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".

Social leaped ahead of games on mobile when it comes to amount of activity. Games held the top spot for four years. I wonder if the birds are angry.

One in five want self-driving cars. I'll settle for a chauffeur.

95 percent of independent restaurants don't have mobile web sites, according to a study. I would be surprised if more than 10 percent do anything with mobile.

Twitter has set its sights on two billion users. For me, that's too many "tuna fish sandwich for lunch" reports.

Walmart has brought augmented reality to customers with an app around The Avengers. Will THE mass retailer make AR go mass?

Two thirds won't spend more than $50 per month on mobile data, a study says. Half of smartphone users don't know how much they use. I’m in that 50 percent.

The London Olympics will be streamed live but don't expect real-time posting of user-generated video. That is prohibited by ticketholders.

Something to watch – the U.S. Transportation head says that distracted driving is a "national epidemic". He has called for a ban on using the phone while driving.

Finally a LinkedIn iPad app. It’s surprising that it has taken this long given the iPad user demographic.

Google's ad says Chrome can help you get your ex back. I don't want my ex back. How many do?

71 percent of affluent consumers don't have set spending limit in mobile apps. I wonder if this is more default than by choice.

The msnbc.com story said that the iPad is to tablets as Kleenex is to tissues. To me, this thinking is premature.

Speaking of tablets, will a two-month delay to July push Google's first one to $200? The need to be more efficient to move the price down has reportedly been deemed more important than time into the market.

I still believe that Philadelphia's walking lane for texting was a keeper. It was only in place around April Fools Day. While we’re at it, we need one for elevators and another in airports.

Approximately two billion Facebook posts per month include a geolocation tag. Of course, it’s not only about what you say but where you say it. 

Did you hear the NPR piece on phone tracking? The question was whether the carriers are selling private records to law enforcement. It seems to me that the answer is yes despite the fact that the mobile operators don’t want it called selling.

This from a memo from Yahoo’s CEO Scott Thompson – “Our users want fun, informative, engaging experiences on all screens.” Does this signal that the company will finally seriously integrate mobile?

I'm all about new media but Vin Scully took me back 45 years with his call on Opening Day. He was so good describing the baseball game that I barely picked my head up to watch the game in HDTV.

The latest proof that it’s not our grandparents' world? About 29% of those who read ebooks consume them on cellphones.

Consumers don’t engage with channels, they engage with the brand, said a Walmart executive at a conference. Further, make the experience as seamless as possible, he said. I couldn’t agree more.

For a peek into several sections of my nearly released Mobilized Marketing book, please see the Inside This Book section on my Amazon book page.

Assuming the rumor is true, I would like to know why Apple thinks a 7.85 inch iPad is the right size. I’m disappointed that it's not 7.97258 inches. Call it isanity.

I’m vain enough to wait for augmented reality contact lenses. I say no to Google glasses.

The Masters switched to a free iPad app this year. Surprising given the organizers live in another age on so many issues.

There are enough mixed reviews of the Nokia Lumia 900 that we'll have to see for ourselves. So much is riding on it for Nokia and Microsoft.

Nokia’s 41-megapixel camera has come to America, but you can't buy one. It’s ironic that the company’s show-stopping innovation can't be marketed.

You now can take a picture of junk mail with PaperKarma and an app unsubscribes you. I love mobile.

Shazam says its gets more activity during live TV than Facebook and Twitter. It attributes it to the availability of "bonus content". Isn’t that what we get from our social networks? Or should?

"Listening, invention and personalization" are essential to Amazon's mobile strategy, according to the company. It’s essential for everyone else, too.

On the first day of availability, there were 2,000 downloads a minute for Instagram for Android. Want another wow? Overall, there are 30 million users uploading more than five million photos each day.

Thirty-four percent of surveyed high school seniors own an iPhone, double the percentage of year ago, according to Piper Jaffrey. Even more intend to buy. Some believe the device isn't cool enough for teens. It’s time to rethink that. Also, the implications for other manufacturers are obvious.

Seventy-one percent of iPhone users employ Wi-Fi versus 32 percent for Android owners, comScore reports. The disparity supposedly had to do with overseas data plans that limit Android connections that way.

The only saving grace about the absurd speculation on the iPhone 5 is that it takes attention away from next iPad.

Save May 15 for the next Mobile Mixer, hosted by Hipcricket in our Kirkland, WA, offices. We’ll be talking about the learnings from my Mobilized Marketing book.

I’m amused that every mobile wallet announcement is judged as end-all or not. This is a long-term play, 4-6 years for the tipping point, according to American Express.

On its sixth birthday, 532 million had registered for Twitter accounts. The company said that 140 million are active users. About 12 million have tuna fish for lunch -- or so it seems.

The headline read Yelp Mobile Will Tell You Where To Go For Dinner And What To Order. I already have that covered with my wife,

Several times a year, media report on a supposed mobile phone blowing up or catching fire. A story on an iPhone 4 allegedly imploding while charging hit this week. Invariably, these turn out to be hoaxes. The media doesn’t do its homework – angle of this story has, pardon the pun, some sizzle.

In 17 hours, Amazon sold 1 million $10 gifts cards for $5 each. Before, during, after recession, people want a deal. Several studies tell us that about 70 percent of mobile subscribers want them on their mobile devices.

Apple sold three million iPads in three days. It took the first iPad 28 days for 1 million.

Do you think consumers heard "Apple buyback" and thought it was about getting rid of old products?

Google is said to be reevaluating its mobile wallet strategy in light of what Bloomberg said was slower than expected adoption. Mobile-payment transactions will top $170 billion by 2015, up from about $60 billion last year, according to Juniper Research. If those projections are true, will 2015 be viewed as the end of the early adopter phase?

Here’s a tale of two moms – my mother-in-law wants a smartphone. My mom needed help over the weekend clearing messages from my old RAZR (I’m not a cheap son - that’s all the phone she wants). The lesson for marketers? One size does not fit all. I used to think that the RAZR was intuitive. Gosh, was I wrong. I had to relearn the basics.

Battery life is the number one issue for consumers, but J.D. Power survey takers still rank the iPhone tops for satisfaction.

I am somehow managing to get by on the "lower-resolutionary" iPad 2. Others might think life is unfair.

What to make of Apple having a good supply of the “new” iPad? Sascha Segan of PC Magazine frames it this way on Twitter - “If the iPad didn't sell out, doesn't that mean Apple planned things properly? Shouldn't everyone who wants one get one?” Good points.

Were you like me bored with the iPad line stories? People camp out from Apple products. News here?

When Apple said it was announcing the use of some of its cash balance, I wondered if it involved branding the new device iPad 3? I would call that better late than never.

It was cool to talk to the Mobile Marketing Association and Direct Marketing Association about mobile certification training and a test around DMA 2012. More to come as we get closer to the fall show.

Is Google accurate when it says, “In a few years, not having a mobile strategy will be just as silly as not having a desktop experience"? Are we still years away?

I can’t argue with the SMS practices that are part of Xbox Mobile marketing. Be worthy, engaging, now and relevant.

In my Digiday column http://jeffhasen.com/my-digiday-column-beware-of-sxsw-pixie-dust, I wrote about the danger in marketers chasing the SXSW pixie dust – shiny objects that caught attention but likely won’t drive business results soon or ever. Since, I’ve seen these numbers – there were 755,373 total tweets with keyword or hashtag SXSW. Plus, there were 3,702 concurrent Foursquare check-ins at the hall. The stats tell us what we already knew - attendees are not representative of Main Street. I doubt that there are 3,702 check-ins in many towns.

Another takeaway from SXSW was the lack of discussion about whether something was mobile or social. Of course, it's both. I’m glad that we finally got there.

Like the rest of the nearly 25,000 attendees, I caught a small piece of the action given the competing sessions, Manhattan-esque traffic, and multiple sites. Also, what I didn’t hear was a debate on the convergence of mobile and social, perhaps signaling a realization that the two were never destined to be in silos. Just follow the consumers who would have none of that.

The most provocative comments came from futurist Ray Kurzweil despite his repeated statements about the neo cortex delivered to a crowd that had lost many brain cells due to the incessant partying.

What most caught my attention from Kurzweil:

-- "You can start world-changing revolution with the power of your ideas and the tools that everyone has. A kid in Africa has access to more information than the president of the United States did 15 years ago."

-- "As we go through this decade, search engines aren't going to wait to be asked. They'll be listening [to humans] in the background. And [the search results] will just pop up."

-- "If we can convince people that computers have complexity of thought and nuance ... we'll come to accept them as human."

The second and third comments can be debated. Will many want behind-the-scenes listening, interpreting, and advice from a machine? I agree with Kurzweil who shrugged off a suggestion that connectivity is a curse. He said that we are all in control and that “time triage” is an individual decision.

A few more things that caught my attention in recent days.

Samsung’s tablet revenue reportedly won’t only come from the sale of its own products. The company supposedly will sell to Apple $11 billion in parts for an iPad mini, according a report that quoted an unnamed Samsung source.

You say that there is no money in apps? Not this time. Draw Something, one of the top selling apps that I wrote about when Apple reached 25 billion downloads, is earning six figure revenues per day.

Clicks on mobile ads are 2X in Italy compared to the United States, according to eMarketer. In my upcoming Mobilized Marketing book, I spend considerable time talking to global marketers about the nuances in their regions. 

In 2012, $2.2 trillion or 10 percent of disposable household income will be spent on mobile devices and services, according to Gartner. Do you still think that it’s the early days of mobile?

I don’t want to flaunt the fact that I heard about authentication stacks during a SXSW panel. Tell me you aren't jealous.

Probably the smartest words in Austin – people don't care about your products - they care about solutions to their problems. Amen.

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: