You don’t need to be in the dessert business to care about Ice Cream Sandwich – why Google’s latest Android release matters to SMB marketing

Posted by vitomy on October 20, 2011 0 Comments

Apple events and product launches always get lots of press, and rightly so. The people behind the iPhone, iPad, and other game-changing devices are not only master innovators, but master showmen as well.

That Apple is so good at innovating and making sure you know about their innovation makes it easy for the mainstream to lose sight of incredible things happening elsewhere… even at rival giants like Google and Samsung.

Those two companies recently held an event to show off “Ice Cream Sandwich,” the latest iteration of Google’s Android operating system.

Is this news that matters to small business owners and hyperlocal marketers? Absolutely. These innovations generate the most excitement in tech circles, but they have just as much of an impact on businesses like yours, whose messages are spread by the users of these devices and the operating systems they run.

The release of Samsung’s new hardware is an especially exciting indication of where mobile marketing is headed because of the heavy emphasis that the Galaxy Nexus (that’s what Samsung is calling the first phone to run Ice Cream Sandwich) put on the experience of watching video. The new screen is enormous by phone standards and even hides virtual buttons—which means that not even the phone distracts your target market from branded videos they view on the phone.

The operating system is important to SMB marketing because the kinds of experiences involved in interacting with your brand (whether it’s sharing your content, interacting with your support teams, or even making purchases from mobile devices) are ostensibly enhanced and made more convenient.

Don’t take it from us, though. Here’s a video of the presentation given by Samsung and Google. We know it’s long and you have lots to do, but at the very least, we recommend you let it play in the background while you do other things. We’re sure you’ll come across lots of things that will be exciting not only to you as a user of mobile devices, but also as a person with a stake in marketing campaigns that target mobile phone users.

Here at Vitomy, we’re excited about the chance to get our hands on Ice Cream Sandwich and get a real feel for just how much cooler Vitomy content feels on that system. To experience Vitomy for yourself, sign up (or upgrade) at vitomy.com.