Mobile Growth – Mid-Year Checkpoint

July 31, 2013
 
Dan Katcher

Every once in a while, we like to take a step back to try to put the mobile revolution in perspective. We last did that in December.  And guess what?  Growth globally is unchecked since our last major end of year update and, if anything, is accelerating.


The past couple of weeks have provided news that fits right in line with the update because of a series of fascinating articles and announcements.  So let’s dive in!
The first article comes from Venture Beat, which looked at Flurry’s data on mobile growth.  Their conclusions (check out the graph above) were many, but across the board Flurry seems to be enjoying explosive growth world wide (especially in China where almost a quarter billion smart phones/tablets are active).  Flurry has an installed base on over 1 billion (did you say billion?) devices, leading to generation of more then 3 trillion app events (e.g., analytics data points) per day. That’s a lot of events.  Of particular interest in the article and the linked blog report found here is a graph of mobile usage throughout the day.  What’s fascinating about this graph is the frequency of usage throughout the day, peaking at prime time, which has been historically owned by TV.  So not only is the mobile usage growing just by the shear number of devices and apps on those devices, but also by the frequency of use, which is continuous. By the way, read Flurry’s blog for some other interesting insights on behavior of Mom’s (hint: they like iOS) and adoption in China (hint: 1 billion consumers).

Once you’ve gotten through the Flurry report, take a walk over to App Annie.  App Annie’s post is focused on the driving effect of mobile on publisher’s growth.  They have some great stats, starting with the doubling of revenue on both Google Play and the iOS App Store in the last year.  In the context of this stat, App Annie also points out that smart phone penetration rate globally is just 1/3, which means that there’s plenty of room for further growth.  And App Annie rightfully points out that the companies that are doing well are equally global – apps are originating from countries worldwide.
So with some stats on growth overall in our back pocket, let’s pick out a couple of news items of interest.  And the easiest place to get news?  Public announcements:

  1. The first and most talked out is Facebook’s stunning mobile growth. In their most recent earnings announcement Facebook claimed 60% growth in mobile ad revenue, now constituting over 40% of their overall revenue of $1.2 billion. Facebook also noted they have over 800 million active monthly mobile users.
  2. Google, though getting dinged in their earnings call for not being on top of their mobile strategy, is still making a lot of money from mobile, with revenue on pace to double in 2013.
  3. Here’s another data point: Pandora’s mobile revenue is up 105% this year, accounting for over 2/3 of their overall revenue.
  4. Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, gained more than 10% in the market as a result increasing mobile revenue.
  5. And don’t forget EA, which saw 27% growth in mobile revenue.

 
So, big growth continues. Growth globally continues. And public companies, as well as plenty of smaller outfits, are enjoying the mobile ride. Let’s wrap up with a nod to Localytics, which has 20 cool stats on mobile growth, too numerous to quote here, but highly interesting.
 
Go mobile.

So, if you don’t know where to get started with a blueprint for your app, Rocket Farm Studios can take the pressure off.

Disruption: Not All Piggies Are Bad Piggies

July 11, 2013
 
Dan Katcher

Congratulations to the MassTLC for putting on an absolutely fantastic event in the main auditorium of the Ben Franklin Institute of Technology (BFIT). Ben Franklin was arguably one of America’s first great entrepreneurs and inventors, so the setting fit the content, which was three outstanding talks/interviews featuring Dina Katabi, Director, MIT Center for Wireless Networks & Mobile Computing, Rich Miner, the founder of Android, and the Mighty Eagle himself, Peter Vesterbacka, from Rovio—creator of Angry Birds the game and the fast growing brand/entertainment company.

Bad Piggy courtesy of Rovio Entertainment

 
I won’t spend much time on Dina Katabi or Rich Miner, who is a local fixture, but suffice it to say that the 4 different technologies that Dina described in her talk were all fascinating improvements on mobile technology. Dina spoke about technical innovations in WiFi that could offer 10x the bandwidth over what we have today, an upcoming technology that provides location information indoors down to the centimeter level indoors, and techniques that they are exploring for using the cell phone to read an X-Ray image through a wall. Fascinating stuff.
Rich Miner offered his usual smart and experienced perspective on lots of things—where technologies are going, where and how Google Ventures invests, what he looks for in companies and teams, and so forth. Most interesting to me? The emphasis that Rich puts on experience—user experience is paramount to him. And Google Ventures has significant in-house expertise in experience design that they put to work for their portfolio companies.
The capper on the day was the interview that George Bell, CEO of Jumptap, did with Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio. If you don’t know the Rovio story, it’s inspirational. Rovio was a 6 year old mobile gaming company who had put out 51 titles before creating Angry Birds. Entrepreneurs everywhere appreciate the importance of persistence, and of gaining great experience and getting good at what you do. Rovio did that and then capitalized on opportunity in the form of the iPhone, a singularly sweet entertainment platform.
“When did you know you had something?”, someone from the crowd asked. “When we realized how much fun it was to play as we were building it,” Peter replied. Since then we have watched a major media brand, which is how Rovio thinks of themselves, literally exploding onto the world. Some amazing stats from Peter’s discussion: Angry Birds has over 1.7 billion downloads and 263 million active monthly users (bigger then Twitter)! And perhaps the most important thing is that they now have absolutely fantastic brand recognition. Peter cited a survey they did in China of 2000 consumers which found that Angry Birds had 94% brand recognition. Yikes! And so that led naturally to Peter talking about where Rovio is heading, and that is to leverage and expand one of the fastest growing brands ever. They are into theme parks, plush toys, and even Angry Birds coffee. (Peter’s comment? It’s really good coffee. We want great coffee associated with our brand.) Fully 45% of their revenue now comes from sale of consumer goods.
Of course this question came up: “is it sustainable?” Which led to a long narrative where Peter compared themselves to other major media/entertainment brands that grew based on iconic character brands. Disney was founded on a mouse in a short film. Nintendo grew largely on the back of the Mario Brothers. And he cited other great character based brands, such as Hello Kitty, that have managed to build and sustain large brands and businesses.
So Angry Birds, or more specifically Rovio, has managed to take an iPhone game and turn it into 1.7 billion downloads, theme parks, coffee, and the next great entertainment brand.  The question was asked: “What was your secret Peter?” His answer? A whole lot of expertise making games (51 titles to be precise), a strong sense of that what they were building was fun, and (this is the kicker) timing. Timing to be ready for when the iPhone hit—a truly beautiful development platform which also came along with frictionless commerce. Carriers and phone makers were not in a position of dictating consumer choices. And consumers chose with their 1.7 billion thumbs.
So now Rovio is a major media/entertainment brand and they have one of the world’s largest distribution systems (Angry Birds’ games) for partners like 20th Century Fox (Angry Birds Rio).  Angry Bird Tunes are now viewable through Angry Birds (400 million views!) and through plenty of partner networks.
All of which reinforces again the incredible platform that is mobile. Being able to reach 2 billion smart phone owners in a frictionless way is a big deal.
And now the big question: are all piggies bad piggies? We think not, as our Rocket Pig only flies on the side of good.
[Edit: MassTLC picked up our post!]
 

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So, if you don’t know where to get started with a blueprint for your app, Rocket Farm Studios can take the pressure off.

iOS 7: Does Your App Design Fit In?

July 2, 2013
 
Dan Katcher

The introduction of iOS 7 has come with mixed emotions. Some say the design looks wonderful, and some say the design doesn’t look so wonderful. One thing is certain: the design is a lot different. The foundational change in iOS’s aesthetics means a lot of work needs to be done to redesign apps to fit in with the new style. Skeuomorphism is out of style and simplicity is in.

app icons design grid
It’s not just about simplicity. It’s about seamless integration. iOS 7 is accelerating the transformation from apps that run specifically on your mobile device to apps that solve your everyday problems holistically, from your desktop to your car to your phone. Apps are becoming essential parts of everyday life rather than being simply programs on phones. This change means a lot of work for developers like Rocket Farm Studios. Read some app experts’ opinions here.
But where there is difficulty, there is space for innovation. New feature Airdrop and updated feature Multitasking will surely spawn new ways to share information, generating more virality and simplifying communications. These two examples are only a few from a big list, which means iOS 7 has a lot of low hanging fruit for fast movers to take advantage of.
The biggest change, however, for developers is that apps will now automatically update, eliminating issues that arise because of outdated app versions. In addition, developers can now shorten iteration cycles, fixing bugs and pushing new features more often.
Does your app fit in with iOS 7? If not, you may want to consider an update.
Let us know what you think!

So, if you don’t know where to get started with a blueprint for your app, Rocket Farm Studios can take the pressure off.