My friend David Wood posts a thoughtful piece on the challenges of mobile application fragmentation.
He outlines the challenge faced by many companies who want to deliver mobile applications - the the two warring camps are
- Focus on one iconic device platform
- Prioritise web based delivery
Each strategy has their place - but some applications need the combination of the two - application features integrated with the device, and broad reach.
What sort of strategy can be used to meet these challenges?
One example is a hero device plus browser strategy.
Development efforts are split between both applications, and web based delivery. There is however a difference in features between the two.
Hero devices are the iconic devices that are used by, or desired by the key market. The effort on the applications here is to create a dedicated experience for those devices that provides a superb experience, that will turn those lead customers into evangelists for your product.
The remainder of the market is delivered a more limited feature set in a browser based experience.
Why does this work?
Hero devices are the iconic devices that people desire - where your customers don't have the device, they desire the device - and seeing the improved experience from your application compared to their current device helps them justify why that desire is rational and reasonable.
Key to this is understanding that hero devices are not necessarily the devices that people have today. They are the devices that they want - so while your user base may be browsers today, if they desire an iPhone, then investing in an iPhone specific application benefits your existing browser users, in spite of the fact it's only a small proportion of the user base.
To quote Wayne Gretzky:
Skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been
Matt,
One follow-up question:
Consider a company that is interested in creating a mobile offering for their product or service. How is that company going to know "where the puck is going to be"? That is, how does it know which device is going to be the next significant aspirational device?
In some ways, the iPhone has been in a league of its own, in terms of excitement and aspirational status, over the last year or two. But it seems to me there will be many strong contenders from now on. The landscape is changing. Picking just one winner - the right "hero device" - seems too risky an approach from now on.
Posted by: David Wood | January 29, 2010 at 11:00 AM
Know your target audience. It may be that you have target audiences that aspire to different devices - so if you are targetting the finance market then Blackberry is a key hero device. The same may be true for the UK teenage market. India a Nokia smartphone is a key aspirational device.
How many "hero" devices can you afford to develop - that's a key business challenge picking too many "hero devices" is as big a risk - as you dilute your development $'s
As for how do you know what your customers aspire to? That's a key challenge for any business!
Posted by: Matt Millar | January 29, 2010 at 11:21 AM
8pktAe That's really thinking out of the box. Thanks!
Posted by: Bobcat | April 10, 2011 at 01:48 AM