With millions of iPhones, iPads, Kindle Fires and Galaxy S III handsets given as gifts, more iOS and Android devices were again activated on Christmas Day in 2012 than any other day of the year. Device activations on Dec. 25 jumped to 17.4 million, a 332% increase over the daily average of 4 million for the first 20 days of December, according to new data from mobile ad and analytics firm Flurry. With more than 260,000 apps using its analytics software, Flurry says it detects over 90% of all new iOS and Android device activations each day. The 17.4 million activations this year far surpassed last year’s Christmas Day record of 6.8 million, which was up 300% from the December baseline in 2011. Another big change for last year was that tablet activations slightly outpaced those for smartphones, 51% to 49%. Last year, smartphone activations outnumbered those for tablets by a 4:1 ratio. “The big winners were Apple iPads, Apple iPad Minis and Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7” tablets,” stated a Flurry blog post today. “In particular, Amazon had a very strong performance in the tablet category, growing by several thousand percent over its baseline of tablet activations over the earlier part of December.” In addition to a wider selection of tablets to choose from, at lower prices, the shift toward tablet activations this year also underscores the higher penetration of smartphones, which have passed the 50% mark in the U.S. New findings from the Pew Research Center today estimate a quarter of Americans 16 and over now own tablets, and a third have a tablet or a dedicated e-reader like a Kindle or a Nook. Flurry found the number of app downloads on Christmas day more than doubled to 328 million from the December average of 155 million. Flurry expects app downloads will remain high through New Year’s Day, with the week’s total on track to surpass 1.5 billion, and possibly hit 2 billion for the first time ever.
Apple has won a round in a class-action lawsuit alleging that it enabled app developers to wrongly upload the address books and other data of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California dismissed the lawsuit last week, but also ruled that the consumer who sued can beef up the allegations and try again. The case dates to March, when New Jersey resident Maria Pirozzi alleged in court papers that Apple failed to safeguard its iPhones and other devices. She alleged that Apple "induced" her to purchase a device, and download apps, "under the premise that [her] private information would remain confidential and would not be shared with third-party developers." She brought the lawsuit several weeks after it came to light that Path, Hipster and other apps surreptitiously uploaded users' address books. Pirozzi alleged that she relied on Apple's representations that its products were secure, and that it monitored the apps it sold. (Several app developers are facing separate lawsuits for allegedly violating users' privacy by uploading their data.) Apple argued that the case should be dismissed on several grounds, including that Pirozzi wasn't injured economically. But Pirozzi countered that she was harmed because she relied on Apple's statements when she decided to purchase her device. Rogers said that allegation potentially could support a lawsuit, but ruled that Pirozzi hadn't fleshed them out with enough details -- including what type of device she had bought and the specific statements she read before making the purchase. Pirozzi also alleged that she was injured because her personal information was "misappropriated," but didn't allege that any particular app developer uploaded her data. Rogers ruled that Pirozzi would need to present those details in order to move forward with that claim. "Should Plaintiff choose to proceed on the theory that she has been harmed by actual collection of her personal information, she will need to identify which of the apple devices she used, which apps she downloaded that accessed or tracked her personal information (if any), and what harm (if any) resulted from the accessing or tracking of her personal information," Rogers wrote. The judge gave Pirozzi until Jan. 22 to file new papers.
While social media TV activity continues to grow during the time people watch TV, the biggest TV-related activity is still talking with someone in a room while viewing a TV program.When asked "how often do you talk about TV in the following ways," a new study from CTAM, the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing group, says 67% of respondents said "with people in same room while I'm watching."Another 62% say it comes with "face to face" conversations, and 37% say it comes via phone conversations. That is followed by newer digital communication: 31% from texting (with a much higher number -- 47% -- for those younger 18-34), and 29% from Facebook postings (with a higher 40% for those 18-34).Despite growing real-time conversations using newer technologies like social media, the study says much of these TV interactions -- 83% -- occur the next day and onward. This includes talking with people while watching a TV show, phone conversations, texting, posting messages on Facebook, tweeting in Twitter, emails, blogging, using TV check-in apps or live chat on Xbox.That said, a healthy portion -- 75% of this activity -- also occurs right after a TV show has ended, with 70% happening during a show, either during the content itself or during commercials. Some 49% of TV interactions occur before a show airs.During a show, the CTAM study says 35% of activity is for live sports; 29% for news content; 28%, comedy; 25%, reality TV shows; and 24%, drama. After a show has ended people tend to talk and/or discuss 39% of the time about comedies; 39% about movies; 37% for dramas; 35%, news; and 32% about crime dramas. "Watching TV photo from Shutterstock"
Social media TV entertainment activity keeps growing -- but 2012 was dominated by stories with a news and political bent.The biggest single-day social media activity came from the presidential election this November -- with some 17.4 million social media interactions. Researcher General Sentiment looked at all social activity from social platforms, as well as news channels.This was followed by Hurricane Sandy (9.4 million), the battle over anti-piracy legislation (8.7 million), and the second presidential debate (7.6 million) and the vice presidential debate (6.87 million).The biggest entertainment event of the year -- in terms of single-day social media activity -- was CBS' "Grammy Awards," which posted 6.8 million in social media. After this came NBC's Summer London Olympics. The opening ceremonies pulled in 7.2 million; the closing ceremonies, 6 million. ABC's "Academy Awards" grabbed 4.4 million. Farther down the entertainment list came the theatrical premiere of big movie "The Hunger Games," which took in 2.9 million.Five of the top 15 events were entertainment-oriented, with the other 10 either being political or news-oriented.Looking at other notable TV shows: ABC's "Emmys Awards" took in 1.18 million; AMC's "The Walking Dead" season premiere had 1.16 million; and Fox's "American Idol" season premiere had 740,000.Apple's release of its iPhone in September ranked 11th place with 4.2 million.
If you made the switch from print books to e-books this year, you’re not alone. The proportion of Americans 16 and older who read e-books increased to 23% from 16% in 2012, according to new data from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. At the same time, the share of those reading print books in the 12 months ending in November fell to 67% from 72%. Fueling the rise of the e-book reading population is a growing number of tablet and e-reading device owners -- to a third of Americans from 18% a year ago. A quarter of these owned an iPad, Kindle Fire or other tablet -- up from 10% a year ago -- while 19% had an e-reader, also up from 10% last year. Those figures don’t include the millions who received a new iPad mini, Galaxy Tab, Kindle or Nook this week as a Christmas gift. E-book readers in general tend to be between 30 and 49, better-educated and more affluent than average. Earlier this month, IDC raised its forecast for global tablet shipments this year to 122 million from 117 million, based on strong demand for the smaller new Apple tablet and surging sales of Android devices. But it expects that increase to come at the expense of dedicated e-readers, whose shipments will fall to 20 million units from 28 million in 2011. Whether using a multipurpose tablet or e-reader, however, more people are curling up with a good e-book. “These data show that the process of book reading is shifting,” said Lee Rainie, director of Pew’s Internet & American Life Project. The rise of e-reading devices has major implications that are affecting the publishing industry and eventually could affect the way knowledge is packaged and the way ideas are spread.” Still, a New York Times article this week noted that the e-book market is not growing quite as fast as forecast. An analyst with Simba Information told the newspaper that at any given time, about a third of e-book users haven’t bought a single title in the last 12 months. That may be because they haven’t gotten to e-books already downloaded. Wider adoption of e-books has also affected libraries. The share of recent library users who have borrowed an e-book from a library rose from 3% to 5% this year. The increase partly reflects more people being aware that they can take out e-books from libraries, with that proportion increasing to 31% from 24%. The overall number of book readers in 2012 was 75% of the population, ages 16 and older, which Pew said was a statistically insignificant decline from 78% in late 2011. The latest figures are from a survey conducted from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10 among a sample of 2,252 Americans. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Marin Software will go through an IPO in 2013, Chris Lien, founder and CEO of Marin Software, told MediaPost, but declined to disclose the underwriter. While Marin has been gearing up through a variety of compliance through Sarbanes-Oxley reporting principals, don't expect an IPO in the first quarter. The company has not publicly filed a S1 form, something required about three months prior. Before a company can go public, it must have the systems and controls in place to operate as a public company and have the predictability of financial performance. That's to ensure the stock performs well, with the ability to hit its financial plans. The 2012 year started strong, but ended with the second-slowest November and December IPO market since the dot-com bubble. The U.S. IPO market was modestly more active in 2012, with 128 deals -- up 2% from last year, according to Renaissance Capital. The investment firm said 13 Internet IPOs raised an average of $90 million, excluding Facebook, representing 43% fewer deals than in 2011. Facebook's mismanaged offering in May deterred potential Internet companies leaving work to do in 2013. Since being founded in April 2006, Marin has raised a little more than $100 million. About 450 employees support operations worldwide in 11 offices. In 2013, Marin will focus on something Lien describes as the next generation of digital advertising management supported through cloud-based advertising and data to help marketers drive better revenue as the percentage of ad spend on mobile rises. The move toward segmentation on mobile, based on operating systems and devices, will require sophisticated tools to bring it all together. Click-through behavior and space on screens differ widely. Lien believes some of the challenges marketers will face in 2013 point to the role social will play in multichannel marketing program. He expects massive innovation in paid search as product and image listing change. "From talking with the folks at Bing and Google, the idea that innovation is over couldn't be farther from the truth," Lien said. "In 2013, you'll see new ad placements and types. It's often forgotten that the most likely used ad unit on mobile is search, and I think you'll see more things there based on location."
The 2012 holiday season has demonstrated that real-time bidding (RTB) is at the top of the list of what mobile advertisers want. We entered this season with high hopes that retailers, and the agencies running their campaigns, would move into a new level of understanding of the RTB paradigm. Initial results during this period were nothing short of astonishing, even to our experienced eyes: one client showed a 20% engagement rate – in which users engaged with the ad unit in some way - during the four-day Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday period (the days that traditionally kick off the U.S. holiday shopping period). Additionally, the click-through rate (CTR) for the pre-roll video campaign at 15.79% showed a level that is 4-5 times the industry average, demonstrating the power of mobile video advertising during the initial weekend of the 2012 holiday buying season. And, yes, the creative, with a catchy music video, helped increase engagement, but the post-click behavior was due to RTBs’ better targeting capability, which put the mobile content in front of the right consumers at the right time. We saw consistent levels of engagement for this campaign across all social media channels, and a relatively high view-through rate (VTR) of 12% for the video, which, at 30 seconds, shows the capacity for targeted campaigns to draw engaged viewers. We have already witnessed how RTB is an ideal platform for brands to target mobile shoppers, but the heady statistics we are delivering for clients indicate how greater relevance and richer data sets can deliver greater value for the client. The predictive modeling question has already been answered by mobile consumers this year, as well: as long as privacy is maintained, the impressions that RTB-enable mobile ad networks can yield richer impressions – through enriched demographic information, behavioral factors, location data, device features, as well as other advertiser-specified targeting criteria. When predictive modeling is used to identify impressions with a higher propensity for conversion and awareness lift, marketers will receive higher conversion at a significantly lower cost. All of this bodes well for marketers who are taking the RTB leap. They have answered their own deepest questions on what RTB can ultimately deliver: solid results.