digital magazines going mobile - white paper

8/9/2019 Digital Magazines going Mobile - White Paper

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Strategic guide for bringing

content to mobile devicesHow marketers can navigate the increasingly murky

waters of mobile platforms, devices and services

Read On.


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About this whitepaper

The results and advice in Strategic

guide for bringing content to mo-

bile devices are based on research con-

ducted prior to creating the product road-

map for mobile content delivery at Zmags.

The content is protected by copyright and

cannot be duplicated without permission

from Zmags Inc, 320 Congress Street, Bos-

ton MA 02210, USA.

The author or any other advisors distribut-

ing this guide can under no circumstances

be held responsible for any damage or

business impact from taking advice from

this whitepaper.

To contact the author directly, please email

Theis Sondergaard, Senior Product

Manager [email protected]

Published June 2010 all rights reserved.


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Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices

Contents

3

.

Read On.

Executive Summary 4

The New Shape of Online Content Delivery 5

Repurpose Your Content Rethink Your Concept 7

The Lay of the Land 8

Data Matters, Not Devices 10

Build it and They Will Come? 12

Complexity 13

Apps vs. Browsers 14

Tablets the Expansion of Mobile 17

The Future of Flash and HTML5 18

Flash is Everywhere - Except Mobile 18

Adobe is Moving On 19

What is HTML5? 20

HTML5 and Mobile Users 22

HTML5 is Not a Full-Fledged Alternative to Flash 22

Conclusion 23

References 24

About Zmags 24


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4


Executive Summary

Executive Summary

This whitepaper will give you an overview

of the rapidly changing mobile arena, and

provide insights and inspiration regarding

how to address the growing mobile mar-

ket.

Key points:

The mobile arena is messy and com-

plex, and its not getting better any time

soon. It will increase in complexity and

continue to change rapidly

Theres no magic solution it will

take effort to bring your content to a mo-

bile audience if you want the full effect ofreaching your audience on the move

Dont get bogged down in technol-

ogy focus first and foremost on your

content and your product offerings

Repurpose, re-think. Respect the size

of the screen, the nature of the device and

the mindset of your audience

Focus on iPhone and Android for

now create a Webkit optimized experi-

ence without using Flash

Make sure your normal website has

a workable mobile version without Flash

this is the entry point for most of your

mobile audience

Flash is not dead but on mobile

devices you need to ignore it for now

HTML5 is the future of the web

but not quite the present. Use it for video

playback on mobile devices

Cover the mobile browser first, then

consider apps if your need for advanced

interactivity is high

Zmags mobile solution we walk

the talk. Its browser-based and optimized

for Apple and Android devices

Happy reading!


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5


The New Shape of Online Content Delivery

Remember the good ol days of 2003? De-

livering online content was a simple choice

of optimizing for either Internet Explorer

5 or 6. Combined, these two versions of

Internet Explorer had a whopping market

share of 95%. If someone asked for Safari

compatibility, you would suppress a laugh

and give a polite answer. And all data-traf-

fic was going to desktop or laptop comput-

ers. Mobile devices were used for calling

other people while online content lived on

the computer.

Sure, the web standards were dictated

by Microsoft and the browser was slow

and buggy but the upside was that you

could reach pretty much everyone online

as long as you made sure your content

looked great on a 17-inch monitor con-

trolled by Windows, Internet Explorer and

Flash in an 800x600 resolution.

Then came the avalanche. The inevitable

backlash for Microsoft on the browser

market, the rise of Google, the resurrection


.

Read On.


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of Apple, the introduction of smartphones,

the iPhone revolution we could go on.

From a viewpoint of diversity, choice and

innovation, the past seven years have been

absolutely magnificent. From the view-

point of someone just wanting to get his

content online in the best possible way, its

been horrendous.

The really bad news? Its not going to get

any easier any time soon. It will get even

more complex. Well have lots of losers

in this race for innovation. And well have

several winners, not just one.

Mobile data traffic is projected to grow40x over the next five years, and you could

write a book on all the new devices that

have been released in the past year, and

those that will be released in the near fu-

ture. Consumers are going mobile, and ev-

ery hardware and software company in the

world is fighting for a piece of the action.

By December 2009, mobile data-traffic was

bigger than voice-traffic.




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First of all forget technology. If you are

serious about going mobile, the real key

to success is to take both your audience

and the medium seriously.

The mindset of a user on the move is dif-

ferent from the guys sitting in front of a

screen. Quick access to wanted informa-

tion takes the top spot over interactivity

and laid back entertainment. The nature of

the device a small screen, typically with

touch capabilities forms a natural frame

around what content is useful and how

you can present it.

Forget about taking your existing productmobile in replica. Figure out what part of

your product, service or message is useful

for the audience on the move and

hone in on it.

Repurpose Your Content Rethink Your Concept


Repurpose Your Content Rethink Your Concept

.

Read On.

For Zmags customers, its all about tak-

ing publications to mobile devices, be it

product catalogs, weekly flyers, brochures,

monthly magazines and so on. Its a start-

ing point to take the existing publication

as is online to mobile devices, and our mo-

bile product supports this but its only a

starting point. If you really want to reach

your audience, you must repurpose your

content for the situation. Its simple stuff,

like cleaning up the pages and increasingthe font size. But it means making difficult

choices regarding what content and what

services are even relevant to

the mobile user.


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Navigating the mobile world is about

knowing your devices, what operating

systems and browsers they use, and what

these combined elements provide in terms

of opportunities and limitations.

A number of operating systems for smart-

phones are currently fighting for market

share:

The Lay of the Land


The Lay of the Land

Source: NPD Group


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The Lay of the Land

The graph on the opposite page is for the

US market. Its important to understand

that theres a huge difference between the

US and world markets, especially Europe,

when looking at these market share num-

bers. Worldwide, the numbers look like

this:

Suddenly, when looking at the world and

not just the US, Symbian is the biggest

player out there, not Blackberry, Android

or iPhone.

.

Read On.

Source: Gartner


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If you look at the graphs on the previous

pages, its tempting to conclude that Sym-

bian and Blackberry devices should be the

main target when publishing content for

mobile devices, depending on whether or

not youre in the US. However, the picture

looks dramatically different if you look at

Data Matters, Not Devices



where the actual data traffic goes, and it

actually simplifies the geographical chal-

lenge for companies aiming at both US

and European markets.

Smartphone OS market share, based on

data-traffic:

Source: Admob (Now Google)


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Now it becomes clear that Android and

iPhone OS are the big players in US and

Europe. Combining these two puts you

close to 86% market-share in Western

Europe and 81% in the US. And, consider-

ing the growth of the Android OS market-

share shown in Figure 1, this choice makes

even more sense:

Projecting these numbers is always dan-

gerous. But from the current movements,

Android is on the rise, iPhone is stable and

the rest are fighting to get a solid grip in

the market. WebOS may perform an inter-

esting comeback after the HP acquisition,

and Windows Mobile 7 has high ambi-tions as well.



.

Read On.


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The complexity of navigating the mobile

market doesnt end at figuring out what

operating system to aim for. A number of

important factors drive what kind of ser-

vices and products you can bring to the

mobile market:

Screen size

Obviously, the screen size of any device

dictates how information can be presented

in the best way. Digital delivery needs to

take into account the entire array from

40-inch desktop displays to 3-inch smart-

phone screens. Until recently, a mobile

solution would go far if optimized for the

3-4 inch display, but with the introductionof the iPad and its competitors, the span

has increased from 3 to 10 inches.

Navigation

Touch- or button-navigation has a huge

impact on how digital content is and can

be consumed on smartphones.

Specific hardware capabilities

An example: location awareness. An iPad

3G can be location aware the iPad cant.

OS and OS version

If considering building apps, these will not

only need to be operating system specific,

but sometimes even OS version specific.


Complexity

Complexity

More on this in the chapter Apps vs.

Browsers.

Browser capabilities

Even though web standards are, by now,

mature, they are also still evolving. And

in order to benefit from phone-specific

capabilities, many browsers have special

capabilities that are outside the standards.

As an example, take into consideration the

Webkit framework used in Apple and An-

droid phones (and others). It has specific

methods for detecting the popular swipe

and pinch gestures along with screen rota-

tion. If taking advantage of these methods,

you will get a great experience on thosephones but need a fallback option for

other phones.

The complexity will increase in the years

to come. In the past years, the speed of

innovation has been overwhelming, and it

will continue unabashed. Since the ex-

pected lifetime of a smartphone is short,

the manufacturers are not afraid to launch

features that are unique to a particular

phone and thus unsupported by the rest

of the market.

.

Read On.


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Apps are extremely popular both with

consumers and content creators, but not

all app stores are created equal.

Apples App Store was the first to create

the category for smartphones. Interesting-

ly, it wasnt launched until a year after the

first iPhone hit the stores, but it quickly

proved how apps created a new platform

dimension for the up until then relatively

self-contained smartphones. It wasnt a

Apps vs. Browsers


Apps vs. Browsers

revolution that you could install applica-

tions on your phone smartphones had

been able to do that for years but the

quick and easy access to the market was an

instant hit.

Apples App Store now features more than

140,000 apps at number two, the An-

droid store only has approximately 30,000.

Blackberry and Nokia Ovi are around

5-6,000 each, while Palm and Windows fin-

ish last in the race. As for growth, its again

Apple and Android that take the prize.

When delivering content to a modern

smartphone, you basically have two op-tions: create an app or live in the browser

with a more traditional web-content offer.

Here are some key aspects to consider

when evaluating the two options:

Apps can do things browsers

cant!

Its important to stress that apps can do

wonderful things, and provided you have

the right product or content, they can be

a great investment. With apps, you can do

great things in terms of navigation as well

as look and feel.


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Apps vs. Browsers

App interaction is hard to get

right

A recent usability study by Jacob Nielsen

highlighted just how hard it is to make

intuitive navigation on the iPad. This isnot due to lack of ideas or options, but

simply because the touch devices are so

new to the general public that conventions

are non-existing. Users simply dont know

where they can click and what they are

supposed to do. Make sure your app inter-

face is simple and straight-forward dont

get lost in fancy ideas.

A browser-based solution has

a lower entry barrier than an app

The browser is preinstalled on the smart-

phone; your app is not. To get to the app,

several steps must be taken: go to the app

store, search for the app you want (you

need to know the name beforehand), click

it, enter password, wait for download, wait

for install and youre off. Now, this can

be a speedy process, depending on how

tech-savvy your customer is. But no mat-

ter how you look at it, clicking a link on a

website is a much simpler process.

Browser-based mobile view-

ers are a better match across

platforms

Unfortunately, developing apps is a plat-

form-specific game. They only work on

specific devices. Today, the map is relative-

ly easy to chart with iPhone OS, Android

OS, WebOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile

and RIM OS. But other operating systemsare on the way, with even more fragmenta-

tion to come.

To make matters worse, Android presents

a particular challenge. By now, its frag-

mented so heavily into versions, that mak-

ing an app compatible with all versions

requires a lot of work. As an example, the

official Twitter app for Android only works

on 1/3 of Android devices.

Browsers also come in different flavors.

But the protocols, formats and web stan-

dards provide a mature framework to

develop within.

.

Read On.


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Apps vs. Browsers

App stores are walled gardens

Apples unpredictable and dimly-lit poli-

cies on what content is allowed and what

is not allowed highlights a major problem

for app developers: you are not in control

of your distribution. You are subject to an

approval process which is, at best, slow

and strict, and at worst, unpredictable and

censoring. Not so in the browser.

Theres a general sense that if you can get

the user to download and install an app,

youve really engaged with him, and you

can maintain an ongoing relationship.

Dont bet on this to be true, no matter

what. Apps are plentiful, and you will still

be fighting for attention.

Make sure your normal web-

site has a workable mobile version

without Flash

Your website is the entry point for most

of your mobile audience make sure they

have a good experience

Links are important

It sounds almost archaic in this web 3.0

world to be talking about the importance

of hyperlinks. But none the less, this ba-

sic element of the web is still what ties it

all together. Sharing interesting content

among friends is key. Its an often over-

looked fact that mobile apps provide no

global system for sharing content outsidethemselves or for deep-linking. With apps,

youve left the sharing to those already in

the know who have the app installed.

Those who dont the ones that you are

most interested in reaching face the high

entry barrier discussed earlier, before they

can get in on the fun.


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Tablets the Expansion of Mobile

Tablets the Expansion of Mobile

With the rise of tablets and e-readers,

mobile is no longer equal to just smart-

phones. The iPad has opened up a new

flank in the fight for mobile users, and

a multitude of more or less comparable

devices have already arrived or have been

announced.

This widens the complexity even further,

with the possibility of operating systems

like Windows 7, Chrome OS and WebOS

to be considered as well when discussing

mobile strategies.

Tablets need to be considered separately,

mainly due to two aspects:

The device and user mindset is

radically different from the smart-

phone scenario

A tablet user can be a mobile user, but will

rarely be in the same mindset. It will often

be a laid back situation, casual browsing,

entertainment, and not the same focus on

quick accessible on-the-spot information.

Also, the device has a much larger screen,

begging for color, life and detail.

The operating systems likely to

dominate this market may be dif-

ferent from the Smartphone OSs

As long as the iPad is the go-to device on

this market, you will have it relatively easy.

They are both based on the iPhone OS,

albeit with minor modifications, and Applehas done a good job of iPhone/iPad com-

patibility. Apps can be ported, and browser

behavior is identical.

However, this is not a permanent situa-

tion. Its likely that well see an increas-

ing amount of tablet computers reaching

considerable market share, based on either

Windows 7, WebOS, Chrome OS and

others. When this happens, the world will

once again become even more complex.

.

Read On.


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The Future of Flash and HTML5

You cant read five articles about mobile

platforms without six of them being about

Flash and HTML5.

Its the million dollar question: is Flash dy-

ing? Is HTML5 taking over? And what is

HTML5 anyway?

Lets shed some light on the situation.

The Future of Flash and HTML5

Prior to the mobile data revolution led

by Apples iPhone since 2007 Flash was

a safe bet when creating cool, interactive,

rich content that would be accessible ev-

erywhere. Flash is still available on more

than 99% of computers and still a safe bet

when making non-mobile content.

Flash is Everywhere Except Mobile


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Flash is Everywhere - Except Mobile

However, for mobile content, three major

obstacles have appeared:

Apple is not supporting Flash on

neither iPhone nor iPad. While this was

originally seen as a potentially temporary

situation, its recently become abundantly

clear that Apple will NOT include support

for Flash on their mobile devices any time

soon. We are tempted to add EVER.

Until June 2010, no other smart-

phones were able to run Flash either, due

to the heavy resource consumption. With

the recent release of Android 2.2, code-

name Froyo, support for Flash has beenincluded. However, as the previous chapter

on Android fragmentation pointed out,

this doesnt mean that Flash content will

be playable by the majority of Android

devices out there any time soon.

Existing Flash content was de-

signed for keyboard and mouse input, not

touch-screen devices, and for much larger

screens than the smartphones offer. Thus,

the vast majority of flash content out there

will not work as intended on smartphones.

Adobe is Moving On

Adobe, the company behind Flash, is do-

ing what it can to increase support for

Flash on mobile devices, but its an uphill

battle and the inclusion in Android comes

very late. Adobe has been smart about

their product strategy, though: they are

not hinging everything on Flash, rather

they are publicly expressing their support

for HTML5 and have announced their

dedication to developing the best produc-

tion tools for this standard, just like they

today provide the best production tools for

Flash. This does not mean that Adobe is

leaving Flash dead in the water they will

continue to push for mobile inclusion, and

they are the first to point out that Flash isstill the most widely used content platform

for interactive, rich content for everything

non-mobile.

.

Read On.


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What is HTML5?

After all this talk about Flash, its time to

take a look at the supposed adversary,

HTML5. What is it, and how can it be use-

ful?

HTML5 is the upcoming and latest revi-

sion of the HTML standard. The HTML5

specification is currently only a draft in

progress, but the draft specifications have

been adopted by a number of browser ven-

dors. Technically, HTML5 is an extension

of HMTL4 with some modifications to

existing tags, but primarily with additions

of new functionality.

Todays browser support of the draft ispartial at best. The major browsers differ

in their (partial) implementation of the

draft. As an example, heres an overview

of how different browser versions support

the popular HTML5 tag, enabling

the browser to play back video without the

use of third party extensions:

What is HTML5?

You can use HTML5 specific tags on your

website today theyll just be ignored if ac-

cessed with a browser that doesnt support

them.

Source: Webmonkey


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What is HTML5?

As you can see, HTML5 support is current-

ly missing from Internet Explorer, which

has a market share of 60% on non-mobile

devices. Only the upcoming IE9 will have

partial support for the HTML5 standards

as currently drafted.

What gives HTML5 momentum and suc-

cess apart from the absence of Flash on

smartphones is the fact that the entire

browser community has rallied around the

standard as the future of the web. This

was clearly demonstrated at the recent

Google IO 2010 conference:

Looking ahead, theres no doubt that

HTML5 will mature into a final and docu-

mented standard, that all latest versions of

all browsers will support it, and that it will

be a cornerstone for online content.

HTML5 is the future of the web but

not the present. When looking broadly

at the market, its still way too early to

bet on HTML5 as the only way to go. A

huge number of users will not be able to

see your content, if you base it solely on

HTML5 you will need solid fallback

solutions. For mobile users, however, the

situation is dramatically different.

.

Read On.

Source: Google I/O 2010


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HTML5 and Mobile Users

As displayed above, HTML5 is not a mo-

bile standard, but because of the wide

use of Safari and Chrome-based brows-

ers (which both support HTML5 through

the Webkit framework) on the popular

smartphone devices based on iPhone OS

and Android, and because Flash (until very

recently) was unavailable on any smart-

phones, the Flash versus HTML5 debacle

has had a prominent position when dis-

cussing mobile strategies. Selected use of

HTML5 has grown immensely in actual

use on mobile devices. Simple video play-

back has been the killer application for

HTML5.

HTML5 and Mobile Users

Even if HTML5 was fully approved and

adopted by all browsers, its important to

stress that HTML5 wouldnt be capable

of doing all the things Flash is able to do

today. Consider HTML5 as a useful sup-

plement that raises the bar considerably

for what kind of advanced user interaction

you can do in a browser without the need

for third party plug-ins like Flash. But in

its current draft, it still has a way to go to

reach the bar set by Flash.

So, what does this all mean? It means that

as long as youre in the browser of a mo-

bile device, there are limitations to howfancy you can make your service.

HTML5 is Not a Full-Fledged Alter-native to Flash


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.

Read On.

23

Proftable Magazine Publishing - Conclusion

Summarizing the points made in this

whitepaper:

The mobile arena is messy and com-

plex, and its not getting better any time

soon. It will increase in complexity and

continue to change rapidly

Theres no magic solution it will

take effort to bring your content to a mo-

bile audience if you want the full effect of

reaching your audience on the move

Dont get bogged down in technol-

ogy focus first and foremost on your

content and your product offerings

Repurpose, re-think. Respect the size

of the screen, the nature of the device and

the mindset of your audience

Focus on iPhone and Android for

now create a Webkit optimized experi-

ence without using Flash

Make sure your normal website has

a workable mobile version without Flash

this is the entry point for most of your

mobile audience

Flash is not dead but on mobile

devices you need to ignore it for now

HTML5 is the future of the web

but not quite the present. Use it for video

playback on mobile devices

Cover the mobile browser first, then

consider apps if your need for advanced

interactivity is high

Conclusion


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Proftable Magazine Publishing - Acknowledgements

Sources:

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2010/04/fashion-2-0-why-

brands-should-focus-on-mobile-web-not-mobile-apps.html

http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/mobile-data-traffic-rise-40-fold/

http://www.juniperresearch.com/shop/products/whitepaper/pdf/

Mobilising,%20Socialising,%20Monetising!%20-%20S.pdf

http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/05/where-on-the-web-is-html5

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/ipad.html

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_

auletta

http://technologizer.com/2010/05/23/android-fragmentation/

http://www.examiner.com/x-38819-Dallas-Web-20-

Examiner~y2010m3d30-Mobile-data-traffic-to-rapidly-increase-

within-5-years-Will-cost-to-consumers-follow

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/05/29/the-age-of-the-mobile-

mash-up/

http://gizmodo.com/5199933/giz-explains-all-the-smartphone-

mobile-app-stores

http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2010/02/25/report-app-stores-

compared-store-growth/

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