This week Google launched GOMO, a new initiative that is clearly part of Google’s new mobile advertising strategy.

The site, designed in the latest flavors of HTML5 and CSS3, is one giant page that you can scroll around to find tips on mobile design, design services, and a simple test of mobile functionality.

If you’re web browser doesn’t support the latest in web technology, you may have trouble with the website. Google Chrome is the (no surprisingly) recommended choice of browser. Warning, surfing the site with Safari on an iPad can lead to blank screens when you click on some links, but if you stumble around you can get it to (mostly) work.

If you’ve been wondering whether it was worth the effort to make your site mobile friendly, clearly Google thinks it is. If you’re a web designer specializing in mobile design, you should definitely be aware of this new initiative.

Check it out at:

http://www.howtogomo.com/en

The iSwapSWF© Javascript Action makes it easy to replace a Flash file with an image file (JPEG, PNG, or GIF) when the page is viewed on an iOS device.

It’s a simple solution and a vast improvement over the blank space left by Flash files when you don’t provide an alternative.

Learn more at http://www.actionscafe.com/menu4.html#iS

OK, I apologize for the pun. But c’mon. This story is made for it – I think Betfair has gotten more in “earned media” than they could have ever hoped for…

Zara Dampney, 24, and Shauna Mullin, 26, have turned the most-photographed bits of their (ahem) work uniforms into high-tech billboards. The stuffy International Olympic Committee has already ruled that they will not be allowed to wear these logos in the 2012 London Games.

According to Andy Lulham, the Betfair head of Sports and Marketing PR:

“There is huge interest in beach volleyball and we want to ensure
that our advertising campaign is seen and remembered by as many sports
fans as possible.

As far as we’re aware this is the first time QR codes have been used
in in-play sports advertising and what better way to test its
effectiveness than by putting them on one of the places that is likely
to get photographed the most.”

Talk about knowing your audience. This opens up all sorts of marketing opportunities – especially here in LA, where so many starlets walk the red carpets, getting their photographs splashed all over the web. Pam

I'm not sure how practical it is to try to get the clunky QR readers on a smartphone to react to an athlete moving at full speed; but that's not really the point here, is it?

Anderson’s cleavage is probably already the subject of a bidding war between GoDaddy and the Final Destination movie franchise. I wonder how soon it will be before the once-ubiquitous bar codes that hipster wannabe tough guys were getting tattooed on the backs of their necks (to be like the “Hitman” videogame anti-hero, I guess) will be replaced by QR codes.

Right now, the place where most consumers are encountering QR codes is in magazine or newspaper ads, and they are mostly using them from their homes. Which makes sense, because the QR readers installed, even on a “superphone” like the iPhone 3Gs, still takes a couple of seconds (and a very steady hand) to register & activate. Even with a big image on a high-resolution computer monitor, I’ve had to move the phone up and down, back and forth, in and out … until finally it buzzed and launches the Safari browser.

Still, with the next generation of smartphones pretty much all sporting dual-core processors and higher-resolution cameras, I think that actually getting your handset to work with a QR code is going to be a much easier experience. Right now, it’s almost quicker for me to launch Safari and type in a Google query than it is to try to use the QR code.

Statistics & Damn Lies:

According to the most recent Pew Research Report, 87% of people who have a smartphone use it to surf the net, 67% of them do it every day, and 25% use their smartphones exclusively to access web content. As you might expect, this over-indexes on young, nonwhite users – people less likely to actually have a dedicated broadband connection, and who are much more likely to be out on the town at night, using their phones to connect to their friends & settle bar bets.

When it comes to using QR codes, again the stats tilt young, male and urban. As of June, 14 million people had actually used their phones to use a QR code (about 6.2% of the total mobile users in the U.S.), and 36% of them make more than $100,000 a year.

While only 40% of the QR code users have employed them in a grocery store, I think that the TV ads (and the monkey-see, monkey-do effect of watching more connected shoppers cashing in coupons while in the aisles of Ralph’s or Wal-Mart) will lead to some heavy growth in their area in the next year. Already, Conan O’Brian and Jimmy Fallon made splashy use of QR codes on their programs.

One stat that does jump out at me: the 27% of people who are using QR codes while already connected and using a PC (see chart below). I know why I do that – I’m a geek, and I’m testing to see if they really do work. But what’s the excuse for the other 4 million or so that have done it? I guess maybe it’s to download music, access a trailer that’s mobile-only, or maybe to launch a game? If nothing else, it tells me that there is a strong and growing audience there – and that there is a willingness to reach for the mobile device to extend the experience beyond what you can get, even on a PC with a much bigger screen, faster processor and more capabilities than any mobile deck (at least those now in existence) can match…

By the time Palm finally Bit The Fabled Large One, most mobile insiders agreed that WebOS was pretty much the best platform out there. Yeah, yeah, I know — all the Apple Fanbois and Androidweebs will point out that since then, their OSes have evolved & matured, to include crucial features like true multitasking and a developer-friendly (-er?) environment.

I was hoping that HP’s takeover of Palm would lead it into releasing some truly affordable, usable tablet/phone devices that would allow me to leave iTunes (the Bane of My Existence!) behind and move data/content on and off the phone as though it was an actual, you know, external hard drive (which it is, and should function like).

So it comes as bitter new that BestBuy is reporting that so few TouchPads have actually sold that they are thinking about charging them big buckolas for all the space the poor, orphaned devices are taking up on the valuable store shelves & warehouses (h/t AllThingsD)

According to one source who’s seen internal HP reports, Best Buy has
taken delivery of 270,000 TouchPads and has so far managed to sell only
25,000, or less than 10 percent of the units in its inventory.

A second person who has seen Best Buy’s TouchPad sales figures
confirmed the results as “consistent with what I’ve seen,” and went so
far as to say that 25,000 sold might be “charitable.” This source
suggested that the 25,000-unit sales number may not account for units
that consumers return to stores for a refund.

Best Buy, sources tell us, is so unhappy that it has told HP it’s
unwilling to pay for all the TouchPads it has taking up expensive space
in its stores and warehouses and wants HP to take them back. HP, for its
part, is pleading with Best Buy to be patient. We’re also told a senior
HP executive, possibly executive VP Todd Bradley, is slated to travel
to Minneapolis soon to discuss the matter with Best Buy executives.

It seems that HP is having trouble figuring out what to do with something like an OS … something that doesn’t have wires & transistors. The megalomaniacs at Google may have done them a favor today with their purchase of Motorola, however (see any of the myriad analyses of “MotoGoo”).

What this means for web designers is that for at least the next year or so, expect iOS to remain atop the “brilliant phone” heap, with Android still playing catch-up. Which means that as Apple continues to dominate market share, there will still be compelling (even more compelling?) reasons to have native apps, rather than mobile web apps that run across every device. However, long-term, the migration to the mobile web still makes the same sense as leaving the AOL walled garden for the larger internet made sense back in ’99-2000.

WebOS, TouchPad sales, BestBuy, Motorola, Android, Apple, iPhone, iOS, platform agnosticism

Aquafadas creates digital publishing tools that create Apps for the iPad and other mobile devices.

If you’ve been thinking about creating an eBook App, the first thing to do is to take a look at the books and magazines already in the iTunes App store.

From Wired Magazine to Al Gore’s new “Our Choice” eBook App to Inkling’s digital textbooks to the interactive Dr Sues books, there are many great examples of where things are headed in the world of interactive media.

So how do you jump on this bandwagon and play along? What does it take to create an App for the iTunes store and do you really have to create different Apps for each device?

Yes, yes, and you don’t have to do it all yourself. As any new media market emerges, so do the tools that make it easier to produce new forms of digital content.

In the world or producing interactive eBooks and magazines for the iPad and other devices, there are three tools worth considering:

Adobe Digital Publishing Suite:  
One of my favorite interactive Apps, the one created by Wired Magazine, was done with Adobe’s Digital Publishing tools. I’ve already created a couple of prototypes with these tools, but that was before Adobe announced the pricing model for these tools, which many designers find prohibitive. These tools have much to offer, but until the price comes down, they’re really only viable for big companies, like Wired.

Aquafadas 
This French company is creating tools that work with InDesign and is also getting good attention and already being used by big magazines in the App store. Their pricing model is a little more reasonable.

WoodWing
Also of interest is WoodWing. Like the other two, they are focused on publishing apps for the many mobile devices. 

These tools are great for the iOS and Android, but I believe we’ll see diminishing return trying to produce new versions of every eBook App for every device… One way to manage this is to create a great iPad App, an Android version or two, and then create a Web App version that works in a browser in HTML5 for all of the other OS’s appearing into the tablet world. But that’s another story. 

To App or Not to App

If you’re interested in learning more about when it’s worth creating a Native App vs a Web App (I think the best approach for eBooks today is a combination), this table helps explain the differences between an App for the iTunes store and a Web App that plays in a browser.

Planning to buy an iPad?

The iPad continues to sell faster than anyone imagined, but a promising  new crop of tablets from competing companies mean that half the touchscreens purchased this year probably won’t be from Apple.

The iPad will continue to dominate the touchscreen market with an estimated 50% of sales, according to a recent study by Retrevo, an online consumer electronics site, but a growing list of  tablets by Dell,  HP, Amazon and others will diversify the market in the coming year.

That means companies that are publishing apps only for the Apple App store will need to rethink their publishing strategies.

The trend in developing content for these devices is a mix of Native Apps and Mobile Web sites and Web Apps.

No one can predict with absolute certainty how the tablet market will grow this year, but Retrevo seems to have created a pretty good Chrystal ball by going directly to consumers. Here’s what they asked in July 2011.

1. Which of these manufacturers would you seriously consider buying a tablet from?

• 55% said Amazon
• 38% said Dell
• 38% said Samsung
• 31% said Motorola
• 31% said HP
• 24% said RIM
• 21% said Barnes & Noble

2. If you buy a tablet this year, what will you buy?

50% said they were planning on buying an iPad
21%  said they were planning on buying an Android Tablet
10%  said they were planning on buying some other kind of tablet
19%  said they were planning on buying more than one of these choices

Read the full study by Retrovo here

Shop for gadgets at Retrevo here http://shop.retrevo.com/

Learn more about mobile Web Design and Web Apps vs Native Apps at DigitalFamily.com.

Keep in mind the following issues as you design for an audience on the go:

*   The need for information is often urgent: Many people resort to the mobile web because they have to, because they’re lost or late, or because they can win a bar bet if they know who won the 1987 Super Bowl.

*   Screen real estate is limited: iPhone sites should be designed to fit on small screens, and designs for both devices should make it easy to find important information, like your address and a map to your location, quickly.

*   Users are often distracted: Having to navigate road or foot traffic while reading content on a screen is just one distraction that may compete for your users’ attention.

*   3G connections may be affected by low bandwidth: Limit the size of images and text so that pages load quickly, even at slow connection speeds. Remember, even 3G devices often connect at much slower speeds, especially when people are on the move.

*   The interface has limitations: Links and other navigational options should be big and easy to click with a (fat) finger.

*   Processing power and memory are limited: Large files and scripts that require fast processors don’t execute efficiently over 3G or slower connections.

*   Factors like time and place affect user actions: Don’t forget that users’ actions are likely to be affected by their locations, the time of day, and even the weather (whether it’s raining, for example). Be sure to include location-specific information, such as maps and directions.

Even if you typed in a mobile URL such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/web/ many sites will still display a desktop version of the site if you visit on a desktop computer, but there are advantages to viewing mobile sites on desktop computers, such as being able to easily view the source code behind a mobile web page, or take screenshots for a presentation, book, or other project.

In those cases, user agents switchers can really come in handy. User agents identify the browser and device a visitor is using when they arrive at a web site. As you might then deduce, ‘user agent switchers’ pull a fast one, identifying your desktop browser as if it were a mobile device. Users agent switchers are also useful for testing how a web page might display in many different browsers.

Some browsers, such as Apple Safari, have a user agent switcher built in. Others, such as Firefox, make it easy to add a user agent switcher by downloading and installing an add on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/user-agent-switcher/ (don’t forget to tip your programmer .

Safari, which is available for free for both Mac and Windows computers http://www.apple.com/safari/ includes a built-in user agent agent switcher and is the best choice for testing your sites appearance in an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.

To change the User Agent in the Safari Web browser, follow these simple steps:

1. Click on the small icon in the top right corner of the browser window that looks like a page or document icon.

2. Choose Develop > User Agent

3. Select the desired agent, such as Safari OS 4.1 iPhone to see how a web page would appear in an iPhone 4.

4. Don’t forget to change the user agent back to the default setting when you want to go back to browsing the web the ‘normal’ way…

After much research, writing, editing, and testing, iPhone & iPad Web Design For Dummies is done!

We created this book to help you design the best web site for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. In this straightforward-but-fun guide you learn how to use HTML5, CSS3, and JQuery to produce highly interactive web sites for these sophisticated devices.

Look for it in bookstores in July or preorder this book on Amazon now.

Whatever you do, drop the www (no one should ever have to type those three letters on the modern Web. After that, the most common mobile addresses, the ones that can increase the odds your visitors find you on a mobile device are:

*  m.yourdomain.com: Recommended for ease of typing, but requires the ability to create sub-domains on a web server
*  yourdomain.com/m: Common alternative because of the easy server setup (just create a directly named “w” and save your mobile version there)
*  yourdomain.com/i: If you create a version specifically for the iPhone or ipad
*  yourdomain.mobi: Requires registering the .mobi version of your domain name, which many sites don’t seem to bother with
*  wap.yourdomain.com: In the early days, and at the lowest-level of access, web sites created using the WML, Wireless Markup Language can often be found at a wap. address variation.