Smartphones Explained: The Publisher Perspective – Eswar Priyadarshan, CTO

Eswar Priyadarshan, CTO

In last week’s post, I began to define and categorize the world of Smartphones. I promised to follow-up with posts viewing the Smartphone opportunity from both the publisher and advertiser perspective. This week I’ll focus on the publisher.

The Super Smartphones shipping from Apple, Google and Palm include a full-feature HTML browser that handles all the complexities of modern web pages. The next-level of Smartphones, particularly Blackberries from RIM and Windows Mobile phones feature “almost” full-feature HTML browsers – with all indications pointing to full HTML browsers arriving on all Smartphone devices if not next year, then certainly in the next 24 months. So what’s a publisher to do in planning for the Smartphone?

Why do I have to do anything, it’s a full HTML browser?

Let’s begin with the extreme position for you the publisher – let’s propose that that you do nothing. That is, leave your website that was built for the “PC web” untouched, since the browser on the Smartphone will be able to display all of it, albeit on a much smaller screen. Doing no “server-side” website work is clearly financially optimal, but if you believe in providing a quality user experience, it’s surely worth providing a site designed with the mobile user experience in mind. So what’s so different about the mobile user experience on a Smartphone?

Continuing with the extreme approach, let’s argue that network speeds will be equal between PC and mobile in a few years, that a 480-pixel+ screen size plus zoom/touch is pretty good for navigation, that all Smartphones will have a full keyboard. Eliminate the physical/hardware differences between the PC and the Smartphone, what’s the difference now in mobile user experience?

We have some interesting data to offer on the behavior of mobile users and how they consume mobile web or application content. Mobile users consume as much content during the day as their PC counterpart (or their PC alter-ego), but they consume it in much smaller chunks many more times during the day. It’s as if you had two kids, one of whom loved the old-fashioned breakfast-lunch-dinner sit-down meals and another who could never be pinned down and liked to snack on small portions all day. After a few years of trying to get your beloved grazer to eat like a normal person, you would conclude that you should just roll with it and package their meals differently – traditional portions and schedule for Mr. Sit-Down and healthy snack-packs for Ms. Grazer.

That’s the essence of thinking different about the mobile user experience. As a recent article from Little Springs Design said, Mobilize, Don't Miniaturize. Mobile users, even on the latest Super Smartphone, operate all day in a very different usage pattern and context from PC users, so thinking about the content they’re likely to consume during their frequent snacks and customizing the user experience such they can efficiently interact with the content means they are more likely to come back for more.

Therefore, I strongly believe that the right publisher strategy for Smartphones is to plan on adapting your content to the device and user experience.  Your key design points need to center around screen size (i.e. how much information can the user gain in one screenful), navigation (i.e. how does the user get to the right/latest information as quickly as possible) and media (i.e. video and Flash objects need to be presented upon careful consideration of whether the specific device or network supports them efficiently, or supports them at all.)

OK, I get that I have to adapt my content for the mobile user and context, so do I build a Smartphone-adapted mobile site or should I build an app?

Smartphones of all stripes are shipping or will soon be shipping with some sort of worldwide app store solution for free, paid and “freemium” apps. Therefore, apps are a perfectly viable proposition as a mechanism for content distribution and monetization for publishers. So let’s briefly compare and contrast apps and the mobile web on behalf of the everyday ad-monetized publisher.

• Does your content need to be accessible even when the user is offline? Mobile web content requires a network connection – at least until Google Gears is ubiquitous on mobile devices. Network connections are not guaranteed on mobile devices like the iPod Touch or on an airplane. If you believe that supporting offline-mode browsing is a key feature for your user base, makes great sense to look into an app strategy. Apps have the ability to go to the network and fetch content when connected and store it locally and work with the local copy when disconnected. 

Do  Do you want your content to be available to all Smartphone users? Writing to one app store “SDK” (e.g. Apple) does not mean your app will work on any other app store (e.g. Blackberry). If reach is your major criterion, then the mobile web is a strong winner. You can design your site for a mobile browser and ensure it works for all at a significantly reduced cost than building a separate app for every app store platform.

• Do you believe that your content should appear completely integrated with the capabilities of the Smartphone? E.G. Do you pack in a lot of video content? Do you want to be tightly integrated with the camera, the calendar, the address book and the like on the device? Do you want your user interface to feel just as snappy as one of the built in apps on the phone? If so, build an app. Apps are “native”, in our geeky parlance, meaning that they exercise the same core Operating System functions as built-in applications and have access to many more device functions than the more restrictive mobile web browser. We must note that over time, the mobile web browser will catch up to the “native” functions provided for apps, which of course will cause apps to exercise more core features, in an ever see-sawing race for richer and faster functionality. For now, however, apps are the way to go if you wish your content to feel like it came built-in with the device.

           Do you expect a lot of updates in the overall packaging of your content? If you are a sports publisher, do you expect to add a Fantasy section followed by a live scores section followed by a video highlights section all in the space of a few months? Rapid updates and/or design changes suggest the mobile web as a delivery vehicle, since all your changes will be made server-side, and will not require a new app to be downloaded by all your users. Going the app route means a few months of roadblock for the roll-out of any significant update for the app – the iPhone App Store requires re-certification, other app stores vary in their update requirement – the bottom-line is that users have to download your update, which is not something you have overnight control over.

I took your advice and built a site (or an app); how do I make money with ads?

Quattro Wireless provides a simple API (Application Programming Interface) for mobile web publishers and a “native” SDK (Software Development Kit) for app publishers. We try to simplify your life to the greatest extent possible – you make a call to get an ad and we take care of the rest – the targeting, trafficking, display and reporting of all the ads that run through your site or app. We provide several cool “rich media” ad options that appeal to the higher-value brand advertisers so that your site or app gets the best ad “love” possible.

We have competitors, of course, who also provide similar capabilities. We all need each other to ensure that this young mobile ad ecosystem grows in a happy and healthy manner worldwide. The net result of all our efforts is and will be a vibrant content and advertising marketplace for the rising Smartphone tide.

Next week, on to the advertiser. How does targeting work on Smartphones? What do the ad units look like? Can I just run my wired web creative on mobile? How do I track conversions?