Telecom

Socialbakers has released its latest "Socially Devoted" figures for Q1, and the results are a mixed bag. On the one hand, the average response rate grew 6% points quarter-over-quarter to 38%, after only improving by 4% points in the preceding 6 months. But on the other hand, that means that significantly fewer than half of questions posted to brands' Twitter profiles were answered. What's more, the average response time increased by 10%, from 6 hours in Q4 2012 to more than 6-and-a-half hours in Q1. Read more »

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 »

58% of national brand advertising campaigns employed geo-precise targeting (including geo-fencing and geo-behavioral targeting) in Q1, according to a new report from xAd. That's more than double the 27% from a year earlier, as the proportion using standard geo-targeting dropped from 64% to 40%. Still, fewer advertisers used geo-precise targeting in Q1 than in Q4 2012. That's because some campaigns benefit more than others from such targeting, and Q4 saw more campaigns seeking to leverage the benefits of geo-targeting to promote their holiday and Black Friday promotions. 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 »

Global ad spending grew by 3.2% last year, but some sectors fared better than others, details Nielsen in further results released publicly from its Global AdView Pulse report. At the forefront of spending growth were the telecom and FMCG sectors, boosting expenditures by 7% and 6.8%, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, spending by durables brands declined by 2.1%, while healthcare companies cut back slightly, by 0.7%. Read more »

Smartphone penetration climbed to 57% of the US mobile market during the 3-month period ending in February 2013, according to the latest data from comScore MobiLens. That's up close to 4% from the 3-month period ending in January, and more than 28% year-over-year. For the second consecutive month, Google's leading share of the smartphone market dipped, as Apple continued to make gains. Read more »

The Pew Research Center reported in late 2011 that 18-24-year-olds were sending and receiving 3,000 text per month. Well, according to new data [download page] from Experian Marketing Services' Simmons, texting activity is getting even heavier, at least among smartphone owners. 18-24-year-olds from Experian's mobile panel of 1,485 smartphone owners were found to send 2,022 texts per month and receive another 1,831, for a grand total of 3,853. That's almost 130 per day. Read more »

The IDC recently predicted that global smartphone shipments would exceed feature phone shipments this year, and new data concerning the US smartphone market does nothing to put that forecast in doubt. Smartphone penetration reached 55% of the US mobile market during the 3-month period ending in January 2013, per the latest figures from comScore MobiLens, representing almost 30% growth from 42.7% market share at that time last year. Read more »

Smartphones counted as the leading devices on the Millennial Media network in 2012, according to [download page] the company's year-in-review report. With 75% share of total ad impressions, the smartphone share grew by 7% points from 2011. Non-phone connected devices also grew their share, up 5% points from 15% to 20%, fueled by rapid adoption of tablets. Despite all that change in device mix, the OS mix remained remarkably constant, with Android (48%, up 1% points) and iOS (32%, down 1% point) the clear leaders. Read more »

79% of Americans believe that the technology industry has a positive reputation, per results [pdf] from the latest Harris Poll Reputation Quotient (RQ) study. The tech industry continues to get stronger in this area, climbing from 76% rating it positive last year and 75% in 2011. Next on the list, the travel and tourism sector, which follows tech's upward trend, up from 55% rating it as having a positive reputation in 2011 to 61% this year. Read more »