Tag Archives: wireless news

Indonesia: Mobile phone market at tremendous growth

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The mobile phone market in Indonesia has accounted an unprecedented growth as number of mobile shipment in the third quarter takes a dramatic increase, having surpassed 12 million units from second quarter’s 10 million units set on record.

In an IDC report, said growth represented a year-to-year growth of 68%, in which one of the factors seen to have contributed such a high level growth is due to large volume shipments of low-end mobile devices in the region.

The smartphone market, on other hand, maintained a positive growth at 5% quarterly and 11% to the total of mobile phone shipment. IDC, in a report, is expecting for a 68% growth in Indonesia’s smartphone market by year 2012 with the coming of several low-cost smartphones.

The country’s sales chart revealed Nokia, Cross, and Nexian in top 3 record breakers among feature phones; while RIM, Samsung, and HTC comprised the top leaders for smartphones.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Cannes Launches Another Award Category: Mobile Lions

The number of award categories just keeps on expanding at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. Come next summer, agencies will have to ponder setting aside funds to enter yet another new awards section: a separate category for mobile creative work. The latest category follows the debut of an effectiveness category and a holding company award at Cannes 2011. “Mobile has been part of the Lions for some years, within other sections such as cyber and film; and a large number of winning campaigns in sections like media, design, direct and outdoor have made significant use of mobile technology,” said Cannes Lions CEO Philip Thomas in a statement. “By carving it out of the other sections, we are simply reflecting the importance of mobile in the media mix.”

Mobile Web Africa 2011 – Driving Africa’s booming mobile market

Now that Africa has been identified as one of the biggest and fastest growing mobile markets, industry leaders and experts gathered in Johannesburg for the five day Mobile Web in Africa 2011 conference to discuss, among other topics, the best way to exploit the booming industry.

Indian mobile handset sales to touch 231mn units in 2012: Gartner

The mobile handset market is expected to show steady growth through 2015 when end user sales will surpass 322mn units. Mobile device sales in India are forecast to reach 231mn units in 2012, an increase of 8.5% over 2011 sales of 213mn units, according to Gartner, Inc. The mobile handset market is expected to show steady growth through 2015 when end user sales will surpass 322mn units.

Print Publishers Cultivate Mobile Presence

85% of US and Canadian print publishers say they currently have mobile content for smartphones, e-readers, or tablet computers, representing a 12% increase from 76% in 2010, according to [download page] a study released in November 2011 by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Data from “Going Mobile: How Publishers are Maturing and Monetizing Their Offerings” indicates that newspapers (88%) are the most likely to have mobile initiatives in place, followed by consumer magazines (83%) and business publications (79%).

Mobile Internet ‘on the rise’

MOBILE Internet usage in the Philippines is growing rapidly on the back of the rising popularity of smartphones, tablets and other non-computer Web-enabled devices. Mobile Internet revenues of Smart Communications, Inc. doubled from half a billion last year to P1.1 billion as of September.

China becomes the world’s largest smartphone market

It was to be expected: in the third quarter of 2011, China became the largest smartphone market in the world, ahead of the United States and Europe. China has for a long time been the world’s largest mobile phone market – and what a market! With the 1 billion mobile phone subscriptions mark to soon be broken. The country did take longer to see 3G arrive though (the Chinese government reorganised their telecom market around their three major players

Paramount shifts from branding to conversion-focused mobile strategy

LOS ANGELES – A Paramount Pictures executive that spoke at the Mobile Marketing Forum revealed that his company is moving from using mobile advertising as a branding tool to using the channel to drive actual conversion via ticket sales. Paramount uses mobile advertising in conjunction with other marketing channels for each and every movie premier. The movie studio has been in the mobile marketing space for about 4-plus years now.

Mobile Advertising Space Worth US$32B Dominated By Japan, Asia Pacific And United States

The mobile advertising market is expected to be valued at US$32 billion by the end of 2017. A number of factors are driving growth including the increased number of consumers with mobile phones, the availability of high Internet bandwidth and the increased penetration of smartphone usage. Mobile advertising is expected to expand strongly in Latin American and Asian markets.

Marketers Seek More Resources to Improve Strategies

Almost 1 in 5 marketers say the most important factor to elevating their current marketing strategy is increased resources such as staffing and funding, according to a November 2011 white paper from the e-tailing group sponsored by Bronto. Data from “Surviving the Current Marketing Mania with a Solid 2012 Plan” indicates that this is the top factor to almost 40% more respondents than the second- and third-ranked factors, customer behavior insights/CRM/data, and reporting/analytics, both at 13%. Rounding out the top 5 were SEO, search – paid, local (8%), and segmentation, targeting (8%). Digital strategies such as social (6%), mobile (5%) and email (4%) were relatively less important to the marketers surveyed.

Mobile Search Ad Spend Soars

Efficient Frontier clients currently allocate approximately 6-7% of their total online search advertising budgets to mobile search, representing almost triple the share from just one year ago, according to a November 2011 report from the Macquarie Group. Macquarie insight also predicts an even greater acceleration of this growth in the next year, with mobile phones and tablet search spending potentially accounting for 16-22% of search advertising budgets by the end of 2012.

Asia’s mobile tech-driven healthcare market seen at $7 billion

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Mobile technologies will be increasingly deployed to enable people in Asia to monitor and manage their health, with the market expected to hit $7 billion by 2017, an industry official said. In parts of Europe and the United States, diabetics can now have doctors monitor their blood sugar levels by punching daily readings into their mobile phones and doctors can provide answers to expectant mothers via short message services (SMS).

Publishers more confident in the mobile market

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The mobile market has gained more confidence from the publishers, according to a survey by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) and ABC Interactive. The survey  titled Going Mobile: How Publishers Are Maturing and Monetizing Their Offerings disclosed that 59% of respondents had a well-developed plan for the mobile market. ABC also noted 67% who found mobile market important to their strategic future in earning from both ads and subscriptions.

Newspapers ranked first (88%) with mobile initiative taking into place; consumer magazines came at second place (83%); and business publications on third with 79%, according to the audit bureau.

Meanwhile, the study showed that publishers had mixed feelings in terms of charging their consumers from their access to content from multiple platforms – 40% said readers shall be charged as one and get an access to all platforms (web, print, and mobile) while 40% said payment shall be made in every access to additional platform.

 

 

Mobile Market Report: Ericsson to triple its mobile traffic

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The changing mobile industry is driven by an increasing number of users, one being felt by Sony Ericsson with strong mobile subscriptions now reaching at 5.8 billion.

In its latest report “Traffic and Market Data”, Ericsson gave a picture analysis of the fast-moving mobile industry where mobile penetration rate reaches at 82%, equivalent to the number of mobile subscribers at almost 5.8 billion. This impressive record, according to the report, is driven swiftly by countries – China and India – where 50 million new users were added during the quarter.

In year 2016, the total mobile traffic is expected to triple with city dwellers’ mobile traffic contributions figured at 60%. Similarly, the behaviors of mobile subscribers are also anticipated to change as time goes by. Some of these behavioral findings in terms of mobile usage, according to report’s authors, disclosed a nearly 40% of Smartphone users who will check the internet before going to bed; driven mostly by demand for mobile video, mobile data traffic is expected to grow by 60% by 2016; mobile broadband subscriptions are expected to rise from 2011′s 900 million to 5 billion. The number of high-traffic Smartphones will grow more than 5 times, generating 12 times the traffic. Tablet subscriptions will also grow 10 times, generating 40 times the traffic.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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More than a million Irish people now open to mobile ads – study

The number of Irish adults who own a smartphone has jumped by 20pc to 750,000 since the end of 2010, according to a new study, which also suggests that more than a million people are open to mobile ads, and that there is increasing openness to location-based advertising. Carried out by Behaviour & Attitudes for Return2Sender, the research into Irish smartphone trends suggests that, based on last year’s figures, ownership will grow by another 80,000 in the next six months.

Southeast Asia’s mobile Internet revolution is on track, according to new report

Mobile phones are on track to becoming the primary access point to the Internet in Southeast Asia, according to a new report from Nielsen. The analytics firm’s findings, taken from its inaugural Southeast Asia Digital Consumer Report which was released today, show that Internet-capable phones are already rivalling laptops, desktop computers sand tablets as primary Internet access points in households across the region.

Mobile Marketing: The Next Frontier

Mobile marketing is a rapidly evolving trend that helps brands engage with people when, where and how they want. Get it right and you unlock fresh revenues and new ways to connect. Get it wrong and you can put consumers off forever. What’s the best way to start? We ask the experts

Mobile search, display spending surges in response to mobile web adoption

US mobile ad spending will grow 47% in 2012, reaching $1.8 billion, as marketers seek to capitalize on rising smart device and mobile web adoption. As on the desktop, search and display (banners, rich media and video) are emerging as the dominant mobile ad formats. “Mobile advertising is no longer a question of ‘if’ but of ‘when,’” said Noah Elkin, principal analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, “Mobile Advertising and Marketing: Moving to the Mainstream.” “A key factor pushing mobile advertising toward the mainstream is that mobile web access is fast becoming more the norm than the exception. This makes mobile a greater imperative than ever for marketers.”

Mobile coupon market to hit $43bn by 2016

A new report from Juniper Research says mobile apps are set to drive an explosion in the usage of coupon redemption by mobile. It says mobile coupons sit at the at the intersection of ads, payments and loyalty schemes, and are therefore ideally placed to profit from the boom in mobile commerce among bricks-and-mortar retailers. Juniper’s analysis certainly chimes with the general consensus among many in the mobile marketing space. The launch of Google Wallet is based around the belief that advertisers want to extend their advertising and CRM programmes to the mobile handset.

AdAsia 2011: Social, Local and Mobile – the three big shifts

The second session on ‘Decoding the new age consumer’ was all about numbers and new marketing models. Adil Zainulbhai, MD – India, McKinsey & Company Inc, started by drawing four different existing scenarios of developing global economies, the real scenario likely to emerge and the forces that will drive the forthcoming change and volatility. He said that it was a positive sign that about 59 per cent of the people had consensus on the emerging market development scenario; however volatility of markets, currencies and prices would remain high for the next few years to come.

Android share in Asia may hit 52% before year-end

Smartphones powered by Google’s Android may make much out of the telecom boom in the Asia-Pacific and grab up to 52 percent of the smartphone market share there before yearend, a research firm predicted. ABI Research said smartphone shipments in Asian markets will see a boost for Android-based smartphones, with market share increasing to 52 percent in 2011, up from just 16 percent in 2010.

Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Growth Picks Up: IDC

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 12.8 per cent in Q3, 2011, indicating a pick-up in growth after a sharp deceleration in growth rate in the second quarter ended June 30, over Q2, 2010, according to IT research firm IDC. The market growth had dropped to single digit level clocking just 9.8 per cent increase in Q2, 2011 over the year ago period due to weak feature phone market, which declined for the first time since Q3, 2009. In contrast, the total mobile market had grown 16.8 per cent in Q1, 2011.

Google chases brands, retailers as it ringfences mobile Web

As Apple continues on its quest to be the king of the applications world, Google is taking another route to the top – the mobile Web. Just because a desktop site can be viewed on a mobile phone does not mean it is mobile-friendly, Google said yesterday when it announced its newest initiative focused on driving innovation on the mobile Web. Mobile sites are designed for the small screen, with the needs of mobile users in mind.

A new wave in mobile commerce and content

Mobile content and mobile commerce have been industry buzzwords for several years with ongoing major developments ranging from the rise in global popularity of ringtones in 2003-04 (thanks to Crazy Frog) to the explosion in mobile applications in 2008-09 (thanks to Apple). Faster networks, smarter devices and the falling cost of phones and service plans have all fueled growth in mobile content and commerce. And now there is a new force changing the mobile industry: evolving mobile data-charging models.

 

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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IAB urges advertisers to be more creative on mobile

The IAB has urged advertisers to be more creative in their approach to mobile advertising and shed the “one size fits all” approach for more integrated strategies. The IAB says that mobile should now be considered as a separated medium rather than an add on to digital and predicts that marketing and advertising spend on mobile devices will be worth £1bn in the UK by 2015, reaching £4.3bn (€5bn) in Western Europe.

Reaching the Right Audience—Ad Targeting Trends

The webinar addresses these key questions: What ad targeting methods are most effective? How can marketers best blend audience and content targeting? How can marketers best use data to identify the right audience? How does testing and measuring improve relevancy?

In mobile, rich media pushing clicks

Mobile may be pushing an increasing amount of online traffic, but new data from Jumptap indicates that rich media, specifically, is pushing mobile clicks. Their research, conducted in September, found that the use of rich media in mobile campaigns increased click-thrus for Retail, Restaurant, Electronics and Auto categories.

Mobile Internet access grows sharply

More than 50% of South Africans polled in a recent survey say that they access the Internet daily from their cellphones and more than 57% engaged in some form of banking or financial activity using mobile phones according to a report published by Fin24, based on an article from the South African Press Association (Sapa). Sapa says that the survey was conducted by the Mobile Entertainment Forum and polled about 8 000 people in nine countries. Of the South Africans questioned, 89% reported using their cellphones to research or purchase a product.

Mobile Ad Effectiveness Helps Drive Investment

Whether or not the “year of mobile” ever comes—or has already passed—mobile ad spending is on the rise, largely due to the increasing smartphone and mobile web populations. Mobile display ad effectiveness is another factor driving marketer investment. Studies from InsightExpress, MediaMind(formerly Eyeblaster), and, as of Q3 2011, Dynamic Logic, have all demonstrated mobile display advertising to be more effective than online display advertising.

3 design principles for the mobile Web

With more than 5.3 billion mobile users worldwide and consumers spending an average of 9.8 hours on their mobile devices every week, it is no wonder that mobile campaigns are becoming ever more crucial for brands and advertisers. The mobile applications market is forecast to earn $25 billion in revenue by 2015, from around $6.8 billion in 2010. Apps are undoubtedly a great way to engage audiences, whether by educating, entertaining or informing.

Live TV Shows Command Ad Spot Premiums

TV shows that viewers tend to watch live, rather than play back days later, command a premium for marketers, according to survey results released in October 2011 by Advertising Age. Results from the survey, which measures the costs of running a 30-second commercial in prime time, indicate that NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” now challenges Fox’s “American Idol” as the most expensive program for advertisers.

What marketers really want from mobile advertising

Earlier this year, eMarketer published research stating that only one-third of marketers ran mobile ad campaigns in 2010, going up to 50 percent in 2011. However, most are running mobile ads sporadically or do not tie them to a larger marketing campaign.

Mobile Growth Stats & Mobile Web Tips to Start Marketing

Did you know that the U.S. now has more wireless customer connections than people? There are currently estimated to be 327.6 million active wireless customer connections in the U.S. The nation’s population is estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be roughly 312 million. This means that today there are now more active broadband tablets, cell phones, and mobile devices than people in this country.

Baidu Profit Rises 80% as China Search-Engine Ad Sales Surge

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) — Baidu Inc., China’s biggest Internet company by market value, said third-quarter profit rose 80 percent, beating analysts’ estimates, as revenue from search- engine advertising surged. Net income attributable to Baidu climbed to 1.88 billion yuan ($296 million), or 5.38 yuan per American depositary receipt, compared with 1.05 billion yuan, or 3 yuan, a year earlier, Baidu said yesterday. That exceeded the 1.85 billion yuan average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Fox channel’s The Killing goes interactive with TMS

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The Killing’s TV interactive campaign invites all APAC fanatics to vote in real time, participate in an exciting competition, and get a chance of winning a Smartphone.

TheTMSway has entered into a partnership with Fox channel to make its suspense TV series “The Killing” real time interactive. The company provides a TMS code “FOX 2010” integrated into The Killing TV spot promo wherein viewers can enter in their phone (going to www.TMSsearch.com) to instantly access to the optimized and localized version of the show’s mobile interactive site.  The site enables Asian fanatics to interact, vote, watch previews of the series every week, and get a view of exclusive trailers, such as the Spielberg’s upcoming series (Terra Nova).

The voting functionality, provided by TMS, enables Asian audiences to participate to a poll question of who, among the characters, is the prime suspect in the killing of Rosie Larsen. Every week, the mobile site reveals the pulse of the Asia-Pacific audiences. TheTMSway has also integrated social tools in the mobile site to enable sharing or recommendation to friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter.

Providing this service to FOX, TMS enables the channel to access unto the real time high value metrics and data which provide a better understanding of the viewer community and give opportunity for the channel advertiser to access to a new generation of Interactive TV spots that leverage a localized and personalized conversation with viewers.

Entertainment is filled with excitement as Fox Channel will give Blackberry Torch 9800 Smartphone for the ten (10) lucky winners. The competition applies to audiences in the south Asian countries within the scope and broadcast coverage of Fox channel: Philippines, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Maldives.

TheTMSway (www.thetmsway.com) is the provider of TMS, a post SMS Telco-free  short code system that takes brands and all forms of media unto an exciting interactive ‘touch point’, enabling consumers to immediately interact with an offer or content and share it with friends.

The Killing TMS promo is running on FOXSEA (and FOX PHI). The campaign runs until November 2, 2011.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile advertising will generate $1.2B in 2011: study

A new study from eMarketer predicts mobile advertising will generate $1.23 billion in the United States this year. The forecast also expects mobile advertising in the U.S. to reach $4.4 billion by 2015. The growth comes as mobile advertising gains steam as an effective way to target consumers thanks to the growth in smartphone and tablet ownership.

Numbers Forecast Booming Mobile Ad Future

The message at the Borrell Associates Local Mobile Advertising Conference in Chicago was a simple matter of proliferation: Ubiquitous mobile users pair up with growing local advertising dollars spent, close to 20% of that headed online. Media analyst Gordon Borrell projected that by 2015 up to two-thirds of local advertising will be served up on mobile.

Cross-media measurement is Holy Grail of mobile: IAB

In order for brands and retailers to allocate more of their marketing budgets to mobile, measurement and reliable methodologies to understand audience behavior and ad effectiveness must be put into place, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. According to the “State of Mobile Measurement,” study released by IAB, fragmentation, unclear standards and technology problems have held mobile from reaching its full potential. In order to get up to par, marketers have to create common measurement standards in mobile.

Smartphones, Mobile Internet Set Stage for Increased Mobile Ad Spend

By the end of this year, eMarketer estimates, 38% of US mobile users will have a smartphone and 41% will use the mobile internet at least once each month. These developments mean an increase in the opportunity for mobile advertising—and an increase in spending. eMarketer forecasts that advertisers will spend nearly $1.23 billion on mobile advertising this year in the US, up from $743 million last year and set to reach almost $4.4 billion by 2015. This includes spending on display ads (such as banners, rich media and video), search and messaging-based advertising, and covers ads viewed on both mobile phones and tablets.

How mobile advertising, content and commerce is changing Brazil

Emerging markets have experienced strong economical growth in the past several years, and four of the top five mobile markets are emerging markets: 1. China, 2. India, 3. U.S., 4. Russia, 5. Brazil. According to Anatel, the Brazilian regulatory agency that oversees wireless carriers, Brazil leads in terms of Latin American mobile penetration: Brazil 92 percent, Colombia 88 percent, Chile 75 percent, Argentina 72 percent and Mexico 63 percent.

Adidas campaign points to effectiveness of multiscreen advertising

Sportswear brand adidas ran a video-centric ad campaign across online, mobile and tablet devices. Carat is adidas’ agency of record. Carat tapped Google to extend the brand’s message to digital. “We partnered with Nielsen to measure the incremental impact of multiscreen advertising,” said Johanna Werther and Ben Chung, both part of the Google Mobile Ads Marketing team at Google, Mountain View, CA, in a blog post.

Global Web Ad Spend to Rise 33% by ‘13

Global internet advertising expenditures will rise about 33% between 2011 and 2013, according to [pdf] an October 2011 forecast from Zenith Optimedia. Internet ad spend is expected to total about $72.5 billion USD this year and reach $96.4 billion in 2013. Total global ad spend, forecast at $460.3 billion for 2011, is expected to grow about 11% to about $510.6 billion in 2013.

Apple’s mobile market share climbs in September

Apple’s iOS once again dominated the mobile OS market share picture in September, according to new data from Net Applications. The enterprise application maker and web monitoring company found that iOS accounted for 54.65 percent of mobile market share, up from just over 53 percent in August. The numbers mean that Apple’s iOS devices (including the iPod touch, iPhone and iPad) together make up more than half of all web use originating from mobile devices.

Mobile media needs ‘solid metrics’, says IAB

Cookies are unreliable; server logs are stymied; the ecosystem is fragmented and privacy concerns loom large – none of which changes the fact that mobile advertising needs a standardised set of measurements, according to a new IAB paper.

Mobile taking up increasing portion of consumers’ down time

Ad agencies that are designing digital marketing campaigns may reach more consumers if they include a mobile aspect to the mix, findings from a new survey suggest. CA Technologies commissioned a study that found due to the prevalence of mobile devices, users of smartphones and tablet computers are taking the usual “dead time” – the equivalent of about five and a half weeks – and using it more productively.

China Set for Explosive Ad Growth

While the US will still maintain a comfortable lead in ad spending in 2013, number three China’s spending will surge in the next two years,according to [pdf] an October 2011 forecast from Zenith Optimedia. China, expected to spend $26.1 billion USD on major media advertising this year, will increase that figure almost 49% to $38.5 billion in 2013. By comparison, the US will increase ad spend about 9%, from $151.7 billion this year to $166 billion in 2013. Number two Japan will also maintain its position, growing ad spend 3% from $46.1 billion to $47.6 billion.

Social Network Ad Revenues to Reach $10 Billion Worldwide in 2013

Worldwide social network ad revenues will reach $5.54 billion this year, eMarketer estimates, with just under half that amount, $2.74 billion, coming from the US market. Revenue growth is solidly in the double digits in the US, but even more rapid growth elsewhere will mean spending outside the country will account for a slightly greater share each year. By 2013, non-US revenues will make up 51.9% of the total, which will hit nearly $10 billion worldwide. In the US, social networks will make $4.81 billion from ads that year.

TheTMSway Weekly Radar on Mobile Marketing and Business

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Mobile advertising supply continues to exceed demand: Digiday Mobile panelists

NEW YORK – Much of the discussion at Digiday Mobile focused on problems that publishers face in the mobile space such as choosing a model for the pros and cons of paid and ad-supported mobile content-monetization models impose on publishers. An executive from The Boston Globe went as far to say that monetizing the company’s mobile efforts is one of its biggest problems.“We’ve struggled to monetize content,” said Jeff Moriarty, vice president of digital products at The Boston Globe, Boston. “We broke our audience into two groups, and we realized that we were not serving either.”

Mobile payments market expected to touch $245bn: E&Y

NEW YORK: Billed as the future of banking, the value of financial transactions carried out through mobile phones has been pegged at $245 billion worldwide by 2014 in a new report by global consultancy firm Ernst & Young.  “Overall, mobile payment services are expected to reach $245 billion in value worldwide by 2014,” according to the report by Ernst and Young (E&Y). At the same time, the number of users carrying out transactions using mobile money is expected to total 340 million by 2014, equivalent to 5 per cent of existing mobile subscribers across the globe, the report said.

Ad Spending on African-American Audiences Grows 3%

Total US advertiser spending aimed at African-American audiences grew 3% between 2009 and 2010, according to [download page] a report released in September 2011 by The Nielsen Company. Data from “The State of the African-American Consumer” indicates advertisers spent $1.98 billion on African-American audiences in 2010, compared to $1.92 billion in 2009. Television advertising was the largest medium for all ad spending in 2010, accounting for $69 billion. In the first surpassed $18 billion, growing almost 9% versus the same period in 2010. Radio and magazines during this same period also saw higher ad spend levels than last year, increasing between six and 7%. Newspapers, however, saw a 10% drop.

Why retailers should engage customers throughout their entire shopping experience

By the end of the year, more than half of mobile phone users will have smartphones. Even more interesting is that 93 percent of smartphone users use their phones inside the home, according to Google. Combined with how shoppers use smartphones near and in stores, there is now a real opportunity for retailers to engage customers throughout the entire shopping process, starting at home.

Starbucks Perks Up Mobile Payments Program

In January 2011, Starbucks debuted a new way for customers to pay for coffee—through the brand’s mobile app. With 2-D barcode scanners installed in nearly 9,000 of its store locations, the coffee chain has served as a model for retailers looking to enter the mobile payments space. Adam Brotman, who leads digital strategies for the Seattle-based coffee chain, talked to eMarketer’s Lauren McKay about why the mobile payment program works for Starbucks and where he thinks the market is headed.

Mobile Media Summit Disrupts Advertising Week

Mobile is shaking up New York’s Advertising Week. The third annual Mobile Media Summit, the premiere event for mobile media, brand and advertising executives, returns to the Big Apple on October 5th to crash the party and shine a light on mobile media and advertising. The mobile ad industry crossed a great inflection point this year when it hit the $1B mark, and tablet and smartphone sales have outshined TVs in U.S. revenue. Bringing mobile to Madison Avenue, the Mobile Media Summit has the most advertisers of any mobile event in the U.S.

Publishers Slow to Take Advantage of Mobile Sites

More than two in five mobile users will go online from their phones each month, eMarketer estimates, but many websites have been slow to make their content available in mobile-optimized formats. Research from mobile site detection API provider Company Data Trees found that in January 2011, 14.32% of the top 10,000 sites on Alexa had a mobile version, and 14.67% of publishers (defined as websites with advertising) had one. The percentages have grown since then, to around 24% and 26%, respectively, as of September.

Mobile ad revenue in Canada up 93% in 2010

Mobile advertising revenues in Canada grew 93% in 2010 to more than $52-million, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada. The Top 10 earners accounted for 82% of total net revenues in 2010. The ad placement and spend category grew 105% over 2009, driven primarily by search advertising at $17.1-million, and mobile display and sponsorship at $15.6-million.

Mobile Wallets Move Closer to Reality

The potential for mobile payments is huge. Globally, consumers make trillions of dollars in credit and debit card transactions each year. Migrating just a small percentage of that spending to mobile-based transactions would be a lucrative opportunity for the companies that facilitate it. The mobile payments market is difficult to size in its nascent state, and research firms vary widely as to the dollar figures involved. But they agree on one thing, as eMarketer’s new report, “Mobile Payments: Moving Closer to a World Without Wallets,” notes: dramatic growth.

Singapore most IT competitive APAC market

SINGAPORE–Strong investments in human capital, particularly IT employment and enrolment in higher education, have helped Singapore emerge as the No. 1 Asia-Pacific market in terms of IT competitiveness, and third globally, a new report revealed. The Business Software Alliance’s (BSA) Global IT Competitiveness Index, which was released Tuesday, noted that besides Singapore, six other Asia-Pacific countries–Australia, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Hong Kong–made it on the top 20 list, too. The region’s strong showing proves that investments in IT do pay off, said Roger Somerville, senior director of government and policy for BSA Asia-Pacific.

China market: Mobile phone users grow to over 940 million in August

There were 940.09 million subscribers of mobile communication services in China as of the end of August 2011, growing 1.10% on month and 14.22% on year, and 94.12 million, or 10.01% of them were 3G users, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The August number accounted for 68.8% of the country’s population (user density). As of August, there were 288.80 million subscribers to fixed telecommunication services in China, translating into a user density of 21.7%. In August, mobile phone subscribers in China sent 73.29 billion short messages, averaging 2.53 short messages per phone number a day.

US ad agencies and advertisers spend 6% of marketing budgets on mobile

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The latest survey in the US market revealed an average of 6% marketing budgets spent by advertising agencies and advertisers on mobile medium in the region. Published on Business and Leadership paper, the said survey had more than 600 ad agencies and advertisers responding the survey. Result revealed that the largest proportion of the respondents buy mobile through ad networks (46%) than any other resource, including direct from publishers (30%) and exchanges (12%).

According to the survey, the most important offering of a mobile partner is targeting and reach. While majority of US advertisers and ad agencies (69%) spend less than 5% of their budgets on mobile at the moment, the report said that most have plans of increasing their ad spending by 35% in the coming year.

The survey study also found that 79% of respondents are now engaging in mobile marketing and advertising.