Prediction #5: In 2012, there will be innovations and developments in the mobile ecosystem that will surprise us. One of the mobile ecosystem’s greatest assets is that industry leaders continue to push ahead with forward-thinking projects and initiatives that drive innovation. Competition in the mobile space has never been more intense, which helps to drive innovation at an even faster pace. That means that there will undoubtedly be advances in mobile technology and services that surprise even the most seasoned mobile...

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Prediction #4: Investments in mobile will pay dividends in 2012. Across all verticals, July Systems clients are making investments in people and solutions to align their multichannel strategy with consumer behavior, which is characterized by ever-increasing adoption of mobile devices. Usage of mobile websites and apps continues to increase. Mobile is not part-time – it is always-on, and it is becoming central to any engagement strategy that includes a digital component. A stable, profitable and scalable mobile enterprise is the emerging expectation for companies of all shapes and...

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Prediction #3: Smartphones and tablets based on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems will dominate market share in 2012 as consumer adoption of mobile devices...

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Prediction #2: HTML5 will establish itself as the universal cross-platform web development...

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It’s that time of year again: the time to take stock, look back at the year that has passed and look ahead to the New Year and all of the promise that it holds. What does 2012 have in store for the mobile world? No one knows for sure, but in this series of posts, the experts at July Systems identify the top mobile trends and make predictions about what will take place in the ecosystem surrounding tablets and smartphones over the course of the year to come – and...

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A large US Cable television news giant licensed July Systems’ Mi Platform Studio tool to rollout a new mobile program. Specifically, the company wanted to create dedicated mobile experiences in response to pivotal events as they unfold. The goal was to launch mobile microsites in as close to real-time as possible using one of the best mobile...

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The app Internet – the growing universe of mobile applications – is dramatically changing the face of the Web and is forcing today’s leading technology vendors to adapt to a new business environment, according to Forrester Research. Apps are also affecting every job function in business technology organizations.

Forrester estimates that the app Internet market was $2.2 billion in 2010 and projects a compound annual growth rate of 85 percent through...

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Two of the biggest game-changers for the rest of this year and beyond are the continued rise of media tablets and 4G LTE wireless network infrastructure, according to ABI Research, a market intelligence company specializing in global connectivity and emerging technology.

Those trends offer tremendous opportunities for brands, retailers, media companies and other content providers.

The firm predicts that mobile broadband revenues from the enterprise segment for cellular connectivity of laptops, netbooks, and media tablets will reach $36 billion worldwide. As it stands now, enterprise penetration of tablets is low. However, among those three product types, tablets are by far the fastest growing among both enterprise users and...

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It is no secret that there are technical challenges with creating and delivering ads and content on tablets.

Different tablets are usually not compatible—even two Android-based tablets may have different screen sizes and user interfaces. As with ads and content for mobile phones, where you have to adapt the applications for each handset and device, advertisers and publishers should optimize their content for each particular tablet to deliver the best end-user experience.

Now that there are more tablets and smartphones coming into the market, the number of adaptations for different devices that content providers need to do is increasing. No longer can they focus solely on Apple’s iPad. In addition to Android-based competitors such as the Motorola Xoom, there are other...

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When formulating their mobile strategy, some companies are still debating the merits of a mobile-optimized Web site compared to applications. A strong argument can be made for each side, which is why the one-or-the-other decision-making process is outdated. To achieve their full range of objectives and stay ahead of the competition, most brands and publishers will need to have a presence on the mobile Web and also launch native apps for the mobile devices their target audiences uses the most.

Mobile content providers and advertisers share the goal of engaging and connecting with their target consumers on the devices they use more than any other. The mobile Web and native apps both enable companies to make data-driven platforms, content and services available...

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Increasing consumer adoption of smartphones has lead to expanding usage of the mobile Web and apps, as well as a boom in mobile search, mobile advertising and mobile commerce. However, many brands, retailers and publishers are missing out on the many opportunities that the mobile revolution has opened up.

A recent study commissioned by Google and conducted by Ipsos OTX found that 82% of smartphone users notice mobile ads, 74% of smartphone shoppers by something as a result of using their smartphones during the shopping process and 88% of those who look for local information on their smartphones take action within one day.

Mobile search and mobile advertising drive traffic to mobile Web sites, where...

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Global mobile traffic is projected to grow at an astonishing 26X over the next five year.

As smartphone adoption increases exponentially, mobile usage is experiencing rapid growth, especially the use of the mobile Web and applications.

Everything mobile—including the adoption rates of smartphones, apps and mobile advertising—is growing much faster than the desktop Internet ever has. ...

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HTML5 is emerging as the next standard for the mobile Web and mobile advertising. But what does it mean for the end users of mobile devices? In short, a better experience across the board.

What is HTML5? It is a new language for the creation of Web content. It is an open standard, which Flash is not. It includes detailed processing models to encourage more interoperable implementations. Its features are designed to make it easy to include and handle multimedia and graphical content on the Web without having to resort to proprietary plug-ins and...

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If you look at the objectives of a brand advertiser or a retailer, they want to reach out to all of their users—they want to engage with everyone and create a meaningful, compelling experience for users across all devices.

HTML5 has such a huge advantage in that it is the one language can extend to all smartphone browsers that can support it, including every new device based on Google’s Android operating system and Apple’s...

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Apple flexed its marketing muscles and showed off its design skills to reinvent a category that had never really taken off previously. It sold more than 17 million iPads in a year’s time, and now Apple Stores cannot keep the iPad 2 in stock.

The new iPad will continue to solidify Apple’s stranglehold on the tablet market, per Forrester Research.

The iPad 2 will claim 80 percent of the U.S. tablet market this year, according to Forrester’s...

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Tablets have been hyped as the ultimate media consumption device, with all of the allure of a smartphone's portability and touchscreen interface in a larger, more engaging form factor. And indeed, robust sales of the iPad and the growing list of competing devices indicate that tablets are in fact living up to the hype among early-adopters.

However, many marketers are confused about how they must think about tablets differently than they do about smartphones, netbooks and laptops. Here are the top five things that advertisers should know about...

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While feature phones still make up a significant chunk of the handsets in use worldwide, adoption of smartphones − that is, advanced mobile phones that can surf the Web and download apps − continues to grow at an explosive rate.

Research firm IDC forecasts that the smartphone market is expected to grow close to 50 percent worldwide this year as consumers and enterprise users alike upgrade to smartphones.

This year alone, smartphone manufacturers will distribute 450 million smartphones, versus 303.4 million units shipped in 2010, per...

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The debate over whether brands should focus on the mobile Web or applications has been raging for some time, but in reality, it is not an either/or proposition—with smartphone adoption booming, brands need both.

All businesses that have the resources should develop a both a robust mobile Web site and native applications for all of the major operating systems, because each has its advantages.

Here, I will discuss the benefits of having a mobile-optimized Web site—and the danger of not having...

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Native applications are red-hot: hundreds of thousands of apps have been downloaded across a wide range of mobile devices, and have captured consumers’ imagination. A particular smartphone must have a robust application ecosystem behind it to be a success. In a word, apps are sexy.

Mobile Web sites are accessible across multiple mobile platforms, and they are accessible via mobile search engines, so they should be an important part of a brand’s strategy.

However, native apps are also a must, as they can create a level of engagement with mobile consumers that is...

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