Two NOW Partners Named 2012 Appy Award Finalists!

The 2012 Appy Award Finalists were announced today, and we're excited to share that two NOW partners were selected.

Fox's Michael Jackson Doctor Trial app is a finalist in the News Category. It launched in September 2011 as Conrad Murray's trial took center stage in Los Angeles. The app features live video straight from the courtroom, photo galleries, documents and the latest news. It was mentioned in numerous publications and even highlighted on-air on Entertainment Tonight. Download the app

WRAL.com's Behind Bars app is a finalist in the Wildcard Category. The app features mugshots from the Triangle area of North Carolina and offers users the opportunity to buy photos from different counties. Download the app

Awards are announced on March 19.

Time Spent In Mobile Far Outpaces Ad Spending

In a new study, the mobile advertising and analytics firm Flurry says mobile is the most imbalanced medium when it comes to ad spending versus time spent, at 1% compared to 23%. That makes the split of ad spending and time spent on the desktop Web -- at 16% versus 22% -- look a lot better.

By contrast, print gets 29% of ad dollars but only 6% of time spent. Flurry derived the cross-media figures from publicly available sources including comScore, Veronis Suhler, Mary Meeker, Alexa and its own data tracking more than 140,000 iOS and Android apps.

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Tablet Market Doubled Over the Holidays

Sales of tablets and e-readers surged over the holiday period, and almost a fifth of U.S. adults now own one of the devices, according to research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Based on survey data collected in December 2011 and January of this year, the share of adults age 18 and older who own either device nearly doubled, month-over-month, growing from 10 percent to 19 percent.

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Mobile Marketing Budgets Increasing in 2012

Mobile channels such as advertising (search and display), apps and mobile websites will rake in the most in spend for brands and retailers in 2012, according to MobileMarketer. It points to increasing smartphone penetration as an indicator of mobile's place in the marketing mix.

Mobile will account for 15.2 percent of global online ad spend in 2016, according to Berg Insight. According to the Berg, the total value of the global mobile marketing and advertising market will grow from $3.4 billion in 2010 at a compound annual growth rate of 37 percent to $22.4 billion in 2016.

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