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According to IBM, two out of five online retail visits in the U.S. on Black Friday were made from mobile devices, directly generating more than 20% of online retail sales. On Thanksgiving Day, smartphones and tablets accounted for an even greater share of online retail visits and sales (43% of visits and 26% of sales). These results show the extent to which connected devices now influence retail sales, but Flurry's own Thanksgiving weekend data demonstrates that our relationships with our smartphones and tablets go well beyond picking up a Black Friday deal while picking at Thanksgiving leftovers.
App usage overall in the U.S. spiked by 25% on Thanksgiving compared to the previous Thursday, and not just as a result of shopping app use. The overall pattern of app usage over the Thanksgiving weekend demonstrates that smartphones and tablets have become the first truly personal computers, changing their function as we change our routines. To illustrate that point in this post, we take an in-depth look at U.S. app session starts from the day before Thanksgiving through to Cyber Monday. We compare Thanksgiving week to the week prior, and also compare those time periods for the two previous years. (By including the weekends prior to Thanksgiving for each year we can distinguish between overall growth in app usage and use that is unique to Thanksgiving weekend.)
The chart below provides a high-level view of how overall app usage has changed from year to year, and changes between the week prior to Thanksgiving and the week of Thanksgiving. The gaps between the green, blue, and gray pairs of lines illustrate the extent to which app usage in the United States has grown year over year, with baseline usage the week before Thanksgiving up by about two-thirds compared to the same time last year, and about triple what it was during November of 2011.
The darker line in each color pair shows Thanksgiving weekend for a particular year while the lighter version shows the prior weekend for that year. The gap between the lighter and the darker lines in a color pair shows the difference in app usage by day between Thanksgiving weekend and the prior weekend. For the past three years, that difference has been greatest on Thanksgiving Day, diminishing to return to normal by Cyber Monday. In 2011 and 2012, U.S. app usage spiked by 20% on Thanksgiving Day compared to the previous Thursday. This year the Thanksgiving spike grew to 25%.
Given mobile devices are so personal, it's no surprise that they tag along as we enjoy Thanksgiving weekend, but we wanted to understand the drivers behind the Thanksgiving spike in app usage. Is it just mobile shopping? Recipe apps aiding Thanksgiving cooks? Football fans checking stats from the couch? Social networking apps used to stay in touch with family far away? What accounts for the extra app sessions on Thanksgiving?
To find out, we compared app sessions by category for Thanksgiving weekend to the weekend before, focusing on the three days for which there is the biggest difference in overall app use.
The results are shown in the table below. The rows are app categories aggregated across operating systems. The columns show changes in app usage between Thanksgiving week and the same day the previous week for each category. Each cell shows that same comparison between Thanksgiving week and the previous week for the past three years.
For obvious reasons, shopping apps consistently spike over the Thanksgiving period. Interestingly the bump this year wasn't as large as the one last year; however that should not be interpreted to mean that enthusiasm for shopping apps is waning. On the contrary, between 2012 and 2013, overall use of shopping apps in the week before Thanksgiving grew by about 70%, so the 2013 Thanksgiving spike comes on top of a higher baseline usage level.
App categories beyond shopping that saw spikes in app usage during Thanksgiving week are fairly predictable. Media spiked on Thanksgiving Day in particular – most likely in part because it includes photo and video apps used to record family gatherings. It was also somewhat higher on Wednesday and Friday compared to the previous week.
More time for relaxation probably explains why game apps, which are always popular, enjoyed even more use over the Thanksgiving period than the week before.
What types of apps experience less use on Thanksgiving and the days immediately before and after than during the previous week? Mainly apps associated with things people take a break from over the Thanksgiving holiday: business and education, health, and news.
Travel apps also experience a decline in use Thanksgiving Day and the day after. That may seem counter-intuitive since Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest travel periods of the year; however it's important to remember that people tend to be traveling to familiar places and often staying with relatives or friends so are less likely to need apps for booking hotels and rental cars or finding their way around an unfamiliar city.
So shopping does contribute to the spike in app activity on Thanksgiving, but it's only part of the explanation. This data shows the extent to which smartphones and tablets have become our constant companions, morphing their function to our whims and circumstances in ways even laptops never really did. They are truly our most personal computers. Sure, you can use them to shop without getting out of bed, let alone braving crowds at the mall, but your device can also entertain you with games, music, and movies. It can even tell you how far you need to walk to make up for that second helping of mashed potatoes – if you choose to look.
Santa is making his list and checking it twice, and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday coming soon it's time to start making your lists too. As we've said before, apps and app usage reveal a lot about the interests and passions of device owners. With that in mind, we've compiled app-inspired gift ideas for the smartphone and tablet users on your holiday list.
To do that, we investigated app usage patterns for different Personas (psychographic segments) using a sample of 97,963 randomly selected iOS and Android devices. Our suggestions are based on the apps that members of each Persona use the most or to a greater extent than other smartphone and tablet users.
Many apps are free, but if you want to give paid apps or other paid digital content note that you can give specific music or apps or set up a monthly allowance from Apple's iTunes and App Store, whereas from Google Play you can only select a gift card. You can always add some suggestions for paid and free apps or other digital content you think a recipient might enjoy to make a gift card a little more personal or transform a holiday card into a gift.
The best gifts tap into the recipient's life and passions. Apps are a great way to gain insights about your loved one's interests, so before you start shopping look at their phone or tablet for some ideas. We hope this has given you some inspiration for selecting holiday gifts, and wish you a joyful, gadget-lit, holiday season.
Links referenced in the infographic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
In October of 2013, Softbank Capital made a $1.5B USD investment in Supercell, the maker of two successful mobile games, giving Softbank a 51% ownership of the game maker. This investment caught the world's attention. It wasn't just the rich $3B USD valuation Softbank placed on Supercell that intrigued onlookers, but more the speculation that Softbank and its CEO Masayoshi Son were onto a bigger trend. Mr. Son has a solid track record in anticipating big shifts in worldwide markets in general and the tech industry in particular. In the mid-nineties Softbank was a publishing powerhouse. By the mid 2000s the company became an Internet powerhouse. Today, Softbank is the third largest wireless carrier in the world. So what does this investment signal about the big shift that Mr. Son is anticipating? At Flurry we believe he is placing bets on the Mobile Content Explosion that is taking place around us.
At Flurry, we have always looked at the applications being started on our platform as a leading indicator of the app economy's health. This is very similar to how U.S. economists treat housing starts as a leading indicator for the national economy. Typically, developers engage with Flurry and start applications on our platform a couple of months before they list them on App Stores. So if the activity on Flurry increases, it signals that more apps (and content) will be available on the stores within a couple of months.
Looking at application starts on the Flurry network since January 2012, we see an increase in the quarterly growth rate. This is in stark contrast to theories that the app ecosystem is congested. In fact, in just over 18 months, the rate of which new apps are being started on the Flurry network has nearly doubled as shown in the chart below.
While Flurry's market share in analytics could have increased, we don't believe it is the major factor in the acceleration of applications starts. Instead, we believe that we have entered a new phase of mobile content explosion, driven by rapidly changing consumer behavior. Over the last two years, application developers and media companies have seen the shift from personal computers to smart mobile devices including phones and tablets that are now in the hands of over 1.2 billion people worldwide. They have also seen the wild and global success of gaming, utility and messaging applications such as LINE, Kakao, Snapchat and WhatsApp. They are simply acting accordingly. With the hopes of reaching these 1.2 billion people with a press of a button, app developers and media companies are building mobile apps like never before.
Pundits have criticized the increasing number of apps and have often claimed that while there are millions of apps out there, very few are being used. They also claim that a few app developers have the lion share of usage, especially in the United States and other mature markets such as Japan and South Korea. Earlier this year, a report from Comscore claimed that Facebook (and Instragram) accounted for 26% of all times spent on mobile. In its latest earnings reports, Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg almost confirmed Comscore 's numbers and claimed that Facebook's share of people's time is larger than that of YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Snapchat, LinkedIn, AOL and Yahoo combined. While Facebook's reach and percentage of time spent are in a league of their own, there appears to be plenty of whitespace for others. In fact, just on the Flurry platform the number of independently owned app developers that have a worldwide audience of over 20 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) has jumped from 7 in Q1 2012 to 32 in Q3 2013. That is whopping 357% growth in 18 months.
In the same period, the number of app developers with an audience over one million MAU has risen from just under 400 to 875, a whopping 121% growth.
These numbers are simply unprecedented, especially because most of these app developers have risen organically, and not as a result of consolidation or through mergers and acquisitions. If anything, the market, its reach and the time spent on mobile is still with the "middle class", or the mid-tail developers and content owners. Among the 1.2 billion device owners, app developers are finding millions of people to enjoy their apps and the content behind it.
Flurry's numbers, which show the fast rise of app developers with large audiences, seem to indicate that worldwide, consumers with smart devices are still hungry for apps and mobile content, and app developers are building at increasing rates to feed this demand. We believe that once again, Softbank's Masayoshi Son could once again be onto something really big.
While most of the tech media has congregated outside the Moscone Center in San Francisco waiting for the new Apple tablet, Kara Swisher of All Things D is across the street at the GMIC conference interviewing Lei Jun, the CEO of Xiaomi. Mr. Jun has plenty to talk about. Xiaomi's newest flagship smartphone the Mi-3 sold 100,000 units in less than 86 seconds and the first batch of its flat panel TVs all sold in less than 2 minutes. Not even Apple can boast of such velocity driven by legions of devoted fans.
Since its first smartphone launch in August 2011, Xiaomi has been on a growth tear in its native China. Based on devices tracked by Flurry, Xiaomi's installed base of phones has quadrupled since the third quarter last year. In a previous research report, Flurry reported that Xiaomi has become a serious challenger in the smartphone market capturing over 6% of the Chinese market, which is the largest smartphone market in the world. This is more than the market share of HTC and Lenovo and it happened in less than two years.
While consumers rave about Xiaomi's slick design and performance, it is the company's software and content strategy that is fueling its growth. Its early focus on mobile content has given it a clear differentiation from other device manufacturers. In addition, its focus on a closed ecosystem has allowed it to focus more on the consumer experience and allowed it to attract a legion of "fan boys" that snap up whatever device the company makes. Xiaomi's largest critics believe that a closed ecosystem is hard to pull off. This is especially true in China where Tencent is well-entrenched in social networking and gaming and Alibaba has a strong position in e-commerce. However it seems that Xiaomi has found its "killer app" outside of social and commerce and is staking its claim.
To get better insight into that killer app, Flurry looked at the app categories where Xiaomi users spend the most time. While gaming still dominates, it was interesting to see that Xiaomi users spent significantly more time in Media and Entertainment apps than Samsung or Apple users. Compared to iPhone users, Xiaomi customers spend five times as much time in Media and Entertainment aps. While the definition of what goes into Media and Entertainment apps is broad, think of it as content that consumed in the living room and in movie theaters (or the small and big screens.)
Could this simply be a sign of a shift in content consumed on mobile devices, or a clever focus on behalf of Xiaomi? Earlier in the year, Flurry released the below data, showing that Media and Entertainment was the second fastest growing category in mobile, growing much faster than gaming and slightly behind social networking.
So the growth of Media and Entertainment apps is a worldwide phenomenon, but it appears that Xiaomi has claimed its stake in that market segment very strategically and successfully. Taking a page from history, Blackberry used email as its entry point into the smartphone market, unseating Nokia. Then Apple came along and used Music and iTunes (and its access to people's credit cards) as its entry point into market, unseating Blackberry.
With Media and Entertainment as its entry point and successful entry into the flat panel TV market place (besting Apple), it appears that Xiaomi has taken a page out of Netflix's playbook to beat the competition at the content game. Granted, today it is "just" China, but Xiaomi is not stopping at its home market. Its latest hire indicates that the company's ambitions are way beyond the Chinese borders. While its CEO is known to dress like Steve Jobs, it is Netflix's Reed Hastings, whose long-term focus is on cutting the cable cord and "owning" a good portion of the Media and Entertainment industry, that Mr. Jun needs to be compared to.
In August of this year Flurry Analytics measured 33,527,534 active smartphones and tablets in South Korea. While that was only 2.8% of the entire worldwide connected device installed base Flurry measures, South Korea is an important market for connected devices for several reasons. First, it is the first connected device market in the world to approach saturation. Second, it is Samsung's home market, and largely as a consequence of that, more of the devices in use there are manufactured by domestic firms than is the case for any other country. Finally, it is home to more phablet fans than anywhere else.
Worldwide the installed base of connected devices measured by Flurry grew by 81% between August of 2012 and August of 2013, whereas growth for South Korea during the same time period was only 17%. It was a different story just a couple of years ago. During late 2011 and early 2012, the South Korean connected device market grew more rapidly than the worldwide market, as shown by the divergence of the black line from the red in the chart below. This was the period during which Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note. It was the first successful 'phablet', enabling Samsung to capture two-thirds of the South Korean mobile phone market, and driving rapid growth in that market. As shown in the graph, that growth has slowed markedly in the past year or so, and has even been negative in some months. That implies that the South Korean connected device market either already is, or will soon be, the first in the world to reach saturation. As such, it provides a good early indicator of what other markets can expect once the rapid growth period the mobile market has experienced over the past few years ends.
Even as growth in its domestic market has slowed, Samsung continues to dominate the South Korean connected device market. It had a 60% share of a random sample of 3,124 of the devices in our system in South Korea that run iOS or Android apps. Between them, two other South Korean device manufacturers, LG and Pantech, had another 25% of the market, meaning that the vast majority of the smartphones and tablets being used in South Korea (85% of the devices in our sample) are manufactured in South Korea. That dominance of local manufacturers is unique in the world now that Apple's share of the US market, Blackberry's share of the Canadian market, and Nokia's share of the market in Finland have all weakened.
Given that South Korea's rapid period of connected device growth was ushered in by the phablet, it is perhaps not surprising that it continues to surpass the rest of the world in its preference for that form factor. As shown below, in a worldwide sample of 97,963 iOS and Android devices, only 7% were phablets, but for South Korea that percentage was 41%. The appeal of phablets in South Korea appears to suppress the tablet market there. Worldwide, 19% of the devices in our sample were tablets compared to only 5% in South Korea.
Games are the most popular app category in South Korea, as they are in much of the rest of the world. SK Planet's T Store, the largest app store in South Korea, provided data to Flurry showing that 68% of its revenue from apps plus other digital content comes from games. On average, their gaming customers generate ₩5,657 (~U.S. $5.27) per user per month in gaming revenue alone compared to an overall average of ₩3,135 (~U.S. $2.92) per user per month in revenue across all forms of digital content for all customers.
Social networking accounts for a significant share of app activity in South Korea, as it does in many other countries. Tool apps are used heavily by South Korean Android users, and entertainment apps capture a lot of time spent in iOS apps.
Compared to app users elsewhere, South Koreans over-index on Entertainment apps on iOS and several Android app categories (Media / Video, Photography, Lifestyle, Shopping, and Tools).
As in the U.S., the vast majority of apps used in South Korea – 96% of those available through the T Store – are free.
The fact that the South Korean connected device market is saturated (or very close to being saturated) makes it an interesting test case for considering the future of the connected device market worldwide. What happens once more or less everyone who is likely to is carrying at least one smartphone or tablet?
One area to keep an eye on is new uses for connected devices, such as mobile payments. South Korea is a world leader in mobile payments – probably in part because of the prevalence of NFC-enabled devices. For example, SK Planet has a mobile payment system called T Cash, which is used for 54% of in app purchases, and also can be used to pay for off-device transactions such as train and taxi fares. Interestingly, another third of in app purchases are paid for using gift certificates, demonstrating the potential of mobile devices as a mechanism for giving and receiving gifts. It doesn't seem like a big leap for that to go from in app purchases to physical goods that could be delivered or picked up with the mobile device used for authentication. Already merchants in South Korea are using tablets to manage payments, inventory, and even promotion.
Another area to watch is interoperability across connected devices. The fact that Samsung manufactures smartphones, tablets, and connected TVs (as well as other consumer electronics that are becoming part of the Internet of things) makes it well-positioned to better integrate those devices and the content that runs on them. With Samsung being so dominant in South Korea and that market being so well developed for connected devices, it is a logical test market for products and services that take advantage of that type of cross-device integration.
Download The South Korea Report with additional data
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 12% of people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home, and nearly fifty million Americans are of Hispanic origin. The collective purchasing power of Hispanics is expected to reach 1.5 trillion dollars by 2015. Brands are clearly aware of the importance of this demographic group, and there are advertising agencies dedicated toward helping brands communicate with Hispanic consumers. Nonetheless results of some recent research suggest that brands are not doing enough to create positive app experiences for Spanish speaking consumers in spite of the fact that Hispanics in general are enthusiastic users of smartphones.
Last week's Advertising Research Foundation forum on the intersection between mobile and culture inspired us to investigate what the overall U.S. appscape looks like from the perspective of Spanish-speaking device users. Flurry is able to do that because we can detect what language a user's device is set to each time they start an app session, and we record data from over a billion app sessions each day in the U.S.
We started by defining Spanish Interest apps as those for which there is at least one U.S.-based user with their device's language set to Spanish for every twenty set to English. We used this as an indication that a non-trivial proportion of the app's users speak Spanish, indicating some level of interest in the app among Spanish speakers. As shown below, 15% of apps with fifty or more daily users in the U.S. were in this category.
The overall percentage of Spanish Interest apps is in line with what you might expect given the prevalence of Spanish speakers in the U.S., but what's surprising is how those apps are distributed across mobile operating systems. As shown below, nearly half of Android apps are Spanish Interest apps compared to less than 5% of iOS apps. In other words, 47% of Android apps have one or more user with their device set to Spanish for every twenty who have it set to English. That is only true of 4% of iOS apps.
It's important to note that this may not be so much a reflection of app availability as it is a reflection of device ownership patterns since the apps a user can run are determined by their device's operating system.
The apps that have the greatest number of U.S. users with devices set to Spanish as compared to English are mainly Spanish language apps (some originating from the U.S. and some from countries for which Spanish is the dominant language). Other than that, Spanish Interest apps span the full range of app categories but are disproportionately likely to be in the Game, Live Wallpaper, Personalization, and Photography categories in Google Play. As shown below, Spanish Interest apps are also over-represented in some iOS categories, but because the base rate on iOS is so low (4%) the absolute percentage of Spanish Interest apps is still relatively low even in categories in which they are over-represented.
By definition, the audience for Spanish Interest apps includes Spanish speakers, but we wanted to find out what else we could learn about the audience for those apps. We did that by identifying which Flurry Personas (psychographic segments) are over- and under-represented in Spanish Interest apps. We found that Pet Owners, Sports Fans, and Value Shoppers are among the over-represented Personas and Auto Enthusiasts, Home and Garden Pros, and Real Estate Followers are among the under-represented. A more complete list is provided below.
Many brands have taken a while to embrace mobile at all, and to the extent that they have they have tended to start with iOS. Some haven't ventured any further. In some cases that is due to concerns about fragmentation or for brand safety in the more open Android ecosystem, but it is also due to the demographics of the user bases for iOS and Android. A considerable body of evidence suggests that, on average, iOS users are more affluent than Android users and they tend to spend more money in a variety of product categories.
Combine that with the tendency of Spanish Speakers to use Android devices, and it's easy to understand why few brands have created Spanish language apps. The fact that some of the Personas most coveted by advertisers are under-represented in the apps in which Spanish speakers are most over-represented reinforces this point.
Given the size of the Spanish speaking population, the shift of consumer attention toward mobile, and the advertising budgets following them, this situation needs to change. Our results show that if marketers want to reach Spanish speakers on mobile they are going to need to do so using Android. That creates an opportunity – or really a necessity -- for Hispanic-focused advertising agencies to lead in creating high-quality brand promotion on Android. While Android users in the U.S. may be less affluent than iOS users, collectively they still have massive purchasing power, and world-wide, Android is even more dominant than it is in the U.S. Given the size of the Android audience world-wide, teaching brands to speak Android could pay big dividends well beyond those that can be generated from U.S. Spanish speakers.
Many of us at Flurry love Mad Men, but we believe that Don Draper's advertising industry is ancient history. Don would probably mistake smartphones for cigarette cases and tablets for coasters. More importantly, sophisticated buyers and sellers in today's advertising market are making decisions in real time based on masses of data rather than months in advance based on charm and corporate hospitality. Advertising buying is being disrupted by efficiency gains from real time bidding (RTB) and effectiveness improvements achieved by using big data to inform mobile advertising transactions.
Recently Flurry launched an RTB Marketplace that enables advertisers to bid for the attention of smartphone and tablet users one at a time. We are betting big on the trend toward programmatic buying for two reasons. First, it enables precision targeting that was unimaginable in the pre-digital age and is still uncommon. Buying ad exposures one at a time enables advertisers to reach precisely-defined audiences wherever they are and whenever they use their devices. That level of precision would always have been useful, but it is especially important now that consumer interests, preferences, and lifestyles have become so varied.
Second, RTB brings a new level of efficiency to ad buying. The whole nature of an auction means that an advertiser who is willing to pay the most to reach a certain type of person will earn the opportunity to do so. The price advertisers are willing to pay provides a clear signal of the relative value they place on a customer or potential customer.
In this post we share initial results from our Marketplace to illustrate the power of combining the price signals provided through RTB auctions with the individualized targeting capabilities made possible by big data.
The chart below illustrates three important results related to the value advertisers place on different types of mobile users and the available supply of those people's in-app attention. The items being plotted are Flurry Personas. These are groups of devices whose owners access particular types of apps more frequently than people using other devices do.
The size of the bubble associated with each Persona represents supply, or the relative number of auctions for the right to serve an impression to a device in the Persona. Of the Personas shown here the greatest number of available impressions were for Casual and Social Gamers and the least were for Fashionistas and Food and Dining enthusiasts.
The x-axis, clearance rate, shows the percentage of auctions that had a winning bid, resulting in an advertiser displaying an ad on a device. As can be seen by looking at the right bound of the x-axis, less than half of the auctions had a winning bidder. This is a normal and expected result in RTB auctions. Reasons for auctions not clearing include price floors being set too high, bidding technologies used by advertisers' representatives responding too slowly, some publishers being able to sell their ad inventory for higher prices elsewhere, and advertisers being uninterested in the inventory some publishers offer.
The y-axis shows the average effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM). Even though these impressions are sold on an individual basis that is still the common pricing metric.
Examining supply, price, and clearance rate together reveals a lot about the state of play in the mobile advertising market. First, the fact that Fashionistas and Food and Dining Lovers are in the upper right corner implies that those Personas are of greatest interest to advertisers. It seems logical that those would be desirable psychographics, but the limited supply of ad inventory for those Personas also helps explain why prices and clearance rates are high. It means there are opportunities to generate mobile advertising revenue by publishing apps and content that attract Fashionistas and Food and Dining Lovers.
At the other extreme, Music Lovers and Hipsters have relatively low clearance rates and relatively low average eCPMs. While the supply of impressions for these groups within our Marketplace is not particularly large (as shown by the medium-sized bubbles), we hypothesize that people in these Personas are fairly easy to reach outside of our Marketplace because music fans spend a lot of time in music apps and many apps attract mobile-savvy Hipsters. It also makes sense that advertisers compete less aggressively for Music Lovers considering how inexpensive music is now compared to the pre-Napster era.
The overall diagonal pattern formed by the personas shows that the market is working efficiently, as expected. How do we know that? If a Persona had a high clearance rate but a low average eCPM we would expect advertisers to bid up the price to secure inventory. The fact that there are no Personas in the lower right corner shows that is exactly what has happened.
A position in the upper left corner of the chart means that auctions to advertise to that Persona have a high average eCPM given their rate of clearance. Here, we would expect publishers to drop their floor prices to achieve higher clearance rates. The fact that there are no Personas in the extreme upper left corner suggests that is also happening. There are some Personas with positions approaching that upper left corner: News and Magazine Readers are the most extreme example. We see two possible explanations for why those publishers didn't drop their floors in search of higher clearance rates. One is that some of those publishers are able to sell impressions that don't sell through our Marketplace direct or to use them themselves (i.e., to promote their own properties). The other is a policy of keeping prices above a certain level to maintain a premium image even if it means sacrificing short-term revenue opportunities.
RTB moves at lightning speed. A publisher can shop a single impression in the nanosecond before the winning ad appears. Compare that to the speculative, mass-market approach of the Upfronts, and it's easy to see that advertising buying is likely to be completely disrupted by RTB.
The Persona-based targeting described in this post demonstrates the power of data to inform each bid. Advertisers no longer need to make buying decisions based on stereotypes about which types of people are interested in what type of products or content. They can define their target audience precisely, and aggregate that exact audience efficiently impression by impression. Mobile also contributes to this type of precision targeting since smartphones are highly personal devices loaded with apps that reveal much more about the person looking at the screen than standard demographics ever did. The long held promise of digital advertising is finally being realized on mobile.
All of this leads us to believe that advertisers or publishers who want to do things in the old way may be better off kicking back, pouring themselves a drink, and watching an episode of Mad Men instead of entering the fray in the mobile advertising space where data-fueled RTB is sure to win.
Just five years ago, PCs reigned supreme and so did the US software industry. In 2008, U.S. companies produced an estimated 65% of all PC software units sold on a worldwide basis.
In only half a decade, smartphones, tablets, and perhaps most importantly, apps, have changed the nature of the software industry. In this post we look at where apps are being developed and used and discuss the implications of that for the Post-PC Era software industry.
Let's start by considering where apps are being produced. The chart below shows the percentage of the apps that were recording data through Flurry Analytics as of the start of June in a given year broken down by whether they were created in the US or in another country. As shown in that chart, even in 2011, only a minority of apps were created in the US. By June of this year only 36% of the apps we measure were made in the U.S.A.
Of course, some apps enjoy much greater use than others, so we next considered how the picture changes if apps are weighted by total time, which takes into account both user numbers and engagement. Once time is taken into account, things look considerably better for the U.S., suggesting that, on average, user numbers or engagement are greater for apps made in the U.S. than for apps created elsewhere. That makes sense given the size of the U.S. population, the fact that it was an app pioneer country, and the number of English speakers in other countries who might be able to use U.S.-made apps without any localization. Nonetheless, even the weighted percentage of apps made in the U.S.A. has dropped in the past year.
This should not lull U.S. app developers into a false sense of security however. That becomes evident from examining where the apps used by people in particular countries are made. That's what the chart below does, starting with the United States. Nearly sixty percent (59%) of the time U.S. users spend in apps is spent in apps developed domestically, meaning that more than 40% of the app time of U.S. consumers is already spent in apps developed in other countries.
And while U.S. made apps are used elsewhere, unsurprisingly, people in many other countries spend a significant amount of their app time in apps developed in their home countries. For example, 13% of the time spent in apps in the UK is spent in apps made in the UK and 8% of the time spent in apps in Brazil is spent in apps made in Brazil. But as is so often the case, it's China where things get really interesting. Nearly two-thirds of the time spent in apps in China is spent in apps made in China. U.S. made apps only account for 16% of total time spent in apps in China. The size and growth rate of the Chinese app market imply that the worldwide share of time spent in apps that are produced in the U.S. can be expected to contract further.
Translating apps and adapting apps to make them culturally appropriate is necessary in a country such as China to get most people to download and use most apps made elsewhere. Until recently, rapid growth in countries that didn't require that type of effort meant that many developers based in the United States probably didn't want to bother. With growth in the smartphone, tablet, and app markets in countries such as the U.S. slowing and a lot of remaining room for growth in countries such as China, some developers may now be reconsidering that position. It will be interesting to see if many can successfully adapt their apps for world markets.
While many U.S. app developers are just starting to think about globalizing their apps, it has been a near necessity for developers in some other countries from the beginning. Consider the situation facing a developer in a small country where the local language is not one of the world's dominant languages. Unless they create an app with global appeal (e.g., a flashlight app), or that can be adapted to local markets relatively easily (e.g., translation of a weather app), they are likely to end up with very few users. That is a problem since the time required to develop an app for a small number of users is no different from that required to develop an app used by a large number of people.
Creating global or localizable apps turns that problem into an opportunity. The chart below suggests that developers in countries such as Finland, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Slovenia are taking advantage of that opportunity. The numbers in the chart reflect the impact of app developers in a given country by taking the total percentage of time users worldwide spend in apps developed in that country and dividing it by the total percentage of apps developed in that country. Note that this is equivalent to taking the 2013 percentages in the second set of charts in this post and dividing them by the 2013 percentages in the first set of charts. For example, 70%/36% = an impact of 1.9 for the US. A metric of one or greater indicates that, on average, apps developed in a given country command a disproportionate share of time. The bigger the number, the greater the impact of apps developed in that country.
Given the dominance of English, the tendency of U.S. cultural products to spread internationally, and the fact that much of the app economy developed in the U.S., it's not surprising that the metric for the U.S. is greater than one. China's large population and the difficulties developers outside of China face developing for that market also make its high impact somewhat expected. What's much more interesting is that the other five countries that have an impact metric of one or greater are all small, and four of the five speak relatively rare languages.
This, and the low cost of app development imply that the app part of the software industry has the potential to become truly global. For example, as of June of this year, developers in twenty-three countries contributed at least 1000 apps to the more than 350,000 apps Flurry measures worldwide.
There are already examples of worldwide app hits that were developed outside the United States. For example, Angry Birds was developed by Finland based Rovio and has become a worldwide success with hundreds of millions of downloads. The same applies to Cut the Rope, which was developed by Russia-based Zepto Labs and Fruit Ninja which was developed by Australia-based Half Brick Studios.
Three key factors suggest that the markets for apps and app development will become increasingly global.
First, the App Store and Google Play take a lot of friction taken out of software distribution in the app world.
Second, the market is already very large and growing quickly in many parts of the world. In July of 2013, Flurry tracked 1.15 Billion monthly active devices. As our results have shown, there is still some 'home field advantage' for local developers, but in theory developers anywhere can create apps for users anywhere.
Third, the cost of development is still relatively inexpensive, especially if you factor in the average salary of software engineers in countries like the Philippines, The Ukraine, and Brazil. The cost of promotion is rising, but total costs are still a fraction of the cost of development, packaging, distribution, and marketing packaged PC software.
In short, geography is becoming increasingly irrelevant in the Post-PC Era.
Android has been a hot topic lately, with some arguing that it may become a unilateral smartphone superpower and others arguing that it has already peaked in the US market. A lot of this conversation seems to assume that Android's (and by extension, Google's) gain is Apple's loss and vice-versa. We believe that the situation is more complex than that.
Two facts about Android are now well established: 1) Android smartphones now dominate many markets in terms of device shipments, but 2) The market for Android devices is famously fragmented. What's less well-established is how and when all of those Android devices are being used and the implications of that for participants in the Android ecosystem and beyond. Those are the topics that we tackle in this post with a particular focus on Samsung devices and how their owners compare to users of other Android devices.
This posts builds on a previous one we did exploring how people use iOS smartphones and tablets. As we will show, there are many similarities in usage patterns across the two operating systems, but one big difference is the overall breakdown between smartphones and tablets. In this May sample of 45,340 Android devices (of the 576 million Flurry measures), 88% were phones and 12% were tablets. The share of devices represented by smartphones is significantly greater than in our iOS sample, in which 72% of devices were phones. The emphasis on phones over tablets was even greater among Samsung devices in our sample: 91% were smartphones and 9% were tablets.
As in our previous post, we started our analysis by considering how the smartphone versus tablet distribution varies by psychographic segment. These are Personas, developed by Flurry, in which device users are assigned to segments based on their app usage. An individual person may be in more than one Persona because they over-index on a variety of types of apps. Those who own more than one device may not be assigned to the same Personas on all of their devices because their app usage patterns may not be the same across devices.
The Personas shown above the "Everyone" bar in the graph below skew more toward phones than the general population of Android device owners, while the Personas shown below the "Everyone" bar skew more toward tablets. (Android device ownership patterns for Personas not shown are not statistically different from those shown for "Everyone.") In general, these follow a similar pattern to the one we saw for iOS. On-the-move type Personas, including Avid Runners, skew toward phones and more home-bound personas, such as Pet Owners, skew more toward tablets.
Within that broader pattern, there were differences based on the particular Android smartphone or tablet that a person owns. Samsung is the dominant manufacturer of Android devices. Its phones represented 59% of the phones in our overall sample of Android phones, and its tablets represented 42% of the tablets in our sample. Both its products and its promotion suggest that Samsung attempts to differentiate itself from other devices that share the Android operating system, and those differences were reflected in persona memberships.
Owners of Samsung devices were disproportionately likely to be in many personas, including some of those most sought-after by advertisers (e.g., Business Travelers and Moms). Since Persona memberships are based on over-indexing for time spent in particular types of apps, this suggests that Samsung device owners are generally more enthusiastic app users than owners of other brands of Android smartphones and tablets.
Overall, owners of Android tablets spent 64% more time using apps than owners of Android smartphones. This ratio varied by category, as shown in the chart below. For example, owners of Android smartphones spent more than five times as much time, on average, in Business apps as owners of Android tablets. Sports and Photography were other categories that heavily favored phones. As with iOS, Education and Games skewed more toward tablets. (Average time spent using app categories not shown does not differ in a statistically significant way between Android smartphones and tablets.)
Once again there was variation by manufacturer. Overall, owners of Samsung phones spent 14% more time using apps than owners of other Android phones and owners of Samsung tablets spent 10% more time using apps than owners of other Android tablets. The particular categories of apps where time spent was greater for Samsung phones were News Magazines, Tools, Health and Fitness, Photography, and Education. Owners of Samsung tablets spent more time than owners of other Android tablets in Communication (e.g., voice over IP and texting) apps.
Android app use peaks between 8 and 11 pm. Comparing the two types of Android devices, a greater share of tablet use takes place from 3pm until 11 pm and a greater share of phone use takes place from 11 am to 3 pm and overnight. While the overall amount of time spent on Samsung devices is greater than for other Android smartphones and tablets, the overall time distribution throughout the day is similar.
As this and our previous post have shown, while smartphones capture more time in specific app categories, such as Navigation and Photography, those tend to be categories of apps used in short bursts. Tablets are favored for longer-duration app categories, such as Games and Education, and so, on average, tablet users spend more total time using apps than smartphone users. That makes tablets particularly interesting to content creators and to advertisers.
Samsung is the dominant manufacturer of Android devices. As shown in this post, it is attracting a unique audience relative to other Android devices. Owners of Samsung devices spend more time in apps than owners of other Android devices, and they are also disproportionately likely to be members of psychographic segments (Personas) that are attractive to advertisers. In those respects, they are more similar to owners of iOS devices than owners of other Android devices are.
But compared to iOS, a smaller share of Android devices are tablets, and that percentage is even smaller for Samsung devices than for Android as a whole. So the question is: will Samsung make as big of an impact in the tablet market as it has in the smartphone market?
In some ways, this comes down to a question of how it will balance its resources between two different types of markets: relatively more affluent countries that were early adopters of connected devices so new growth is now coming mainly from tablet adoption versus less affluent countries where smartphone penetration is still relatively low, but growing quickly.
A focus on tablets could enable Samsung to better develop more of a true ecosystem of its own (especially considering that they can include connected TVs as part of that) and the higher profits that go with that. Riding the wave of global smartphone growth is more of a high volume / low margin strategy. Of course, they could try to compete at both ends of the market, but each individually may require a lot of resources because of Apple's (and to a lesser extent, Amazon's) strength in the tablet market and the number of hungry competitors anxious to grow along with the Android smartphone market. If they can do both, they will rule the Android Kingdom, and Samsung, rather than Google, will pose the greater threat to Apple.
All advertisers seek to deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment. If content is king, then context is queen – particularly when it comes to mobile devices that are typically close at hand if not in our hands.
Smartphones and tablets are often lumped together as "smart", "mobile", or "connected" devices, but their use varies by person and by context. In this post, we explore context as it relates to iOS devices. We discuss who uses each device, which devices are used to enact what aspects of users' lives and personalities, and when usage tends to take place.
Because Android and iOS devices have different audiences, we focus only on iPhone and iPad in this post. Flurry currently measures activity on 397 million active iOS devices, and this analysis is based on usage during May of a random sample of 44,295 of those (iPhone and iPad only; iPod Touch was not included). A future post will discuss usage patterns on Android tablets and smartphones.
Flurry has developed a set of Personas in which device users are assigned to psychographic segments based on their app usage. An individual person may be in more than one Persona because they over-index on a variety of types of apps. Those who own more than one device may not be assigned to the same Personas on all of their devices because their app usage patterns may not be the same across devices.
We started this analysis by considering what share of iOS devices used by members of each persona were iPhone and iPad. As shown in the "everyone" benchmark in the chart below, overall iPhone had a 72% share and iPad had 28%. The Personas shown above the "Everyone" bar skew more toward iPhone than the general population of iOS device owners, while the Personas shown below the "Everyone" bar skew more toward iPad.
Beginning at the top, the numbers illustrate that Personas "on the move" skew most heavily toward iPhone: Value Shoppers use iPhone to scan barcodes and find bargains, and Singles and Hip Urban Lifestylers use them to socialize. iPhone represents more than 90% of iOS devices (excluding iPod) owned by members of those Personas.
Somewhat surprisingly, that is also true of New Moms. In that case they may still be on the move, but in pursuit of the goods, services, and support they need for their new babies. New Moms may also have less free time to participate in leisure activities like reading and gaming which, as we will show soon, are more heavily associated with iPad.
It appears that moms' device usage changes as their children get older. Moms (as opposed to New Moms) are one of the Personas that skew most toward iPad. Evidence from other sources and anecdotal observation suggests this is likely to be at least partially attributable to Moms using their tablets to entertain and educate older children. The fact that the Parenting and Education Persona skews toward iPad also supports this.
Moving to the bottom of the chart, the Personas that heavily favor iPad are associated with home-oriented activities. Those include Pet Owners and Home Design Enthusiasts, but also Small Business Owners, who may work from home. Gamers also skew more heavily toward iPad.
The time iPhone and iPad owners spend in different categories of apps also support the overall pattern of iPhone going out and iPad staying in. Overall, iPad owners in our sample spent 42% more time in apps on their devices than iPhone owners during May, but that time varied significantly by category. As shown in the chart below, compared to iPad owners, iPhone owners spent more than 13 times us much time using Navigation apps. They spent more than five times as much time using Health and Fitness apps to do things such as tracking walks, runs, and bike rides.
The app categories for which average time spent on iPad exceeds that for iPhone are Education, Newsstand, Games, and Reference. Again, more home-oriented activities.
The chart below shows how time spent using iPhone and iPad apps is distributed throughout the day. As might be expected based on the previous discussion and conventional wisdom about iPad, its heaviest period of use comes between 6 pm and 11 pm – times when most people have downtime for activities such as games and reading. iPhone app usage also peaks during that time, but the absolute amount of time on iPad and the percentage of app use that occurs during those hours is greater. Both of those differences are statistically significant.
The situation reverses as the night wears on, and between 2 am and 4 am usage is greater in iPhone apps than in iPad apps. This may be insomniacs reaching for phones at their bedside or those Singles and Hip Urban Lifestylers finding their way home from a late night.
What is perhaps most surprising about the distribution of time on each device throughout the day is how consistent the patterns are – especially between about 6 am and 4 pm. Given what we've described so far about iPhone being more of an out-and-about device and iPad being more of a stay-at-at home device, we believe that this is a function of varied lifestyles, with owners of different devices being at home and out-and-about at different times.
Our discussion up until now has focused on differences between iPad and iPhone owners, but obviously an increasing number of people own both devices. While our data does not enable us to link the same user across his or her different devices, we believe that individuals may express different parts of their personalities and lifestyles through their use of different devices. For example, by night a person in the Single and Hip Urban Lifestyle Personas may use her iPhone to organize her social life. By day that same person may use her iPad to run her interior design business, putting her in our Small Business and Home Design Enthusiast Personas.
That combination of person, usage situation and device is important for app developers and advertisers. For example, in this situation, our single small business owner may be more receptive to work-oriented apps and ads on her iPad and play-oriented apps and ads on her iPhone. Savvy app developers and advertisers will increasingly factor contextual differences such as those into their development and targeting plans.
Flurry is the leading mobile measurement and advertising platform that is optimizing mobile experiences for people everywhere. Flurry's industry-leading Analytics software sees activity in over 400,000 apps on more than 1.2 billion mobile devices worldwide, giving Flurry the deepest understanding of mobile consumer behavior. Flurry turns this insight into accelerated revenue and growth opportunities for app developers, and more effective mobile advertising solutions for brands and marketers. The company is venture backed and headquartered in San Francisco with offices in New York, London, Chicago and Mumbai.


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The it-girl of big parties, the star of 'The Wheel of Fortune', the Barbie men crave for... Who? Victoria Silvstedt, well hello. As every celebrity (and non-celebrity for that instance), she has a secret. An addiction, let's say... She is...
Sofitel Stephansdom Hotel just opened and has been welcomed with great excitement in a city that is known for its architecture and monuments.
Always ahead the menswear fashion players are gambling on next autumn-winter. The masculine fashion weeks ended some days ago and they seem to be part of History already.
Back in the days of the supermodel era, Dolce&Gabbana introduced their view of glamour on a set of stunning showgirls meet Italian bad boys.
I have now the age to read and to surf on the Internet. Almost an adult doggy, I have decided to browse the web and check out what is out there for me.
Ok. Imagine our shock when after conducting a parallel casting to find a boyfriend (yes we mingle during work), we saw him yesterday as the "elected" Hercules. Here is a review of a short-lived romance. Insider Reports.
A conversation with food critic and yoga teacher Mina Ercel, ways to change your life, your body, and create a connection.
And watch the menswear video of the week by Tommy Ton and Justin Wu. Do not stop there and continue to click on Golden Globes funny catches or stories of dogs around.
The coveted behind the scenes video of the open casting call at Spiga 2. Editors in Chief Francesco Sourigues and David Vivirico take down the names, the boys pose, and then party. Watch out.
We didn't expect the news to come so quickly, and we will be counting the days that separate us from the cover. So here we are the New Hercules Magazine Man: Diego Fragoso. The Editors David and Francesco made their pick.
If you are planning to have dinner with either your sweetheart, or your beau, for Valentine's, your choice can span from choosing something in your turf or (if you have the means) take your loved one to one uncommon destination. Love doesn't just mean little hearts and candles. Right?
No.581 in a limited series- A new kind of jacket? The result of serious tailoring. The SS11 collection is about taking new measures and weights.
The creator of all these crazy pancakes is Jim. He puts a lot of time and effort into this... Sometimes he serves them as animals in zoo... Or characters from The Simpsons... Even as dinosaurs... But why?
Milan – Gloria Maria Gallery. For the very first time the Greek artist is showing in Italy his work of 10 years spent focusing on the digital growing part of the world.
Lights are calling Ellie Goulding home... or so she sings in her new hit. What does the video look like?
No.580 in a limited series- The stare, the dare, the trousers, and the flair. The hoops, the sheer, the red. Do you recognize any of these elements?
Flip through the pages of a special Valentine related Fashion Shoot. Iconic pieces that come to life thanks to the savvy styling: get inspired, be Valentine.
Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce spent intimate hours with Kylie Minogue today for the fittings of the tour wardrobe!
The names of the 10 finalists are out, after the Spiga2 event in which the editors of Hercules Magazine sat through a long casting call: here we are. Almost.
We're excited to see who's going to be the winner!
Styled by Julia von Boehm and photographed by Alexi Lubomirski!
All you need is love and to escape… Take your Valentine by the hand and lead her or him to a great experience.
Don't say that you've never tried origami... Remember that little paper boat that you used to float in a bowl of water? That's a perfect example of origami art. Let us show you how you can improve your talent...
Primarily jackets. The trend of the - please come soon - season is about flaunting the lightest fabric, and not only. Designers were in the SS11 zone when they decided to play some tailoring tricks.
One of the most easy and inexpensive ways to makeover your home is with a can of paint. Paint colour trends for your home occur every year.
January 25th: the nominations are out. After waiting anxiously, here we are, at least we know which direction the Academy is taking. With all the stars we know, and full-on research in the media, (plus industry friends), here are the possible winners. You want to bet?
So who's the professor for this subject?
Coolest magazines... Top fashion stylists... Creative directors... Celebrities... Interesting editorials... Everyone's here, why don't you join us?
A sweet revenge story? How to get a guy on his knees? Love is passion? All questions tucked into one story shot by Kostas Avgoulis and styled by Matilda Pappa for Marie Claire GREECE, issue no.264!
After all the buzz around Scarlett Johansson's pictures taken outside the plastic surgeon, everyone in the media is parading a picture of Scarlett taken from the annals. So did we… for the sake of Beauty.
No.579 in a limited series- Of a sweater of course. Wear your icon of your body or show your affiliation to one. James Dean will keep on haunting you and your look.
River Viiperi's Facebook profile picture was updated right after Milan Fashion Week: happy to have a shot with Domenico Dolce.
Milan-Gallery Jerome Zodo Contemporary-do not miss an opportunity to get the whole aesthetic spectrum of the word box(e).
Michael Grandage directed Evita, starring Elena Roger and Ricky Martin will arrive on Broadway in Spring 2012. Is this a new direction in Ricky Martin's career?
Call it the tailor's obsession or Dolce&Gabbana's extreme take on summer looks, but suits will have to be worn and seen on the sea side as much as in the office.
Interiors are being influenced by today's tech-savvy graphic designers. More and more, graphic patterns are showing up in bedrooms and living rooms.
Forget the milkman, 2011 is about the ice cream van for the pet gang. No, I did not swallow too much soap last time I went for a grooming session and I have surely not eaten hallucinogenic plants this time.
Not sure if the singer's latest hairstyle is meant to be some kind of pop up art... Anyway, following other tweets some fashion demonstrations should be avoided. But lucky us inspiring art works to discover made the twitter headlines too!
Ten diets from the most curiously bizarre ones to the ones set by the fashion crowd. This is not a nutritionist column, but a top chart, for fun. Read on.
The readers ask, apparently after seeing some Italian designers migrating to Paris for Couture, they are wondering why Dolce&Gabbana doesn't do the same.
No.578 in a limited series- Muhammad Ali is the icon of the Gym collection. This year be prepared for the ring of fashion.
For minettes and minets of fashion, Paris fashion week is next. So before all reservations are made, book your table at one of the top ten restaurants of La Ville Lumière.
Push play: before the FW12 show. The models, a heavenly view, Francisco Lachowski, Tom Warren, Jonathan and Kevin Sampaio, many more, and the goodies. Inspired? Game on.
Everyone is talking about Alex Stoddard. Everyone can join the project 365, a self-portrait for each day of the year. So why are we talking about Alex?
4food is a organic hamburger restaurant in Manhattan that knew how to differentiate its service from its competitors. They do an amazing job combining social media networks, product development strategies and user generated content. Yummy!
It's official. Dolce&Gabbana are preparing a big wardrobe for Kylie Minogue's new tour 'Les Folies'. We can't help but wonder... what will the dresses look like?
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana shot by the photographer during a nice day of shooting. Here the story via twitter @stefanogabbana.
Looking for the best outfit to go to the supermarket? Well then check somewhere else... The inside picture is a mind-blower. Styled by Patti Wilson, shot by Greg Kadel for Numero France no.119.
No.578 in a limited series- When Spring is winking at you, or you are wishing it did, it's time to look for the perfect jacket. What should you look for?
It was almost time to leave the office... Go to the supermarket... Maybe grab a bite with friends or have a drink at the bar nearby... Yet with the news that we got, we couldn't help but dance.
The cover girl loses herself in the elegance of leopard prints on the cover of Vogue Nippon March 2011 issue.
The Arengario in Mllan turned into a positive initiative. Overlooking the "Piazza", the Duomo, Palazzo Reale and much more. To those who are wondering about the question mark, read on.
Kiki Tang & Daniel Yoon designed a project sponsored by RIM Blackberry at the Art Center College of Design. Good news is it comes with a ring... The bad news is it's not a Cartier...
Lukas dressing up is the shot we found on our office table, but where was he heading to?
Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield caught in the middle of a discussion at the 2011 Golden Globes... What were the two talking about? Swide has decided to investigate.
So what happened at Spiga2 on January 17th right after Dolce&Gabbana's menswear fashion show? A most coveted moment for the editors of Hercules magazine who were there to select their next Hercules and celebrate in-store afterwards.
It happens during the backstage, Luca Bianchini, journalist of Vanity Fair, falls for the life that goes on at Metropol and writes an article (here included) inspired by the pictures of Swide's photo gallery.
Anne Hathaway is the cover girl for GQ Germany January 2011. Yet we remember this cover from somewhere...
At the backstage of D&G Men Winter 2012, the rising male model River Delfin Viiperi gave hints on the type of music he listens to. Curious much? Come on inside.
Watch the behind the seams video from Dolce&Gabbana's menswear winter 2012 show exclusively shared with VMAN magazine.
"Oh, boy" Milan Menswear Fashion Week is just about to close and to leave us with cool memories. Guess where Swide was Saturday night after the Dolce&Gabbana show?
Free style, yes but - streetwear, yes but no only - a true D&G men cast ran down the catwalk with a to be taken seriously message: express yourself and check your looks.
That might be what they call 'a bad hair day'! Tobias Sorensen had some funny hairdo moments in the backstage of D&G Men Winter 2012. Was the outcome worth the embarrassment?
Dolce&Gabbana's menswear winter 2012 backstage was not only about clothing, it had its digital gadget: the QR code.
Dolce&Gabbana Menswear Fall Winter 2012 fashion show. Metropol's backstage is a place of lights, sounds, and where the tension gets suspended.
The Menswear Winter 2012 show just happened and we are in the middle of reading reviews but as always it feels a bit nostalgic already as if everything just went too fast.
A new icon? Or just a nod to the good old days of swinging London…
The D&G FW12 Show is quickly approaching: the first thing we want to know is the mood. We show you just enough not to ruin the surprise for when the models take over.
We had already heard the snippet back in August and now we have the official video preview of Jennifer Lopez's 'Good Hit': life couldn't get any 'leoparder' on a Sunday.
If Goethe had met Simon Nessman, a young model, if the young model had met Goethe, or is reading his book. What would the outcome be. Even before a coveted fashion show? Let us dream of the romantic, yet eccentric: outfit.
Who rocked the stage of the Dolce&Gabbana Fall/Winter 2011-2012 Fashion Show? A show is a show, so before you take over the audience, the boys get pumped and checked by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
Enjoy the Dolce&Gabbana menswear winter 2012 show and sing to the tune of Bryan Ferry. The Italian creative duo is turning fashion on its head and tells you to forget the classics and renew your view on basics.
A one of a kind insight to one of the most acclaimed menswear studios. Dolce&Gabbana's in house documentary is unique both in content and in format.
Menswear Fall/Winter 2011-2012 Fashion Show: Noah Mills, Sam Webb, Adam Senn, David Gandy, Evandro Soldati present the collection during a fantastic press conference at Metropol in Milan.
We were quite happy to get our hands on the first image of Andrew Garfield in the new Spiderman costume...
A short documentary shot by phone by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana Saturday January 15th 1pm (Italian time) here on Swide!
It's a man's world that opens to us via a photo series that not only celebrates clothes but also deep-rooted traditions.
For the first time on display, discover the inspiring shots of a purely sublime spring summer 2011 collection.
No.578 in a limited series- Not just a classic look. What happens when a jacket has the power to change an entire outfit?
Discover how a spring summer 2011 menswear campaign is done. It is about the grooming, the outfits, the set up and the guys: Tony Ward, David Gandy, Sam Webb to name a few.
Interview a body con during Milan Menswear Fashion Week at the Uomini book launch event, possible? Yes, thanks to Swide.com.
Portrack House, South West Scotland. A private garden, a work of mathematics, an orchestrated nature, or nature's tune?
No.577 in a limited series- The Italian "Corredo" hope chest takes a new turn with the SS11 Dolce&Gabbana collection. Very bon ton, chic, with an effective seductive touch.
Luke Worrall's been a bit naughty on Skype. You've heard it, and we know you've already googled it... Well, we have something to share.
Via Skype Alessandra Ambrosio charms away and spills some of her tricks and likes when it comes to seduction.
Nicolas Vial, well-known French illustrator is showing 20 years of privacy via drawings at the Galerie Catherine Houard in Paris-France.
Just as you were wondering where the invitation for D&G is, we run to your rescue. Ladies and gentlemen, D&G Menswear Fashion Show FW 2011-2012 invitation... right after the click.
Swide.com is behind the seams once again to get exclusive content right before the show. We are proud to reveal the invitation for Dolce&Gabbana Menswear Fashion Show FW 2011-2012.
Why should a brand advertise on Hercules? What do they have in mind for their new website? Who are their fave 5 upcoming models? What's their idea of beauty? SWIDE.com did an exclusive interview to get all the answers right before their casting event at Dolce&Gabbana Spiga2 store on Jan 17th.
Oliver Chesire: another breath of fresh air from Marian Vivanco's book "UOMINI"... We asked everything you were wondering about.
It's time to put away the tree and holiday decorations and make room for all your new gifts. A little winter cleaning and organizing will keep you sane during this chilly season.
The most anticipated men's shop is about to open but as a reward for being patient, you have now the opportunity to become a founding member.
Colour has always been one of my favourite subjects, firstly as an art student, then a designer and a cook. With colour I express feelings, communicate ideas and create associations, which become visually appealing.
Loyal to one of their favourite fashion powerhouses the creative duo just shared with Vogue.com' s readers their manual to be stylish at all times.
Many books have been read in a bathroom, but few in one that opens its window to Hemingway's garden in Key West.
Two wins in consecutive years for the forward Leo Messi at only 23. Nominated the best player of 2010, the Argentinean soccer wonder has proven he is a full-win against all odds and adversaries.
No.576 in a limited series- It takes a jacket to turn an entire outfit around. Breaking the jeans with cotton, a mist of elegance and decisiveness.
Following this winter happening in the Milan SPIGA2 store, the Italian fashion house has decided to invite some more talented emerging designers for the hot season to come.
A personal touch, a passion for fashion, a tender declaration, whatever you want to call this, Haikal Hassan behind the blog Haikalciumlowfat.com has produced another pop-up book dedicated to Dolce&Gabbana.
Vogue Paris' musical chairs selected Emmanuelle to run the fashion powerhouse and tell her story to be retweeted again and again.
Marian Vivanco's book "UOMINI" is still under the spotlights! After Christopher Landon and Sam Way, it's Luis Kelling's turn to share his secrets with Swide readers... Online dating? Nudity? Love? All after the click.
Leonardo Nascimento de Araujo: a brilliant soccer case, from player to coach, an extraordinary career that is yet to show its outmost results.
It is getting really cold outside and I cannot afford to step out without covering my head.
You can imagine our happiness when one of our readers in Spain sent us this file with D&G skimasks turned into virtual accessories for the game SIMS. How to get them for your game? Click click click.
Maybe whoever said one who wins in love loses in career (or viceversa) was a bit too pessimistic; Taylor Lautner proves the opposite. How? All right after the click...
No.575 in a limited series- Walk the line of your cardigan and forget everything else.
Did you get your copy of the very thought after book Uomini? A tribute to the best in manhood that surely deserves its exhibition on 15th January 2011 in Milan. A very special and unmissable event that Mariano Vivanco, fashion photographer, will attend himself.
No.574 in a limited series- The perfect suit turned pretty girl, lady, vamp, glam, so many adjectives it takes your breath away. Dare we say colour, we answer: gold.
Of course in Dolce&Gabbana! Of course skinny! And of course very sexy!
Are you ready to be the next hot guy in town? Do you have what it takes to be covered on a cover?
CrazySwide presents: American football. Who said you can't enjoy football in a fashionable clothes and with no fried chickens to keep you company? Try it here on youtube, maybe you'll like it.
In case you find it hard to spot her in this huge pile of pink shopping bags, let us tell you: it's Kate Beckinsale gone wild on a shopping spree for Christmas! So what did she buy?
On Tv, on crazyswide, guess who is the guest? American Culture meets the artist. Da da da da. Not dadaism. But?
Mario Testino works his magical talent this time for Vogue UK's January 2011 cover. Keira Knightley, looking fresh in a Dolce&Gabbana dress, talks about her new film 'Never Let Me Go'.
Grab yours and step out in style and in tune with this winter's hottest men trend. Simply smart, this classic has been revisited by Dolce&Gabbana; be sure that their version is a must have and a must carry.
Swide interviews Stephanie Moisan, the French young woman behind famous site Le Journal des vitrines.
CrazySwide presents something that came up just by a deranged button. Press Play.
Lesson number 2: the french kiss. Crazyswide with the best teacher ever: Johnny Depp.
You were born that way, follow Lady Gaga's advice and be proud of yourself. 2011 I still to be written, so grab your pad- pencil or keyboard and start twittering!
No.572 in a limited series- Optical? Definitely not minimal. The truth about a full-on polka dot jacket. Dare to be out there.
Happy New Year! We are still crazy and happy. 6 Billion people from around the world share what happiness means to them.
With all the Hollywood actresses torturing themselves to keep their size 0, Heather Graham is determined to eat well, promote different cuisines and still keep her fantastic figure. So what's next in her agenda?

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Join fellow alumni and friends for the 56th Annual Lewis Avenue Reunion, a perfect opportunity to exchange stories with former classmates about our cherished former Brooklyn campus. The event will be comprised of a Mass and brunch, and William Ryan '47C and Constance Stoll '56Ed will be honored with the St. John's Lewis Avenue Alumni Legacy Award.
Date Sunday, October 6, 2013Time 11 a.m. - Noon - Mass Noon - 3 p.m. - BrunchLocation St. Thomas More Church - Mass D'Angelo Center Ballroom - BrunchPrice $65 per personRSVP By Friday, September 27, 2013Reservations Online registrationMore Information Rasheed Muse Assistant Director, Office of Alumni Relations Tel (718) firstname.lastname@example.com


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Designed for standard applications, the ZTG Series builds on ZTS technology while providing a pre-engineered project solution.
The series uses the MX150 microprocessor control system, which includes as standard many of the most common features specified on a transfer switch. It also provides an intuitive user interface, communications capability and self diagnostics.
The ZTG is available in a full range of ampere, voltage and pole configurations, along with many commonly requested options and enclosure types.
Features and Benefits
Close differential under-voltage sensing of the normal source Voltage and frequency sensing of the emergency source Test switch (fast test/load/no load) to simulate normal source failure - automatically bypassed should the emergency source fail Double throw, interlocked operation Electrically operated, mechanically held by a simple, over-center mechanism Segmented silver tungsten alloy contacts with separate arcing contacts on 600 amps and above Arc quenching grids, enclosed arc chambers and wide contact air gap for superior source-to-source isolation on all units Control circuit disconnect plug and drive inhibit switch for safe maintenance Components accessible for inspection and maintenance without removal of the switch or the power conductors Mechanical indicator and contact chamber cover designed for inspection, safety and position designation Product Scope
Ratings 40 to 3000 amperes 2, 3 or 4 poles Double throw, mechanically interlocked contactor mechanism Available in ZTG (standard) or ZTGD (delayed transition) models Suitable for emergency and standby applications UL 1008 listed at 480 VAC CSA certified at 600 VAC IEC 947-6-1 listed at 480 VAC Open type, NEMA 1, 3R, 4, 4X and 12Specifications may vary. Confirm full specs prior to ordering.


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AG Adriano Goldschmied
The Piper Crop
AG has crafted beautiful clothing that reflects a modern design sensibility since 2000. From their revered AG-ed denim to their effortless sportswear, their clothes maintain a classic sophistication that transcends seasons.
- Wash - 5 Years Blue
- 26" Inseam
- 8.75" Rise
- 75% cotton 25% lyocell
- 15" in the knee narrows to 13" at the leg opening
- Whiskering along front pockets
- Fading along front of pant and back pockets
- Slightly distressed edges
- Styled with Diane von Furstenberg Oceana Platform Sandal in Nude.
- Modeled in size 27. See fit guide for model's dimensions.
- This item is not available for international export
- Revolve Style No. AG-WJ624
- Manufacturer Style No. DAY1413


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Featured Book
Ubuntu Unleashed 2014 Edition: Covering 13.10 and 14.04, 9th Edition
Ubuntu Unleashed 2014 Edition is filled with unique and advanced information for everyone who wants to make the most of the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated by a long-time Ubuntu community leader to reflect the exciting new Ubuntu 13.10 and the forthcoming Ubuntu 14.04. This book covers all you need to know about Ubuntu 13.10/14.04 installation, configuration, productivity, multimedia, development, system administration, server operations, networking, virtualization, security, DevOps, and more—including intermediate-to-advanced techniques you won't find in any other book.
Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours
Sams Teach Yourself HTML and CSS in 24 Hours is a well-organized, clearly written, and generously illustrated tutorial that teaches beginners how to quickly create great-looking web pages using HTML5 and CSS3. With a practical, jargon-free focus on quickly getting web pages created and published to the web, the book's 24 one-hour lessons carefully guide the reader through each step involved in creating, enhancing, and maintaining web sites of all types and sizes. |
Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours
So you want to learn programming, but you're a complete, true beginner? Most so-called "beginner's" programming books assume you know plenty about technology ― maybe too much. Not this one! Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours starts from the absolute beginning, explains everything you need to know before you start programming, and then presents simple programming techniques you can use wherever your interests or career take you. |
The #1 WPF Book--Now Updated for WPF 4.5!
Thorough, authoritative coverage, practical examples, clear writing, and full-color presentation make this one of the most widely acclaimed programming books of the last decade. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is the recommended technology for creating modern Windows desktop apps. Whether you want to develop traditional user interfaces or integrate 3D graphics, audio/video, animation, dynamic skinning, touch, rich document support, speech recognition, or more, WPF enables you to do so in a seamless, resolution-independent manner that scales from small tablets to large TVs. WPF 4.5 Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers it all, in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by WPF guru and Microsoft architect Adam Nathan. |
Quick Links
Articles & Sample Chapters
the Site
Microsoft Windows 7 Resource Center
Video Tutorials
New Titles
Coming Soon


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Press Release Source: Ballard Power Systems Inc. On Thursday October 27, 2011, 4:30 pm EDT
VANCOUVER , Oct. 27, 2011 /CNW/ – Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD.TO – News) (NASDAQ: BLDP – News) announced that Dantherm Power, its backup power systems company, will supply a 150 kilowatt (kW) fuel cell generator and associated engineering services to Anglo American Platinum Limited (www.angloamericanplatinum.com), the world's largest primary producer of platinum and a member of the Anglo American plc Group.
The fuel cell generator, based on Dantherm Power's DBX5000 backup power fuel cell system, utilizes Ballard fuel cell stacks and will be delivered in the current quarter for deployment at one of Anglo American Platinum's mining operations in South Africa .
"This deployment is an opportunity to demonstrate the readiness and benefits of fuel cell power systems in new vertical market applications," said John Sheridan , Ballard's President and CEO. "Anglo American operations will gain first-hand experience regarding the ability for a fuel cell generator to provide clean and reliable power on a relatively large scale at a mining site."
The fuel cell system will be powered by hydrogen generated in South Africa and will provide clean, cost-effective electricity.
Backup power solutions based on fuel cell technology deliver a number of advantages over conventional batteries and diesel generators, including: higher reliability across a wide range of operating conditions; lower maintenance costs; longer operating life; reduced size, weight and installation footprint. Fuel cell backup power systems also reduce noise and air emissions and do not present the disposal issues associated with lead acid batteries at the end of life.
About Ballard Power Systems
Ballard Power Systems (TSX: BLD.TO – News) (NASDAQ: BLDP – News) provides clean energy fuel cell products enabling optimized power systems for a range of applications. Products are based on proprietary esencia™ technology, ensuring incomparable performance, durability and versatility. to learn more about Ballard, please visit www.ballard.com.
This release contains forward-looking statements, including anticipated product shipments and performance. these forward-looking statements reflect Ballard's current expectations as contemplated under section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. any such forward-looking statements are based on Ballard's assumptions relating to its financial forecasts and expectations regarding its product development efforts, manufacturing capacity, and market demand.
These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause Ballard's actual results to be materially different, including general economic and regulatory changes, detrimental reliance on third parties, successfully achieving our business plans and achieving and sustaining profitability. for a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors that could affect Ballard's future performance, please refer to Ballard's most recent Annual Information Form. Readers should not place undue reliance on Ballard's forward-looking statements and Ballard assumes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward looking statements, other than as required under applicable legislation.
Further Information: Public Relations: Guy McAree, +1.604.412.7919, firstname.lastname@example.com Relations: Lori Rozali, +1.604.412.3195, email@example.com


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Topics :: holiday spirits
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Breaking the Holiday Habit: A Guide to Staying Thin This Season
By Stephen Mosher | Monday Dec 2, 2013
I sure do love the holidays. Not because of Santa or decorations or presents - I love it because I get to spend time with my family eating and drinking, then I get to spend January trying to undo the damage done to my waistline and psyche.
Gingerbread Houses Gain Holiday Stature
By BETH J. HARPAZ | Tuesday Dec 25, 2012
Out of the kitchen and into the hotel lobby: Gingerbread houses have gone from being a homemade project done with mom to professional exhibits designed by pastry chefs and sometimes even architects.
Frosty Holiday Cocktail with Kahlúa Gingerbread
Friday Dec 21, 2012
As you dream of sugar plum fairies and gingerbread houses for your holiday entertaining, don't forget the newly-released, limited-edition Kahlúa Gingerbread.
Austrian Christmas Butter Cookies
Wednesday Dec 19, 2012
Vanillekipferl have always been a favorite Christmas cookie of Austrians.Here is one Austrian grandmother's recipe, which is easy to make and really delicious. (They also make a great holiday present for friends and family. We're just sayin'...)
Holiday Cocktails from the Nation's First Tea Sommelier
Monday Dec 17, 2012
This year, Numi has teamed up with the nation's first tea sommelier, James Labe, to offer a number of ingenious concoctions that will warm the body and entice the senses this holiday season.
For Holiday Entertaining, Think Lobster Claws
Saturday Dec 15, 2012
For holiday entertaining, forget Santa Claus and instead, think lobster claws.
Mixing It Up for the Holidays: Festive Cocktails with an EDGE
By Herb Westphalen | Sunday Dec 9, 2012
The holidays are a wonderful time to celebrate our community's diversity. Whether your prefer vodka or rum, straight up or on the rocks; celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Diwali, Kwanzaa or Winter Solstice, we've got cocktails for all.
Celebrity Brands Push Through Holiday Rush
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO | Saturday Dec 8, 2012
Certain celebrities likely won't be making guest appearances in the aisles of your favorite department stores. But clothes, shoes and even ties that bear their names will.
Christmas in London
Friday Dec 7, 2012
London is the UK's leading destination at Christmas for gift shopping, enjoying festive entertainment, and admiring Christmas lights. Here is a selection of the best places to visit this December, without ever having to leave the capital.
Festive Holiday Events Across the States
By BETH J. HARPAZ | Thursday Dec 6, 2012
From elaborately decorated trees to drive-through lighting displays to boat parades and train shows, a variety of holiday spectacles are being staged through the end of December and into early January around the country.
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