Don’t risk your rep on bad design.

Kristina Bjoran’s article at uxbooth.com asks “whether or not brand loyalty trumps usability. No surprise here: it doesn’t.” According to a study conducted by EffectiveUI, “the majority of users chose good experience design over brand loyalty” and even go further to suggest that a brands reputation could be damaged by “a useless, troublesome, or superfluous mobile application.”

Well planned and executed design is an essential element to a successful mobile app. In fact, it may be the element that makes or breaks you. Read the full article here.

According to Chris Ziegler with Engadget, AT&T is reporting that 40% of their sales of the iPhone is now for enterprise use. Blackberry seems to be losing ground in their usual stronghold.

Read the full article here.

A new study reveals that “U.S. small business owners who are currently using a mobile app report saving an average of 5.6 hours per week” according to Mobile Commerce Daily.

The study goes on to note that “the use of mobile apps is currently saving an estimated 1.28 million small business owners approximately more than 372 hours annually, or nearly two full weeks.” Mobile devices paired with well designed tools are proving to be a major boost for both businesses and developers. Read the article here.

Check out this great infographic on small business use of smartphones at Mashable.

Android has taken the lead in the mobile device race in North America. Unfortunately for companies trying to leverage mobile apps within their digital strategy, Android users don’t seem to like downloading apps. According to FierceDeveloper (from Distimo) “a staggering 80 percent of all premium Android Market applications and 20 percent of free apps have been downloaded fewer than 100 times worldwide.”

I expect those stats to change as the Android platform matures and some of the wrinkles are ironed out. Android will be a critical piece of many companies digital strategy moving forward.

Read the full article “Paid Android apps get the cold shoulder from consumers”

It turns out that smartphones are used by big-spenders.

According to Chantal Tode, “multichannel shoppers spend three times as much as single channel ones.” Retailers need to offer a great mobile shopping experience to take advantage this opportunity. In fact, Bernardine Wu, CEO of FitForCommerce, finds that even customers with no mobile friendly website have 5-10% of their traffic from mobile devices. That likely translates into 5-10% of highly annoyed traffic.

Sales are expected to reach 21 BILLION downloads by 2013. If you were to download all of the apps for sale today, it would cost you $891,982.24.

Head over to Mashable to check out a great infographic commemorating the milestone.

Image Courtesy Ken Hawkins

Rob Weber with Clickz.com gives a good overview of the role of mobile in consumer relationships with brands. Numbers we can’t ignore: “38 percent of mobile application users said they were not satisfied with most of the apps available from their favorite brands; 69 percent said a brand name mobile app that isn’t useful, helpful, or easy to use results in a negative perception about the brand.”

“To App or Not to App? Branded Apps Drive User Relationships” is a worthwhile read.