Inspira Digital

it's getting hot in here... inspira welcome besharam to the party.

Luke Green — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:58:19 GMT

Sexy, fun and soon to be getting it's worldwide launch, Inspira gets a little hot under the collar and welcomes adult online retailer, besharam onto the client rostor.

What's not to like about this client, we have the smokingly hot Sunny Leone as the exclusive "Besharam of the year" model, an engaged and ambitious team, with their sights firmly set on nothing short of worldwide success and that's even before we mention the fantastic, sexy imagery and racey video editing we get to work with ;).

But joking aside, while besharam is going to be huge, there are many milestones to be achieved and the Inspira team are proud to be a core part of the digital fullfilment over the coming few months. Right now we're working hard to put together what promises to be a unique, engaging and beautifully designed e-store. Fusing sexy, chic with a simple, easy to use online experience, besharam looks set to make a massive impact across the board.

One thing is for sure, it's certainly hotting up at Inspira HQ!

Alongside the e-store Inspira are also involved in a number of other aspects of the besharam project, helping to sync complex product inventory accross the globe, design packaging, develop the online brand and build two custom ecommerce stores.

But hey enough of that technical stuff, here's some beshram pics ;)

My word!

If you haven't gone mobile yet,
now is the time to do so...

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:40 GMT

A while back I wrote a blog about the recent explosion of native web apps being just a fad. It was a bold statement but as we hit the 8 months since that post, it has become clear that the mobile space is now becoming the growth platform on the web. And while Apps and their stores are now "mainstream" it's also transpiring that this will not be the only route to taking advantage of the mobile explosion in the future. The growth figures for mobile are pretty epic, here (taken from a recent industry webinar) are some headline facts.

Smart phone sales set to exceed PC sales in 2012
750,000 iOS & Android devices activated EVERY DAY
Currently mobile accounts for 10% of internet traffic and it's growing rapidly
1 billion people currently have data enabled with their mobile phone plan
£3.5 billion per year transacted in mobile commerce
Mobile is now become the primary web platform in many countries

while Apps and their stores are now mainstream it's also transpiring that this will not be the only route to taking advantage of the mobile explosion in the future.

This amounts to an exciting "on demand" marketing platform, that essentially users require to be super efficient, task oriented and very simple to use

In the face of these facts it's easy to see why your business should be getting itself geared up to take advantage of this. But how do you know whether you should take advantage of the mobile platform? Are you likely to see a return on your investment? Well first of all you need to understand what mobile offers its users and also, most importantly, the context in which people will be using it.

Apart from the obvious differences in size and general location there are some significant differences in the mobile platform to the traditional desktop. It's best to think of smartphones as utility devices, which short of being able to "beam me up scotty" provide all the following raw services;

Sensors such as Accelerometer (this can sense changes in direction and device orientation), GPS Location, Mapping, Compass, Altitude measurements

"Almost" always on connectivity
Touchscreen
Always with the user
Push notifications

But what about the users, well we know they are;

Action oriented
Impatient
Often only have one hand available
Are looking for direct, specific information (phone number, directions, price)

This amounts to an exciting "on demand" marketing platform, that essentially users require to be super efficient, task oriented and very simple to use. If its ubiquity as a marketing channel isn't enough to convince you, it's plain to see that there are many new and exciting opportunities to make extra revenue, stay in touch with your customers and also, importantly them with you.

For example if you run an online store why wouldn't you want to increase your store revenue by having your entire shop into a users pocket 24/7. Running a local competition? Why wouldn't you want to target people based on the proximity of their location to it. If your a hotel soon you'll be able to send the a virtual keycard to a users smartphone, saving on keycard system costs. The uses are endless, growing, exciting and potentially very lucrative for the businesses that do it right.

And doing it right is the key here, just like any new marketing channel many of the old rules still apply, just alongside some new ones. You still need make sure you understand your product offering and who you should target. But in the mobile channel it's essential you do so with usability, efficiency and specific customer goals.

Going Mobile

Never has it been more cost effective or important to make the leap into the post PC era

So you've decided to go ahead and get involved in the mobile space, what are your options? And what are the costs? Well first up you'll need to decide whether you want a "Native" application or what's known as a "Web App". For the non technical a "Native" application is programmed and optimised specifically for each device, whereas a "Web App" is essentially made using advanced web page technology like HTML5 and JavaScript i.e all elements that make up normal webpages and work across all smartphones.

"Native" Apps do currently have modest advantages over "Web Apps", this is mostly to do with the apps speed, access to the smartphones cool sensors and of course the massive distribution and money making potential of the various App stores. But wrapped up in this, are a number of disadvantages. Native apps are costly, we're talking £10k plus entry points, since you need to create an app for each specific device (e.g. iOS, Android, Blackberry) so both development and on going support costs can rack up.

The alternative approach is called "Web Apps". These essentially use advanced web page technology like HTML5 and JavaScript (all elements that make up normal webpages) and can have "almost" the same power as a "Native" App. When I say almost, pretty soon we think this will gap will close.

For the past 18 months "Web Apps" have been seen as the "poor cousins" in terms of functionality, compared to "Native" applications. But this is changing and recently the technologies that "Web Apps" run on have seen massive improvements. In a short amount of time they are running faster, while getting increasing access to the smartphones sensors and "cool" stuff. But the biggest advantage "Web Apps" have over the "Native" applications are the costs, the entry point for a simple web app can be under £3k, only increasing as things get more complex. Add this to the fact that the biggest cost saving you'll make is that they don't require multiple versions to be maintained, one size really does fit all, meaning massively reduced development and maintenance costs, whilst also hitting the biggest audience.

So if one thing is for sure, never has it been more cost effective or important to make the leap into the post PC era. If you have any questions about "going mobile" do get in touch, Inspira Digital can help you make sense of the web for your business, providing creative design, cutting edge development, targeted marketing and great customer service what ever your window of communication.

The benefits of being a fully
engaged and integrated client...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:40 GMT

It's very easy as a punter to be seduced by the "build you own" website templates and the multitude of "easy as 1 2 3" web services that are available. Fair enough they can get you a good distance and help you to cheaply establish yourself, but sooner or later you'll hit a brick wall, whether that's in the platforms abilities or your own shortcomings, there will be only so far you can personally can take things. And while there are a rare, few extraordinarily talented polymaths, most successful business leaders realise early on that the "do everything yourself" approach can quickly stifle your businesses growth.

This doesn't mean letting go or loosing control, it means that you become engaged with other professionals

This doesn't mean letting go or loosing control, it means that you become engaged with other professionals and help steer and guide your business to greater success. The positive results of this approach were recently highlighted to us during the process of creating the Agape Volunteers brand and website.

Initially Gee (Agape Volunteers young CEO) had got his organisation so far. His dedication and determination to the project had allowed him to build and brand the initial website himself (using a build your own package), whilst also putting all the key personnel into place in Africa and the UK. When he spoke to us, he realised to take things to the next level and move the charity up a gear, he needed help. Since then the Agape Volunteers project has been characterised by Gee's very involved but also trusting approach. This has helped to foster a flourishing professional relationship between Inspira Digital and Agape Volunteers.

it just goes to show the benefits of not only partnering a great team, but also trusting their professionalism too

As a result Inspira Digital have not only provided Agape Volunteers with a striking brand image we have become involved on a number of levels, leveraging our online and marketing knowledge to help drive his charity forward. Much of the Agape Volunteers project has been characterised by small but not insignificant steps. For example, shortly after we donated the well received branding work, Gee was then confident enough to approach potential investors. Rather than snatch at the opportunity Gee consulted us for help to get his business plan and pitch in order, it was great move on his part, and allowed us to back him up with projected figures and the recommendation of the Google Grant scheme, that allows non profits to gain free exposure via Google Adwords. Safe to say the pitch was so succesfull that Agape Volunteers secured double their required backing, much of that, in part, due to his ability to know when to ask for advice and allowing our team to back him up with sound expertise.

As the project moved forward Gee was active in providing site content and images, right through to providing timely feedback on the important technical decisions. This resulted in a project that launched just one day later than originally expected, in an industry were project creep is rife (and a project that has a number of technical challenges) this is no small achievement.

Agape Volunteers is now looking to send over 100 students to Africa in it's first year as direct result of the website, this will generate 1000's of man hours in donated time and also increase financial donations. The clear success of this project just goes to show the benefits of not only partnering a good team but also trusting their professionalism too.

The Humber Royal Win
North Lincolnshire Investment Award

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:40 GMT

Congratulations are in order for a relatively recent addition to the Inspira Digital client roster, The Humber Royal who are part of The Icon Hotel Group. They have just won a coveted North Lincolnshire Investment Award in recognition of a £2 million plus investment in the Grimsby based Hotel.

We have put so much hard work, commitment and time into the project so it is great to see it being recognised. Icon saw the potential, wanted to invest in Grimsby and what it has done is given the staff a real boost.
Anne Bennet

Inspira Digital have been responsible for helping to roll out much of the companies brand communications, creating and managing the hotels web presence whilst also helping design the stylish logo and suite of restaurant menus for the fantastic Brasserie restaurant.

The investment has invigorated and focused the team at The Humber Royal and inspired much of the graphic design and branding we have created for them
Luke Green

Further Information
This award recognises the contribution a business has made to the local economy. Open to any business that has relocated to or significantly expanded in North East Lincolnshire in the past five years. Applicants needed to demonstrate how they had contributed to the economic success of the area.

Northern Lincolnshire Business Awards Website
This is Grimsby News Article

inspira digital's client daisy park wins best newcomer south west at the 2011 gift retailer awards

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:40 GMT

After being nominated last year Daisy Park have finally secured the coveted top spot, picking up the prestigious award at the black tie event held at the Lancaster Hotel, London. Seen as the highlight of UK retailers calendar, the event was attended by over 400 people from all walks of the gift trade – including a myriad of retailers and suppliers.

The jubilant owners of Daisy Park Emma & David remarked on their return, "It was an amazing night and it was such a shock to win such a prestigious award. We now have a spectacular trophy and it sits in full view for all to see in Daisy Parks window. We are very proud."

Inspira are proud to continue to support Daisy Park with their online business success. It is great to work with Daisy Park, especially with all the passion and energy that Emma at brings to the business and our marketing discussions – the award is highly deserved.
Mike Harding

Inspira Digital are currently working on further improving the already successful website with a complete, but subtle overhaul of the online experience. Due to go live mid June Inspira plan to create an even more shabbytastic eCommerce store. With current projections looking to double or even triple Daisy Parks turnover – it would seem that success, breeds success!

Congratulations Daisy Park from all the Inspira Digital team!

Further Information
The awards recognise and celebrate not only the top independent and multiple gift retailers regionally and nationally, but also one-off niche retailers, garden centres and supermarkets as well as outstanding retail employees.

http://www.thegreatsawards.co.uk

inspira digital welcome agape volunteers to the fold...

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:40 GMT

It's great to get involved with a good cuase, especially one with so much potential - we have also steped up to the plate, donating over £3k in time & service per year, for us it's a chance, not only to do some great creative work but help support this up and coming charity"
Luke Green

Agape have recently asked Inspira Digital to help them clarify their offering, aswell as help take the charity up another notch, a challenge Inspira Digital are going to relish. The first stage will be helping to create an exciting and dynamic brand (shown above) for the charity. Once completed Inspira Digital plan to roll this out, as they progress into the next year with big plans to reach more students and help more people than ever before.

Agape Volunteers provides an affordable way to volunteer in Africa, operating around Africa in areas such as Kenya, Masai-land, Ghana, Congo and Tanzania. Each offering the chance to teach, practice medicine, work in an orphanage, sports education, HIV / AIDS work and conservation. An organization created and run by ex-volunteers, Agape know what it takes to provide the best volunteering experience whilst helping those in real need. For more information you can visit their current website.

design is product,
product is design...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:40 GMT

“Design is product, product is design”

building your entire product from a design-centric philosophy could give you significant advantages against your poorly designed competition.

Garry Tan spent some time talking about this idea that design encompasses the entire experience users have with your product. This is a fairly new notion that has become popularized with the recent rise in design thinking. Prior to this design was often seen as simply a phase in the process near the end to spruce up the user interface. But with the rise of successful startups that have focused on design first has come the realization that building your entire product from a design-centric philosophy could give you significant advantages against your poorly designed competition.

“Great design is invisible, bad design gets noticed”
Jason Putorti brought up this quote from one of his idols in the field, Jared Spool. One of the common misconceptions that he talked about with design was the idea that it was simply about the pretty visuals designers were asked to incorporate near the end of the cycle. Jason instead talked about how it’s much more about being intentional with the entire user experience. And frankly the best design is the design that goes unnoticed. The design that you don’t even think of. Think Apple and the iPhone. You forget about the product interface and focus completely on the content you are consuming. And that is part of the brilliance of it’s design.

“Designers need to have a vision for the product. A/B testing will not get you to a vision.”
Jason Putorti also talked about the fact that while A/B testing and metrics have their place, they are no replacement for having a strong vision early on. And oftentimes the best feedback early on is qualitative in nature and around whether your customer’s pain is really being solve by the product you are putting out.

In the subsequent table discussion, we talked about a variety of ways to get at this crucial feedback. The obvious choice is conducting usability studies with your users. But for early stage startups this can often be very expensive and time consuming. Instead, we brought up a variety of cheaper alternatives to this. For example, UserTesting.com provides a quick way to conduct an online user study and get immediate feedback on your product. In addition,Olark or SnapEngage enable simple online chats with your current users to hear about their pains and have them reach out when there are issues. And we also talked about instrumenting your product so that any negative user event, such as a low star rating within the product or downgrading a paid account, results in an email being fired off to your team who can then respond immediately to address or at the very least learn from their issues.

“Done is better than perfect”
Kate Aronowitz later brought up in the conversation a famous motto at Facebook: done is better than perfect. Kate spoke about how this can be quite hard at times at Facebook since when you bring together some of the world’s top designers, perfection is their ultimate goal. Yet shipping bits, getting real user feedback, and iterating is of even greater important and they often release before designers ever feel their work is done. Kate suggested this is exactly the kind of culture you want to build into your organization to make sure that you are always pushing the envelope with your actual users, not just in your lab.

“The ideal startup team consists of: a designer, a hustler, and a hacker”
Garry Tan brought up this recent quote that has been going around the valley about the makeup of the ideal early stage startup team. Only recently has it become popular to seek out a designer as a founder or one of the earliest employees.

We talked about a variety of tactics to help startups hire rockstar designers. The talent crunch for designers mirrors what is happening for top engineers, so all the same best practices from last month’s Startup2Startup apply. In addition, the panelists suggested looking outside of the valley cohort of designers since they are all in high demand. Instead they suggested taking bets on younger designers who have a great portfolio but maybe not a great set of production apps they have built. Jason, for example, noted that Aaron Patzer took a chance on him, given that he didn’t have much app experience, but instead design agency experience.

But that worked wonderfully given how much recognition Jason has received for his work at Mint. So keep a look out for folks that have great design fundamentals, even if that’s in other mediums like print, because it can carry over well to the web apps world as well.

Taken from Sachin Rekhi

10 compelling reasons
to work with inspira digital...

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:38 GMT

01. Experience

Our team run projects big and small - delivering excellence at every level. We have provided digital solutions worldwide for large and small organisations.

02. Business Focus

Whether we are developing a web application or honing a visual brand, our goal is always business centric and focused on improving your bottom-line.

03. Simplicity

For us, even in a technical world, it really is all about delivering simplicity - be it communicating your core message, or creating a powerful user interface.

04. Transparency

Get direct access to the team working on your project and open honest communications, to monitor progress.

05. Size matters

We are a small team and proud of it. We under-do our competition, we're more flexible, less bureaucratic, and agile. In the fast changing world of online it pays to have an adaptable team.

06. Multi-disciplined team

We're a team of skilled professionals - we wear many hats but are interconnected and motivated.

07. Proven Process

It's easy to say - harder to prove! take a look at our recent work for the results.

08. Exceptional Support

Technology can go a long way but an understanding voice even further, our team is as passionate about supporting our customers as it is a world changing idea.

09. Cost Effective

We solve problems with elegant solutions, we price out our team competitively but professionally. What you get is motivated and engaged people striving to produce long term cost effective success for your business.

10. Long Term Relationships

We work hard at this and it shows - over 90% of our clients have become long termers. That is to say, work with us on a continual day to day basis and trust us to help drive there business foward online.

what's the advantage of a professionally managed
adwords campaign?

Mike Harding — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:39 GMT

in one month, against the backdrop of a declining market, our managed adwords camapign increased revenue by 286%

In this example our client had a "modest" maximum daily spend of £4, which they had been managing themselves. Inspira Digital took up the reigns on the 17th of Feb this year and in less than a month effected a sizable increase in the Return On Investment (ROI). More impressively this was also set against the backdrop of declining sales and demand in the market.

What we didnt do

Increase the daily spend
Increase the number of clicks

What we did do

Created effective Adwords campaigns that were based on demand, solid research and experience
Increased revenue by 286%

To good to be true? Check out the actual figures!

Categorise this under ridiculously good!

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:39 GMT

Inspira Digital welcome Corporate Leisure to their client list.

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:39 GMT

Due to the success of Ice Magic, we are now working with sister company Corporate Leisure to deliver a new and exciting chapter in the business. Inspira Digital have been tasked to provide Branding, Graphic Design, Web Design and Development for the corporate entertainment company.

"We are looking to make a big impact in the online corporate leisure market over the next few months, we already have some exciting developments and ideas in discussion" Luke Green

Inspira Digital will be looking repeat the success of Ice Magic and have some exciting plans so keep an eye out for the project launch.

Cost Effective Online Booking For B&B's, Guest Houses & Single Holiday Lets

Mike Harding — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:39 GMT

We recently took on a new client who runs a small holiday let in Devon. The brief was to take his existing website, add a proper CMS so he could edit the site himself and add in some additional pages. Whilst in the process of doing this he asked us for advice on how to accept bookings and payments online.

Previously, we had looked into this for another of our clients in a similar situation and the only available options that had all the functionality that was required was ibex booking system, which did include many features. However at £55 / month was a little on the pricey side. Our client looked at ibex and came back with some suggestions and the results of some of his own research. We took his initial research and then looked into the combinations of booking services and payment gateways.

The cost savings over ibex were huge. So here is our current golden combination:

Booking System:

Roman Cart a very cost effective and scalable booking system with 1 property only costing £59.99 a year, with no transaction costs. (That's a year at a little over the cost of ibex for one month) The system allows you to do everything you need for a small accommodation business, including adding discount codes, sales reports and much more. Details of there services can be found here

Payment Gateway:

Roman Cart integrates with just about all the payment gateways you would hope it does, all the usual suspects such as Google checkout, PayPal, WorldPay etc. The best of these in terms of service and also cost we found was SagePay. Now were big fans of Sage Pay, as for a flat rate of just £20 a month you can process up to 1000 transactions per quarter, an average of 333 per month which for a small trader is great. There are no setup costs and if you choose to use them as your merchant account there rates are very reasonable.

So for an entire years payment gateway and booking solution the cost is fixed at £299.99 for the year, safe to say these savings will be passed on to our other holiday lettings clients.

inspira digital, our story - so far...

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:39 GMT

Inspira Digital came together as a company in April 2008 and was formed from the strong belief that a successful web company should offer a well rounded and connected service.

Previously Mike and Luke both ran separate successful freelance businesses (Luke - The Layer Design, Mike - SEO Dynamiks) but found increasingly that they were working as a team to produce work that not only had creative awareness but marketing intelligence too. It proved a winning combination, in a market flooded with web companies with uneven skill sets, Inspira Digital is able to provide both fantastic execution and informed direction for it’s clients.

Add to this to a knack to spot up and coming cutting edge online services and leverage them for the benefit it’s clients, saw Inspira grow quickly to a balanced well rounded four person team with a solid client base spanning, large and small business both nationaly in the UK and as far afield as America, Australia & Monaco.

Inspira is a young business with many of it’s major milestones ahead but we continue currently to take on new work and build strong long term relationships with our existing clients, were often seen an essential part of their day-to-day business strategy.

here's what we believe has made us successful - so far!

we love what we do and take pride in our work
we believe that getting the most out of the web for your business is about bringing fore core elements together creative, development, marketing and support
we supply a professional service - and charge professional (but competitive) prices
we understand the world we occupy can seem technical and scary for our clients so we believe in keeping things simple
we only work with suppliers of the highest standard and share our values for excellence in service.
talented team members are gold dust, so we strive to provide a challenging and enjoyable environment & projects and clients to work with.

company milestones - so far

Profitable from our first year with no debt
Mike Harding attaining a Princess Trust Award for business innovation.
Providing highly praised and profitable e-commerce solutions for our clients
Managing to turn around 80% of our clients in to long term and successful business relationships
Our ability to bring the best of the web together for our projects
Moving to our dedicated offices in November 2010
Balanced, highly skilled team.
Creating great looking and functional communications

The internets running out of places, what the hell does this mean and should we worry about it?

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:39 GMT

To put this in to some kind of context check out this article from wired.com it kinda explain's it neatly,

In other web-related news, the internet is running out of places. As it turns out, the supply of IP addresses is exhausted, and I’m feeling pretty run-down myself. In layman’s terms, consider the internet as a giant parking lot, with a huge but finite number of parking spaces, each representing the IP address of a particular internet server or other device. There are only a few parking spaces left, and if you want to have a place to park your intercar, you’re going to have to … HEY! That guy just totally grabbed your space! You were signaling and everything! Oh, man, and of course it’s a Beemer. “I can’t wait for a space, because I have a BMW and I’m soooo important!” Douche. Luckily, you’re currently driving in Parking Lot 4, and Parking Lot 6 is just across the street. Parking Lot 6 has enough parking spaces for every star in the entire universe, with enough left over for every YouTube cover of “Poker Face.” In fact, Parking Lot 6 has been sitting there across the street, nearly empty, since 1998. So why not just go and park in Parking Lot 6? Well, because the parking lots aren’t intercompatible. You can’t drive on Parking Lot 6 with Parking Lot 4 tires — that’s just silly. The good news is, most vehicles being sold today come with a nice set of Parking Lot 6 tires stored in the trunk, waiting to be switched out at will. The bad news is, remember explaining to your mom about the whole digital-television thing? And how to get Wi-Fi to work? And why she can’t just put Blu-ray discs in her old DVD player? Well, pull on your explaining boots, because this one’s going to be a toughie.
Taken from wired.com

So is the internet going to suddely dissapear in a delayed Y2K armageddon puff of smoke? Well no but their could be problems. Without getting too technical just logistically changing the billions of switches routers and servers that control the internet is going to be a massive task. For us plain old internet users IPv6 looks like it won't massivley effect us, the internet should continue to work for us - but it may mean that some parts of the internat become unavailable. Some experts have indicated that the internat will become alot more "sticky" making simple online tasks alot more complex.

Our first port of call in getting IPv6 ready is our ISP which happens to be BT, heres a quote from ISP review from a BT spokesperson;

A BT Spokesperson told ISPreview.co.uk:
"BT has been planning for the introduction of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) for some time now. We already have a large IPv6 address block allocated to it and are planning to enable the network with IPv6 capability during 2011/2012, subject to our customers' requirements. We foresee a predictable steady demand rather than a rush. Current predictions are for IPv4  addresses to run out circa 2012. After that we'll see a steady growth in usage of IPv6. At worse it will match the current usage trends of IPv4 growth. We believe that it will start lower than that as ISPs like BT use "carrier grade Network Address Translation" to delay the need to use IPv6.BT's 21cn equipment is IPv6  ready. We just need to turn it on when the time is right; that is when there is clear customer demand and it is commercially viable. We have also run several IPv6 trials on several of our networks for extended periods."

One things for sure the online companies are certainly in for an intersting ride, and you can be assured we'll be keeping a hawk eye on these developments to make sure that we're ahead of the game for both our clients business and our own.

Research suggests users prefer mobile enabled websites over downloading apps

Luke Green — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:46:38 GMT

So lets look at the facts...

When reading product reviews: 78% of customers used a browser, 22% used an app
Reading blogs: 75% prefer the web
Catching up on sports scores: 67% have their favorite site
Keeping up to date on the latest in news: 63% don’t need to install jack
Social Networking: 54% of people would surprisingly prefer to use a native application
Gaming: Isn’t really a hard pill to swallow: 6 out of 10 people want to download an app

source http://www.intomobile.com/2010/10/29/survey-mobile-site/

The case for native applicataions seems pretty compelling, especially when you take on board the fact that the Apple App store recently had it's 10 Billionth (yes Billion!) app download. Mobile is without doubt getting a bigger share of the market, more so as devices get easier to use and mobile broadband more ubiquitous. With is in mind surely you'd be mad not to have an approved application on iTunes or the Android app store? Well we think not, why? before you shout "your mental" here's why we believe native applications, that is apps designed specifically for use on a particular device are going to become a fad...

Native applications fly in the face of what the web is about, granted they can be a great revenue creator but they tend to silo the web rather than connect it, by creating a locked platforms only accessable via the app you build walls rather links between websites and creates the equivilant of a gated community, but one that's not allowed out to play beyond the confines of it's perimiter. Now surely this is not a web we want, where to get the best content or access your favourite social network your forced to download an app and be trapped within its confines as dictated by its design. Surely the web we know is interconnected, hyperlinked fluid and open? so whats the alternative?

Well we have followed recent developments in HTML5 (unfortunatly delayed till 2015) and jQuery closely and if you pair this with the fact that browsers are gearing up to become your new desktop, you can see a different reality begins to take shape. In this new future (one Google has already seen) your browser window is your finder (for OSX users) or if you prefer for windows users your desktop, and within it you view the web, a seamless experience in which you don't need physically download "applications" via an "app store", you simply go to a page and it works. Now this is not say that app stores will die off, they may very well become gateways or shop fronts to the web pages we use on a daily basis. The difference here is that its not so much an app that your downloading just an advanced webpage that you access.

With the recent advances in browser technology these webpages can now increasingly mould themselves to what ever platfom is viewing them i.e. delivering an iPhone or Blackberry version or tradition desktop version. This is the fundamental reason why we think native apps will be a passing fad, not only does they ask users to search and increasing array of applications but means developers need to deploy for a multitude of platforms. User just want a seemless experience.

Web develpers have been praying for CSS standards, and good HTML support why? becuase it means we don't have to code for different platforms, the utopian idea, being that you make a web page and it displays the same but withh content optimised either for desktop or mobile viewing. And there in lies the key, this "utopian" ideal isn't far away, browsers, and mobile devices are becoming accelerated power houses that are now powerful and versatile enough to ape you computer OS. In this situation you won't need a NATIVE apps, just a browser!

We see a future were it wont matter wether your on a laptop or an iPad, Blackberry or iPhone as long as you can run a the latest browser, content is available to you when ever, were ever you have an interet connection. So get prepared for the games of the future to be released with "compatible with chrome and firefox" as a selling point, your deskop to increasingly disappear into "the cloud" and of course native apps to take a massive plummet.

The browser is the future of the web - just the basic webpage you know and love is going to become as feature rich as Photoshop, Pro-tools, Office or even your Operating System.

If you haven’t gone mobile yet,
now is the time to do so....

Luke Green — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:40:27 GMT

A while back I wrote a blog about the recent explosion of native web apps being just a fad. It was a bold statement but as we hit the 8 months since that post, it has become clear that the mobile space is now becoming the growth platform on the web. And while Apps and their stores are now "mainstream" it's also transpiring that this will not be the only route to taking advantage of the mobile explosion in the future. The growth figures for mobile are pretty epic, here (taken from a recent industry webinar) are some headline facts.

while Apps and their stores are now mainstream it's also transpiring that this will not be the only route to taking advantage of the mobile explosion in the future.

In the face of these facts it's easy to see why your business should be getting itself geared up to take advantage of this. But how do you know whether you should take advantage of the mobile platform? Are you likely to see a return on your investment? Well first of all you need to understand what mobile offers its users and also, most importantly, the context in which people will be using it.

Smart phone sales set to exceed PC sales in 2012
750,000 iOS & Android devices activated EVERY DAY
Currently mobile accounts for 10% of internet traffic and it's growing rapidly
1 billion people currently have data enabled with their mobile phone plan
£3.5 billion per year transacted in mobile commerce
Mobile is now become the primary web platform in many countries

750,000 ios & android devices activated every day and is expected

But what about the users, well we know they are; action oriented Impatient, often only have one hand available, are looking for direct, speciﬁc information (phone number, directions, price). This amounts to an exciting "on demand" marketing platform, that essentially users require to be super efficient, task oriented and very simple to use. If its ubiquity as a marketing channel isn't enough to convince you, it's plain to see that there are many new and exciting opportunities to make extra revenue, stay in touch with your customers and also, importantly them with you.

Going Mobile

The entry point for a web app can cost significantly less than a native app

So you've decided to go ahead and get involved in the mobile space, what are your options? And what are the costs? Well first up you'll need to decide whether you want a "Native" application or what's known as a "Web App". For the non technical a "Native" application is programmed and optimised speciﬁcally for each device, whereas a "Web App" is essentially made using advanced web page technology like HTML5 and JavaScript i.e all elements that make up normal webpages and work across all smartphones.

"Native" Apps do currently have modest advantages over "Web Apps", this is mostly to do with the apps speed, access to the smartphones cool sensors and of course the massive distribution and money making potential of the various App stores. But wrapped up in this, are a number of disadvantages. Native apps are costly, we're talking £10k plus entry points, since you need to create an app for each speciﬁc device (e.g. i0S, Android Blackberry) so both development and on going support costs can rack up.

The alternative approach is called "Web Apps". These essentially use advanced web page technology like HTML5 and JavaScript (all elements that make up normal webpages) and can have “almost” the same power as a "Native" App. When I say almost, pretty soon we think this will gap will close.

For the past 18 months "Web Apps" have been seen as the "poor cousins" in terms of functionality, compared to "Native" applications. But this is changing and recently the technologies that "Web Apps" run on have seen massive improvements In a short amount of time they are running faster, while getting increasing access to the smartphones sensors and "cool" stuff. But the biggest advantage "Web Apps" have over the "Native" applications are the costs, the entry point for a simple web app can be under £3k, only increasing as things get more complex. Add this to the fact that the biggest cost saving you'll make is that they don't require multiple versions to be maintained, one size really does fit all, meaning massively reduced development and maintenance costs, whilst also hitting the biggest audience.

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If you haven't gone mobile yet,
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to work with inspira digital...

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