And as the number of smartphone owners rise, so does the popularity of mobile apps. From 2011 to 2012, the average number of apps per smartphone jumped 28% from 32 apps to 41 apps. Android & iOS users account for 88% of total mobile owners who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days. To date, more than 15 billion & 25 billion Android & iOS apps have been downloaded, respectively.

Smartphone owners are also spending more time on their apps versus mobile web. The average amount of time a smartphone owner spends on apps each day, however, remains relatively the same as last year – 37 minutes a day versus 39 minutes. To keep users coming back to your app, update (exciting) content on a regular basis & notify users of content through notifications (whether that’s from push messages or social network sites- just make sure to get the word out there!).

More and more mobile consumers are using their smartphones to get directions, addresses of local businesses, recommendations, and other location-based information- all in real-time.

Increasing in popularity amongst mobile consumers is geosocial services, which include check-ins and location sharing. The percentage of smartphone owners using geosocial services jumped 6% from 12% last year (February 2011) to 18% this year (February 2012).

Who uses location and geo-social services? 

Smartphone owners who are women tend to use these services more than men (76% versus 74%).

Younger adults (18-29) use these services more often than smartphone owners who are in the 30-49 age group or 50 plus age group.

Those with higher incomes or higher education levels also use these services more often than those with lower incomes or lower education levels.

See chart below:

This recent study was conducted from January 20 to February 19, 2012 in the form of phone interviews by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. A sample of 2,253 adults, age 18 and older, that represented the demographics of the U.S. was interviewed.

That entailed new product offerings, more features, a new pricing structure, and a completely redesigned CMS. It’s all part of our ongoing commitment to constant improvement!

New Product Offerings

We’ve simplified our product offerings, consolidating our Core, Plus, and Pro packages into a single version with 6 optional packages that gives you the flexibility to cherry pick Pro features to customize your package; our Pro package continues to be an “all in” package with every bell and whistle we offer.

We are also bundling iPhone and Android together in a single mobile app offering; if you have just one platform, you get the other at no additional cost when you upgrade to a new package. We believe that all our customers need to be on both platforms, so they’re now included in all native app packages.

What are the feature packages? 

The 6 feature packages you can add to your app all perform different functions

Advanced Design Package – Additional design features for your app, including unlimited themes, custom navigation buttons, pre roll video, and premium badge & icon sets.

Advanced Views – Makes your app even more entertaining for your users with the addition of Photocards (upload your art over the user’s camera), Bopler’s in-app game integration, Aurasma’s augmented reality plug in, and the ability to duplicate sections & features.

Commerce Package – This package allows you to easily sell physical merchandise to your users, built in to your app. Upon full release (coming soon), it will support all common online stores.

Advanced Analytics – More analytical tools to better understand your users, including advanced reporting, advanced push notifications, session time reports, and full user list organized by influence (based on # of Twitter followers or Facebook friends a user has).

Advanced Developer Tools – This package includes features like MoRo API access, the ability to implement a custom ad network, support for you to insert a custom section into your app, and enhanced developer support.

Advanced Content Package – This package packs your app with more options to organize content, including the ability to categorize content, giving users the ability to search for content, and featured content slideshows.

If you want everything we offer, simply choose “Pro” to get all packages, built in (as well as a discount compared to adding packages a-la-carte).

Mobile Web & iPad

For iPad, we’ve redesigned the entire experience from scratch to take advantage of the tablet’s larger screen. Every view will look and feel like it was made for the iPad.

Our new Mobile Web product enables any brand or small business to create a mobile-friendly site on any budget. Unlike most of the mobile web products on the market, our mobile web product is easy-to-use and customizable, down to the smallest details such as fonts and colors. We’re including our mobile web product at no extra charge in every native app package. For those who want a mobile presence but aren’t ready or don’t have the budget to build their own app, we are offering a limited (free) version and a paid premium version of our mobile web product.

To view our two new platforms in detail, visit our iPad & Mobile Web announcement.

New Pricing

We’ve also replaced our existing pricing with an all-new pricing structure that is simple and straightforward. We’re no longer charging monthly customers initial setup or download overage fees. All packages now include unlimited downloads and our ongoing feature upgrades.

Existing MoRo customers have the choice to stay with their current pricing plan or be moved over to a new pricing plan.

For some customers, the new pricing is less expensive than your current pricing plan. If you’re one of these customers, you can immediately upgrade to Mobile Roadie 4.0 and be billed at the new lower rate.

For other customers, the new pricing is more expensive than what you are currently paying for a variety of reasons, including (new) unlimited downloads, new features, and an additional platform (for example, Android if you only have an iPhone app). If you’re one of these customers, don’t worry. As a current and loyal customer, we have grandfathered you in – there is no added cost to your bill, as long as you stay on your current package. It’s our way of saying thank you for your continued business.

For more information regarding the new pricing, please check out our FAQ Support Page or view our pricing page.

Completely Redesigned Website and CMS

We’re also excited to reveal our completely redesigned website and CMS. Our new CMS is easier to use and navigate around, and has integrated tooltips with video walkthroughs to guide you along the way. If you’re an existing customer, you can log in to your CMS right now and upgrade to the new CMS.

Other New Features

Other new features in Mobile Roadie 4.0 include:

- New analytics and push notification options

- New design options

- More promotion and marketing tools

- More technology integration with leading tech companies

- Free trial period to demo our products

- And more to be revealed soon!

Mobile-First World

We’re living in a mobile first world: Traffic from mobile devices and tablets will surpass desktop shortly, and it’s estimated that 660 million smartphones and 106 million tablets will be shipped this year alone. In the U.S., smartphones will outsell feature phones this year for the first time ever. So now is the time that every brand and business needs a high quality, low cost mobile presence.

Mobile Roadie 4.0 is our largest platform update since we launched in 2009! With the newest version, our goal is to make it easier than ever for you to build your mobile presence, organize content, and engage your audience. And with our easy-to-use platform, beautiful yet affordable products, and 20 million plus users enjoying our gallery of apps, we’re here to help you get started.

We hope you enjoy Mobile Roadie 4.0. If you have any questions please contact Support.

First, let’s take a closer look at our new iPad platform. Our iPad product is not our iPhone product “blown up” to fit the iPad’s larger screen. It was actually built from the ground up, specifically designed for the iPad, displaying rich media beautifully in an engaging way.

Main features of the iPad app platform include:

-Live navigation widgets which turn the main menu into a dynamic feed of streaming content

-Immersive hi-res graphics layers, parallax scrolling and slideshows

-Ability to sync content to an existing community with iPhone apps, Android apps, and mobile websites
To showcase what the native iPad platform can do, we would like to introduce three iPad apps launching today:

Tech City

Cristiano Ronaldo

David Guetta

Second, we’re excited to offer our self-service mobile website platform, which will allow any brand or business to create a mobile-friendly site on any budget.

Key features of the mobile website productinclude:

- The mobile website’s clean design and easy-to-use interface ensures customers will have a positive mobile experience on any device. Customers simply enter their URL to start the process and can design their mobile website to fit their needs, customizing to the smallest details such as fonts and colors.

- Access to your content instantly without waiting for the website to download.

- Cross-platform accessibility to reach a larger audience.

- Updates anytime from Mobile Roadie CMS or sync with your standard website.

- Ability to create a shortcut icon directly on your user’s home screen.

To demonstrate that any brand or business from any vertical can have a mobile web app, we picked the following mobile app partners to showcase our mobile web product:

The Parlotones Academy of Country Music 

PJ’s Coffee

Chicago Festival Finder

BSCENE Magazine

Modelinia

Spider-Man on Broadway 

Gabriel Iglesias 

Taylor Swift 

We believe every brand and business, no matter the size, needs to have a mobile presence. Create your own iPad app or mobile website today. We hope you enjoy these two new platforms!

We’re excited to announce that our Madonna app has been chosen by The FWA Network as Mobile of the Day today, which you can view on the FWA website!

FWA is “the most visited website award program in the history of the internet, with over 140 million site visits (as of July 2011),” according to FWA’s official website. In 2007, FWA (Favourite Website Awards) was named “the number 1 web award in the world, beating the likes of YouTube and the Webbys, in the Chicago Tribune’s first World Wide Web Awards.”

Submissions for Mobile of the Day are reviewed by FWA’s expert panel of mobile judges who base their decisions on 5 key criteria – creativity, originality, design, content, and personality. Past winners include Harper’s Bazaar anniversary issue on iPad, Zappos ZN digital magazine, the 2012 Nickelodeon’s Kid Choice Awards app, and mobile game Tap the Frog 2.

We are honored to be chosen by FWA as Mobile of the Day given the caliber of past winners and the rigorous judging process. To download the official Madonna app, visit http://road.ie/madonna.

The 16th Annual Webby Awards announced nominees and honorees today, and we’re excited to announce that the official Adele app powered by Mobile Roadie has been chosen as an Official Honoree in the Music category of “Mobile & Apps”. Established in 1996, the Webby Awards is the “leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.”

Out of the 8,000 entries submitted from all over the world, fewer than 15% were chosen as an Official Honoree, a distinction that recognizes those who demonstrate a standard of excellence and outstanding caliber of work.

Fellow Honorees include Bjork’s Biophilia, Jimi Hendrix: The Complete Experience, KCRW’s Music Mine iPad app, Pitchfork, Songkick, Songza, and undun. Congrats! We’re honored to be part of this prestigious group. It goes to show that an app created from a self-service platform can compete with apps made from scratch.

Stay tuned for more exciting news!

More than 12 million viewers tuned in to watch the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards last night. From “Yee Haw!” inducing performances from Toby Keith, Brad Paisley, and Rascal Flatts (w/ Steve Martin) to funny power hosts Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton, the ACM Awards was a hoot.

We want to congratulate all the artists who won last night. Mobile Roadie artist Taylor Swift took home the biggest award of the night, “Entertainer of the Year,” becoming the second woman to win two ACM Entertainer of the Year awards. Other MoRo winners include Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson for Single Record of the Year & Vocal Event of the Year (“Don’t You Wanna Stay”), and Toby Keith for Video of the Year (“Red Solo Cup”).

Other big winners include Blake Shelton (Male Vocalist of the Year), Miranda Lambert (Female Vocalist of the Year & Album of the Year), Lady Antebellum (Vocal Group of the Year), Thompson Square (Vocal Duo of the Year), Scotty McCreery (New Artist of the Year), Eli Young Band (Song of the Year), and Dallas Davidson (Songwriter of the Year).

If you missed out on the fun or want to relive the show’s highlights, you can get a full recap in the official ACM app.

Shipment of smart devices (including smartphones, tablets, and PCs) is estimated to double in number to 1.84 billion units worldwide by 2016; however, a shift in platforms in the next few years is inevitable, according to a recent report by IDC.

In the chart below provided by IDC, you can see the different levels of growth for each smart device category. In 2011, more than 916 million smart devices were shipped worldwide; for the first time ever, more smartphones were shipped than PCs- 491.1 million units versus 352 million units. This is a milestone that was reached much faster than industry experts predicted, but will continue for the foreseeable future. One interesting thing to note is the tablet market- although tablets represent a small portion of total smart device shipments, they shouldn’t be ignored. After all, it is estimated that more than 106 million tablets will be shipped this year.

In the same IDC report, it is revealed that PCs will slip in market share from 35.9% in 2011 to 25.1% in 2016, as Android-based devices will grow from 29.4% share in 2011 to become a market leader in 2016 with 31.1% share. Devices running iOS will grow from 14.6% to 17.3% market share by 2016.

So what does this all mean? It’s time for businesses to start thinking about how to build their mobile presence (if they haven’t done so already). Because as more consumers adopt mobile devices, it’s crucial for businesses to have some sort of mobile presence whether through an app or mobile website.

It’s better to be prepared then waiting to see what happens. Because one thing is certain- mobile isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Madonna’s iPad app is a preview of what’s to come for our iPad product. Like Madonna’s iPhone & Android app, fans can catch up on news, watch videos, listen to Madonna’s newest tracks, and see her 2012 World Tour schedule. What’s different, however, on the iPad app, is the user experience as the app is designed for the iPad.

Below is the screenshot of Madonna’s 2012 World Tour section. In addition to seeing event details, you can also click “I’m Going” and comment to let other Madonna fans know you’ll be there.

But enough talking. You have to see the app for yourself! To download the Madonna iPad app, visit http://road.ie/madonna

Today, TechNode, a popular internet & tech blogs in China and Asia, announced the launch of their official TechNode app on iOS and Android.

On their official blog, TechNode said they “were able to make this [the app] happen by working closely with Qmobao.com, the Guangzhou based Chinese operation of American based Mobile Roadie…The process of using Qmobao is very intuitive and simple to use. The really cool thing about using Qmobao is that you can instantly preview what your app will look like by downloading “Mobile Roadie Connect”, a customer app visualizer. With a little creativity, it is easy to create something for so many different purposes [using Mobile Roadie], like a blog!”

In the app, users can read the latest content, check for upcoming events hosted by TechNode, leave messages to the team, and much more. Along with their announcement, TechNode promoted their app with a banner on their site.

We’re excited for TechNode readers to experience Mobile Roadie through the official app. If you’re already a reader of TechNode or would like to learn more about the tech scene in China and Asia, download the TechNode app at http://road.ie/technode.