Week of July 20, 2009

Mobile Marketing Bucks the Trend

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is predicting a 26% increase in mobile marketing revenue for 2009, in an environment where overall ad spending will drop by 7%. Admittedly, this rosy forecast comes from the industry's trade group, but others, such as Forrester research, are also predicting growth. Forrester predicts that mobile will be one of the biggest drivers of increase in interactive advertising (web and mobile), which it says will be a $50 billion market by 2014.

Among other insights from the MMA's study are that 1) 66% of mobile markets use text messaging to reach consumers and 2) Mobile websites are used by 53% of marketers. They also point out that the redemption rate on mobile coupons is very high, whether used online or at brick-and-mortar stores.

Google AdSense for Mobile

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Among Google's many plans for expansion this year is an expansion of its AdSense advertising platform into mobile. They've already started to roll out tests for various mobile apps for the iPhone and Google's own Android platform. They're testing it on apps such as Shazam and Urbanspoon. Just as it does with other AdSense systems, developers can sign up for the service with a self-service website. Mobile app developers, just like publishers on traditional AdSense platforms, will split the revenue with Google.

Consumer Electronics Bounce Back

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Market research company, iSuppli, calculates that consumer electronic sales were up 4.2% globally in Q2 2009, compared to Q1. This translates into just over $71 billion in sales in the second quarter. The bad news is that this was an 11% drop from the same period in 2008. Still, iSuppli is predicting more growth throughout the year:

Q3 sales are projected to jump by 12.5% and the fourth quarter should see another 10% increase. The increase in the second quarter, and the projections for later this year, are only partially attributed to a bottoming out of the recession. Instead, a good part of the recovery is due to falling prices of devices such as digital cameras and flat panel TVs.

iPhone App Success Story

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Major League Baseball continues to be one of the most aggressive and progressive sports and entertainment entities in the online space. As we mentioned here a few weeks ago, MLBAM (Major League Baseball Advance Media), the online arm of Major League Baseball has aggressively marketed various new media products, as well as administering the websites for various other sports and entertainment entities.

Among MLBAM's biggest success stories is their "At Bat" iPhone app. Through the end of April, MLBAM claimed to have sold 130,000 copies of the app at $9.99 each. That means $1.3 million in gross revenue, with MLB pocketing $910,000 of that. That was more than 2 months ago, well before the release of the new iPhone 3G S, which means that MLB's take now has to be well over $1 million.

iPhone 3.0 O.S. Upgrades Off To Slow Start

Monday, July 20, 2009

Apple said that 6 million people downloaded the new 3.0 iPhone operating system in the first week of its release. That's about 15% of the estimated 40 million iPhones and iPod Touches in existence. The update to 3.0 is free for iPhone users and just $10 for those with the iPod Touch.

The new operating system brings a number of new features, including Copy & Paste, push notifications and more. The slow start to the upgrades means more than just users missing these new features. A number of the new apps that are being released are designed to work only with the 3.0 operating system.