• Real Americans Shop With Smartphones
    If you're a real American, you shouldn't be reading this. You shouldn't be reading at all, or doing anything remotely related to your chosen profession. It's Cyber Monday, which means you're supposed to be fully immersed in the great American pastime that is holiday shopping. Oh, and you should be doing it on your phone. That's right -- mobile is now as American as pumpkin pie. (It used to be sort of an East Asian thing.) In fact, this is the first year that consumers are doing more shopping on their mobile devices than their desktops.
  • Google Gets Pumped For 'Accelerated Mobile Pages'
    Though it's fighting an uphill battle, Google seems to be gaining traction with "Accelerated Mobile Pages," and now plans to launch service by early next year.
  • Are Mobile Job Marketplaces What Workers Need?
    From Uber to Postmates to TaskRabbit, mobile-based job marketplaces are having a moment. They're also highly controversial, given their knack for disrupting entrenched interests -- while it's still anyone's guess who they'll ultimately benefit.
  • Getting To Know Mobile-First Shoppers
    Leading up to the biggest shopping days of the year, the big unknown remains mobile and how it will reshape the playing field. Most remarkable, I think, is the growing share of shoppers who actually prefer buying things on their phone. Most surprisingly, they're not all kids! Rather, just over half of this group -- which now represents about 14% of the online adult population -- is under the age of 35, according to new findings from digital marketing firm Resonate.
  • What WON'T We Do On Our Smartphones?
    Is there anything people won't do on their phones? That question is getting harder to answer, since folks appear increasingly content to conduct all manner of business on their little gadgets. Next year, for example, the majority (51.8%) of travelers who book their trips via digital means will do so using a mobile device, according to new findings from eMarketer. That's up from 43.8%, this year.
  • Apple Dominates Smartphone Profits
    Despite the growing proliferation of smartphones and smartphone manufacturers globally, one company absolutely dominates profits on devices shipped. Of course, it's Apple. According to Canaccord Genuity research released this week, Apple made 94% of the share of industry profits, up from 85% one year ago, and 92% last quarter. Here's the crazy part: Apple only produced 14.5% (about 48 million) of the smartphones sold last quarter.
  • Mobile Will Drive Targeting Revolution
    Most marketers realize that the future of mobile advertising lies in more sophisticated, data-driven targeting methods like predictive targeting -- but many are intimidated by the prospect of managing so much data. That's according to a new report from Forrester's consulting arm, which was commissioned by predictive targeting mobile ad network AdTheorent. Right. The findings are certainly convenient for AdTheorent, but that doesn't mean they're not worth considering.
  • Welcome To The Age Of Emojis
    What should we make of Oxford Dictionaries choosing the "face with tears of joy" emoji as its "word" of the year? I've been in the business long enough to know that this sort of announcement is basically a bid for attention -- and what's more attention-grabbing than a dictionary publisher recognizing emojis as words?
  • Mobile In Times Of Crisis
    Two words come to mind in response to talk of mobile services as a solution to terrorist attacks like the one that just occurred in Paris: woefully insufficient. I'm sure that's mostly my emotions talking, just as I'm sure that consumer-facing services like those offered by Facebook and Uber can help in their own little way.
  • Can Facebook Out-Snapchat Snapchat?
    Facebook is testing a disappearing message option within its Messenger app in France. Obviously, that's a direct shot at Snapchat and its disappearing messages.
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