What does the Windows7Forums.com Mobile App look like?

[Mike]

Here are some in-depth screens for our Android app available on the Google Marketplace. The app is being continually developed with usability in mind, and allows you to navigate the forums easier than browser mode. These dozens of screenshots are directly off of a Samsung Droid Charge.

We are continuing to develop the app and publish changes, while performing testing with vBulletin. The app will have many new features in the future, and it is designed for mobile users who do not necessarily have access to a working computer in mind. We are working to get the iOS (iPhone/iPad) version published, but do require some Apple hardware, including a workstation. Because of this, it has been put on the back burner. Our data shows very few users coming here are on Mac, but many people do in fact run Windows in Boot Camp, or have multiple computers.

We respect the owners of both devices. There are some severe licensing fees for publishing and developing apps with Apple as opposed to Google, and this is a problem for the website. We are working on getting there, that is for sure.

Remember, right now the mobile app is not perfect, and is missing some functions. But users of the app can enjoy using the Smart Phone's touch features and buttons to navigate throughout the site. We expect to eventually have a Windows Phone version available once the new unified Windows 8 architecture is published.

Enjoy your freely developed app on your phone.

[Mike]

Here's some interesting data about this site being accessed from phones.

When we compare last year, from January 1st, 2011 to February 18, 2011 to this year at January 1st, 2012 to February 19, 2012, we have actually found that 42,671 more people are using mobile devices to access Windows 7 Forums. That is a 116.85% increase in mobile device users.

When dig in deeper, we find that more people are using Android than iPhone on the forums, but that is only if you don't count iPad. If we count all smart devices from both Android and Apple, we find that more are using Apple products.

How many more people are using devices on this site since last year?

Android use increased 213.59%, iPhone 68.45%, and iPad increased 174.37%. In the same period -42.86% of users on Windows Phone accessed the site, but that number is small. While we talk about tens of thousands of smart device users in a 1.5 month period, we are looking at 104 vs. 182 last year Windows Phone users. Windows Phone, Symbian OS, and Blackberry are barely in the game. Although, Blackberry use did increase by 140.02% from last year (a total of 1,125 visitors from 1/1/12 to 2/19/12).

Want to know something crazy about the proliferation of smart phones?

From January 1st, 2007 to December 31st, 2011, 2,971 iPhone users connected to Windows 7 Forums. That is 3 years. In the same time period, 1,784 Android users connected. This year, those numbers are 131,215 for iPhone and 103,056 for Android. That is a 4,316.53% for iPhone and 5,676.68% change for Android, respectfully. Those numbers are astronomical. We see similar numbers, in percentage points, with nearly every mobile device OS.

In 3 years, 491,373 people connected to Windows7Forums.com with mobile devices. This year alone, and it is ONLY February, 348,123 connected.

Over the long term past, mobile users equate to about 1-2% of all visitors. But that percentage is increasing rapidly. Mobile use now makes up a small, but important user base. Because of this, we will work to bring an Apple mobile app to their marketplace as soon as we can get a hold of additional hardware.

Take a look at our chart data from November 1, 2009 to present:

[Mitchell_A]

Those statistics are amazingly impressive, Mike.

Unfortunately the 42.86% decrease in Windows Phone users does not surprise me either. It's too bad there's no available means (anywhere on the internet) to see statistics for Windows Phone 7 only, and not Windows Mobile 6.5. What we'd probably see is the majority of those ~100 people visiting the site have done so from a WM6.5 device, also explaining the sharp decrease, since such devices are no longer being sold and people are coming to the end of their 3-year contracts and switching to other platforms due to carrier favoritism toward iOS and Android. Even here in Canada where Blackberries are still one of the top contenders in the mobile market, they are on a quick downhill with market share. I blame lack of innovation for this, and I'm disappointed in RIM as a Canadian company. Rumors of their upcoming BB OS 10 stealing ideas from Android and Windows Phone don't make that any different.

The reality is, there's three leading ecosystems in the mobile market - Apple, Google and RIM. When one dies (RIM), someone else will step up. My believe is that this will be Microsoft, who were first and dominant in the mobile market years ago.