Transportation Agencies and the Mobile ‘App’

Why hitting a moving target is so important …

Lloyd D. Brown, Director of CommunicationsNTPAW 2010 Annual Meeting, Boise, Idaho

September 16, 2010

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Why shoot for a moving target?

Mobile devices: That’s where the people are!

If you don’t build it, someone else will.

WSDOT’s App

Here’s what we’ll cover:

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General Internet demographics 74% of American

adults (ages 18 and older) use the Internet 

Source: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Internet-broadband-and-cell-phone-statistics/Report.aspx

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How do people access the Internet?

60% of American adults use broadband connections at home  

55% of American adults connect to the Internet wirelessly  83% of adults have cell

phones or smartphones and, among them, 35% have accessed the Internet via their phone. 

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Connected devices are here to stay

iPhones Android phones Blackberry phones Microsoft phones Kindles iPads Netbooks

Photo by PACMan30009/16/2010

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A culture of ‘apps’

Among cell phone owners, 29% have downloaded apps to their phone and 13% have paid to download apps.

“An apps culture is clearly emerging among some cell phone users, particularly men and young adults.”

- Kristen Purcell, Associate Director for Research at the Pew Internet Project.

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-Source: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/The-Rise-of-Apps-Culture.aspx

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Mobile devices are a market force

Apple is manufacturing 2 million iPads each month, rising to 3 million for the Holiday season.

Apple is estimated to be selling 2 million iPhone 4 units each month.

iPod touch accounts for around one-third of iOS devices, suggesting similar sales levels.

Source:http://blogs.computerworld.com/16887/is_apple_selling_over_6_million_ios_devices_a_month?source=rss_blogs

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Mobile phones open opportunities

New York Times: “Other cultural forces aside, minorities, lower-income households and younger adults access the Internet at higher rates on mobile devices because they often do not have computers at home.”

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/technology/02drill.html?_r=1

Photo by Ed Yourdon

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Consider this …

A study conducted by Walt Disney across six European countries – UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Poland showed the following usage behavior among pre-teens Number of kids who access the Internet : 80% Tweens who use Internet for games : 74% Tweens who use Internet for homework : 59%

Favorite way to communicate with friends Face-to-face communication : 30% SMS : 15% Online chat : 14% Cell Phone : 10%

Source: http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/976825/Gaming-popular-internet-activity-tweens/

Tweens (8-14) have always known life with mobile phones and Internet!

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The major players …

Apple's App Store: 250,000 applications

Google's Android Store: 80,000 applications (up from 30,000 just six months ago)

“Smartphones that run on Google's Android operating system also are expected to outsell iPhones this year. IDC, another tech research firm, estimates that by 2014, Android devices will hold world-wide market share of 25% while the iPhone's share will drop to 11% from 15% this year.”

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704644404575481471217581344.html?mod=WSJ_Tech_LEFTTopNews9/16/2010

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The mobile ‘app’ is the next step

Since 1990s, government has increasingly turned to Internet as a way to more efficiently provide services.

In the last decade, government agencies have embraced social networking tools as a way to engage

WSDOT already uses Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Blogspot and Twitter to engage with the public.

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Let’s look at the WSDOT web stats

WSDOT has seen growth in percentage of web page views from mobile phones. Web site averages 25 million page views each

month On average, 1.5 million page views each

month are from mobile browsers Top mobile devices accessing the web site:

iPhone Android OS iPad

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If you don’t build it, someone else will Before WSDOT launched its app,

others were already ‘selling’ its data.

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What’s in WSDOT’s app?

Modeled from content in Whitehouse.gov iPhone app

The WSDOT app offers direct access to traffic information, as well as agency promotional information

Started with Android app, moved to iPhone OS

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Connecting WSDOT’s info web

Flickr photos News releases

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The pay off …

What people really want is traffic information

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What’s the response so far? iPhone app

7,267 downloads 26 ratings 3 stars

Android app 12,939 downloads 7,941 active

installs 205 ratings 4.5 stars

User comments vary:

*** Works good for what it is

*** Force closes often when in maps...but good start of a useful tool

* This app sucks ***** Ridiculous and

awesome! Everything in the palm of your hand

***** Keeps getting better and better! Great work, DOT!

***** This app is fantastic!9/16/2010

Source: WSDOT data through Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010

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WSDOT’s app plan

WSDOT chose to write its code in house. That source code is now available for use at http://github.com/wsdot/.

Technical questions? contact Jeremy Bertrand, WSDO T web guru, at bertraj@wsdot.wa.gov.

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Conclusion

Our business has changed tremendously, mobile apps are the next step.

The explosion of wireless devices is creating a culture of ‘apps’

The people are already there. If we aren’t filling the demand, someone else will.

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Transportation Agencies and the Mobile ‘App’

Contact: Lloyd D. Brown, Director of CommunicationsAmerican Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

(202) 624-5802 office(202) 907-3434 celllbrown@aashto.org

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