Mobile Behavior: an Omnicom Group Company

• Broadband is Now a Legal Right in Finland | Mashable
  Starting in July, Finland's telecom companies will be required to provide all citizens with speeds of at least 1 Mbps, and by 2015 speeds of 100 Mbps.
• Put.io is an innovative new cloud storage service | TechCrunch
  Put.io's re-imagined cloud-storage provides users with streaming access to media files automatically fetched via RSS feeds.
• Is Apple Going to Support Augmented Reality, After All? | ReadWriteWeb
  With augmented reality applications like Wikitude and Layar now on the iPhone, it appears that Apple is reversing its ban on the hot new technology.
• Nokia Posts Third-Quarter Loss of 559 Million Euros | Bloomberg
  With the disruptive presence of Apple's iPhone, Nokia has seen weaker demand for its devices and have posted a third-quarter loss of 559 million euros.
• Twitter Adds 110 Million Potential New Users With SMS Deal in India | Mashable
  Twitter is one of many social networks looking abroad for growth and has just secured a SMS deal with Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator. With it comes access to 110 million potential users.
• Average Internet User Now Spends 68 Hours Per Month Online | Mashable
  A new report from Nielsen states that the average Internet user spends 68 hours a day online. While a big number, it still falls short of television usage.
• PowerPak wall charger doubles as portable backup battery | CrunchGear
  For those who find their mobile phone battery dying midway through the day, Technocel has created the PowerPak, a charger that doubles as a portable backup battery. Other options include going solar, or use of a massive 16 cell battery.
• No-contract $30 / $45 Straight Talk wireless plans storm Walmart | Engadget Mobile
  Walmart is joining TracFone in the low cost and contract free mobile space with Straight Talk. Starting at $30 the service provides 1,000 voice minutes, 1,000 texts, and 30MB of mobile web access.
• New iPhone App Piracy Statistics Reveal "Try Before You Buy" Mentality is a Myth | ReadWriteWeb
  Many users download pirated applications with the claim that they simply want to "try before they buy." By comparing conversion rates between lite apps and those that are pirated, Pinch Media proves that only 1 in 233 pirates actually end up buying.
• Female iPhone Users More Likely to Tune Out Mobile Advertising | Advertising Age
  After noticing repeated weak results from the 19-49 female demographic, mobile marketing agency Brand in Hand came to the conclusion that many women are task oriented, making it unlikely for them to stop and act on a brand's message.

• On Twitter, Information Beats Sentiment | ReadWriteWeb
  According to researchers, only 22.3 percent of tweets about a brand are sentiment-related and tend to be positive. 18 percent are information-seeking, something that marketers should definitely pay attention to.

• Women, Teens, and Seniors Help Fuel 34% Mobile Web Spike | NielsenWire
  The mobile web has seen 34 percent growth in the past year with much thanks to a spike in youth, women, and seniors participating.

• HOW TO: Get Real-Time Traffic Reports on Your iPhone | Mashable
  Using Aha Mobile for the iPhone, users will tap into the collective of actual drivers to aid in navigating the roads. Included are real-time traffic reports (see Google Maps), what's nearby, and a Shout Room where users can record 15-second audio clips to share with other drivers.

• McDonald's merges mobile media and marketing magnificently | JWT AnxietyIndex
  Using wi-fi hotspots, McDonald's Japan has collaborated with Square Enix to create Dragon Quest: McDonald's Travelers, a downloadable Nintendo DS game. To play, users must be in the restaurant and are limited to one session a day; after five sessions they are rewarded with a free burger.

• Tapulous taps AdMob for in-app ad campaigns | Mobile Marketer
  Tapulous, the iPhone developer known for its popular Tap Tap Revenge, is teaming up with AdMob for future in-app ad efforts.

• Simon and Schuster Introduce "Vooks" | Mobile Marketing Watch
  Online book store Simon and Schuster is heading a mobile push using a digital video/book mashup, or "vook," viewable on the iPhone.

• Smule sells 300k copies of I Am T-Pain, celebrates with a new song and a huge contest | MobileCrunch
  As a response to the success of their I Am T-Pain auto-tune app, Smule is launching a contest where participants will recreate the rapper's "I'm On A Boat" music video.

• Sidebar Will Deliver Personalized Mobile Apps And Content To Your iPhone | TechCrunch
  In an ever growing sea of mobile applications, Sidebar plans to help users discover one's they might like based on their demographic profile, likes and interests. Once Sidebar figures out a rough sketch of the user, the app will begin to recommend mobile content.

• Spotlight On: Mobile money? Why not | RCRWireless
  PayPal wants to revolutionize transactions by taking action in the mobile space (FINALLY!). By opening up its development to the community, it hopes to inspire the use of PayPal Mobile in applications.

It has been waiting in the wings for awhile now, but it looks like mobile video is ready to take center stage.

According to a new report from Nielsen, Americans are consuming more video content across screens than ever before. There was a 70% year-over-year increase in mobile viewing over the past year while traditional television viewing climbed by 0.9%. Simultaneous activity has a lot to do with this growth, underscoring that consumers are adding screen time, rather than simply replacing one screen with another.

While they are obviously worried, cable companies and networks are doing their best to stay relevant. Soon, Comcast and Time Warner's "TV Everywhere" service will give cable subscribers access “premium” television content via broadband, and later cellphone connections. Meanwhile, Hulu is streaming web content for free, though rumors of a "badass" iphone app have yet to pan out.

Content producers are more willing to adapt to consumer's demands, and we're seeing more content tailored for multiple platforms. Just this week, we are seeing two "firsts" in mobile content:

• Sentiment Analysis Takes the Pulse of the Internet | NYTimes.com
  An emerging field known as sentiment analysis is taking shape around one of the computer world’s unexplored frontiers: translating the vagaries of human emotion into hard data.
• Sharks vs. Cats!! on Tumblr
  The ultimate battle of the memes is going down on Tumblr right now. Users tag posts #shark or #cat to join the fight. 3 days left before the winner is decided.
• Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year | VentureBeat
  Co-founder Biz Stone said the company is in the first phase of rolling out commercial accounts that will entice business users to pay for premium services like detailed analytics. After that, the company might move into building business-oriented application programming interfaces (APIs), creating a “commercial layer” over the social network.
• A Tall Tale: Did Twitter Really Save Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”? | AllThingsD
  Earlier this summer, Twitter was blamed for torpedoing movies like “Bruno” and “Funny Business.” Now it is being heralded for giving Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” a big boost. How much power does the micromessaging service have? Can Twitter save the economy?
• How social media became a weapon in the battle for App Store approval | Mobile Entertainment
  Facing Apple's strict approval process, developers are trying to force their hand by creating an online buzz around apps before they're submitted through blog posts and video demos in particular.
• 10 Things Your AR App Must Have to Succeed | The Future Digital Life (via everydayux)
  The iPhone OS3.1 release will connect the hype of Augmented Reality with the hype of the iPhone, and this list details what any good AR app (any app in general, for that matter) should have.
• CHART OF THE DAY: Twitter's Boom Around The World | Business Insider
  Over the last year, Twitter's traffic has exploded 15X to 44.5 million worldwide unique visitors in June, according to comScore. But Twitter's growth story isn't just limited to the U.S. and North America, where only about half its traffic comes from, according to comScore.
• Personas: Visualizing Your Online Identity | PSFK
  A component of the MIT Media Lab’s “Metropath(olgies)” installation, which looks at the non-stop flow of communication and information in the modern world, Personas delivers a data portrait of your online identity by combining natural language processing and Internet search tools.
• 50 Best Websites 2009 | TIME
  Time Magazine released their annual list of top websites. Flickr tops this year's roundup, which also includes the ubiquitous Twitter, ask-a-friend's friend engine Aardvark, music streaming site Spotify, gaming hub OMGPOP, and private file-sharing platform drop.io.
• Seventeen's Fashion Finder | Seventeen.com (via Cynopsis Digital)
  Seventeen Magazine's Fashion Finder iPhone app, which allows users to search for local availability of clothes, shoes and accessories by look or price point, has displaced Zippo's virtual lighter app as the top app in the Lifestyle category with over 75,000 downloads.
• Rhapsody iPhone App | Geeky Gadgets
  Music streaming site Rhapsody has submitted an iPhone app for approval to Apple for approval that offers on demand music streaming. In the past Apple hasn’t approved music streaming apps, as they might compete with with iTunes. In the past Apple hasn’t approved music streaming apps, as they are obviously concerned about competition with iTunes, if Rhapsody is approved it will give iPhone users access to over 8 million tracks and all of its radio stations.
• Mobile Phone Web Sites Top Online Growth In UK | Nielsen Wire
  Mobile phone websites were the fastest growing sector online in the UK with a 58% increase in unique visitors from 7.7 million in July 2008 to 12.2 million in July 2009, according to Nielsen. Drinks brands such as Ribena, Baileys and Coke were reportedly a major factor in this sector's growth.
• Microsoft OneApp Unlocks the Potential of Feature Mobile Phones in Emerging Markets
  Microsoft announced OneApp, a new software application that enables low-end feature phones to mimic the functionality of smartphones with easy access to mobile apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and other apps and games.

BMO Capital Markets Introduces 2D Barcode Ads [Daily DOOH]
The first advertisements sporting the 2D bar codes have begun running in The Wall Street Journal. Using the camera on their mobile phone, readers can use a special free application to photograph an ad’s barcode which links directly to a customized page.

Can Mobile Preserve Soc Networks As Gen Y’s Virtual Rolodex? [Ypulse]
In spite of the waning interest we've seen in social networking as a virtual hangout, Meredith believes their contact management function will hold up, perhaps in the form of a killer mobile app.

Why Handset Makers and Social Networks Need Each Other, Take Two [GigaOm]
On that note... This article talks about how cell phone makers and social networks need to partner to design devices tailored for social networking, from the camera to the address book.

What Do Cellphone Users Want Most? Cheap Service [NYTimes]
Nielsen reports that call quality and network availability are slipping down in terms of what consumers look for in a carrier. Top 3? Price, family plan, and payment options.

Facebook Takes FriendFeed To Take On Twitter [TechCrunch]
Media analysts are seeing the acquisition of Friendfeed by Facebook as an attempt to silence Twitter's rise. Facebook has also added live status search capabilities and is rolling out its new iPhone app soon.

SMS PhD: 'Pointless' Text Messages Analysed [Telegraph]
Caroline Tagg, awarded a PhD in text messaging, discovered that people text in the same way as if they were talking, using unnecessary words such as 'oh', 'erm' and often use grammatical abbreviations like 'dunno'.

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, To Stage First Twitter Opera Made Up Of Tweets [Sky News]
The Royal Opera House is set to create the first opera entirely created by Twitter fans. Once the fans have created the story line via Twitter, the opera house will compose the music and stage the performance.

Penalties Ordered for Dirty Texting [China Daily]
The Henan province in China is banning erotic, insulting, or threatening messages. The SMS ban carries a fine of $73 and up to five days imprisonment. So much for sexting...

Mobile Marketers Must Look Past The iPhone [Silicon Alley Insider]
Thinking of the iPhone as the end-all be-all of mobile devices is a short-term play for marketers that might hurt their long-term competitiveness.

Will Smartphones Help Crack the Economy's Secrets? [Fast Company]
Flurry suggests that observing the mobile market (e.g., app creations, mobile social networking updates, SMS interactions, data plans) is similar to looking at the real estate market to get a sense of the economy.

Social Media’s Effect on Learning [AllThingsD]
Research of University of Washington is showing that online social networking actually helps learning processes. The interaction activates certain parts of the brain way more than watching TV, for example.

The Rise of Iran's Citizen Journalists [BBC News]
Armed with cell phones, the Iranians redefined the modern protest movement. These new media habits have integrated into Iran's society, and news sources are relying now on these millions of eyes to keep them informed.

Teens Don’t Tweet; Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth [Nielsen Wire]
According to new Nielsen research, only 16% of Twitter users are under 24, and a mere 6.6% of teens have even tried it (compared to 12.1% for over 25).

If Microsoft Wants Yahoo’s Mobile Search, They’ll Have To Earn It [mocoNews]
Although Microsoft and Yahoo entered an exclusive search engine relationship, Yahoo retains the right to use other providers for their mobile presence to avoid limitations, as the platform grows and evolves.

QR Code Sand Castle [CScout Japan]
A Toyko-based company build a giant QR code out of sand on a Shonan beach, which was actually readable by most phones. Check it out: Sinap Summer 2009 Project.

Wish Upon a Mobile Phone [textually.org]
For the launch of the Android HTC on Vodafone, Marvellous developed "The Wish Factory": Users describe what they wish their mobile could do, get ranked by others, and one wish will actually be granted.

Death Of Advertising, Birth Of Collaboration? [PSFK]
As the model of one-way advertising is slowly dying, a more collaborative form of marketing is taking shape--from crowd-sourced initiatives to mutual beneficial partnerships.

How Gen-Y Startups Use Social Media to Shatter the Status Quo [Mashable]
By integrating the social media sphere at the basis of their business plans,  Gen Y s entrepreneurs are leveraging what they know best, to get them where they want to be.

Spotify Is Already Out For iPhone (Unofficially) [moconews]
Spotify, a streaming music service, has been getting rave reviews in Europe as it tries to make a successful freemium model.They've built an Android app, but there's been doubt as to whether Apple would allow their client onto the iPhone as their unlimited on-demand music could cannibalise the iTunes Store. It seems some have gotten tired of waiting, though, and have jailbroken their phones to load the app.

Move Over GPS, Here Comes the Smartphone [NYTimes]
Last year we said that mobile phones will kill GPS systems, well, it seems to be coming true. Sales of traditional GPS units from companies like TomTom, Garmin and Magellan have fallen sharply recently. Meanwhile, Garmin's plan to release a phone seems to be taking a lot longer than it should (accounced Jan 2008, now they're saying "later this year"). Guess they ran out of money....

Five Companies Joining Together For 2D Barcode Push [Mobile Marketing Watch]
Modavox, DuPont, Scanbuy, Graphic Packaging, and Augme Mobile are partnering to make mobile barcodes a mainstay in the US. Why could this actually work? DuPont and Graphic Packaging represent hundreds of packaged good services in a wide array of industries, putting the actual implementation directly into the development model.

The Future of the iPhone: Intelligent Object Recognition [Mashable]
Apple has filed patents for an augmented reality technology called ID App that uses image recognition to recognize objects and show more information about them.

6.5 Hours Per Month of Video Consumption Amongst Teens on their Mobile Phones [BitBriefs]
Research from Nielsen shows that 77% of 13-18 year olds own a phone, while 11% borrow one regularly. More specific usage numbers show that in Q1 of 2007, teens sent/received 435 sms a month on average. Q1 of 2009? 2899 text messages, yes that is a a 666% increase in two years. The data also shows mobile video usage by type (Music is number 1).

NY Philharmonic to Raise Funds Via Text Message [PC Magazine]
For its 2009 Concerts in the Park series, the NY Philharmonic is enabling SMS donations. Audience members can send $5 gifts with a limit of $25 per billing cycle and can even download a desktop widget to facilitate donations from home. Understanding the immediacy of the mobile to a user's life is key for leveraging the platform's potential. Signing up, filling out forms, is a discouraging for many, while sending a text is routine.

Google Product Search for Mobile Expanding Rapidly [IntoMobile]
Awhile back Google launched their Product Search for iPhone and Android and now support has been added for the Palm Pre and all devices (with a data connection) in the UK, US, Germany and South Korea.

Top 10 Youth Marketing Myths by Graham Brown [mobileYouth]
Straight to the point slide about the mistakes and misconceptions many marketers hold about Gen Y. Trying to define an age group by certain limited characteristics makes understanding youth easier, but reaching them impossible.

Days Inn Finds SMS is Key to CRM Strategy [Mobile Marketer]
The hotel chain is driving sign ups to an SMS database that lets them send out room offers. So far 30% of guests that opted in have called to make room reservations.

Broadcasters Hope To Re-Program How People Watch TV On Mobile Devices [mocoNews]
The ATSC Technology and Standards Group is due to vote this summer on a definite standard to offer TV to mobile phones. What does this mean for mobile users? Maybe nothing. Indeed, the format will require a special chip to be installed in mobile devices and users will have to pay a monthly fee to receive content. These two factors are enough to block wide adoption because users get plenty of video and TV through channels like Youtube and other streaming sites. Too little, too late?

Multi-Platform Media Sync Software DoubleTwist Gains “Hundreds Of Thousands Downloads”, Is Now Available in Japan [TechCrunch]
Double Twist has been steadily growing as a complementary software for iTunes. The PC/Mac application allows users to share all their photos, videos, and music from one place to a multitude of social networks and mobile devices.

Who Uses Social Networks and What Are They Like? (Part 1 and Part 2) [ReadWriteWeb]
According to research from  Anderson Analytics, 52% of SNS users are a fan of at least one band, 20% would like to see more communication from brands, 15% say they log on at work, at 63% only friend people they know.

Is BlackBerry in the Catbird Seat or the Doghouse? [FierceWireless]
Analysts are debating over the future of RIM. Surely all eyes will be on their new devices --the Tour, launching this summer, and BlackBerry Storm 2, launching in October.