Bluetooth and Online Marketing

Wall Street stunned investors today with a rare and wholly unexpected downgrade for Apple.

“We expect post-paid wireless operators to remain firm in their plan to stunt the pace of phone upgrades in 2012 and we expect to see some initial evidence of their success in the current quarter,” BTIG’s Walter Piecyk, a leading technology analyst, told clients Monday. “This will increase the need for Apple to grow its business in the pre-paid dominated emerging market space, in which handset subsidies are a rarity and the $600 ASP (average selling price) of the iPhone represents a big chunk of a household’s monthly income.”

Speaking with CNBC this afternoon, Piecyk tells CNBC today that the decline in Apple sales that comes as a result of this carrier trend “could lead to a revenue miss of up to $1 billion below the current consensus analyst estimate for the fiscal third (next) quarter.”

Wireless operators were happy at first to offer these generous subsidies for the iPhone on expectations that their usage would raise customer’s wireless bills, making up the difference and then some. But it hasn’t exactly played out that way, especially for a carrier like AT&T, Apple’s largest customer.

“We believe that investors should take a breather during the expected strength of this quarter and the rapid rise in the stock,” Piecyk believes.

The link between sports fans and mobile devices has become an extricable one. To that end, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the start of baseball season is clearing the dugout so to speak of all the mobile apps and innovations that have been waiting patiently to play during off-season.

On Monday, legendary baseball card maker Topps entered the mobile arena with a slate of new offerings that will be very attractive to baseball fans.

“Since popularizing the modern American baseball card in 1951,” the venerable company said Monday, “Topps has created ways for sports fans to connect with the teams, players, and moments they love. Now, more than 60 years after the first set of Topps baseball cards, Topps brings that mission to a new platform, beyond cardboard, with the release of two iOS applications, Topps Pennant and Topps BUNT.”

Topps Pennant is the modern box score. The application, available on the iPhone and iPad, recreates over 60 years of baseball plays—every team, every season, every game, and every play from last night’s games back to 1952.

Topps BUNT is like fantasy baseball, “only simpler, more fun, and easier to use.” The application, available on the iPad, is described as “an irreverent social

MarketsandMarkets is out with a new research report showing that the global wireless charging market is on pace for big revenue gains in the next five years.

According to the findings and projections in “Wireless Charging Market (2012-2017) – Global Forecast and Analysis by Technology, Products & Applications,” this particular market is expected to reach $7.161 billion by 2017 at a CAGR of 57.46% from 2012 to 2017.

“Wireless charging products started being commercially available from 2010 and gained momentum in 2011,” the report reads. “Since this is a new technology, consumers are trying to compare the conventional wired chargers and Universal Serial Bus (USB) cords with wireless charging solutions.”

Wireless charging has its applications across the industrial as well as the consumer electronics sector. Most of all these applications are in the growth phase and have huge potential in the near future. The applications are measured on the basis of their adoption potential versus their market potential and significance.

MarketsandMarkets says that the consumer electronics market is the most attractive market to target, with very high market potential. The awareness among the consumers is now increasing with the advent of new products such as wireless charging pads, receivers, and smartphones with embedded

On Monday, AT&T confirmed that an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. has agreed to acquire AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive.

In accordance with the details announced today, AT&T will receive a 47-percent equity interest in the new entity, YP Holdings LLC (YP).

YP will include:

• Approximately 1,200 The Real Yellow Pages print directory titles reaching about 150 million homes and businesses in 22 states;
• YP.com, a top 40 website according to a leading global digital measurement firm;
• The YP Local Ad Network, which includes more than 300 mobile and online publisher websites nationwide providing digital reach to more than 71 million monthly unique visitors; and
• The YPmobile app, which allows users to search local businesses from their mobile devices.

The business units generated approximately $3.3 billion in revenues in 2011. Among other agreements, YP has agreed to honor existing union contracts.

“This transaction makes strategic sense for both AT&T and Advertising Solutions,” said José Gutiérrez, president and CEO of AT&T Advertising Solutions. “It enables AT&T to focus on its core strategy of leadership in wireless, IP, cloud- and application-based services. At the same time, it gives our advertising customers, partners and developers continued access to strong advertising and search innovation and performance.”

On Monday, Augme Technologies – an interactive media marketing company – announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Millennial Media, Inc.

Augme is asserting three causes of action involving patent infringement.

Augme is seeking injunctive relief as well as unspecified monetary damages.

“We believe that Augme’s patented intellectual property portfolio represents one of the Company’s most valuable assets and provides significant market and competitive advantages,” said Paul Arena, Chief Executive Officer of Augme. “The Company must vigorously protect and enhance its proprietary position in the mobile marketing and mobile advertising industry, and the filing of this suit is consistent with our position that infringing competitors must be prosecuted.”

Millennial Media is yet to publicly respond to the suit.

Millennial Media serves better than 40 billion mobile ad impressions monthly across leading mobile platforms. In late March, Millennial began trading on the New York Stock Exchange following a successful and long-awaited IPO.

With each passing year, social media continues to help more Americans find work.

In addition to the jobs created directly by social media-related companies and their associated technologies, Twitter and Facebook have proven themselves to be valuable lifelines for the unemployed.

According to the latest data from OnlineDegrees.com, better than nine in ten recruiters are finding and hiring talent from social networking sites like LinkedIn.

Just how valuable can social media be in your job hunt? Check out the infographic below and let us know if and how social media has played a role in your professional ascent.

Google is gearing up to release its first official Android-powered tablet.

We’ve known for months that such a device is coming, but only now are we getting a sense of just how close the launch may be.

On Friday, sources close to the project tell The Verge that a May launch was initially planned, but the project was pushed in order for the Internet search giant to make additional tweaks to the product.

As of this writing, the source asserts, the Google tablet will likely reach consumers in July.

The tablet will reportedly cost $249 or less.

The tablet, made in partnership with Taiwan’s Asustek Computer, currently comes with a 7-inch screen, an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, and is Wi-Fi-only.

The device will run Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

With April serving as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Verizon Wireless is partnering with five universities to bring the Red Flag Campaign to Alabama for the thirty days of April.

The Red Flag Campaign is a program created by students for students and funded by the Verizon Foundation, Verizon Wireless and other community partners.

Verizon says the campaign aims to raise awareness about sexual assault using a “bystander intervention” strategy, encouraging friends and other campus community members to “say something” when they see warning signs (“red flags”) for dating violence in a friend’s relationship.

To that end, five Alabama universities will display Red Flags on their campuses as part of their Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities:

• Auburn University (April 4-5)
• The University of Alabama at Birmingham (April 9-13)
• Auburn University Montgomery (April 23-27)
• The University of Alabama (April 24-30)
• The University of Alabama in Huntsville (TBD).

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, college-age women are four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the general public, with an estimated one in four female college students becoming victims of sexual assault during their college career.

This week, the freemium games publishing outfit at Glu Mobile Inc. took its attention away from making some of the most popular games for our smartphones and tablets to let us in on a major announcement.

As it turns out, Glu Mobile has completed the acquisition of the famous Deer Hunter trademark and associated domain names from Atari.

This chunk of news illustrates a growing trend among acquisitions in the mobile space – sometimes brands and trademarks are just as valuable to acquire as other companies and their talent.

Glu has also taken an exclusive, irrevocable worldwide license to the other intellectual property associated with the Deer Hunter brand.

Having successfully exploited the Deer Hunter franchise on mobile devices for seven years, Glu now will control the rights to this valuable gaming franchise, the company revealed Thursday.

“The Deer Hunter brand has become iconic for hunting gamers since its inception in 1997. It is a strong fit with Glu’s leadership in 3D, high production value, freemium mobile gaming,” said Niccolo de Masi, Glu President and CEO. “Glu has generated more than $21 million in revenue from the Deer Hunter brand over the past seven years, and we are delighted to now add it to our growing IP portfolio. We expect this deal to have a long-term favorable impact on gross margins, and anticipate finishing the year debt-free with double digit millions of cash.”

“In addition to continued growth on smartphones and tablets, we see

ABI research published Friday that the mobile Internet is on pace to account for 25% of China’s mobile revenues in 2012 – that’s up from less than 23% last year.

By comparison, in India, mobile Internet will represent 19% of this year’s service revenue.

“While the figures demonstrate the robust demand for mobile data across the Asia-Pacific,” the report reads, “they still pale in comparison to the region’s more advanced markets.”

Among the markets alluded to are like Japan (with 40%) and Hong Kong (with 44%).”

“It’s in carriers’ interests to become part of the Internet value chain from early on,” says senior analyst Aapo Markkanen. “Strategic choices, such as those seen in Indonesia, can give operators a more integral role in defining the customer experience in a time when the local digital landscape is still being shaped up. Moreover, such moves also allow them to gain valuable mindshare among local content providers and app developers.”

ABI Research’s market data, “Mobile Financial and Operational Benchmarks: Asia,” forecasts regional and country-level analysis into benchmarks quantifying the usage habits of mobile cellular customers. It’s available now, at cost, here.

iPhone maker Apple may be poised to dramatically change the way it presents the popular touchscreen smartphone on retail shelves.

In light of the lingering complaint of many customers that new iPhones are half-dead out of the box, Apple is said to be tinkering with a new setup that would ensure the iDevice is fully charged and ready to go straight out of the box.

This week, the folks at Apple Insider uncovered a new Apple patent titled “Active Electronic Media Packaging,” which depicts the iPhone on display in its retail presentation, connected to a power source, and effectively showing off its attributes before its even purchased.

“Although typical packaging for an electronic media device may be designed to adequately protect the device from shock or damage, the packaging is extremely limited in other respects,” the patent filing reads. “For example, the ability to fully view or interact with the electronic media device while still inside the packaging is severely limited in most packaging designs. Although unobtrusive packaging designs have been developed, these designs typically do not allow electronic media devices to be interacted with while inside the packaging.”

So the next time you upgrade your iPhone, the charge may be at 100% right out of the

Wi-Fi has turned out to be dramatically prevalent in U.S. today.

According to data freshly published Thursday from Strategy Analytics, nearly two-thirds of all American households (61%) now have Wi-Fi networks installed.

Strategy Analytics says a grand total of 439 million households in the world now have Wi-Fi at home, which amounts to about a quarter of all homes in the world.

On an individual basis, the U.S. leads Spain (57.1%), Mexico (31.5%) and India (2.5%), while trailing South Korea (80.3%), the UK (73.3%) and Canada (67.8%).

Due to its massive population, China already has the most Wi-Fi households in the world, even though just 25% of homes are wired for WiFi.

Based on the projection made by Strategy Analytics, the total global number of Wi-Fi households will hit 800 million by 2016. That’s a penetration rate of 42 percent, Strategy Analytics estimates.

In February, Facebook announced it’s long awaited plans to go public. But in the early wave of reports, it wasn’t clear which exchange would feature shares of the hugely popular social networking company.

And that’s only because Facebook hadn’t yet decided.

Today, that mystery has been solved. According to CNBC, Facebook’s “FB” stock will list on the Nasdaq when the company officially goes public in May.

The listing decision marks the end of a tense and drawn out courting process between the company and numerous executives at the NYSE and rival Nasdaq. Both exchanges launched aggressive marketing campaigns to woo the multi-billion dollar listing, and have made numerous pitches to the company in recent months.

So what made Facebook finally select the Nasdaq? According to CNBC’s Kayla Tausche and Jesse Bergman, the decision “was seen by many observers as a choice of branding and image. The NYSE is widely seen as the home of the traditional ‘blue chip’ company while the Nasdaq’s reputation is more associated with Silicon Valley.”

We will bring you more details as this breaking story develops further.

The Mobile Marketing Association must have performed a Google search for a new member of its Global Board of Directors because that’s exactly what the leading global trade association for the mobile industry found.

On Thursday, the MMA announced that Neal Mohan, vice president of display advertising for Google, has been named to the MMA Global Board of Directors.

“The MMA Board of Directors plays a pivotal role in setting the agenda for the mobile marketing industry, as well as helping shape the future of the MMA. I am thrilled to welcome Neal, a key industry leader and innovator, as the latest member of the Global Board,” said the MMA’s CEO Greg Stuart. “I look forward to working with him and the full board to fulfill our mission of making mobile an indispensable part of the marketing mix.”

According to details made available in today’s press release from the MMA, Mohan is responsible for Google’s display advertising business, across desktop and mobile devices. This includes Google’s DoubleClick and AdMob advertising solutions.

Prior to joining Google, Mohan was senior vice president of strategy and product development at DoubleClick after serving in strategy and consulting roles at Microsoft and Accenture.

We at Mobile Marketing Watch wish Mr.

Consumers are having a hard time trusting the biggest names in digital and mobile payments – a consequence that hits the burgeoning eCommerce industry potentially the hardest.

Late last month, MasterCard and Visa were forced to confirm a significant security breach effecting 1.5 million credit card holders.

The underlying problem, however, was born of what many believe was a hacking job that targeted payment processing firm, Global Payments.

“We are making rapid progress toward bringing this issue to a close,” Global Payments chief executive Paul Garcia said following the confirmation of his company’s involvement in the mess at hand.

Within days, Visa dropped the vendor and MasterCard is expected to do the same at some point soon as a way to allay concerns from the general public that online shopping and the prospect of identity theft is too great to tempt needless exposure to such risk by patronizing online merchants.

“In addition to any potential consequences for consumers,” independent business analyst Mike Randazzo tells Mobile Marketing Watch on Thursday, “this really represents a setback for the mobile security, mobile payments, and eCommcerce industries. Consumer apprehension is the only thing stopping their unbridled growth today. And that’s where the impact from the Global Payments breach could be most resounding.”

Helping to relieve the always present and pervasive fears of mobile security breaches and scams, Sprint is helping put a lot of minds at rest today.

On Thursday, Sprint and Norton by Symantec announced that they are providing Sprint customers easy access to Norton Mobile Security Lite to better protect their smartphone from loss, theft or malware.

Today’s smartphone customers rely on their wireless device for many different activities, including email, music, games, shopping, banking and Web surfing, Sprint says. With more and more information on the device, it is important to protect it from prying eyes or dangerous downloads if it is lost or stolen.

According to a recent study from Symantec, 70 percent of the people who found a lost smartphone tried to access both the personal and business information that was stored on the device.

Naturally, the new app will be a popular one with Sprint customers.

With Norton Mobile Security Lite, a free security application for Android-based smartphones, customers can remotely lock their smartphone with a simple text message if it is lost or stolen. It scans all files and application updates downloaded to a device and automatically detects and removes threats.

“Sprint continues to work with industry leaders in the mobile security space to offer our customers best in-class options to better protect the important information stored on their smartphone or tablet,” says Fared Adib, senior vice

With millions of consumers turning to eBooks around the world at a dramatically escalating rate, it should come as no surprise Thursday that Amazon is introducing eBooks Kindle en Español, a Kindle Store with the largest selection of Spanish-language bestsellers available today.

“eBooks Kindle en Español” is designed and optimized for U.S. Spanish-speaking customers who can now shop for Spanish-language books in the new store on Amazon.com, or set any Kindle device to access a customized shopping experience designed for books in Spanish.

As of this writing, the store has over 30,000 titles, including exclusive nonfiction work.

“We’re excited to introduce Spanish language storefronts on all Kindles, as well as a dedicated store for our Spanish-speaking customers in the U.S.,” says Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content. “We expect our Spanish-speaking customers to enjoy both the newly-added books in Spanish, and the improved shopping and reading experience-including dedicated customer service in Spanish-that we’ve added to eBooks Kindle en Español. And we’re looking forward to continued expansion of our store for Spanish language readers around the world.”

According to details made available in Amazon’s announcement today, eBooks Kindle en Español includes:

• All of the

The number of mobile apps downloaded in 2011 was 31 billion. That number will more than double to 66 billion by 2016, if the latest projections from Juniper Research prove accurate.

On Thursday, the freshly published projection from Juniper Research found that consumer app downloads to mobile devices are expected to climb dramatically within the next four years.

The report found that 87% of apps will be downloaded free of charge throughout the forecast period, but publisher revenues will increasingly be derived from post download opportunities such as content subscriptions and virtual item sales.

Growth will continue to be driven primarily by smartphones, although by 2016 nearly one in four downloads will occur on a tablet.

“Consumers are now demanding 24/7 access to services – retail, financial, information, entertainment – wherever they are,” writes report author Dr. Windsor Holden. “As a result, brands that wish to remain competitive have turned to apps as part of a integrated multichannel distribution system: they have become a critical mechanism to increase engagement and reduce churn.”

This week, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos confirmed that Prime Instant Video is now available on the PlayStation 3.

For the online retail giant, the added channel through which Prime subscribers can watch videos will help to fuel the program’s growth and attractiveness to users.

“Since launching a year ago,” Bezos says, “we’ve more than tripled our library, including titles such as Sons of Anarchy, Downton Abbey, Lost, Glee, 24, Deadliest Catch, SpongeBob SquarePants, Office Space, The Graduate, The Last Emperor, The Thin Red Line, The Last of the Mohicans, and Brokeback Mountain.”

As of this writing, Prime members enjoyed unlimited instant streaming of some 17,000 titles.

If you’re already a Prime member, Amazon says all you need to do is register your PlayStation 3 and start watching now.

“With free two-day shipping on millions of items, access to thousands of books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and instant streaming of thousands of Prime Instant Videos, Prime is an outstanding value and remains only $79 a year,” Bezos maintains.

Does the addition of Playstation 3 compatibility make you more inclined to join the Amazon Prime program, assuming you’re not already a member? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

YouTube is relentlessly pursuing the audience held by Netflix, Apple and Blockbuster.

The latest indication of YouTube’s increased efforts is a new deal with Paramount that will deliver boatloads of fresh and familiar content to YouTube.

YouTube users will be able to rent hit flicks from the entertainment giant, like “Hugo,” “The Godfather,” and “The Adventures of Tintin.”

All told, some 500 titles from the Paramount vault will be brought to the popular video sharing platform.

Details regarding the full scope of the deal are still developing, says AdAge.

YouTube did not specify the full scope of the deal but said that it includes some new releases and some catalog films, depending in part on Paramount’s distribution agreements. It does not include “Titanic” or the later films in the “Transformers” franchise, for example. The films will be available on a pay-per-view basis for $2.99 for catalog films and $3.99 for new releases.

In almost no time at all, YouTube has become a popular platform for TV and movie rentals, as Paramount joins Sony Pictures, Universal, The Walt Disney Co., and Warner Brothers as loyal YouTube

Clickatell announced Wednesday that its introducing the new Clickatell Mobile Campaign Manager.

So what’s the new offering all about? According to the company behind the new platform, it’s a social mobile solution optimized to give small and medium businesses the short message service tools needed for mobile marketing campaigns that “engage new customers and deepen existing customer relationships.”

Although standing out in an increasingly crowded space is never easy, Clickatell appears poised to handle itself pretty well amidst heavy competition from rival mobile marketing platforms.

The CMCM platform can be accessed from any web browser and provides simple, straightforward setup and operation, Clickatell says.

“With 85 percent of the American population owning a cell phone, mobile marketing is the best way for small and medium businesses to reach today’s on-the-move customer,” asserts Bill Wolfe, Clickatell CTO. “Clickatell’s Mobile Campaign Manager brings the universality, immediacy and flexibility of SMS to every regional business in an easy to use customizable package.”

CMCM uses a 5-digit U.S. short code origination address to send text messages to U.S. mobile phone numbers. SMS and mobile marketing guideline compliance is built into the product, with systematic safeguards against spamming, including a double opt-in feature, help and managed stop features.

The platform is available now with a promotional

On Wednesday, TRUSTe – a global privacy management solutions provider – generated no shortage of interest in its latest offering: TRUSTed Mobile Ads.

TRUSTed Mobile Ads are being billed as the first unified mobile advertising privacy management solution.

TRUSTed Mobile Ads support mobile browsing and application privacy preferences across all platforms and devices, the company confirmed today.

TRUSTe’s solution, the company says, comes in direct response to increased regulatory scrutiny of mobile app privacy practices and increased consumer privacy concerns.

Developed in partnership with leading mobile advertisers, publishers, networks and platforms, TRUSTed Mobile Ads provides an end-to-end privacy management solution that enables businesses to deploy innovative advertising capabilities such as behavioral targeting, while providing consumers with transparency, choice, and control over the collection and use of their personal information.

“The need for a standardized cross-platform approach to mobile privacy is essential to maximize mobile advertising opportunities, address growing regulatory concerns and build trust for consumers,” says CEO of TRUSTe Chris Babel. “With TRUSTed Mobile Ads, TRUSTe wants to bring our success as the largest DAA-approved online behavioral advertising compliance provider to the mobile ecosystem. With the support of our partners, we are fully committed to helping the industry take a proactive stance for mobile

There was no literal bloodshed inside the offices of Yahoo today, but it was a bloody Wednesday by all accounts.

Today, the Internet search company announced plans to slash some 2,000 jobs amidst ongoing efforts to totally regroup, reshape, and restructure the embattled company.

For Yahoo, the move amounts to a workforce reduction of approximately 14%. But it’s something that new CEO Scott Thompson believes is essential.

Thompson called the workforce reduction “an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo — smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate. Our goal is to get back to our core purpose — putting our users and advertisers first.”

Although the job cuts will help Yahoo save $375 million a year, the company will first have to distribute some $125 million or more in severance costs in relation to those cuts.

Wednesday’s announced employment cutback is, without question, the biggest and boldest move made at Yahoo during Thompson’s tenure, which began only in December.

Read more... [Yahoo Searches for Hope While Slashing Thousands from Payroll]

Apple’s newest-generation iPhone – the iPhone 4S – will see another expansion of carriers later this month as Alaska Communications will begin offering the iPhone 4S to customers in Alaska.

Having not been as readily available in Alaska as it has been elsewhere in the United States, the iPhone 4S could heat of up the smartphone space in Alaska very quickly.

If you’re not familiar with Alaska’s mobile operators and companies, Alaska Communications, which is headquartered in Anchorage, is a leading provider of high-speed wireless, mobile broadband, Internet, local, long-distance and advanced data solutions for businesses and consumers in Alaska.

As of April 20th, the devices will be available in 14 retail stores and online at alaskacommunications.com.

“We are delighted to offer Alaskans the best iPhone yet on Alaska’s smartest network,” said Anand Vadapalli, Alaska Communications president and CEO. “As the Smartphone experts, Alaska Communications has a range of plans to meet the needs of all Alaskans, at home and at work.”

On Wednesday, comScore publicly released data gleaned from the comScore MobiLens service which highlights the happenings in mobile during the three month average period ending February 2012.

This most recent report, however, was a history-making one.

As it turns out, Android has continued to grow its share in the U.S. smartphone market, crossing the 50-percent threshold in February to capture a majority share for the first time in its history.

Apple finished second with 30.2 percent of the smartphone market, followed by RIM at 13.4 percent, Microsoft at 3.9 percent and Symbian at 1.5 percent.

As of the end of February, 234 million Americans used mobile devices.

In terms of the top device manufacturers, Samsung was the top OEM with 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.4 percent share.

Apple captured third place in February with 13.5 percent of mobile subscribers.

Read more... [comScore Says Android Now Controls Majority of US Smartphone Market]

Samsung Electronics today is turning heads with its new partnership with OpenX Technologies.

If you’re not familiar with the company, OpenX is a top provider of digital advertising technologies around the world.

On Tuesday, Samsung and OpenX confirmed their joint partnership behind a major new private advertising exchange specifically for global mobile inventory, including smartphones and tablets.

The new exchange, which will be called the Samsung AdHub Market powered by OpenX, will be available to advertisers wishing to advertise on mobile-specific inventory.

The partnership creates the first mobile private exchange formed by one of the world’s leading digital device manufacturers and is part of Samsung AdHub’s vision to provide sophisticated targeting solutions for advertisers.

“Samsung is empowering both the developer and the advertiser, by creating a win-win solution, in which the app developer is able to achieve higher revenues and advertisers are able to reach their marketing goals. To this extent, we believe RTB can play an important role in motivating all players and we’re delighted to partner with OpenX and use its excellent technology as the foundation for it,” said Daniel Park, Vice President of Samsung’s Media Solution Center.

The Samsung AdHub Market is expected to launch in the second half of 2012.