Whatever missteps Sony has taken in its current generation of console and handheld gaming units (and there are many) the company still has the capacity to dazzle. Yesterday in Tokyo, Sony unveiled the long-awaited successor to its Playstation Portable (PSP), a totally tricked-out hunk of metal codenamed NGP. The impact of the smartphone revolution can be felt just from the specs of this next-gen handheld gaming unit. Its 5-inch OLED display has touch controls both on the front and back for a new style of touch gaming. The innards are direct ports of the latest smartphone standards: built-in 3G, GPS, ...» 0 Comments
The prospect of waving your cell phone at a checkout card reader to make a purchase has been something akin to a sex dream in the mobile industry for nearly a decade or more. It doesn't take much thought to see the possibilities and interconnections that the mobile wallet allows, from a massive new sales revenue stream for someone in the chain, to back-end integration with targeted marketing efforts and CRM. Putting the phone into the purchase stream so directly has the potential to change the game for everyone in the mobile ecology.» 0 Comments
"I know I am a bit of a creature of habit," I say offhandedly to my partner. She tries to keep from spit-taking her mouthful of seltzer in response.» 0 Comments
"Does that fancy damned movie app of yours rate audiences along with the film?" my partner asked as we suffered through "True Grit" a few weekends back. Oh, the film was just fine. Surprisingly good, in fact. It was the audience that almost had us walking out. There was more grey hair in this audience than I had ever seen at a modern film, and many of them seemed to think they were in their living rooms. The exchanges among the couples and groups in this theater were louder and more irritating than I had experienced since I took my ...» 0 Comments
After its long slog toward gaining respect from an Apple-bedazzled trade press, Android seems to be getting its moment this month. Hot on the heels of comScore's report that Android finally surpassed Apple in smartphone market share (not counting all iOS devices, of course), today Millennial Media announced that by the end of 2010, it was serving more ads (46%) onto those devices than onto Apple (32%).» 0 Comments
When Google Goggles launched over a year ago, I was underwhelmed by a visual search app that seemed to have been released way before it was genuinely useful. But now I'm taking another look.» 0 Comments
One of the advantages of mobile media and advertising has been the focus and limited clutter the medium allows. Because of this limited screen real estate and larger mindshare, we have tended to see mobile ad effectiveness maintain its edge longer than some formats that preceded it. InsightExpress has just run a fascinating comparison of mobile vs. online brand impact from advertising. Aggregating results from campaigns over the last three years, InsightExpress shows that on fundamental branding metrics for ad awareness, mobile produced a 23% lift compared to 8% for online campaigns.» 0 Comments
Last year mobile agency execs often told me they were urging their clients to get their "m-dot" strategy in place. In other words, even as brand marketers were coveting the iPhone and asking to get an app for their brand, smarter mobilistas understood that the mobile Web was far from dead. In fact, as smart phone users got accustomed to increased speed, mobile search engines and localized results, they instinctively started using their mobile browser in much the same way they used a Web browser.» 0 Comments
Steve Smith
Steve Smith is the editor of Mobile Marketing Daily at MediaPost where he covers all aspects of the mobile landscape and writes the daily MoBlog and regular Mobile Insider columns. He also programs the OMMA Mobile/Display/Data and Behavioral series of shows and the Mobile Insider Summits. A recovering academic who taught media studies at Brown and University of Virginia, he spent the last decade as a digital media critic for numerous publications and as consultant. He also writes for Media Industry Newsletter and eContent magazine. Contact him here.
