In a post by Matthew Ingram for GigaOm, Twitter CEO Ev Williams shares that mobile use of the free, micro-blogging service has grown 60 percent since April. Williams also announced that Twitter has 145 million registered users, a 40 percent growth in overall users since April.
Given Twitter’s immense popularity it is no surprise that the company has seen a steady rise in user numbers, however what is interesting is the number of users who first activate the service on a mobile device. Presently, 16 percent of all Twitter users activate via mobile.
For that reason, Twitter has its own iPhone application and recently launched an application for the iPad. Several outside vendors have also launched mobile applications for Twitter.
Williams said on the Twitter corporate blog, “We quickly understood that we were doing users a disservice by not having a great client on each of the major mobile platforms.”
He went on to say, “As we had hoped in April, these clients are bringing more people into Twitter, and, even better, they are attracting and retaining active users. Indeed, 46 percent of active users make mobile a regular part of their Twitter experience.”
For businesses considering putting resources behind a mobile application, let Twitter’s success be a reinforcing pat on the back that you’re headed in the right direction.
According to Russell Adams’ post for the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog, Conde Nast is working with Activate to launch the iPad application in the fourth quarter. Adams writes, “Though Gourmet Live is free to download, people who surpass a certain threshold of usage will be prompted to sign up for a membership.” Sounds a bit like a magazine subscription, no? Just the way you can access a magazine’s website and peruse the content for free, but they save the best content for the pages of the magazine; a reward to their loyal subscribers.
Conde Nast already has iPad applications for three of its magazines – GQ, Vanity Fair and Wired – with plans to launch apps for Glamour and The New Yorker as well. Could it be that print magazines will soon be a thing of the past? Will your beach reading now be exclusive to your mobile device?
Conde Nast’s Chief Executive Chuck Townsend isn’t exactly denying it. He told the Wall Street Journal, “The future of Conde Nast is a consumer marketing machine.” I find this statement particularly compelling. Rather than positioning Conde Nast as a publishing house, Townsend is shifting the company’s direction to focus in a more targeted manner at reaching consumers exactly where they are – on their mobile device.
Check out a preview of the Gourmet Live iPad application below:
