I’m at the O’Reilly’s Publishing Tools of Change (TOC) conference in New York. Twitter hashtag is #toccon. Everything I learn here I’ll be applying to the m4Lit (mobile phones for literacy) project that I head up in South Africa.

Day one is workshops day, and first up is Selling in Mobile Markets, presented by Rana Sobhany, author of Marketing iPhone Apps.

The big question: How can publishers stay relevant in a digital world?
Great content. Curation. Quality. Subscription?

What’s special about mobile content:

• Mobile phone is readily available
• Engagement on the user’s terms
• Short bursts of usage

Questions we need to ask ourselves:

• How do you make your content most appealing?
• How much is your content worth?
• Apps? Mobile Web?

Constraints:

• Small screen
• Short attention span
• So, very high demand for quality
• Development costs ($20K-$100K dev costs for an app on any platform)
• Gatekeepers (e.g. Apple for their App Store)

Opportunities:

• Immediate
• Personal
• Custom (e.g. you can publish a whole book, or chapter by chapter)
• Measurable
• Fast

PLATFORMS for mobile apps …
iPhone/iPad platform:

• Coexists with Apple’s iTunes Music Store
• Divided by category
• >2bn downloads to date
• Approx 200,000 apps available
• Dev language is Objective-C (must be developed on a Mac)

Android platform:

• Android is an open source operating system for mobile
• Dev language is Java
• Android market:
• Payment is a recent addition to Android Market
• Self-service model for developers to publish their apps; no iTunes gatekeeper scenario
• No friction, but no quality control either

BlackBerry platform:

• Dev language is Java
• BlackBerry App World:
• Expensive apps (=>$2.99)
• Limited functionality
• Multiple handsets
• No centralised payment system (need to use PayPal)

Palm platform:

• Market stronghold has dropped off
• Dev language is C, C++, webOS for newer Palm devices
• About 1m webOS devices out there, more women than men own one

Windows Mobile platform:

• Dev languages Visual C++, .NET, Java
• Windows Mobile 7 recently launched to much fanfare
• If wanting to reach business users, seriously consider Windows Mobile 7

Symbian platform:

• Very popular abroad; Nokia+Symbian relationship makes it more compelling for the global market
• Nokia is Symbian’s biggest customer
• Dev lang mostly in C++
• Traditionally it’s the most expensive to develop for

STRATEGY: Pitfalls of each platform …
In her opinion, there are 4 primary mobile development platform.

iPhone/iPad:

• Most attention from users and media, but very crowded space
• Apple is a gatekeeper and it’s very difficult to plan launches
• Hardware is expensive and there is a “application etiquette” to adhere to on App Store

Android:

• Open platform, pros and cons associated with this
• Not very high adoption rates
• Hardware fragmentation

Windows Mobile:

• OEM relationships make it harder for developers

DISTRIBUTION of apps …

• Don’t dilute your app too much — choose the platform that your target audience is using
• Also, committing to one platform can give you leverage/support from them
• Pricing is key; $4.99 on App Store is the sweet spot
• Adhere to the pricing guidelines of the platform you choose
• Launch day: Speak to press 1-2 weeks before launch. Provide them with screenshots and value prop to users.

MEASURING success …

• 1:1 mapping of mobile phone to user (this very unusual (think of TV and radio) (My note: Maybe in the USA, but not in developing countries)
• Have someone on the team be responsible for analytics. Not necessarily the developer.