Netflix announced today that it is launching a movie download service with 1,000 titles. Even though they are later to the game, I believe they will do well. They have great brand recognition and strong consumer loyalty – far above most of the competitors – Let’s see how that stacks...
47% of US teens say their social life would end or be worsened without their cell phone, and 57% credit their mobile device with improving their life. Four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device (a 40% increase since 2004), according to a study by Harris Interactive.
Written by Sarah Perez
At the recent Mobile World Congress 2010, Dutch app store analytics firm Distimo presented their findings on the six largest mobile application stores in existence today: the iTunes App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace for Mobile. In their presentation, they analyzed everything including store size, store growth, the most popular applications and where you can find the best deal. They recently shared some of the highlights from that presentation by way of a slideshow embedded on their blog.
For mobile industry insiders, some of the findings won’t be all that shocking, just common knowledge paired with statistics. However, there were a few surprises that caught us off guard, maybe they will you too.
Distimo collects public application data from app stores and also offers developers an analytics tool which is used to monitor their apps and those belonging to their competitors. After examining and analyzing the data, the company releases market reports detailing their findings.
San Francisco – A federal court has ruled that a cell phone ringtone sounded in public does not constitute a “public performance” under copyright law, and therefore performing rights organizations like ASCAP are not entitled to additional royalty payments from ringtones. “When a ringtone plays on a cellular telephone, even when that occurs in public, the user is exempt from copyright liability, and [the cellular carrier] is not liable either secondarily or directly,” the court said in its ruling.
Groups including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Public Knowledge and the Center for Democracy & Technology had urged the court to reject ASCAP’s argument in a friend of the court brief submitted in the case.
Layar iPhone Example
Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone.
Layar is a global application, available for the T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic and other Android phones in all Android Markets and now available for the iPhone. It also comes pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy in the Netherlands
How do you use Layar?
Mobile social gaming community Cellufun is letting its eight million monthly visitors create discussion groups and advertisers can use this content to psychographically target their ads to members.
Each group has real-time chat and its own private forums as well as officers who get to decide membership criteria and review applications. Group affiliations also appear on users’ home pages, enhancing social ties throughout the community.
“Cellufun has become a social hub for millions of users all over the world, and they’re increasingly opting to spend time on our site rather than PC focused social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and hi5,” said Keith Katz, VP of Marketing at Cellufun. “We’ve always had informal groups popping up and posting in various forums, but one of our most frequent user requests has been to have a more formalized system for creating affinity groups, much like what’s available on various Web-based sites.
In a strange twist of events, Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) has enabled developers to build Flash applications for the iPhone, even though it hasn’t yet persuaded Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to integrate Flash into the popular phone’s browser. Adobe says its move is completely within Apple’s legal perimeters.
The announcement came this morning at the company’s developer’s conference in Los Angeles, where Adobe also announced that full Flash capabilities were rolling out to the BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm (NSDQ: PALM), Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android and Symbian platforms over the next year or so. But this announcement is different because a Flash player is not being installed on the iPhone, meaning iPhone owners won’t be able to view Flash ads or videos in the browser. However, it does mean that developers will be able to convert content they already built for the web, like a game, and distribute it to iPhone owners via Apple’s App Store. More here.
Currently, the project, which is part of Adobe Flash Professional CS5, is in private beta, but they said they will open up the beta to the public before the end of the year. Already, some Flash applications are available in the store, including MTV’s “South Park Avatar Creator,” which allows you to dress the South Park characters from head to toe and even create hair styles.
via Adobe Has Figured Out How To Bring Flash Apps To The iPhone | mocoNews.
Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) has secured relationships will Research In Motion, Windows Mobile, Palm (NSDQ: PALM) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) to roll out full Flash capabilities to the various smartphone platforms. With such a complete line-up, the only obvious phone remaining is Apple’s iPhone.
At the company’s worldwide developer conference in Los Angeles on Monday, Adobe plans to announce that its Flash technology, which is commonly used on the PC to view videos or ads, will be rolled out to browsers on Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile, Palm webOS phones later this year. In addition, public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available early next year. Finally, Adobe will also bring the Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones at an undisclosed date.
via Adobe Extends Full Flash To Just About Every Phone But The iPhone | mocoNews.
In only nine months, Apple’s App Store has proven itself a hot commodity. It features more than 35,000 applications available to consumers in 77 countries, enabling developers, including retailers, to reach tens of millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users. 24% of Smartphone users have spent anywhere from $10-$50 for a single application, while 28% have spent between $5-10 on a single app. iPhone owners are not spending more on individual apps, but 83% of these iPhone owners have downloaded at least six, according to TNS Media .
From KenRadio.com
The role of mobile internet access in evolving digital lifestyles is the cornerstone of the second typology of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) users. The typology places ICT users into 10 groups and, notwithstanding variation across the groups, the groups fit into two baskets, with the groups’ collective judgments on mobility being the pivot point.
1. Motivated by Mobility: Five groups in this typology – making up 39% of the adult population – have seen the frequency of their online use grow as their reliance on mobile devices has increased. For these groups, growth in frequency of online use is linked not only to increasing broadband adoption, but to positive and improving attitudes about how mobile access makes them more available to others. Across the groups, a lot of variation exists regarding what these changes mean to users. Some find this extra connectivity a platform for self expression. Others are not entirely positive about ICTs’ impacts on their lives.
As Mobile Marketer’s Outlook 2009 proves, marketers understand the need to integrate mobile into their multichannel branding, customer acquisition and customer retention plans.
Several trends are emerging as mobile matures into a medium that, while not without flaws, is a more palatable option than other marketing channels in use. The emphasis, however, should be on mobile’s complementary nature – it gives legs to other channels, including retail, online, television, print, coupons, radio, outdoor, direct mail and insert media.
Top of the trends list is the consumer’s growing comfort with consuming news and content on mobile phones, along with exchanging SMS text messages, shopping for products and services, checking email, playing games, conducting mobile banking transactions and searching for retail locations or driving directions.
Indeed, the mobile channel’s use as a location-enabling tool is quickly becoming evident to brands, ad agencies, retailers and, most importantly, consumers.
The definition of the Mobile Internet Device (MID) may be somewhat nebulous, given the category overlaps multiple products, ranging from some Ultra-Mobile PCs to certain Portable Media Players. However, there’s nothing nebulous about the MID growth opportunity, with global unit shipments expected to expand by nearly a factor of eight from 2007 to 2012. MID is projected to grow eightfold to spur to 416 million units by 2012, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.6% from 53.8 million in 2007, according to iSuppli. While the exact definition of Mobile Internet Device is difficult to nail down, it’s characterizes as devices that have integrated connectivity for Wireless Local Area Network (WLANs), Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMANs) or 3G-or-higher Worldwide Wide Area Networks (WWANs) and has a maximum size display of 8-inches in diagonal dimension, an instant-on function, an always-connectable capability and a full day’s worth of battery life. MID includes devices like UMPCs, netbooks, smart phones, portable navigation devices, e-book readers, portable media/MP3 players and handheld gaming devices, says the research.
From Kenradio.com
Over 54% of US mobile phone users said their mobile phone usage had increased by more than 25% over the last two years, and one in five respondents said it had increased by more than 50%. A significant catalyst behind this growth is smart phone adoption, with 62% of respondents indicating they either own or will own such a device in the next 12 months, according to a new survey conducted by Azuki Systems. Despite increased adoption, almost 80% of those surveyed said they wished it were easier to access information from the Internet on their mobile phones, and an equal percentage stated they wished it were easier to access rich media on their mobile phones. The majority of those surveyed pointed to a number of current obstacles to enjoying rich media on mobile. For example, 69% felt that the long time to download and/or play media ranked among their top three barriers, and 66% felt that difficulties finding and navigating to relevant content was a top three inhibitor. A number of shortcomings were also identified for iPhone and BlackBerry users. Almost 80% of those surveyed said they wished it were easier to access information from the Internet on their mobile phones, and an equal percentage stated they wished it were easier to access rich media on their mobile phones.
Mobile Users ? Where Does the Time Go?
Regardless of which mobile device they are using, U.S. mobile phone users are spending a significant amount of time on their phones. This highlights the fact that core consumer services have expanded beyond voice to include messaging and data services, which also serve as a launch pad for broader Web and more advanced content services. Survey findings showed:
The US mobile internet now has a large and diverse enough user base to support wide-scale mobile-marketing efforts, and mobile web users are 60% more likely than data users to be open to mobile advertising, according to a report from Nielsen Mobile.
Among the report?s other key findings:
* The US, UK and Italy are leaders in mobile internet penetration, with 15.6% of mobile subscribers in the US, 12.9% of subscribers in the UK and 11.9% in Italy actively using the mobile internet; New Zealand (1.6%) and Indonesia (1%) have the lowest mobile internet penetration rates:
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., September 16, 2008–Market research and consultancy, MultiMedia Intelligence, announces the release of its free whitepaper on the US wireless teen market, characterizing the market for mobile phone services by US 12-17 year old teens. The whitepaper is free to download at http://www.MultiMediaIntelligence.com
The teen market is an especially appealing market for two reasons. First, it is a primary source of new subscribers for carriers. Less than 40% of pre-teens have mobile service. By age 17, 84% of teens have wireless services, with the penetration skewing higher for females. Second, teens teach older demographic how to use their handsets.
