An interesting topic covered in some research findings from CEM4Mobile Solutions, which is better - should you develop platform-specific mobile applications or mobile optimized browsing sites? 

More specifically, should content publishers and distributors concentrate on mobile apps, mobile browsing or both when developing their services? Indeed a good question

The Study

The research was carried out in August by using a sample of over 56 million mobile impressions from Nordic mobile services where both applications and browsing based access were supported. The research analysed actual mobile traffic collected by CEM4Mobile Analytics between week 26 and week 30 of 2011. The results were as follows:

        Access Type   Sum of Impressions  Sum of Visits  Sum of Unique Users
 
        Applications      34,61%            18,34%             9,85%
        Browsing          65,39%            81,66%            90,15%

Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd

The numbers reveal that in average application users count only 9,85% of the unique users and they consume 34,61% of the impressions in a mobile service. So, why the hype? 

Let's have a look:

1. Once within a mobile service, the application users consume 2.4 times more impressions compared to mobile browsing users.

2. Browsing users return to mobile service on average five times in a month, whereas application users return more than eleven times.

3. Furthermore, average time spent in a service differs greatly between browsing and applications as well as between the different application platforms:

Minutes in a mobile service:

        Platform      Applications        Browsing
 
        Android       5min 28s            3min 23s
        Apple iOS     4min 52s             3min 3s
        Symbian       3min 40s            3min 27s

Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd

Native applications are being used for an instant increase in end-user activity and loyalty but as a downside means that organizations need to create customized versions of each app for number of mobile platforms. All this is very expensive and cumbersome to the content publishers and distributors to invest and maintain. However, it is currently tolerated due to the increased loyalty and experience. It remains to be seen will the widely supported HTML5 change the game already in 2012 and no doubt we will be coming back on this.

If we look the distribution of the usage based on different platforms we can find the following variation:

Distribution of impressions:

 
        Platform           Applications         Browsing
 
        Android              8,44%              18,98%
        Apple iOS           89,09%              16,50%
        Symbian(incl. QT)    2,47%              51,60%
        Others                  0%              12,94%

Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd

The figures in application space are obviously greatly impacted by the availability of customized app versions on different platforms and thus content publishers' and distributors' investment decisions. Interestingly enough these decisions don't seem to follow the current market shares but the projected gained impact on experience, interactions and engagement.

"In conclusion, do not miss the fact that most of the wireless device users are still using their mobile browser to access the mobile Internet. Native applications and app stores provide great platforms for niche players but when you want to attract the diverse mobile market and all your potential users you need to support both. First, by providing a browsing service for all users; then, turning your casual customers into active, loyal and advocate customers with applications and by other best practises." says CEM4Mobile Solution's Managing Director Janne Aalto who carried out the research.

"Competition of desktop space and users' time on wireless devices is already fierce and thus just steadily publishing new applications is producing a temporary source of loyalty for content publishers and distributors," continues Aalto.

Please refer to the http://www.cem4mobile.com/blog/

CEM4Mobile product family

CEM4Mobile (http://www.cem4mobile.com) is an innovative mobile analytics product with strong focus on Customer Experience Management. The offering has been particularly designed for companies providing mobile content and Value Added Services across all the industry verticals. CEM4Mobile Analytics enable service providers to measure and analyse interactions between end-users and mobile services, optimise their business and ensure successful customer relations. CEM4Mobile Ranking is a tool for measuring and standardising mobile audience measurement for benchmarking purposes. CEM4Mobile Metrics maintains extensive data warehouse enabling visibility and market insight for understanding the trends and dynamics of the mobile content market.

CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd (ex. QAim) is a Finnish world-class expert in Mobile Analytics and Customer Experience Management (CEM) for mobile content and value-added services. We provide mobile network and industry vertical independent CEM4Mobile solution and services for companies large and small, which develop, produce or distribute mobile services. CEM4Mobile offering enables companies to measure and analyse data on the interaction between end-users and mobile services, optimise their business and ensure successful customer relations.

Source: CEM4Mobile Solutions Ltd