Archive for May, 2011

Mobile version of your website

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

If you don’t think a dedicated smartphone app is for you, why not consider tapping into the mobile market still with a specially built mobile version of your existing website?

More and more people are now using iPhones and other smartphones for browsing the internet and visiting websites. Reports have predicted that there will around 1.7 billion mobile internet users by the year 2013, which means a lot of internet surfing.

Fair enough you’ve got a website which would ‘work ok’ on a smartphone, but can you imagine trying to look at your website and not being able to read anything because it’s all too squashed together on a small screen? – nor can your users. They’ll step back to google and find your competitor.

Your mobile website has to have good navigation with content specially formatted and easy to view and understand on the smaller screen. Mobiles run a lot slower than desktops and laptops, so users haven’t always got the patience let alone the time to sift through it all.

The importance of a mobile optimised version of your website is so great that we are currently busy working on our own Signature Digital mobile version.

It’s so easy for users to sit at home in front of the tv or in the office and search for something on their phone, It allows people to shop or to just browse with ease. Which is why having a mobile version of your website will do wonders for your popularity and sales.

How many potential visitors are you losing to your competitors just because they have an easy to navigate mobile site?

Having a website made specifically for smartphones allows your custumers, or potential customers, to see important and vital information without having to really search very hard. It’s practical and allows them to find what they are looking for in a lot less time, which is very convenient for most people. If they like the look of the mobile version of your website then they may want to research further by visiting your main website and get more details and in greater depth.

If you are a company that would like to get targeted traffic and better conversion rates, then investing in this would definitely be a step in the right direction. Using flash is a bad idea, Apple’s iPhone and also the iPad do not support it, so all of your hard work will be wasted when people try viewing it on an apple product.

It’s a simple solution to every question any company has, “how do we make more sales and more money?” Take advantage of this smartphone craze that seems to be taking over the world and adapt your website.

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Android apps by Signature

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Android is the Google smartphone operating system which they have open sourced and is now being developed and updated regularly by the open handset alliance which not only includes Google but also T-Mobile, Intel, HTC and many more companies.

The difference between a Smartphone and a normal mobile phone is huge. There are around 400,000 android smartphones registered every day and a total of around 100 million have been sold to date, this is because of the enormous amount of features a smartphone has and the reasonable price tag some of them carry.

Common to many smartphones are the apps.  An app is a simple (or sometimes complex) program that is installed on the smartphone and performs a certain task.  That task could be to keep a record of expenses, it could be a game or it could be an app that lets you update your Facebook status on the go.  Android apps are always the biggest selling point for any android smartphone, the reason being the amount of apps the android market offers has surpassed 100,000 and it’s still expanding.

Signature Digital are one of the leading companies in the UK developing Android Apps for businesses.

Android phones are really useful for businesses because of the instant on-the-go access to email.  You can edit word and excel documents and even remote control your office PC from the phone.

In relation to which is the best android smartphone for business users the contenders for the title are the Samsung Galaxy Fit, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, HTC Wildfire, Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC Desire HD.

The cheapest is the Samsung Galaxy Fit, it is smart looking, stylish, practical and although for the average business user the lack of internal memory compared to the others might be a turn off, it can carry up to a 32GB memory card as well as coming with 2GB internal memory as standard. The price of the Galaxy Fit comes in at just under £100 which is a small investment for any business.

If you’re looking to spend a bit more for your Android smartphone then why not go for X10 Mini Pro or the HTC Wildfire, the Wildfire being the more expensive of the two, although still fairly cheap at around £130. The Mini Pro is the smaller of the two with the screen only around 2.5 inches whereas the Wildfire has a 3.2 inch screen. Surprisingly though the bigger of the two phones, the Wildfire, is also the lightest. The wildfire is easier to handle due to the tiny size of the mini pro. The wildfire has a touch screen to use as the interface whereas the mini pro not only has a touch screen but also slides and reveals a qwerty keypad underneath, so for those who struggle with touch screens then the x10 mini pro is the one for you and vice versa.

For those that only want the very best, then the most expensive and best of the android phones are Samsung Galaxy S and the HTC Desire HD which both cost around £400. They’re both big phones with a screen size of around 4 inches. In our opinion the Galaxy S outshines the Desire on everything apart from screen size.  If you are spending this much on a phone you’ll want to compare the full specs n more details, but take our word that apart from the screen we think you’ll like the Galaxy more.

If you’ve not used a smartphone before then you’ll love getting an Android Phone (alternatively you could consider an iPhone). There are so many apps to download and play with that you’ll always find apps that are helpful and apps that are so much fun they’ll eat up hours of your time – try Angry Birds!

Signature Digital are Android App developers.  We strive to achieve added value for our business partners, delivering a proactive first class and personable service through attention to detail.

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