How do we know this? There are multiple reasons. The first, is the failure of 3DTV. After getting everyone to upgrade to flat screen HDTVs in the past 5 years, the TV industry needed something to sustain this huge growth spurt and it turns out, 3DTV wasn’t it. Remember when we used to change TV sets every 8 years or so? Now the industry wants us to change every 2 years, and needs to keep innovating to persuade us to do so, but are throttled by broadcast standards that take years to agree. Remember, the Japanese have had 1080i TV since 1994 (based on a standard defined in… 1979).

The second, is that in the UK and in other countries, Video On Demand (VOD) and TV catchup services like iPlayer and Hulu are increasingly becoming people’s preferred way of watching TV, not to mention YouTube, Vimeo et al. This will explode in the UK later this year when YouView launches, which will consist both of apps for existing apps TV platforms, and initially, a set top box cheaply available to turn any existing TV into a web-enabled TV. Much like the FreeView boxes we had to use in the UK when DVB-T broadcasts were rolled out. Of course, eventually all TVs sold in the UK will have YouView built in.

The third reason is simply the greater flexibility offered by having a connected PC. The PC is no longer the centre of our digital worlds. People’s content is in the cloud, and technologies that are widely supported now, such as DLNA/UPnP, make it possible to stream content from any storage device to any screen anywhere in the home. And while a computer is optimised for content creation and a phone is optimised for being with you at all times, a TV is optimised for content consumption, especially, video content. Already apps for Netflix and Lovefilm are available on all major TV app and set top box platforms.

Each TV manufacturer is looking for apps and experiences that will differentiate them from the competition. Surely Samsung will seek to integrate their TV and mobile phone experiences, and we’ll bet our grandmothers that the next range of Bravia TVs from Sony will have a PlayStation Certified download store offering PS1 and PS2 and PSP games without the need for a separate console, built-in.

At the same time, the proliferation of competing platforms, Samsung Smart TV (using Adobe AIR and Flash), Google TV (based on Android), YouView (in turn based on Adobe AIR and Flash), and others from Panasonic, LG and Sony, leads to a similar situation that we’ve had in mobile in the past that really constrained the growth potential. Different, competing apps platforms, and web browsers with different support for standards, different bugs and different performance characteristics.

Looking at the situation through Steely Eyes, one might guess that a newcomer like Apple will see an opportunity to shake things up. But in the meantime, the challenge, and corresponding solution is very similar to that faced when bringing legacy content and services such as ecommerce to mobile phones.

It’s where we come in. At Steely Eye, we build future proof multichannel web solutions that leverage your legacy sites, unlocking access to growing market channels including mobile web, mobile apps, tablets and web TV, without changing your authoring and catalogue management workflows and without resetting the clock on your hard earned SEO.

Stay tuned for more on web TV phenomenon from Steely Eye Digital Media, coming soon.

A long time Symbian phone user, Tim finally switched to Android last year. Tim says “I really need to have a keyboard, I can’t do without it. iPhones are marvellous but until they make a model with a real keyboard, they’re not for me. Android phones might still have shockingly poor battery life, but as a power user that demands a high level of customisation Android is really the only choice.“

In Tim’s own words, here are the apps Tim finds himself using regularly.

Oyster Mate – Market – Free: Living and working in London necessitates the use of the Oyster RFID card. Few things are more annoying than running out of credit on a cold, snowy day when you just want to get home as quickly as possible. Oyster Mate is a simple app that does one job very well – it shows you your Oyster card balance, also letting you easily load the Oyster topup website, which unfortunately is not mobile optimised. In the year 2012 I find it incredulous that there is neither an official app for anything but iPhone, nor a mobile optimised website, for something that you are most likely to need when out and about.

My Allowance – Market – £0.69: The official Vodafone UK Android app is a prime example of how big organisations just don’t “get it” – inaccurate information, and a constant torrent of upselling unwanted addon services, in this case the BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots (does anyone even use hotspots now that HSPA+ is here??), which in any case does nothing but interfere with the smooth operation of the phone’s usual wifi management and was the cause of at least two total phone crashes. Anyway, back to My Allowance, and again it’s down to an individual developer to ‘scratch that itch’ and make an app that meets his needs and therefore the needs of thousands of other Vodafone and O2 customers. With a homescreen widget included, it has everything I need to keep track of my account and doesn’t require me to type in any details about my tariff. Why can’t the operators themselves do this? It’s not hard.

ReadItLater – Market – Free (Paid version available): It was Instapaper that first turned me on to these strip-a-page-to-its-raw-document state and cache for offline reading services. However, the Instapaper guy’s stubborn refusal to produce an Android port, and poor state of unofficial Android clients, led me to switch to ReadItLater. Did you know you can import your Instapaper lists into RIL? That sealed the deal.

GTasks – Market – Free (with ads): One area that has taken a massive step backwards from the days of Palm PDAs and P900 smartphones, is the PIM functionality. Both Android and iPhone suffer from terrible calendaring applications and the third party options available don’t seem to be able to improve the situation. But one glaring omission in Android’s Calendar app is support for their very own Tasks feature. GTasks keeps things simple, filling up this gap perfectly nicely, without any unnecessary frills or pretentious emperor’s new clothes UI designs.

Plume – Market – Free (with ads): Nothing beats Gravity, the best all round Twitter app for Symbian phones, but Plume comes the closest on Android. The only thing I don’t like about it is the way it handles multiple accounts.

Go Launcher EX – Market – Free: Android OEMs love to furtle with the standard Android launcher, always thinking they know better in the name of differentiation. But change for change’s sake is never a good thing. There are plenty of third party launchers out there that embrace and extend the standard Google interface in truly innovative ways but my favourite is Go Launcher, from its infinite configurability, to its cool animations, to the simple task management features, Go Launcher is what boots up first on my Android device.

Works On Mobile – Market – Free: Steely Eye’s very own quick testing tool comes in very handy whenever you come across an ad campaign or brand site that should work on mobile, and doesn’t, and you want to save that for later. Of course, Works On Mobile’s search feature also makes it easy to run a Google search cross referenced against our mobile-compatible site database so that when you’re in a hurry you know you won’t be stuck waiting a minute or more to load a site that probably has never been tested for mobile friendliness. Watch out for more news about Works On Mobile, including support for iOS, coming soon.

Just because the latest smart phones can render most websites, it is not guaranteed that they will convert the same. Page load speed, text size, layout, navigation, finger friendliness, readability and interaction are all factors in a site’s mobile usability.

Yet many major brands persist in forcing users to fumble their way through using their regular desktop optimised websites, or think that platform specific apps are the way to go, despite an average of 10% of all traffic now coming from mobile devices.

At Steely Eye, we believe sending your mobile site visitors to download an app, is like telling them they can only shop in the other branch way across town, just because they have an iPhone. The customer is ready and willing to spend money with you, and they’re just putting obstacles in their way.

The Works On Mobile app gives users the power to name and shame , or commend the best mobile optimised experiences. And then to benefit from fellow users’ reviews, by cross referencing Google search results with the ratings index, so that mobile friendly sites rise to the top of search results.

Works On Mobile is available now in the Android Market. Get rating!

• House of Fraser and O2 Target Christmas Shoppers | Mobile Marketing 
• PayPal: Global mobile payment volume increased 516pc on Black Friday | Mobile Commerce 
• The 7 types of iPhone owners | PR Daily 
• App Downloads See Autumn Surge on Heels of iPhone 4S Launch |mobileMW 
• NFC use in mobilemarketing could net $300M | mediapost
• Smartphones in US to rise to 155.59 million by the end of next year | MobileSquared 
• House of Fraser targets holiday shoppers with multi-component mobile campaign | Luxury Daily 
• Jaeger launches site ahead of expected m-commerce surge | New Media Age 
• How consumers will use their mobile devices during the holidays | Mobile Commerce Daily
• Tablets fuel m-commerce growth | New Media Age
• Mobile Fusion to succeed Blackberry Enterprise Service in RIM tablets and smartphones | CIO
• Sam’s Club releases iPad app in time for holiday shopping – Mobile Commerce Daily 
• A cable allowing you to transfer photosfrom iPhone to iPad, no PC required | phonearena
• QR Mania: Mobile Codes In Magazines Rise 228% | mediapost
• The Third Screen: The Money in Mobile | mediapost 
• Lloyds TSB banking app goes viralGoMo News 
• iOS & Android Apps Challenged by Traffic Acquisition Not Discovery j.mp/umGGCx
• You Guys Are Millionaires Right? | Shifty Jelly’s blog of mystery j.mp/ruwgne
• The death of Flash – 8 years in the making | VisionMobile
• Scaling Your Mobile Presence for a Global Audience | Guest Opinions | ITBusinessEdge.com
• SPB Software Is Acquired by Yandex » Press Releases » SPB Software j.mp/tgzhgu 
• Greenwich Consulting: m-payments will lead to the death of dedicated cards. Oyster Card anyone? ht.ly/7EekD
• Berg Insight: Location based revenues will double by 2016 | GoMoNews
• Only 1.2 million non-iPad tablets sold in last ten months |geekdotcom 
• Infographic: seven sign of Mobile addiction - ht.ly/7Ee6c
• Creepy! Ultimat Vodka Social Life Audit Facebook App | sociablesite 
• How mobile payments and digital wallets will open up new opportunities in travel | Tnooz
• Gameloft giving out free and discounted Android games over holiday weekend bit.ly/w2JJXQ
• Starbucks launches mobile payments app – Marketing news – Marketing magazine j.mp/s7j2iz 
• US gov spunks $200K on busted weather app • The Registerj.mp/udYnuG 
• Scottish primary school may lease tablets to students | TabTimes
• Sport launches iPad app with GroupM – Media news – Media Week
• Siri’s unofficial feature: remotely control your car. Start and lock it, pop your trunk | phonearena
• Stat of the Day: Holiday e-Commerce by the Numbers adage.com/u/a8aVDa
• Software analysis could be mobile operators’ secret weapon |GoMo News
• Mobile app content ratings system to debut next week cnet.co/ufy3gr
• Mobile phones could replace cash by 2016 | digitalmedia
• Whitepaper about mobile TV: Users expected to rise to nearly 12bn in 2012 | Juniper Research 
• UK Mobile Retail Traffic to Triple over Christmas Season |bit.ly/uxwL4E
• Is This Really the Tablet Everyone’s Talking About? | Product Reviews | Wired.com 
• Tesco to free up shelf space with augmented reality trial – Brand Republic News 
• How HTML5 Tablet Apps Get a Boost From a New Breed of Publishing Tools j.mp/tojWqr 
• ‘WTF Mobile Web’ Tracks Terrible Mobile Web Design | Webmonkey | Wired.com 
• Building a Mobile App Is Not a Mobile Strategy – Jason Gurwin – Harvard Business Review 
• Mobile Deals Aimed at Black Friday Shoppers Stuck in Line -NYTimes.com
• 25 years of mobile innovation – video by Nokia ht.ly/7Bs6w
• 22% of Fandango’s sales for the last Twilight” movie came through mobile. ht.ly/7Bmec
• Aurora expands mobile point-of-sale trial | Blog | Retail week
• Walgreens introduces mobile coupons to enhance shopping via apps | Mobile Commerce 
• eBay interactive shop windows make it easy to donate via mobile | Mobile Commerce Daily 
• RIM: I Want to Believe dthin.gs/uiVOm8
• 60M consumers will shop via mobile over Thanksgiving weekend: study – Mobile Commerce Daily 
• Selena Gomez funds iPhone app dthin.gs/s4j9WH
• Coca-Cola tests NFC-enabled vending machines to bolster mcommerce presence | Mobile Commerce
• German Public Transport Deploying Mobile Ticketing bit.ly/ryPBBn 
• Nokia: Lumia 800 Launch Going Fine, Thanks (“welcoming reception in the United Kingdom”) dthin.gs/uKB7G3

• Apple iPad holds the US tablet throne, no rivals in sight |phonearena 
• NTT Docomo unveils real-time speech translation app for phones
• Local advertisers plan to spend more on social and mobile, less on print | Poynter 
• More than a million Irish people now open to mobile ads – study | thebusinessday
• Lloyds TSB’s banking app hits 360k downloads in its first month |bit.ly/sUoJe8
• Sky Movies app out now for iOS devices | siliconrepublic
• Ireland provider of fixed-line telecommunications services Eircom launches mobile version of main website ht.ly/7liLW
• Redemption value of mobile coupons to top US$43m by 2016 – | thebusinessday 
• Ericsson predicts mobile broadband subscribers will grow from 900m in 2011 to 5bn in 2016. ht.ly/7liCS
• State Lotteries Increasingly Going Mobile to Drive Consumer Engagement |mobileMW 
• (IBM) Record web sales by phones, tablets:15% of web purchases may be made using a mobile device in Nov. | reghardware
• Mobile tipped to grow 60% in Africa passing 1 billion subscriptions by 2016 | tnwafrica 
• Amazon uses augmented reality, search to drive traffic | Mobile Commerce Daily 
• If you want to follow the launch of Nook, here’s the live blog:ht.ly/7llBM
• How the MISTs Do Mobile |adage
• 13% of holiday shoppers will use mobile, says PriceGrabber study | Mobile Commerce Daily 

• Moschino introduces commerce with second mobile site
• Boutique in NY pilots mobile payment devices and remove cash register from the store | Mobile Commerce
• FoneHome battle of the operating systems: iOS 5 vs Windows Phone 7.5
• Consumers continue to become more comfortable with banking on mobile devices: Banking App Users Up 45% | mediapost 
• geekdotcom – - Dolphin Browser slammed for sharing web history
• PadInTheCity rents iPads to tourists in Madrid, Spain. Is your site tablet-optimised?
• Cool Map: map.web2summit.com/#
• Nokia Making a Comeback? Judging By This Infographic, the Answer is Yes | mobileMW
• Another newspaper goes mobile: new iPad app for the Independent
• Mobiles around the world: U.S. Champions Apps; Adoption Soars In Asia | mediapost
• Tablet Owners Spend More Time Online: almost 4.5 hours each day compared with 3 hours for non-tablet owners | AdAge
• Motorola, Samsung report latest quarterly earnings | phonearena

The countdown to Christmas has already started but only a few smart retailers are exploiting the rise of m-commerce.

The IBM-Coremetrics “2011 UK Christmas Season Readiness” report gives us clear statements about this phenomenon: “sales via mobile devices were at 6.1% of all UK sites sales as of May 2011” and “mobile usage is clearly rising and proving a channel that no online retailer can afford to ignore“.

“If you are not building and executing a mobile game plan, some clever and enterprising competitor is going to leave you in the dust during the 2011 Christmas season.”

Nowadays every retailer has a desktop website, and many of them may have already noticed a share of their visitors browsing from mobile devices. These potential customers may be redirected to a mobile-optimised website, or just have a terrible experience and bounce away.

As the study states, “high usage during the Christmas season can be expected as harried consumers utilise their devices as shopping tools – and then share their experiences on social media while sipping a coffee at a shopping mall“. A poor mobile website experience will not bring sales. Only professionals from the mobile industry can give you the best ideas and the technical know-how to provide your clients with a compelling mobile experience (for them and for your ROI).

Another key finding from the report is that “mobile visitors are less engaged than the overall population, with fewer page views, less time on site, lower conversion and higher bounce rates“. Did you know? Well, we did. That’s why we build amazing home pages for our clients’ mobile websites, and reduce the interaction to a few easy taps.

A clear interface means more customers. It’s really as simple as that.

But success depends on continuous optimisation and measurement. When your desktop website is slow, your clients turn to your competitors. What happens to those people using their smartphone to reach your website? Are you making the most of them? Asking a mobile agency for consultancy is the right way to go if you don’t have internal skilled resources.

Finding the best mobile agency for your brand is even more important when you consider that the trend is not stopping after the holiday season: according to another m-commerce study by Verdict Research (June 2011)”mobile internet sales could double in the next 3 years, reaching £275m by 2013” .

If you’re late on the mobile channel, here’s what IBM suggests you should do:

• Learn from customers’ browsing path
• Use historical behaviour data to optimise all online marketing efforts
• Deliver highly personalised and relevant experience
• Capitalise on the mobile channel
• Optimise the site for mobile usage
• Segment and cultivate your mobile audience
• Test and measure mobile marketing tactics
• Measure applications downloads and usage
• Continuously monitor patterns

Confused already? Don’t worry, this is exactly the job for Steely Eye – mobile specialists and full service digital agency.

Steely Eye will work with you to define your mobile strategy, to meet your objectives, maximise the e-commerce opportunities for your business, and give your customers an amazing mobile experience.

The team at Steely Eye has years of technical and development experience, award-winning designers and expertise in building mobile websites, apps and m-commerce solutions.

So, are you mobile-ready for Christmas? If not, contact hello@steelyeye.net for a free consultation.