The Future of Mobile is Multi-Platform

Twelve months ago, you’d be forgiven for thinking Apple’s App Store was the platform to reach your brand’s growing audience of smart phone and tablet users. What a difference a year makes.

According to estimates from market researcher, IDC, Android handsets now account for 30% of Australian smart phone sales to iPhone’s 40%. This makes sense considering HTC, LG, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are all on board with Android. Global Android sales have reached 500,000 units a day, with Android and Apple sales neck and neck in the US.

Nokia, Blackberry and HP/Palm’s smart phone offerings are gaining market share and Windows’ new OS, Mango, is just weeks away from launch. By all accounts, it's another strong challenger to Apple and Android's market dominance.

Competition in the Australian tablet market has exploded since the launch of the iPad mid-last year. Australians have gone tablet crazy, with a recent study from research firm, TNS, confirming Aussies are more than twice as likely than the rest of the world to purchase one. With the influx of  tablet usage, smart phone offerings must be augmented and adapted to remain competitive on tablet formats and adequately service these users.

Today, deploying a one platform approach will alienate the majority of your mobile users.

Brands must look for smarter ways to scale their mobile offerings across multiple platforms and formats (smart phones and tablets) to deliver consistent and engaging brand experiences to their users.

Adobe’s suite of development tools are setting the benchmark for multi-platform mobile development. The 'Develop Once, Distribute Everywhere' Model is getting closer. In an earlier article on this blog, we reflected on our experience with Adobe AIR for Android and Packager for iPhone in developing our own mobile games and applications.

These tools allow for the development of one app that can be re-versioned for the Apple, Android and Blackberry platforms, rather than building multiple separate apps from scratch. It keeps the apps cost effective and consistent across different technologies.

Developing for multi-platform functionality will ultimately allow you to reach more mobile users for less.

Further growth and fragmentation of the smart phone and tablet market is inevitable and the more progressive Australian brands are already addressing this with multi-platform offerings.

Commonwealth Bank and RealEstate.com.au, whose iPhone apps have been available to consumers for months, launched Android apps with similar features in February and June of this year respectively.

Channel 7 and Vodafone recently launched The Amazing Race Apps for Android and iPhone users, allowing consumers to view each episode, learn about each contestant and get sneak peaks at future episodes.

Tourism Australia's latest campaign, Nothing Like Australia, is yet another campaign to launch with identical iPhone and Android offerings. The apps allow users to browse 3,500 Australian experiences, with users able to search experience by state, locate the nearest 50 experiences and share photos with friends via social media.