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Press release

February 8th 2012. Visa Inc today announced the launch of mobile services that allow financial institutions to offer their account holders the ability to monitor account history and balances, transfer funds between accounts, and receive near real time transaction alerts on their mobile devices.

Working in collaboration with Monitise, Visa made a significant enhancement to its issuer processing platform, Visa DPS, to offer mobile services that are fully managed by Visa and can be accessed with any mobile device, any mobile channel, and with any eligible debit, credit or prepaid account. Additional services are currently in development including mobile check deposit, mobile (NFC) payments, mobile offers, and support for V.me by Visa, Visa’s digital wallet.

Enabling mobile services through the Visa DPS platform directly aligns with Visa’s global innovation strategy to accelerate the global shift to electronic payments, to make payments more secure, more convenient and to bring electronic payments to more consumers in more places.

“The services offered by Visa DPS are a one-stop solution for Visa clients who want to serve their customers through the mobile channel without making significant investments in hardware, software or mobile expertise,” said John Partridge, President, Visa Inc. “Through our ongoing investments in Visa DPS, our clients can not only take advantage of Visa’s scale and expertise in payments processing, but also have the opportunity to easily implement Visa’s extensive roadmap of mobile innovations – from mobile banking, to NFC payments, and to our digital wallet, V.me.”

In developed countries like the USA, with an established electronic payments infrastructure, expansive Internet usage and broad mobile network penetration, Visa’s strategy is to enhance the consumer purchase experience by making mobile payments and services broadly available.

Lisa Stanton, General Manager for Monitise North America commented: “Mobile money innovation is transforming how consumers manage accounts, providing them with real-time account access and information on the go, while also enhancing the overall experience with their account. The launch of mobile services offered by Visa DPS is a great win for financial institutions in North America eager to utilize the mobile channel to serve their customers.”

About Visa Inc

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world’s most advanced processing networks—VisaNet—that is capable of handling more than 20,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products.

For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com.

Visa Inc.
Matthew Flegal Tel: +00 (1) 415 9322564

globalmedia@visa.com

About Visa DPS

Offering Visa quality security, reliability, scale and interoperability, DPS is a large-scale, multi-product, multi-network issuer processor and payment solution provider that delivers a comprehensive and innovative set of capabilities including card, account, and transaction processing, settlement, mobile services, ATM driving, extensive fraud prevention and risk mitigation solutions, back-office tools and services, data analytics, and cardholder and program support services. DPS is the largest issuer processor of Visa transactions in the U.S.

About Monitise

Monitise plc (LSE: MONI.L) is a technology and services company delivering mobile banking, payments and commerce networks worldwide with the proven technology and expertise to enable financial institutions and other service providers to offer a wide range of services to their customers in developed and emerging markets. Monitise has a global alliance agreement with Visa Inc. and a strategic partnership with Visa Europe. With live services in the UK, the US, India and Africa, the company is working with international partners to extend trusted and secure mobile banking, payment and commerce services in territories worldwide, including Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

More information is available at www.monitisegroup.com

Those awfully nice people at Vodafone have just informed GoMo News that they actually have stock of the Nokia Lumia 710. The second W7 Mango phone provided by Nokia, Vodafone says the 710 is now available to buy now at Vodafone UK here. The operator knows how impatient some of us have been to get their hands on this phone. So, rather than waiting for their phone to arrive at their home, Vodafone customers can choose to collect their new Nokia Lumia 710 in a store convenient to them. And Vodafone will let them know when it’s there. Orange UK also has the 710 but we didn’t spot the notification until after Vodafone’s email came through.The actual email notification from Orange read, “Your product is back in stock‏”. This kind of confused GoMo News because the 710 has never been in stock so initially we didn’t know what Orange was referring to.

On paper, Orange also looks to be more expensive than Vodafone. Orange will provide the handset free for a minimum of £26 per month. See here.

By contrast, Vodafone is offering the handset free for £20.50 on 24 month plans – including 100 minutes, 500 texts, and 250MB of mobile data.

When Vodafone customers come to collect the handset, they can have all the contents of their old mobile transferred to their new Nokia Lumia 710 using Vodafone’s innovative RED Box.

Plus new and upgrading pay monthly Vodafone customers will benefit from Vodafone Data Test Drive which lets them use as much data as they like, for whatever they like, for three months.

Better still those switching to the 710 can also get up to £270 for their old phone with Vodafone Buyback. GoMo News is hoping that £270 applies to those abandoning the latest iPhone!

Vodafone says that the 710 has, “All the amazing features of the Nokia Lumia 800, plus fun changeable back covers.”

It will be interesting to see what difference the Nokia Lumia 710 1.4 GHz processor makes. Will the Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) OS appear slow. If everything goes to plan we will let you know tomorrow.

Mobile banking software specialist, Monitise, has made a number of announcements concerning the spread of its software in conjunction with its banking partners. One of them has been the results of collaboration with Visa to enhance its issuer processing platform, Visa DPS, to offer mobile services. Visa claims these can be accessed via any mobile device, any mobile channel, and with any eligible debit, credit or prepaid account. The other announcement covers the results of its partnership with RBS Group Technology Services. This has enabled RBS and NatWest to launch new mobile business banking apps. Basically, the group has been able to release a news iOS version of its banking app via the Apple iTunes App store.Using the app, RBS/NatWest business customers can now track and monitor multiple bank accounts – this allows entrepreneurs to view their full account portfolios.

The app also enables users to check their balances; view transactions; and make intra-account transfers.

Additionally a ‘near me’ function provides addresses and opening hours of the nearest RBS or NatWest branch.

Back in 2011, Monitise developed a range of new smartphone apps for RBS and NatWest that included a new app built specifically for the iPad

Monitise says this was the first banking apps for an iPad from a high-street UK bank. Banking apps for Blackberry and Android have also been previously launched.

Lisa Stanton, general manager for Monitise North America revealed that, “The launch of mobile services offered by Visa DPS is a great win for financial institutions in North America eager to utilize the mobile channel to serve their customers.”

John Partridge, Visa’s president, explained, “The services offered by Visa DPS are a one-stop solution for Visa clients who want to serve their customers through the mobile channel without making significant investments in hardware, software or mobile expertise.”

The pair claim that in the pipeline are additional services such as mobile check deposit; mobile (NFC) payments; mobile offers; and support for V.me by Visa, Visa’s digital wallet.

Alastair Lukies, Monitise’s CEO, claimed, “We are laying deeper foundations with our partners and clients as they position themselves for an increasingly mobile future and we are excited by the apps that we are helping them bring to market.”

Following our previous story revealing that Barkcodes are not standard QR codes here, BARKCODE’s Laura Erickson has responded to ciritcism of the company’s choice of 2D (two-dimensional) barcodes … As the co-founder of BARKCODE, I can tell you that we were the first to market with two-dimensional codes for the purposes of reuniting lost pets with their families. And, we actually started with QR codes. But while QR codes may be great as a marketing tool, we found that it didn’t quite cut the mustard for reuniting lost pets with their owners. Here’s why…1) Size really does matter. Since dogs and cats come in all different sizes, we needed to find a two-dimensional code that could work with all pets. As you know, QR codes are best read when they are 1-inch in diameter. Now add the spacing for directions (for those that are somewhat tech challenged) and whew… you’ve got yourself a pretty large tag.

By utilising Scanbuy’s EZcode, BARKCODE is able to create a pet ID tag as small as the size of an American nickel (and still provide instructions for as many as three different ways to access the pet’s profile.) BTW, our large tag is slightly larger than a quarter.

2) Scan and Send Feature, Although 30 million smartphones already have ScanLife preloaded (and another 10 million users have downloaded the app) the finder of a pet wearing a BARKCODE ID Tag doesn’t need the ScanLife app to access the pet’s info. Now they can simply take a picture of the code with their camera phone and MMS to 43588 to receive multiple back-up contacts. BTW, despite the phenomenal increase of smartphone purchases, there are far more Americans that carry a cameraphone than carry smartphones. And as you stated in your original story, we do have a unique URL address for non-camera phone users as well.

3) Scanability – The density of the EZcode is far superior to the QR code which makes it much easier to scan (or take a picture of the code) while the tag is still on the dog so the scanning process of our BARKCODE Pet ID tag has a higher success rate. Some companies have tried to reduce the QR code to the same small size as the EZcode. However, the density of these reduced QR codes dramatically reduces the ability for smartphones to then access the pet’s info. We are constantly amazed at how ScanLife is even able to decode blurry images of the EZcode.

4) Security – The EZcode is a more secure code as it can only be created from one platform unlike the QR code which can be generated from multiple open sources (and as of yet, these vendors do not supply cross referencing control mechanisms). [This is probably a reference to the fact that a mobile barcode clearing house didn't take off - Ed.]

Overall, (as a pet owner myself) size, ease of use (having directions for those finders that are not tech savvy), and security of the EZcode trumped the QR code.

As for Jim’s question re: SMS*, one of the reasons why we created BARKCODE was after finding pets that did have an ID Tag with a phone number but the number was either old or went to a home answering machine. (In one case in particular the owners were out of town). So, SMS to one phone number would not have helped in these instances.

We also discovered that there is no one scanner that can read all microchips (not to mention that chips move inside the animal so detection is a problem.) The beauty of BARKCODE is that the owner can update their pet’s tag 24/7 since it is password protected. So if you do go on vacation, you can always list the pet sitters name & number first. And if your pet is ever found injured you can include vet information, pet insurance policy number and a comment where you give the authority to have your pet treated.

Soon, we will be making a big announcement regarding our partnership with the American Red Cross as well as some technological enhancements of our tag. This will help municipalities not only save many more pets’ lives but will also help local governments/taxpayers save money. This will be achieved by reducing the number of lost pets that need to be housed at a local shelter.

Lastly, we want to thank all the folks at Suzuki and their advertising agency Siltanen and Partners. In less than ten days, they made what we thought was the impossible happen. They featured BARKCODE on their website and made it possible that for each of the 1,000 free tags redeemed on their site, $3 would be donated to the American Red Cross. For anyone reading this story – if you haven’t already – please go to www.kizashikicks.com or BARKCODE.com to receive a free tag. Even if you don’t have a pet yourself, it makes a great gift for your pet loving friends (plus you are helping the American Red Cross!) We are always looking to improve our services and would love to hear what GoMo News readers think.

* Jim’s question: “I assume this tag is supposed to connect lost pets with owners, if so that is a great idea. I am a big fan of mobile barcodes. However as a dog owner, I don’t want to be dependent on a person who finds my dog having a single proprietary code reader on their phone. Wouldn’t SMS be a simpler better method, or call an 800 number?”

Avid GoMo News readers might recall a recent story – ‘My BlackBerry won’t stop taking to me ‘ here. We think we have been provided with the solution by the app’s author – ispeech.org. It worked for us. A very alert Anna Vilarnau from Anna ispeech.org provided us with instructions which, when followed exactly, stopped our RIM BlackBerry from continuously reading out received messages. GoMo News tends to favour Anna’s theory that it is a BlackBerry OS problem rather than her company’s direct fault.If you’re experiencing the same problem as we did, then even though you’ve deleted the app, the text to speech translation carries on.

The first thing to do is re-download the application. (There is a free version simply called Drivesafely which will work fine.)

Once the app has installed, go to where the Drivesafely application icon is located. It should be either in your downloads or your applications folder. Highlight it.

Next press the BB menu key and select ‘Delete’. After the application is deleted, the handset will offer to perform a reboot. This is a soft reboot and it won’t work.

You have to do a ‘hard’ reboot. This involves taking the battery out; waiting for at least 30 seconds; and then re-inserting the battery. The problem should have completely disappeared.

GoMo News has decided to be brave and has re-installed the free version of Drivesafely. We are now going to see if the ‘disable’ feature provided by the app, now actually works. We’ll keep
you posted.

Nope.  The disable feature doesn’t work. It’s uninstall time again.

As Anna Vilarnau said, “The origin of this issue is not clear, but it was not on the application, it was on the operating system side.”

Mobile device configuration specialist Mobilethink believes it has found a way for mobile operators to recover revenues from handsets with ‘invalid’ IMEI numbers. The company claims thatin 2011 handsets sold by  ’no-name’ manufacturers in China and India presently account for more sales than Samsung, Apple and LG combined. The problem is that these ultra-low cost GSM devices aren’t sold with a unique identification number (IMEI) – with manufacturers frequently re-using ‘old’ IMEI numbers. This causes the call centres of afflicted network operators serious issues in attempting to attach handsets properly to their networks when their IMEIs are fake. Mobilethink beleives it has over come this problem with the first generic settings solution for devices with invalid IMEIs.According to Gartner’s research, brand-less devices currently account for around 30 per cent of smartphones in global markets.

Attempts to attach many of these feature-rich but low-cost devices are causing customer care call centres to discover that they have invalid IMEIs.

Consequently, call centre staff cannot supply the usual device settings to get mobile users onto their employer’s network.

So, without the necessary settings customers are not, for example, getting online to download revenue generating data, or to send lucrative MMS’s.

There’s an extra headache for mobile network operators in that poor customer experiences caused by fake IMEIs are damaging the operator’s hard-won reputation.

However, Mobilethink believes it has found the answer. Most of these IMEI-less mobile phones use specific chipsets which are very common in such low cost devices.

The company has therefore worked closely with the manufacturers over the past year to develop a one-for-all (generic) solution.

These generic solutions are available through Mobilethink’s automatic device configuration channel.

Thomas Yde Frederiksen, Mobilethink’s chief of marketing, commented, “This generic settings tool is a turning point in the mounting problem of invalid IMEIs in carrier networks.”

He continued, “Using it, network operators can now generate data revenues from all users in their networks whether they have IMEIs or not.”

Job of the day……Account Director

This highly successful Mobile Marketing company are expanding into Europe and are now hiring for a strong Account Director with solid business development skills. Working with mobile  operators, you will be responsible for generating revenue in new and existing accounts.

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Stan Weitzman is the CEO of a mobile advertising start-up, mADtivity, and can be reached at stan@madtivity.com

Yesterday it was announced that Trevor Healy, CEO of Amobee, is in talks to sell Amobee to SingTel for $350 million. Here is the key: Healy came from Telefónica Europe PLC where he was Chief Innovation Officer and a Board Member.  He managed advertising for some of the world’s largest brands.As we have been building our company, mADtivity, we have often why the mobile network operators weren’t more interested in mobile phone advertising business. Of course it was outside of their core, but the world is changing and your core competency these days has to be something plus advertising.

Apparently, to this end, Amobee built a platform to specifically cater to the mobile network operators.

“[a•mo•bee] provides a carrier-grade, multichannel ad serving solution for the scalable, high performance, and reliable delivery of ads in all mobile channels: WAP, web, messaging, apps, rich media and more…” http://www.amobee.com/operators/

SingTel is the first phone company to say, “This is my network and I want the advertising revenue from it.” Now the others will follow.

SingTel realizes that the revenue from SMS is going to go away, because of free IP messaging, which they now offer as a service, and they need to have are replacement revenue stream.  Amobee provides that revenue stream.  So instead of abandoning revenue on IP messaging, they can give it away since Amobee has had 300% year over year growth.

SingTel has over 383 million customers. SingTel will become Google-like and instead of the Google search engine, they will replace it with the SingTel MNO. Both will be advertising companies.  SingTel’s revenue for 2011 was $5.2 billion.  “Jim Friedland, in Seeking Alpha, “estimates that Google is generating $7 per year from each smartphone (and tablet). This includes both search and display advertising in mobile apps on both Android and iOS (iPhones and iPads).” I’m sure SingTel would like to add that to their revenue stream. Let’s see that comes to $2.681 billion in revenue for 383 million customers.

According to Clark Fredricksen in eMarketer, mobile advertising is expected to reach $2.61 billion in the US in 2012 and $10.83 billion in 2016.

Estimates for mobile ad revenue for the US are high as $24 billion in 2016 and about triple that for world wide.  So the sky is the limit in the world of advertising and a few MNO’s have caught on.

Hash tags: #mobileadvertising #MNO #SingTel #mADtivity #mobile #advertising #mobilemarketing

Towards the end of last year, we announced the results of our annual analysis of roaming traffic. It painted a positive picture for the state of the global data roaming market, showing that data download volumes have increased by 97 per cent year-on-year. For the first time, our analysis showed that   subscribers are using data more than voice when roaming. But now is no time for operators to rest on their laurels. The simple fact of the matter is that the volumes of data consumed while roaming remain a fraction of that consumed on the home network. In fact, it is worth noting that subscribers use around 300 times more data at home than they do when abroad. This represents a huge opportunity for operators, but it is an opportunity that can only be realised once operators have worked out how they can encourage subscribers to keep up their data consumption while on their travels.

For this to happen, there needs to be a sea-change in how data tariffs are set for the roaming environment. To a great extent, this will be achieved by providing greater transparency to subscribers over what they are being billed for. Such an approach will effectively remove the fear of bill shock which has, for far too long, made subscribers wary of switching on their data when abroad. So how can this be achieved?

Simply stated, operators need to remove all confusion around roaming charges. Today, the majority of operators structure their tariffs on price-per-megabyte, a model that shares some similarities to the way in which voice calls were charged as a total of minutes used. The problem with this approach is that far too few subscribers actually know what constitutes a megabyte; they have no frame of reference to judge how much they are using. In addition, many smartphones and resident applications continue to consume data even when not being used by the subscriber. This leads to a disconnect between the service that the user perceives that they have received and the bill that they are asked to pay.

Increasingly, operators are instituting transparent, service-based charging packages that are tailored to the individual needs of the subscriber. Business users, for example, have an email-only package which would give them access to their inbox at an economy rate, with additional services such as web surfing carrying a higher cost. MACH’s own studies show that the majority of people want either email, social networking or web browsing, or a combination of these three. By providing an opt in service, the user is protected from background processes consuming their data allowance and the fixed price of these schemes means there are no hidden charges.

Operators typically face significant time-to-market issues when implementing these types of solutions; one operator has quoted a 2 year timeline from concept to implementation. In order to overcome this hurdle, some operators are now moving to third parties who are able to offer cloud-based managed solutions. Such solutions can solve bill shock, offer more choice to the consumer and be implemented in less than 6 months.

In the near future, there is potential for even more innovative approaches to roaming tariffs to be taken. In the EU and other parts of the world, operators are finding their data roaming businesses increasingly put under the regulatory spotlight. It is possible that many operators will look to use service bundling to create packages that are outside the existing regulatory framework – potentially a highly lucrative approach that will also benefit subscribers through greater tariff flexibility. Within the regulated markets, it is also probable that operators will look to utilise unregulated technologies such as Wi-Fi. This will usher in new models for inter-standard roaming, with new tariff structures outside of existing regulation.

The opportunities presented by data roaming constitute what is arguably the most important revenue growth area for operators with MACH’s own estimates indicating the market to be around 900M Euros per annum for the operator community. If it is to be realised, however, tariffs will need to be more granular, transparent and personalised. The way subscribers consume data has changed radically in the world of smart devices we now find ourselves in. The challenge for operators is to adapt their tariffs to this new environment and do everything they can to encourage subscribers to keep on accessing data regardless of where they are.

About Guy Reiffer



Guy Reiffer was appointed Vice President, Marketing for MACH in July 2010, and in June 2011 he took on the additional responsibility of corporate strategy definition. In this role, he assumes full responsibility for MACH’s corporate strategy development, as well as for the company’s global marketing strategy and programme, including product marketing and marketing communications of the company’s full portfolio of hub-based communication solutions. Guy originally joined MACH as Product Marketing Director in early 2010.

A 20 year veteran of the telecommunications industry, Guy has worked for the last 10 years in convergence solutions, mainly at small start up innovators where he has headed up both Marketing and Product Marketing functions.  These roles have covered the areas of fixed to mobile convergence, presence & instant messaging, multimedia communication solutions for corporate, and the GSMA Rich Communications Suite.

Guy started out in the telecoms industry in 1989, first working for British Telecom in the UK and then moving to Nortel where he designed and deployed telecom networks in both Energis (UK) and Infostrada (Italy) as part of the deregulation of the telecoms market in the 1990s. During this time, Guy was instrumental in defining the first operator network to use only VoIP in BT Spain.

LONDON, England – February 8, 2012 –Amobee, the company defining mobile advertising, andVertu, the market leader in luxury mobile phones, have partnered to create innovative mobile advertising campaigns to market Vertu’s luxury touch screen smartphone, the Constellation.

Amobee’s mobile ad campaign integrates sophisticated mobile advertising technologies, enabling Vertu to successfully identify growth opportunities within the female, luxury fashion segment. Vertu’s mobile advertising campaign for the Constellation includes an exclusive sponsorship of Conde Nast’s release of theVogue Daily News app, the most exclusive mobile app for daily fashion news, effectively reaching a new female market. The campaign also included a Vertu video in a Net-A-Porter iPad app, which achieved an astonishing 24% click through rate, exceeding expectations and industry standards. Furthermore, Amobee worked with Navteq to geo-fence affluent shopping areas to drive footfall into Vertu boutiques.

“Working with Amobee has shown us how powerful mobile advertising can be to reach a niche, luxury audience with smart media placement and sleek creative design,” said Mark Izatt, Head of Digital for Vertu. “We’re excited by the results we’ve seen so far and look forward to continuing our work with Amobee to reach luxury consumers via state-of-the-art mobile marketing.”

“Vertu is all about a world of ‘unique experiences and a life beautifully arranged’, which works well with Amobee’s mobile expertise for luxury brands,” said Trevor Healy, CEO of Amobee. “At Amobee, we like to help brands turn customers into fans and owners of Vertu devices are fans of this great brand.”

mobile^SQUARED has been mining the data in its Mobile Consumer Trends database to produce a new variant – Mobile Healthcare Trends. The database can be used to track and forecast consumer usage habits towards the mobile internet, mobile apps, mobile commerce, opt-in messaging, and mobile advertising. It covers both the USA and UK. By customising this data for one specific area – mHealth (mobile Healthcare), the company has come up with some fascinating insights. For example, the number of Brits who would quite cheerfully pay for the NHS (National Health Service) prescriptions using the mobile internet. Plus the fact that the number of males with iPhones who’d want to book a doctor’s appointment via mobile is three times the number of females with Android handsets who’d pay for a prescription.Let’s delve into the ‘prescriptions by mobile’ findings which estimate mobile users could generate £1.14 billion in revenues.

That would still only account for only 13 per cent of total annual prescription spend of £9 billion.

mobile^SQUARED reached this figure by discovering that over 8.7 million users are interested in paying via their mobile, from a total of almost 40 million mobile users wanting to use mHealth in some way.

The average cost for a prescription in the UK is £7.40. According to NHS Information Centre data, the average person in the UK receives 17.8 prescriptions per year (based on 2010 data).

That amounts to an average prescription spend of £131.72 per person per annum.

Other interesting findings are that the number of male iPhone users that would make NHS appointments would be 2.34 million [Q1 2012].

Compare that to the 717,625 female Android users that would pay for their prescription using mobile phone [Q2 2012]. So about one third compared to men booking appointments.

The above stats help to illustrate that the Mobile Healthcare Trends database can be by device type, location, gender, age and socio-economic factors.

Mobile Healthcare Trends costs £495 (+VAT) and more information can be found here.

By Micah Adler, CEO and Founder, Fiksu

The mobile app world is still new and constantly changing and even the most experienced marketers agree that app promotion – to improve app store ranking and acquire enough new users to cost-effectively grow their business – can be a serious challenge. This article outlines two of the most common mobile app marketing mistakes, along with proven best practices for avoiding these pitfalls and improving mobile app marketing results.

Mistake #1: Employing Too Few Traffic Sources

One of the most frequent mistakes mobile marketers make is using only one or two traffic sources to acquire new app users. There are numerous sources available across the mobile app ecosystem, and marketers run a considerable risk of achieving subpar results if they do not explore which traffic sources perform best for their specific mobile app.

While site optimizations within key networks and the occasional creative refresh can help drive performance improvements, the single biggest driver of app marketing success is identifying the best-performing mobile traffic sources and exploiting them. If you don’t test a wide variety of sources, you’re unlikely to end up working with the strongest performing networks for advertising your apps.

Additionally, every marketer has to compete with the biggest brand names out there – and by only working with a few sources – you subject yourself to the uncontrollable ebbs and flows of available inventory. For example, executing with any given network today may not necessarily be as effective tomorrow. In order to be successful, it’s important to stay nimble, continuously shifting and re-distributing budgets across other networks to find the best-performing sources.

Successful app marketers have found that working with a large number of traffic sources to identify the most effective can improve performance by up to five times. In addition, by working with a wide range of sources, marketers can avoid audience saturation and maintain a more consistent stream of traffic in the face of inevitable traffic fluctuations.

We recommend that mobile app marketers consider a traffic plan that includes a mix of several mobile app ad networks, real-time bidding platforms and incentive-based download programs.

Mistake #2: Relying on Traditional Agencies or on Direct Interactions with Ad Networks

Marketing a mobile app requires unique approaches that differ greatly from traditional marketing, yet a common mistake marketers make is to rely on traditional ad agencies or marketing firms that may not have specialized expertise in mobile app advertising nuances.

In many cases, traditional agencies will rely on one or two preferred mobile app ad networks rather than trying a broad base of sources to determine which perform best. Even if you sidestep traditional agencies and work directly with ad networks, it is a common mistake to rely too heavily on a single network’s advice. Inherently, the ad networks serve two masters – advertisers and publishers – and cannot focus solely on your needs as an advertiser. It is in the networks’ best interest to give business to each of their publishers, and this could be in direct conflict with your objectives.

While ad networks should be a key part of an advertiser’s marketing mix, it is better to rely on an outside technology expert that specializes in mobile app marketing.  This partner should provide custom-built tracking and optimization technology with the ability to attribute media spend based on conversion performance beyond a download. It is also important to note that the quality in traffic between sources varies dramatically and the propensity to convert will impact the ability to attract loyal users. Also be sure to interview the firm to assess their mobile app marketing best practices and choose one that has experience with organizations similar to yours.

If you’re not using a mobile app marketing platform, strongly consider doing so. Even if your in-house marketing team has the expertise, they probably do not have access to the best ad-optimizing technology available and they may not have the time to manage campaigns the way they’d like to.

It’s true that finding the right mobile app marketing formula takes time and effort, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. By following these proven best practices, you’ll be well on your way to achieving optimal results and acquiring scores of loyal app users.

About Micah Adler, President, CEO, Founder, Fiksu

An academic turned prolific technology entrepreneur, Micah Adler combines rich industry insight with complex technical knowledge as the president, CEO, and founder of Fiksu. Previously, Micah was CEO, president, and co-founder of Adverplex, a search engine marketing (SEM) optimization company. His research in algorithms, probabilistic analysis and combinatorial optimization helped the company develop innovative technology to drive profitability for multi-million dollar SEM campaigns. Micah was also the co-founder, president and board member of CourseAdvisor, which was acquired by the Washington Post Corporation in 2007. He has served on the boards of directors for more than 10 Boston-area startup companies.

Micah was also a tenured professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has authored more than 50 widely cited publications; holds multiple patents; and has served on numerous academic review committees, program committees and editorial boards. He received his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his PhD in theoretical computer science from the University of California, Berkeley

If there was ever an extremely clever use of QR codes. then it surely must be what QRpedia is doing with its Smart QR Codes. Basically these are currently aimed at one specific application – to help galleries and museums provide a mountain of information next to a specific exhibit. GoMo News suspects, however, that once news of what can be done with Smart QR codes leaks out, then they’ll be deployed in numerous different applications. What QRpedia can do from a single QR code is display information in the language installed by the handset’s owner. So instead of having to affix multiple codes for each individual language, one QR code fits all.GoMo News was chatting to Terence Eden, lead developer on QRpedia. He explained that Smart QR codes aren’t dependent on the origin of the handset itself or the country from which its SIM is supplied.

What QRpedia does is interrogate the default language of the browser installed in the smartphone itself. It is by no means platform specific.

As soon as the handset owner scans the QR code and connects to the QRpedia site, the default language of the handset’s owner browser is detected.

So, for example, even if the handset’s owner has a UK SIM card, the system will still display information in Bangladeshi if that is the person’s first language.

As QRpedia observes a typical museum display has less than a paragraph of text – often just in one language, next to a particular exhibit.

By contrast, QRpedia can give encyclopedic information (hence the ‘pedia’ connexion) in hundreds of different languages from one code.

The exhibit doesn’t even have to be physically present. For example, a painting by Joseph Wright was taken away for cleaning from the Derby (UK) Museum.

However, the museum staff have put a QRpedia code in its place so that visitors can still see a high quality image of the painting, and read information about the painting and its creator. Neat, eh?

Roger Bamkin, co-creator of QRpedia and chair of Wikimedia UK said, “QRpedia has been a successful catalyst for change in museums.

We see e-volunteers giving thousands of hours to support museums that they may never visit. Hundreds of new articles have been created in dozens of different languages.”

The best bit about Smart QR codes is that they require no specially modified barcode reading software.

Thus, QRpedia’s technology works with any cameraphone that has QR code reading software.

Market Analyst, Juniper Research has just released a new report that predicts the demise of OS-centric app storefronts in favour of HTML5 and direct-to-consumer (D2C) models. “The closer integration between web-based apps and handsets should mean that the advantage that native apps have is reduced,” the report claims. That will favour HTML5 which is a mark-up language that reduces end-user dependence on plug-in app technologies. Smartphones users will utilise their handset’s browser to access platform independent apps. This report also highlights the growing importance of operator and in-app billing and predicts tablets’ share of the apps market will rise considerably. According to the report’s author, Dr Windsor Holden, “While we are likely to see some larger media publishers – particularly those dependent on subscription revenues – migrating to a D2C model, this is by no means true for the majority of companies.

Most do not possess the scale of traffic to make D2C a viable option: in most cases, the storefront will continue to be the optimal discovery and distribution mechanism.”

The report also concludes that most network operator storefronts will struggle to attract developers due to lack of scale.

By contrast, the introduction of operator billing across leading storefronts – such as the Android Market and Ovi Store had led to a dramatic rise in revenues.

Additionally, the mass deployment of in-app billing options has meant that – for many storefronts – post-download revenues had surpassed those of PPD (Pay-Per-Download).

Significantly, the report predicts that tablets – which presently account for just 7 per cent of global app revenues – would comprise 25 per cent of such revenues by 2016, by which time annual revenues from consumer mobile applications will approach $52 billion.

The report estimates that in 2011, over 31 billion apps were downloaded to mobile devices. The report breaks that figure down by eight categories.

Prices start from £1,750 for a single user version of the report – Mobile Apps Stores: Future Business Models & Ecosystem Analysis 2012-2016.

However, there’s a Mobile Apps whitepaper which is free to view on the Juniper website.

It just won’t shut up.* Our BlackBerry Curve 8520 simply won’t stop translating all our received messages from speech to text. The crazy thing is that, in theory, the application which performs this task – Drivesafe.ly from iSpeech.org – has been completely deleted from the handset. Yet still the handset refuses to keep quiet. GoMo News appears to have discovered a serious bug in the deletion of this particular app. The whole thing with the Drivesafe.ly app started when GoMo News discovered that two version of this app were actually included in RIM’s Thank You Gift campaign. (See our previous story here).DriveSafe.ly Pro and DriveSafe.ly Enterprise were downloadable for free, so GoMo News installed both along with iSpeech.org’ Speech Translator.

If you run the DriveSafe.ly app, you’ll note that there’s a new menu option when you go into the standard BlackBerry Messages app. This allows you to disable DriveSafe.ly.

Disabling the facility made no difference. The BlackBerry still insisted on reading out messages as they were received.

Chatting with a couple of other BlackBerry users, GoMo News discovered that they had experienced similar problems. However, uninstalling the app worked for them.

It didn’t for us. Even though we deleted both versions and DriveSafe.ly wasn’t listed as an installed app, the Curve kept on reading out our messages.

We decided to try a ‘complete’ reset. This is described in the BlackBerry Knowledge base here.

The hard reset is easy. Just take the battery out. Wait a while and then put it back in again. No joy.

We tried a soft reset which involves holding down the Alt, Right Shift and Backspace/Delete keys simultaneously. Again no joy.

We reckon we’re going to have to resort to a file utility and try to remove DriveSafe.ly manually. Any other suggestions?

* Update: We have fixed it. See new story here.

Nokia has got to be desperate for headlines when it announces that its flagship W7 Mango handset – the Lumia 800, will now be available with a glossy white finish. That’s it. A new lick of paint and nothing else. Perhaps it’s harkening back to the days when Apple took the MP3 player market by storm with the iPod – whose trademark was that it was white with white headphones? Whilst this new (??) version of the 800 is set to be available in the UK next month [March 2012], GoMo News would like to point out that the Lumia 710 which was announced in October and set to become available in November [2011] still isn’t available through Orange UK – even though it is supposedly ‘coming’ soon. Nokia says it continues to break the ‘monoblock monotony’ with this latest Lumia 800 smartphone. What it needs to do is launch new W7 Mango handsets not merely tart up an old model.

A somewhat desperate sounding Ilari Nurmi, a vp for product marketing with Nokia once again claimed the Nokia Lumia 800 has received rave reviews around the world.

Around the world, eh? Then how come – as we reported here - the Lumia 800 is only on sale in 15 different countries and the Lumia 700 only in nine markets? Not exactly a global reach.

Nurmi continues, “Now in white, the Lumia 800 brings with it a more premium look and feel with its gloss finish, and is packed with power and performance underneath its sleek body.” Yeah, right.

What GoMo News can’t understand is why Nokia is refusing to sell the MeeGo powered N9 when that sold half as many units as W7 Mango powered phones in the few markets where it was released.

Doesn’t make sense really. If Nokia were a car manufacturer it would be refusing to sell diesel versions of it existing models. But offering them in more colours.

Snap-to-Buy technology allows consumers to do everything from Liking a brand on Facebook, obtaining additional product information, scoring and redeeming offers to purchasing products – all with one snap or scan of a “Buy it Now” or “Shop the Look” SnapTag from a printed advertisement using their mobile phones. (Consumers can even share details of their great purchases with their friends via mobile!)

Glamour and its client, L’Oréal USA, are pushing the boundaries of the printed page and helping to define the next generation shopping experience with the deployment of SpyderLynk’s innovative Snap-to-Buy technology during NYC Fashion Week.

In the first-of-its-kind “taxi shops” consumers are being entertained during free taxi rides to and from the NYC fashion shows with “how to” videos featuring L’Oréal USA’s Yves Saint Laurent and Lancôme beauty products and “Shop the Look” SnapTags to buy the look on-the-spot.

“We are delighted to again work with Glamour and their client, L’Oréal USA, on the launch of our latest Snap-to-Buy innovation, which transforms a static advertisement into a mobile shopping experience,” said Nicole Skogg, SpyderLynk Founder and CEO.

“We’re excited about the launch of Snap-to-Buy giving consumers easy access to purchase our products,” said Marc Speichert, Chief Marketing Officer, L’Oréal USA._. “Snap-to-Buy completes the mobile engagement puzzle for our brands, representing the merging of advertising and m-commerce.”

Talk about dark horses. What blippar is doing with its free image-recognition app for smartphones is amazing. GoMo News recently chatted with Jessica Butcher, marketing and founding director with blippar, at a recent DTI sponsored pre-MWC 2012 event. She begged us not to primarily refer to the product as offering augmented reality (AR) but there are tremendous close parallels. Anyway, it turns out that blippar won the first prize in the UK Startup competition run by UKTI and will now represent Britain at CES 2012. It also recently secured seed investment from Qualcomm Ventures. Ms Butcher’s desire to see the word ‘blipp’ enter the English language as a common noun just might succeed.What jogged GoMo News‘ memory about meeting blippar was the fact that we’d tried to download the Android version of this app, only to be told that it wasn’t compatible with any of our devices.

GoMo News actually bothers to check these things – unlike the vast majority of our rivals.

Ms Butcher informs us that, “We’ve removed the beta version from the Android Market in the short term with a view towards re-launching it pre MWC.”

Reading between the lines, the released Android version was very much a ‘beta’ (as it was indeed described ) and this was attracting too many adverse comments. Never mind, because we saw the iOS version working and it was very impressive.

Effectively what the blippar app does is recognise a specific graphic/image and then reveal the existence of addtional content to the handset owner who has just ‘blipped’ it.

As Ms Butcher explains, “The blipp provides a really nice way to capture a consumer’s spontaneous interest in an iconic creative and convert it instantaneously into a more engaging, brand experience.”

In GoMo News‘ case, we spotted that a story in the Sunday Times’ Ingear supplement had been blipped. The story was about the eye-controlled game – Tobii Eyeasteroids.

All you had to do was launch the blippar app on your smartphone and point its camera at the text and associated graphic in the story. It should then launch an associated video.

Significantly there appears to be a blippar produced in association with ‘Coppafeel.org‘ which features a lady’s bosoms in 3D as part of a campaign to promote breast cancer awareness.

Sadly, only those with iOS devices will be able to point their smartphones at the screen to view the additional content.

Leiki, a provider of targeted advertising and content delivery, is now offering its services on all of the Top 5 sites in Finland. Each of these sites has unique weekly visitors in the range of 1.5 to 2.8 million, with weekly page views from 30M to 100M per site.

Leiki’s Finnish customer base includes both of the national tabloids, the three biggest TV broadcasters and the largest morning newspaper in addition to several dozen smaller sites.

Leiki Focus claims to be the only product that can make accurate personal recommendations of content to people who have never visited the original site where the content is on, simply based on the browsing activity on any other site.

This is especially important for behaviourally targeted advertising, such as making product recommendations to people who have never visited the actual webstore.

“We are very pleased with our success in Finland and the UK,” said Jari Kokkonen, Vice President of Business Development at Leiki.

“This is an excellent reference of the increase in traffic and revenue we generate to our customers. The results we have achieved will further strengthen our business growth and planned expansion in the Nordic region, Central and Southern Europe” Kokkonen added.

It’s not difficult to believe that 2012 could be the year that mobile applications revolutionise the television industry and how the average viewer consumes content.

In 2011 we saw a lot of ideas emerge around social TV, the first bloom of live second screen usage from broadcasters and the publication of eye-opening statistics supporting the co-viewing trend. The most interesting of these statistics concern the number of viewers that are deeply immersed in their smartphones whilst watching television. Nielsen reported that 86% of mobile Internet users interact with their mobile devices whilst watching TV.

The television industry as a whole is exhibiting a distinct confidence and optimism toward social TV. This is evidenced by the stream of investment capital flowing into second screen mobile applications, such as BSKYB’s recent investment in Zeebox, a social second screen content aggregator, a $12m investment in TV check-in app GetGlue, and Shazam’s recent $32 million investment round. There’s a definite sense of excitement in the air.

What can we expect from the television industry’s evolution over the next few years? The emphasis currently is on social TV and the aggregation of second screen content relevant to the TV shows that a viewer watches.  We’re seeing Twitter hashtags heavily integrated into these applications as well as Foursquare style check-ins.  From an advertising perspective, brands are  looking to promote products on the second screen based on  a viewer’s ‘behaviour.  We believe this is indicative of Second Screen 1.0.

The emergence of Second Screen 2.0 will truly see the social TV trend come into its own. Second Screen 2.0 is the area that excites us at Screenreach the most – it’s the rise of customized second screen content. We believe that Second Screen 2.0 will see a deep emphasis placed on high-value content and the personalisation of TV experiences.

Second Screen 2.0 will place greater power in the hands of the viewer. It’s here that we’ll see mobile applications make the viewer a key cog in the content production cycle rather than just a part of the conversations surrounding the program.  It will be about second screen viewing experiences that cannot be substituted. This will offer significant benefits to the viewer, broadcaster and advertiser, thanks to more targeted and specialized content.

What we need to see from second screen mobile applications is the creation of personalized, real-time experiences tailored to different viewer segments. Let’s take the X-Factor, for example. People watch the show for a variety of different reasons.  This includes everything from fashion and styling to singing, dancing, celebrities and gossip. Imagine if the content and interactive engagements a viewer received on his mobile devices reflected the aspects of the X-Factor he cared about most.  Such an experience enables each viewer to shape how he interacts with TV content.

Each viewer’s social content feed  would mirror the more personalized second screen experience. Viewers wouldn’t have to filter through millions of tweets – many of which could be irrelevant or load too quickly to add anything to the experience.  We will always need the second screen to bring together parts of a social viewing experience that people enjoy most , such as chatting and shopping. But, we must also add elements of exclusivity in the form of customised content – content that a viewer would not be exposed to anywhere else other than through that second screen experience.

This is where I expect the second screen to move, a place where viewers can access content, create content and actively be a part of it.  There are some very interesting mobile applications in this sector at the moment, but I believe it will be those that begin offering something new to viewers that will really make their mark in this space.

By focusing on Second Screen 2.0, I believe that the convergence of mobile and television can bring exciting opportunities to broadcasters, in  the form of enhanced content and extra revenue generation, give advertisers the opportunity to deliver more targeted and engaging ads, as well as give the viewer access to a wealth of personalized social TV experiences.

About Paul Rawlings, co-founder and CEO of Screenreach Interactive

Paul Rawlings is the CEO, of Screenreach Interactive, the developers of social interactivity app Screach. Since 2010, Paul and his team at Screenreach have seen Screach technology implemented by Newcastle United Football Club, FOX Soccer’s NSCAA Game of the Week, Bauer Media publishing group, and Posterscope. In 2011 Screach was revealed as one of the PepsiCo 10, making it one of the 10 most innovative start-up products in Europe.

Paul’s career began when he created EPOS, Sales Order Processing and Marketing systems for businesses including Burger King and Dixons. In 2009 he built a number of Twitter based businesses – these included Twe2, a free SMS provider for twitter sold privately by Paul in the same year and a social auction website Tweba, which grabbed the headlines.

If you manage to mention 2D barcodes in a TV ad watched by around 111 million people, then it would be fair to say that they have entered the North American public’s consciousness. That’s what Mike Wehrs, Scanbuy‘s CEO, reckons. “If Super Bowl ads highlight what’s hot in American culture, then QR codes have officially become mainstream. It’s the latest example of how convenient and ubiquitous QR barcodes have become in nearly every part of American life.” It’s all thanks to Suzuki’s Super Bowl ad for its Kizashi sports sedan. It includes a promotion where dog owners can get a free ‘Barckcode’ tag. Scanbuy claimed that it had been estimated that around 60 per cent of viewers would have a smartphone capable of scanning that code. Unfortunately, BARKCODE isn’t using standard QR codes, it is using a 2D design of its own.If you visit the BARKCODE web site, you’ll find that the company claims, “Unlike QR codes, our exclusive 2D code design allows us to create small enough sizes for kittens and puppies!”

Fortunately if you download the ScanLife barcode reader app, it will recognize the Barkcode. If you don’t have that app loaded then there is an alternative.

The back of each Barkcode tag also includes instructions for the circa 190 million cameraphone users in the USA to also be able to simply MMS a picture of the code to 43588.

A Barkcode [Great branding – Ed.] is a personalised pet identification tag has a scannable 2D code.

It is designed to make it easy for pet owners to be reunited with their four-legged friends after they become lost or even misplaced during a natural disaster.

A person finding a lost pet can scan the Barkcode code and within around six seconds view the pet’s personal profile via the mobile web.

This enables the finder to view multiple contact numbers; medical history; vaccination records; license and/or microchip information; comments plus reward offers.

Each Barkcode ID tag also has the pet’s unique URL address emblazoned on the tag that will allow anyone with internet connection to find a lost pet’s profile page in order to help get that pet back home.

That ain't no regular QR code

“Marrying the latest mobile phone technology with Barkcode 2D code pet ID tags was a natural,” BARKCODE co-founder, Laura Erickson, explained.

She added, “We are pleased to be a part of Suzuki’s 2012 Super Bowl campaign effort.” By that she meant that the first 1,000 households to register via Suzuki’s www.KizashiKicks.com got a free tag.

What slightly worries GoMo News is that whilst we were able to find the Suzuki ad, we couldn’t find the version with a Barkcode in it. Anyone know where it is?

Press release

February 6th 2012.­ INSIDE Secure, a leader in semiconductor solutions for secure transactions and digital identity, today revealed that it is integrating its near field communication (NFC) solutions into a next-generation smartphone from a leading mobile phone manufacturer
scheduled to be introduced by mid-year. The new smartphone will run on one of the most widely used mobile operating systems under license, and will utilize the INSIDE MicroRead NFC controller chip and INSIDE Open NFC protocol stack software to deliver a rich set of NFC capabilities to support a broad range of NFC applications.
“We are very pleased to be providing this NFC implementation for this
advanced smartphone, and to have earned the confidence of major OEMs and operators in this industry,” said Charles Walton, general manager and EVP for INSIDE Secure.

“Being selected by this major handset maker highlights how our NFC solutions continue to build momentum and achieve strong positions as the NFC market moves into the mainstream.”

According to Walton, INSIDE’s Open NFC software along with MicroRead and SecuRead devices have already been deployed in millions of smartphones.

The INSIDE NFC implementation for the new smartphone features a rich set of NFC capabilities, which will make it possible for people to use their mobile phones to pay when they shop or take public transit, get useful information or call a taxi by tapping smart tags in posters, exchange virtual business cards, pair Bluetooth devices and Wi-Fi networks more quickly and engage in other useful or entertaining transactions.

Further details will be announced by mid-year when this new smartphone is planned to be introduced commercially.

Furthermore, INSIDE Secure announces it has shipped 20 million MicroRead and SecuRead NFC solutions for use in a broad range of mobile devices since February 2011, with 10 million of those shipments taking place in the past three months.

About INSIDE Secure

INSIDE Secure is a leading designer, developer and supplier of
semiconductors, embedded software and platforms for secure transactions and digital security. INSIDE mobile NFC, secure payment and digital security products provide security for a wide range of information processing, storage and transmission applications. The company¹s customers are found in a wide range of markets including mobile payment, identification documents, access control, transit, electronic device manufacturing, pay television and mobile service operators. For more information, visit www.insidesecure.com.

To apply for an invite to the relaxed event for mobile marketers, brands and agencies please email: benagomo@gmail.com

Lumata is a global provider of mobile marketing, advertising and loyalty technology providing a seamless link for operators, brands and hardware manufacturers to engage with their customers through the mobile channel.

Lumata has 15 offices and more than 500 employees and annual revenues in excess of €50 million.

Lumata’s client base includes: Orange, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia Mobile, Verizon, Airtel, MTS & Telefonica as well as blue chip brands such as Nestle, P&G, HP and Espresso Group.

Apple was the leading smart phone vendor in 2011, following record Q4 shipments

Press release

February 3rd 2012. Canalys today released its full, detailed Q4 2011 country-level smart phone shipment estimates to clients, so completing the picture for the year. One notable result was that total annual global shipments of smart phones exceeded those of client PCs (including pads) for the first time.Vendors shipped 158.5 million smart phones in Q4 2011, up 57% on the 101.2 million units shipped in Q4 2010. This bumper quarter took total global shipments for the whole of 2011 to 488.0 million units, up 63% on the 299.7 million smart phones shipped throughout 2010. By comparison, the global client PC market grew 15% in 2011 to 414.6 million units, with 274% growth in pad shipments. Pads accounted for 15% of all client PC shipments in 2011.

“In 2011 we saw a fall in demand for netbooks, and slowing demand for notebooks and desktops as a direct result of rising interest in pads,” said Chris Jones, Canalys VP and Principal Analyst. “But pads have had negligible impact on smart phone volumes and markets across the globe have seen persistent and substantial growth through 2011. Smart phone shipments overtaking those of client PCs should be seen as a significant milestone. In the space of a few years, smart phones have grown from being a niche product segment at the high-end of the mobile phone market to becoming a truly mass-market proposition. The greater availability of smart phones at lower price points has helped tremendously, but there has been a driving trend of increasing consumer appetite for Internet browsing, content consumption and engaging with apps and services on mobile devices.”

However, Canalys expects to see smart phone market growth slow in 2012 as vendors exercise greater cost control and discipline, and put more focus on profitability. Notably, even vendors who have focused on conquering the low-end of the market with aggressive pricing, such as Huawei, ZTE and LG, are now placing greater attention on the higher tiers. Flagship models aimed at raising selling prices and improving margins will feature more heavily this year.

Apple’s impressive end to the year resulted in it becoming the leading smart phone and client PC vendor in Q4 2011, with shipments of 37.0 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs. It also smashed the record for the most smart phones shipped globally by any single vendor in one quarter, beating Nokia’s previous record of 28.3 million shipped in Q4 2010. Moreover, Apple’s performance meant that it displaced Nokia, for the first time, as the leading smart phone vendor by annual shipments. Apple shipped 93.1 million iPhones in 2011, representing growth of 96% over 2010. The iPhone 4S benefitted from pent-up demand resulting from the launch coming in October rather than June, but Apple’s overall volume was also buoyed by continued shipments of the now more aggressively priced iPhone 4 and 3GS models.

Samsung also finished 2011 with a flourish. It shipped 35.3 million smart phones in Q4 2011 under its own brand, bringing its total to 91.9 million for the year, compared to just 24.9 million in 2010. This excludes shipments of rebranded products, such as the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, which Canalys counts under the Google brand. Samsung continued to spend big on marketing activities, and its strong product portfolio – particularly the Android-based Galaxy S II – performed well.

Despite a disappointing set of financial results, Nokia’s smart phone performance in the fourth quarter gave cause for optimism. It shipped 19.6 million smart phones, down 31% from the record high of a year earlier, but up 17% on Q3 2011. The total was helped by 1.2 million and 0.6 million shipments of its Windows Phone and MeeGo-based products respectively, as well as improved Symbian Belle volumes from competitively priced devices such as the Nokia 500, 700 and 701. Its total smart phone shipments for the year came in at 77.3 million globally.

“Its first Windows Phone products, the Lumia 800 and 710, along with the recently announced Lumia 900 through AT&T in the US, have improved the outlook for Nokia,” said Canalys Senior Analyst, Tim Shepherd. “They are well-designed, competitive devices that demonstrate innovation is still alive within Nokia. But the battle is not over and it has huge challenges ahead. Nokia must continue to build out its Lumia portfolio with devices tailored to address all price points and all the markets in which it aims to compete. It must hasten its transition from Symbian to Windows Phone around the world and, with Microsoft, promote and generate excitement for the platform and new products. And it must succeed in attracting more developers to build high quality, locally relevant apps.”

RIM’s demise in 2011 has been over played by some, with the company ending the year as the fourth largest smart phone vendor and delivering annual unit growth of 5%. “There is no denying that RIM has had a tough year,” said Canalys Principal Analyst, Pete Cunningham. “But when you consider that it is transitioning to a new platform it has done well to increase volume while remaining profitable; the latter point being something that many other vendors struggle with. The appointment of Thorsten Heins as CEO will bring new energy to the company while ensuring that it does not radically deviate from its overall strategy in this transitional year. However, 2012 will become even more competitive and RIM needs BlackBerry 10 devices out there to ensure it retains its status as a major player.”

At a platform level, Android accounted for 52% of global smart phones shipments in Q4 2011, with iOS representing 23% and Symbian 12%. Android was also the leading smart phone platform by volume for the whole year, accounting for 49% of all devices shipped in 2011 and ahead of iOS with 19% share and Symbian with 16%. Collectively, Android smart phone shipments grew 149% year on year in Q4 2011 to 81.9 million units, resulting in a total of 237.8 million for the full year, up 244% on 2010. Samsung’s success and focus on Android have contributed substantially to the growth of the platform, but other vendors, such as Sony Ericsson, Huawei, Motorola, LG and particularly HTC, have also seen significant growth in their Android volumes over the course of 2011.

About Canalys

Canalys delivers smart market insights to IT, channel, and service provider professionals around the world. Our customer-driven analysis and consulting services empower businesses to make informed decisions and generate sales. We stake our reputation on the quality of our data, our innovative use of technology, and our high level of customer service.

Now that Canalys has released its fully detailed smartphone shipment report for Q4 2011, we bet that everybody else is focusing on about how sales of smartphones outstripped those for PCs for the first time. Even though the company is including pads as PCs rather than jumped-up smartphones. The other trend which other market watchers will gloss over – as GoMo News has anticipated – is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the figures for RIM – the BlackBerry’s maker. Indeed, Canalys appears more positive about Nokia’s performance with W7 Mango (Windows Phone 7) than it is about sales for its MeeGo handsets.Nokia sold 0.6 million MeeGo phones and there is only one model – the N9. Compare that with two W7 Mango phones – the Lumia 800 & 710 – where it sold 1.2 million handsets.

Plus Nokia put a big marketing effort around W7 Mango compared to the N9. And Nokia hasn’t even bothered to sell the N9 in most Western European markets where it has an obvious strong following.

It is so easy to forget that Nokia ship 77.3 million smartphones globally. Compare that to Apple which shipped 93.1 million iPhones.

Therefore Nokia hasn’t fallen that much behind compare to the historical massive demises experienced by, say, Siemens, Ericsson and Motorola.

Canlys admits that Apple’s overall volume were buoyed by continued shipments of the now more aggressively priced iPhone 4 and 3GS models.

Then there is the iPhone 4S which Canalys says, “Benefitted from pent-up demand resulting from the launch coming in October rather than June [2011].”

This market watcher is ignoring what GoMo News calls the Amy Winehouse effect where sales shoot up after a death. The iPhone 4S will rightly be regarded as the last true Jobs’ iPhone.

What will happen next? Will the iPhone 5 prove to be a smash hit as well? GoMo News isn’t quite so sure.

And how about RIM? Well, the company delivered annual unit growth of 5 per cent and so it ended the year as the fourth largest smart phone vendor. Behind whom? Um, well Nokia, actually. Not bad, then.

Even Canalys’ principal analyst, Pete Cunningham was forced to admit. “It [RIM] has done well to increase volume while remaining profitable; the latter point being something that many other vendors struggle with.”

One last set of stats. At the mobile OS level, Android accounted for 52 per cent of global smart phones shipments in Q4 2011, with iOS representing 23 per cent and Symbian 12 per cent.

Look at it from another perspective. Nokia doesn’t have a single app that runs on the mobile OS that half the world uses. Oh, whoops.

Finally, we’ve just noticed that even Samsung’s  bada performed better than Microsoft W& Mango in Canalys’ figures. Shurely shome mishtake?

This global Mobile Advertising player with an exceptionally strong management team is now hiring for an experienced Business Development Director to drive business and partnerships with mobile app developers.

Fore more details, please contact Aspire Mobile, the global leading provider of Mobile Media professionals.

The marketplace is currently driving over 8 billion and 12 billion ad requests in Asia-Pacific and the US respectively.

Kartik Ram has been appointed to the position of General Manager Asia Pacific and is based in Singapore where he will have overall responsibility for fourteen markets across the Asia-Pacific region.

The company has also invested significantly in the US market with the opening of a new San Francisco office to complement its existing East Coast presence in New York. The North American region is headed by General Manager James MacDonald who is focused on fostering new business from US brands looking to reach both a US and international audience through mobile advertising.

Victor Malachard, CEO, Adfonic commented: “The last 12 months have seen demand for our mobile advertising services grow significantly and that has fuelled a ten-fold growth in our revenues.”

“As the impact of new, rich media mobile advertising formats is felt throughout 2012 we anticipate interest in mobile as an advertising medium to grow at an even faster rate. Rich media combines the high engagement experience of a TV advert with the interactivity of a smartphone and offers brands exciting new opportunities to engage with their audiences.” Malachard added.

The opening of the new offices follows Adfonic’s announcement last year that it had received an additional $7.5 million of investment to support the company’s continued growth in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

In early 2011 Adfonic opened offices in Paris and New York and in November 2011 offices were opened in Madrid, Spain which also serve Latin America.

The onslaught against QR codes from press releases fired our way the continues to surprise us at Gomo.

Augmented reality (AR) has become the futuristic media of the moment, but many consumers, including young, tech-savvy Millennials, are having a hard time figuring it out. In fact, only 11% of high schoolers and collegians have ever used an AR app.

Augmented Reality once had the potential to make boring lectures interesting - by TurkleTom via Flickr

That’s according to Ypulse, who claim to be “the leading authority on teens, collegians and young adults for marketing, brand and media professionals”.

According to their most recent research, amongst students who have used Augmented Reality (AR) apps:

• 34% think they’re easy and useful;
• 26% think they’re easy but not useful;
• 18% think they’re useful but not easy; and
• 9% think AR apps are neither useful nor easy to use.

“During the holiday season, retailers like Macy’s and brands like Starbucks tried to get customers in the spirit with AR apps. They’re fun and clever, but as with QR codes, Millennials don’t always get the point,” said Melanie Shreffler, Ypulse’s editor-in-chief. “They need to see value in using AR to make the effort to download and use the apps.”

Apparently investing a lot more effort in trying to instruct users how to interact with augmented reality has paid off more than QR code based campaigns, with more of the students interviewed stating that “AR apps are easier to use than QR codes” (60% vs. 51%, respectively).

According to Ypulse’s Shreffler, “That’s likely because brands and companies that offer the apps have devoted a fair bit of their promotional efforts to explaining how to use AR, whereas retailers seemed to slap QR codes everywhere in the hopes that shoppers would figure them out.”

So is augmented reality another marketing gimmick that’s failed to take off with consumers? Ypulse has pointed out that their research sample is not necessarily representative as the interviewees were self selected, but we’d love to hear your thoughts…