Find out what's new at 51Degrees.mobi in our May 2012 news letter. Topics include...

Over the Air 2012	New PHP Beta	RingMark Integration	New Partners

If you've not upgraded yet, here are 4 great reasons to upgrade today:

1. Your web site isn't detecting the latest mobile phones and tablets
2. We've made significant improvements to speed and accuracy
3. The APIs and Lite device data are entirely free for commercial use
4. The Premium product includes automatic weekly updates and many more device properties       

A new version of 51Degrees.mobi device data is available from today.

Our Premium data set now includes two new properties to identify handsets with a 3D-compatible display and 3D camera. In addition, the regular weekly update for new and amended device specifications has taken place.

 

We've been busy creating new mobile products and services to benefit your business.

You may not be aware but, since September, the WURFL Device file has been commercialised. This means using newer WURFL versions for commercial purposes will require a commercial license.

In response to this and other feedback from our customers, we have launched our own Device file. It comes in two versions:

1. an entry-level open source version called Lite, which can be used commercially and is entirely free; and
2. a Premium version that provides a comprehensive set of device attributes to help you create the very best mobile experience for your customers.  

Our device detection file contains the very latest smartphones, feature phones, tablets and consoles. Naturally, it’s fully compatible with our Foundation API and Framework products, which have also been upgraded to version 2.

51Degrees.mobi, the leading provider of device detection, web optimisation and mobile analytics solutions, has today launched two new device detection databases for developers wanting to build the very best mobile web experiences.

Since the launch of 51Degrees.mobi Framework we've received a steady stream of inquiries from re-sellers and small businesses seeking to resell 51Degrees.mobi, or earn commission via affiliate marketing and lead referrals. In order to standardise these agreements 51Degrees.mobi has launched an affiliate programme enabling authorised parties to drive traffic to 51Degrees.mobi and earn a 15% commission on subsequent purchases. For those seeking to have a deeper relationship with the customer a reseller programme is also available for some markets.

According to comScore the top Smart Phone OS platform in the US is Google Android.

Top smartphone OS platforms
	Share of smartphone subscribers
	Feb 2011	May 2011	Point change
Total smartphone subscribers	100.0%	100.0%
Google Android	33.0%	38.1%	5.1
Apple iOS	25.2%	26.6%	1.4
RIM (BlackBerry)	28.9%	24.7%	-4.2
Microsoft Windows Phone	7.7%	5.8%	-1.9
Palm webOS	2.8%	2.4%	-0.4

[Tables show three-month average Mar/Apr/May 2011 vs Dec/Jan/Feb 2011. Total US mobile subscribers aged 13+]

iPad's don't support ASP.NET ListBoxes. There are small differences in the JavaScript event model between Safari, iOS3 on iPad and iOS4 on iPad. These differences are precisely the sort of problems 51Degrees.mobi Framework solves.

We've been busy creating new products and services. Find out about:

• Our Free Mobile Analytics service providing details of handsets by month, country and manufacturer.
• Release 1.1 of 51Degrees.mobi Framework offering more control and features.
• Professional Support offering for businesses dependent on 51Degrees.mobi.

In it's April 15th article on mobile development The Wall Street Journel concludes the "The problem: The [mobile] talent pool isn't growing nearly that fast".

Mark Bridge at thefonecast.com writes the following concerning recent analysis of mobile data trends from Juniper Research.

"New figures from Juniper Research suggest that 63% of data traffic generated by smartphones, tablets and feature phones will be carried by fixed networks - via WiFi and Femtocells - by 2015. This annual amount of mobile data traffic ‘offloaded’ from mobile networks is expected to reach nearly 9000 petabytes by 2015, the equivalent of 11 billion movie downloads.

A big thank you to Thomas Derenthal for sending me these InfoWorld articles about mobile web development. I think other readers and customers will find them interesting.

Transition Consulting Limited (TCL), testing experts in the field of mobile telecommunications with clients including Vodafone and Orange, undertook an independent test of the 51Degrees.mobi .NET Mobile Framework product. The results show a near 10 times increase in the performance of ASP.NET with 51Degrees.mobi compared to an unaltered ASP.NET deployment.

51Degrees.mobi have released 1 click installation packages for Microsoft WebMatrix and Umbraco making access to fast and accurate mobile device detection and redirection even easier. The packages are currently marked as beta while we await feedback from the respective developer communities.

51Degrees.mobi are delighted to announce the availability of version 1.0 of their commercial product which simplifies the task of creating mobile web applications that perform quickly and support all mobile devices, handsets and browsers. The product is titled “.NET Mobile Framework” and is targeted at ASP.NET developers with a basic understanding of the web and ASP.NET.

Today 51Degrees.mobi became a Microsoft Silver Partner in the Independent Software Vendor category. Partnering with Microsoft offers 51Degrees.mobi greater access to the technologies and experts within Microsoft shaping the future of the platforms our mutual customers use.