Marketing Pilgrim

Think about the last time you were in a business meeting. Did you sneak a peek? Be honest? Did you hide your mobile phone under the table or go to the restroom for a quick look?

According to a recent Harris Poll, 63% of American’s surveyed believe that people sneak-a-peek at their cell phones during work meetings. The most popular methods of sneakery are:

• 47% – Hiding their mobile device under the table
• 42% – Excusing themselves to go to the restroom
• 35% – Hiding their mobile device in their folders/notebooks/papers
• 9% – Pretending to tie their shoes
• 8% – Creating a distraction

Creating a distraction! What an image. “Look, Carmen Electra in a helicopter!”

Marketers have long had a love / hate relationship with StumbleUpon. The site is known for sending large quantities of traffic to your webpages and if you become a SU favorite, the numbers will go through the roof. The downside is that StumbleUpon traffic rarely stays more than a few seconds and doesn’t usually convert.

So, for those of you who like to keep your bounce rate in check, stop reading. For the rest of you, onward we go to StumbleUpon’s new iPad upgrade. The new interface makes it easy to swipe through page after page, leave your thumbs up or down vote and even comment. It’s also more social with easy share buttons and connections to your SU friends. They also upgraded the smartphone app with a friends bar that shows which of your friends also liked the site.

Today the WhitePages will be launching its latest app, Localicious. Considering the rate of apps appearing in the marketplace these days that’s not news.

What is interesting, however, is where the app will appear first. Rather than going the ‘traditional’ route of iPhone then Android, the WhitePages have reversed the order and the reason is pretty simple: it’s easier to plan a launch around Android launches versus trying to manage the Apple app approval process.

All Things Digital reports

Apple’s approval process is just too difficult to time a launch around. As evidence, the Seattle company notes that one of its apps, a reverse phone lookup directory, has been in Apple’s hands for the past two months awaiting approval. So, this time around, the company decided to go Android first.

While everyone is busy talking about the level of penetration that Android devices are making in the smartphone world (not so much in the tablet world, huh?) the 800 lb. gorilla in the room is where Android has fallen way short: the Android Market.

Well, if you are to believe the hype from the Google Mobile blog this will be a welcome change:

The Android Market has been a bit of a joke until now and Android users (like myself) have simply tolerated it. Some (myself included) have turned to the cleaner and supposedly safer Amazon Android AppStore (much to the chagrin of Apple but who cares really).

The blog continues to hype tell us:

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So you built it, but they didn’t come. It’s not surprising. Mobile apps may be growing in popularity, but they’re also growing in number and the latter far outweighs the former.

According to Deloitte’s new strategy insights called Killer Apps, creating a popular mobile app can be harder than it looks.

Just take a look at this chart showing the number of available apps over the past few years.

In order to stand out in this crowd, you have to have two things; a killer app and a great marketing plan. Common sense, right? Maybe not. In Deloitte’s study, they found that people often develop an app when all they really need is a mobile version of their website. Rule number one, don’t make an app just for the sake of making an app. Same goes for mobile games. They are the number one selling category of app, but simply slapping your brand on a repetitive or knock-off game won’t do.