Some products are fairly straightforward to execute. Others, like the one I’m going to talk about today, take you on a roller coaster of emotions. I remember first talking internally about the Wider Image app nearly two years ago, and the fact that it has launched just recently tells you that nothing about it was particularly easy. (more…)

Yesterday, Apple announced the new iPhone 5 featuring a bigger screen and 4G wireless technology. As the company seeks to safeguard its edge over rivals, the announcement didn’t feature many surprises for those in the know. Today’s graphic compares this new phone to four major competitors.

Based on the graphic and your experience with smartphones, how do you think the iPhone compares to its competitors?

With Apple just announcing the new iPhone 5, it’s worth taking a look at the market share breakdown in the smartphone world. Today’s graphic does exactly that, comparing Q2 shipments from 2011 and 2012 as well as iPhone sales over time. How do you think the new iPhone will affect Apple’s market share? (more…)

I’ve been dedicated to the mobile space for 2 1/2 years now. In that time, the most common question I hear, by far, is: “what OS should we be building our app for?” Sadly, it’s the hardest question to answer! I’m not going to try and answer the question here – as it’s all but impossible on a generalized basis. However, hopefully I can give you a couple of data points and considerations to help you answer for your product yourself.

Before that, though, a quick shout out for the mobile web. There’s a reason we like it so much! You can, to a large extent, dodge the question of platform choice and you’re not subject to the vagaries of your OS/app store vendor.

Putting that aside, here are the main considerations: (more…)

What a difference a week makes. Like many of you, I watched the London 2012 Opening Games ceremony just over a week ago – interested, amused, perplexed at times, and always on the lookout for our colleagues that were a part of the event. I wasn’t sure just what to expect in London after coming off a very relaxing holiday and having to get straight back into the craziness that had been projected in the city. The way the newspapers had been going on, it seemed like Armageddon and the Millenium hype all over!

I was prepared for anything on arrival Tuesday into London – and what I found is what everyone else is finding as they spend more time in the City. London is working just fine. I had no wait at immigration. The train into the City, the taxis, and the Tube have all been working well. What’s more, I found myself completely wrapped into the spirit of the Olympics. I came without any tickets to events, and did manage to buy one for the beach volleyball on Friday night (a great party – and after spending almost 3 hours on the tickets website!) and watched the cycling portion of the women’s triathlon after completing my own morning run at Green Park. (more…)

We just launched the Reuters 2012 Olympics app – this has truly been a labor of love, collaboration, hard work, and fun.  I remember when I first proposed this idea last fall to some of our colleagues in New York and London following a meeting I had taken with the CIO of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).  I would really like to thank the London team for their “go-for-it” attitude.

Reuters has fewer rights it can exploit – specifically with regard to video content.  We’ve had to be very clever to think about what we can show, how we can show it, and how we can think about using some interesting pieces of technology to give the app some unique capabilities.  The app was built by our recently acquired Apsmart team, led by Rahul Powar.  You’ll see some very cool features that they’ve included in this app including pinch and zoom infographics on certain pictures and sharing of images on AppleTV.  We targeted only the iOS platforms out of the gate for one big reason:  it enabled us to collaborate with Apple’s user interface evangelists and deepen the working relationship we have with them.  Some great work was done by our preferred external design agency Great Fridays (who also did the UI work on Convene) in partnership with Marine Leroux and Daniel Lewington from our side. (more…)

Last week we launched the Reuters Olympics London 2012 mobile app. Now available in the iTunes store for the iPad and iPhone, the app will showcase Reuters award-winning photography from some of the world’s best photographers. It will include subtle editorial content, medal tables, event schedules and results beginning with the Olympics Opening Ceremonies on Friday, July 27.

“I’m really excited about the opportunities this app presents for customers,” said Robert Schukai, global head of Mobile Technology. “Congratulations to all the partners who contributed to the development including the Global Mobile, Technology and Reuters Editorial and News teams.”

The Olympics app will feature:

• A stunning, interactive Olympics experience with ability to select events and manage alerts according to your preferences
• A constant stream of contextual info on events, venues and athletes at your fingertips leading up to and during the event
• Ability to monitor events results with live data as they happen
• View of top photos of the day
• Unique, high-quality multimedia coverage of all the action, mix of high resolution imagery, articles and photographer blogs
• Integration with social media such as the:
  • Facebook Open Graph that allowsintegration with Facebook timeline, news feed and ticker
  • Apple AirPlay™ that allows you to wirelessly stream the App to your HDTV via Apple TV
  • Ability to tweet and share your favorite images

For all the latest Olympics news, make sure to check out the Reuters Olympics landing page, Facebook page and follow the conversation on Twitter.

It’s the last graphic of the week, but this one definitely won’t disappoint. Today’s graphic is full of information about the smart phone market. The first tab shows sales for 2010 and projected sales for 2011, 2012 and 2015. Then, if you click over to the second tab, you can see the market share for 2010 and projections for the years to come. Notice how Android, the newest player on the scene, totally dominates the projected market share as the years go on.
Does anything surprise you in these projections? Do you expect there to be any significant changes in the smartphone industry that could disrupt the current climate?