BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: What Advertisers Really Think About Mobile

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Consumers Love Mobile, But What About Advertisers? (VentureBeat)
Despite all of the time we spend on our smartphones, mobile advertising trails online advertising. CPMs for mobile remain a fraction of what they are on the Web. Here are the views of some big brands:

Pandora: Pandora does 1.5 billion hours a month of streaming, and mobile accounts for 80 percent of those listening hours, according to Dominic Paschel, vice president at Pandora. Rebutting a common complaint, Paschel says advertisers have been willing to try new formats on mobile.
The Weather Channel: Alex Linde, VP of digital and mobile apps at The Weather Channel, says mobile is a critical piece in the future of the company. "Each screen has its place."
Sephora: Brands are themselves launching mobile apps to augment their in-store experiences. “Mobile is increasingly important to Sephora overall,” says Bridget Dolan, VP of Digital Marketing at Sephora.
Trulia: "iPads and tablets have more screen real estate which enables more innovative ad integrations," says Lee Clancy, VP of Consumer Products for Trulia.

That all said, CPMs for mobile are still a fraction of what they are on the Web. Read >>

The Future For iAd (GoMo News)
When Apple unveiled iAd back in 2010, it seemed the mobile advertising equivalent of Nirvana. Here was state of the art technology that enabled advertisers to create beautiful in-app rich media ads to target a ready-made community of iOS device users. Three years on and the picture is more complicated. The short answer as to whether iAd has a future has to be, "yes." iAd has a number of rich interactive ad types and is backed by Apple which already has a sizeable footprint, so it will always be attractive to advertisers.The more interesting question is whether iAd will become a dominant mobile advertising platform. Read >>

Screen Size Matters For Mobile Design (VentureBeat)
Smart phones, tablets, and smart TVs will soon be powered by the same technology stack — ARM processors running iOS or Android along with their respective app stores. That means the key differentiating feature between these devices will be staring you right in the face — screen size. Screen size matters more than content creators think. For starters, consider research from Google that shows engagement increases with screen size. This makes sense, as people consume content differently on different screen sizes. 4-5” phones are great for checking emails, tweets, social networks, listening to music, and playing casual games like Angry Birds. Consumers surveys show that email is the number one activity on smart phones. Read >>

Microsoft And BlackBerry Look To Step Up Tablet Wars (CMSWire)
Various reports suggest Microsoft and BlackBerry will be trying again to compete with the tablet giants. Microsoft has made some changes to its hardware template profiles, which should allow partners to create a new range of tablet devices. The new BlackBerry 10 platform gives it a clean slate to start off with and a company roadmap suggests a tablet will be following on, along with a phablet-type device in the third or fourth quarter after the launch of the Q10 keyboard-phone. Most likely the company will focus on the enterprise. Read >>

Mobile Is Poised To Revolutionize Healthcare (Worldcrunch)
It may also turn you into a hypochondriac. "With wireless networks, Internet, connectivity, bandwidth capacities, the huge popularity of smartphones, cloud computing – capable of storing enormous volumes of data – we have a convergence of tools that can be applied to medicine," explains Professor Eric Topol, a cardiologist specialized in genomics and director of the Scripps Transnational Science Institute in La Jolla, California. "We are in the middle of a digital revolution that will shake the world of medicine." Topol notes that there are six billion cell phones in the world. "That’s more than toothbrushes or toilets," he says. Read >>

The Most Important Features Of A Mobile-Friendly Website (Business2Community)
With mobile traffic making up 10 percent of all Internet use the world over (2012 figures), it is becoming increasingly important to understand how mobile users interact with websites on smaller devices and craft mobile experiences accordingly. Read >>

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