chart shows that app developers are increasingly focused on developing for Android and iOS, while other platforms are gradually losing developer support. The problem for RIM and Co. is that they see themselves trapped in a vicious circle: users go where the best apps are and app developers go where the biggest user base (and ultimately the money) is. So for them to turn the tide and claw back market share from iOS and Android will be extremely difficult at best.

Related articles

• Apple's (AAPL) iOS Accounts For 65% Mobile Web Traffic (wallstreetpit.com)


• Why the Latest Version of Apple iOS Is More Important Than Google Android (fool.com)


• Android, iOS and Windows Phone all increased their U.S. smartphone market share (feldmanfile.blogspot.com)


• So long, RIM, and thanks for all the phones (slashgear.com)

Is your eCommerce mobile?

As we are approaching the most important days of this year’s holiday shopping season, many experts are predicting that mobile devices will play a bigger role than ever in the hunt for Christmas gifts.

Consumers are using their smart devices to research products, check prices and more and more often to actually make a purchase. According to comScore data, 1 in 10 e-commerce dollars spent in the third quarter was spent via smartphone, tablet or another mobile device.

With ever-growing adoption of smartphones and the huge popularity of tablets, it can be safely assumed that the percentage of mobile purchases will grow further in the future and retailers are well-advised to embrace their mobile audience.

This  chart shows quarterly retail e-commerce sales in the United States and the percentage of sales made through mobile devices.



http://www.statista.com/topics/871/online-shopping/chart/726/e-commerce-sales-in-the-united-states/

 

Related articles

• 'Mobile Thursday' Shopping via Smartphones and Tablets Will Nearly Double from Last Year (hispanicbusiness.com)


• Mobile Thursday? (adweek.com)


• Holiday Shopping Tidbits and Forecasts (fatwallet.com)


• Shopping Online Means Shopping Anywhere (hispanicbusiness.com)

Want to be more relevant? User experience is the key

It’s not every day you have Jesse James Garrett stop by to talk about the state of user experience (UX) and its role in the future of business. But, we were fortunate to have him visit the set of Revolution to talk about the importance of people and experiences and how UX deserves the attention of the c-suite.

The author of The Elements of User Experience and Co-Founder of Adaptive Path, Garrett has literally written the book on user experience. When we think of UX though, we often think of web, software and product product development. UX however, also represents the keys to relevance and innovation. In our discussion, Garret shares how research, psychology, behavior and design can open the doors to meaningful creativity for design and product experience strategies. But more importantly, he shares how executives across the organization can learn from the UX team to improve services, business models, and overall customer relationships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QoYzFyp3Ezk#!

Related articles

• Why should you choose User Experience Design over Fluff Advertising? (experiencedesignideas.wordpress.com)


• User Experience: Remember, when it comes to UX, the U comes first. (digitalsurgeons.com)


• Three Ways Search Can Improve Your Content Marketing Strategy (greatfinds.icrossing.com)

Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch to stay on the disruptive edge

There is no doubt technology is disrupting the traditional business models. Customers are in charge and they are plugged in. No one of these may be right for you but you should be spending time researching which are the right ones and leveraging them. You can either disrupt or be disrupted.

 



 

So here is a good list to start with via Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch - Brian Solis..

 

1. Social Networks from Facebook to Twitter to Google+ and how they’re connecting to influencers and businesses (note: pay attention to nicheworks as well such as Path and Instagram.)

2. Geolocation check-in services such as Foursquare and Facebook location updates to share locations and earn rewards or opportunities for discounts

3. Crowdsourced discounts and deals including Groupon and LivingSocial and what’s valued and why

4. Social commerce services like Shopkick and Armadealo and how they create personalized experiences that are worth sharing

5. Referral based solutions like Yelp, Service Magic (now HomeAdvisor), and Angie’s List to make informed decisions and how shared experiences can improve your business, products, and services

6. Gamification platforms such as Badgeville and Fangager, and why rewarding engagement improves commerce and loyalty

7. How your consumers using mobile devices today and what apps they’re installing. Also, how they’re comparing options, reviewing experiences and making decisions while mobile?

8. The online presence your business produces across a variety of platforms such as tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktops. You must realize how consumers are experiencing the online presences you create and whether or not they deliver a holistic and optimized experience for each platform.

9. The consumer clickpath based on the platform consumers are using. Are you steering experiences based on the expectations of your customers? And are you taking into consideration the device or network where the clickpath begins and ends? Are you integrating Facebook F-commerce and m-commerce into the journey?

10. The expectations of connected consumers, what they value in each channel and platform, where they engage and how your business can improve experiences and make them worthy of sharing.

 

Related articles

• Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch (sazbean.com)


• Top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of November 10, 2012 (sazbean.com)


• Small Business Strategies: Seven trends you can't ignore (myculturalconversations.wordpress.com)