Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Apps Over Websites Is Clear Winner in Time Spent Count

Purely on time spent, users of mobile apps are 20X more engaged than those who visit mobile web sites, per comScore. This came through a study of the top 1,000 apps and sites.

What should we take from this information? App makers are succeeding in catering to the more loyal customers with interesting, even personal experiences. Web sites remain a way to get reach but not necessarily to build loyalty.

Facebook overestimated average time spent watching video ads by between 60% and 80% for the past 2 years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In other wonderful news, Mobile app marketers will lose $100 million to fraud this year, AppsFlyer reported.

8% of podcast listeners purchase a product/service after hearing an ad: IAB. This speaks to relevance provided to those who choose the programming.

There will be a huge void on Twitter after the election. Or not. iPhone 8 rumors will kick in nearly a year before the expected 10th anniversary revamp.

I disabled breathe notifications on my AppleWatch. I need help on many things. This one, I have covered.

More than two million people watched Week 2 of the NFL on Twitter, upping the audience by 34%.

Apple is said to be stepping up plans for an Amazon Echo-style smart-home device. It would use the same Siri that wanted to get me a Lyft when I told the watch to Start Elliptical.

Up to 50% of consumers who cancel a Netflix subscription eventually return, says the company’s CTO. How many other businesses can claim the same?

Appointment reminders are the top category in a list of the types of messages that U.S. millennials want to receive, per OpenMarket.

Twitter no longer counts photos, GIFs or videos toward the 140-character limit. Look for more pictures of lunches.

Buying "in-store" (33.5%) is still the most popular channel for holiday shopping, eMarketer said. But mobile surely has a large influence, even down aisles and at shelves.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Facing A Life of Paying By Selfie

MasterCard is testing an app that lets customers pay with a selfie. Facial recognition enables the app to verify one’s identity. After registering, users would be able to pay by looking at their phone and blinking once. The blink prevents thieves from showing the app a picture of a face to get around the system.

For those uncomfortable with this, the app can read one’s fingerprint. Or, of course, one can pay with cash.

45% of smartphone owners begin with Amazon when shopping on a smartphone, according to a survey by Mizuho Securities. Google is in the runner-up slot with 16%.

But when it comes to searching for information, 34% begin with the Google search app, followed by 27% typing into the Safari browser, and 19% beginning with the Chrome browser.

An example of the need for more personalization in mobile – I received a text offer for a brown sugar bacon sandwich. Totally random.

The third quarter of 2015 begins and Gogo is still at dialup speed. I’m told by someone in the know that they raised their prices significantly to discourage usage while still making their overall business goal by gouging the poor suckers who use the crappy service.

What is one to do about an Apple Watch tan line. I’m surprised that CNN hasn’t covered this phenomenon and dubbed it Breaking News.

Matti Makkonen, considered the father of SMS, died at 63. He made an enormous contribution to mobile and to marketing. Despite proven results, text messaging is often too quickly dismissed by marketers.

To the next person who uses appsolutely - pow.

Facebook is giving marketers the option of paying for video ads after 10 seconds of viewing instead of three, per the Wall Street Journal.

A diet-based video game claims to make you thinner. Fat chance.

A man claimed that his iPhone 6 overheated, burst into flames. These stories almost always turn out to be hoaxes.

China’s Huawei introduced a phone with a dancing piece of pizza. I’m figuring that it was something about wanting a slice of the market.

In My New Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Should We Be Proud That There Are More Mobile Devices Than Toothbrushes?

Rather than trying to prove mobile’s popularity by saying that there are more wireless phones in the world than toothbrushes, why don’t we buy the world some toothbrushes? There are organizations that serve this mission, but we still have a need. Carriers, handset manufacturers, marketers, are you with me?

Led by “back to school shopping”, mobile commerce increased 47% in Q2 vs. a year ago, comScore said. And sales via tablet were up an eye-opening 75%. As comScore reported, some brick-and-mortar retailers prominently offered online-only “Back to School” deals on their sites to promote digital commerce.

One more to note as we near the holiday shopping season: mobile has become the primary medium for consumers to engage with retail brands online, with 70% of engagement from mobile devices.

OK, another one because the stats are so important – more than 34% of the top 10 retailers’ monthly unique visitors are mobile-only.

It has come to this for Blackberry - Wall Street cheered an $11 million loss in the second quarter.

More than one in eight Americans has deposited a check within the past year using a mobile app.

A third of all pictures taken by millennials are selfies, according to a report from Mitek Systems and polling firm Zogby Analytics.

From the same study: 36% of millennials have decided where to spend money or have switched companies based on a brand's mobile offerings.

As crazed as we are about mobile in the U.S., we take a back seat to Austria where market penetration in mobile is 130-140%, according to the IAB.

Multiple studies show that half of mobile users abandon a page if it doesn’t load in 10 seconds. I would’ve guessed 5.

86% of time on mobile is spent on apps, ExactTarget said.

Tablet sales are estimated to increase 39% this year, Brainshark stated. Some think that it’s a dying category. I’m not one of them.

Fear of going without your phone is called nomophobia. As in no mobile. Going without a toothbrush is worse.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: Anything Your App Can Do Dogs Can Do Better

An app that forces you to get out of bed? I have three dogs that do that.

More than half of U.S. online adults who begin tasks on their mobile phone continue them on their laptop, Forrester says.

The digital ad spend is concentrated among a few companies  -- nine account for two-thirds of the U.S. digital ad revenues, according to eMarketer.

Up to five million Android users have malware issues. I believe that 4,999,993 don't know or care enough to do something. But Norton claims that a text message worm targets Android devices.

I disagree with the notion that consumers won't be loyal in the mobile age. In fact, I think that the opportunity to create and cultivate relationships is better than ever.

Nielsen tweeted that while advertisers are exploring mobile, they need proof that campaigns are effective. This is news?

If I tried, I couldn't create a worse user experience than what Gogo gives us on flights. Slow, bad customer service, overpriced, frustrating. No more.

78% of U.S. youth use Facebook at least once a month, more than Instagram & WhatsApp combined, reports Forrester.

Android users are spending around half as much as iOS users on apps.

89% of buyers use mobile when searching for homes, according to Keller Williams.

ESPN said that 3.2 million people watched the U.S. vs. Germany World Cup game. That added 10% to the TV audience.

A tweet said that BlackBerry is waging war against its greatest enemy: media haters. That’s a head-scratching, desperate strategy.

Another tweet says that it's official. We live in a mobile world. What kept you?

Deloitte says that there are three ways that banks can drive revenue from mobile - new customers, cross-selling, and mobile commerce.

The abandon rate for mobile shopping carts is 97%, claims HP.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Focusing On the Unfocused Two-Year-Olds

Thirty-eight percent of toddlers 2 or under are using a smartphone or tablet, according to Common Sense Media. Try doing a “focus” group with this crowd.

Declaring jet lag “fundamentally a math problem,” researchers say they have devised a mobile app to overcome it. Entrain tells you when to get more exposure to light and when not to do so. I use the old-fashioned method – I have three dogs to tell me when to open my eyes. They never forget.

The American smartphone user spends 30 minutes a day updating social networks.

The spend on location-targeted mobile ads is expected to increase 55 percent from $2.9B to $4.9B in 2014 & reach $15.7B in 2018, Mediapost says.

The average U.S. mobile consumer spent 86 percent of time on apps, only 14 percent on mobile web, according to Flurry.

Half of U.S. millennials own a laptop, smartphone and tablet.

CNBC and others report that Amazon will announce its first phone, with a 3D screen, by June.

Meanwhile, the Amazon Appstore hits 200,000 apps, almost tripling in one year.

The $1,500 price tag, plus the use of technology that we know is evolving, are reasons to not buy Google Glasses during public sale this week. Still, there is some temptation.

Gaming apps accounted for 41 percent of downloads from the Apple and Google stores in February.

Twitter has 580 million inactive users.

A prototype charger can power up a smartphone in 30 seconds. The question is whether it can be mass-produced.

I see that Klout has redesigned its iOS app. I would be more excited if it redesigned Klout.

Turner says video streams of March Madness were up 42 percent.

There are now more mobile-only or mobile-centric homes in the US (55 percent; 133 million adults) than those with landlines, industry analyst Greg Sterling reports.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Leaky" Apps Edition

There’s a new term - "leaky” mobile apps, meaning ones that could compromise privacy. Reminds me of the joke of the guy who calls downstairs in the motel – “I have a leak in my sink.” The response: “You gotta do what you gotta do.”

Headline: Swallowing This Tiny Pill Will Let You Unlock All Your Password-Protected Devices. Reaction: gulp.

The Super Bowl live stream via Fox's app & Web site averaged 528,000 viewers without counting Verizon phone streams.

Microsoft’s Super Bowl ad on the empowerment from technology was powerful, but it was a surprise that the company didn’t push its mobile products and call for the same experience across all Microsoft devices.

55 percent of U.S. ebook readers have used a tablet to read digital books in the past year--up from 23 percent in Dec 2011.

Another “smartphone caught fire in the pocket” story. They almost always are hoaxes. News organizations are the ones burned.

CNN expects to see half its online traffic come from mobile this year.

In general, do marketers not ask consumers for permission because they are lazy or because they believe people aren't interested?

T-Mobile's attempts are admirable, but it was always going to get to carriers needing to be competitive on pricing when phones are similar.

Headline: New Payments Startups Face An Uphill Battle To Disrupt The Credit Card Processing Industry. So do old payments startups.

There’s a big boost in global smartphone shipments, but that metric has always been unsatisfactory. It’s about sales, not units sent from factories.

1,539 hours of NBC programming from Sochi and we can't see the Opening Ceremonies live on any platform, including mobile. What is this, 1964?

Facebook has passed 1.23 billion monthly active users with 945 million mobile users and 757 million daily users.

Also, Facebook’s mobile revenue is up four times year over year.

App downloads will double in the next four years, according to eMarketer.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Is Captain Kangaroo Still King?

Parents say mobile education apps don’t provide value, but TV still does. So says a study from education-focused research firm The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Since I don't have young kids, I need to ask - who is the modern-day Captain Kangaroo?

For all of Amazon's knowledge of the user, is it not surprising that local offers delivered daily are generic?

It has been five minutes since I've seen a tweet about the weather in NY for Super Bowl 48. C'mon, people. I need to stay informed.

The Weather Channel is doing heavy promotion to try to get us to leave the Super Bowl telecast at halftime to watch its forecast for the second half. Really?

A study says that looking at your smartphone at night can make you more tired the next day. We know this, but can't help ourselves.

My Fitbit Force says I burned more calories in less than four hours of sleep after midnight than in 28 minutes on elliptical. Really?

The size of the iPhone has always been ideal for me. Making it larger might bring others into fold, but send others like me away.

Facebook is either going out of business over the next several years or it wins in mobile advertising. The latter is more likely.

More and more, I'm hearing feature phones referred to as dumb phones. Keep that reference out of your marketing.

Is engagement the metric that matters most with mobile? It’s extremely important but sales trump everything.

My new Market Motive mobile certification students are from China, India, Canada and the U.S. It is representative of where mobile is today.

BlackBerry landed a massive Pentagon order and its stock soared. What is this, 2005?

Apple is no longer the consumers’ favorite tech brand, according to a Forrester study. It dropped to No. 5.

A Passionate Marriage of Football and Victoria's Secret?

Victoria’s Secret is once again rolling out a series of games within its mobile application, signaling the importance that apps play for the retailer in building engagement and driving sales.

Here’s part of what I told Mobile Marketer:

“In a football-crazed world, it’s easy to understand why Victoria Secret would look to tap into the interest and passion of what has become America’s sport. The key is to make the games fun and compelling enough for a wireless user to take a look, then come back for more”.

Of course, coming back could lead to more sales. That’s enough to shake anyone’s pom poms.

The full article is here - http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/victoria’s-secret-makes-in-app-games-a-staple-of-mcommerce-strategy

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Do You Need An App or Common Sense?" Edition

A new app uses Kinect technology to prevent you from running into things while texting. An alternative is to put the device down.

The No. 1 pet peeve about smartphones is people checking it too much, according to a poll.  I found this by checking my smartphone.

If gadgets could measure emotions as is being discussed, would an insurance company raise fees if you show signs of being depressed or sick?

I saw a headline that said TV Networks Play to “Second Screen”. Do you know anyone who leaves mobile in the other room? Me, neither.

Either real-time bidding will change everything or it's most hyped ever? To me, it’s somewhere in between, but closer to hype.

Will we see a revitalization of camera sales if they get 1m000 times better in low light or will smartphones satisfy? For most, it’s the latter.

I heard a true recent story of a 96 year old who was getting hearing aids for first time. She said, "This is not as easy as my iPad.”

One percent cut cord on at-home Internet for LTE, Wifi out and about. That’s more than cut cable, but hardly a stampede.

49 percent of tablet shoppers are dissatisfied with the buying experience – report. Non-optimization leads to anticipointment.

"We're all in on mobile. We were created for mobile" Words from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.  And some still have social and mobile in silos?

Today I again violated that rule of not looking at email in the first hour of the day. I’m thinking I should start with the first minute.

The mobile ad spend in the U.S. was $4B in 2012 compared to $37B for web advertising, according to Mary Meeker. That’s consistent with forecasts

Headline of day - PayPal Founder Launches Startup To Get More Women Pregnant.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: The "U Can't Touch This" Edition

Consumer Reports says that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is the world’s best smartphone in part because you can use it with gloves on. I see a commercial coming with MC Hammer’s song, U Can’t Touch This.

In the first three months of 2013, 1.8 million Spaniards switched from big carriers to small, cheaper operators. Is a repeat here? Upstarts get smashed in marketing budget wars.

Only 9 percent of marketers think agencies do good job keeping up: Chief Marketing Officer Council. I find that especially true with mobile and traditional firms, some of which that have never veered from the 60’s-style TV spot and print.

Smartphone owners spend 127 minutes per day in mobile apps. What was that about the mobile web killing apps?

A new ad saying more people enjoy music on an iPhone than any other phone targets a younger demo. No 50-somethings.

A report says that by 2016, 25 percent of all laptops shipped will have touchscreens, as compared to just 10 percent now. That’s in large part due to mobile’s effect on technology and behavior.

Home improvement or HTC First with Facebook Home won't be sold in Europe, according to AllThingsD.

64 percent of mobile users use Twitter in front of the TV at home. 25 percent of them tweet about the shows they watch.

99.9 percent of new mobile malware targets Android phones. Consumers don’t care – and won’t until there is a significant issue.

Walmart's head of mobile said at CTIA that while sales through a phone are important, it’s mobile-influenced sales that matter most. Also, Walmart app users spend 40 percent more per month, make twice as many trips as non-app users.

An 18-year-old’s invention can recharge a mobile phone in 30 seconds. But a component needs to be put into the batteries, so it won’t work on our current models.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Dumber Smartphone User" Edition

A report suggests that smartphones are making us dumber. I read it as more of an opinion about the downside of multitasking. I would say more, but I’m conducting an orchestra while I write.

I’ve been using a low-end smartphone for some testing. It provides perspective on the complaints we have with the better models.

As of late last week, while Facebook's stock was down 30 percent since its IPO, daily users were up 26 percent, mobile monthly users were up 56 percent, and revenue up 38 percent, according to Techcrunch.

More on the changing face of mobile messaging - Google’s new Hangouts app will soon support SMS.

Headline: Mobile Loyalty Programs - The New Home Run for Marketers. New? No. ROI has been proven for years. There are dozens of examples in my Mobilized Marketing book and on this site.

Groupon Co-CEO: My wife won't let me forget I rejected Google's $5.75 billion. My wife would move past it. Sure.

Ninety-five percent of Q1 Android smartphone profits went to Samsung.

Households making less than $30K send/receive 60 texts a day, twice those of households earning more than $75K, according to Pew.

ABC will reportedly participate in Nielsen's first test of new technology designed to track mobile TV viewers.

A Virgin America flight attendant reportedly said this upon landing: “If your mobile device is within reach, you can stop pretending it’s turned off now.”

There is no unsubscribe link on Priceline emails. you know, the ones you and I never asked to get when we booked a room.

I hate those "automated" counts like the one running on the Apple home page last week supposedly counting app downloads. They smell fake every time.

Only 3 percent of affluent women buy designer apparel via mobile: study. That number seems very low and bound to go higher.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer: The "Please Turn Off All Electronics" Edition

One-third of airline passengers say they don't turn off electronics, according to a new survey. Many claim the inaction is unintentional. I observe disregard on most flights I take.

Could Facebook have been so short-sighted as to not deploy enough longtime Android users to build Home, which now is being seen more for its missteps?

Those who have downloaded Facebook Home spend 25 percent more time on the network. There are just not enough people on it yet.

Anheuser-Busch uses mobile to take consumers form "awareness to consideration, favorability, purchase intent, purchase, loyalty and advocacy," says Winston Wang, global director of strategic innovation.

ABC will be the first U.S. broadcaster to live-stream local, syndicated, and national shows -- to mobile devices. But it will only work in certain cities for paying cable subscribers.

Among the reasons that Facebook may spend $1 billion on mapping app Waze is better monetization of local search.

Google Wallet has dropped plans for a companion physical card. It was thought by many to be needed backup for battery-depleted phones.

Eight percent of U.S. online adults with a mobile phone have used QR/2D bar codes in the past month, according to Forrester. The naysayers would say it’s .08 percent.

ESPN is eying subsidized wireless data plans, reports the Wall Street Journal.  No cheering yet with economics still to be worked out - or not.

85 percent of mobile givers are first time donors to a charity. Haiti relief was the moment when mobile giving became huge.

A person passes 5,000 ads a day, sees 285 of those, but only notices 6, according to Borrell Associates.

QR codes for researching products? Not so much -- entertainment, amusement are remaining reasons for marketers to consider usage.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Apps Make Us Lazy Edition

Are smartphone apps making us "the ultimate consumer but also kind of lazy"?  Only if we let them.

There are 10 million active users of Starbucks mobile apps - and that's before bigger push into grocery stores.

You know what holds back mobile? Dumb stuff like this headline - Mobile Will Complement TV, Not Replace It. No kidding.

A BBC survey said that viewers expect more advertising than currently on multiple platforms. They said expect, not want.

I read a piece claiming that the use of mobile apps is behind the decline of American Idol and Survivor. It’s a combination of things including viewer fatigue on these shows.

Meanwhile, a study says that 80 percent of TV viewers 18-24 use a phone or tablet. The good news is that they include television in their lives.

Will Google Glasses sell on the benefit of taking photos in a second or two versus a slightly longer time with smartphones?

For all of its supposed troubles, Apple has to love a new Yankee Group survey – 91 percent of iPhone users plan to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone.

Every day, more photos are taken with an iPhone than with any other camera. And that spans age groups.

The Washington Attorney General slammed T-Mobile over deceptive ‘no-contract’ ads. An agreement is a contract – simple.

I saw a story that made the claim that the call-to-action is ruining ads. I couldn't disagree more. Ford drove a 15.4 percent lead conversion that way. Failure?

Malware and viruses in #QR codes?  That’s more ammunition for the doubters.

Sprint CEO: Wireless operators need to focus on profitability. You think?

In four years, there will be 10 million shipments of Google Glass and similar devices, according to an analyst. That’s large but not when compared to six billion phones.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Punishment Edition

Great – a to-do list app that punishes you for not getting things done. I have a wife for that.

According to recent research, kids born today will spend about 25 percent of their lives looking at screens. Not blackboards. Not printed books. Not the world around them.

A mainstay just a couple of years ago, digital cameras look like dinosaurs in this mobile era.

Rave reviews for Yahoo's revamped mobile weather app. Pretty? Yes. Stop the rain from falling? Nope.

Devices are reportedly getting 20 percent of search budgets as spending rises dramatically. That’s because of the actions mobile users take after the search.

Can Verizon customers end wireless contracts with petition signatures? Not if it doesn't pencil out for the carrier.

Facebook hired the former Apple Maps boss. Did it take this long to find him?

A way out there Facebook Home TV spot makes the claim that the product is so awesome, you won't even listen to Zuck.

As said in the New York Times, "People don't want a fair price. They want a great deal." That’s true everywhere, certainly so on mobile.

A survey said that 71 percent say “nothing” could get them to buy a BlackBerry. That says to me that 29 percent are there to be convinced. Opportunity.

More than 500,000 new magazines were created in two weeks by Flipboard's 53 million users. Personalization wins again.

Phabulous news. Samsung introduced the Mega, a larger phablet. It will be available in Russia in May. You in? I will never buy a product called a phablet.

An indicator of a pickup in the housing market? Zillow says 89 homes are viewed per second on mobile devices.

For all talk of on-the-go mobile searcher, a great majority of activity happens in the home or office, according to research by Google and Nielsen.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Like and Tweet Edition

Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times a day. That’s when they are not tweeting.

Anyone other than me think it was a mistake to bring the first new BlackBerry without a physical keyboard? Touchscreen is me-too.

It's not a T-Mobile contract - it's an Equipment Installment Plan. Wasn't this going to be dead simple?

In-app purchase revenue has hit records: 76 percent Of U.S. iPhone app revenue, 90 percent in Asia. Not just any apps - games.

54 percent of retailers see mobile as biggest growth area. The others are destined to fail.

According to eMarketer, Twitter will earn $308.9M in 2013 mobile ad revenue -- more than they earned in 2012 total, from any ad type.

An analyst says that the iPhone 5 got five times as many tweets as the Galaxy S4. Meaning what? Little to nothing.

IDC: tablet sales grew 78.4 percent year over year in 2012. They are expected to pass desktop sales in 2013, portable PCs in 2014.

Apple plans to triple the number of authorized resellers in India by 2015. That could coincide with a cheaper iPhone.

News that an Australian business is charging $5 to "fight" showrooming was trending but it won't create a trend. It more likely will put the company out of business.

From the Wall Street Journal no less came a feature on the Mets PR director it calls a "butt dialer" for inadvertently placing mobile calls.

JetBlue plans to offer fast onboard Wi-Fi free of charge. Hopefully that’s the start of a trend.

HTC is no longer "quietly brilliant" in its marketing. It will be louder. As for brilliant, we'll see.

Young Americans send almost ten times as many texts as Americans over 55. What's noteworthy is that the 55+ set texts.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Don't Make Me Hurt You" Edition

Said Prince to a South By Southwest crowd: "Don't make me hurt you -- you know how many hits I have?”

About as many as mobile notes I’ve jotted down recently. Here’s some of what’s on my mind:

How quickly things change in mobile. Mailbox reportedly was the third most-used iPhone utility app last month. 

There is some buzz around the Hater app. That’s because the world needs better ways for us to express hatred.

Chinese consumers spend 50-60 percent of their time on mobile.  How as marketers do we sell more to them? That’s one of mobile’s big opportunities in the years ahead.

With three days of meetings on mobile healthcare apps, the question has been posed as to whether Congress is stifling innovation. Or is oversight necessary to protect the public?

Gartner says it will take three years for BlackBerry to reach a 5 percent market share - and it's not sure thing. When it comes to share shifts, that’s often not a quick process, even in mobile.

Instagram added 5 million daily mobile users in three months after the Facebook acquisition.

Samsung confirms that it too has a smartwatch in development. Likely dozens of others do as well.

Mobile-initiated product research by affluent consumers doubled year over year in 2012, according to eMarketer.

23 percent of teens have a tablet computer, a level comparable to the general adult population, Pew reports. Many believed tablets skew older.

Gestures in Samsung’s Galaxy S4 will be either make you more efficient or look dumb - or both.

Samsung may sell 10 million Galaxy S4 units in a month, half the time it took to sell 10 mil III's, according to analysts.

As of the other day, Apple shares were up 5,749 percent since 2003. Samsung’s were up 373 percent.

Google says the mobile consumer is 18 to 24 months ahead of most marketers. Ahead? For sure. Two years? Gosh, I hope not.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer -- The App "Revival" Edition

Remember the predictions of the death of mobile apps? The category just crossed over $25 billion in sales.

It never was going to be either/or with the mobile web. On Twitter and elsewhere, people look for absolutes. Foolish.

Speaking of Twitter, I'm as big on it as the next one, but without a fact checker built in, we'll pass on anything. I have a big problem with that.

After falling behind tablets in holiday quarter, are notebooks ready for rebound? An analyst says yes. I’m not so sure.

On mobile devices and malware comes this quote - “The bad guys haven’t found the right way to get money from the user.” They will.

On similar note, at least 80 percent of mobile apps have security and privacy issues that put enterprises at risk, according to Network World.

Some teens are losing interest in Facebook but still are in the company’s net with heavy Instagram use.

Instagram has reached 100 million users sharing 40 million photos a day.

58 percent of affluent consumers use a second screen while watching television: report. I believe that number is low.

Signed up for mobile alerts on sequester? Me, neither.

Mobile users with household income between $50K and $75K are the most active on social networks, according to Pew. It’s 10 percent higher than income less than $30K.

23 percent of mobile Facebook users only access the social network by mobile. That's 157 million users, according to eMarketer.

13 Major League Baseball teams will accept mobile tickets via Apple Passbook. "Traditional" tickets to fall to less than 10 percent.

Nothing like the problems with email, but there are 30,000 unique SMS spam pitches a month: report.

Relevance matters - I stopped reading an email after it said Dear Frank.

The Question Remains – Does Your Business Need A Mobile App?

When it comes to mobile apps, the year is ending the way it began – with some marketers saying they need one, but without even a half-decent reason why.

Several weeks ago in Las Vegas, I was approached following a Mobilized Marketing book presentation by a small business marketer. Much to the chagrin of a “more sophisticated” marketing colleague, the gentlemen pushed for approval from me for moving forward on creating an app.

But when I gently asked whether he knew what type of mobile devices his customers carry, and whether he was prepared to build for more than one operating system (iOS for Apple devices, Android for Google, etc.), he realized that he hadn’t done enough homework on the subject of apps.

That scenario happened to me several times this year – and actually every year since 2007.

In a recent PC World article called Does your small business need a mobile app to stay competitive? http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=A0025B28-C30F-D9C1-1529706063D17C87 author Christopher Null wrote that many small and medium size business owners believe that everyone has an app but them.

“As a small-business owner, choosing whether to join the app-development club can be a difficult decision,” Null wrote. “You may feel like you have to build an app and go mobile to stay competitive, but you’ve probably heard that apps are expensive and time-consuming to develop. More and more users are dumping desktops and laptops for tablets and cell phones, so it makes sense to optimize the online experience for them. But is it really worth the effort? Cant they just use their smartphones to access the website you already have?

“Its a tricky problem with no single cut-and-dried solution.”

Null correctly pointed out that while mobile websites work on all smartphones, “an app gives you much more presence on the phone than a bookmark on that phones browser does. Rather than forcing the user to launch the browser and find your URL, an app is always there, front and center on the mobile desktop. Your business is constantly in mind, whether the person is using the app or not.”

I’m in the camp that says build a mobile website before an app (if you need an app at all) because it is more inclusive.

There were some who believed that the “duel” between the mobile web and apps would be won by the end of 2012 and that only one would be left standing. That won’t happen. Both have a place. It behooves small and medium size business owners and marketers to understand their customers and provide the best solution for them.

-

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business http://goo.gl/S6P7m program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "What's Cooking" Edition

Visits to allrecipes.com from mobile are 40 percent of total traffic, up from 8 percent a year ago. That makes sense - you’ll find devices used in kitchens and shopping aisles. And folks go to them day after day, unlike many apps that get downloaded, then forgotten.

Headline: Coming in 2013 – Targeted TV Ads. A century after television was invented, you wonder how "mass marketing" made it this long.

24 percent of cellphone owners say the worst thing about them is they make you constantly available and reachable at any time: Pew. It’s simultaneously the best and worst thing, IMO.

On Black Friday, Groupon’s mobile transactions were up 140 percent, 4X a normal Friday A.M. That’s a lot of eyelash enhancement sales.

Mobile LTE subscribers are expected to double by 2014. That means more mobile video consumption.

Mobile app sales are projected to exceed $30 billion this year, 2X to 2011. The death of apps has been greatly exaggerated.

In 2012, mobile accounts for 10 percent of sales and 20 percent of new customers for HSN, the 26th largest retailer.

Of course, it's too soon to know, but you have to wonder if marketers view mobile differently now vs. before Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers came in large. How can they not, if they are paying attention.

Samsung is the latest to be under scrutiny for factory working conditions. We want our devices, but not at any cost.

In 2008, 25 percent of cell owners used their phone to access the internet. Now: 56 percent, according to Pew.

Embark, a free public transit app, was downloaded 100,000 times after the Apple Maps were revised/screwed up.

Are you mobile shopping if you have you are on phone but don't buy anything? Analysts disagree. I say yes, just like if you go to the mall and come away empty-handed.

iPhone 5 is down to a week shipping time. That’s good compared to where it's been but bad because it’s unavailable on demand more than 2 months after launch.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The "Donate To Elect A President" Edition

One in 10 has donated via mobile, the Pew organization says. As for just donating to presidential campaigns, only 1 in 100. Makes sense. Disasters push more people to act. Likely, some would view the state of America as a disaster.

Saying no one is succeeding with mobile is in the same category as saying everyone is. It’s flat out wrong.

Holiday messaging is all over brick and mortar retail before Halloween. Shoppers can limit exposure by not going in. But what about holiday ads on mobile? Will consumers welcome them or be turned off?

HTC’s sales problems in one statement? More BlackBerry devices are being sold.

Among Americans who read e-books, those under 30 are more likely to read e-books on mobile or PC than on an e-book reader, including Kindles and tablets, according to Pew.

What's your preference? I can point you to a story on Apple having no chance versus Pandora or one that says the battle will be easy. Each has an element of linkbait.

27 percent of showrooming shoppers will likely make a holiday purchase using a smartphone or tablet while out shopping, according to Accenture.

Samsung shipped more smartphones in Q3 than any company in history with profit up 91 percent year over year. No supply issues here.

Last I looked, there were over 638,000 Facebook likes to an AT&T customer's complaint about her inability to use Facetime over the carrier network with "unlimited" data plan. She was being forced to change to a family plan.

The Windows Store officially opened with more than 7,873 apps, a story said. Give or take, eh?

Here’s a headline on supposed unintentional clicks on mobile ads - Your Fingers Are Fatter in the Morning. That’s dumb with no backup proof.

The biggest non-story around the iPad Mini? Don't buy now because the price will come down and you'll feel burned. Nah, that’s the nature of all tech.