Quick Response Codes enter into Ireland with DRG/Scanbuy Deal
A deal has been signed between Digital Reach Group (DRG) and mobile barcode firm Scanbuy to include Quick Response (QR) codes alongside print ads, editorial content and on packaging and merchandise displays in Ireland.
According to DRG CEO, Colm Grealy, with mobile Internet and Smartphones becoming the norm, there is an increasing expectation from the public to be able to get the information they have on the Internet at home straight to their handset quickly and with no fuss.
The service they are bringing to Ireland will truly integrate mobile Internet browsing into consumer’s daily lives.
The service is aimed at advertisers, ad agencies, retailers and traditional media publishers. QR Codes can also be bought as an add-on to traditional ad campaigns, packaging and merchandise displays.
In the opinion of Scanbuy CEO, Jonathan Bulkeley, the proliferation of Internet-equipped phones gives advertisers a tremendous opportunity to reach a sizable and engaged audience.
With mobile codes, the offline and online worlds can now be easily bridged. A scan of a print ad will instantly take people directly to a supporting website and the opportunities are endless from there.
EU5 Countries witness growth in Smartphone Adoption: ComScore
A new research by ComScore has revealed that Smartphone users in the EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) have grown by 32 percent over the past year, to 51.6 million subscribers.
UK has recorded the fastest growth in the number of subscribers with over 70%, to 11.1 million subscribers. While it’s High-tier subscribers (those paying£35 or more a month) witnessed a growth of 60% year on year, mid-to-low tier subscribers (paying under £35 a month) grew by 76%.
France ranks second with the number of Smartphone subscribers up 48% to 7.1 million and Germany accounted for 8.4 million Smartphone subscribers (up 34%). While Spain has 9.9 million subscribers (up 27%), Italy, which has been boasting the largest number of Smartphone subscribers overall has showed the softest growth in the market with 11%.
According to Alistair Hill, senior mobile analyst at ComScore, Smartphones are generally seen as luxury devices that come with big price tags and high monthly tariffs, yet the largest segment of the market and the one demonstrating greatest momentum is actually the low- to mid-tier.
In his opinion, the growth in these tiers suggests that as Smartphones become more affordable to the majority of European consumers; their proliferation will increase considerably, and lead to a surge in mobile content and data consumption.
Smartphones Technologies launches Basketball iPhone Application
Smartphones Technologies, Mobile application publisher has launched ‘College Basketball Bracket Challenge’ for the iPhone. With this application, the college basketball bracket challenge allows fans to create their own tournament bracket compete against their friends, and see if their picks land them on the Leaderboard.
After each game, the scores will be automatically updated so that fans can see if their picks move on to the next round. Fans can easily switch from the List view to the Bracket view
College Basketball Bracket Challenge allows fans to create their own tournament bracket, compete against their friends, and see if their picks land them on the Leaderboard.
This will enable fans to follow their favorite teams all the way to the championship, whether they are at home or on the go. For people who buy a ‘College SuperFans’ app get the College Basketball Bracket Challenge inside College SuperFans apps as a supplementary gift.
According to Mike Merrill, the company is giving fans features they expect in college sports apps by integrating the Bracket Challenge app functionality into the existing College SuperFans app.
Mobile advertising poised for substantial growth: Google exec
Diana Pouliot, Google executive addressed the opportunities and advantages of mobile advertising at the International CTIA Wireless 2010 conference.
According to Pouliot, mobile Web usage is driving consumers in new ways and is creating opportunities for advertisers and content owners. She stressed on four key factors including ubiquity, the mobile Web, location and driving action.
Ubiquity is one of the main factors which influence the advertisements. While Smartphones accounted for 9 percent of global mobile phone sales in 2008, they are predicted to rise to 46 percent by 2013. In the past two years, mobile search traffic has increased by five times and Google maps for mobile have also increased by over 50 million active maps for mobile users.
As per the data referred by Pouliot, more than 60,000 Android devices are shipped per day. These users are active and highly engaged with their devices.
Web is another driving innovation. There has been a considerable shift in mobile and companies such as Amazon and Facebook tap into resources that are accessible via mobile Web.
With location, mobile advertising becomes even more powerful. To add to it, mapping and directions also form a big part of how Google wants to provide information to users and marketers can also take advantage of these products.
GPS Moving beyond handsets: Study
According to a research study, global shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets increased 92% in 200, to 150 million units.
It is being said that since the shipments are growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.7%, it might reach 770 million units in 2014.
GPS technology started catching pace within the Smartphone segment not so long ago and now it is a standard feature of all new models. As per the study, high attach rates of GPS in new low-cost Smartphones will soon be entering into the market. GPS is also expected to become more common in mid-range feature phone models during 2010.
According to Andr© Malm, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight, Chipset developers and handset vendors are already working on next-generation location technologies that will address the limitations of GPS when using handsets in urban canyons and indoors.
ReplaceAds announces the availability of Mobile Ad Network
ReplaceAds, the largest network of audio, video and display ad inventory in the fast growing internet radio business has announced the availability of its new mobile advertising platform. With over 2000 radio stations available on iPhone, BlackBerry, iPod touch, Android and other handset, the company generates more than 250 million mobile advertising impressions per month.
According to John Williams, CEO and Founder of ReplaceAds’ parent company Jetcast, mobile audio and video streaming is growing at a phenomenal rate. The new mobile monetization platform of the company will allow the broadcasters to quickly grow their mobile revenues and for advertisers to easily and cost effectively reach our affluent, and highly engaged mobile audience.
Jetcast is of the opinion that since mobile streaming is hitting an all time high, more people are listening to radio via their Blackberry, iPhone or Android Smartphones than ever before. As per the ratings of Bridge Ratings, the mobile phone radio audience will reach 40 million by 2015.
Wireless shoppers make heavy searches: Google
According to Google Inc., the Internet giant wireless carriers, retailers and manufacturers need to have a strong voice in the marketplace and promote phone features in order to increase their online campaign clicks.
Google also added that carriers, retailers and manufacturers should increase online marketing to accommodate today’s wireless shopping hobbit.
According to Kyle Keogh, industry director of technology sales at Google, Mountain View, CA, people are searching for phones but not finding what they are looking for but the search volume is high.
As per the study, a whopping 78 percent of the first clicks are on brand names. Other key finding of the study include that the wireless phone arena is a competitive marketplace and smartphones bring new customers to retailers, carriers and manufacturers.
Over 2,961 consumers had participated in this survey. 65 percent of which were found to be new smartphone owners.
Mobile apps to generate $1.6 billion revenue this year: Study
According to a new study conducted by the Yankee Group, mobile applications are expected to generate nearly $1.6 billion revenue in the United States in the year 2010.
There are several factors in the report which show the increase in the shipments of smartphones, and more application stores including the expensive ones. Though Apple iPhone users and AT&T subscribers download more applications than anyone else, the research organization has predicted that Android will be the next breakout smartphone application platform.
According to Carl Howe, director of anywhere consumer research at Yankee Group, Boston, MA, two factors drove the company to increase their forecast, the first one was an increase in the percentage of apps that consumers were willing to pay for- up from 18 percent in August to 30 percent in January- and an overall increase in average paid application price from $1.99 in August to $2.85 this year.
The 2009 forecast of the company was $343 million, but that was using the prior paid app ratio of 18 percent with an average price of $1.99.
Apps revenue to increase manifold by 2012- GetJar
A report has been released by independent app store GetJar predicting that the worth of the global mobile applications market will become as high as $17.5 billion (£11.5 billion) by 2012. The current value is a fourfold increase from its value of $4.1 billion in 2009. It has also been predicted that an increase from 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012 will be noticed in the total number of mobile app downloads as well.
Off-deck paid-for apps will become the biggest revenue generator by 2012. In 2009, on-deck apps accounted for over 60% of all apps revenue but the percentage is expected to fall under 23% by 2012. Apart from apps, opportunities for both high end smartphones and feature phones have also been reflected in the report.
According to the report, revenue opportunities in Europe are set to soar from $1.5 billion in 2009 to $8.5 billion in 2012, while in North America, the figure will rise from around $2.1 billion to around $6.7 billion in 2012. Currently, Asia is the most popular country with applications having 37% of global downloads in 2009. However, North America accounts for the spending of maximum money for downloading these applications.
