Strategic guide for bringing

content to mobile devices

How marketers can navigate the increasingly murky
waters of mobile platforms, devices and services

Read On.
Read On.
About this whitepaper

The results and advice in Strategic

guide for bringing content to mo-
bile devices are based on research con-
ducted prior to creating the product road-
map for mobile content delivery at Zmags.

The content is protected by copyright and

cannot be duplicated without permission
from Zmags Inc, 320 Congress Street, Bos-
ton MA 02210, USA.

The author or any other advisors distribut-

ing this guide can under no circumstances
be held responsible for any damage or
business impact from taking advice from
this whitepaper.

To contact the author directly, please email

Theis Sondergaard, Senior Product
Manager at theis@zmags.com

Published June 2010 – all rights reserved.

Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Contents Read On.

Read On.

Executive Summary 4

The New Shape of Online Content Delivery 5 Read On.

Repurpose Your Content – Rethink Your Concept 7

The Lay of the Land 8

Data Matters, Not Devices 10

Build it and They Will Come? 12

Complexity 13

Apps vs. Browsers 14

Tablets – the Expansion of Mobile 17

The Future of Flash and HTML5 18

Flash is Everywhere - Except Mobile 18

Adobe is Moving On 19

What is HTML5? 20

HTML5 and Mobile Users 22

HTML5 is Not a Full-Fledged Alternative to Flash 22

Conclusion 23

References 24

About Zmags 24

3
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Executive Summary
Executive Summary
This whitepaper will give you an overview
of the rapidly changing mobile arena, and
provide insights and inspiration regarding
how to address the growing mobile mar-
ket.
Key points:
The mobile arena is messy and com-
plex, and it’s not getting better any time
soon. It will increase in complexity and
continue to change rapidly
There’s no magic solution – it will
take effort to bring your content to a mo-
bile audience if you want the full effect of
reaching your audience on the move
Don’t get bogged down in technol-
ogy – focus first and foremost on your
content and your product offerings
Repurpose, re-think. Respect the size
of the screen, the nature of the device and
the mindset of your audience
4
Focus on iPhone and Android for
now – create a Webkit optimized experi-
ence without using Flash
Make sure your normal website has
a workable mobile version without Flash
– this is the entry point for most of your
mobile audience
Flash is not dead – but on mobile
devices you need to ignore it for now
HTML5 is the future of the web –
but not quite the present. Use it for video
playback on mobile devices
Cover the mobile browser first, then
consider apps if your need for advanced
interactivity is high
Zmags mobile solution – we walk
the talk. It’s browser-based and optimized
for Apple and Android devices
Happy reading!
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
The New Shape of Online Content Delivery
The New Shape of Online Content Delivery
Remember the good ol’ days of 2003? De-
livering online content was a simple choice
of optimizing for either Internet Explorer
5 or 6. Combined, these two versions of
Internet Explorer had a whopping market
share of 95%. If someone asked for Safari
compatibility, you would suppress a laugh
and give a polite answer. And all data-traf-
fic was going to desktop or laptop comput-
ers. Mobile devices were used for calling
other people while online content lived on
the computer.
5
Read On.
Read On.
Read On.
Sure, the web standards were dictated
by Microsoft and the browser was slow
and buggy – but the upside was that you
could reach pretty much everyone online
as long as you made sure your content
looked great on a 17-inch monitor con-
trolled by Windows, Internet Explorer and
Flash in an 800x600 resolution.
Then came the avalanche. The inevitable
backlash for Microsoft on the browser
market, the rise of Google, the resurrection
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
The New Shape of Online Content Delivery

of Apple, the introduction of smartphones,

the iPhone revolution – we could go on.
From a viewpoint of diversity, choice and
innovation, the past seven years have been
absolutely magnificent. From the view-
point of someone just wanting to get his
content online in the best possible way, it’s
been horrendous.

The really bad news? It’s not going to get

any easier any time soon. It will get even
more complex. We’ll have lots of losers
in this race for innovation. And we’ll have
several winners, not just one.

Mobile data traffic is projected to grow

40x over the next five years, and you could
write a book on all the new devices that
have been released in the past year, and
those that will be released in the near fu-
ture. Consumers are going mobile, and ev-
ery hardware and software company in the
world is fighting for a piece of the action.
By December 2009, mobile data-traffic was
bigger than voice-traffic.

6
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Repurpose Your Content – Rethink Your Concept
Repurpose Your Content –
Rethink Your Concept
First of all – forget technology. If you are
serious about “going mobile”, the real key
to success is to take both your audience
and the medium seriously.
The mindset of a user on the move is dif-
ferent from the guys sitting in front of a
screen. Quick access to wanted informa-
tion takes the top spot over interactivity
and laid back entertainment. The nature of
the device – a small screen, typically with
touch capabilities – forms a natural frame
around what content is useful and how
you can present it.
Forget about taking your existing product
mobile in replica. Figure out what part of
your product, service or message is useful
for the audience on the move and
hone in on it.
7
Read On.
Read On.
Read On.
For Zmags customers, it’s all about tak-
ing publications to mobile devices, be it
product catalogs, weekly flyers, brochures,
monthly magazines and so on. It’s a start-
ing point to take the existing publication
as is online to mobile devices, and our mo-
bile product supports this – but it’s only a
starting point. If you really want to reach
your audience, you must repurpose your
content for the situation. It’s simple stuff,
like cleaning up the pages and increasing
the font size. But it means making difficult
choices regarding what content and what
services are even relevant to
the mobile user.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
The Lay of the Land

The Lay of the Land

Navigating the mobile world is about

knowing your devices, what operating
systems and browsers they use, and what
these combined elements provide in terms
of opportunities and limitations.

A number of operating systems for smart-

phones are currently fighting for market
share:

Source: NPD Group

8
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
The Lay of the Land Read On.

Read On.

The graph on the opposite page is for the

US market. It’s important to understand Read On.
that there’s a huge difference between the
US and world markets, especially Europe,
when looking at these market share num-
bers. Worldwide, the numbers look like
this:

Suddenly, when looking at the world and

not just the US, Symbian is the biggest
player out there, not Blackberry, Android
or iPhone.

Source: Gartner

9
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Data Matters, Not Devices

Data Matters, Not Devices

If you look at the graphs on the previous
pages, it’s tempting to conclude that Sym-
bian and Blackberry devices should be the
main target when publishing content for
mobile devices, depending on whether or
not you’re in the US. However, the picture
looks dramatically different if you look at
where the actual data traffic goes, and it
actually simplifies the geographical chal-
lenge for companies aiming at both US
and European markets.
Smartphone OS market share, based on
data-traffic:

Source: Admob (Now Google)

10
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Data Matters, Not Devices Read On.

Read On.

Now it becomes clear that Android and

iPhone OS are the big players in US and Read On.
Europe. Combining these two puts you
close to 86% market-share in Western
Europe and 81% in the US. And, consider-
ing the growth of the Android OS market-
share shown in Figure 1, this choice makes
even more sense:

Projecting these numbers is always dan-

gerous. But from the current movements,
Android is on the rise, iPhone is stable and
the rest are fighting to get a solid grip in
the market. WebOS may perform an inter-
esting comeback after the HP acquisition,
and Windows Mobile 7 has high ambi-
tions as well.

11
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Build it and They Will Come?

Build it and They Will Come?

This can quickly turn into a “chicken and

the egg” discussion. Is data-use lacking on
some devices because consumers don’t
want it, or is it simply because the right
services are not there?

There’s no doubt that there’s a self-enforc-

ing mechanism going on right now—for ex-
ample, this whitepaper is encouraging you
to focus on specific platforms due to their
current size. However, there’s little doubt
that the nature of iPhone OS and Android
devices—with touch screens, extensive app
stores and capable browsers—have capti-
vated their audiences and proven that web-
browsing and app-use is not just possible,
but close to addictive on these devices.

12
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Complexity
Complexity
The complexity of navigating the mobile
market doesn’t end at figuring out what
operating system to aim for. A number of
important factors drive what kind of ser-
vices and products you can bring to the
mobile market:
Screen size
Obviously, the screen size of any device
dictates how information can be presented
in the best way. Digital delivery needs to
take into account the entire array from
40-inch desktop displays to 3-inch smart-
phone screens. Until recently, a “mobile
solution” would go far if optimized for the
3-4 inch display, but with the introduction
of the iPad and its competitors, the span
has increased from 3 to 10 inches.
Navigation
Touch- or button-navigation has a huge
impact on how digital content is and can
be consumed on smartphones.
Specific hardware capabilities
An example: location awareness. An iPad
3G can be location aware – the iPad can’t.
OS and OS version
If considering building apps, these will not
only need to be operating system specific,
but sometimes even OS version specific.
13
Read On.
Read On.
More on this in the chapter “Apps vs.
Browsers”. Read On.
Browser capabilities
Even though web standards are, by now,
mature, they are also still evolving. And
in order to benefit from phone-specific
capabilities, many browsers have special
capabilities that are outside the standards.
As an example, take into consideration the
Webkit framework used in Apple and An-
droid phones (and others). It has specific
methods for detecting the popular swipe
and pinch gestures along with screen rota-
tion. If taking advantage of these methods,
you will get a great experience on those
phones – but need a fallback option for
other phones.
The complexity will increase in the years
to come. In the past years, the speed of
innovation has been overwhelming, and it
will continue unabashed. Since the ex-
pected lifetime of a smartphone is short,
the manufacturers are not afraid to launch
features that are unique to a particular
phone – and thus unsupported by the rest
of the market.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Apps vs. Browsers
Apps vs. Browsers
Apps are extremely popular both with
consumers and content creators, but not
all app stores are created equal.
Apple’s App Store was the first to create
the category for smartphones. Interesting-
ly, it wasn’t launched until a year after the
first iPhone hit the stores, but it quickly
proved how apps created a new platform
dimension for the up until then relatively
self-contained smartphones. It wasn’t a
14
revolution that you could install applica-
tions on your phone – smartphones had
been able to do that for years – but the
quick and easy access to the market was an
instant hit.
Apple’s App Store now features more than
140,000 apps – at number two, the An-
droid store only has approximately 30,000.
Blackberry and Nokia Ovi are around
5-6,000 each, while Palm and Windows fin-
ish last in the race. As for growth, it’s again
Apple and Android that take the prize.
When delivering content to a modern
smartphone, you basically have two op-
tions: create an app or live in the browser
with a more traditional web-content offer.
Here are some key aspects to consider
when evaluating the two options:
Apps can do things browsers
can’t!
It’s important to stress that apps can do
wonderful things, and provided you have
the right product or content, they can be
a great investment. With apps, you can do
great things in terms of navigation as well
as look and feel.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Apps vs. Browsers
App interaction is hard to get form-specific game. They only work on
right
A recent usability study by Jacob Nielsen
highlighted just how hard it is to make
intuitive navigation on the iPad. This is
not due to lack of ideas or options, but
simply because the touch devices are so
new to the general public that conventions
are non-existing. Users simply don’t know
where they can click and what they are
supposed to do. Make sure your app inter-
face is simple and straight-forward – don’t
get lost in fancy ideas.
A browser-based solution has
a lower entry barrier than an app
The browser is preinstalled on the smart-
phone; your app is not. To get to the app,
several steps must be taken: go to the app
store, search for the app you want (you
need to know the name beforehand), click
15
Read On.
Read On.
it, enter password, wait for download, wait
for install – and you’re off. Now, thisRead
canOn.
be a speedy process, depending on how
tech-savvy your customer is. But no mat-
ter how you look at it, clicking a link on a
website is a much simpler process.
Browser-based mobile view-
ers are a better match across
platforms
Unfortunately, developing apps is a plat-
specific devices. Today, the map is relative-
ly easy to chart with iPhone OS, Android
OS, WebOS, Symbian, Windows Mobile
and RIM OS. But other operating systems
are on the way, with even more fragmenta-
tion to come.
To make matters worse, Android presents
a particular challenge. By now, it’s frag-
mented so heavily into versions, that mak-
ing an app compatible with all versions
requires a lot of work. As an example, the
official Twitter app for Android only works
on 1/3 of Android devices.
Browsers also come in different flavors.
But the protocols, formats and web stan-
dards provide a mature framework to
develop within.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Apps vs. Browsers
App stores are walled gardens
Apple’s unpredictable and dimly-lit poli-
cies on what content is allowed and what
is not allowed highlights a major problem
for app developers: you are not in control
of your distribution. You are subject to an
approval process which is, at best, slow
and strict, and at worst, unpredictable and
censoring. Not so in the browser.
There’s a general sense that if you can get
the user to download and install an app,
you’ve really engaged with him, and you
can maintain an ongoing relationship.
Don’t bet on this to be true, no matter
what. Apps are plentiful, and you will still
be fighting for attention.
16
Make sure your normal web-
site has a workable mobile version
without Flash
Your website is the entry point for most
of your mobile audience – make sure they
have a good experience
Links are important
It sounds almost archaic in this web 3.0
world to be talking about the importance
of hyperlinks. But none the less, this ba-
sic element of the web is still what ties it
all together. Sharing interesting content
among friends is key. It’s an often over-
looked fact that mobile apps provide no
global system for sharing content outside
themselves or for deep-linking. With apps,
you’ve left the sharing to those already in
the know who have the app installed.
Those who don’t – the ones that you are
most interested in reaching – face the high
entry barrier discussed earlier, before they
can get in on the fun.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Tablets – the Expansion of Mobile
Tablets – the Expansion of Mobile
With the rise of tablets and e-readers,
“mobile” is no longer equal to just “smart-
phones”. The iPad has opened up a new
flank in the fight for mobile users, and
a multitude of more or less comparable
devices have already arrived or have been
announced.
This widens the complexity even further,
with the possibility of operating systems
like Windows 7, Chrome OS and WebOS
to be considered as well when discussing
mobile strategies.
Tablets need to be considered separately,
mainly due to two aspects:
The device and user mindset is
radically different from the smart-
phone scenario
A tablet user can be a mobile user, but will
rarely be in the same mindset. It will often
be a laid back situation, casual browsing,
entertainment, and not the same focus on
quick accessible on-the-spot information.
Also, the device has a much larger screen,
begging for color, life and detail.
17
Read On.
Read On.
Read On.
The operating systems likely to
dominate this market may be dif-
ferent from the Smartphone OS’s
As long as the iPad is the go-to device on
this market, you will have it relatively easy.
They are both based on the iPhone OS,
albeit with minor modifications, and Apple
has done a good job of iPhone/iPad com-
patibility. Apps can be ported, and browser
behavior is identical.
However, this is not a permanent situa-
tion. It’s likely that we’ll see an increas-
ing amount of tablet computers reaching
considerable market share, based on either
Windows 7, WebOS, Chrome OS and
others. When this happens, the world will
once again become even more complex.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
The Future of Flash and HTML5
The Future of Flash and HTML5
You can’t read five articles about mobile
platforms without six of them being about
Flash and HTML5.
It’s the million dollar question: is Flash dy-
ing? Is HTML5 taking over? And what is
HTML5 anyway?
Let’s shed some light on the situation.
18
Flash is Everywhere – Except Mobile
Prior to the mobile data revolution – led
by Apple’s iPhone since 2007 – Flash was
a safe bet when creating cool, interactive,
rich content that would be accessible “ev-
erywhere”. Flash is still available on more
than 99% of computers and still a safe bet
when making non-mobile content.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
Flash is Everywhere - Except Mobile
However, for mobile content, three major
obstacles have appeared:
Apple is not supporting Flash on
neither iPhone nor iPad. While this was
originally seen as a potentially temporary
situation, it’s recently become abundantly
clear that Apple will NOT include support
for Flash on their mobile devices any time
soon. We are tempted to add EVER.
Until June 2010, no other smart-
phones were able to run Flash either, due
to the heavy resource consumption. With
the recent release of Android 2.2, code-
name Froyo, support for Flash has been
included. However, as the previous chapter
on Android fragmentation pointed out,
this doesn’t mean that Flash content will
be playable by the majority of Android
devices out there any time soon.
Existing Flash content was de-
signed for keyboard and mouse input, not
touch-screen devices, and for much larger
screens than the smartphones offer. Thus,
the vast majority of flash content out there
will not work as intended on smartphones.
19
Read On.
Read On.
Adobe is Moving On
Adobe, the company behind Flash, is do-
ing what it can to increase support for Read On.
Flash on mobile devices, but it’s an uphill
battle and the inclusion in Android comes
very late. Adobe has been smart about
their product strategy, though: they are
not hinging everything on Flash, rather
they are publicly expressing their support
for HTML5 and have announced their
dedication to developing the best produc-
tion tools for this standard, just like they
today provide the best production tools for
Flash. This does not mean that Adobe is
leaving Flash dead in the water – they will
continue to push for mobile inclusion, and
they are the first to point out that Flash is
still the most widely used content platform
for interactive, rich content for everything
non-mobile.
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
What is HTML5?

What is HTML5?

After all this talk about Flash, it’s time to You can use HTML5 specific tags on your
take a look at the supposed adversary, website today – they’ll just be ignored if ac-
HTML5. What is it, and how can it be use- cessed with a browser that doesn’t support
ful? them.

HTML5 is the upcoming and latest revi-

sion of the HTML standard. The HTML5
specification is currently only a draft in
progress, but the draft specifications have
been adopted by a number of browser ven-
dors. Technically, HTML5 is an extension
of HMTL4 with some modifications to
existing tags, but primarily with additions
of new functionality.

Today’s browser support of the draft is

partial at best. The major browsers differ
in their (partial) implementation of the
draft. As an example, here’s an overview
of how different browser versions support
the popular HTML5 <video> tag, enabling
the browser to play back video without the
use of third party extensions:

Source: Webmonkey

20
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
What is HTML5?
As you can see, HTML5 support is current-
ly missing from Internet Explorer, which
has a market share of 60% on non-mobile
devices. Only the upcoming IE9 will have
partial support for the HTML5 standards
as currently drafted.
What gives HTML5 momentum and suc-
cess – apart from the absence of Flash on
smartphones – is the fact that the entire
browser community has rallied around the
standard as “the future of the web”. This
was clearly demonstrated at the recent
Google IO 2010 conference:
21
Read On.
Read On.
Looking ahead, there’s no doubt that
HTML5 will mature into a final and Readdocu-
On.
mented standard, that all latest versions of
all browsers will support it, and that it will
be a cornerstone for online content.
HTML5 is the future of the web – but
not the present. When looking broadly
at the market, it’s still way too early to
bet on HTML5 as the only way to go. A
huge number of users will not be able to
see your content, if you base it solely on
HTML5 – you will need solid fallback
solutions. For mobile users, however, the
situation is dramatically different.
Source: Google I/O 2010
Strategic guide for bringing content to mobile devices
HTML5 and Mobile Users
HTML5 and Mobile Users
As displayed above, HTML5 is not a ”mo-
bile standard”, but because of the wide
use of Safari and Chrome-based brows-
ers (which both support HTML5 through
the Webkit framework) on the popular
smartphone devices based on iPhone OS
and Android, and because Flash (until very
recently) was unavailable on any smart-
phones, the Flash versus HTML5 debacle
has had a prominent position when dis-
cussing mobile strategies. Selected use of
HTML5 has grown immensely in actual
use on mobile devices. Simple video play-
back has been the ”killer application” for
HTML5.
22
HTML5 is Not a Full-Fledged Alter-
native to Flash
Even if HTML5 was fully approved and
adopted by all browsers, it’s important to
stress that HTML5 wouldn’t be capable
of doing all the things Flash is able to do
today. Consider HTML5 as a useful sup-
plement that raises the bar considerably
for what kind of advanced user interaction
you can do in a browser without the need
for third party plug-ins like Flash. But in
its current draft, it still has a way to go to
reach the bar set by Flash.
So, what does this all mean? It means that
as long as you’re in the browser of a mo-
bile device, there are limitations to how
fancy you can make your service.
Profitable Magazine Publishing - Conclusion
Conclusion
Summarizing the points made in this
whitepaper:
The mobile arena is messy and com-
plex, and it’s not getting better any time
soon. It will increase in complexity and
continue to change rapidly
There’s no magic solution – it will
take effort to bring your content to a mo-
bile audience if you want the full effect of
reaching your audience on the move
Don’t get bogged down in technol-
ogy – focus first and foremost on your
content and your product offerings
Repurpose, re-think. Respect the size
of the screen, the nature of the device and
the mindset of your audience
23
Read On.
Read On.
Focus on iPhone and Android Read
for On.
now – create a Webkit optimized experi-
ence without using Flash
Make sure your normal website has
a workable mobile version without Flash
– this is the entry point for most of your
mobile audience
Flash is not dead – but on mobile
devices you need to ignore it for now
HTML5 is the future of the web –
but not quite the present. Use it for video
playback on mobile devices
Cover the mobile browser first, then
consider apps if your need for advanced
interactivity is high
Profitable Magazine Publishing - Acknowledgements

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Mobilising,%20Socialising,%20Monetising!%20-%20S.pdf

http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/05/where-on-the-web-is-html5

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http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/26/100426fa_fact_

auletta

http://technologizer.com/2010/05/23/android-fragmentation/

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Examiner~y2010m3d30-Mobile-data-traffic-to-rapidly-increase-

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mash-up/

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compared-store-growth/