Taptu and MSearchGroove bring together mobile industry entrepreneurs, authorities and pundits in Virtual Roundtable to debate the future of the Mobile Touch Web
Special Taptu podcast discusses impact of touchscreen devices on consumer lifestyles, mobile marketing, mobile commerce and mobile search
Cambridge, UK and Cologne, Germany -May 12 2010 – Taptu, the search and discovery engine that indexes touchscreen content, and MsearchGroove, a top 50 influential source of analysis and commentary on mobile marketing, mobile search and social media, have teamed up to produce a Virtual Roundtable discussing the advances around the Mobile Touch Web.
The Virtual Roundtable aims to explain the significance of the Mobile Touch Web and the impact of touchscreen devices on how people access, enjoy and purchase content and services. Taptu and MsearchGroove were joined by a wide range of mobile industry entrepreneurs, authorities and pundits including: Saverio Romeo (Frost & Sullivan); Tomi Ahonen (best-selling author); Jo Rabin (The Handheld Company); Alfred DeRose (Tego Interactive); Mark Curtis (Flirtomatic); Carl Martin (RedWeb); Andreas Constantinou (VisionMobile); Jonathan MacDonald (This Fluid World); Hugh Griffiths (Phonepay Plus); Dennis Bournique (WAP Review); Neil MacDonald (Nuance Communication); Martin Wilson (Indigo 102); Dave Moreau (Fonestarz); Dr. Mike Short (Telefónica Europe); Dan Appelquist (Vodafone UK); Carl Uminiski (Somo); Christian Lindholm (Fjord); Simon Andrews (Addictive!); Tim Bray (Google), Jason Grigsby (Cloud Four); and Peggy Anne Salz (MSearchGroove).
Documented and available free to download from SlideShare [http://www.slideshare.net/taptu/taptu-virtual-round-table], the contributors agree the rise of touchscreen phone shipments from handset manufacturers including Apple, HTC, Nokia and Samsung, and the growth in touch-friendly websites and content will profoundly impact how we live, work and shop. From content creation and publishing, to user experience and design, to commerce to advertising, the Mobile Touch Web changes all the rules.
Christian Lindholm, a partner and director with Fjord, a leading European digital design agency, who contributed his vision to the Taptu Virtual Roundtable, believes the Mobile Touch Web has not only arrived full-force. It marks the beginning of a seismic shift that will spur the creation of new Webs and new device segments. “Within 2-3 years we will have 3 Webs. The 13″ Mouse web, designed for computers, desktop and laptops; the 4″ pocket Touch Web for mobile touchscreen devices and the like; and the 10″ casual Touch Web for devices such as the iPad. Thus, we will have three segments: Phone, Pad and Computer. The Phone and Pad are Web sub-segments, and will require their own discovery, structure and monetization solutions.”
Peggy Anne Salz, founder and chief analyst of MSearchGroove believes the Mobile Touch Web lays the groundwork for a “new kind of interactive mobile Internet, a brave new place where new content, new experiences and even new mobile search services will set the bar.” Salz adds: “The Mobile Touch Web, though growing vigorously as Taptu shows, is not the only game in town. Thus, the pressure is on companies everywhere in the ecosystem to re-think their strategies and create a balance of touch-friendly content for touchscreen devices and the emerging Mobile Touch Web, while not losing sight of the opportunities offered by the other Internets. We face tough choices, but hoping for the Internet to become a unified place where everything is accessible and connected (again) is not an option.”
These areas of discussion will be explored further in an exclusive podcast launching on MSearchGroove tomorrow, where Steve Ives, Taptu CEO, reviews the key takeaways of recent Taptu reports documenting the growth of the Mobile Touch Web and the division between mobile apps and the wider Mobile Touch Web. “In the Apple App Store games was the top category, accounting for some 20 percent of all apps of offer. On the Mobile Touch Web, mobile commerce is the focus,” Ives explains. “Many commerce products and services do not really fit into Apple’s iTunes content-oriented billing system. Thus, social and shopping services/experiences are a better fit with the mobile Web.”
Key discussion points include the finding that Mobile Touch Websites have grown 35 percent since last quarter. Unlike other mobile Web content, this content stands out through finger-friendly layouts and light-weight pages that are faster to load over cellular networks. The report, which covers January 2010 thru April 2010, also shows the number of Mobile Touch Web sites rose to 440,100 from 326,600 in January.
This rise represents a 232 per cent annual growth rate. Interestingly, the growth rate for Mobile Touch Web sites is far ahead of the App Store, which currently shows an annual growth of 144 percent, but behind the Android Market, which is growing at an annual rate of 403 percent, albeit from a smaller base.
The complete podcast series can be found at www.msearchgroove.com.
Later this month MSearchGroove will showcase additional industry thought leadership from Taptu on a branded microsite – known as a Briefing Rooms – accessible from the MSearchGroove homepage mobile website. Taptu will join other MSearchGroove partner companies including Web and mobile product, services and consulting company Tego Interactive, mobile commerce and communications provider Netsize and mobile payments and mobile analytics provider Bango. New partners in the areas of mobile marketing and advertising will be announced in the next weeks.
About MSearchGroove
At the intersection of content and context
Peggy Anne Salz is the Chief Analyst and Founder of MSearchGroove (MSG), a top 50 influential technology site* providing analysis and commentary on mobile search, mobile advertising, and social media. She also leads a team of committed mobile authorities to produce bespoke research, white papers, thought leadership columns & commentary, sponsored podcasts, and editorial content for the mobile industry. Her report, “Mobile Search & Content Discovery,” was regarded as the first in-depth study of its kind, establishing Peggy as an authority on mobile search and content discovery technologies, enabling media companies and mobile operators to monetize content and services. Her most recent series of practical how-to white papers covers the basics of mobile advertising and mobile analytics, earning her a reputation as a leading mobile advertising expert. Her published work, which includes more than 300 articles on the mobile industry, has appeared in magazines and online destinations such as The International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, Mobile Entertainment, New Media Age, and in the Agile Minds column in EContent magazine, among many more.
For more information, please visit www.msearchgroove.com.
About Taptu:
Since early 2009 Taptu has pioneered the index and crawling of media specifically designed for touch screen mobile devices. Consumers can now, for the first time, search and explore millions of mobile touch Web sites, apps, images and the real time Web. Consumers can experience this for themselves by visiting http://taptu.com on any touch device or by downloading from the App Store or Android Market place. Taptu is also making this unique index available to third parties via an API. Taptu is privately held and capitalized by leading investors, Sofinnova and DFJ Esprit.
For more information, please visit www.taptu.com.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Peggy Anne Salz
Email:
Mobile: +49 172 245 1028
