Mobile devices have become nearly as commonplace as toothpaste for travelers in North America and Europe. Like the true road warriors we are, we take our wireless gear with us wherever we go — and our use of them is unprecedented.

According to new data from Boingo Wireless, a leading provider of software and services worldwide, smartphones and tablets passed laptops as the most widely carried Wi-Fi device in airports, reaching 58.9 percent of all devices in June. Mobile devices topped the 50 percent mark for the first time in February of this year. The study draws from data across Boingo’s managed network of 60 airports and aggregated network of hundreds of thousands of hotspots worldwide.

There are ample opportunities for marketers to reach these folks. In my latest MobileGroove column, I discuss Blue Moon’s efforts and more. http://www.mobilegroove.com/mobile-marketers-should-sync-offers-with-our-transit-routine/

One of my favorite books in recent years is The On-Demand Brand: 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World http://www.amazon.com/Demand-Brand-Digital-Marketing-Everywhere/dp/081441572.

Rick Mathieson is as savvy as they come about how brands need to evolve.

Rick invited me recently to speak on a mobile roundtable with Julie Fajgenbaum, vice president of brand marketing and social media for American Express, and Adam Broitman, CEO of digital ad agency Circ.us.

There are several installments posted on Rick’s site including this one where I discuss the “coolest” thing in mobile these days – Ford’s 15.4 percent lead generation program that adds mobile to the automakers’ ample marketing spend.

George Costanza is urged to make his wallet his phone in a new commercial for Google Wallet.

It's memorable but will it change behavior?

Mobile Marketer asked me whether group messaging apps are an effective tool for brands.  Here’s what I told Chantal Tode:

“Savvy marketers like Macy’s, MillerCoors and others use text messaging for both reach and to build a one-to-one relationship that has valuable remarketing opportunities.

“The mere idea of a group app eliminates the means to personalize communication and offers. Marketers are succeeding through relevant exchanges, not group messages that can feel like impersonal blasts of information.

“I see these apps as niche at best.”

For more of my comments and the entire story, please see http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/messaging/10880.html.

This week Yahoo’s board fired CEO Carol Bartz, news that rocked the industry and has some debating if the company’s inability to choose between being a media company or a technology provider is to blame. I think we need to look elsewhere and ask: Would Yahoo’s shakeup at the top have happened if the company had been innovating in mobile instead of slipping further behind?

We’ll likely never know the answer. But it’s safe to say that Yahoo’s disjointed mobile strategy was largely responsible for the board’s decision to oust Bartz.

What were the missteps in mobile that cost Yahoo, a company once so close to expanding its prowess in search, social and technology to mobile, its competitive edge? News site mocoNews provides some worthwhile insights and analysis.

It argues that Yahoo made a series of bad moves:

• Yahoo has not committed efforts and investments in the vital area of research and development, and has a lousy track record of starting and stopping initiatives.
• Livestand, the company’s digital newsstand for tablets, is late to market. It was expected to be delivered in the first half of the year.
• Yahoo has failed to grab a significant slice of the search advertising pie, and research firm IDC reports that Yahoo is losing share in mobile advertising.
• There has been frequent and disruptive change at the top of Yahoo’s mobile units.

Ironically, Bartz – who didn’t steer Yahoo back on the mobile course  when the company lost the plot– sent her farewell email to employees via an iPad.

I agree with Om Malik ’s view that an acquisition would help Yahoo get back in the mobile game. Malik names Foursquare and Flipboard as possible candidates. As for Flipboard, the social magazine for the iPad has been the leader of the pack since its launch in summer 2010, when it immediately could not keep up with demand. I still use Yahoo, but it is more about personal habit than a conscious choice to be with an innovator. Like everything else in mobile, the story has yet to be written. But this latest shakeup signals that Yahoo is running out of time to be included in the narrative.

(Item first appeared here - http://www.mobilegroove.com/has-yahoo-missed-the-mobile-boat/)

The most interesting check-in of the summer was done by the Pew Research Center.

According to the highly-respected organization http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Location.aspx, 28% of mobile owners use phones to get directions or recommendations based on their current location— 23% of all adults.

A much smaller number (5% of cell owners, equaling 4% of all adults) use their phones to check in to locations using geosocial services such as Foursquare or Gowalla. Smartphone owners are especially likely to use these services on their phones.

My take?

Despite the hype, the check-in numbers call into question the short and long-term value of Foursquare and the like.

I have the Foursquare iPhone app and twice have told myself to get committed to the activity. But there just hasn’t been enough of a pull for me either time.

As you know, I’m all for deals and believe relevant offers delivered via mobile is only going to get more important for brands.

But I’m like most who can’t – or won’t – do everything. Foursquare hasn’t made my cut.

Nor has it made the cut for most of the more than 300 million mobile users in the U.S.

Before there were smartphones, there were smart mobile people like Steve Elfman.

Steve and I worked together at InfoSpace. A tech guy more than a marketer, he had spent years understanding, even defining, the marketplace from his early days at AT&T Wireless.

Not one to be all over the press, Steve surprisingly has twice landed in the Seattle Times in the last week. 

From his spot near the top at Sprint, where he serves as President, Network Operations and Wholesale, he told reporter Brier Dudley that we’re a bit away from realizing the potential of mobile devices and network speed.

"I think that 2012 is going to be a very big year for good consumer experiences," he told the newspaper. "Maybe 2013. ... I think that '12 you'll see some, '13 I think it will be something that the customer says, 'This is a good experience.'”

Now 56, Steve says he is too old to change out his device at the industry average of 19 months.

"You can't innovate fast enough for them," he said of younger people. "Guys my age, they say, 'I don't want another thing for two years.'”

As for my take on consumer experiences, I’ve long been on record as saying my iPhone delivers the real web and turned mobile promise into reality. I’ve also written and tweeted often about the failings of my BlackBerry Bold http://jeffhasen.com/an-open-love-letter-to-blackberry, which does email exceedingly well and provides little to no other value.