PBS Kids Summit: Mobile

MOBILE

Launching a PBS Kids mobile site – the site focuses not just on mobile content, but navigates easily to mobile content available around the place including mobile games, apps, products for download etc.

Mobile Research / Best Practices

As part of RTL grant they started with a best practices study by PlayScience Lab (have done work with Sesame).

- Will be sharing as part of RTL initiative.
- Placement of buttons
- What is ‘home’ in the mobile world?
- Expect this will evolve as they get more into Android.
- Mobile should look good on iOS and Tablets nicely. It’s a whole separate stylesheet dependant on device.
- Devices: Android install base is larger than the iPhone install base. But the iPod touch would double these numbers, and there are about 17 million iPads not included in these numbers. Finally, the Apple iOS platform is more unified. Android platform is across different device companies and carriers so it makes it fragmented and more challenging for developers.
- Android store fronts are pretty bad. Amazon storefront is a good start.
- Overall for PBS audience, it’s a higher percentage of apple users. Iphone users tend to download apps and browse the web more than other smartphone users.
- Question about who actually owns a device – if it’s a smartphone it’s definitely a passback phenomenon for preschool
- For older kids it’s usually the ipod touch and the kid owns it. (or think they own)
- Adoption of schools / iPads – there’s been a bunch of individual school systems buying devices but they’re still trying to figure this up. Apple has a school volume purchasing program for apps.
- There is an opportunity to build an educational APP market that can be used across schools (if schools end up buying apps in bulk to be used in classrooms).
- Baking in stuff like tracking into the apps will be more attractive for school systems overall.