• by Bjorn Hildahl , January 6, 2011

Given the significant revenue potential in mobile applications for consumer brands, companies were in a frenzy in 2010 to launch mobile offerings that would capture the attention of consumers and keep them one step ahead of competitors. The ever-evolving mobile marketplace has made it challenging for Fortune 500 organizations to get a mobile offering right.

However, it couldn't be more essential to building or maintaining a successful brand. From identifying the mobile needs of a brand's target consumers to dealing with the onslaught of new mobile device introductions, CMOs and CIOs are pulled in too many directions and are often overwhelmed by the task of developing a successful mobile offering that reaches all consumers across all devices.

Twenty eleven provides companies with an opportunity to slow down, develop a strategic plan for a mobile offering and find the right partner that will help them to protect their investment and see solid return. With so many new innovations hitting the mobile market every day, it's essential for companies to understand which new features and trends will be most important to leverage in the New Year.

Social Networking

Social media has taken the world by storm; consumers are not only participating in social networks, but are fully engaged in their platforms and value the interactions they have on them. Integration with social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, foursquare and LinkedIn, offers brands a cost-effective method to add value and increase awareness. These programs prompt users to share information with their personal networks regarding a brand, increasing potential conversions and adoption by friends, family or colleagues in your customer's network.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality became a mobile buzzword in 2010, yet few companies in the U.S. have actually integrated this technology into applications. Applications that harness the power of augmented reality to engage consumers, offering incentivizing information on products in-store, will lead the pack in 2011. Retailers have the most significant opportunity here, with the ability to allow consumers to hold their phone's camera up to a product and see discounts or coupons on the product layered over the real-life image.

Location-Based

Offering consumers localized information creates significant value for the end user through a more personalized experience. Taking advantage of new location-based features such as "geofencing," a feature which allows companies to set up geofences around designated areas, increases potential revenue generation and application adoption. For example, a retailer could set up a geofence to enable them to provide opt-in users with personalized discounts and other incentives as soon as they enter the specified area or within a specific proximity to a brick-and-mortar store.

Increased Security

Fulfilling the consumer mobile market opportunity requires enhanced security. Brands looking to circumvent potential mobile security issues should consider leveraging a single code base development platform, rather than developing and updating new code for each individual device and channel. The massive amount of code generated with an individualized strategy is not only unwieldy and expensive to develop and maintain, it's also a high security risk. A single code base streamlines the coding process, reducing the risk of code flaws that can lead to security blunders and application malfunctions. This unique approach also enables ubiquitous deployment across multiple devices, operating systems and channels, without sacrificing functionality.

HTML5

While the HTML5 Web standard specification is still in a working draft state, nearly all browser vendors have already adopted some or many of the features being proposed in the specification. The new standard brings with it new capabilities for more user-friendly mobile Web sites that make use of specific mobile device features, including:

• Geolocation

• Faster download speed

• Improved imagery, display and look and feel

• Access to offline storage and offline browsing when the network is unavailable

• Rich media content on the mobile device with full pause and playback control

As brands focus on creating and managing a mobile portfolio in the coming year, these new technologies, features and functions offer increased value for their mobile dollar through greater consumer adoption and further revenue generation opportunities. However, with the constant changes and technology innovations within the mobile market, brands should look to partner with industry experts in design, development and deployment of mobile portfolios in order to gain the maximum return for their investment.