Original post brought to you by our friends at Mutual Mobile
The wearable market continues to dominate tech news and consumer interest. This week, we dive deeper into the bewildering smartwatch market, and learn more about Google Glass. Plus: whose responsibility is mobile?
News and Insights
There’s Something About Smartwatches – New York Times. Everyone’s entering the market, but will consumers actually buy the device?
Why Google Glass Is Far More Important Than Any Smartwatch – ReadWrite, Smartwatches will reinforce existing mobile ecosystems, Glass will disrupt them.
What Will Google Glass Do to Our Brains? – Mashable. Health implications, shorter attention spans, and more.
Is Mobile the Responsibility of the CIO or CMO? – The Guardian Mobile has changed internal structures and responsibilities within organizations.
Google Emulates Apple in Restricting Apps for Glass – New York Times. Google recently released extensive guidelines for developers interested in Glass.
Why Today’s Tech Companies Are Still Going iOS First – TechCrunch, 52% of mobile users are Android, so why do apps still prefer iOS at launch?
Yahoo’s Future is Mobile, Wearable, & Gorgeous, Execs Say – VentureBeat, The company’s latest Mail and Weather apps have beautiful UI.
Why LinkedIn Dumped HTML5 & Went Native for its Mobile Apps – VentureBeat, LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Mobile Engineering weighs in.
‘Mobile Mind Shift’ Will Change Digital Marketing – MediaPost, “Customers demand mobile utility, will dump companies that don’t give it to them.”
Why ‘New’ Apple Products Won’t Happen Anytime Soon – Forbes, We’re not likely to see the rumored iTV and iWatch before 2014.
Research
Wearable Computing Market Estimates Are All Over The Place – Business Insider. The future for wearables is a confusing mix of skepticism and hype.
Who’s Winning, iOS or Android? All the Numbers, All in One Place -TIME. A close investigation of statistics comparing the two platforms.
Tablet Sales Will Climb to $64B This Year, ABI Says – CNET. “The tide is definitely turning toward Android-based tablets.”
More Than One Million Smart Watches will be Shipped in 2013 – ABI. The devices are moving beyond a mere smartphone accessory.
The Increasing Needs of the Mobile Shopper – MediaPost. 47% of shoppers say they would delete or stop using an app if it is hard to use.
49% of Consumers Desire Seamless Store, Digital, Mobile Experience – Luxury Daily. Consumers today want more out of the shopping experience, across all platforms.
Gartner Recommends a Hybrid Approach for Mobile Apps – Gartner. Hybrid apps will be used in more than 50 percent of mobile apps by 2016.
(Comment by Amcr: I don’t agree with Gartner on this one. Yes hybrid is handy, and yes it makes for a single code base to work with however like a digital recording versus an analog one, native is best. There is a gap in the functionality, flow and performence of hybrid apps. You often need to use all kinds of silly frameworks in order to have some of the cool elements that are present in a native application. The bottom line is this. If you dont have two piles of cash to spend on native apps (one pile for IOS and one pile for android) than a hybrid application is the choice. If on the other hand, you have the cash, and want performence then native is the way to go. The outside of your budget, the next major variable that will determine which route is best for your app is function. What does your app do? Is it a simple information consumption app? Lots of query’s, list views and general business logic sort of stuff? If so then yes hybrid might be a good choice. BUT!! If you are looking to push the boundaries of what a user interface can be or how data might be transformed, then native is place to be.)
re: Piles of Cash – I think the pile can get a bit deeper downstream by maintaining separate codebases. I mean, wouldn’t the cost of ownership tend to increase incrementally with each iteration? Especially if the app needs to scale-up-and-out? Hybrid apps would take that downstream cost away, right?
Of course, it all comes down to features – and if you want the best performance, you gotta go native. And since the Interface IS your app to the general user, then a full Native strategy needs to be on the table.