Mobile OEM

The volume of smartphone impressions on the Millennial Media platform is increasing, but not as quickly as impressions from non-phone connected devices, represented primarily by tablets, according to [download page] Millennial Media's latest Mobile Mix report. In Q1, the company reports that non-phone connected devices accounted for 25% of total platform impressions, up from 20% a year earlier. That 5% point gain came entirely at the expense of smartphones, which dropped from 75% to 70% share of impressions. Feature phones, somewhat surprisingly, kept steady at 5%. Read more »

66% of small businesses are putting mobile technology to use in some way to market and/or operate their businesses, according to survey results from Constant Contact. The most common ways of doing so are to optimize social media marketing (73%) and email marketing (71%) for mobile devices, with far fewer (34%) offering mobile-optimized websites. The results come soon after research from eWayDirect, which similarly found that slightly less than half of B2C marketers were optimizing emails for mobile. Read more »

It's a familiar trend, one that's been seen throughout the beginning of 2013. Smartphone penetration continues to rise, and Apple keeps making inroads, hacking away at Google's leading market share. During the 3-month period ending in March, smartphone penetration reached 58% of the mobile market, up a percentage point from the prior month and almost 30% year-over-year, according to the latest data from comScore. And for the third consecutive time, Google's share of the smartphone market dipped compared to the prior 3-month period, as Apple's grew. Read more »

QR code scanning - once the domain of the younger crowd - is becoming more evenly distributed across various age groups, according to [download page] data released by ScanBuy. The company, which says it processed a new high of 6.7 million scans via ScanLife in March, reveals that 57% of mobile barcode scanners were aged 35 and older in Q1, up from just 41% a year earlier. In particular, the 45-54 (18% share, from 12%) and 55 and older (14%, from 9%) groups represent rapidly growing proportions of scanners. Read more »

Smartphones and tablets are accounting for a rapidly increasing proportion of digital video starts, according to "The State of Mobile Benchmark" [pdf] from Adobe Digital Index. In Q4 2012, these devices accounted for a combined 10.4% of video starts, more than triple their 3.1% share from just a year earlier. Both device types boosted their share of starts, with tablets (6.5% vs. 1.8%) shooting ahead of smartphones (3.9% vs. 1.3%). Video view rates also saw strong growth. Read more »

An analysis of market data from real-time bidding auctions for mobile ad impressions reveals that advertisers devoted roughly three-quarters of their budgets to iOS devices during Q1 2013. The MoPub report [download page] reveals that iOS ads maintained a significant performance advantage throughout the quarter, as CTRs ranged from 20% to 53% higher on iPhones than Android phones, with iPads performing even better still. Read more »

Among mobile platforms, Apple's iOS leads in monetization performance on the Opera Advertising mobile platform, reports Opera [pdf] in a study covering platform activity in Q1. The iPhone regained the lead in mobile impression share after dropping behind Android in Q4, but its share of revenues fell by about 3% points, to 34.2%. The iPhone's share of revenues stayed ahead of Android, which also skidded by 3% points, to 26.7%. Read more »

Millennial Media and comScore have released a new report [download page] examining CPG mobile ad campaigns and characteristics of the mobile consumer goods audience. The study reveals that compared to the average advertiser on the Millennial Media network, CPG brands were more focused on encouraging consumers to watch video, with 44% of the campaigns incorporating a video aspect (compared to 16% on average). CPG advertisers also aimed to engage consumers through social media calls to action, with 34% of campaigns incorporating social as a post-click action, versus 18% of advertisers on average. Read more »

iPhone owners are 54% more likely than Android owners to use mobile applications for commerce, per new data from the Arbitron Mobile US smartphone panel. Not only are iPhone owners more likely to use mobile commerce apps, they also log 20% more time with them (105.3 minutes per month, vs. 87.6) and conduct 19% more "virtual shopping trips" (35 sessions per month, vs. 29.5). The study also breaks down the top 5 mobile commerce apps used, as well as the top mobile commerce web domains. Read more »

Android mobile owners are 2.4 times more likely than iPhone owners to use mobile IM/chat applications such as Whatsapp and Kik Messenger, but iPhone owners are heavier users of the apps, per data released by Experian Simmons. According to the report - which notes that users of these apps are 30% more likely than the average smartphone owner to be receptive to mobile ads - half of iPhone messaging app users spend at least 15 minutes a week using them, compared to about one-third of Android users. Read more »