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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Mashable Lists Connected TVs as 2012 Key Digital Trend

According to Mashable, connected TV is a key digital trend for 2012. GFK Market Analysis, Piper Jaffray, and DeutscheBank, project that 35 million smart TVs will be in consumer households around the globe by the end of 2011, and 65% of TVs sold in 2012 will be connect-capable.

Xbox has added live TV channels, and it is anticipated that Apple will launch a television within the next year and a half. YouTube is also investing millions in web-only programming that will be available on connected TVs.

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Apps Provide Useful Second-Screen Supplement to TV

More people now watch TV while simultaneously using second screens like tablets, laptops and smartphones. A recent Nielson study showed 70 percent of tablet owners and 68 percent of smartphone owners said they use their devices while watching television.

Sitting down to watch TV and only TV seems like a thing of the past. WSJ's Katherine Boehret profiles three apps that allow viewers a more interactive watching experience.

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Millennial: Kindle Fire Monthly Ad Impressions in the Hundreds of Millions

Momentum appears to be building for Amazon’s Kindle Fire. According to mobile ad network Millennial Media’s Mobile Mix report for November, ad impressions on the Kindle Fire have grown 19 percent each day since its launch in mid-November.

“We’re not just seeing millions of impressions, we’re seeing a monthly run rate of hundreds of millions of impressions,” Millennial Media said.

The company said the Kindle Fire’s growth has slightly outpaced that of the original iPad in early 2010, although it acknowledged that the $199 Fire is not only cheaper than the first iPad, but it also launched to a more mature tablet market.

Last week, Amazon said that for three straight weeks, customers purchased “well over 1 million Kindle devices per week.”

Gene Munster, an analyst for Piper Jaffray, said the number, which includes sales of both traditional Kindles and the new Kindle Fire, suggests that Amazon in on track to sell 10-12 million Kindle devices in the December quarter, instead of his initial estimate of 9 million (4 million Fires and 5 million traditional Kindles).

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2011 WOW Award Winner Announced

At yesterday's annual employee appreciation luncheon, News Over Wireless (NOW) honored Support Manager Sakina Smith for all of her outstanding efforts in 2011. Congrats to Sakina on being the recipient of the 2011 WOW Award!

Mobile Video Continues Growth Pattern

In a December 8 eMarketer article "Online Video Viewing Passes 50% of Total US Population", mobile video usage was highlighted. eMarketer shares that mobile video adoption is poised to continue on a steep upward path for at least the next four years due to smartphone adoption, competition among operating systems and the continuity of content across devices.

“As tablets attract a larger share of video viewing, smartphones are benefiting because most tablet users also own smartphones and typically have the same apps on both devices,” said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst. “With more video content flowing to these apps, users are choosing their preferred screen at any given time. Often this means toggling between tablets and smartphones, or between laptops and any number of entertainment devices.”

In 2011, US smartphone viewers represent 90 percent of the mobile video population, according to eMarketer estimates. By 2015, this percentage will rise to 98.5 percent.

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Nielsen: Key Findings from the State of Mobile Q3 2011 Report

Nielsen's State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report shares a number of key findings, including:

>62 percent of smartphone users have downloaded apps on their devices.
>28.6 percent of the U.S. smartphone market is made up of Apple manufactured devices.
>44 percent of the U.S. smartphone market is running devices that use the Android operating system.
>83 percent of all smartphone app downloaders use Android or Apple iOS smartphone devices and they mostly discover apps by searching the top app stores and relying on recommendations.
>49 percent of mobile consumers say they frequently use smartphones while they shop.

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Mobile Reach: Smartphone Penetration Hits 44%

Nielsen reported Thursday that U.S. mobile subscribers with smartphones has reached 44 percent, led by adoption among those ages 18 to 34.

That is more than double the 18 percent of two years ago and on track to meet Nielsen’s projection that half of American mobile users will have smartphones by the end of 2011. (comScore estimates U.S. smartphone penetration somewhat lower, at 38.5% as of the end of October.)

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Smartphones Now Account for 59% of All Handsets Sold in the US

According to The NPD Group, the share of mobile phone handset sales that are smartphones continues to climb in the US, reaching 59 percent in the third quarter (Q3) of 2011, an increase of 13 percentage points since Q3 of 2010.

Led by continued steady sales for Apple's iPhones, the top five best-selling mobile phone handsets in Q3 were as follows:

1. Apple iPhone 4
2. Apple iPhone 3GS
3. HTC EVO 4G
4. Motorola Droid 3
5. Samsung Intensity II

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Pew Study Infographic: 53% of Tablet Users Get News Daily

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Pew Research Center Talks Tablets

On October 25, Pew Research Center published a study surrounding tablets and how they will impact news consumption. According to Pew, 11 percent of U.S. adults own a tablet computer of some kind. More than half of those people get news on their tablet daily; however, a majority are not willing to pay for news content on these devices.

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Nielsen: 40% of Tablet and Smartphone Owners Use Them While Watching TV

Roughly 40 percent of tablet and smartphone owners in the U.S. used their devices daily while watching TV, while only 14 percent of eReader owners said they watched TV while using their device every day.

Email was the top activity for both men and women during television programming and commercial breaks. In addition, women reported engaging in social networking more than men, while men checked sports scores more often.

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Mobile Devices Account for a Growing Portion of Web Traffic

Mobile devices, which includes smartphones and tablets, now account for 7 percent of worldwide traffic on the Web, according to a report issued Tuesday by comScore, which monitors online trends.

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Michael Jackson Doctor Trial App

Fox 11 in Los Angeles promotes their Michael Jackson Doctor Trial App. The app shot up to No. 1 in the paid news apps category in less than 24 hours!

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Time Spent on Mobile Equals That of Print

At the paidContent Advertising conference on September 15, eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey shared that time spent on mobile among U.S. adults ranks third at 50 minutes a day, now equaling the combined time spent on magazines and newspapers.

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One in Ten Mobile Users Redeem Coupons

eMarketer estimates that nearly 20 million US adults will redeem a mobile coupon this year, including coupons or codes received via SMS, applications and mobile web browsers; quick response codes for redemption online or offline; and group buying coupons purchased via mobile. By 2013, the number using such coupons will nearly double, and 16.5% of all US adult mobile phone users will redeem a coupon that year. Among smartphone users, penetration is significantly higher.

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Promote Mobile During Weather Emergencies

Mobile can provide your viewers with potentially life-saving news and information. Don't forget to promote your mobile offerings during weather emergencies, especially if there is a chance parts of your viewing area may lose power. Check out this example from WRAL-TV, and send your promotional examples to lblake@newsoverwireless.com.