CW Launches Next-Day Episode Streaming In iOS/Android App by Steve Smith

The CW gets hip to streaming episodes to an iPad app and integrating social media. But is that enough anymore? Did the iPad spoil us that quickly? ...Read the whole story

• Battery Life Woes Drag Satisfaction Down by Aaron Baar

  According to the latest J.D. Power and Associates Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, battery performance satisfaction has declined significantly even in the six months since the last study was released in September 2011. ...Read the whole story

• China To Surpass U.S. As Top Smartphone Market by Mark Walsh

  Research firm IDC projects China will overtake the U.S. this year as the leading market for smartphone shipments, with low-cost Android devices driving uptake there. Looking further ahead, India and Brazil will join the top five country markets for smartphone shipments by 2016. ...Read the whole story

• QR Codes: Marketers Like, Public Adoption Rising by Mark Walsh

  Is anyone excited about QR codes besides marketers? According to Nielsen/McKinsey's report, they account for 0.15% of online conversations. comScore reported one in five U.S. smartphone owners scanned a QR code with their phone in December. ...Read the whole story

• Amazon Marks A Year Of Selling Apps by Steve Smith

  Amazon's Appstore has been online for a year, but the arrival of the Kindle Fire in late 2011 has sparked its growth and relevance to the mobile ecosystem. ...Read the whole story

Mobile is truly a global phenomenon, but all markets are not yet in sync. This can pose some interesting challenges for both marketers within each of the geographies as well as visitors who travel outside their mobile home base into another market. ...More

• Behavior Modification: The Mobile Edition by Steve Smith

  History shows that attaching the term "behavioral" to just about anything is not going to turn out well. The original behaviorist made this mistake and got banished to the ad world. ...More

• When Conversations Lead To Mobile Searches by Laurie Sullivan

  There are 7 billion people in the world, with about 2 billion connected to the Internet. Some 1 billion have smartphones. Suzanne Mumford, Google product marketing manager, cited those numbers from a recent presentation by Eric Schmidt. She said Android activates 850,000 phones daily running the operating system, and one-third of mobile searches have local intent, meaning people searching for nearby businesses. ...More

• Mobile Phones: The Swiss Army Knife Of The Digital Age by Prodeep Bose

  The mobile phone is a powerful device. We often forget this, especially when surrounded by computers, laptops, iPads, Internet-enabled televisions, and computing technologies embedded into everything from our coffeepots to the subways. But in a place like Africa, where mobile infrastructure and device ownership far outstrip access to roads, electricity, clean water, medical care, or wired telephones, the mobile device holds extraordinary power and potential to transform people's lives, not just through communications services but through health interventions. Microsoft Research's Mobile Healthcare for Africa Awards have recognized several initiatives as standouts in this category; surgical guidance through mobile phones, mobile ...More