BLOG@ROLL: The Silent Majority

August 12, 2010

The longer you internalize them, the more secrets will eat away at you. Which is why I feel like I need to fess up to something. Despite the fact that (among other things) our company creates bright and shiny iPhone apps, I still have … man, do I really want to admit this? I, uh, still have a *cough*BlackBerry*cough*.

This act of defiance is nothing new, for me.

I also held onto my Laserdisc player well into DVD becoming the 3 ½” disk to LD’s 5 ¼” floppy. I guess I’ve always tried sticking with the once great champions even after they’re past their prime.

It explains me trying to watch Saved By The Bell: The College Years.

The fact remains, there are still tons of BlackBerry users, despite what you’d think if your tech chatter comes strictly from social media. A big part of that social media cheerleading begins at the sense of pride that has long been part of the Apple experience. iPhone users are simply more fanatical about their product – they’re louder, willing to stand in Star Wars-esque lines for it, and enjoy adding on to it with all of the available apps.

And that is fantastic. That’s exactly what the iPhone is supposed to be about. It’s a lifestyle.

But BlackBerry, though not the must-have phone anymore, still has a larger market share* (42.1%) than the iPhone (25.4%)! So while developing that iPhone or Android app certainly makes sense if your business or product targets that similar demographic, you’re still ostracizing an even larger chunk of your audience if you don’t bother to also optimize your website for the average mobile web user. Because they are the silent majority.

After all, if someone is out and about, they’re first going to look for your business via a Google search. Then they’ll move to the Apple Store to look for an app to download. And let us not forget, if you have any Flash elements on your webpage then the BlackBerry/iPhone debate doesn’t even matter – none of them will be able to view your website properly, regardless.

I’ll give you one such example. With the summer festivals and fairs in full swing, I couldn’t believe how many of these websites couldn’t be accessed properly on my BlackBerry. The very nature of these being on-the-go, accessible venues obviously. I was in the area, trying to decide if it was worth my while to stop down – yet I couldn’t click on links, I couldn’t view concert schedules, or any of a myriad of other things. They missed out on a chance for impulse-attendance because of that. And what isn’t an impulse opportunity these days, with the mobilization of technology?

No, I’ll stick with my BlackBerry a little longer. I’ll continue to be a voice for those who can’t or don’t want to speak up amongst all of the tech-chatter. And I’ll go on rewarding those who are wise enough not to shun the business that my group is willing to give them at a moment’s notice.

Right after I’m done watching the hi-jinx ensue between Zack, Slater, and their dorm adviser.

*Market share figures via comScore

Bruce is a Mobile Media Specialist at Roll Mobile. He is a lover of good music, bad puns and ugly sweater vests. Want to learn more about adding mobile components to complement your existing marketing strategies? Or have a BLOG@ROLL topic you’d like us to explore?

Contact bruce@whyroll.com or on Twitter via @RollMobile.
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Filed under Blackberry, bruce dierbeck, iPhone, mobile platforms, mobile websites

http://marketingmuster.wordpress.com Sam

Hi Bruce,

Love the post and completely agree that we can get entirely too focused on what is “sexy” versus what is the right thing to do for the user.

That said, I’m not entirely sure I agree with the conclusions you draw in your 7th graph. First of all, the comScore numbers are a bit misleading in that they compare the iPhone (one handset on one carrier) with all of RIM (multiple handsets on multiple carriers). Wouldn’t the more appropriate comparison be all of iOS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) with all of BBOS, since websites are really *iOS* optimized?

Also, a recent report from QuantScore (http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/05/quantcast-mobile-web-apple-android/ … see Figure 12) shows that, in 2009, 65% of North America mobile web *traffic* came from iOS devices, while only 9% came from RIM OS devices. And so while RIM might have more handsets out in the wild, this report suggests that they’re not using them for mobile web access as much as iOS or Android users. Conversely, in Asia, Africa, and South America there’s a significant segment of Symbian mobile web traffic.

I think there’s a great opportunity here for use-based segmentation and targeting to help us figure out exactly which mobile devices we should focus on.

What do you think?
bdierbeck

Hi Sam! I completely agree – use-based segmentation and targeting is a smart approach. One that some people overlook.

The good thing with the metrics and analytics these days, is you really can dig deeper and deeper and get specific info on HOW your visitors are seeing your site.

You make a good point about looking at figures across all iOS platforms, not just iPhone, when comparing figures to that of RIM. And actually, I also think that re-iterates the bigger, overall picture – that mobile web and smartphone usage in general is not only already huge, but continues to grow. Not just iPhones and Blackberries, but iPods and iPads, Androids, Windows Mobile, etc. These phones *can* do a lot, but if you aren’t creating a mobile version of your site that will render itself to these devices – you’re putting unfair expectations on your customers and visitors to sift through your Not Yet Ready For ~~Primetime~~ Mobile site. Even on iPhones, websites can look like garbage. But go with a WebKit enabled engine, and people on all of the big dogs of mobile – iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Palm, etc. – will be able to view your site.

Thanks for the great discussion!
-Bruce
http://marketingmuster.wordpress.com Sam

Bruce,

Yup, agreed – there are quite a few sites that go overboard on the glitz on their mobile site, thinking that they have to go through all that stuff to “tell their story”, when in reality the user might be there for a very specific reason.

Also agree that a big step in the right direction is to be web standards compliant and stay away from Flash.

I wonder if there’s any good primary research out there that speaks to what mobile users want to get accomplished from a mobile site? Perhaps something from Jakob Nielsen or similar? Would be interesting to see some numbers on this.