Trademob in Europe just released very interesting numbers in an infographic about what it costs to reach a top position in an app store and how many organic downloads app marketing gets plus what the paid download costs are for different European countries and the US. 

Here are the most important findings and our own estimates for Australian app costs and downloads based on the Trademob data plus various multiples we applied:

• (1) The number of downloads in the first 72 hours are crucial, while the downloads of the last 24 hours count even more.
  
• (2) App marketing is therefore essential as it not only increases the paid downloads, but also the organic downloads.
  a) For one paid download gaming advertisers receive one additional free organic download in the first three days
  b) Non-gaming app advertisers receive 0.65 organic downloads for free per paid download

Graph via emarketer and MobiThinking

• (3) Costs for gaming apps per paid download per country (effective cost incl. organic):
  a) Germany: 0.45 EUR (0.2)
  b) USA: 1.1 EUR (0.55)
  c) France: 0.8 EUR (0.4)
  d) Italy: 0.55 EUR (0.3)
  e) Spain: 0.85 EUR (0.4)
  f) UK: 0.90 EUR (0.45)
  g) Australia: 0.81 AUD (0.45 AUD), estimate based on Insidemobileapps, plus multiple method using advertising spend and app rating data per country
• (4) Costs for non-gaming apps per paid download per country (effective cost incl. organic):
  a) Germany: 0.8 EUR (0.45)
  b) USA: 1.55 EUR (0.90)
  c) France: 1 EUR (0.6)
  d) Italy: 0.85 EUR (0.55)
  e) Spain: 1.1 EUR (0.6)
  f) UK: 1.1 EUR (0.65)
  g) Australia: 1.1 AUD (0.65 AUD), estimate based on Insidemobileapps, plus multiple method using advertising spend and app rating data per country
• (5) How many downloads did an app need for the Top10 app store charts in 2012 (increase from 2011)?
  a) USA: 80,000 (0%)
  b) UK: 26,000 (44%)
  c) Germany: 15,000 (25%)
  d) France: 13,000 (30%)
  e) Italy: 11,000 (38%)
  f) Spain: 7,000 (na)
  g) Australia: 4,000 - 8,000 (na) estimate based on Insidemobileapps, plus multiple method using advertising spend and app rating data per country

1. What are the elements of the mobile strategy of brandsExclusive?
The first stage is to provide the best mobile interface to our service on the devices they use today. The focus has been on iOS apps first as our audience is heavily skewed to iOS devices over other. We have also provided a html5 mobile website for other devices. This includes providing feature parity on our apps with our website so that customers need to never visit our website if they desire.  

The second stage of our strategy is to go above and beyond to provide interfaces and features that are not possible in a desktop browser environment, taking advantage of the unique benefits mobile devices provide.

It's our belief that mobile devices are the future for e-commerce, we estimated last year that by the end of 2013 most of our visits would be on mobile devices. 

2. Please share a few metrics about your mobile offerings with us e.g. how many mobile users do you have? How many app downloads?
In the last 30 days, 47% of visits have been using mobile devices, approximately 30% being on our dedicated iOS apps for iPhone and iPad. In terms of downloads we are in the top 10 in the lifestyle category on the app store, over 1200 app reviews with average score of 4.5/5.

One interesting aspect is that sales conversions are the highest on our apps, with far and away the most time spent. Customers are highly engaged and also making purchases. The notion that customers still prefer to checkout on desktop browsers and only browse on mobile is not true with us.

3. What is your advice for other online retailers that are considering to build an app or a mobile site?
The answer to app first or mobile website first is not the same for everyone. We have found that building native iOS apps are in fact easier than mobile websites where cross-browser issues are a burden. Not only are they easier if you have iOS resources available but provide a far better user experience.
For us going app first was an easier choice as our audience was heavily skewed to iOS 2 years ago and even now.

So from our point of view, should definitely do both if you are in the eCommerce space. Perhaps mobile website first if starting today, but a dedicated iPhone/iPad app following closely.


4. What are the mobile trends you see in the next few years?
Quite simply, majority audience being on smartphones, feature phones to quickly disappear for most, and using those devices to connect with more people and services than ever before.

Devices to provide more contextual experiences fuelled by being an extension of our senses, those senses to continue to expand, the experiences to get better. Wearable computing to become more mainstream.

5. What are some of the coolest apps you have on your iPhone?

• Letterpress gets plenty of my attention at the moment. Very engaging, but also an intuitive user interface
  
• Triage, makes cleaning your inbox so fast and easy.
  
• Circa News, clean and simple interface for reading news.
  
• Foxtel Go, for live sport.
  
• RunKeeper

1. 86 % of people use their phones while consuming other media. Source: Our Mobile Planet Understanding US Smartphone Consumers, 2012
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Consumers use their phones while working on the computer or watching television, which makes the multi-channel marketing analysis that much more challenging, but also insightful if mobile uplifts can be linked to certain campaigns e.g. through regression testing
2. 1 in 2 of DIY shoppers use online video, and 65% would be more likely to purchase from a brand or retailer that that provided video to help with DIY projects. Source: Google Consumer Survey on the DIY shopper, March 2013
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Video is the new search. More and more customers are finding youtube instructions in the top of google's search results and prefer to find help that way. Retailers should offer more advice around their products via Youtube videos rather than just text or FAQ areas.
   
3. 55 % of mobile search conversions happen within an hour, Source: Google/Nielsen Life 360 Mobile Search Moments. Q4 2012.
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: The mobile device seems to be used towards the end of a purchasing decision. The more important for retailers to be present in this important moment, wherever the consumer may be on his mobile device... search, app, email...
   
4. 40 % of time spent watching YouTube is on mobile and tablet devices. Source: YouTube Internal Data, YouTube Moves People to Choose Your Brand Infographic, April 2013
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Well, there must be a reason why Telstra and others are investing billions into 4G / LTE... video and images are the mega trend of this time.
   
5. 45 % of smartphone users are familiar with mobile search ads. Source: Understanding Mobile Ads Across Marketing Objectives, 2013
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: However retailers often miss out on this channel and forget to set up dedicated adword campaigns, etc...
   
6. 53 % of users in Germany with campaign contact on YouTube had not seen the same campaign on TV. Source: Generating Incremental Net Reach with Advertising on YouTube, Germany, 2011
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Most Youtube videos have pre-rolls these days and Youtube becomes a valid alternative for TVCs...
   
7. 79% of smartphone owners are smartphone shoppers and 84% use their phone to help shop while in a store, Source: Study May 2013
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Purchasing decisions on the go and in store will be big. Who hasn't compared prices while in a store e.g. bargaining with the Bing Lee sales person!? Be ready.
   
8. Mobile text search up 141% from 2011 to 2012 and video search up 167%. Source: Study April 2013
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Not a surprise, but we have seen nothing yet.
   
9. 67% feel that "heaving access to multiple devices makes it easier for me to shop", Source: Holiday Studies February 2013
   => Mobile-Future Conclusion: Wow, so consumers feel they need to shop around on their tablet, smartphone, PC... before finally making a decision... Multi-channel marketing attribution needed.
   
10. 22% of mobile searches happen after 8PM, Source: Mobile Study, Slide 8 March 2013
    => Mobile-Future Conclusion: This explains the direct correlation between prime-time TV campaigns and mobile search volume, which we found in many of our projects.
    
    
    

The download numbers of popular social media apps and messaging apps on Google's Android app store Google Play are breath-taking. While Instagram reached 1 million downloads in just 24 hours when it arrived on Android last April, now a predominantly Korean messaging service took over the home screen of 500,000 Android users within only 9 days and now already has 50-100m installs. Google shares rough download numbers for each app on its Google Play page and the classical Facebook app is currently listed with 100 million to 500 million downloads, while Facebook's Android launcher Home received 500k downloads within a week, but also a fair bit of criticism through the review function still only with 2.5 stars out of 5. 

Google and its mobile hardware partners seem to have found a winning formular and it is no wonder that Apple is now under pressure. 90 percent of Korean smartphones are already Androids.... pretty much the opposite to the still Apple-dominated Australian mobile landscape.

It is amazing to watch how the internet and mobile space get disrupted by open APIs, open IDs or single-sign on solutions like google+ Sign-On, Sign in with Twitter or Facebook-Login, which already allowed social games or instagram - to just name two examples  - and to grow at unprecedented rates. Most modern websites today have either a Facebook or Twitter sign-in.

In addition to the massively reduced technical entry barriers / switching costs and quicker reach of app users, the Android operating system also allows apps to play dominant roles around the whole usability of a phone and even take over the Home screen as the app launcher of Facebook demonstrates:

Looking into the future, the above means that we will see many more apps that grow at explosive rates e.g. like Instagram, leveraging a clever mix of existing authentication mechanisms, smartphone features,  viral sharing through existing social network APIs plus through running a website with unique content owned by the app developer. Will Facebook and Twitter facilitate the growth of their own competition in the future through opening up so much? How easy will it be in the future to replicate a Facebook or Twitter through simply better usability and more cleverness by tapping into the smartphones of customers and enriching existing Facebook or Twitter experiences plus by introducing value-adding or completely new features that will allow the app developer to then own the user completely? Luckily the big existing social networks incl. Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo+Tumblr!? or the Kakao's of the world, still have the instrument of simply acquiring fast-growing apps such as Instagram once they become too dangerous... Happy days for app developers...

If you have been familiar with the Google Analytics Profile concept e.g. you may have created a profile filter to exclude your internal company traffic from your GA reports... there is great news for you: Google Analytics now allows you to filter your profile view by some new exciting mobile and social filters. Here is a quick guide, how you can create a new profile with these filters (please note that it only collect data after the day you created it!!!

1. Go to your the "Account Administration section" of your admin account in Google Analytics
2. Click on an account to see the properties.
3. Click on a property.
4. Now you can create a "New Profile"
5. Give the profile a name and select whether it is for a Web Site or App
6. Once set up click on Filters, then "+ New Filter"
7. Now select the radio button for "Custom Filter"
8. Select "Include" and in the "Filter Field" e.g. "Wifi Support" with the "Filter Pattern" YES to only show data in this profile from mobile devices that support Wifi...

Here are all the new profile filters that you can use to reduce the amount of data in specific profiles down to very specific data for certain criteria of your visitors devices:

Mobile

• Is a mobile device
  
• Is a tablet
  
• Mobile brand name
  
• Mobile model name
  
• Mobile marketing name
  
• Mobile pointing method
  
• Mobile has QWERTY keyboard?
  
• Mobile is NFC supported?
  
• Mobile has cellular radio?
  
• Mobile has wifi?
  

Social 

• Social network
  
• Social action
  
• Social action target
  

Content & Traffic

• Hit type: (page, social, transaction, etc.)
  
• Internal search term
  
• Internal search type
  

Audience / Users

• Browser size
  
• IP version
  

E-commerce

• Local currency code
  

I set up my companies on google apps for businesses, since the solution has tremendous advantages in collaborating online and in using Gmail's comprehensive suit of tools. With only $50 AUD per year per user it is relatively cheap as well. One advantage is the compatibility with iPhones and it allows me to set up IMAP Exchange accounts for my company emails on my iPhone synching not only my emails, but also my contacts, notes and calendar entries. I recently had to delete an email account on my iPhone though and had to find out the hard way that suddenly many of my contacts were gone as well. My iPhone didn't even know the mobile phone number of my wife any more...

I did a bit of investigating and found out how to recover, export and install these lost contacts again. Here is how it works.

1. You need access to your old gmail account with all the contacts that you would like to keep. Open Gmail / google apps for business and click on "Contacts" in the main menu.
2. Click on "More" and then "Export". You can now select all your contacts as vcard export.
3. Unzip the file and you will find different vcards. I found the one called My_Contacts the important one with all my telephone numbers. All_contacts would have every email in it that you ever contacted and the other files are from your google plus account, so I did not import these.
4. Next I opened up my current gmail / google apps account and basically did the same steps above, except now I clicked "Import" in the drop down under "More". Since I have this email also set up as an IMAP exchange account on my iPhone all my lost contacts popped up again. 
5. The importing function has a cool feature by the way to remove duplicates. You will see the import job on the left hand side. Simply click on your import, go to "More" and then select "Find&Merge Duplicates"

Hope this was helpful and you read this blog article while you still had access to your old company email account. ;-)

I had the honour to ask Anders Soermann-Nilsson a few questions about the future of mobile. 
Anders (LLB MBA) is the founder of Thinque - a strategy think tank that helps executives and leaders convert disruptive questions into proactive, future strategies. As an Australian-Swedish futurist and innovation strategist he has helped executives and leaders on various continents map, prepare for, and strategise for foreseeable and unpredictable futures.

 1. What mobile phone do you have and what do you love about it?
iPhone 5 - enjoy the screen, platform integration with my Apple family suite. I like how it speaks the same language as a lot of my apps and health / fitness monitoring devices, which makes the experience seamless. Most importantly it works with my main productivity tools like Hubspot, Salesforce, Gmail, Google Apps, and my travelling apps.
 
2. What are the last five apps you downloaded onto your phone or tablet?
Withings Health App, Zeo Sleep Monitor, Quick Scan, Moves, Pinterest
 
3. What were some of the most amazing mobile solutions that you bumped into during your travels around the world and that made your life easier?

• Delta Flight App - helpful in an otherwise highly analogue, and poor American flight experience, at least it makes check-ins and monitoring easy
  
• FlightTrackPro - great ability to scan my inbox for flights together with TripIt and monitoring my global movements, and alerting me and clients to changes/delays etc 
  
• TripIt - love TripIt for its monitoring, measuring and integration with the major airline partners that bring me from point A to B,C,D, and E
  
• Zeo - my new tool in the battle against jet lag, Zeo monitors my sleep, and coaches me on how to sleep better around the globe
  

4. What mobile trends will hit Australia in the next 3-5 years?

• We will see the death of QR codes, and augmented reality will converge the digital landscape around us with the analogue landscape around us. 
  
• On the go tailored solutions and marketing will hit us like John Anderton's famous walk through the shopping centre in the Minority Report. This will be the death of demographics and the true birth of psychographics. 
  
• Omnichannel integration of the digital and the analogue will become a mainplay. 
  
• Also, analogue escapism, and a reconnection to physicality and serenity beyond digital connection and mobile devices will become a mainstream trend for people to relax. 
  

 
5. What will mobile phone users do differently once they sign up to high-speed internet access (4G/LTE)?
Video and visuals will keep going from strength to strength. Geo-location marketing, augmented reality and history tours in cities will become possible, and geo-specific So Lo Mo marketing can become a true (augmented reality) now that the infrastructure has started keeping up with the consumer behaviour and the tech concepts. 

When I read the book "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries on my Amazon Kindle a few months ago, I was so fascinated by the content that I actually maxed out the marks and notes feature. Yip, I reached the limit. Today I was sitting in the living room preparing a keynote speech for next week and my wife had the kindle in the bed room reading "50 shades of grey"... I know... What can I do about it? Anyways, I thought I log into my Amazon account to see if my notes were stored online as well and of course they were. What really blew me away was the cloud reader for the Kindle which not only allowed me to easily browse through my notes, but also to jump back into the book whenever I needed. Here is where you can find the feature:

1. Log in to Amazon
2. However over "Your Account" and click "Manage Your Kindle"
3. Click on books in Your Kindle Library
4. Click "Actions" button on the right and "Read Now"

Google is really starting to innovate. I already got excited by the driverless google cars and now google goggles excites me as well. Could be a game changer. Read more on and check out the

Google Glass Video Shows How It Works: http://mashable.com/2013/04/30/google-glass-instructions/