Real estate tech heads to the small screen
Perspective: From 1000Watt blog
By Brian Boero, Friday, June 12, 2009.
Editor's note: This item is republished with permission of the author. Click here to view the original.
The announcement of the iPhone 3G S this week adds confidence to my belief that real estate Web sites as we know them are a legacy platform.
The handheld device will be the locus of real estate technology innovation in the coming years.
The inherent "limitations" of the small screen are in fact liberating for the people who count: end users. These are the folks too often forced to slog through a chopped salad of links, footers and gratuitous content served up by SEO-obsessed product teams. The small screen concentrates the developer mind and compels a better experience.
And, for now, the mobile platform is relatively free from ads. This is changing fast, but even when mobile advertising matures it is likely to be less disruptive than what users have come to expect on the big screen. Early data suggest they may even be more effective.
Most importantly, the experience is portable, which is perfectly suited to real estate.
This is why I think the Zillow iPhone app is better than Zillow.com. It's why I am so excited about the numerous IDX (Internet Data Exchange)-based native iPhone apps in development as I type.
But you may ask: "What about virtual tours, or big hi-res photos -- won't the small screen limit my ability to merchandize listings?"
Here's a secret: Price a listing right. Take a dozen well-composed photos. Put it in the MLS. It will sell. No need to go nuts with Photosynth or lay down a John Tesh track behind your slideshow.
The small screen is enough screen. ...CONTINUED
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Submitted by Robert A. Hulme on June 15, 2009 - 5:17am.
I-Phone and small screens certainly will play a major part in the technology boom in the future. I believe home buyers will become more dependent on Smart Phones each and every day.
Robert A. Hulme
Realtor, GRI, e-PRO
Utah Select Realty
Loan Officer
Mortgage Xpress
www.AmericanForkRealEstate.net
www.AlpineRealEstate.us
Submitted by Barrett Powell on June 15, 2009 - 5:45am.
Back when I was an e-Business Principal in IBM's National e-Business Practice, we had become accustomed to telling our clients that print was dead and the only way to go was internet.
In reflection, I understand now why we got a lot of funny looks from our clients who obviously knew their markets much better than we did. The fact today is that there are vertical markets of real-estate buyers, and not all those markets are going to use a mobile device to find real-estate. Heck, in my market you are lucky to have a mobile signal at the property much less someone sitting in front to the property with an iPhone looking at an information sheet.
That said, I think there are some very interesting possibilities with mobile devices and real-estate. But our market faces another huge dilemma; the average age of a Realtor today is 54, and most don't even get Web 1.0 much less mobile real-estate apps. I am reminded of this every time I go to a meeting of my peers. I would say fewer than 20% get it, which is why intermediary sites like Zillow and Trulia will continue to come between a Realtor and his/her client.
But to make blanket statements about a technology, especially bleeding edge technology, taking over the landscape may be true for Northern California but may not be practical in Pittsboro, Siler City, or Silk Hope in the rural part of The Triangle, North Carolina.
Barrett Powell, Owner, Broker in Charge
RE/MAX Southern Advantage Companies
288 East Street, PO Box 1427
Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312
Submitted by Christine Donovan - Costa Mesa Real Estate on June 15, 2009 - 9:33pm.
People are using their iphones and other smart phones for so much these days.
There's no question that they will continue to play a huge part in real estate technology.
christine@donovanblatt.com
www.donovanblatt.com
www.livingcostamesa.com
Submitted by Jason Massengale on June 19, 2009 - 1:06am.
I'm with you Barrett, saying print is dead, the internet is the only way to go was taking it a little far. Eventually though, the majority of print as we know it will die.
I don't see today's hand-held devices replacing home computers ever. Don't get me wrong, I love iPhone. I love the fact that we don't need to plan before going somewhere - no checking email first - no getting directions - no finding favorite restaurants ahead of time - and the list goes on.
When I'm at home though & I get to choose between 3200px of screen width vs the 480px from iPhone, it's the home computer that wins every time.
Contrary to the author's opinion, I see things going to larger screens - eventually consuming entire walls in average households.
Small screens are in natural opposition to our eyes and the way they scan everything we look at before resting and bouncing to the next object. The small screen requires conscious thought and action before our eyes are allowed to focus where they want.
Our brains and eyes are never going to be happy having to wait for us to respond.
Submitted by Mike Sparr on June 28, 2009 - 5:29am.
Thanks for sharing 1000Watt's article - they are progressive group and I agree the small screen deserves a lot of attention. The low bandwidth channel (mobile) will continue to grow, but the smart phone market still needs to grow significantly to reach critical mass on the consumer side. Over 50% of agents have smart phones, and use them every day, but a small subset of consumers do, and the ones that do use them very differently than the professional power user.
M:Metric reports that only 13% of mobile subscribers globally use smart phones and in the US, less than 10%. 13.2% use mobile web, less than 6% use mobile search and approx 5% use video. These are similar in Europe, which is years ahead of the United States; they are higher in Japan/Australia.
iPhones have over 20 million sold, but this includes international sales so likely between 12-15 million in the US (and growing). This equates to less than 5% share of the US mobile market.
Trulia launched their iPhone app last year and reported 170,000 downloads. This is only 1% of iPhone users and less than 0.08% of the US market at the time.
Zillow announced 402,000 downloads of their iPhone app. This is 2% of all iPhones and 0.15% of US market.
Studies from Pinch Media have shown out of 30 million iPhone downloads, 80% were not used after 1 day, and 95% after 30 days. Based on these figures, you can imagine how small of percentage of home buyers you reach by relying on app-based, consumer-facing marketing tools.
http://theappslab.com/2009/02/23/pinch-media-releases-iphone-app-stats/
This will grow over several years, and our company is unveiling our mobile apps on these popular platforms (yet for agents, not consumers, where over 50% do indeed have smart phones and use them every day).
The communication channel of choice for consumers is and remains SMS (text messaging), which is why we've even seen voice and app-based companies scrambling/pledging to get a text-based solution to market. With SMS, you reach 80.2% of US mobile subscribers with no training or software downloads, plus they cannot "fake" contact information like web, app-based and mobile web leads.
Nine years ago, while working with Nokia in Helsinki, I was texting the soda machine in my office. Out would drop the soda and the charges would show up on my wireless bill that month. We're just now reaching the time here in the United States - imagine what's next. ;-)
If anyone seeks information about mobile technology for real estate in the United States, or beyond, please don't hesitate to contact me, or better yet, visit our website: http://www.goomzee.com and download our free white paper (bottom-right on every page).
We'll share some exciting innovations soon with the Inman community for iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm, etc. Stay tuned...
--
Mike Sparr, CEO/Founder
Goomzee.com
"Connecting buyers and sellers"