In May, I attended the Blackberry Alliance Partner Wireless Electronics Summit and Show in Orlando. The conference was an eye-opener for the sheer momentum of the Blackberry platform and the passion of its adopters. The WES Show provided two key insights that resonate particularly well with our ShrinkRay strategy and product releases.
First, mobile application success for the next few years at least will depend heavily on the Blackberry. Most smartphone users in North America, both in a corporate context and in a consumer context will be Blackberry users for the foreseeable future. In the first quarter of 2009, RIM accounted for more than half of all smartphone sales in the US. RIM's success as the leading smartphone vendor gets less notice than it should. In the USA, there are single Blackberry product SKU's currently outselling iPhone unit shipments! The iPhone is a great product. But BlackBerry accounts for the lion's share of smartphone users and will for some time.
While iPhone users are much more likely to use their browser or download applications, the simple fact is there are a LOT more BlackBerry users - I didn't jot down the number, so don't shoot me for not being totally accurate on this, but it seems to me its about 4 or 5 'Berries to 1 iPhone in North America at present. (I want to publish this post, so I will update shortly with some accurate numbers!)
A mobile application strategy that embraces all major devices is a must for any consumer-oriented offering. But the most effective mobile application strategies will ensure a superior Blackberry user experience to maximize the capture of this extremely large smartphone user base. Getting those Blackberry users to your application and winning their business is key to any mobile strategy, regardless of whether consumers or business users are your focus. Longtime Blackberry users are notoriously browser-shy, but this can be overcome in a variety of ways, including thick client applications, thin client application wrappers and web signals.
Second, from RIM's presentations, which emphasized inclusion of web technology in coming Blackberry OS releases, it is more clear than ever: mobile web applications must be part of any mobile application strategy. A mix of thin and thick client approaches may be warranted, but any remotely viable mobile application must embrace thin client technology in part at least. Existing Blackberry devices (OS4.2 and above) support hybrid thin/thick client applications that look great, perform well and have outstanding cost benefit profiles.
I will be posting some examples of recent work we've done for banking clients to showcase the opportunities and benefits of these approaches.
These considerations are drivers of the ShrinkRay solution and are key mobile application creation strategy considerations for the next three to five years. Interested to hear any comments on these ideas!
Our ShrinkRay mobile web application proxy and our new ShrinkRay application wrappers for Blackberry, iPhone and Palm Pre deliver unparalleled user experiences on each of these leading smartphone platforms. With ShrinkRay, mobile applications that integrate full device functionality including cell site/GPS location technology and PIM features can easily be configured without re-coding existing applications. Our solutions also provide complete mobile application distribution and discovery capabilities via Blackberry App World, the iPhone App Store and proprietary mobile sitemap technology.
Take a look at the ShrinkRayMobile.com site for much more information on these concepts and our strategy.
Cheers!
Dave
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