Hockey App a Hit with Maple Leafs Fans

Polar Mobile has revealed that the Maple Leafs Mobi application that it created for the Toronto Maple Leafs National League hockey team has attracted over 100,000 users in the 12 months since launch. The app is clocking up almost 3 million page views per month and has been opened over a million times in the past three months.
Maple Leafs Mobile is available for the iPhone, iPod touch and BlackBerry, and is an extension of the Toronto Maple Leafs digital and interactive content brand. Powered by Polar Mobile’s SMART Platform, the app delivers real-time content to fans, including up-to-date stats, video highlights, interviews and news. Other features include home screen notification of updates, a real-time scoreboard of live games, as well as an offline-supported, quick browsing experience.
Maple Leafs fans are evenly distributed when it comes to their mobile device of choice when it comes to accessing Maple Leafs Mobile, with 35% iPhone users, 35% BlackBerry users and 30% on iPod touch. BlackBerry users open the app on average 17 times per month, whereas iPhone/iPod touch users open the app on average 9 times per month. 17% of BlackBerry users have also shared Maple Leafs Mobile with a friend via email.
“We felt it was important for the Maple Leafs to be one of the first teams in the NHL to have their own mobile application and we're excited about the increasing popularity of our app since it launched a year ago," says Chris Hebb, Senior Vice President of Broadcast and Content for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. "Maple Leafs Mobi is an all-access app that lets Leafs fans consume the latest information about their favourite team, including blockbuster trades, where they want and when they want.”

Report Explains How Operators Can Slash Data Costs

Operators Could Slash Mobile Data Costs by 60% per annum. That’s the key finding of a study released today by Bridgewater Systems into the mobile data surge.
The report, ‘Towards a Profitable Mobile Data Business Model’, highlights the impact of growing 3G penetration, lower cost Smartphones and USB dongles, new tablets like the iPad, and the popularity of mobile applications on the growth in mobile data volumes traversing operators’ networks.
It investigates the causes of mobile network congestion and the best methods to alleviate it, based on exclusive research conducted by independent research firm Chetan Sharma Consulting. It also provides insights into new service models, underpinned by Bridgewater’s deployment experiences with operators, and customer case studies from Ovum and Morgan Stanley.
The report looks at both network congestion management strategies and operator data pricing models. It concludes that policy control could contribute substantial annual cost savings of over 10%, equating to more than $15 billion (£9.6 billion) in annual cost reductions by 2013 in the US market.
The report also says that operators deploying a data traffic offload strategy to wi-fi, femtocells or 4G could expect savings of 20 to 25% per annum by 2013, representing $30 to $40 billion in the US market. And the evolution to HSPA and LTE could save just under 20% in network costs by 2013, saving US operators $25 billion by 2013.
Bridgewater says that flexible, dynamic, and personalised pricing models that reflect subscribers’ preferences and context, bandwidth and application usage, and network conditions, will better align data revenues with network costs for the first time. New models include tiered and usage-based models that take a smarter approach to service personalization and fair usage; application-specific charging, to generate appropriate revenues from high-bandwidth services; time-based models that charge based on time spent on the network; and mobile advertising- and mobile commerce-funded approaches.
“Our new report highlights the importance of implementing a multi-pronged strategy to reduce mobile data costs and network congestion, including policy control, data traffic offload, and migration to 3G and 4G,” says Bridgewater Systems Senior Vice President, David Sharpley. “By coupling this strategy with personalized service models based on subscriber usage, operators can benefit from a more profitable mobile data business model.” 
You can download the report here.

Survey Highlights iPad Confusion

An online survey conducted by YouGov in the days following the launch of Apple’s iPad shows that awareness of the product is high, but that there remains some confusion about its features and capabilities.
YouGov surveyed 2,047 adults between 29 January and 1 February. 70% of those surveyed, when shown an image and provided with a brief description of the Apple iPad, claimed to have heard about it. 72% of respondents recognized that the iPad has a touch screen, 68% that it can send and receive emails, and 65% that it can connect to the Internet via wi-fi.
The e-reader capabilities of the product are also well recognized with 64% thirds (64%) of respondents expecting to be able to read electronics books and magazines on the device.
Specifically and erroneously, significant numbers of respondents believed that the iPad can make telephone calls (37%); has a camera (38%); and most importantly has a fully functioning, multi-tasking operating system (54%). This figure rises to 61% among the key demographic for products of this type - those aged 25 to 44.
Marek Vaygelt, Head of Technology and Telecoms Consulting at YouGov, points out that misunderstanding of the iPad’s operating system capabilities is greater among existing Apple customers.
“Apple customers who own three or more Apple products have a very high awareness of the iPad but are way more likely than the population as a whole to believe it has a multi-tasking operating system,” he says. “While this is a software rather than a hardware feature, it suggests Apple’s core market might want to wait for an upgraded version.”
Despite this misunderstanding, while only 7% of total survey respondents believe they will probably or definitely buy an iPad, 23% of owners of three or more Apple products believe that they will do so.
With 40% of British adults owning at least one Apple product, YouGov estimates that the vast majority of iPad sales will come from existing Apple customers, with iPhone and Apple iMac customers the most likely purchasers.

DropZap Tops Chorus Paid App Chart

Social networking software developer envIO networks has released user data based on activity from its Chorus iPhone Application. The report focuses on the most popular free and paid socially recommended apps within the Chorus community.
Since its launch in November of last year, Chorus users have invited on average 75 friends. Chorus users are active and engaged, with over a third of the daily users generating activity, such as rating, reviewing and commenting on friends’ activities. envoi says that the Chorus community, which is based on shared interests and the discovery of applications, is booming, as people try to manage the vast amount of iPhone apps to hit the market.
Chorus is currently available on the iPhone and iPod touch, and envIO is also developing versions for other leading Smartphone platforms. 
Based on the latest data, the most popular free and paid apps for December were IMDb and DropZap, which took over from FunMail and Touch DJ respectively. Not one of the top recommended apps from November made it on to December’s top ten list.
The 10 most heavily recommeded apps in December were:  

1. IMDb
2. Accuweather
3. Dragon Dictation
4. AT&T Mark the Spot
5. redbox
6. Bing
7. fring
8. Ustream Live Broadcaster
9. Background Check App
10. Order Pizza

The top five free apps were IMDb, AccuWeather, AT&T Mark the Spot, Background Check App and Dragon Dictation. The top five paid apps, based on buy attempts, were DropZap, Santa’s Run (both $0.99), 1Password Pro ($7.99), Garters & Ghouls ($2.99) and AppButler – App Organiser ($0.99)
“Chorus has become an extremely popular and valuable tool among app users, helping them connect with the people they trust most to discover apps that are most relevant from the thousands of choices available,” says envIO VP of Marketing and Business Development, Vladimir Edelman. “Social recommendation of relevant apps is a paradigm shift in the discovery process, helping users save time and money. For app publishers, Chorus and its Social Genome engine represent an innovative way to track and reach their most avid fans and their friends.”

Android Overtakes Apple in Smaato Ad Metrics

Smaato has published its Mobile Advertising Metrics Report for January 2010. January’s metrics show a significant improvement of Android device clickthrough rates compared to December, rising from 65 to 163, but Symbian handsets remain top of the list. The metrics also reveal the average response time of ad networks worldwide as 256 milliseconds (ms). The fastest response time was 43 ms, the slowest, 887 ms.
Smaato’s metrics are based upon 35 mobile ad networks and over 4 billion ad requests served in the Smaato Network of more than 2,300 registered mobile publishers in January 2010.
The boost in Android clickthrough rates comes on the back of a large uptake in Android ad requests in the Smaato network and newly-introduced Android devices, including the Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid and operator-branded handsets. Smaato believes the increase in Android clickthrough rates could also be partly attributable to new owners of Android handsets, who are curious about responding to mobile advertising.
Symbian handsets still hold the highest clickthrough rate of 173, compared to the averaged Index of 100, an increase on the figure of 161 in December. The iPhone and iPod touch score 104, down from 119 in decemberm, but this is still enough to put Apple in third place in the Smaato Index.
The report also measures the fill rate of ads across different mobile advertising networks. This is defined as the percentage of ads delivered per ad request, and varies by factors such as country, device and content type. The ad networks are not named in the monthly Smaato metrics, but are revealed in the dashboard of registered Smaato publishers reporting and analytics tools.
The top performing mobile ad network worldwide had a fill rate of 89% in January 2010, a 10% increase compared to the best-performing ad network in December. Despite this increase, the average worldwide ad network fill rate fell from 35% in December to 29% in January. This confirms that mobile advertising had a very strong holiday season in 2009. In the second half of January, the industry saw higher fill rates as campaigns and advertisers returned to business.
The average fill rate of mobile ad networks in the US was 47%, compared to 55% in December 2009. The fill rate figure for the UK is very low at only 7%, with the top-performing mobile ad network achieving a fill rate of 33% In India, the fill rate was only 8%, despite the presence of one very high performing network.
There’s more information about Smaato’s mobile advertising metrics in a Whitepaper, ‘Global Choices in Mobile Advertising’, which is available for download here.

185m and Counting for Camiant

Camiant, which provides policy control technology, has revealed that its PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function) deployments have surpassed the 185 million-subscriber milestone with its Multimedia Policy Engine (MPE). 
To date, over 30 operators around the world have selected Camiant’s policy control solution for dynamic management of Internet/broadband networks, supporting a wide range of applications including tiered Internet services, fair use management of congested networks, quality of service (QoS) for Voice and Video over IP services, and EU roaming controls. 
Camiant’s MPE platform enables operators to roll out a wide range of Internet-based services, with high levels of per subscriber customizations, and the ability to control usage, charging and quality of service on a per-application basis. The real-time control platform balances the needs of the application, the subscriber’s entitlements, and the network conditions, to proactively manage network congestion. 
Camiant’s IOT (Inter-Operability Testing) ecosystem has also grown and now includes interworking with over 35 applications, network elements and other gateway vendors, including Bytemobile, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Juniper Networks and Nokia Siemens Networks. As an independent policy control vendor, Camiant says it ensures integration with the widest variety of leading application and equipment providers, enabling operators to attain new levels of performance, reliability and control over next-generation networks.

Faith in SMS Pays Off for Fashion Footwear Chain

Fashion footwear retailer Faith required an interactive platform to power mobile marketing campaigns to enable the brand to communicate to its ever-growing database and mobile opt in customers. The purpose of each SMS campaign would be to provide new product information and promotional offers to drive footfall into high street stores and build brand loyalty.
To run the campaigns, it selected Mobile Interactive Technology’s (MIT) MIDAS Communicate platform. All opt in consumers received a text message containing a promotional code, which was redeemed in-store or online to claim their offer. To comply with industry regulations, the platform offers the facility for consumers to unsubscribe from the service at any time.
There were two separate campaigns, both of which ran online and in-store. Firstly, a ‘Friends and Family’ promotion offered 25% off full-price products, over a three-day period. The second promotion, run in conjunction with a high circulation fashion magazine, offered 20% off full-price products over a six-day period. SMS interactivity ran across both campaigns, and delivered impressive return on investment, brand engagement and customer loyalty.
The SMS campaign contributed to 47% of the uplift in revenue delivered by the Friends and Family promotion. It also contributed to 30% of the uplift iPublishn revenue delivered by the fashion magazine promotion. Over 70,000 SMS messages were distributed throughout both campaigns, with the redemption of promotional codes higher for the second campaign.
“SMS marketing has proven to be an extremely successful revenue generation tool for Faith,” says Faith’s Head of e-Commerce, Talin Vartevanian. “It is quick to set up, and once launched, the message is instantly communicated to the customer, which is especially beneficial if they are already out shopping. This makes SMS particularly strong at driving footfall in-store, but has also proved to be very effective in increasing online traffic. Licensing Mobile Interactive Technology’s (MIT) MIDAS Communicate platform has enabled Faith to have 100% ownership of all campaign delivery from start to finish, including real-time stats reporting.”

Amdocs Report Highlights Smartphone Support Issues

Amdocs, which provides customer experience systems, has released the results of an independent survey that examined customer care issues associated with Smartphones and the impact these have on user adoption and customer satisfaction.
The survey found that while Smartphones are becoming increasingly complex, the majority of customer support calls pertain to basic issues that can be resolved remotely, requiring little or no technical support. 
The survey polled more than 4,000 wireless device users from the US, Canada and the UK late last year. Those respondents who had contacted a call centre classified the reason for doing so as a “technical support” issue, even though the majority of these issues were basic “how to” enquiries such as device configuration (e.g., how to set up email); or menu navigation (such as how to enable wi-fi access). Amdocs notes that these enquiries could have been resolved quickly via web self-service, by Level One customer care agents, or by training the customer on basic usage at time of sale, saving service providers time and investment in support resources. In addition, a majority of the respondents who had difficulties in using their Smartphone stated that they had strongly considered returning their device because they could not resolve these basic issues.
The survey reveals that the call centre remains the first port of call. More than 50% percent of those surveyed made a call to the contact centre to resolve basic support issues, taking an average of  two calls to close their issue. On average, the report says, support calls lasted 17 minutes, indicating that call centre agents lack the technology and training necessary to resolve these basic customer inquiries at the first instance. As a result, consumers were frequently transferred to more costly technical support agents requiring more time, resources and cost. Notably, just 5% of those polled consulted the service provider’s website for support, indicating that Smartphone web self-service resources are underutilized.
The survey also found that unresolved issues often result in a return trip to the retail outlet, or product abandonment. 30% of consumers surveyed returned for customer support to the retail outlet where they bought their Smartphone, and one in three consumers considered returning or exchanging their device due to the inability to resolve issues. 65% stated that they prefer self-help alternatives and identified “knowlegeable sales representatives”, “faster procedures” and “web-based solutions” as ways to improve their customer service experience. 
One out of six consumers were unaware of their Smartphone’s advanced features or did not know how to use them. More than 70% said that it would have been beneficial for a sales representative to explain all the features at the time of purchase. The data suggest that with in-store tutorials or after-sale activities, service providers can drive additional application and data usage, Amdocs says. 
“The survey underscores that by equipping Level One agents and retail staff with the relevant technology and information, service providers can quickly address basic customer inquiries, reduce call handling time and increase customer satisfaction,” says Amdocs Vice President of Product Marketing and Solutions, Seth Nesbitt. “As devices become more sophisticated, service providers must ensure they have the technology to handle all types of inquiries to quickly and efficiently resolve basic or more technical issues via multiple channels.” 

Opera Report Looks at In-car Browsing

Opera Software has released a report entitled ‘Web on Wheels’ which looks at bringing the web to in-vehicle computer systems. The report focuses on Opera’s partnership with Ford Motor Company to bring in-dash web browsing to Ford trucks and vans. While Ford is Opera’s first browser-to-car deployment, the company predicts a growing need for remote access to the office while on the road.
According to the analyst Strategy Analytics, almost 90% of vehicles produced in N. America and Europe will have some form of wireless connectivity in 2016.
“The rapid market adoption of Bluetooth, 3G, GPS and Smartphones will drive huge growth in the demand for connected infotainment in the vehicle”, says Jo Blight, Director, Global Automotive Practice at Stretagy Analytics. “Our surveys show email, maps, navigation, music and radio are the top priorities for consumers, but it will be in HMI (Human Machine Interface) and software where the automotive competitive battles are set to be won and lost.”
The report notes that using a traditional PC while driving is not safe without specific modifications for in-car usability and safety (in case you were wondering – Ed). While the experience can create an approximation of the full home or office web experience and should be comfortable and useful for the driver, it states, a driver may not actually need the full array of functions s/he has when not on-the-go.
There’s more information on the Ford deployment here. And you can access the report here.

Mobile Ticketing to Boom, says Juniper

Almost 15 billion tickets will be delivered to subscribers' mobile devices worldwide by 2014, compared to just over two billion this year, according to a new study from Juniper Research. Western Europe will be the leading region in 2014 based on the number of mobile tickets delivered, taking over from current leader, the Far East & China region.
Juniper’s Mobile Ticketing report found that services are developing fastest in the transport sector, with SMS, barcode and, increasingly, app-driven services being offered by rail and metro companies and airlines.
But the potential of mobile ticketing does not stop there, Juniper believes. Major cinema chains, concert organisers and sports teams are latching on to the commercial viability, which is driven by both cost savings and the up-sell revenue potential, not to mention the added convenience for the user. There are also new entrants from a variety of angles such as apps start-ups and mobile commerce providers seeking to grasp the opportunities they can see.
“Although 15 billion sounds large, it is in fact it a small percentage of total tickets issued; there is plenty of scope for innovative solutions to penetrate this market,” says report Author Howard Wilcox. “Next steps will see more widespread purchasing on mobiles, as well as use of NFC tickets. Currently, however, there are only limited examples of NFC ticketing usage outside of the Far East, owing to the lack of device availability.”
Juniper interviewed leading mobile ticketing operators, application developers, consultants and vendors for the report, which includes a detailed, six -year market forecasting suite covering key market parameters.
There’s more information about the report here.

Apple's App Store Dominance to Continue, says Netsize

Netsize has released the first results of its ‘Mobile Trends Survey 2010’. Drawing from an online survey of more than 1,000 professionals and practitioners, the survey provides insights into key mobile industry trends, including the advance of mobile application stores, progress towards global mobile commerce, and the pivotal importance of mobile as a means to bridge our virtual and physical worlds.
87% of survey respondents believe that the Apple App Store will be the most successful app store in the mobile space. Google's Android Market is a distant second (60%), followed by Nokia's Ovi Store (30%) and RIM's BlackBerry App World (27%). App stores run by mobile operators finished low down the list, indicating that platform providers and handset makers may well dominate the space for a time to come.
When asked to rate the unique selling proposition of app stores over other software distribution and sales channels, 65% of respondents put convenience at the top of the list. This was followed by compatibility, choice, and ease of payment.
The complete survey results - including topics related to mobile entertainment, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile payments and mobile convergence - will be released as part of the Netsize Guide 2010, a comprehensive mobile industry analysis and almanac published by Netsize and written by MSearchGroove's Peggy Anne Salz. Netsize will launch the Netsize Guide 2010 on February, 2010 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Consumers Want RCS Features, says Colibria

Colibria has released the results of research that reveals that has found that an overwhelming proportion of British mobile phone owners want access to RCS (Rich Communication Suite) features. The survey was carried out online by YouGov between 6 - 8 January 2010 among a nationally representative sample of 2,361 adults. 
The research found that 31% of 18-t0-14 year old want to see their friends’ status from within their mobile phone address book, but that only 5% have phones that offer this feature. 51% would to like to see their friends’ location in their address book, something that has been recently added to RCS. And 24% would like the ability to send a ‘shout out’ to their contacts from their phone to say they are available to chat
Consumer demand points towards RCS needing social network integration, says Colibria, with 47%of mobile users wanting to be able to update their social network profile via their mobile phone. Colibria notes that this is currently being addressed by GSM Association’s (GSMA) RCS initiative.
Messaging services are also in demand, with 44% of young mobile users saying they would find it useful to see the messaging services that their friends subscribe to displayed in their phone’s address book. 
Other messaging services highlighted by young mobile owners who use a social network as important in any rich communication service include the ability to chat to social network friends using their mobile (35%); and the ability to send messages to their social network friends using their mobile (42%)
“Our research shows how important RCS is becoming, not only to the industry, but to consumers as well,” says Paul Kemps, General Manager for Convergence products at Colibria. While the current RCS initiative is rounding out nicely, there is clearly more work to be done, especially with social network integration. We know that the GSMA is looking to address this in its current release cycle. Colibria is particularly dedicated to achieving these goals.”

Dialogue Survey Reveals Demand for SMS Alerts

Dialogue Communications has released the results of a survey which reveal that people want to use SMS more in their daily lives. 67% of mobile users surveyed said they would like to receive reminders or alerts by text for everything from medical appointments to bill payments.
The findings support a recent report from telecoms regulator Ofcom, which showed that the UK is as a world leader in SMS messaging. Figures from the Mobile Data Association released yesterday revealed that in 2009, 96.8 billion texts were sent in the UK.
The Dialogue study, which asked participants how they usually receive appointment reminders and how they would like to receive them, found that although only 3% per cent of people currently receive reminders by text, with 83% receiving them through the post, 67% would be happy to receive text reminders or alerts in the future. Almost 60% said they would opt in to a text reminder service, and just over 80% said they would also be interested in a customer service text call-back request capability.
“People text all the time, and the survey shows they are more than happy to use it beyond normal social networking,” says Dialogue Managing Director, Guiom Peersman. With 67% of our study participants happy to receive SMS reminders, and only 3% currently doing so, our findings show that service organisations now need to be aware of this need and respond to it.”
The overwhelming reason participants gave for the move away from postal reminders towards SMS reminders was that it was more convenient. Some respondents said that text reminders were more environmentally friendly, while others noted that they were easier to sync with Outlook calendars.
Dialogue’s SMS applications have been used by a number of organizations, including local councils and police authorities, for many years. East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been using Dialogue’s ‘Text a Fraud’ community text service since 2005. Others include East Dunbartonshire Council, and Hampshire and West Yorkshire police forces.

Texting and Picture Messaging On the Up

UK mobile users sent an average of 265 million text messages and 1.6 million picture messages every day in 2009. 96.8 billion texts and over 600 million picture messages were sent across the whole year, an increase of 23% and 9% on the previous year, respectively, according to figures from the Mobile Data Association (MDA).
Seasonal drivers still appear to propel the use of picture messaging, with almost 442 million texts and 4.5 million picture messages sent on Christmas Day, while network operators’ figures also indicate an upturn in picture messaging during the recent cold snap. The number of texts sents on Christmas Day was 31% up on the previous year, while the 874 million texts sent on New Years Eve/Day was 21% up on the previous year.
“These statistics show that even with new social media forms of messaging such as Twitter and Facebook, people are using SMS as a social messaging tool because of its simplicity and ubiquity,” says MDA Chairman Steve Reynolds. “There remains a significant and still developing role for text messaging. In a seemingly relentless tide of status updates, tweets and pokes, the UK population’s love affair with mobile messaging for instant, on-the-go communication continues to deepen.”

Smartphones Under the Spotlight

Portio Research has released its report, ‘Smartphone Futures 2010-2014’. The report notes that, against the odds, the Smartphone market achieved growth during the turbulent economic slowdown of 2008-2009. While worldwide handset shipments shrank during this period, Smartphone shipments grew, driven primarily by the demand in the developed markets of N. America and Europe. Smartphones now account for 13.8% of total worldwide handset shipments during 2009, and this figure looks set to grow to 24.9% by end-2014.
The report examines the evolving worldwide mobile handset industry and the rapid growth of the Smartphone segment. Smartphone shipments are expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 18.5% during 2009-2014, compared to a forecast CAGR of only 5.3% for the broader overall mobile handset market. The report forecasts future growth, but also segments the industry today, looking at how the market has performed in 2009 and at how things can be expected to develop in 2010.
The report also considers the competitive strengths and weaknesses of the major vendors, and looks at the broader Smartphone eco-system, including key devices, the success of app stores, operating systems and OS market share and how these key elements come together. 
The report costs £995 for a 1 - 5 user PDF team licence; £1,795 for a small or medium-size PDF company licence; or £2,495 for a large, corporate PDF unlimited licence.
There’s more information about the report here.

BuzzCity Reports Strong Mobile Ad Growth

BuzzCity has released its Global Mobile Advertising Index for 2009. The data shows that mobile advertising grew by 41% in 2009 compared to 2008, with countries including Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Mexico seeing growth of 300% or more. Indonesia, India, USA and South Africa continue to dominate, with 33 countries now delivering monthly traffic exceeding 10 million impressions.
The top five most active countries in Q4 ’09 were:

1. Indonesia - 2.1 billion impressions
2. India - 644 million impressions
3. S. Africa - 312 million impressions
4. United States - 301 million impressions
5. Saudi Arabia - 192 million impressions

“Q4 showed an accelerated growth with the return of advertisers, not just in the newly established mobile markets, but also in markets where digital marketing is dominated by fixed line Internet pricing, such as the US, Canada, UK, France and Germany,” says BuzzCity CEO, KF Lai. “New markets such as Mexico are showing real advertiser interest with growth of 294%.”
The Global Mobile Advertising Index tracks activity across BuzzCity’s network of more than 2,000 publishers across the globe. The findings represent a measure of advertiser demand for mobile Internet advertising.
BuzzCity believes that the only threat to further growth in 2010 will be the potential increase in price of the mobile Internet, as bandwidth availability becomes prohibitive. The technology developments and consumer buy-in have meant that mobile advertising is generating real returns for advertisers, the company says, adding that it will therefore be interesting to see how the telecoms industry responds to current capacity challenges."

Facebook Most Popular Social Site on Mobile, says Opera

Facebook is now the most-visited social network on the mobile web, according to the ‘State of the Mobile Web' report from browser company Opera. Facebook’s unique user numbers grew by more than 600% during 2009, helping the site surpass Russian site VKontakte, which was previously the most popular social network among Opera Mini users. Twitter saw its usage increase more than any other social network, surging more than 2,800% during 2009.
The report, published monthly, provides information on the top global trends affecting the mobile web. In addition to the top global trends and country snapshots, this month, the report looks at Southeast Asia and examines social networking on the mobile web.
According to the report, in December 2009, more than 46.3 million people used Opera Mini, an 11% increase on November 2009 and a 159% increase on December 2008.Those 46.3 million people viewed more than 20.7 billion pages in December, a10.% increase on November.
The top 10 countries ranked by number of Opera Mini users are (in order) Russia, Indonesia, India, Ukraine, China, S. Africa, US, Vietnam, Nigeria, and the UK. The top 10 countries using Opera Mini in Southeast Asia are Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Between December 2008 to December 2009, page views in the top 10 countries of Southeast Asia increased by 599%, unique users increased by 385%, and data transferred increased by 587%.
“Four years ago this month we released Opera Mini to the world,” says Oprar Software Co-founder, Jon von Tetzchner. “Fortunately, the divide between the mobile web and the web accessed on PCs is now disappearing. People want to use the same sites, regardless of whether they use a phone or PC to access those sites. The success of Facebook and Twitter among Opera Mini users shows that consumer habits do not change, even though their devices do.
You can access the State of the Mobile Report archive here.

Voda Signs up 450,000 Music Subscribers

Vodafone Group has revealed that almost 450,000 Vodafone customers have signed up to its music subscription services since it signed DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) deals with all four major labels in 2009. Vodafone says this means it has the largest number of paying music subscribers in Europe.
In December 2009, over 100,000 customers signed up to one of a range of music services offered across Vodafone’s eight largest markets in Europe. Growth in customer subscription numbers is being driven both by monthly 10-track MP3 bundles, and from ‘all you can eat’ (AYCE) unlimited access subscription services.
MP3 files bought in bundles can be played on both mobile and PC a wide range of computers and digital music players, including iTunes. Customers typically get 10 tracks per month for around €5 (£4.40).
AYCE services are offered both as a standalone product, and bundled with data tariffs. When bundled with data, customers can access the entire catalogue of over 2 million tracks for as little as €3 a month.
“We are really excited by our customers’ reaction to these great music offers,” says Vodafone Internet Services Director of Content, Lee Epting. “We expect to see continued growth in our music service subscriptions driven by the increase in Smartphone use, with their worry-free data tariffs and great value add-ons such as music bundles. We will carry on working hard with our partners in the music industry to develop new and innovative music services for our customers. Vodafone is starting to prove the significance of its place in the music industry.”

Android On the Up, says Myxer

Google’s Android platform is gaining significant traction with consumers, according to a report by Myxer. Myxer’s monthly ‘BoomBox’ report provides data on mobile entertainment consumption and trends reflective of Myxer’s 30 million member-strong community.
According to the report, visits to Myxer’s mobile site from users on the Android operating system grew 350% in 2009, compared to the iPhone, which grew 170%. In total, Myxer delivered seven times more downloads to Android devices than iPhone devices in Q4 2009.
BoomBox laso has figures on the growth of various Android handsets relating to the consumption of mobile entertainment on the Myxer network. In December ‘08 only one handset, the HTC Dream/G1, was operating on Google’s open source Android operating system. By December 2009, Myxer had seen nine different handsets running the Android OS. The HTC Dream/G1 remained the leader throughout 2009, garnering 35% of the unique users completing downloads on Android handsets in December. The HTC myTouch, Motorola CLIQ, and Motorola Droid each gained significant traction by the end of the year, used by 18%, 11%, and 7% of total unique Android users on Myxer respectively.
“While we’ve seen the Android OS emerge as a serious competitor in the operating system landscape, RIM’s operating system still dominates the Smartphone market on Myxer’s mobile site, growing from 51% in 2008 to a massive 67% in 2009,” says. Myxer CEO, Myk Willis. “Our aim with this report is to provide a valuable resource for those making business decisions regarding mobile advertising, content, and application development.  Plus, as strong proponents of an open mobile ecosystem, our data will reveal interesting insights into both closed and open environments and the surprising usage patterns within each.”
Other notable items tracked in this month’s BoomBox report include:
RIM’s Blackberry Curve remains the No.1 phone on Myxer’s mobile site for the second year in a row, garnering close to 10% of visits in both 2008 and 2009. The Blackberry Curve is one of 1,500 different handsets that Myxer delivered content to in 2009.
Windows Mobile and Palm both lost ground in 2009, combining to relinquish 24% of the Smartphone traffic on Myxer’s mobile site and giving ground to the Android, iPhone, and RIM.
Hip-Hop/R&B content dominates as a music genre; accounting for 77% of Android downloads and 47% of iPhone downloads.
Since 2005 Myxer has cataloged various data points, including age, gender, geographic location, phone model, manufacturer and carrier, as well as the operating system of each handset that initiated a download from its delivery platform that now supports more than 6 million monthly unique visitors, downloading over 85 million content items each month.
You can download a copy of the full report and subscribe to Myxer’s monthly newsletter here.

Study Finds Low Levels of Mobile Web Use

76% of mobile phone users don’t use their mobile to access the Internet, a UK-wide study into mobile habits by research firm Essential Research has found. Indeed, 60% of respondents claimed they did not own a mobile with Inernet access and only 30% of these said they were interested in getting one. 31% of Smartphone owners said they have never used their phone to connect to the Internet, while 24% use it to go online less than once a week, and 8% said they had tried it, but don’t intend to do so again.
The independent study, ‘Brandheld’, questioned more than 2,000 mobile phone owners aged 16+ using a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques, plus ethnographic case studies. The focus of the research was developed in consultation with a number of well known brands and businesses from across the mobile industry
Alex Charlton, Partner at Essential Research which conducted the study over six months in 2009 says:
“This type of research doesn’t often see the light of day, and what we’ve found is pretty surprising news: there is an enormous gulf between the perceptions we hold about mobiles being a big part of our Internet lives and the reality. In fact only a small percentage of us are truly Internet mobile users and the industry has a big job to do to move mobile Internet into our everyday lives.”
Despite lower than expected adoption and usage of mobile internet however, consumer appetite for mobile media services, such as live TV and radio, is strong, with 86% of current mobile Internet users and 56% of non-mobile Internet users saying they would be willing to access these types of service via their mobile phone.
The biggest driver of mobile internet adoption to date is social mdeia. Almost as many daily mobile Internet users (70%) use social media services including social networks, instant messenger, blogs and forums on their phones as they do on their computer (79%). In some cases mobile applications for services like Facebook and Twitter are replacing computer access.
The ability to perform everyday activities such as checking real time travel updates (33%) and tracking in-store offers, coupons and vouchers (31%) were the most interesting to those that don’t currently use mobile Internet. Furthermore, they deemed well known brands the most appropriate to provide services for the mobile Internet, with 30% saying that they would like their favourite supermarket to offer grocery-related services and 29% claiming that they are interested in their banks or building societies providing financial related services.

Mobango Sees 500% Rise in App Downloads

Mobango, the social mobile application store, says it has seen a 500% increase in mobile application downloads in the last 12 months, compared to the previous year, with a total of 23 million downloads from Mobango during 2009.
Launched in 2006, Mobango enables users to find and download apps and user generated content, and also distribute them to their friends. The Mobango app store  features over 20,000 cross-platform mobile applications which work on Symbian, Android, Flash Lite, Palm, Java, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms.
Mobango’s ‘Pay Promoted Download’ (PPD) business model offers developers and publishers an effective way to distribute applications targeted by country or phone model in the world. Mobango describes it as: “the ultimate performance-based mobile distribution platform, where customers only pay for the downloads generated by Mobango”, and notes that since its launch in March 2009, the PPD model has been successfully adopted by leading mobile marketing agencies, consumer brands, social networks, gaming and content companies worldwide.
“Mobango prides itself on hard work, innovation and loyalty to its global community,” says Mobango CEO, Fabio Pezzotti. “Facilitating a reliable, cost-effective and fast way for mobile app providers to distribute content to millions of cross-platform mobile users globally remains at the heart of our work.”

App Stores to Bill $6.2bn in 2010, says Gartner

Consumers will spend $6.2 billion (£3.8 billion) in mobile application stores in 2010, while advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide, according to the analyst, Gartner. The company’s report, ‘Dataquest Insight: Application Stores; The Revenue Opportunity Beyond the Hype’, predicts that app stores will exceed 8 billion downloads in 2010, 82% of which will be free to end users. Gartner is forecasting that worldwide downloads in mobile app stores will surpass 21.6 billion by 2013, with 87% of these being free.
Gartner notes that an application can be free because the developer is offering it at no cost to the consumer while charging for other things within the application. There are also applications that are free to use but that charge for physical goods that you can have delivered through the application. There are many applications that are free to users and derive their revenue from advertising. This can be done with banners as well as full page advertising between game levels, for instance.
Worldwide mobile app store download revenue exceeded $4.2 billion in 2009 and will grow to $29.5 billion by the end of 2013. This revenue forecast includes end-user spending on paid-for applications and ad-sponsored free applications. Ad-sponsored mobile applications will generate almost 25 per cent of mobile app store revenue by 2013, Gartner says.
“Application stores will be a core focus throughout 2010 for the mobile industry and applications themselves will help determine the winner among mobile device  platforms,” says Gartner Research Director, Carolina Milanesi. “Consumers will have a wide choice of stores and will seek the ones that make it easy for them to discover applications they are interested in and make it easy to pay for them when they have to. Developers will have to consider carefully not only which platform to support but also which store to promote their applications in.”
There’s more information about the report here.

Voda Sells 100,000 iPhones in Eight Days

Vodafone UK  says it has sold its 100,000th iPhone today, just over a week after its launch in store.
"The demand from both consumer and business customers has been phenomenal,” says Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence. “They want an outstanding phone on an outstanding network and we're delivering that.”
The iPhone is now available through original network partner O2, as well as through Vodafone, Orange and Tesco Mobile. If this sort of demand for the device is sustained, those who scoff at the current obsession among brands with the iPhone and iPhone apps may have to think again.

iPhone Dominates AdMob Requests in Western Europe and US

AdMob has released its December 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report. The report focuses on regional changes in manufacturer and Smartphone Operating System (OS) share. It finds that Apple and the iPhone OS leads in Western Europe, North America, Latin American and Oceania, due to millions of iPhones and iPod touches sold this year and heavy application usage. Nokia and the Symbian OS continues to lead in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe with its vast portfolio of devices.
The December 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report breaks down, by region, trended manufacturer share across all mobile devices, Smartphone OS share, and the top handsets and Smartphones in the AdMob network. Regional highlights from the report include:

• Western Europe: Apple made strong gains in manufacturer share in 2009. In Q4 2009 the Apple iPhone and iPod touch generated more than half of the total requests from the region at the expense of Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. Android had a strong Q4 2009 and generated an 8% share of Smartphone requests, second only to North America in penetration.
• North America: In Q4 2009, Apple led with 40%, followed by Samsung with 17% and Motorola with 11%. The iPhone generated 54% of Smartphone requests in Q4 2009. Android share grew throughout the year, reaching 27% in Q4, by far the highest penetration in any region.
• Asia: Nokia continues to be the leading manufacturer in Asia by a wide margin, with 53% of requests in Q4 2009. After launching in several countries in Asia in 2009, the iPhone had a strong Q4 and doubled its share of Smartphone requests to 27%.
• Latin America: Several device manufacturers had significant share in Q4 2009, Apple led with 39%, Nokia had 15% and Sony Ericsson had 11% of device requests. The Sony PlayStation Portable was the number three device in December 2009. Although it only generated 8% of Smartphone requests, RIM had three of the top 10 Smartphones in the region.
• Africa: Nokia’s share remained fairly steady in 2009, generating more than 50% of requests throughout the year. In Q4, Samsung and Sony Ericsson devices generated 18% and 9% of requests, respectively. Symbian was the dominant smartphone OS generating 87% of Smartphone requests and accounting for nine of the top 10 smartphones in Q4 2009.
• Oceania: Apple’s share increased dramatically throughout 2009 and its devices are responsible for the vast majority of requests in the region. The top 10 Smartphones in Q4 2009 included the iPhone, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, BlackBerry 9000 and six different Nokia models.
• Eastern Europe: Nokia’s share decreased slightly throughout the year to 35% in Q4 2009. Apple, Sony Ericsson, and Samsung devices generated 23%, 12% and 9% of requests, respectively. Eight of the top 10 Smartphones in the region were Nokia devices, including the 6300, N70, and N95.

AdMob stores and analyses handset and operator data from every ad request in its network of more than 15,000 mobile websites and iPhone, Android, and webOS applications to optimise ad serving. Each month, the AdMob Mobile Metrics Report aggregates this data to provide insights into major trends in the mobile ecosystem. The AdMob share is calculated by the percentage of requests received from a particular handset; it is a measure of relative mobile web and application usage and does not represent handset sales.
You can access the full report, as well as past reports from previous months, here.

Brands Fail to Measure Mobile, says Bango

83% of brands do not use mobile specific analytic tools, leading to inaccurate data on campaign performance, according to research conducted by Bango. Of those that do implement some form of campaign analytics, only 17% said they had sourced a specialised mobile solution designed to measure mobile user behaviour accurately and consistently. Even more surprisingly, 27% admit to not implementing any analytics in their mobile campaigns.
Bango surveyed over 100 participants in a webinar run in late 2009, including brands, agencies and specialist mobile providers. Over 90% of these brands said they will increase their mobile advertising investment in 2010. Global spending on mobile advertising in 2009 was $500 million (£310 million), according to Juniper Research.
“The positive from this data is that mobile marketing is in growth mode, at a time when other forms of advertising are being squeezed hard,” says Bango CEO, Ray Anderson. “Yet eight out of 10 of those surveyed do not take the essential step of implementing mobile analytics to capture accurate user data. Accurate and comprehensive reporting is what will drive brands to focus more on their mobile marketing campaigns.”
With mobile advertising now an integral part of many brands digital marketing strategy, knowing what happens after the user clicks is essential, says Bango. The company has recently released a new version of its mobile campaign analytics solution, which provides brands and agencies with powerful reporting tools and custom filters that deliver insight into how individual customers interact with mobile advertising and search marketing campaigns. 
Bango’s says its analytics solution is more accurate than traditional analytics solutions, with the ability to persistently identify individuals across multiple marketing campaigns, ad networks, search engines, websites and connections, including users switching between their carrier network and wi-fi. To help brands and agencies measure their mobile marketing campaigns accuraately, Bango offers a 30 day free trial of its mobile analytics package. There’s more information here.

UK Users Spend £170m on Mobile Games

Data released as part of the Mobile section of the UK National Gamers Survey Report conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com reveals that 3.8 million people playing games on their mobile phones spent a total of £170 million last year. 4.2 million Brits play but don’t pay. Only one third of the paying mobile gamers spent more than £5 a month on average, highlighting the long tail of occasional buyers of mobile content. The iPhone and O2 lead in getting mobile gamers to pay.
Genders are represented practically equally for non-paying as well as paying mobile gamers: 53% of paying mobile gamers are male, 47% female. The 20-34 age group accounts for 39% of mobile gamers and 60% of paying mobile gamers. Teenagers make up only 18% of mobile gamers and 15% of the paying players. Two thirds of people spending money on mobile games have a full-time job and close to half of them are married, confirming the mainstream appeal and reach of mobile games. Mobile gamers are significantly more interested in sports, fashion and travel than the average Brit.
The iPhone is the most successful handset brand when it comes to converting mobile gamers to paying. Of the 700,000 UK iPhone owners that play mobile games, 85% pay for games. The leading operator is O2, with a conversion ratio of 67% for its 2.4 million mobile gamers. Nokia and Sony Ericsson have 38% paying players, as does Vodafone. Three quarters of paying mobile gamers have a contract, while for all mobile gamers 57% are on a monthly mobile phone contract.
Only 14% of UK mobile gamers plays daily. This goes up to 18% for people who have paid for games. The majority of mobile gamers play for between 15 and 60 minutes on their mobile phone when they play. Popular games for paying mobile gamers are puzzles, strategy, race and arcade games. Arcade games and puzzles are the most popular with non-paying gamers. 41% of all mobile gamers have played more than three different games in the last six months. 16% of paying mobile gamers, or 600,000 people in absolute numbers, can be seen as heavy users, playing more than 25 different games in a 6-month period.
The UK National Gamers Survey Report is part of the 2009 Today’s Gamers International Survey (www.todaysgamers.com) and the latest in a series of identical nationwide surveys conducted across European key areas and the US.
“The iPhone does, by far, not have the number of users as other handset brands but is extremely good at monetizing the popularity of games on mobile phones,” says Gamesindustry.com’s Peter Warman. “This has also clearly had its effect on the conversion to paying gamers of the large operators closely related to iPhone.”
The full UK National Gamers Survey Report and full datasets are available for €4,950 (£4,315), and an international comparative high-level report across all countries surveyed (the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium and the US), comprising 80 pages and 120 graphs is also available for €4,950.
There’s more information here.

It's Stat Time!

The latest newsletter from mobile research firm mobileSQUARED is now available to download.
It includes a UK mobile market overview, with forecasts of subscriber numbers and mobile Internet usage up to 2014. The issue also looks at how the mobile and automobile industries are converging, and at the mobile marketing opportunities presented by this year's football World Cup.
You can download the newsletter here.

MEF Releases Business Confidence Index

The Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF) has released its fourth Business Confidence Index (BCI), compiled by KPMG. According to the MEF, the BCI points to signs of recovery and a clear trajectory of revenue growth of 28% for the coming year.
“Our industry has faced a difficult period, but these latest findings clearly show that confidence in the growth of our industry has not diminished in the last year,” says MEF Global Chair, Andrew Bud. “81% of respondents report that their actual performance for the last quarter was either better than or in line with budget, and viewed alongside the consistent and significant market growth predictions being made by our industry, (this) is very positive news as we move into a new year.”
Mark Harding, Director of Digital Content at KPMG, who analysed the survey findings, says: “Following some uncertainty in the market over the last 12 months, headcount growth actually exceeded the projections made last quarter and respondents predict further headcount growth in the coming quarter. Applications have developed considerably as a driver of growth over the past six months, illustrating the dynamism of this new business model for monetising mobile content.”

Voda Ships 50,000 iPhones on Day One

Vodafone delivered 50,000 iPhones to customers yesterday, when the phone became available on the network for the first time. Vodafone stresses that this was not first day sales, however, but a figure for the number of people who had pre-ordered the device. The phones were shipped out to customer's homes, or to storesfor collection. Vodafone says it may release figures for sales of the iPhone since it officially went on sale yesterday in a week or so. 

There's More to Apps Than More Apps, says mPlayit

The iPhone's massive lead in the total number of apps available for it may no longer be translating into a similar advantage in the marketplace, according to new analysis by Facebook mobile app store, Mplayit.
The iPhone has many more apps available for it than its competitorm, with over 100,000, compared to around 20,000 Android apps and around 4,500 on Blackberry App World.
Mplayit has looked at the most popular app categories across platforms and compiled the top apps in each category for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. Its analysis found a great deal of similarity in the most popular apps in the most active categories, demonstrating that despite the big differences in the number of apps available by device, for the majority of consumers, there is less and less to choose between them. Mplayit's app store on the Facebook platform offers apps for the iPhone, plus Android, BlackBerry and Java phones. 
“How many apps is the wrong question,” says Mplayit CEO, Michael Powers. “People just want to get the job done. It doesn't matter if there are 50 different to-do list apps on iPhone, because Android or BlackBerry just need a couple of good ones to make consumers happy."
Cross-platform apps did particularly well. Evernote registered among the top three of the most popular apps in the Lists & Notes category on iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Similarly, Pandora Radio is among the top three music apps on all three Smartphone platforms. The analysis also showed that barcode readers have recently shot to the top of the most sought after apps on all the three leading Smartphone platforms. Currently, all of these platforms offer barcode solutions, though from different vendors.
Some platform-specific favourites held their own, however. In the Lists & Notes category, Evernote shared its top three spot with different, lesser-known competitors on each platform: Things and AwesomeNote on iPhone; ThinkingSpace and QuickList on Android; and TaskManager and SlickTasks on BlackBerry.
“To a customer, the app catalogue is a key component of the Smartphone experience,” says Powers. "(But) it’s not really necessary to match Apple app-for-app to offer a compelling mobile experience. Android and other platforms only need to offer the best and the brightest, as well as the same utility and features.”

IVR - a Marketer's Dream. No, Really

Marlon Bowser, CEO of HTK, explains how integrating text messaging and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) can help increase campaign response rates

The battle for the hearts, minds and airtime spend of the UK’s mobile phone users is fierce. Customers will not hesitate to change their network operator if they can get a better deal or service. And without contract tie-ins, the pre-pay market is the most aggressive.
HTK has been working closely with one of the UK’s largest network operators since 2003, helping it hold on to its position as pre-pay market leader with the highest customer satisfaction rating. The Christmas period is always a busy time for generating new customers, but many network operators experience a higher than usual level of churn in January and February. In 2009, the pre-pay marketing department at this large network operator wanted to concentrate a retention campaign on 225,000 customers acquired in December through one of its largest UK retail partners.
The focus of the campaign was on subscribers who had not taken a ‘free allowance’; with the implication being that those customers were more likely to churn than subscribers who had. This would be one of the first pieces of marketing communication to those customers, so it was vital to get it right. In order to test the outbound SMS campaign, the operator decided to send a different message to two pools of 10,000 customers each. The most successful response rate over a 7-day period would determine the message to be used for the remaining large pool.  

Tariff options
The SMS was compelling. Subscribers were reminded of their tariff options and asked to respond for more information. In the first test-group of 10,000 customers, the call-to-action was simply to reply to the text message. Conversely, the second group was asked to dial an interactive voice response (IVR) line, hosted by HTK.
The results were startling. Of messages successfully delivered to the handset, the SMS reply was 33%, an impressive figure, but not unexpected for such a compelling offer. However, the IVR response was even better at almost two-times the SMS figure, a response rate of 59.5%.
Over the 7-day test of 20,000 subscribers, the conversion rate of customers actually taking-up a new tariff, and therefore showing a loyalty that would help protect against churn, was 24.5% for the SMS channel and 36.9% for IVR. Again, this was a spectacular figure for the IVR response channel.
The SMS-to-IVR campaign trial was deemed a massive success, and was subsequently applied to the entire population of 225,000 subscribers. Over the following three-month period, this resulted in over 61,000 successful conversions. That’s 61,000 ‘at risk’ customers who were actively retained.

Personalisation
So let’s think about this for a moment. IVR is typically thought of as dull, monotonous and even irritating, so how can it work so well for marketing?  Firstly, it comes down to personalisation. By uniquely identifying the caller through their mobile phone number, the ‘campaign IVR’ is able to make an attractive offer straight away, without the need for the caller to trawl through menus in search of what they’re looking for.
This approach of rapidly presenting the most relevant content, individually tailored to each caller, can be extended to two or even three propositions in a single call. Compared to the 160-character limitations of SMS, IVR is a phenomenal way of delivering targeted content. And because the right content is offered straight away, calls are shorter and the cost of marketing is reduced. It’s a win-win formula and a great example of how combining channels can work so well.
IVR has now become a cornerstone of the network operator’s pre-pay marketing activity, handling over 30 million calls per year. Not only does the IVR provide great marketing results and more loyal customers, but it has been proven to help steer calls away from the contact centre too.
And it’s not just for mobile network operators and large service providers. Dynamic and personalised marketing IVR can work for any company with a large number of customers and a diverse range of propositions; whether in retail or finance, insurance, leisure, real estate or utility services.
Unlikely as it may sound, IVR has emerged as a marketer’s dream

Searchandise Commerce Launches HitList Mobile

Searchandise Commerce, an online media network for product manufacturers and their retail channel partners, has launched HitList Mobile, which will deliver the company’s online merchandising services to mobile devices.
The companu says that HitList Mobile will enable manufacturers to positively affect their position for maximum visibility wherever searches are occurring, whether it’s on the web or the mobile web, while retailers can use the service to monetize premium position as a means of generating revenue from untapped mobile real estate. According to a recent report from Compete, 37% of Smartphone owners bought merchandise via their phones in 2009.
Searchandise Commerce combines the dynamics of in-store merchandising, where products vie for premium position, with the ROI and cost-per-click bidding of paid search, and applies it to online retail. Now the service is offered on mobile devices to better engage consumers while they’re researching and purchasing products on the mobile web.
HitList Mobile extends HitList, the company’s solution that enables retailers to monetize all areas of their websites, to mobile sites. Manufacturers bid for improved placement in search results, product showcases, category and sub-category pages and home pages, by incorporating advertiser bids into site-side search as part of their sort algorithm.
For retailers, the upside is that with no cost, an incremental revenue stream can be turned on, with no disruption to the consumer experience and no loss of control over sort order. For manufacturers, HitList Mobile offers an opportunity to proactively manage product placement, boost visibility and increase clickshare across a network of retail sites.   
“We are seeing increased interest from our customers in the ability to purchase through a variety of mobile devices,” says Andre Brysha, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Ritz Interactive. “Our main concern is that Ritz Interactive is easy to navigate through any access point, including Smartphones and other mobile devices.  Having worked with Searchandise Commerce on our core website site, we’re encouraged to see the solution expand to mobile, and dovetail with our strategy.”
Searchandise Commerce says that HitList Mobile is representative of the larger trend of m-commerce. Nearly one in five consumers were expected to use their mobile phones to assist them with 2009 holiday shopping, according to a survey of 10,878 US consumers carried out by research firm Deloitte LLC. 55% of those planned to use their phone to find store locations, 45% to research prices, 40% to find product information, 32% to get discounts and coupons and 31% to read reviews. In addition, one in four shoppers were expected to make a purchase via their mobile phone.

CCS Report Predicts Rapid Mobile Broadband Growth

A report released today by the analyst CCS Insight predicts explosive growth for mobile broadband across Europe. Despite varying environments across Europe’s five major markets, the one common factor is growth, underpinned by HSPA and HSPA+ mobile broadband technology.
According to the report, the European mobile broadband market will see subscriber and revenue numbers nearly double by 2011. Total mobile broadband subscribers in key European markets will rise from around 22 million at the end of 2009 to over 43 million in 2011, while total revenue from mobile broadband access in the major markets will rise from less than €6 billion (£5.4 billion)in 2009 to more than €11 billion in 2011
“It is clear from this report that with the right network investment, European mobile network operators will see significant growth in Mobile Broadband adoption in the next two years,” saysMichael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer at the GSM Association (GSMA). “HSPA technology will drive this rapid uptake across Europe as mobile operators and their customers continue to benefit from its expanding, vibrant and competitive ecosystem. HSPA technology has a vast number of enabled devices and established roaming capabilities delivering high speed broadband connectivity to users on the move, right across Europe.”
Key findings from the report include:

• In Italy, most access is charged by the minute, while operators elsewhere, particularly in the UK, have largely adopted flat-rate, all-you-can-eat models.
• Among Europe's major markets, the highest charging countries for Mobile Broadband are France, where 4GB of data can cost a subscriber almost €85 a month, and Germany, where subscribers can pay €45 for each gigabyte of data.
• The least expensive Mobile Broadband in the top five markets can be found in the UK, where competition is fierce, and where subscribers can pay less than €17 a month for 3GB of data traffic, and less than €5 for each gigabyte of data.
• France and Spain will see the fastest growth in mobile broadband users, and the advent of new subscribers - and a fourth operator in France - will be accompanied by a reduction in average charges.
• The most common allowances across Europe are 1GB, 3GB and 5GB a month.

“Competition will have a huge impact on the growth of mobile broadband across Europe, both in terms of increasing subscriber numbers and the average revenue operators will see from each subscriber,” says CCS Insight Managing Director, Shaun Collins. “In this market, we expect to see not only growth, but also changes in the dynamic across Europe as the countries currently with the least mobile broadband penetration - France and Spain - experience the fastest growth in subscribers in the coming years.” 

iPhone Users Most Likely to Pay for Mobile Games

Headline data released from the Mobile section of the UK National Gamers Survey Report has revealed that 8 million people in the UK play games on their mobile, and a significant share of them pay for their games. The survey also looked into the market share of the individual handset brands and operators. Large differences are revealed when looking at conversion to paying gamers on mobile. 
Key findings from the report include:

• 8 million people of 8 years and over in the UK play games on their mobile phone.
• 25% of people playing videogames in the UK (31.2million) play games on their phone. 53% of mobile gamers are male and 47% are female.
• 39% of all UK mobile gamers are in the 20 - 34 age group.

The report also analyses the number of mobile gamers by handset maker and network operator. On the handset front, Sony Ericsson leads the way, with 2.3 million mobile gamers, followed by Nokia (1.8 million) and Samsung (1.5 million). When it comes to the percentage of handset owners who pay for games, however, Apple blazes a trail, with 85% of its 700,000 mobile gamers saying they have paid for a mobile game, followed by Samsung (51% of 1.5 million) and LG (41% of 550,000).
From the operator perspective, O2 leads the way with 2.4 million mobile gamers, followed by Vodafone (1.4 million) and Orange (1.3 million). Looking at the percentage of these mobile gamers who have paid for a mobile game, O2 heads the chart with 67%, followed by 3 and Orange, both on 50%.
Conducted by TNS and Gamesindustry.com, the UK National Gamers Survey Report is part of the 2009 Today’s Gamers International Survey, and the latest in a series of identical nation-wide surveys conducted across European key areas and the US.
“For years, mobile phones have been praised as the new gaming platform, but typical for the telecoms industry, clear data has been lacking,” says Gamesindustry.com’s Peter Warman. “This report reveals these facts for the first time. One of the most interesting insights is on the ability to monetize mobile game content. The iPhone does, by far, not have the number of users but is extremely good at monetizing the popularity of games on mobile phones. This has also clearly had its effect on the conversion to paying gamers of the large operators closely related to iPhone.”
The full UK National Gamers Survey Report and full datasets are available for €4,950, (£4,456) and an international comparative high-level report across all countries surveyed (US, UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium) comprising 80 pages and 120 graphs is also available for €4,950. There’s more information here.

Nexus One To Hit Mobile Broadband Sales

Comparison website Broadband Expert says the introduction of Google’s Nexus One phone will further contribute to falling mobile broadband sales in 2010.
Broadband Expert experienced a 16.5% dip in dongle sales over the 2009 Christmas period compared to the previous year, and believes the increasing popularity of Smartphone technology is at least partly to blame.  
The company also states that the slow speeds associated with mobile broadband is another factor that has contributed to the decline in sales. Broadband Expert recently reported that the average mobile broadband speed in the UK is less than 1Mbps, which is a quarter of the speed advertised by the providers.
“The fact that mobile broadband service providers have over promised and under-delivered with regards to mobile broadband speeds has not helped the industry,” says Broadband Expert Commercial Director, Rob Webber. “It has led to a general mistrust of the technology, as well as the companies that provide it. Such misleading advertising has also led to disappointment among consumers who have taken up mobile broadband with expectations that it provides a viable alternative to fixed line broadband.”
Despite the current downturn in mobile broadband sales, Broadband Expert believes that advances in mobile broadband networks are set to buck the negative trend in the near future. The next generation of mobile broadband - 4G mobile broadband - will provide consumers with the higher speeds and data rates associated with fixed line broadband; as well as voice, data and streamed multimedia applications; while on the go.
“The more advanced capabilities of 4G mobile broadband, together with the development of increasingly compact and sophisticated netbook and laptop hardware technology, means that mobile broadband will be able to meet all of a consumer’s Internet requirements in the near future,” says webber. “This improved service will undoubtedly bolster mobile broadband sales, however until 4G is a reality, Broadband Expert expects to see mobile broadband dongle sales continue to fall in 2010.”

Augmented Reality App Downloads to Boom, says Juniper

The annual number of mobile downloads featuring Augmented Reality (AR) content is expected to rise from less than 1 million in 2009 to more than 400 million by 2014, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The report, ‘Mobile Augmented Reality Forecasts, Applications & Opportunity Appraisal 2009-2014’, notes that the proliferation of app stores among both network operators and Operating System vendors, allied to a steady rollout of AR-enabling technology on Smartphones, will lead to a greater number of AR apps being made readily available to end-users, and to subsequent rapid increases, both in the levels of adoption and service usage.
In addition, the report concludes that location-based search apps will account for the majority of all AR downloads annually over the next five years, although by 2014, games – the second most successful category in terms of downloads - will have achieved nearly 30% of all downloads per annum. The report also notes that while AR enterprise apps are unlikely to launch before 2012 due to technological constraints, and will subsequently account for a small minority of downloads, they will, however, be able to command a very high subscription price. According to the report, total annual revenues from AR-enabled apps will reach $732 million (£458 million) in 2014, up from less than $2 million in 2010.
There’s more information about the report here.

Report Focuses on the Indian Content Opportunity

Mobile research firm, mobileSQUARED, has released its latst report, 'India: Birth of a mobile content superpower 2009 – 2013’. The report examines the Indian mobile content market, assessing the market challenges, barriers to growth, and key opportunities for companies intent on capitalising on the Indian marketplace.
Mobile data in India was worth a fraction over US$2 billion (£1.25 billion) in 2008, and like the other BRIC nations, China, Russia and Brazil, it is the potential of the Indian marketplace that has sparked a furore within the wireless world, the report notes.
This projected development comes despite a background of delayed 3G deployment, with most licenses for 3G spectrum not due to be issued until late 2009. Most of the leading operators are committed to aggressively rolling out the technology, with a lowering of data access costs essential to the ongoing development of the content market. Meanwhile, the market for Value Added Services (VAS) is also being stimulated by saturated teledensity in urban circles.
However, the report says, the content market in India is at risk of being stymied by operators, who take the lion’s share of revenues from mobile entertainment sales. It is a policy that is undermining content providers’ business models, despite the rapid growth in subscriptions. Regardless of these limitations, the next five to 10 years will see a huge uptake in content services in India as subscriber numbers soar past 700 million.
The report costs £300/€340/$500 fior a single-user licence, including an ‘Analyst on Call’ service: when you buy the report, mobileSQUARED will answer your questions for free for six months, including any updates to the report.
There’s more information about the report here.

Statattack

It’s a good day for stats. First, Apple has revealed that more than 3 billion apps have now been downloaded from its App Store by iPhone and iPod touch users worldwide in less than 18 months since its launch.
“Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months - this is like nothing we’ve ever seen before,” says Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. “The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.”
There’s more good news for Apple with the release of stats from AdMob that show that iPod Touch usage more than doubled in the UK on Friday 26 December, as users got to grips with their new gadgets. But the AdMob stats also reveal rapid growth in worldwide requests from Android devices, with the Motorola Droid is now the leading Android handset. Key findings from AdMob research include:

• iPod touch daily unique users grew by 124% in the UK on 26 December, compared to average daily unique users of the week before Christmas.
• Worldwide iPod touch daily unique users grew by 57% on 26 December, compared to average daily unique users of the week before Christmas.
• Ad requests from iPod touch handsets increased 96% on 26 December, compared to the daily average from the week prior.
• Ad requests from iPhone handsets increased by 12%  over the same period.
• Worldwide requests from Android devices increased 97% from October to December.
• AdMob received over 1 billion ad requests from Android devices in December ‘09.
• The Motorola Droid is already the leading Android handset in the AdMob network, generating 30% of requests in December.
• In October, 98% of Android requests came from HTC devices. In December, 56% of requests were from HTC devices, 39% from Motorola devices, and 5% from Samsung.
• The US leads Android adoption. 90% of Android traffic was in the US in December, up from 84% in October.

Opera Mini Sees Rise in User Numbers

Browser company Opera says that its Opera Mini mobile browser has garnered more than 41.7 million users worldwide, a 5.3% increase over the previous month, according to its ‘State of the Mobile Web’ report for November 2009. The number of page views in November increased by 9.5% and data consumption increased 8.3% over October 2009. In Africa, Facebook has taken a strong lead and ranks as the most popular site in six out of the top 10 countries.
The report, published monthly, provides information on the top global trends affecting the mobile web. In addition to the top global trends and country snapshots, the report highlights trends in Africa and examines regions where Opera Mini is enjoying the fastest growth.
Report findings include:

• In November 2009, more than 41.7 million people used Opera Mini, a 5.3% increase over October, and a 154% increased over November 2008.
• Those 41.7 million people viewed more than 18.8 billion pages during November 2009. Since October, page views have risen 9.5%. Since November 2008, page views have increased by 231%.
• Opera Mini users generated over 285 million MB of data for operators worldwide in November 2009. Operate notes that data in Opera Mini is compressed up to 90%. If this data were uncompressed, Opera Mini users would have viewed over 2.6 petabytes of data in November. 
• The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usagem in order, are Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, US, UK, Vietnam and Poland.

The full report is available here.

Orange Predicts Xmas Messaging Boom

This Christmas and New Year will see a bumper crop of text and picture messages as friends and family share their season’s greetings via mobile, according to mobile network Orange.
Millions of text and MMS get sent across the Orange network everyday but at Christmas and New Year the numbers rise dramatically. The last festive season was a record one for Orange, with more than 100 million text messages and more than 1 million picture messages being sent by customers on Christmas Day. This year, it expects the numbers to be even higher, anticipating that around 1.1. million picture messages will be sent on  Christmas Day.
New Year’s Eve is also expected to break all records, with more than 120 million text messages likely to be sent. Last year saw 106 million texts and almost 1 million picture messages celebrating the start of 2009. 

"Cracking Download Figures Gromit!"

Titan Publishing has revealed that its Wallace & Gromit digital comic iPhone app has achieved over half a million downloads since its launch on 7 November. The app has reached number one in the UK free books app store, and has also risen to the number three spot overall in the free apps chart. All four paid-for Wallace & Gromit comic apps have been within the top 20 paid apps in the UK book chart since their launch in November.
The first Wallace & Gromit Comic, ‘The W Files’ is available as a free download here, and there are four other Wallace & Gromit comics available for download at the Apple App Store for 59p/$0.99 each.

AdMob Releases November Metrics Report

Mobile ad network AdMob has released its November 2009 Mobile Metrics Report. The report examines the rise of Smartphones, the global growth of the iPhone, and the immediate impact of new Android devices
Two major trends for 20009 identifed in the report are the growing share of requests from Smartphones, and the increasing use of wi-fi. In November 2009 in the US, Smartphones accounted for 48% of mobile Web and application requests, up from 31% in November 2008.  Wi-fi usage has also taken off, with 24% of requests in the US coming in over a wi-fi network in November 2009, compared to 8% in November 2008. A new class of devices that are not phones, but that the ability to connect to the Internet over wi-fi, such as the iPod touch, Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), and Nintendo DSi gained traction in 2009.
The report also examines growth in unique iPhone and iPod touch users since January 2009, finding more rapid growth outside of the US. In November 2009, 50% of unique users were located outside of the US, up from 39% in January 2009. Of its top markets, Apple devices experienced the strongest percentage growth in Japan, France, and Australia in 2009.
The launch of new Android devices in the second half of 2009 has accelerated the growth of the platform. Six months ago, a single Android device, the HTC Dream (G1), generated 92% of Android traffic, while in November 2009, the same device accounted for only 37% of requests. The Motorola Droid, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero generated 22%, 21% and 9% of Android requests worldwide in November 2009, respectively.
Key findings from the report include:
55% of ad requests in the US came from devices with wi-fi capability, up from only 19% a year earlier.
The Top five US devices based on wi-fi requests generated were the iPod touch, iPhone, Sony PSP, HTC Dream (G1), and Motorola Droid.
36% of iPhone traffic in the US was over wi-fi, considerably higher than other wi-fi-capable devices. Less than 10% of traffic from the major Android devices came over wi-fi.
The iPhone accounted for 71% and the iPod touch for 29% of total unique users from Apple devices. 
Android generated 27% of the requests from Smartphones in the US in November 2009, up from 20% in October 2009.  
88% of requests from Android devices came from the US in November 2009. The second largest Android market is the UK with 4% of requests.
You can access the full report, as well as previous months’ reports, here.

Android Awareness On the Up, says comScore

comScore has released its latest report on the mobile market, ‘Android: Crashing the Smartphone Party’. The report provides an overview of the current US mobile environment and offers an in-depth look at how the Android operating system is impacting the market. Among the report’s key findings is that consumer awareness of Google’s Android is growing rapidly, due in large part to the Verizon Droid ad campaign. Further, of those American consumers in the market for a Smartphone, 17% are considering the purchase of an android-supported device in next three months, compared to 20% indicating that they plan to buy an iPhone.
“With handsets on multiple carriers, from multiple manufacturers, and numerous Android device models expected to be in the US market by January, the Android platform is rapidly shaking up the Smartphone market,” says Mark Donovan, Senior Vice President of Mobile at comScore. “While iPhone continues to set the bar with its App Store and passionate user base, and RIM remains the leader among the business set, Android is clearly gaining momentum among developers and consumers.”
comScore notes that although Android’s share of the Smartphone market is relatively small, it has quickly doubled in the past year to 3.5% in October 2009. Understanding the mobile media behaviour of Android users highlights why operators and media companies might embrace the platform and fuel its growth, the company says. An analysis of mobile media consumption on Smartphones reveals that users of both Apple and Android-supported devices were more likely to engage with mobile media than an average Smartphone user. iPhone users were most likely to consume mobile media, with 94% of users doing so in September 2009, while 92% of Android device users, predominantly T-Mobile G1 users, engaged in mobile media activities, 12 percentage points higher than an average Smartphone user.
Apple and Android users were equally likely to engage with news via their browser and were almost identical in their mobile application engagement. Email was the only major activity in which iPhone users (87%) were far more likely to participate than Android users (6%). Overall, the data suggests that Android users will behave more like iPhone users than other Smartphone users.
Google’s Android platform has continued to gain awareness among US consumers. In August 2009, just 22% of mobile users had heard of the Android, while in November 2009 this figure had reached 37%, largely prompted by the Verizon Droid ad campaign launched in the fall. The comScore study found that not only is general awareness increasing about Android, but intent to purchase an Android-supported device is also increasing among mobile phone users.
When mobile users were asked in November which phone they planned to buy in the next three months, 17% of respondents in the market for a new Smartphone said they planned to buy an Android-supported device, with 8% of those planning to buy a Verizon Droid, compared to 20% of respondents who said they planned to buy an iPhone during the same period. In comparison, when survey respondents answered this same question in August 2009, only 7% indicated an intent to buy either the T-Mobile G1 or the T-Mobile MyTouch - the only Android-supported phones available at the time - while 21% of respondents planned to buy an iPhone in the next three months. 
There’s more information about the report here.

Mobile Innovations a Hit with Consumers, says Airwide

Mobile innovations have topped a UK consumer poll of the ‘top technology innovations’ of the last decade. The survey, commissioned by mobile messaging firm Airwide Solutions, surveyed over 2,000 people from the UK and saw GPS-enabled devices, including mobile phones, receive 44% of the votes. The iPhone came in third, with 32% of the votes. 
Social networking received surprisingly few votes, with Facebook collecting only 19% and Twitter just 6%. As a sign of how much UK consumers are now relying on staying connected while on the move, mobile broadband came in second in the poll, receiving 35 percent of the votes.
Jay Seaton, Chief Marketing Officer at Airwide Solutions believes the results of the survey show that the question is no longer: ‘What is the next killer app?’ but: ‘What is the killer multipurpose utility’ that will enable a new generation of innovative, powerful, feature-rich applications and services to be quickly and easily created, launched and adopted. 
“One key element is to ensure that mobile operators have the right infrastructure and tools in place to help them use the network, device and subscriber intelligence they have (on messaging channels, browsing, user profiling, presence, security, charging and location) to enrich and support the subscriber experience with this myriad of new innovations,” he says. “In the case of GPS and Location-based Services in particular, the mobile world is realizing that location can become a valuable enhancement to make the services that operators offer their subscribers more relevant, actionable and personal. As an increasing number of mobile devices offer built-in GPS, and because operators can now expose location APIs even for non-GPS phones, the addressable market for LBS will continue to greatly increase.
Key findings from the survey include:

• 44% of people surveyed ranked GPS-enabled navigation devices as the top technology innovation of the last decade
• Mobile broadband came second with 35% of the votes, followed by the iPhone with 32%   of the votes
• Both men and women identified GPS as the number one innovation (48% of men, 42% of  women). For women, the Nintendo Wii, was the second greatest innovation (receiving 36% of votes); for men, the Wii ranked only fifth, receiving 23% of votes). The men’s second most popular choice was the LCD TV, which female respondents placed at number five
• Music and video streaming technologies fared poorly in the survey, with Spotify and YouTube receiving just 18% of votes between them, as did social networking phenomenon, Twitter, receiving just 6% of the votes

The survey was carried out on behalf of Airwide by independent market research firm, Opinion Matters. A follow-on survey is available via the Airwide-sponsored blog, Mobile Messaging 2.0

Merry Mobile Christmas

Sharpcards, which provides mobile ecards, has announced year-on-year growth figures of 33% over the festive period so far, on the back of a prediction from environmental charity Waste Watch that up to 1 billion Christmas cards will end up in UK bins this year
Sharpcards notes that  people now feel more comfortable with the technology around mobile ecards, and with more network operators providing easy access to content, people also now know where to find mobile ecards and understand how to send and receive content. Perhaps most importantly, the company says, people recognise and like the emotion and sentiment behind the message, which it says email and SMS does not achieve.
“We’ve seen great year-on-year growth of people sending mobile ecards over the festive season, and as you would expect, this is one of our busiest times with Christmas and New Year,” says Sharpcards CEO, Will Walsh. “More and more people are discovering the benefits of mobile ecards, especially around busy postal periods, where the service cannot always necessarily be depended on to deliver on time.”
Sharpcards currently runs enhanced messaging services for O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon, H3G, Sprint, Bell, Telstra and other major carriers around the world.

Mobile Content Booming, says Screen Digest

The analyst Screen Digest says that, as it predicted at the end of last year, 2009 was the most successful year for mobile content ever - despite a difficult economic climate and a declining handset market. The market awakening was primarily due to the success of Apple’s App Store and is set to bring mobile to the forefront of the media industry in 2010 and beyond.
The latest research from Screen Digest’s Mobile Intelligence Service suggests that revenues from applications other than voice and messaging on mobile are set to double in the next four years to reach €100 billion/year (£89 billion) by the end of 2013. €8.6 billion of this will be generated by rich media content services such as Mobile TV, video, games and music, a growth of 50% compared to the end of 2009. The bulk of the remainder will comprise charges for data.
More than half a decade after the launch of 3G, the industry has finally found the right ingredients to provide a compelling user experience on mobile, the company says. The increasing popularity of Smartphones with multimedia capabilities, as well as the emergence of more open distribution channels such as Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market, has ignited the mobile content market.
According to the latest Screen Digest research, Apple’s App Store will generate €1.3 billion by the end of 2013 from 7 billion downloads. Not all applications stores will achieve the same level of success, however, and the Smartphone/app store model will take some time to reach mass market adoption.
The exploding number of app stores and corresponding development platforms poses a danger of creating unnecessary market fragmentation, Screen Digest believes, adding that market consolidation is a long way off as the huge corporations behind those app stores - Apple, Google, Nokia, Samsung, Microsoft, Vodafone and Orange - will be happy to compete with each other, and the sheer size of the mobile market will offer enough room for all of them to co-exist.  
Screen Digest believes that mobile will be a major part of the global digital media market, from music to games, to video and TV. Although the media industry is still a long way from generating as much revenue from mobile as it does from other platforms, the company says, it will help offset the decline of physical sales while offering new hopes for monetization.
In the music industry, mobile is being used by online music-on-demand companies such as Spotify and Deezer to upscale consumers from free to premium services. Revenues from mobile music services are set to grow by 25% in the next four years, reaching €3.2 billion by the end of 2013 despite a substantial decline in ringtone sales.
The direct publishing route that mobile apps offer pushes video games publishers up the value chain, removing the need to license content. Revenues from mobile games sold through operators’ portals and Apple’s App Store are expected to grow by 40% in the next four years, reaching €2.8 billion by the end of 2013.
Screen Digest is confident that as mobile handsets increasingly converge with portable media players, the demand for paid-for mobile Video on Demand (VoD) will rise, and mobile will eventually become a substantial contributor to the global VoD market. Mobile builds a much better case for subscription-based VoD services since, unlike the home environment, the content cannot be accessed free elsewhere at the time of demand. As a result, Screen Digest believes that mobile video revenues will double in the course of the next four years to €1.7 billion, with most of the growth expected in 2010.
While 2009 has been a year of disillusionment for Mobile TV with crumbling adoption rates and most users watching it for free, the football World Cup in 2010 offers the opportunity to energize the market. Whether this sudden rush of demand can be sustained beyond the tournament remains to be seen.
Globally the number of Mobile TV subscribers is set to double in the next three years and will reach 230 million by the end of 2013 generating €1.7 billion. With a mobile population of over 1.5 billion users by the end of 2013, China and India are set to generate more revenue from Mobile TV services than Europe and North America combined.
“Companies such as Apple and Google have brought a much needed breath of fresh air to the mobile content industry by opening up the ecosystem, providing flexibility to developers and content providers, driving innovation and increasing consumer awareness,” says Ronan de Renesse, Senior Analyst at Screen Digest. “Whilst 2009 proved that there is strong demand for mobile content, 2010 will be much more about how to sustain usage. Falling prices, combined with exponential mobile data growth, will threaten the profitability of standalone mobile content services and data access. The successes of 2009 could become the nightmares of 2010.”

MDA Hails Picture Messaging Success

BBC Radio 1’s Free Picture Messaging Day on Friday 11 December has been hailed a success, after attracting the equivalent of five months’ picture message traffic in one 24 hour period.  Produced as part of the BBC Radio 1 Access All Areas week, listeners were invited to take pictures of their faces using their mobile phones, then send them to the Shortcode, 81199.
Coordinated by mobile trade body, the Mobile Data Association (MDA) and with the active support of UK Mobile Network Operators, O2, Vodafone, Orange, 3, T-Mobile, Tesco Mobile and Virgin Mobile, who all enabled all picture messages to be free for the day, message traffic hit record levels.
Over 42,000 MMS messages were received during the 24 hour period, equating to approximately five months of BBC Radio 1’s usual picture message traffic levels.
Also supported by WIN plc, an enabler of interactive mobile media, entertainment and data services, images were moderated and then used to populate an online mosaic for listeners to view and share their images.
“These figures demonstrate that when picture messaging is combined with a compelling and intuitive campaign through a simple call to action, people will and do respond,” says MDA Operations Director, Martin Ballard. “Mobile industry stakeholders collaborated in a unique way to ensure that the technical, functional and educational elements of this project delivered a seamless experience. Together with the DJs’ commentary and the MDA’s settings information portal, a positive impression of the picture messaging experience has been produced.”

YOC Sees UK Ad Growth

Mobile marketing agency YOC has revealed that monthly page impressions on its UK media network have increased by 41% since June 2009. The network is now serving more than 240 million page impressions each month. The company’s growth in the UK means that the YOC UK media network now represents almost half of YOC’s overall European media network, which receives over 500 million monthly page impressions.
The latest addition to the UK media network is innerActive, an audience-publisher, aggregating mobile in-applications and in-games inventory across many developers and publishers, and directing it to premium ad sales partners. YOC is working with innerActive to provide brands and advertisers with in-game and in-app ads in over 50 ad-ready games available from various storefronts, including Nokia Ovi, Fox Mobile, MTN, Vivid Games, Herocraft and C4M. 
Since its launch in July 2008, YOC UK has signed a range of leading publishing houses, media companies and online portals to its media network. innerActive will sit alongside other publishers including 123play.com, GetJar, PC Advisor, Macworld, Pistonheads, What Car, Stuff.tv, Auto Car and Peperonity.
 “To have increased the monthly page impressions on our UK media network by 41% is a fantastic achievement and a great high for YOC to end the year on,” says Christian Louca, UK Managing Director at YOC. “With us, advertisers can be certain that whoever they want to reach, whatever their target message and no matter what their chosen mechanism, they can get the very best value from their mobile spend.”

Smartphone Prospects Analyzed

Portio Research has released its report, ‘Smartphone Futures, 2009-2014’. The report examines the evolving worldwide mobile handset industry and the rapid growth of the Smartphone segment. The report forecasts future growth and also segments the industry today, looking at how the market has performed in 2009 and at how things might develop in 2010. The report notes that Smartphones will account for 13.8% of total worldwide handset shipments during 2009, and that this figure looks set to grow to 24.9% by the end of 2014.
Smartphone shipments are expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of 18.5% during 2009-2014, compared to a forecast CAGR of only 5.3% for the broader overall mobile handset market. It looks at the competitive strengths and weaknesses of the major vendors, including the broader smartphone eco-system. It considers key devices, the success of app stores, operating systems and OS market share and how these key elements come together. The report also includes vendor profiling and SWOT analysis of major players, including Apple, RIM, Palm and HTC.
The report offers full 5-year market forecasts for the overall handset market and for the Smartphone market; an analysis of app store growth, and of the major vendors and their market strengths and weaknesses. Vendor market share and Smartphone shipments are also analyzed, by region.
There’s more information about the report here.

InMobi Celebrates African Success

InMobi says that it is now serving over 650 million mobile ad requests per month in S. Africa, making it the largest mobile advertising network in the country. InMobi’s service offerings have also been expanded to other countries in Africa, including Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt, which the company says are beginning to show a significant growth in mobile advertising.
With the upcoming Football World Cup 2010, InMobi is predicting an explosion in mobile advertising and brand engagement, since nothing connects Africa quite like football. Under the first ever mobile rights distribution project for the World Cup, operators around the world will stream all 64 matches live to mobile handsets. Users will also be able to receive highlights and updates to their phones on a near-live basis. In his address during the World Cup ceremony in Berlin, South African President Thabo Mbeki said that the 2010 FIFA World Cup S. Africa would be the first event of this magnitude where the world would be able to participate via their mobile handsets. InMobi says it is gearing up for the occasion. The company is also announcing a partnership with a S, African advertising agency, MobiClicks, to engage S. Africa with mobile advertising.
“Our partnership with InMobi has been very fruitful in the region,” says MobiClicks CEO, Shaun Rosen. “InMobi has been with us at every step and has ensured that our performance never dips. We believe 2010 will be another banner year for mobile advertising in S. Africa and believe InMobi is a solid partner for advertisers looking to reach mobile consumers in the region.”  
According to InMobi, the S. African market is made up of very progressive users, who are highly engaged on their mobile devices and respond well to mobile advertising, as evidenced by the clickthrough rates and advertiser return on investment. S. Africa has close to 10 million mobile Internet users, and this number is expected to grow to 15 million by 2013. InMobi says it now aims to grow the entire mobile ecosystem in S. Africa by bringing global players into this market.
“The success of S. Africa is now spreading to the rest of Africa and has shown some promising results in countries like Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt,” says Abhay Singhal, Head of Global Ad Sales at InMobi. “It is perceived that mobile is now accelerating the economic growth of the entire continent. The World Cup 2010 will be a catalyst for mobile advertising in Africa, and we’re positioned to lead the market and connect brands and publishers to this emerging market.”