Mobile Natives

I first encountered the concept of “digital immigrants/digital natives” in my local school district as today’s Millennial Generation started to come into kindergarten and first grade 25 years ago.

Their teachers discovered that their digital background started with video games like “Pong” and “Frogger,” while their students were texting each other and writing their own software.

Now, Millenials are the youngest teachers playing catch up learning a new language.  They struggle to incorporate the ubiquitous mobile devices in their classroom into their curriculum as their students see no need for laptops or desktop devices, intuitively figuring out how to do everything they need on their device formerly known as their “phone.”

This is speeding everything up.

No one has an instant for a slow website to load, a video to buffer, unwanted ads to crowd their way in.  That requires "mobile native" software.

Even native advertising, which Twitter does better than almost anyone, must be entertaining, informative and relevant or the sender gets unfollowed fast.

The pressure is on.

The listener of analog radio is increasingly mobile native wondering what we’re doing to make their life better, more manageable and easier.

Fortunately, the country format has a bit more time than the formats whose audience is now becoming completely addicted to their mobile device.

You may not need the best app in the world yet, but it’s well past time to have a strategy and a time line.

Radio Was “Mobile First.” So What?

... Or, at least, thanks to inventions like car radios and then transistor radios, radio became the very first mobile medium.

As a result, we have grown to love our long term lead in the mobile space.  Perhaps too much.

As with the town square and the local mall, location still matters in retail and having a transmitter that covers a local area does give radio a powerful advantage.  People won’t drive very far for a grocery store, pharmacy or a hardware store.  That means that being perceived as nearby can be powerful motivation to consumers and listeners when it comes to AM or FM radio as well.

You don’t need to be the best in the world, just the best in the local community to win in ratings and in use to local advertisers.

Today’s mobile devices were not built with radio in mind.  Rather, as this week’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference indicates, the hardware and software inventors are creating try to make the most of the memory and processing power of the device to solve problems as their primary mission. 

That market is worldwide and a great app making the most of it can sweep the globe, potentially making billions of dollars.

That is, IF you create the best app in the world.  Being #2 app in the world isn’t good enough.  When #1 is free or a few dollars, why would anyone consume #2?

Radio’s future is still in dominating, or at least being a major player, in mobile audio and enriched content that involves video and interactivity which makes the most of every device a radio station’s users choose to own.

Once upon a time, inventors and manufacturers built devices to make the most of our output.

Now, it’s radio’s turn to innovate digital apps to compete with the very best in the entire world.

Apps

Stop for a moment and look at your smart phone.  How many apps have you downloaded out of the "hundreds of thousands of possibilities?"

How many do you actually use on a regular basis?

My point, if you're a radio station or a radio personality, is not to discourage you from creating your own custom app, but before you do, think about what daily, hourly problem for your listener does your new app solve.

Especially if your app is going to be free.  There's no point in spending the thousands of dollars it's going to cost if it doesn't have a sustainable way to make money with it somehow well beyond that investment.

Of course, if you can create a fun, viral app that you can sell for 99 cents and gets downloaded 50,000 times in a day (which happens daily, of course), GO for it.  If you can replicate that trick once a month, you have earned the right to be called an app genius.  Maybe Apple, Google or Microsoft will buy you, turning you into the next Mark Cuban (or at least Fred Jacobs, who'd be the first I'd ask if I wanted to build an app since he has built a going business around apps)

I have downloaded almost 100 apps to listen to A&O&B client radio stations and even though they pay me to do it, I still seldom actually actually use them.  I find it more convenient to simply bookmark the station's streaming page and get there that way.

I admire TuneIn, SHOUTcast, iHeartRadio and the rest for what they are trying to do, but I find myself using Real FM Radio on my Android Phone where I already have my local fav preset.

Don't bother building an app for me unless it offers something better than that.  At the very least, include an "alarm" to wake me up to my favorite morning show, but the one already in my phone works well enough that I'd have to love your program a lot to go to the trouble to download and set it up, compared to just turning you on when I want to hear you.

Am I unique?  Perhaps I am, but at the very least put yourself in my shoes before you build your new app.