Believe it or not, people are craving communications from brands — but they want those communications to be relevant and on their terms.

According to new research from consumer insights agency Communispace, people want more personalized brand communications through their mobile devices, and they want tools that help them manage and filter the flow of content.

“The general U.S. consumer is connected fairly continually and it’s generally throughout their lives,” Katie Adams, senior consultant with the IdeaGroup within Communispace, tells Marketing Daily. “What we found was that these connected consumers have a generally high awareness of interaction with brands on their mobile devices.”

Despite this high interaction, there are still a set of rules people expect brands to follow as they communicate through mobile devices — the first one being to avoid unsolicited contact. According to the research, people still value their privacy and don’t want to engage in brand interactions that they have not approved.

“A very specific [good] example would be having a mobile app that, whenever [a certain] product is on sale, it sends me an alert,” says Julie Wittes Schlack, senior vice president of innovation and design at Communispace. “I, as the consumer, have indicated what I’m interested in and I’ve opted in. And the message you’re giving me is information that I want.”

Once people have acknowledged they’d like to receive marketing messages, the brands should be ready to communicate with messages that provide some value for the consumers, whether they are a deal on a specific product or a location-based offer.

“If you’re a retailer or manufacturer and you know someone is in a specific location, reach out to them in the moment,” says Wittes Schlack. “Or do it by creating apps that actually provide value, and not purely advertising or offers and promotions.”

At the same time, marketers have to learn to let people dictate the flow of the conversation. Ultimately, they’ll decide the level of interaction they want to have with a brand, and it will be up to the brand to provide those many (and specialized) levels of communication.

“What we’re hearing is that people want to be selective in who they want to hear from and how,” Wittes Schlack says. “But if people have opted in, it’s because they want that content, that dialogue and that promotion. [Brands] have to be really broad and really nimble in how they respond.”

The digital age is entering the “post-PC world,” according to new research from GlobalWebIndex (GWI) produced by Trendstream. PCs and laptops are being replaced by mobile handsets and tablets, as well as TV sets, as favorite go-to devices to access the Internet.

The next 12 months will see a transformation in the way users connect to the Web, according to the research, with tablets leading the charge. Currently, 79% said their personal PC or laptop was their favorite device for accessing the Net. But a year from now, that figure will plummet to 42%, while 40% said a tablet, mobile phone or e-reader would be their top choice for going online. Another 7% will use an Internet-ready TV, while just 11% will continue to use their work PC or laptop.

And apps are part of the game-changing mix as well, GWI reported. App use is growing by double-digit percentages this year. Between February and June, the use of gaming apps worldwide was up 19%. In North America during the same period, the number of smartphone-using consumers who downloaded an app within the past 30 days was up 14%. “Apps and device-specific platforms help create a diverse and disconnected Web,” the report concludes.

GWI interviewed close to 100,000 individuals in 27 different markets in June and July.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Even though the news broke yesterday about Google’s intended acquisition of Motorola Mobility, it has a local effect here in our hometown of Plantation, FL. With operations worldwide, Motorola maintains manufacturing, sales and administrative facilities in dozens of locations, and one of their campuses is right around the corner from our office, providing jobs for Plantation, Broward County, and South Florida.

In a bid to strengthen its mobile business, Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion.

The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software.

Android has become an increasingly important platform for Google, as global smartphone adoption accelerates. The platform, launched in 2007, is now used in more than 150 million devices, with 39 manufacturers.

The acquisition would turn Google, which makes the Android mobile operating system, into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple.

“This is an emphatic exclamation point that Google is a mobile company,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Capital. “This is clearly a defensive deal, they were backed in a corner and they had to protect the Android platform.”

Google, Motorola and Mobile
Both companies have met with both successes and struggles as they adapt to and influence a changing market for mobile phones.

Last month, Apple and Microsoft led a consortium of technology companies in a $4.5 billion purchase of roughly 6,000 patents from Nortel Networks, the Canadian telecommunications maker that filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Google, which lost out in the bidding, criticized the deal as an anticompetitive strategy. Several weeks later, Google acquired more than 1,000 patents from I.B.M.

Motorola holds more than 17,000 patents.

While the acquisition will move Google directly into the telecommunications hardware business, Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, said in a blog post that “this acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business.”

Still, the deal is certain to attract significant antitrust scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission is already investigating Google’s dominance in several areas of its business. The company has agreed to pay a $2.5 billion reverse termination fee, if it walks away, and Motorola will pay a $375 million break-up fee if it takes another offer, according to a person close to the transaction, who was not authorized to speak.

In a conference call on Monday morning, Google said it was confident that it will be able to win regulatory approval, since the deal will ultimately improve competition in the smart phone market.

“We think this is a competitive transaction,” David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer said. “This is not a horizontal transaction, Google has not materially been in the handset business.”

The acquisition of a major handset maker may still pose a significant challenge to the search giant, which has not specialized in manufacturing or marketing of smartphones. Last year, it closed down the online store for its first Google-branded phone, the Nexus One, citing the store’s underwhelming performance. A Motorola tie-up may also irk other phone manufacturers, like Samsung and HTC, which will now be competing directly with Google.

“Can they convince their competitors that Motorola will truly operate as a standalone business?” Mr. Schachter said.

And while Google has made dozens of acquisitions in recent years, most of them have been for less than $1 billion — despite a current war chest of some $40 billion in cash. On the company’s official blog, Mr. Page said Google was purchasing the handset maker to bolster its Android mobile operating system and increase the number of patents it owned.

Android accounted for 43.4 percent of smartphone sales in the second quarter, according to Gartner Research, a major increase from the year ago period, when it made up about 17 percent of sales.

“Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anticompetitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies,” Mr. Page said.

Carl C. Icahn, Motorola Mobility’s second-largest shareholder, had urged the company last month to “explore alternatives regarding its patent portfolio to enhance shareholder value.” Mr. Icahn owns 9.03 percent of Motorola Mobility.

On Monday, he applauded the transaction, calling it “a great outcome for all shareholders of Motorola Mobility, especially in light of today’s markets.”

Lazard and the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton advised Google. Frank Quattrone’s investment bank, Qatalyst Partners, Centerview Partners and the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised Motorola Mobility.

The acquisition has been approved by both boards.

If boredom is a disease, mobile phones are apparently the cure.

According to the findings of a not-too-hard to believe study engendered by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, mobile phones have become the “go-to” device for just about everything, especially when it comes to warding off boredom.

42% of cell owners use their phone for entertainment when they were bored, the Pew study shows. Given that 83% of American adults now own some kind of cell phone, there’s a whole lot of boredom being eliminated by mobile devices it seems.

In addition to combating boredom, mobile phones are also just as helpful when it comes to avoiding people.

Cell phones can help prevent unwanted personal interactions – 13% of cell owners pretended to be using their phone in order to avoid interacting with the people around them.

Half of all adult cell owners (51%) had used their phone at least once to get information they needed right away in the last thirty days. One quarter (27%) said that they experienced a situation in the previous month in which they had trouble doing something because they did not have their phone at hand.

Professional networking platform LinkedIn is launching redesigned versions of its mobile applications for Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS and Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android, concurrently introducing a new HTML5-based web app optimized for all current mobile browsers.

According to LinkedIn, the revamped app touts improved speeds across all features, including search and update streams. The app also reorganizes content into four key areas: Updates (including new developments within the user’s network as well as LinkedIn Today alerts), Inbox (which combines all invitations and messages in one place), You (the user’s profile, connections and information sharing tools) and Groups & More (browsing and interaction solutions as well as the People You May Know feature). Based on user feedback, LinkedIn Mobile now starts with the Update stream and adds access to millions of LinkedIn Groups discussions.

LinkedIn states that mobile usage has increased 400 percent over the last year. Mobile is now LinkedIn’s fastest-growing consumer service.

The LinkedIn network spans more than 120 million professionals across 200 countries, including executives from all current Fortune 500 companies. LinkedIn went public in mid-May, with shares rising as much as 171 percent in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange before closing at $94.25, more than 109 percent above the $45 IPO price.

According to the latest research from comScore, Inc., in June 2011, 14 million mobile users in the U.S. (6.2 percent of the total mobile audience) scanned a QR or bar code on their mobile device.

A QR (Quick Response) code is a specific matrix bar code (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by smartphones.

The statistics were gleaned from a study on mobile QR and bar code scanning which came from the firm’s comScore MobiLens service.

More than half of all QR code scanners were between the ages of 18-34 (53.4 percent).

Additionally, the study found that a mobile user that scanned a QR or bar code during the month was more likely to be male (60.5 percent of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4 percent) and have a household income of $100k or above (36.1 percent).

ComScore also analyzed “the source and location” of QR or bar code scanning and discovered that users are most likely to scan codes found in newspapers or magazines and on product packaging and do so while at home or in a store.

“QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns to help reach desired consumer segments,” says Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. “For marketers, understanding which consumer segments scan QR codes, the source and location of these scans, and the resulting information delivered, is crucial in developing and deploying campaigns that successfully utilize QR codes to further brand engagement.”

Smartphone sales continue to explode, increasing 74 percent in the second quarter compared to last year, according to research firm Gartner. But Microsoft continues to struggle with sales of phones using its Windows Phone platform, which was surpassed by Samsung’s low-end Bada platform.

Samsung sold over 2 million Bada smartphones globally, while just 1.7 million Windows Phones have sold.

The figures are yet another embarrassment for Microsoft, which desperately needs Windows Phone to be a success. The company has another shot at grabbing consumers with the upcoming Mango update, but if that fails Microsoft will have a difficult time reclaiming its mobile relevance.

Global smartphone sales totaled 428.7 million units for the quarter, a 16.5 percent increase from last year. Smartphones accounted for 25 percent of mobile sales, compared to 17 percent last year.

“Smartphone sales continued to rise at the expense of feature phones,” Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner, said in a statement today. “Consumers in mature markets are choosing entry-level and midrange Android smartphones over feature phones, partly due to carriers’ and manufacturers’ promotions.”

Google’s Android mobile platform saw the biggest gains overall from last year, jumping from 17.2 percent of the global smartphone market to 43.4 percent. Apple’s iOS also saw a minor jump from 14.1 percent to 18.2 percent of the market. Nokia’s Symbian platform was the biggest loser, dropping from 40.9 percent of the market last year to 22.1 percent, followed by RIM’s BlackBerry, which fell from 18.7 percent to 11.7 percent.

Bada’s overall market share jumped from .9 percent to 1.9 percent, but that’s still better than Microsoft’s take, which fell from 4.9 percent (mostly consisting of legacy Windows Mobile users) to 1.6 percent.

Smartphones are everywhere. Mobile payments and location-based services are already drawing people to take out their phones while they’re out and about, and QR codes are another way your business can connect to customers through their smartphones. QR codes are easy to generate and provide a great way to convey information directly from the real world to the digital world. Here’s how to put them to work for your business.

You can read these codes via the camera on a smartphone in combination with special apps. On Android phones, the apps Barcode Scanner and Google Goggles (both available for free in the Android market) will translate the QR codes into links that take you to websites, maps, social tools, contact information, links to downloads, or other things linked in the code. Scanners for the iPhone include QR Scanner, QR Reader, and Scan (QR Reader is $2; the others are free in the iTunes App Store). Many shopping apps that scan barcodes will scan QR codes as well.

Barcode Scanner can decode a QR code of vCard contact information.So how do you go about making and displaying QR codes that your customers can easily scan and use? The URL shortening service, bit.ly, will generate a QR code for your URL to go with the shortened link. Barcode Scanner and QR Driod on Android phones not only read QR codes, but can generate QR codes for applications, bookmarks, contacts, and other things. You can then share that QR code via email, Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, Google+, Text Message, and many more. Optiscan will do the same for iPhones ($2 in the App Store).

To take things to the next level, sites like qrstuff.com offer analytics to track the use of your codes, or can put that code on products such as T-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and even chocolate. A new art project celled QR-3D is cataloging QR codes woven into clothing and other textiles.

A QR code on an open-house sign links to a video tour of the property.Some recent places I’ve seen QR codes in the wild include a business card (linked to a website), the tarantula exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo (linked to Web pages with more information), and an open-house sign (linked to a YouTube video tour of the property). Many local businesses have them in their windows pointing to websites, hours of operation, or menus for restaurants. There is even an experiment in South Korea allowing customers to shop for groceries with QR codes.

The mobile space is a hot place to build your brand, and with more and more people carrying and actively using their smartphones while out and about, QR codes are a great tool to reach out to those customers in new and interesting ways. Stay tuned to the PCWorld Business Center to learn more on how to leverage mobile tools to get the word out about your business.

Original post date of this article: July 27, 2011

ParksByNature Network is using alerts and location-based features to help state park visitors stay safe during their trips.

The Pocket Ranger apps let users explore state parks in six states, including Delaware, Kentucky, North Carolina, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The apps are available on both iPhone and Android devices.

“The initiative behind these apps was to draw a new generation of mobile users to the state park system,” said Brett Melillo, cofounder/program coordinator at ParksByNature Network, New York.

“State parks have concerts, events and activities and mobile is a great way to engage with visitors in a real-time way,” he said.

ParksByNature Network is a service organization that implements sponsorship, events, mobile and tour programs for companies with a specific interest in aquariums, museums, parks and zoos.

On-the-go safety
Consumers can opt-in to an alerts system via the app.

Users can pre-register their trips and receive news, alerts and geo-specific weather updates.

The app also includes a Friend Finder feature that lets users stay connected while exploring.

Park visitors can sync their phones together and use pins to see where the other person is.

The GPS function also turns into a map without a wireless connection in the parks, making it easy for consumers to navigate.

“We want to coordinate and draw people into the park with real-time feeds,” Mr. Melillo said.

Mobile maps
Park enthusiasts can search for local parks by name, trails and park history.

For a more general overview of nearby parks, users can press on the states tabs to see specific parks by region on maps.

Users can also access park directions, maps of the park, activities and other park-related information, as well as book reservations on their handsets.

“We are trying to create a system where people can get involved in parks instead of just visiting,” Mr. Melillo said.

“This is the first time the government has worked with parks on mobile,” he said.

The app is free to download, but consumers can opt-in for paid content when using the app.

With paid content, users can share their park experiences through Facebook and Twitter, record tracks and mark waypoints.

“Parks are a free form of entertainment and based on users’ habits, so it makes sense to utilize their park experiences in a mobile environment,” Mr. Melillo said.

“Where cell phones used to be intrusions in nature, they are now great resources to educate and keep park visitors safe,” he said.

Original post date of this article: July 27, 2011

Fast food giant McDonald’s is making a bigger play in the mobile space with the launch of a new application that drives consumers to the nearest location and illustrates the company’s commitment to offer improved nutritional choices.

The mobile app is part of a national marketing initiative that includes a long-term plan, which features ongoing menu evolution and nutrition awareness communication. The app is available for free download in Apple’s App Store.

“Harnessing the power of location is especially important for businesses with thousands of points where consumers can access a very standardized and dependable product,” said Wilson Kerr, Brookline, MA-based location-based services consultant.

“Quick serve restaurants tend to have very loyal customers and giving them a tool that is on for 16 hours a day to allow dedicated patrons to locate a nearby restaurant seems like a very good idea,” he said. “The fact that the McDonald’s home office can use this as innovative and concrete support for franchise owners means an additional benefit, as they can tell each lication how many times directions and location details were served up, in realtime.

“Tracking the number of requests for directions given, successfully navigated routes, in-store redemptions of coupons for new menu items, or other mobile marketing initiatives could be rolled in, as well as powerful new tools like mobile payment or mobile ordering for takeout.”

Mr. Kerr is not affiliated with McDonald’s. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

McDonald’s is the world’s largest burger chain, serving nearly 47 million customers daily.

Food for thought
The McDonald’s app features a restaurant locator and nutrition information.

Hungry consumers can search for the nearest McDonald’s location by entering their ZIP code.

Customers can also search restaurants by state.

After finding the closest location, consumers can browse a map and find directions on how to get there, view employment opportunities, send comments, view a calendar of events and email the manager.

Customers can also see the location’s hours.

Additionally, the app lets consumers view nutrition information.

Customers can browse nutritional information by category such as sandwiches, french fries, breakfast or any of the McDonald’s McCafe drinks.

There, consumers can browse calorie, protein, total fat and carbohydrate information, amongst others.

Mobile jobs
The app also features a careers tab for consumers interested in applying for a job at the company.

Interested applicants can view a video that highlights McDonald’s employees and how potential employees can grow with the company.

Consumers can also search available positions via the app.

“Imagine a minivan full of hungry kids and a set of parents looking for the golden arches in an unfamiliar city,” Mr. Kerr said. “Pulling into a random burger place is a big risk, as you do not know what you’ll get.

“A Happy Meal is a Happy Meal at every McD’s and this consistency means a happy carload of kids,” he said. “Providing an app for that seems like a recipe for success.”

l 

When people feel like shopping, they are increasingly pulling out iPads and other tablets, so much so that shopping on tablets could someday outpace shopping on smartphones and even computers.

That is the conclusion of a report by Forrester Research that is to be published Monday, based on a joint survey with Bizrate Insights. Even though just 9 percent of shoppers own tablets, sales from tablets already account for 20 percent of mobile e-commerce sales, the report said, and 60 percent of tablet owners have used them to shop.

“Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at Forrester who co-wrote the report. “We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.”

Tablets offer retailers and shoppers something that cellphones and computers cannot — the experience of flipping through a print catalog, with big photos and rich imagery — and with shorter load times than many Web sites.

For instance, TheFind’s Catalogue for the iPad, which includes retailers like Crate & Barrel and Sephora, lets people flip through pages. Gilt’s Jetsetter app for travel uses the iPad’s accelerometer and gyroscope to show resorts from different angles. Retailers can send personalized catalogs to customers’ tablets based on their interests and purchase history, Ms. Mulpuru said.

For retailers, these types of features give them a chance to show off their products instead of competing solely on price with dozens of other retailers accessible with a Google search and a click. For shoppers, 80 percent of whom use their tablets in the living room, they make online shopping a leisurely experience in a way it hasn’t been since e-commerce came along.

“The element of discovery is missing online, because most people go to Google, and Google isn’t about discovering something online, it’s about typing something into a search box,” Ms. Mulpuru said. “This is much closer to the actual physical browsing experience.”

Forty percent of tablet owners use their tablets instead of their personal computers when both are available, Forrester found. And though more people are shopping on smartphones, they use them mostly for comparing prices and receiving mobile coupons, and get frustrated by the small screen when browsing items or entering billing information. A majority, particularly young people, prefer shopping on tablets, the report said.

Still, retailers have been slow to catch on. The average retailer has spent just $14,000 developing shopping tools for tablets, which Forrester calls “anemic.” And though Forrester expects that a third of adults will own tablets by 2015, the majority of people will not own the devices.

George Dooley is an AdKing private label publisher. This article was originally posted on March 29, 2011.

For the past eight years, George Dooley has designed hundreds of web pages for small businesses from his home office in Cumberland.

Now, he’s added a new service that he says will help small business owners keep up with the times: an affordable and basic smart phone app, with texting capabilities, for a startup fee of $147, and a $97 monthly fee thereafter.

“More people are accessing the Internet through their mobile devices than their laptops,” Dooley says. “However, very few companies have started taking advantage of where the shift in the Internet is going.”

By launching his new business, BizAppFusion, Dooley has jumped into the budding industry of commercial apps for mobile devices. Apps are considered the next possible marketing frontier, but at the moment, there are just a handful of companies in Maine offering apps, and few developers designing them. Those who do say they are seeing growing interest from businesses, mostly from outside of Maine. That, however, could change.

“In America and in Maine, smart phones are not as big as they are in Japan,” says Rich Brooks, president of flyte new media on Commercial Street. “But soon it is going to be a tool of the masses. We’re going to see this continuing to evolve, and we are just poised to see it explode.”

Josh Valentine, president of the nonprofit Maine Marketing Association and chief marketing strategist for Promenade Media in Portland, says that while “things are definitely picking up in terms of mobile marketing, I haven’t seen a large uptick in Maine, only because there aren’t many developers in Maine.”

To help build this industry, a small group of mobile application developers has begun meeting monthly at Dirigo Design & Development, an online marketing company on Exchange Street. In just three months, the iApp group, as they call themselves, has grown from three members to about 10, and is expected to continue growing as word gets out, says member Raphael DiLuzio, a professor of new media and art at the University of Maine and a consultant for Dirigo Design.

Eventually, the group would like to invite companies to make pitches to them for new app ideas. “We’re providing the forum, place and set-up for the sharing and cross-pollinating of ideas that we hope will lead to more innovation and excitement in the entrepreneurial community here,” DiLuzio says. The next meeting is April 14 at 6 p.m.

Despite the growing number of iPhone, iPod Touch and Android users, it might not be the right time for some companies to invest in apps, warns Valentine. The price for a custom-designed app can run into the thousands of dollars. Tap Tapas on Fore Street, which makes apps for companies like Toyota Australia, charges a minimum of $25,000 per project, according to co-founder Michael DeSouza. He says, too, that his company is booked several months out. “I’m at the point where I’m turning down work,” he says.

Kerry Gallivan, the president and founder of Chimani in Yarmouth, which builds apps for national parks, says most companies can expect to invest three times as much on a new app as they spent on their website.

Dooley of BizAppFusion, on the other hand, charges far less money because he has a six-page app template that he can customize for a business, he says. With this, he also offers a texting service so companies can send out texts to customers.

Dooley says if a client wants more functionality, he says he can do that cost effectively for them. “We’re trying to help the small business owners get the presence they need,” he says.

While this kind of app is cheaper than building one from scratch, it does have its limitations.

“It is pretty much a business card,” Gallivan says. “They have something listed in the app store and in that sense it is serving a purpose about what your company is; it is a brochure. But if you’re talking about doing an app for a unique function, something more innovative, that is where those cookie-cutter solutions won’t work, and you need to do custom development.”

But before business owners pay for a customized template or invest in a more expensive unique app, Valentine says they should evaluate whether their customers would welcome it.

“I don’t think it is absolutely necessary to have an app unless you are going to be developing something that somebody is going to use more than once,” Valentine says. Just recently, he says he cleaned up his iPhone, deleting 20 apps that he installed but never used. But companies with repeat visitors, such as Amazon or eBay, would more likely benefit, he adds.

Valentine advises a business to optimize its website for mobile access so it looks good on a tightened screen. Once that’s accomplished, Valentine says businesses should focus on social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, to engage with customers.

If a company does invest in an app, DeSouza says they have three options: The app could be a means to increase a company’s visibility on a new platform; be used within a business, such as to manage inventory; or be a source of income (for instance, a personal trainer might develop a $1.99 app offering diet and exercise tips, Brooks says). And the app could be both a source of revenue and a marketing tool.

“Everybody is interested in doing this now,” DiLuzio says. “We want to be able to be instantly on and instantly in communication with one another. The apps are really important to our time and our culture and our way of socializing and being modern humans, and every company that can find a way to participate in this will.”

During its earnings conference, Apple said it sold 9.25 million iPads during its fiscal third quarter, a 183 percent unit increase from the year-ago quarter. Additionally, the company reported that the iPad and iPad 2 are now distributed in 65 countries.

“The continued growth of the tablet market – and its growth in relation to PC – as well as Apple’s extremely strong position here means that the iPad is a platform that marketers and content owners need to pay attention to,” said Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer, New York.

“The iPad straddles devices between PC and mobile because it is able to access some desktop sites,” he said.

“The more smart devices you have in the hands of consumers, the more compelling a proposition mobile is for marketers – and the more it also becomes a necessity.”

IPhone leaps ahead
Apple executives say that the iPad is hurting sales of laptop PCs whlie others contend that Mac sales are also being impacted.

In the most recent financial results, Mac sales increased 14 percent for a total of 3.95 million units.
Apple was also able to sell significant numbers of iPhones even as rumors abound about the release of a new model – the iPhone 5 – this year.

There is growing competition in the tablet market, with recent entries from Samsung, Motorola and Research in Motion. However, these new devices do not appear to be having any significant impact on iPad sales.

The company continues to experience success in the smartphone category as well.

Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter, representing a 142 percent growth in units from the same period a year ago.

IPhone’s growth is outpacing the smartphone market, according to Apple executives pointing to IDC’s estimate for 67 percent growth in the global smartphone market.

“Shipments for iPhone exceeded everyone’s expectations,” said Alex Spektor, senior analyst of global wireless practice at Strategy Analytics, Newton, MA. “Even though there are significant rumors about the next iPhone coming out, Apple continued to sell huge volumes.”

“This speaks to the value that consumers see in the phone,” he said.

Apple reported that revenue for the quarter ended June 25 totaled $28.57 billion, up 82 percent from $15.70 billion from the year-ago quarter.

Net profit totaled $7.31 billion.

The increases were driven primarily by growth in iPhone and iPad sales as well as growth in Mac sales.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently said that the majority of the company’s revenue come from post-PC products when he introduced the iPad 2 earlier this year.

“It is not so much that people are doing away with PCs,” eMarketer’s Mr. Elkin said. “It is more that we are seeing convergence in the devices as consumers begin to have the expectation that they would have interactions with peers or marketers through any of these devices,”

“The fact that you can make a phone call on a wireless network is increasingly less relevant,” he said.

Growing share
Apple also reported that iPhone and accessory sales generated $13.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 150 percent from the year ago quarter.

Emerging and developing markets helped drive the growth, including China, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and the Middle East.

While Apple’s results are impressive, they come at a time when the smartphone market overall is growing, benefitting Android and other operating systems.

Much of the growth is being fueled by consumers replacing feature phones with smartphones, per Mr. Spektor.

“The whole smartphone market is growing at a tremendous rate,” Strategy Analytics’ Mr. Spektor said.
However, Apple’s share of the overall smartphone market continues to grow.

According to Strategy Analytics figures, Apple had an 18 percent share of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2011. This is up from a 16 percent share during Q1 2010 and an 11 percent share in Q1 2009.

Apple faces competition, but it is still the brand to beat when it comes to innovation.

“The competition continues to be at an all-time high,” Mr. Spektor said. “All of the vendors need to make sure they are differentiating their product in order to keep competing with Apple.”

Modest growth returned to the computer industry in the second quarter following a dip earlier this year, although consumer appetite for tablets continued to dampen demand for desktop and laptop PCs.

Computer shipments grew 2.3 percent during the quarter to 85.2 million, the technology research firm Gartner said on Wednesday. Its rival, IDC, said in a similar report that shipments grew 2.6 percent to 84.4 million.

Neither firm includes tablet computer shipments in their quarterly tallies. Neither breaks out tablet shipments separately.

The results are a small bright spot for computer makers, which have tried to downplay the extent to which tablet computers, mostly the Apple iPad at this point, have diverted spending from the PC and laptop. But clearly the competition is affecting computer sales, the two reports concluded.

“Given the hype around media tablets such as the iPad, retailers were very conservative in placing orders for PCs,” Mikako Kitagawa, a Gartner analyst, said in a statement. “Instead, they wanted to secure space for media tablets. Some PC vendors had to lower their inventory through promotions, while others slimmed their product lines at retailers.”

The IDC report, meanwhile, mentioned the shifting consumer appetite for tablets, particularly in the United States, as a drag on computer sales.

In addition to tablets, second quarter computer shipment totals faced a tough comparison from last year. Global shipments soared 12 percent during that quarter, according to IDC and, and such growth could not be sustained.

The United States market was weak over all, with shipments declining 4.2 percent, IDC said. The biggest reason was a drop in netbook shipments, the mini-laptops that sold strongly before the rise of tablets.
However, gains in computer shipments to Asia, Latin America and Japan offset those declines.

Gartner said that Hewlett-Packard retained its position as the top computer maker with 14.8 million computers shipped, a 3 percent increase. Dell moved up to second position, its first time in that spot since 2008, with 10.6 million computers shipped, up 3.3 percent.

Acer dropped from second to fourth in global shipments behind Lenovo. The company specializes in netbook computers, sales of which are declining rapidly.

In the United States, Hewlett-Packard led with 4.5 million computers shipped, down 1.2 percent. Dell followed with 3.8 million, down 9.8 percent. Apple rose from fifth to third position, with 1.8 million, up 8.5 percent, based on strong sales of its Mac and MacBook computers. It passed Acer and Toshiba.

As more marketers from across industries begin to embrace mobile advertising, more attempts at measuring their efforts will not be far behind. Benchmarking efforts by digital advertising solutions provider MediaMind (formerly Eyeblaster) indicate that campaigns for different verticals should have different expectations—and that mobile banners see more clicks than standard banners on the PC-based internet.

In July 2010, MediaMind released statistics from 2009 showing that mobile banners beat standard banners in both clicks and conversions for automotive campaigns. Now, the higher clickthrough rate (CTR ) for mobile banners can be extended across verticals.

MediaMind found that the average CTR on mobile banners on their network was 0.61%. That was more than eight times as high as the CTR for standard online banners in campaigns that also had at least one mobile ad.

Campaigns for the entertainment industry showed the highest mobile banner click rates, at 1.04%, followed by retail industry mobile banners, at 0.84%. Apparel, electronics and auto ads performed worse.

The research also showed click rates varied by mobile operating system. iPhone and iPad users were significantly more likely to click on mobile banners than those with an Android device or BlackBerry.

eMarketer estimates US advertisers will spend over $1.1 billion on mobile this year, up 48% from 2010 spending levels. Of that amount, 30%, or $334.5 billion, will go to display (excluding video). By next year, eMarketer predicts, mobile display spending will surpass the current leading mobile ad format, messaging, to take the largest slice of the US mobile ad spending pie.

When the first iOS gadget shipped in 2007, The New York Times’ David Pogue published a list of questions about the new iPhone. The last question on the list was, “Who on earth would buy this thing?”

It’s a question nobody would ask today. The phone, and Apple’s other mobile devices that run the iOS, are succeeding beyond anyone’s predictions. Apple says iOS is currently installed on more than 200 million devices.

Another small thing happened in 2007 that has become a big thing: Apple filed a patent request for the capacitive touch screen used by the iPhone, iPad and, in fact, by nearly all of Apple’s competitors in the market. That patent was granted this week.

One possible outcome of the inevitable court cases to come is that competitors may have to pay Apple a licensing fee for every non-Apple smartphone or tablet shipped.

Since its 2007 launch, there has always been a lot of hype around the iPhone far beyond actual market share. The many brands that run the Android OS collectively own more market share both globally and in the U.S. than the iPhone does. And internationally, handsets from giants like Nokia have maintained more sales than those from Apple.

But all this appears to be changing. In the first quarter of this year, Android phone market share declined nearly 3%, while iOS’s share rose by more than 12%. Android still has nearly half the smartphone market, and Apple has significantly less than that (about 30%.)

These changing fortunes could represent a temporary blip caused by Apple’s availability on Verizon. Or it could be a trend.

Another possible trend is the decline and fall of Nokia. That company’s smartphone handset market share dropped from 24% to 16% in one year. Apple retained a 17% share while the overall pie grew significantly.

When the iPhone shipped in 2007, nobody — and I mean nobody — predicted that Apple would sell more handsets worldwide than Nokia within four years.

A recent survey measuring Web traffic by various devices found that some 97% of all tablet traffic in the United States comes from iPads. And if you think that’s high, the number is 100% in Japan and 99% in the U.K. (The global average is 89%.)

All these market share and traffic numbers mask a stark business reality: Apple makes vastly more money from mobile devices than its competitors do.

Firstly, Apple makes money from handsets, which Google no longer sells. Secondly, Apple makes money from apps — far more per app than any other platform, and far more apps. For example, last year Google earned about $102 million from apps sales, while Apple raked in $1.7 billion.

I’ve been mulling over this chart from mobile app analytics firm Flurry the last few days that suggests consumers are spending more time within apps than they are on the web (desktop or mobile). Growing 91% in the last year, daily time spent in mobile apps averages 81 minutes per person compared with 74 minutes on the web.

It seems kind of unbelievable, but Nielsen reported earlier this week that mobile data usage is up 89% per user compared to the year before. Flurry, which has always been handy with mobile app data, used its own data (500 million daily user sessions across more than 85,000 applications on the iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and J2ME platforms) to determine average daily native app use while deriving average web consumption (both mobile and desktop) using data from Alexa and comScore.

Time spent online is still increasing, just at a 16% growth rate opposed to mobile’s 91%. Although mobile users spend 47% of their app time gaming, 32% is spent on social networking apps, with 14 of the 74 minutes attributed to the Facebook app.

Why I’m really puzzled by the data is that I thought mobile apps would lose their novelty – which they still could, as Flurry notes it’s only been about four years since they appeared. And Facebook might try to cut into that app time.

It was leaked last year that Facebook was inserting a social layer into the Android mobile OS — HTC Status (once called the ChaCha), featuring a dedicated Facebook button along with a deep social integration reportedly will appear in AT&T stores in the next few weeks, Boy Genius reports.

But the hooha of late has been over Project Spartan, where Facebook plans to skip the OS and weave itself right into the mobile browser. It looks like a shot at Apple, which supposedly snubbed Facebook in favor of Twitter for the social login feature in the new iOS. But who snubbed whom? TechCrunch’s MC Siegler wisely asks, as Spartan is a move by Facebook to run apps within its service on top of the Safari mobile browser.

Put simply, through an HTML5-based layer, Facebook will pretty much own the mobile browser, somewhat similar to the way social browser Rockmelt works, but major apps from Zynga, Huffington Post and other developers will be easily accessible through the Facebook mobile site.

So consider that 14 minutes spent on the Facebook app — if the social network offered you a better, less glitchy experience through its mobile site (which you could argue it already does) and gave you instant access to your favorite apps with Facebook integration built in, I imagine you’d be spending a lot less time within native apps and more on the web. Yet you’re still apping — has Facebook discovered the best of both worlds?

But what about advertising? It finally feels like the tech companies have figured out this in-app advertising thing. Apps through Spartan would present a new opportunity to reach mobile consumers, but you’d have to go through Facebook, which makes Apple’s iron fist look like a velvet glove. However, Facebook is trying to play nice with agencies these days…

Google Android was the leading smartphone platform between February and April, while Apple iOS moved up to second place, according to new data from comScore.

Data from comScore’s MobiLens service shows that the leading mobile trends impacting marketers during this period include growing smartphone ownership and the continuing evolution of the platform ecosystem for these devices. The number of U.S. consumers who owned a smartphone during the three-month period grew 13 percent for a total of 74.6 million.

“Marketers go where the people are,” said Brian Jurutka, senior vice president of mobile and telecom at comScore, Reston, VA. “Well, the majority of eyeballs for people browsing on phones are on smartphones now and it’s only growing.

“Smartphones will soon make up more than 50 percent of new handsets purchased, and the owners spend more time browsing because they typically require data plans,” Mr. Jurutka said.

“SMS shouldn’t be forgotten since nearly every phone can send and receive SMS,” he said.

“However, smartphone owners use SMS as well. So overall, smartphone owners are heavier phone users and provide more opportunity for interaction with marketers.”

The Android angle
The data shows the operating system ecosystem continues to evolve at the top, with Android, iOS and Research In Motion jockeying for bigger roles. At the same time, the gap between the leaders and those at the bottom of the list continues to widen.

“Marketers have limited resources and need to concentrate on getting the most bang for their buck,” Mr. Jurutka said. “iOS has the significant lead in the ecosystem, particularly when viewed in context of smartphones plus tablets and other connected devices like iPod touch.

“As Android continues to gain share of smartphones, however, expect more development resources to head that way,” he said.

The data shows that Android’s market share grew by 5.2 percentage points during the time period in question for a total market share of 36.4 percent. The iOS platform’s market share grew by 1.3 points for a total of 26 percent. RIM lost 4.7 percentage points of its market share, putting its total at 25.7 percent.

During the previous three-month period ended in January, RIM had the No. 2 spot and trailed slightly behind Android’s No. 1 spot with a 30.4 percent market share. Microsoft lost 1.3 percent of its market share during the period ended in April for a total 6.7 percent while Palm lost 0.6 percent of its market share for a total of 2.6 percent.

Samsung was the top OEM with 24.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. It was followed by LG with a 20.9 percent share and Motorola with a 15.6 percent share.

Apple jumped to the No. 4 position with an 8.3 percent share, up 1.3 percentage points. RIM came in at No. 5 with an 8.2 percent share.

Samsung, Motorola and RIM all lost share during this period.

The data also shows continued growth in mobile content usage. For the three-month period ended in April, 68.8 percent of mobile users sent a text message to another phone, up 0.7 points.

The percentage of subscribers using a mobile browser grew 2.1 points for a total of 39.1 percent. The percentage downloading apps was up 2.4 points for a total of 37.8 percent.

There were similar gains in the percentage accessing a social networking site or blog, which was up 2.7 points for a total of 26.2 percent of mobile subscribers.

Playing games and listening to music also grew, with 26.2 percent of subscribers engaging in games and 18 percent listening to music.

For the three-month period ended in April, 234 million U.S. consumers ages 13 and older used mobile devices, according to comScore’s MobiLens service.

“Similar to online, content is moving to more engaging rich media and even video,” Mr. Jurutka said.

“Though video in particular is still a small segment, expect it to grow as speeds increase,” he said.

“Marketers will likely head down the same path since they’ll want to create robust interactions with customers and prospects.”

Family sports bar and restaurant Wild Wing Cafe ran an SMS campaign to engage its patrons and found that out of the 900 consumers that showed up, 72 percent texted in for a chance to win prizes.

The company found that SMS was a successful tool that could be used to engage existing and new customers. Wild Wing Café has been using SMS since 2007.

“Texting prompts appeared on window signage and staff members were trained to encourage patrons to enter the contest while they were dining,” said Rachel Jensen, marketing coordinator at Wild Wing Café, Atlanta.

“This improved rapport with the customers and added value to their dining experience,” she said.

Wild Wing Café is a local family sports bar and restaurant serving Buffalo wings, food, and beer across the United States.

Consumer engagement
The promotion took place in Marietta, GA.

Consumers were encouraged by the Wild Wing Café waitstaff and in house point-of-sale to text the keyword HUNDO to the short code 84464 for a chance to win 3 Wild Wing $100 gift cards.

In addition, the company used window signage to promote the SMS campaign.

Customers were also encouraged to text the keyword DOLLAR to the short code 84464 to win dollar shots for the evening.

“The strategy was to embrace our clientele in a text to win offer during our Annual Crawfish festival in May,” said Ed Herson general manager at Wild Wing Café, Atlanta.

SMS rewards
The company is using SMS, as opposed to other methods of getting the word out because it finds it to be the most effective.

“Our SMS campaigns with State of Text Inc have always netted us a 35-70 percent rate opt-in rates,” said Ryan Bing, manager of Wild Wing Café, Atlanta. “We had around 750 people that day and received right at 560 opt-ins.

“We have steered away from many of our paper advertisements due to the effectiveness of each SMS campaign,” he said. “We at Wind Wing Café are more than pleased with the results we have been receiving via SMS sinse 2007 which have only continued to grow.”

For eons, marketers of all stripes have been trying to figure out just how many consumers take action due to their advertisement.

Even in the online world, where clicks and time spent and every other measurement is hemmed and hawed over, it can be difficult to know how many consumers saw the ad and simply had their own brand loyalty reinforced or a nugget of info lodged that will later lead to action.

As mobile platforms such as QR codes become more mainstream, marketers are grappling with the ROI of mobile marketing, with one-third unsure if their mobile campaigns are effective. Now the mobile world is saying it’s got the goods.

A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Lightspeed Research says that 25% of consumers are more likely to respond to advertising, whether it’s print, online, or outdoor, “if they are able to do so via a mobile response,” according to BusinessWorld.

The publication also cites recent research from Dynamic Logic that shows that mobile advertising can bring higher engagement with the consumer than online advertising does. “Based on 74 campaigns during Q4 2009, and with a huge 69,854 respondents, the research revealed that on average, 22% were aware of a mobile advert — leading to a purchase intent rate of 5.4%,” the site reports.

BusinessWorld purports that part of the reason is that there is generally only one ad per page on a mobile device and the information tends to be very targeted, very simple, and contain a call to action.

Stay tuned for more insights this week. At its global forum kicking off Wednesday in New York, MMA will release the first wave of research from a landmark global study on mobile marketing with Google, “designed to provide insights into how people are using their mobile devices and the readiness of businesses to engage consumers via mobile.”

“As the study shows, smartphones are used extensively by consumers and are a powerful new tool in engaging the marketplace,” Michael Becker, North American Managing Director, MMA.

“A mobile user study of this scope is unprecedented and offers a truly global view of how smartphones are transforming the lives of individuals,” said Mr. Charlebois. “Further it offers a valuable perspective on how marketers are adapting to the increasingly mobile world.”