apk zipalign

Every firm wants to make money on their investments, and mobile applications are no exception. With 38% of retailers already adopting a mobile strategy, managers and business owners now have to measure the performance of their mobile initiatives. Retailers need to complete an expansive gap analysis, covering all customer touch points. The goal of this exercise is to show how their mobile initiative is impacting their customers, as well as to find the gaps in their mobile strategy which need to be filled by innovative mobile features inside the applications. By taking such an approach, a retailer can see both the value of the strategy and future opportunities for improving their customer’s experience. Based on a recent Aberdeen study of 129 retailers, three key benchmarks are used to measure a mobile ROI:

• Improved Customer Targeting Based on Conversion Rates


• Improved Brand Image/Awareness


• Customer Satisfaction

The study also shows that these benchmarks are directly correlated with mobile innovation and related investments. However, by just focusing only on these three metrics, retailers are missing some other benefits of their mobile initiative. I would suggest looking at these elements as well:

• Customer Stickiness / Increase of Repeat Purchase


• New Customer Acquisition


• Viral Marketing of Social Media Inside the Applications


• Product Differentiation


• Up Sale Opportunities Created


• New Services offered as a result of the Mobile Initiative

Customer centric retailers are now looking to expand their mobile offering looking to offer customers new features on their mobile applications. Innovative features such as:

• Proximity and Non-proximity Payments


• Dynamic Location Based Messaging


• Line Busting


• Mobile Phone Based Reviews/Video


• Service and Repair Functions


• In-store Interactivity

The development of mobile software is forecasted to eclipse development of computer software and reach sales of $30B a 3800% increase by 2013. Innovative application developers like Smartsoft Mobile Solutions will continue to push the technological envelope, helping our clients improve the experience of their customers.

For More Information Check Out:

Best Practices: How Should a Retailer Select a Strategic Mobile Partner?

Mobile Marketing Trends

Mobile Couponing: Uses in Mobile Shopping Applications

Best Practices: Mobile Business Strategy

Mobile Marketing has seen growth of over 600% in the past year. The Kelsey groups forecasts 2000% growth by 2013. This is due to several factors, one being the growth of connected devices (mobile devices connected to the internet). These devices can be Smartphone’s, such is the Blackberry Bold, Droid Incredible or iPhone, Pads such as the iPad, or even e-readers such as Amazon Kindle and Nook. The goal of Marketing is to generate awareness and induce the purchase of a product or service, so the use of this new and rapidly growing medium to expand a company’s messaging is a natural step. The average web user typically buys in seven days, while the typical mobile user purchases a product or service in one day. While this increased conversion rate is staggering, there are several factors that can impact this number:

• Age of the user


• Device that is being used


• Social economic status


• Quality of the mobile marketing campaign


• Brand affinity of the of the mobile user

Based on a recent Nielson Study, here are some interesting demographics for iPad users:



How are mobile marketers engaging these mobile users? There are a variety of ways. From SMS (Text Message) coupons and promotions, to advance promotional campaigns based on customer shopping affinity and location based services. According to a Millennial report, here are some trends that mobile marketers will continue to advance in the next year:

• Augmented Reality


• Growth of the Mobile Web (100m new users a year)


• Fix of the GPS battery drain problem


• Custom mobile site and applications for campaigns


• Linking CRM databases into mobile marketing


• New entrants into mobile


• Coupons to incorporate time and context


• Mobile Ad networks will continue to grow in popularity


• Growth in Mobile Search


• Growth in M-Commerce


• Competition for the Mobile Wallet

While innovative application developers such as Smartsoft Mobile Solutions continue to incorporate the latest technology into their applications and follow industry trends to provide the firm’s customers with best-of breed mobile applications, the mobile marketing landscape continues to evolve dynamically.

For more information check out:

Using your Smartphone to Shop: A Game Changer

Mobile Geo-Location Tools and Usage in Retail

Mobile Couponing Uses in Mobile Commerce Applications

• Augmented Reality


• Barcode/ Scanable Coupons through Text Messaging


• Coupons for Virtual Mobile Malls


• Dynamic Promotional Ranges that Optimize Merchandising/Promotions


• Mobile Promotional Cooperation allowing for products and complementary products

For More Info Check Out:

Mobile Geo-Location Tools in Applications and Usage in Retail

Mobile Application Usage for On-Site Retailing

Fourth Quarter 2010 Trends in Mobile Retailing

Smartsoft Mobile Solutions, Inc. gathers the information in this newsletter from a variety of sources. It is our intent to provide unbiased, accurate information. We do include trend information and "street talk" that we find relevant or worthy of consideration. We also leverage our worldwide team of employees and partners to provide timely, newsworthy information. Using less formal channels, combined with our real world experiences allows us to supply with information critical to decision making in our mobile world.

For most retailers, the fourth quarter is relied upon to generate a substantial portion of the company’s yearly revenue. The mobile commerce market is currently $2.5B with a projected 4x annual growth rate for 2013. Businesses have made mobility a top priority for growth and view m-commerce as a new retail channel. As businesses scramble to get a piece of the mobile commerce pie, there is clearly much to be done, in order to provide a quality user experience. According to an Adobe survey "Only 18 percent of respondents currently use rich visual merchandising features for mobile commerce, up to 81 percent of respondents cited plans to deploy these features, thus implying richer mobile experiences will be created and offered over the next 12 months." With that many retail businesses moving to provide a rich experience for their customers, while leveraging brand equity and increasing the reach of their products, here are some of the big trends as we head into Q4 2010, and the all- important holiday shopping season.

• Location based couponing


• Full screen image zoom of products with pan capabilities


• Browse functionality (tied into a company’s specific product taxonomy used by the .com)


• Videos


• Social networking


• Customized promotions for black Friday

Retailers have seen the results of having rich content on a website as it relates to conversion rates of customers, but recent studies have shown that the same conversion statistics are amplified 2x on a mobile device. Location based couponing will also be a huge feature for many retailers, along with custom promotions based on the customer’s exact location. It is going to be a very exciting time in mobile commerce, both for retail companies and their customers. Innovative application developers will be adding fuel to this fire, by creating new functionality using the latest consumer grade devices and technology.

For more information on mobile commerce check out:

Mobile Commerce: A Definition

Disclaimer: “The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Smartsoft.”

Why is it valuable to have a Mobile Enterprise Strategy? Well, as with any business strategy you cannot get to where you need to be without knowing how you will get there. This statement rings especially true with a mobile enterprise strategy. The mobile web (web 3.0) is projected to grow at an annualized 500% over the next three years. How can your business benefit from this spectacular growth? By leveraging strategic planning through a trusted mobile solutions partner. A thorough mobile solutions partner will take into account your business objectives, growth expectations, and define a custom mobile solutions to achieve your business goals in mobility. In this difficult economy, growth might only be a dream, and many firms are relying on cost savings. A mobile solutions partner can help your firm improve efficiency, reduce costs and overhead. This can be achieved by implementing proven business mobility solutions such as:

• Mobile Workforce Management


• Inventory Management


• Demand Planning


• Business Intelligence

These mobile applications can empower management and your workforce, providing your employees information at the point of performance. The right mobile solution can pull the right data from your SAP, Salesforce.com or other systems, turn that data into valuable and actionable information, then work as a tool allowing for quick action on that information. Inventory carrying costs can be reduced, allowing for a direct impact on your firms bottom line. As real-time information is transferred, your workforce can keep up with movements of inventory, route optimization, and inventory levels. This empowerment of the workforce generates instant dividends for your firm. These are only a few examples of how mobility can work for your business. Stay tuned...

Does your business have a mobile strategy? This is a question posed to many executives these days. Given the dynamic and changing landscape in enterprise mobility, many companies are scrambling to define a mobile strategy that enhances their business, and fills the needs of their customers. There are several common mistakes being made in industry on a regular basis,

First, businesses are thinking short-term and rushing to keep up with an industry (mobile) that they do not fully understand. This is not based on ignorance, just the simple fact that mobility is not a part of their core business. This short-term thinking of filling the enterprises mobility needs, such as work order management, business intelligence, inventory management, just to name a few, causes firms to work with products that are inflexible and do not fully meet the needs of their business. The end result of this quick action, a company having to either replace mobile enterprise software, or even worse being locked into a solution that is not achieving the intended business goal. This problem can be solved before it starts by partnering with mobile application development firms that bring through leadership and a strategic partnership at the beginning of a enterprise mobility project. This allows for the following benefits:

• Platform and Device Knowledge


• Business Requirements Gathering


• Back-end ERP Blueprinting


• Knowledge share of where technology is going (short-term and long-term)


• Custom Solution Proposals (get you what you need, not what a firm has to sell you)

The benefits of taking the proper first steps when developing a mobile enterprise strategy are staggering. Lets take inventory management for example. Each business has different inventory management needs, just in time production creates the need to monitor and move inventory and parts rapidly through a warehouse. Workers on the floor, can keep track of movement of goods, via RFID technologies and track that movement throughout the production process all on a rugedized mobile device currently used. Inventory stock-outs can be eliminated by alerts sent to workers mobile devices. Once received the worker can locate the needed stock in the warehouse, request the stock, get the right product in the right place at the right time. Reducing not only stockouts, but inventory caring costs, and meeting production goals. The impact is a major return on your mobile investment in the short-term.

Looking out to the long-term, you can port a mobile application to multiple devices all consumer grade, and use bolt on technologies to reduce the high costs of rugedized mobile devices. The addition of enhancements such as speech recognition, scanning and signature capabilities the technology becomes viable for your business through software updates is a via a road-mapped software development life cycle.

A partner in mobile strategy not only saves you money in both the short and long-term, but tailors solutions to provide your firm with a real and quantifiable competitive advantage. Some say this is only for large corporations, but many small and medium size businesses can implement a mobile entrise strategy, getting the same benefits as larger companies. This can be done reasonably by simply using the consumer grade mobile devices their employees already have such as Blackberry, iPhone, Droid, on Windows Mobile phones. While many mobile application developers for the enterprise offer an out of the box solution, the failure to take into account the current situation of an individual business makes this out of the box solution a mess. Working with a strong mobile development partner, will pay for itself over and over. Bottom line is by implementing this approach from the begining your mobile enterprise solution can not only reflect your business needs, but grow and change as your business does.

With many business scrambling to get a piece of the mobile pie (web 3.0), multiple mobile projects are thrown at managers. How can a manager properly prioritize these projects, forecast the ROI, and build a strategic mobility road-map? Given my experiences in industry I can truly say there is no one-size-fits-all approach, but by adopting the following framework mobile projects can be prioritized to optimize the finite resources of a business.

First think of Risk vs. Reward. The more risky a projects success, obviously the more reward (revenue, reach, profit, savings) a project must have. While it is difficult to measure this apples to apples, think of creating a weighted average in the form of a rubric.

Now you need to think about your cost of capital: ie. How much does it cost you to fund the mobile projects. As the risk/reward can vary greatly from one mobilization project to the next. The use of a blended Beta is recommended. This can be calculated by regression or blending similar firms or competitor's betas.

Now you can look at a project through a cost-benefit methodology. Build a model, allowing for a risk-reward-cost metric, allowing for all mobility projects to be compared the same, the project with the highest risk/reward - cost value can then be placed in the production cue all things being equal.

While this is a high-level method, and many other factors should be considered. This approach will provide you or your firm with a simple and effective solution to Enterprise Mobilityproject valuation/prioritization. Other items to consider are if you have a large investment is a back-end system such as SAP or another ERP, time-line issues, and implentation planning done through solid project buleprint methodology.