Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Eternity That Is 140 Seconds of Twitter Video

Twitter users can now post videos up to 140 seconds long. That’s an eternity given the human attention span is 8 seconds (per Microsoft) -- less than that of a goldfish.

77% of people read at least one review before downloading an app: Apptentive.

Last week saw the most-streamed NBA Draft ever on WatchESPN, with more than 557,000 unique viewers.

On average, 41% of retail marketing budgets are dedicated to digital, per the National Retail Federation.

Mobile accounted for 29% of travel bookings in the U.S. last quarter, Crieto reported.

Instagram has now snapped over 500 million users with 95 millions videos and photos shared daily.

59% of buyers prefer to do research online instead of interacting with a sales rep: Accenture. Many are “self-sufficient” mobile users. That has a huge impact on customer service, as I wrote in my The Art of Mobile Persuasion (www.artofmobilepersuasion.com) book.

54% of worldwide mobile display ads will be traded programmatically by 2018: Tapjoy.

HeyMarket, a mobile CRM for text messaging, stops you from drunk texting your customers. It has come to this.

More than three billion photos are shared daily on social networks , according to KPCB.

78% between the ages of 21 and 39 make the mobile payments generated in China: eMarketer.

99 of 110 top news outlets have more mobile web traffic than desktop, according to Pew.

Per comScore, mobile ads are more effective than desktop for conversions and brand lift.

Apple says that there are two billion Siri requests a week. What wasn't shared was the accuracy percentage.

I've never been accused of being a fashionista, so it makes sense that responsiveness in new Apple Watch OS excites me more than new bands.

66% of all email in the US opened/read on smartphones or tablets: MovableInk.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - There's Only One Band Worth A Grand

Hermes Apple Watch bands for $1,100 and $1,250? The only band that deserves that outlay is the E Street Band backing Bruce Springsteen.

One in four U.S. online retail sales were via mobile this back to school season, per IBM.

Here’s an IBM stat that is hard to believe – 96% of North American consumers are “excited” about mobile payments. Their activities speak otherwise.

And one more from IBM: 70% of business leaders feel that mobile integration is critical to digital transformation. My take? The other 30% won’t be business leaders for long.

“Siri, change the channel every time they show the damn last play of the Super Bowl.” #GoHawks

70 million photos are uploaded to Instagram daily with 2.5 billion likes per day, according to Salesforce.

A Fast Company story on iPhone 6S says that Apple's 3D Touch is trying to solve the biggest problem in mobile. You mean a bigger one than not being able to bring a selfiestick everywhere?

Sports now accounts for 37% of broadcast TV ad spending -- and 62% at Fox, per Advertising Age. Judging by the first NFL broadcast, more than 60% are seemingly for fantasy football companies.

40%+ of all digital time spent on TV properties is on mobile, comScore reports.

There was finally an update to the OpenTable app that allowed me to freshen the info on my Apple Watch for first time since Aug. 19.

Nothing says overkill than tweets about lines to get into Apple events. Oh, yeah, Periscopes from the same venue.

College kids are still using Facebook more than any other social site, according to eMarketer.

A tweet offers three basic reasons to go mobile. In 2015. Are we that far away?

Six-digit passwords instead of four in iOS9? That should be good for weeks of discussion.

The Amazon Fire is no more. I can’t say I ever ran into one person using one.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Why Singing In the Rain Is Easier Than Texting

You have to hand it to South Korea's KT, the country's second largest mobile carrier, to solve one of the mobile generation’s biggest problems – holding an umbrella in the rain while texting on a large smartphone. Thought not yet for sale, the Phonebrella is an umbrella with a C-shaped handle that fits on the wrist and frees the hands.

Of course, freeing yourself from your smartphone while in the rain gives you two hands and no need for such a product.

A tourist was recently arrested after taking a selfie on top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Last week, a man died doing the same in the middle of the Running of the Bulls. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a selfie isn’t worth these stunts.

Samsung is reportedly working on a large iPad Pro rival. The timing of this is in question given the tablet's fall from “must-have” status.

One third of the 1.3 billion smartphones in the world are used in China.

Twenty years ago, AT&T's annual wireless revenue was $3 billion, according to industry analyst Chetan Sharma. Now, it records that in two weeks.

Apple may be working on “smart bands” for Apple Watch to add new health tracking functions: AppleInsider. And they would come at a cost. Were these not features promised in the already excessively-priced watch?

My reaction to Fast Company’s story called “How to stop overscheduling yourself”? I have no time to read it.

Tweet of the week from @ryangraves: “i wonder what people who write “u” and “ur” do with all that extra time.”

Nearly six in 10 US millennial adult mobile phone users will use mobile banking this year: eMarketer.

Major League Baseball gave Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost an Apple Watch Sport for being the manager of the All Star Game. Now it says that he can’t use the device during games. They can’t wonder if Siri will tip off pitches. She still often can’t accomplish even the more simple of tasks.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "How Big Was Mobile During The Holidays?" Edition

While we await the overall mobile sales numbers for the holidays, consider Amazon customers purchased more than one toy per second on mobile devices, according to the company.

Also, Amazon patrons bought enough Angry Birds plush toys to stretch 285 times the height of the tallest tree in the world, which is found in the Redwood Forest in California.

A $19 monthly, unlimited Republic Wireless smartphone plan is no bargain, acording to reporter for All Things Digital. Limited device choice and poor signal switchover from Wi-FI to 3G are mostly to blame. I’m reminded of a sign: Good food is not cheap, cheap food is not good.

A continuing problem in mobile is forecasting too far out. I’ve seen report of 4% overall marketing spend in 2017 and one at 50%.

Read this - "Contrary to current conventional wisdom, the future is not going to be 'mobile only” and thought this - conventional wisdom? The idea is preposterous.

It didn't make the top of my list of surprises for 2012, but easily could have - the continued ineptness of Siri 14 months after intro.

We're ending 2012 the same as how we started - businesses thinking they need a mobile app but not knowing why.

The Super Bowl will be shown live on mobile via a Verizon app.  Now we need mobile calls to action in ads and we're cooking.

There was a trampoline discount in my inbox. I'm short of jumping for joy regarding the irrelevance.

Please tell me how the backlash over the Instagram rule change could not be predicted. As was the backpedalling.

The Federal Communications Commission is offering a free smartphone security checker. I worked in this category when Symantec was a client. Users won't care until there is a big outbreak. And maybe not even then.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Items May Appear Larger" Edition

A study says augmented reality apps will generate $300 million in 2013. Put on special glasses and it will look like $300 billion.

Unable to deliver iPhone 5s to satisfy demand, word comes that Foxconn may build 130-inch Ultra HDTV panels. Rest assured fewer will want them.

I will remember 2012 as year Twitter became my number one news source. You?

47 percent of 18-34 year old smartphone owners have reportedly clicked on a mobile ad in the past three months. How many have “fat fingers” causing unintentional clicks?

It’s $60 for TomTom's new North America Android app - cheaper than a standalone unit, pricier than Google Maps.

There were 66.8 million viewers for at least a minute of TV election coverage between 8 and 11pm. It was 71.5 million in '08. I expected a bigger dropoff.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney's "victory" speech was written on an iPad. Was it autocorrect or the nation that changed it to a concession? Or both.

The tablet market is now nearly 32 percent the size of the traditional PC market. It happened in LTE speed, so to speak.

"It's gonna be raining tablets," said AT&T’s CEO on shared data plan growth. To me, it’s first about consumers understanding usage, then making decisions.

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. mobile users accessed social media networks on their device in Q3, according to comScore.

We're in a smartphone frenzy, but feature phones have 80 percent share worldwide, according to new stats from Mary Meeker.

If history of inaccuracy is a guide, Siri will sell you tickets to the wrong movie through the Fandango tie-in.

An analyst said that Facebook will "disappear" in 5-8 years. The better bet is that analyst will vanish.

A headline asked, “Who Will Be Disrupted By The Rise Of Mobile?” The better question is who won't be?

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Suckers For Apple Products" Edition

Jimmy Kimmel called consumers "suckers" for buying so many similar Apple products. Parody but how true for you? Or me?

Meanwhile, Apple has doubled its ad budget to $1 billion a year.  What's the value of "free" pre-product launch buzz unique to the company?

According to multiple reports, Microsoft is testing its own brand smartphone. There are risks in pissing off their partners, but too much is at stake not to make a run under full Microsoft control.

Speaking of Microsoft, Oprah said this about the Surface tablet: It “feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people!” Her stock isn’t what it once was, but what’s the worth of her comment in terms of sales?

Mobile giving could account for 20 percent of Sandy relief efforts. Text REDCROSS at 90999 to donate $10 to the relief efforts. As a reminder, more than 90 percent of those who contributed via mobile to Haiti relief were new Red Cross donors.

Teens who use smartphones may engage in more sex, according to a researcher who doesn't blame the technology.

IDC says the share of users accessing social networks on PCs will drop from 66 percent in 2012 to 52 percent in 2016. Mobile disruption.

You thought it was tough now getting a table at Starbucks - just wait. The company is testing wireless charging for devices.

Free mobile apps are four times more likely to track location, says security company Juniper Networks.

How cool is this? Given tablets but no teachers, Ethiopian kids are teaching themselves.

Neither Siri nor Maps would lead you to the executive shuffle at Apple. Siri would think you said dapple.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "How To Make Money With A Tablet Edition"

Google’s profit on every Nexus 7 tablet sold - $0: It's about the ads – duh.

Apple is following a “go-slow approach” to mobile payments, according to the Wall Street Journal. My question - would Steve Jobs worry about adoption or believe he could drive it? Undoubtedly, the latter.

10% of iPhone 4S complaints to FixYa are ‪Siri-‬related while 45% whine about battery life. That follows what ‪A‬pple says about Siri – most people are fine with it.

Seattle readers – I’ll be talking talking ‪M‬obilized Marketing book 8/8 at MCEI Seattle. The Yacht Club in summer - ummm, ok.

Fisher Price to the New York -  “We see 6-month-olds batting at the screen, 9-month-olds swiping, 12-month-olds pointing out objects to see". Surprised that they are waiting until 6-month mark.

If (I stress if) new ‪iPhone‬ and ‪iP‬ad mini go on sale in the fall, what's the bigger seller at least initially? I say the iPad due to price.

I didn't click on Man Holds iPad In His Butt headline. It didn't, ummm, crack me up, either.

Headline: Why Digital Signage Should Be Interactive. Me: everything needs to be interactive because of mobile.

Hey, ‪Li‬nkedin: now that you've dropped tweets, can you work on cleaning up the tall tales told by users? Maybe make noses grow.

Mobile phone use is commonplace even in households with income below $30K - penetration there is more than 80%: Pew.

The latest technology divide myth proof - nearly 70% of those age 65+ have ‪#mobile‬ phone: Pew.

Branding vs. action - quite the disconnect of the word ‪Bold‬ attached to ‪RIM‬ and ‪BlackB‬erry.

Many smartphone users will get severe weather alerts. Unlike other alerts, users will get these without asking but could opt out.

The passive has become even more interactive - ‪NBC‬'s Olympics coverage will be supplemented by ‪a ‬Shazam app.

Notes From a Mobilized Marketer - The Spring Hype Award Edition

I saw where Polaroid eyes mobile for users to experience the "magic of instant in way that only Polaroid can deliver". That makes my spring hype award list.

Pew says that 18 percent of smartphone owners use a geosocial service to check in to certain locations or share their location with friends. That is a meaningful number (around 30 million), but far from the key element in a mobile “reach strategy”. That would be SMS or the mobile web. Preferably both.

I don't buy report that Siri is missing from the iPad because Apple can't make it look good on tablet. I bet that it’s more about an overloaded system just with iPhone 4Ss.

There were ads for pizza and for free obituary searches on Barnes and Noble page of Mobilized Marketing book.

Given the lack of news at CTIA Wireless 2012 (see previous post), do you think that companies are kicking themselves for missing the chance to be one to stand out?

The Angry Birds follow-up is dubbed ‘Amazing Alex’. The word amazing should be reserved for Angry Birds.

Urban Airship’s CEO says that we have years of education ahead of us when it comes to selling in mobile. Hopefully we’re on the other side of the mountain.

It may be that the loyalty play is more meaningful to Google than its new offers showing up on maps, including on mobile. There is lots of money in remarketing and remonetizing.

Blue Droid RAZRs are due in stores. Remember when pink RAZRs were the hot phone? No, I didn't have one, but I could have by accident (I’m colorblind).

Fast Company says that a company turns your Instagram pictures into canvas wall art that anyone can buy. Can buy or will buy?

We’ve all seen this - mobile devices are increasingly being used as a mother’s helper when her kids are bored, according to eMarketer.

Finally some reason - MasterCard says: "No single (mobile) wallet will rule them all".

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer

A report says that there were 30 million near-field communications-enabled smartphones shipped in 2011. The number nearly matches the number of stories hyping hyperlocal, the mobile wallet, and the check-in.

Apple responded to the new iPad’s charging woes. Could this issue bring the most beloved brand down? Please. But I’m sure some are writing that to serve as linkbait.

Groupon supposedly is hiring an “army” of engineers. Will they make sure the flying trapeze offers don't get us smushed?

AT&T is testing a "plus" loyalty program with discounts on non-Apple stuff, dedicated support (as opposed to lackadaisical support), and $10 Starbucks cards. Too little, too late? Not even three Venti’s?

Another report says that 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners use at least one Siri feature per month. A month? That is hardly telling. I skip lunch once a month. That means nothing.

Thanks for your loyal reading of this blog. I was thrilled to see jeffhasen named one of Digiday’s 5 "great digital exec blogs".

For those who observed The Day Of Unplugging – the iPhone 5 was introduced. On top of that, Siri had a baby. I followed the “event” through my nine devices and computers.

Did you note that Coke is using SMS for a contest during NCAA Tournament telecasts? Not apps, the mobile web, nor augmented reality. It's about reach and inclusiveness.

Registration is free for May 3 webinar I'm doing with the Mobile Marketing Assoc about the findings in my Mobilized Marketing book http://bit.ly/A7GoXp. Please join me if you can.

My thinking on hotspots is if someone is going to pay when WiFi is available in more places, the service should just work. Why doesn't it?

Supposedly 220 tablets have been introduced. I’m guessing the "average" consumers can't name more than the iPad and Kindle Fire.

20 percent of sports content during the NCAA tourney has been seen on smartphones and tablets. This trend is discussed extensively by ESPN in my Mobilized Marketing book.

There are about 15 million Foursquare users. By my count, about 14 million of them show me their check-ins on LinkedIn. It makes no sense.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer

I appreciate the reception to my first Notes on A Mobilized Marketer column. We'll get on a regular cadence, likely twice a week. In the meantime, some new notes:

First up are more thoughts on the new iPad release:

Some expected Siri to be on the new device. I wasn’t one of them. In my opinion, the exclusion is all about the 50 million additional iPads that Apple is projected to sell this year. The Siri voice recognition system was overwhelmed by demand when the iPhone 4S was introduced. My hunch is the backend can’t handle 50 million more asking where is the nearest place to buy a taco.

Fanboys (and fangirls) were more than pleased to write about iPad pre-orders selling out for launch-day delivery. Isn’t that just half the story? How many devices have been ordered? The sellout could have as much to do with a lack of supply as with demand.

Apple spent all it's iPad naming time coming up with resolutionary. Fail. Just like phablet for the tablet/smartphone hybrid.

Yes, there were iPad rumors that missed -- tactile functionality and the name to mention just two. Are we taking names of those who passed along nonsense?

A faster iPad run through carrier networks means consumers will need to spend more with the mobile operators. The appetite for that is limited versus just using Wi-Fi.

China got to one billlion mobile subscribers with "only" 15 million iPhone users.

Of course, there was more than Apple news in the last several days:

The headlines around the comScore report centered on the milestone of 100 million smartphones in the United States. What was more newsy to me? Nearly 50 percent of mobile subscribers now use the mobile Web and the same number view apps. Plus, more than one third access social networks or blogs on mobile. And, 75 percent of all U.S. mobile subscribers are now texting, up 3 points. So much for the death of SMS.

Approximately 75 percent in a Sports Illustrated survey say they want to access to both the print and tablet edition. I’m one of those – having SI in my hands is a habit that is hard to break.

Are you waiting for convergence? It's here – Google’s mobile homepage now shows recent searches from your computer.

In the “keep the hype out of mobile category”, no, contrary to the lead in one story, Square doesn't expect its new iPad app to "replace cash registers for small businesses & merchants".

Who Needs Elves When You Have Siri?

Cute Santa spot touting Siri's ability to assist.

Siri At My Service

My first hours with my new personal assistant had me wondering if I should do more interviews to fill the job.

Siri, through my new iPhone 4S, was spotty -- and I'm being generous. Frequently, she said she couldn't find the network. Requests in a loud envionment were a waste of time.

But synching helped the network problem and things have gotten somewhat better.

She's no All-Star. I'm still shaking my head over how she delivered Washington DC results when I specifically asked for a gym near Seattle.

But adding an appointment to my calendar couldn't be easier and sending a text to someone in my contact list is a breeze.

I'll get to know her better and report back.