Bluetooth Marketing News

There’s mobile advertising in the forecast.

That’s according to mobile ad leader Amobee. Today, the company announced a new partnership with AccuWeather, a leading multimedia weather information source.

On Wednesday, their partnership was touted as a way to bring the most relevant mobile advertising inventory to advertisers across the world with an increased focus on Asia.

AccuWeather is an innovator in mobile advertising by making its mobile inventory, mobile applications and mobile web highly contextual by providing over 100 weather, lifestyle and location attributes for advertisers to choose from.

With AccuWeather’s unique mobile inventory, the partners assert, advertisers have the advantage of reaching their desired audience to achieve outstanding results.

“Weather is one of the most popular downloaded and searched topics across all mobile devices in the world,” said Jim Candor, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer, Digital Media, from AccuWeather. “Working with Amobee is enabling us to offer large brands and agencies powerful advertising opportunities to target the most premium audiences on a global scale.”

“AccuWeather recognizes the unique advantage and assets they have to be a major driver in the growth of the mobile advertising industry,” said Trevor Healy, Amobee CEO. “Amobee is the only mobile advertising

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s another new record for Apple.

As MMW reported earlier this morning, Apple on Wednesday confirmed the starting date of this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

The company’s annual convention gets underway June 11th and ends June 15th.

But if you’re hoping to go, you may have already missed your shot. Unless, of course, you bought your tickets within the first two hours of availability today. That’s how long it took for the event to completely sell out.

Apple confirmed Wednesday that they experienced the faster sellout in history for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Folks flocking to the web hoping to still get tickets are greeted with the following message:

“Sorry, tickets are sold out. We’ll be posting videos of all our sessions shortly after the conference, so everyone can take advantage of great WWDC content for free.”

WWDC 2012 will take place at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At the five-day conference, Apple says, developers will learn about the future of iOS and OS X, allowing them to build incredible new apps.

This week, leading academic publisher McGraw-Hill confirmed its new partnership with Cleveland State University. Together, the partners will change the face of MBA programs forever.

Thinking about going back to school for an MBA? If so, you may be able to use your mobile device to help secure the degree.

Cleveland State University is expanding access to graduate education through the Mobile Accelerated MBA (MAMBA) program. This is the first completely online, one-year MBA to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

The Mobile AMBA program allows students to earn an accredited MBA within one year by completing all classes and tests online.

How about this for cutting edge? Each student in the program is given a brand new Apple iPad 4G LTE to access the digital course materials developed by McGraw-Hill Education – including ebooks, interactive learning systems, course modules and studying apps – that they will need to complete each eight-week module.

“The digitization of education is opening access to educational and career opportunities that many of today’s students wouldn’t have access to otherwise,” said Tom Malek, vice president of McGraw-Hill Higher Education’s Learning Solutions group. “Cleveland State University has the largest MBA program in Ohio and we’re partnering with them on this groundbreaking program because we know that the economic success of our nation is directly

Good times have returned for Apple.

Following a precipitous sell-off in recent days, shares of Apple have recovered much of their $70 loss since April started. The catalyst for the climb was yesterday’s stellar Q2 earnings report, which helped send AAPL back above $600 today on the NASDAQ.

“It has been a long time since I’ve seen one earnings report be so meaningful for the market,” Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management, tells Reuters. “The fact that they weren’t the negative surprise that so many people feared will be a huge relief to this market and really could provide the impetus to bring it back to those previous highs.”

As MMW reported Tuesday, Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2012 – 88 percent higher than Q2 of 2011. iPad sales, however, stole the show, having more than doubled to 11.8 million for the quarter.

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook following the release of earnings. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”

But for today at least, it’s Apple’s

This week, Distimo has published its latest report, one that compellingly probes the rise of a major name in the digital world today: Instagram.

“The Rise of Instagram and the Significance of the First Billion Dollar App Acquisition” highlights how the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook signals a significant milestone in the app store landscape.

Looking at how Instagram became successful, if, and how the app spread across the world, and how app usage compares to the number of downloads offers interesting insights to other developers.

Instagram, Distimo tells us, is an impressive success story for obvious reasons.

During the first month after its release, daily downloads in the US were under 10,000, however, in April 2012, daily downloads have been over 100,000 for several days. Looking at the growth of Instagram since May 2011, the cumulative downloads increased sevenfold in the US up to and including March 2012.

The number of shares from Instagram to Twitter, on the other hand, increased twelve-fold indicating that the number of shares per user are increasing.

Perhaps the real core of the story, however, is that Instagram’s journey is just beginning as more and more apps are “integrating some kind of Instagram functionality.”

To check out the fascinating in-depth report at no charge,

Apple on Wednesday confirmed the starting date of this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

The company’s annual convention gets underway June 11th and ends June 15th.

WWDC 2012 will take place at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At the five-day conference, Apple says, developers will learn about the future of iOS and OS X, allowing them to build incredible new apps.

WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers as well as the popular Apple Design Awards.

Developers will be able to explore the latest innovations, features and capabilities of iOS and OS X Mountain Lion and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance, quality and design of their apps. Developers can even bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers, applying development techniques and best-practices to enhance their apps.

“We have a great WWDC planned this year and can’t wait to share the latest news about iOS and OS X Mountain Lion with developers,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The iOS platform has created an entirely new industry with fantastic opportunities for developers across the country and around the world.”

On Tuesday, Google rolled out an unlocked, contract-free version of Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone that will make fans of mobile payments happy. The device delivers the company’s popular and rapidly expanding Google Wallet tap-and-pay service.

“Today the unlocked Galaxy Nexus went on sale on Google Play,” reads a post on the Google Commerce blog. “This unlocked phone provides a pure Google experience offering access to the latest and greatest apps including Google Wallet.”

With the pre-installed Google Wallet app, you can make purchases and redeem offers with a tap of your phone.

But also factored into today’s announcement was the inclusion of a special offer. When you set up your Google Prepaid Card, Google says, the Internet search giant will also give you a $10 credit.

“In addition to the unlocked device,” Google reveals, “we are also excited to announce that Google Wallet is available on three new phones from Sprint, including: Galaxy Nexus, LG Viper 4G LTE and LG Optimus Elite. Google Wallet will also be available on the LG Optimus Elite from Virgin Mobile.”

To check out the Google Commerce Blog, click here.

On Tuesday, Cupertino, California-based tech giant Apple destroyed Wall Street analyst estimates with the company’s Q2 earnings report.

Apple was predicted to report earnings of $9.99 per share, and $36.7 billion in total revenue for the quarter. In January, after the company’s Q1 earnings call, the company provided a conservative outlook for the coming quarter at $8.50 per share on $32.5 billion in revenue.

As it turns out, Apple was wrong.

Net income for Q2 was $11.6 billion – $12.30 per share – or double the $6 billion Apple reported in net revenue for the second quarter of 2011. Revenue exploded up 59 percent to $39.2 billion.

Helping fuel the strong quarter were iDevice sales. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones in the second quarter – 88 percent higher than Q2 of 2011. iPad sales, however, stole the show, having more than doubled to 11.8 million for the quarter.

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook following the release of earnings. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” asserted Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and

As it turns out, Facebook wasn’t finished making headlines with Microsoft yesterday when the social networking giant agreed to purchase some $550 million worth of patents and other intellectual properties from Microsoft.

Today, we’re learning that Facebook’s deal with Microsoft has only just begun.

Facebook says it will soon unveil version 2.5 of its hugely popular mobile social networking application for Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform.

As the mobile platform used dramatically less for Facebook than iOS or Android, Microsoft stands to benefit dramatically from a revamped Facebook app for the Windows Phone. Such new features will include:

- Threaded messaging
Full Facebook threaded messaging including group messaging, all in a beautiful Metro style design.

- Tagging
Now you can tag friends and locations in your posts in the ‘with’ and ‘at’ format.

- Delete posts and comments
Use the tap and hold context menu to delete posts and comments from your wall.

Although it isn’t yet confirmed precisely when the refreshed app will be released, we’ve been told it’s coming soon.

One out of four is better than nothing.

That’s likely what Motorola is thinking today, as the company received a favorable ruling from a judge with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The court today said that Motorola’s patent, which pertains to 3G technology, was violated by Apple.

The judge did not side with Motorola on the three other patent violation claims brought before the court.

“We are pleased that the ALJ’s initial determination finds Apple to be in violation of Motorola Mobility’s intellectual property, and look forward to the full commission’s ruling in August,” said Becki Leonard, a spokeswoman for Motorola Mobility.

The judge’s findings are subject to review by the six- member commission, which has the power to block imports that infringe U.S. patents.

Apple, of course, plans to appeal. And the iPhone maker believes the tide will eventually turn.

“A court in Germany has already declared this patent invalid, so we believe we will have a very strong case on appeal,” Kristin Huguet, a Apple spokeswoman, tells Bloomberg.

Between malware and hack-attacks, there is no shortage of scary threats facing consumers of the digital age.

And a new report from the computer security experts at Sophos is only adding fuel to the tangible inferno of fear that many mobile device and computer owners are experiencing today.

As it turns out, Sophos finds, Windows malware now infects one in every five Macs.

“A 100,000 strong snapshot of the millions of Mac computers which have recently downloaded Sophos’s free Mac anti-virus software, revealed that 20% of Mac computers were carrying one or more instances of Windows malware,” the Sophos Blog reads.

Only 2.7% (one in 36) of Macs which downloaded the free anti-virus product were infected by Mac OS X malware.

The report is raising questions about the security of Apple devices – both of the mobile and desktop variety. After all, as these devices grow more prevalent, so too might the various threats that have long plagued Windows users.

To learn more about report and better understand what steps you can take to curtail today’s biggest security threats, click here.

This week, a new infographic sponsored by Mobile+Positive and Luth Research was published to great interest across the blogosphere.

The infographic and its underlying report provide a fascinating look at how well Walmart, Target, Sears and Kohls have performed in Apple’s App Store.

The data is based on the Luth Traffic Index, which is an estimate of the total downloads an app has received over its entire lifespan. It is based on statistical analysis of comments, ratings, price, category and date of last release of each app in the iTunes and Android Marketplace.

So who was the big winner in the retail app space? Check out the infographic below for further insight.

In what amounts to a major mobile breakthrough for the mobile industry in the United States, on Tuesday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and Masabi US, the transit mobile ticketing company, announced a new joint endeavor that will bring rail travel up to speed in the mobile era.

MBTA and Masabi will bring mobile ticketing to MBTA commuter rail riders this fall. With applications for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, customers will be able to purchase commuter rail tickets and passes.

Less than half of MBTA’s 140 Commuter Rail stations have fare vending machines, forcing many customers to pay for tickets on board. But that will soon change as riders will be able to purchase tickets via credit or debit cards directly from their phones.

Analogous to digital movie tickets, once commuter rail tickets are purchased, customers will be able to use and display directly via their phone screen.

“MassDOT and the MBTA are striving to bring our customers convenience without added costs. We are delivering just that with this project and this technology,” said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Richard A. Davey.

“With this new and innovative approach, we are putting a ticket machine right in the palms of our customers’ hands,” confirmed Acting MBTA General Manager Jonathan Davis.

Are you open to the practice of smartphones being used to buy commuter rail tickets via

On Tuesday, Twitter payment and commerce platform Chirpify had no shortage of critical developments to boast about.

In addition to landing new financing from the likes of Voyager Capital, the CEOs of HootSuite and BuddyTV, and others in the tech and social media industries, Chirpify also unveiled its new Twitter Commerce for Digital Content platform.

“Twitter is a tremendous platform for brands, retailers, politicians, musicians and others to engage fans, yet with more than 140 million users there’s still no way to directly exchange goods and currency,” said HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes. “Chirpify provides a unique approach to fill this void by processing transactions without ever having to leave Twitter.”

The Twitter Commerce for Digital Content platform represents a way for musicians to sell and consumers to buy digital content like songs and concert tickets via Twitter.

“Chirpify now makes it possible to sell digital content in-stream on Twitter, enabling musicians and artists to sell direct to their fans and control their own distribution,” said Chirpify CEO and Founder Chris Teso. “People already use Twitter to follow the brands, musicians and others they care about, so why can’t they get the latest product or hot new song right through Twitter? Now they can.”

To learn more about Chirpify’s new solution,

The rumblings of the rumor mill were right.

Bee Media Inc., a hugely popular and growing mobile shopping platform, has confirmed rumored plans that the company was moving toward an acquisition of Adcentricity Inc., a location-based digital media technology firm.

Based on details revealed in today’s formal press release from Bee Media, the newly formed Adcentricity announced the availability of two new products that supposedly make it easier for advertisers to develop hyper-local campaigns.

The two new products include:

ADMobile. A platform for location-based mobile shopping, including mobile interfaces, shopping tools, location services, mobile payment, content management, analytics and reporting

ADFormat. An automated content generation tool that allows advertisers to execute completely customizable campaigns of video, copy, images and graphics to fit any digital screen, DOOH, OOH or mobile that can be uniquely messaged to any specific market or location

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, Bee Media acquired the Adcentricity name and going forward will operate as Adcentricity, with Doug Woolridge, CEO of Bee Media, remaining as the CEO.

“The combination of local, shopper marketing, mobile, in-store radio and video networks has created a fractured landscape of thousands of smart, effective companies and media channels with limited ways to get the attention of, and adoption by, brands,” said Rob Gorrie, former CEO of Adcentricity.

Based on the findings of a new report titled Insights into the Freemium Games Market, the latest report from market research company, The NPD Group, freemium gamers aren’t unwilling to plunk down some cold, hard cash when the mood strikes them.

4 out of 10 of those who have played an upgradable freemium game report making an in-game payment to extend or enhance a game, the NPD Group says this week.

Freemium games are digital games that are free of charge to play, though some may offer upgrades such as advanced features, functionality or new content that you have to pay for.

Among freemium gamers, females are significantly more likely than males to have played a freemium game, NPD finds, but they are among “the least likely to pay for an upgrade.”

“The majority of freemium gamers who opt to pay to upgrade their experience do so within the first month of playing a particular game,” reveals Anita Frazier, industry analyst with The NPD Group. “When designing a game, it’s important to consider features that would drive quick conversion to pay.”

With no barrier to entry other than ownership of a compatible device and access to the internet, adoption of freemium games is quite high among those who are aware, with only 15 percent of gamers that are aware of freemium games choosing not to play them.

Are