Bluetooth and Online Marketing

It’s a seemingly natural partnership made in mobile payments paradise.

On Thursday, BOKU, Inc. – the global online payments provider – announced a new agreement with Sprint that will allow Sprint customers to begin charging online purchases to their Sprint wireless bill through a “simple” authorization process.

Today’s report underscores the rapidly expanding effort by Sprint to partner with whomever will help take the carrier further into the realm of mobile commerce and mobile payments.

According to details presented this morning, Sprint customers will be able to make purchases online from BOKU’s merchant network of Web-based gaming companies, social networks and service providers. That list includes the likes of Electronic Arts, Riot Games, Jagex, Stardoll, Kingisle and Gaia Online.

Purchases can be made right on the user’s Sprint phone or tablet, or on an alternate device such as a home computer. Once the user submits their purchase, they simply authenticate the payment and the charge appears on their monthly Sprint billing statement. Customers don’t have to expose any sensitive account information while using the service.

“Mobile commerce is one of the fastest growing segments in the wireless industry,” said Fared Adib, vice president of Product at Sprint. “Sprint is committed to giving our customers safe and secure options for making purchases using their wireless device, whether it is

On Thursday, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) published its first ever “SmartGraphic.”

Did you know that one in five Americans communicates more with their loved ones via mobile text message than face-to-face?

As it turns out, that’s one of the many fascinating findings visible in the MMA’s first SmartGraphic, which is posted below.

“This new series of infographics,” says John Bianchi, MMA Director of Communications, “which will be released periodically, is entirely focused on mobile. MMA SmartGraphics will present compelling information on consumer habits, the growth of the channel, and the many aspects of mobile marketing.”

Interested in more tidbits from the new MMA SmartGraphic? Check out the image below.

Target is facing somewhat of a consumer backlash today in response to news that the retail giant will no longer carry the hugely popular line of Amazon Kindle products, including the new Kindle Fire tablet.

As of this writing, the leading U.S. retailer had been home to the successful device line and sold innumerable units to the benefit of the online retailer behind the eReader and tablet phenomenon – the only devices that have given Apple a serious challenge in the tablet space.

News of the decision came from a suspected leaked internal company memo. Target subsequently confirmed to Reuters that it will no longer carry Amazon’s Kindle devices. The stores will, however, continue to stock the Apple iPad and Barnes & Noble’s NOOK.

“Target is phasing out Amazon- and Kindle-branded products in the spring of 2012,” Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder tells Reuters. “We will continue to offer our guests a full assortment of e-readers and supporting accessories.”

The decision to discontinue carrying Amazon products isn’t a sign of the retailer’s favoritism toward Apple and B&N. In fact, most analysts believe the move comes in response to Target now seeing Amazon as more of a retail competitor than a retail partner.

Do you agree with the decision by Target to pull Amazon products?

Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, rumors have swirled that Apple is entertaining the idea and technology behind creating a liquid metal-based future generation iPhone.

Although we have no way to confirm or deny the company’s purported exploration of that possibility, it finally appears that the liquid metal iPhone won’t become a reality at least in the near future.

Dr. Atakan Peker, the so-called inventor of Liquidmetal, says the technology behind a liquid metal iPhone isn’t ripe enough to be a viable and cost-effective material alternative for iPhone design and construction.

“This is a technology that has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development,” Peker tells Business Insider. “I should note that this is a completely new and different metal technology.”

“Liquidmetal is super strong, scratch and corrosion resistant, resilient and can be precision cast into complex shapes,” he adds.”Plastics are low cost to manufacture into complex shapes but not strong enough. Metals are strong but difficult to produce into complex shapes. And glass feels and looks beautiful but is highly fragile. Liquidmetal can combine these advantages and remedy some of these shortcomings.”

Regardless of Dr. Peker’s

InMobi, a top independent mobile advertising network, tooted its PR horn today and for good reason.

This morning, the company heralded the launch of its new mobile conversion tracking platform InMobi Ad Tracker.

Providing real-time analytics, this platform will allow advertisers to measure multiple conversions on both mobile web and app campaigns, across all advertising networks and publishers.

According to InMobi, however, the new ad tracker is separate from the InMobi ad network, not reliant on UDIDs, and is free to integrate and use.

In addition to being free, other advertised InMobi Ad Tracker benefits include:

• Network agnostic and works across all mobile ad networks
• Tracks multiple conversion types across mobile web and app inventory
• Combines multiple tracking technologies to ensure no dependencies on UDID
• Single login to access conversion data across all mobile ad networks
• Real time dashboard view of all conversion events
• Ability to define customized goals, for example, downloads, registrations, payments etc.
• Conversion data can be passed back to the originating mobile ad networks to enable real-time optimization
• Easy SDK integration for iOS and Android Apps and JavaScript integration for mobile web campaigns
• Completely free to integrate and use

InMobi says this tool is not only independent and scalable but also cost-effective for businesses and

As MMW reported Tuesday, Facebook wants to make it easier for its nearly 1 billion members to sign up to become organ donors.

“Starting today,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday, “you can add that you’re an organ donor to your timeline, and share your story about when, where or why you decided to become a donor. If you’re not already registered with your state or national registry and want to be, you’ll find a link to the official donor registry there as well.”

As more details about the new effort come to light, few are surprised to learn that Zuckerberg was partially inspired to launch this effort through his friendship with late Apple chief Steve Jobs.

Jobs, after all, was the recipient of a life-saving liver transplant several years ago.

“That definitely, I think, was something that we all had in mind as we were building this out,” Zuckerberg told ABC news. “His story is just one of many, of people who both were able to have an organ transplant that made his life longer, and he was extremely thankful for that.”

And there’s no telling just how many people will be thankful in the

Help is on the way. That’s the message from AT&T to America’s small business on Wednesday as the carrier confirms its latest effort to shore up the mobile faculties of its small biz customers.

“In order to meet the growing customer demand for integrated marketing solutions,” the company says, “AT&T is extending Mobile Barcode Services to its small business customers.”

According to the recent AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey, three out of five small businesses are planning to increase their investments in mobile marketing in 2012. And AT&T wants to help business owners carry through on these plans.

With AT&T Mobile Barcode Services, small businesses can take success to another level by adorning everything from business cards to storefronts and products with rich, scannable marketing content. The free AT&T Code Scanner mobile application for both consumers and businesses uses smartphone cameras to scan barcodes.

AT&T estimates that 44 million people have a scanner app on their mobile device. Of those 44 million, 20 million are “active users.”

“Further,” AT&T asserts, “more than a third of respondents in the AT&T Mobile Marketing Survey have featured mobile barcodes in their marketing materials, with 60% of those having found barcodes to be very or somewhat effective.”

“Mobile marketing has been a

A new case study made a splash on Millennial Media’s website Wednesday, as the success of a recent campaign with developer ngmoco is coming to light.

The campaign in question was designed to promote ngmoco’s Blackjack app and drive Android App Downloads.

The effort took aim at 25 different Android devices and, as it turns out, succeeded at driving well over $35,000 downloads in less than a month.

ngmoco, which offers a suite of popular mobile games for Android, used mobile advertising extensively last year to cross promote and expand their user base.

Through the company’s partnership with Millennial Media, ngmoco used multiple banners, and the creative featured a simple call to action that leveraged popular Blackjack terminology to take users to the app download page– such as a “Hit Me” button.

The app went on to resonate with users so quickly that it soon rose into the Top 20 Free Apps in the Android Marketplace and into the Top 3 Free Casino & Card Games.

“Our Blackjack! app has a wide appeal, so it was important for us to run a broad reach campaign that would target all kinds of Android users. Millennial has been a key mobile advertising partner, and we’re pleased with the results of this particular campaign,” says Fabien-Pierre Nicolas, Marketing Strategist at ngmoco.

To check out the case study for yourself,

The Cox media and digital empire is growing rapidly. And mobile will factor heavily in all future growth.

That was the announcement today by Cox Digital Solutions upon announcement of the launch of its first mobile offering, CDS Mobile, which will connect national brands to local audiences among quality local media and vertical content sites, in any market nationwide.

The Cox Digital network, if you’re unfamiliar, covers more than 2,600 sites today, including the Web properties of various regional newspaper, TV and radio stations held by major publishers and media companies.

Distinct from other mobile offerings, CDS Mobile connects advertisers and agencies with local media sites and national vertical content sites both in-hand and on-screen.

“Mobile is exploding, and we are there to monetize these growing local audiences in the best, most efficient way possible,” said Leif Welch, General Manager of CDS Mobile. “We are not just an average mobile provider. We are coming to the game with established partnerships in technology, data, and inventory that are going to position us to aggressively compete in the mobile advertising market.”

CDS Mobile, the company says, provides breadth in vertical content sites among more than 20 categories that are geo-targeted to match an advertiser’s specific target market. The technology behind CDS Mobile enables advertisers to deliver highly targeted campaigns using:

Gree is putting its money where its mouth is.

This week, word surfaced that Gree International Inc., a giant in the Japanese mobile gaming industry, wants to become an even bigger player in the genre. And to that end, the company is acquiring San Francisco, California-based mobile game developer Funzio Inc.

The price tag for the acquisition is said to be $210 million.

From the L.A. Times:

The deal represents the second major acquisition of a U.S. company for Gree, which a year ago bought OpenFeint, a mobile social game platform company, for $104 million.

As Gree faces no shortage of stellar competition on a global scale, the acquisition of Funzio will help provide some degree of advantage to Gree, as the purchase delivers to Gree a development studio that brought us the likes of Modern War, Crime City and Kingdom Age, all of which are big money makers and very popular titles.

Funzio says that some 20 million players have downloaded the company’s games to date.

Following recent glitches and growing doubt as to the feasibility of the project, it looks like Apple is finally headed to Texas after all.

And the iPhone maker is bringing along more than 3,000 job opportunities for the ride.

This week, local lawmakers and Apple finally reached an agreement on deal terms that will allow for the campus to come to Austin, Texas.

According to a report by the Statesman, the Travis County Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted to approve a contract with Apple in return for Apple’s promise to bring 3,665 new jobs to the North Austin campus by 2025.

The deal will give the technology giant between $5.4 million and $6.4 million over 15 years and comes more than a month after the City of Austin approved a 10-year, $8.6 million rebate and the state offered $21 million in incentives from the Texas Enterprise Fund.

The deal obligates Apple to pay an average salary of at least $35,000 for the bottom 10 percent of Apple-employed workers.

The final deal also gives county staff the authority “to extend a number of construction and hiring deadlines.”

Thousands of people die every year waiting for an organ transplant. But those numbers may fall dramatically if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has anything to do with it.

According to announcement Tuesday from the social networking giant, Facebook wants to make it easier for its nearly 1 billion members to sign up to become organ donors.

“What we hope will happen is that by just having this simple tool, we think that people can really help spread awareness of organ donation and that they want to participate in this to their friends,” Zuckerberg tells ABC News. “That can be a big part of helping solve the crisis that’s out there.”

“Today, more than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives,” say Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg in a joint statement issued this morning. “Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis. And we believe that by simply telling people that you’re an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role.”

“Starting today,” the statement

comScore on Tuesday published the latest data from its MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending March 2012.

Here’s what we now know. Google Android, not surprisingly, continued to grow its share in the U.S. smartphone market, accounting for 51 percent of smartphone subscribers.

Apple now trails dramatically with just over 30 percent of the market share.

RIM ranked third with 12.3 percent share, followed by Microsoft (3.9 percent) and Symbian (1.4 percent).

For the three-month average period ending in March, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. More than 106 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones.

“In March,” comSCore reports, “74.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device. Downloaded applications were used by 50 percent of subscribers (up 2.4 percentage points), while browsers were used by 49.3 percent (up 1.8 percentage points).”

To check out the complete findings of the new comScore study, click here.

This week, Todd Brix, Senior Director for Windows Marketplace at Microsoft, posted a long declaration on the official Windows Blog. The vow made by Brix and his team involves an ongoing effort by the software and mobile giant to clean up its cluttered Windows Phone Marketplace.

“Today I’ll outline the latest steps we’re taking in our ongoing effort to keep the quality bar high in our rapidly growing Marketplace,” Brix writes. “I know most of you share our goal of a great shopping experience and already go out of your way to follow our policies and guidance. For others, I hope this insight into a few near-term changes we’re putting in place helps save you time and reduces your risk of having apps pulled from the Marketplace.”

According to Brix, the efforts underway are aimed at: (1) Avoiding trademark trouble (2) Keeping the quality bar high (3) Cleaning up keywords (4) Refining our approach to content policy enforcement.

A big part of the clean up process, he writes, will involve removing sexually explicit or suggestive content that doesn’t fit the Windows community standards.

“Apps that don’t fit our standard will need to be updated to remain in the store… This is about presenting the right content to the right customer and ensuring that apps meet our standards. We will also monitor

On Tuesday, Rovio announced the latest staggering sales success of its hugely popular Angry Birds game.

“Angry Birds Space hit 50 million downloads within 35 days,” the company confirmed on its blog, “making it the fastest growing mobile game yet and breaking all our previous records. This has been simply amazing, and the whole Rovio team is thrilled to see such a fantastic reception for the game.”

Just days ago, Rovio published its first Angry Birds Space update for iOS and Android, a move that delivered 10 new levels to the game. As of this writing, plans continue to take shape to bring Angry Birds to the Windows Phone operating system.

“We extend our deepest gratitude to all fans of Angry Birds everywhere,” Rovio says. “While numbers like this certainly say something about the popularity of Angry Birds, for us the main goal is to keep creating fun new experiences that everybody can enjoy!”

All told, the series of Angry Birds games has seen close to one billion downloads. When you factor in the game’s associated merchandise and entertainment products, this simple little game involving birds has been a mega cash cow unlike anything else in mobile games today.

Venerable computer giant IMB this week unveiled its first ever Mobile Foundation.

The foundation is billed as a comprehensive portfolio of software and services designed to help organizations capitalize on the proliferation of mobile environments — including laptops, smartphones and tablets.

Building on its recent acquisition of Worklight, the new foundation further expands IBM’s strategy to provide clients with a mobile platform that spans application development, integration, security and management.

According to details provided in Monday’s formal announcement, the IBM Mobile Foundation is targeting a $22 billion market opportunity that is expected to grow to $36 billion in the next three years.

“In an IBM survey of more than 700 CIOs,” IBM says, “three quarters said they are embracing a mobile strategy because a flexible workplace delivers a 20 percent improvement in employee productivity.”

To that end, the new IBM Mobile Foundation offers organizations the following core capabilities:

• Connect Cloud & Mobile Environments
• Build and Connect Mobile Applications
• Manage and Secure Mobile Environments
• Extend Existing Capabilities and Capitalize on New Business Opportunities

“It’s no secret that throughout the last decade, the most successful organizations have been quick to leverage new technology for business advantage,” said Marie Wieck, General Manager, IBM

China is the next major market Apple seeks to conquer. That much has been made crystal clear in recent months. From visits by Tim Cook to expanding production facilities across the Asian continent, China is a vital piece of Apple’s business strategy for the rest of the decade.

As a result of Apple’s escalating Chinese aims, no shortage of leading Wall Street watchers and industry analysts are upping their estimates for how much business Apple will do in China during the coming years.

On Monday, Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore published a research note titled: “iPhone is just getting started in China.” According to the analyst, Apple could sell as many as 35 million iPhones in China next year.

“In 1Q,” Whitmore says, “we estimate Apple has captured less than 15% share of China Unicom and China Telecom’s combined 3G subscriber base. Over the next few years, we expect Apple to benefit from strong 3G sub growth at these two partners while continuing its path of share gains. If Apple reaches 20-25% penetration of this subscriber base by the end of 2013, we estimate iPhone unit sales in China would approach ~25M units in 2012 and ~35M units in 2013. Any benefit from a future partnership with China Mobile would be additive to these estimates.”

Research in Motion (RIM) will, apparently, do just about anything for attention these days, as the struggling smartphone maker quickly fades from view, public favor, and profitability.

According to published reports surfacing overnight, it was the BlackBerry maker that helped to stage the controversial “Wake Up” campaign that took place outside of Apple stores and other densely populated regions of Australia in recent days.

The protest included the presence of a so-called “flash mob” dressed in black and yelling at customers to “wake up.”

Not withstanding rumors that Samsung planned the stunt, we now know otherwise.

“We can confirm that the Australian ‘Wake Up’ campaign, which involves a series of experiential activities taking place across Sydney and Melbourne, was created by RIM Australia,” RIM admitted late Monday.

The goal of the stunt? Ostensibly, to plug RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 10 release.

Microsoft believes in the profit potential of eBooks.

To shore up its faith, the tech giant is backing Barnes & Noble in a new partnership confirmed Monday. And it’s going to cost Microsoft a pretty penny.

This morning, Barnes & Noble and Microsoft announced the formation of a strategic partnership in a new Barnes & Noble subsidiary, which – according to the formal announcement – “will build upon the history of strong innovation in digital reading technologies from both companies.”

The partnership will accelerate the transition to e-reading, which is revolutionizing the way people consume, create, share and enjoy digital content.

The new subsidiary, for now, is simply being referred to as “Newco.” A firm name is yet to be decided.

Microsoft will make a $300 million investment in Newco at a post-money valuation of $1.7 billion in exchange for an approximately 17.6% equity stake.

Barnes & Noble will own approximately 82.4% of the new subsidiary.

“The formation of Newco and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments,” said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble. “Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is putting out a friendly reminder today.

The largest mobile marketing event in North America is set to take place between June 11-13th this year. Are you planning to attend? If so, early registration is still an option. But it ends tomorrow.

Early registration rates for MMA Forum New York ends May 1, that is tomorrow. Register today to secure the best pricing.

This particular and always well-attended Forum gathers brands, retailers, agencies, media advertising and mobile enablers together to share insights, capabilities and to forge lasting, profitable, relationships.

“This year’s agenda is focused on helping brand marketers embrace mobile as an indispensable part of the marketing mix,” the MMA says. “It includes workshops on media buying and selling as well as social and hyper local engagement, keynotes on the future of the industry and in-depth case studies and research reviews. You also won’t want to miss great networking opportunities at our receptions and social events.”

For more information, click here.

Restaurants of all shapes and sizes are quickly getting on board the mobile revolution.

With restaurant apps now as common as restaurant menus, major chains like T.G.I. Fridays are joining the mobile party by taking their app experience to the next level.

The new T.G.I. Friday’s Mobile App for iPhone and Android is being promoted as the first from a casual dining chain that gives guests the ability to start a tab, keep track of it and pay directly from their phones.

“This new app puts the Friday experience at guests’ fingertips – whether they’re looking for the closest Friday’s to celebrate and indulge or if they want to pay their bar tab quickly,” said Ricky Richardson, chief operating officer at T.G.I. Friday’s.

Although many chain restaurants serve up convenient ordering features on their respective apps, the complete package of services offered up by the Friday’s Mobile App is unique in the field because it caters to diners from start to finish in their dining experience.

“The launch of the T.G.I. Friday’s app is only the beginning for us in this realm,” Richardson said. “We look forward to continuing to enhance the digital experience and new mobile app with more functionalities to come.”

U.S. operator Verizon and Cellcrypt, a provider of government-grade encrypted voice-calling software, revealed Monday that the two giants in their respect fields will work together on delivering secure mobile calling capabilities to the U.S. government.

Not surprisingly, given the sensitive nature of the matter not many subsequent details were provided. Regardless, the two companies confirm that they will jointly market Cellcrypt’s mobile voice-encryption solution to military, intelligence and civilian agencies.

The service will help government information technology departments manage the expanding use of mobile devices, address the potential risks associated with the interception of sensitive voice communications, and provide a powerful tool to combat cyberattacks on critical national infrastructure.

As of this writing, a number of services are said to be undergoing trial testing with several government agencies.

“The threats posed by cyberattacks are real and increasingly focused on U.S. national security interests,” said Janet Schijns, vice president of vertical solutions, Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “By leveraging our combined strengths, Verizon and Cellcrypt will provide government agencies with an easy-to-deploy and interoperable mobile voice-encryption solution designed to maintain the security and

On Monday, another major acquisition was confirmed in the mCommerce space.

Today, precision consumer marketing firm Catalina Marketing Corporation announced its acquisition of mCommerce outfit Modiv Media.

According to details provided in a joint statement, the integration of Modiv into Catalina provides brands and retailers the ability to engage shoppers, influence their behavior, and boost loyalty with a “unique mobile experience” that saves shoppers time and money.

“Modiv’s retailer-proven mobile commerce solution, coupled with Catalina’s scale, analytics and content, provides an unmatched mobile shopper marketing solution for large retailers,” asserts Mike Grimes, SVP of mobile commerce for Catalina and former CEO of Modiv Media. “Helping shoppers save time and money through an intuitive and relevant mobile experience is paramount to the future of retail. When combined with Catalina’s deep targeting and large CPG-funded offer pool, this becomes a must-have for retailers.”

Catalina, which delivers integrated in-store and online marketing platforms, says the acquisition extends it’s targeted consumer engagement to include shoppers’ smartphones.

“We’ve been watching Modiv for quite some time now. Their success in driving in-store innovation is unmatched and their ability to deliver a scalable mobile commerce solution is exactly what retailers are looking for,” states Jamie Egasti, CEO of Catalina Marketing.

On Monday, Verizon and Comcast confirmed a joint working relationship in select markets that could foreshadow a larger enterprise down the road.

Today, they announced they will offer each other’s services in Atlanta and roll out a variety of offers and incentives for both new and existing customers.

In addition to Atlanta, Georgia, Comcast and Verizon Wireless are expanding the offer to five additional markets today: Chicago; Colorado; Kansas City, Mo.; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; and Salt Lake City. Earlier this year, Verizon Wireless and Comcast launched in Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; and Seattle.

Now, more consumers in Atlanta looking to stay connected to the people and things they love while on-the-go or at home have new options for outstanding video, phone, Internet and wireless services.

In a nutshell, new and existing customers of both Comcast and Verizon Wireless could qualify for a variety of offers and incentives.

“Because mobility is a top priority of the consumer, we co-developed an offering that provides a terrific wireless, entertainment and communications experience in one spot,” said Jonathan LeCompte, president, Verizon Wireless Georgia-Alabama Region. “Comcast continues to deliver exceptional entertainment and communications services and the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network is the ideal complement to complete the package.”

Several months ago, rumors began swirling that Apple had acquired discovery app Chomp as part of an ongoing effort to deliver search improvements to the App Store.

Chomp, if you’re not familiar, uses a nifty little algorithm to sift, sort, and organize apps in order to recommend them to users based on what the mobile device owner is looking for.

Since February, when Apple reportedly paid some $50 million for the firm, little has changed. But as more time passes, Apple is making it quite evident that the company wishes to keep its newest property all to itself.

Over the weekend, users began reporting that Chomp no longer serves up suggestions for Android apps. That is, Apple has effectively axed Chomp’s Android feature.

While no shortage of Android users have been frustrated by this development, Chomp is the property of Apple and iDevice fans say the company doesn’t owe loyalty to anyone other than iOS users.

Do you agree with Apple’s apparent decision or should Android users still be catered to through Chomp’s service? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

Read more... [Apple Pulls Chomp Compatibility for Android]

The following is a guest post from Joseph Shavit, VP Product for mobileStorm.

The biggest issue facing Apple today is that the iPhone is losing its coolness. There I said it. Many of you are thinking the same thing. I used to be cool holding an iPhone. Now, all phones look alike.

Apple has always pushed the boundaries in visual and artistic design. The original iPhone looked nothing like any other phone and took us to where we didn’t know we needed to go. Apple computers have always looked different and pushed the envelope of artistic design. Remember the first iMac with its all-in-one design and wide choice of colors? Apple has always been a triumph of aesthetic form and function. The same can recently be said about the emergence of Hyundai and Kia in the automotive space. It’s more about their design, features and price point than any specific feature they provide. People love their curvy looks and quality fit and finish.

The original iPhone did many things way better than its competitors but also did many things less well. It was the design that really sold the units, especially at the premium prices they were charging. The smooth form with large format and edge to edge glass mirrored the smooth lines of exotic sports cars. Sure people were intrigued by the concepts of apps