Analytics on Mobile

In some recent mobile marketing meetings the topic of iPads has come up – probably not too surprising given the media industries current unnatural obsession with all things Apple – it is the saviour of publishing after all. But given my recent meetings have been mobile marketing focused, the lead question has always been whether the iPad is a mobile device – after all, it is somewhat bigger than a phone and you can’t make calls on it.

The argument for the case states that the iPad uses the iPhone operating system and has an app store crammed full of familiar iPhone apps. The device is designed to be carried about, is great for browsing the web on, and the latest version even has 3G mobile broadband capabilities. From a marketers perspective it is simple to include iPad users alongside iPhone and iPod Touch users – those pages and apps your banner ads appear in will be seen by iPad users as much as iPhone users.

The argument against the case points out that the iPad is hardly an always-on personal device – not unless you have very big pockets. It is likely to be used in a very different way from accepted mobile devices, in ways more similar to netbooks or laptops. The iPad is not a communications device, so all those ads that point at click-to-call pages simply won’t work – not even with the latest 3G version.

So whether the iPad is mobile ultimately it depends on your definition of mobile…

On one hand mobile is about personal access to communication and information, a convenient device that is always with you and always on. In this sense the iPad is portable but not mobile – you won’t see everyone carrying one around the streets.

On the other hand mobile can refer to any portable, connected device that gives you access to information and services. This much wider definition would naturally include the iPad. But it should arguably also include other connected devices such as netbooks, ebook readers like the Amazon Kindle and handheld gaming consoles like the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Portable. In fact pretty much every device built these days is connected, with built in Wi-Fi or mobile broadband. We are living in a very complex world of diverse devices with complex connections, which is much easier to write than say.

So is it mobile? The answer has to be a yes. Soon everyone will have at least one mobile device of some form. For most of us this will be phone sized but there will always be a section of the market that will have something bigger hidden in their bag (or big pocket).
The key thing to ask here is not whether something is mobile but how big is its marketing impact – what is the size, reach and viability of the device? From a marketing perspective it simply comes down to ROI again – will the time and cost involved in doing something specific for an iPad (or any other device) reach my audience and give me the return I am looking for?

To help put things in context here are some relative sizes… To start, Nintendo have shipped well in excess of 100 million Wi-Fi enabled DS’s worldwide. It’s huge, but a market that is hard to reach and tends to be a younger audience. Meanwhile DisplaySearch reports that over 5 million e-readers were sold in 2009, of which over 3 million were Amazon Kindles. StrategyAnalytics says that over 30 million netbooks were shipped worldwide in 2009. In comparison, Apple has just passed the 1 million iPads sold mark – a much smaller number, but not bad for just one month of US sales.

How these devices affect your business and the opportunity they present depends on the products you produce and the audience they are designed for. So before rushing out to dominate the new iPad opportunity it is important to understand your market and measure your traffic – see what your target audience is using and how many are starting to use iPads, Kindles, iPhones, BlackBerry, Netbooks or other devices. You can only get this valuable information by installing a decent mobile analytics solution like Bango Analytics on your website. It’s easy to set up and will tell you what mobile devices your customers are using and where the main growth areas are. You can then make an informed decision on where to focus your effort and budget with confidence.

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