The FT launched a new version of its iPad offering, a move that reinforced the publication’s contrarian web-only mobile strategy, and an FT executive predicts that the problem of collecting mobile payments outside of app stores will soon be solved. Read more at paidContent »
A long-running debate over apps has taken a new turn with the rise of the mobile web and the proliferation of tablets. At paidContent Live on April 17, leading publishers will share their thoughts on whether the industry should embrace or abandon them. Read more at paidContent »
Google’s SPDY (pronounced “speedy”) experiment to deliver web pages faster may be coming to Chrome for Android based on experimental code found this weekend. Read more »
Delivering and managing the web experience isn’t just about mobile. Companies are also faced with new challenges in the desktop environment, including browser fragmentation, network evolution, and client-side technologies. They must invest in both the desktop environment as well as to create an optimized experience for mobile. Read more »
The “mobile first” philosophy is under way today. That means a new generation of mobile-centric data centers will arise over the next three years, with chips, servers, and power architectures customized for mobile workloads. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile technology is an invaluable tool for modern businesses and even political campaigns: at least, when it works. As Mitt Romney’s campaign found out the hard way this week, the mobile web is an afterthought to many and beta testing is a good thing. Read more »
Making money off mobile advertising isn’t an easy job, but Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff said Friday at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference that being a real estate company gave them a leg up on this challenge, since most users can actually benefit from the ads they see. Read more »
Mark Zuckeberg declared Tuesday that Facebook’s biggest mistake was focusing too intensively on HTML5 over native apps, but developers said Thursday that the technology isn’t even close to being over at the company, and allows them to scale and reach an increasingly large user base. Read more »
To help advertisers figure out when consumers actually intend to purchase a product and when they’re just making a wish list of fantasy items, mobile ad network Jumptap’s new ad targeting approach links mobile behavior, web behavior and offline data. Read more »
As unlimited data plans disappear, consumers need new data-savings solutions. Snappli is the latest to out a mobile service that cuts down on data use through compression techniques; the free software, available today, works on iOS and saves data for the web, apps and even videos. Read more »
Telenav’s Scout for apps is now available for Android and Windows Phone developers as well as anyone building a website. The HTML5-based platform allows anyone to embed turn-by-turn navigation into any app without turning their customers over to Google or Apples’ mapping software. Read more »
Armed with a new chief technology officer, and other new execs, One Kings Lane hopes to emerge as a leader of the mobile web. The company expects to double revenue to $200 million this year and says 25 percent of revenue comes from mobile. Read more »
A new survey explains that the no. 1 frustration on tablets and smartphones is the slow loading of web pages. That shouldn’t surprise, but the preferred activities for a smartphone and a tablet just might, suggesting that we’re not ready to dump the phone just yet. Read more »
With the Nexus 7 receiving good reviews, people are starting to enjoy the portability and immersive experience that small tablets offer over smartphones. Looking at the mobile trends, I can see how the tablet will replace the smartphone. And it may happen sooner than you think. Read more »
Twitter announced in a blog post today that it overhauled the mobile version of the site, simplifying the screen and making it easier for tweets to load, among other changes. Read more »
A report earlier this week that found ownership of Android and Apple tablets had pulled even in the U.S., but other data shows those devices’ web use isn’t close at all. That will matter a lot to people trying to target mobile ads on these devices. Read more »
Pizzerias love the mobile Web. Why? There’s a feature embedded in many of their sites called click-to-call that allows a hungry mobile surfer to initiate a phone order directly from the Webpage. An astonishing 35 percent of site visits result in a click-to-call order. Read more »
Apparently The Boston Globe didn’t get the memo that it’s an app-only world when it comes to mobile. The Globe says at paidContent 2012 its website is doing very well in mobile — more than 30 percent of visitors come through a phone or tablet browser. Read more at paidContent »
New data from comScore indicates apps are driving traffic on the mobile Web far more than browsers. Despite claims that the mobile Web is dead, though, HTML5 is finally beginning to breathe life into Web-based mobile ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Smartphone sales surged both in the U.S. and worldwide, carriers struggled to cope with the ever-increasing consumption of mobile data, and the fight for spectrum remained front and center in the first quarter. Our latest quarterly wrap-up analyzes these trends and more. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Uber has launched a new mobile website that at m.uber.com, aimed at allowing Blackberry and Windows Phone owners to use the service. That will help expand its potential user base, especially as it expands to more than 15 new cities worldwide this year. Read more »
Facebook’s social-media prowess has allowed it to move into a stored Silicon Valley office building as it awaits the riches that will accompany a huge IPO around the corner. But Facebook wants more: it wants to be seen as a leader among mobile software developers. Read more »
Yahoo has open sourced Mojito, a JavaScript-based developer framework that will allow developers to leverage both client- and server-side technologies to get the best performance out of any device. The framework is now available on GitHub for anyone to play around with. Read more »
The Pew Research Center this week said mobile devices are increasingly driving traffic for traditional news outlets, but digital revenues aren’t enough to offset falling print revenues. So instead of investing heavily in mobile applications, some outlets should focus on building great mobile ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook may have figured out a way to get advertising in front of mobile users of its products, but that doesn’t mean it has a mobile advertising strategy. Instead, Facebook is taking a product designed for the desktop and hoping it won’t freak out mobile users. Read more »
Mobile deals combine location-aware discounts with mobile marketing campaigns. What are the largest pitfalls in this promising space, though? Privacy and security issues must be addressed to assure consumers their purchases are secure and their location is being closely guarded. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobify’s CEO Igor Faletski, whose company helps sites optimize for mobile, said almost all of Mobify’s work thus far has been to optimize for smartphones. But he said this year many sites are preparing to build specifically for tablets, taking advantage of their unique capabilities. Read more »
Toronto-based Polar Mobile, which provides a digital media distribution platform powering the apps of some of the biggest media companies in the world, including Conde Nast, Sports Illustrated and The Wall Street Journal, announced a new $6 million funding round on Monday. Read more »
Wikipedia’s website may have been dark yesterday in protest of SOPA, but now there is a new official Wikipedia app for Android 2.2 and up devices. You could use the mobile web for Wikipedia, but four key features make this app worth the download. Read more »
The world is increasingly going mobile: mobile apps, to be more exact. New data out of app analytics firm Flurry finds mobile users are spending more time in mobile apps than mobile web browsing, widening a gap that began for the first time last summer. Read more »
IAC-owned video site Vimeo is going mobile in a big way, with the release of apps for Android, the Kindle Fire and Windows Phone marketplaces. Those new apps are designed to let users upload, share and view videos on their mobile devices. Read more »
Increasingly, websites and services are getting a bigger chunk of their traffic through mobile with some pushing past the 50 percent mark. That’s setting up a world in which developers and publishers have to think mobile first as consumption shifts to smaller devices. Read more »
f people are buying through online retail sites on mobile, they’re most likely doing so on Apple devices, according to a new report. iPads and iPhones accounted for over 92 percent of online retail not originating from a desktop device in December, according to the study. Read more »
Group messaging startup Kik sees a new opportunity in not just connecting users through its own app, but in becoming a content-sharing layer between other apps. Kik is launching a new open API to help app users transmit content directly from one app to another. Read more »
The average web page has grown from 726 KB a year ago to 965 KB now, according to the HTTP Archive. That growth could eventually help put a squeeze on mobile consumers who have to deal with increasing broadband caps. Read more »
Opera released updated versions of its Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers for Google Android devices on Tuesday. The new software includes a mobile broadband meter showing how much data has been used for browsing. Will device owners give up browsing preferences for less data usage? Read more »
Facebook launched its native app for Apple’s iPad on Monday, but the bigger story is wider support for web technologies as Facebook tries to be everywhere on every device. The company shared news with developers explaining how social app discovery using HTML5 can reap greater engagement. Read more »
Apple’s iOS once again dominated the mobile OS market share picture in September, according to new data from Net Applications. The enterprise application maker and web monitoring company found that iOS accounted for 54.65 percent of mobile market share, up from 53 percent in August. Read more »
Microsoft’s newest Windows Phone browser, coming soon via the Mango software update, shows improvements, but tabs aren’t part of the redesign. The small screen of a smartphone limits what controls can be in the browser, but we’ve seen some clever ways to make it work. Read more »
The ouster of CEO Carol Bartz last week punctuated a disappointing couple of years for Yahoo, and nowhere is that disappointment more glaring than in mobile. Yahoo’s presence has waned as the iPhone and Android have fueled a surge in mobile data consumption. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s traffic on ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
