MulteFire, an LTE technology that operates standalone in unlicensed and shared spectrum, extends the LTE ecosystem to new and existing players, while supporting harmonious co-existence with other technologies in the same band.

Open to all MWC attendees, the MulteFire Open Day at MWC will take place Tuesday, February 27 from 2:00-5:00pm in Press Room 2 in the Fira Gran Via. The event will feature:

• Keynote presentation by MulteFire Alliance Board Chair Stephan Litjens will cover MulteFire technology development including the forthcoming Release 1.1
• Analyst presentation by Wireless 20/20 will present cost and revenue modeling for MulteFire deployments in Industrial IoT and Enterprise applications
• Guest presentation by Huawei sharing results from a private LTE deployment in Shanghai shipping port
• Panel discussion with panelists from Boingo Wireless, Industrial Internet Consortium, m3connect and Nokia Reception from 4:00-5:00pm to meet with MulteFire Alliance leadership

To register for the event, click here.

The post MulteFire Alliance to Showcase Technology Innovation at Mobile World Congress appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The results were published in Smaato’s Q4 2017 Global Trends in Mobile Advertising Report, which offers key insights into the worldwide mobile programmatic advertising landscape based on in-depth analysis of the quarter’s ad impressions on the Smaato platform.

“Mobile advertising is growing extremely fast worldwide, especially in high-value categories including video and targeted in-app content,” said Arndt Groth, President of Smaato. “Smaato as a platform has experienced a substantial increase in both volume and pricing, a trend we expect to continue as we expand into other markets and create innovative new products for buyers and sellers.”

The report also notes that Smaato delivered 87% ad spending growth in the Americas and 61% growth in EMEA, the two regions with the highest increases. In 2017, the company also observed several massive growth factors that have changed mobile advertising significantly in the past few years — namely, significant growth from mobile video and in-app advertising.

In-app advertising accounted for 96% of global ad spending. In-app advertising has taken over the mobile advertising market, growing from 80% of total ad spending on the Smaato platform in 2016 to 96% in 2017. In-app’s domination of mobile ad spending last year was a global phenomenon, with in-app holding at least an 87% share of ad spending in each of the top 20 mobile advertising markets worldwide. Compared to mobile web, in-app ads also boasted much higher eCPMs, more user engagement and increased advertiser demand in Q4 2017.
Mobile video advertising increased by 14X. Video, which can offer higher engagement advertising to a more captive audience, took off in popularity in 2017. Across all of the top 10 mobile advertising markets, mobile video ad spending has increased by at least 6X over the past year, with in-stream pre-roll showing the highest increase in demand. In addition to a huge volume increase, Smaato also measured a mobile video eCPM increase of 70% from 2016 to 2017.

Want to know more? Download the full report here.

The post Smaato Serves Record Mobile In-App and Video Impressions in 2017 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative, the 30th DVCon U.S. will be held February 26 – March 1 at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, California.

Attendees can choose from a broad selection of 39 papers, 8 tutorials, 4 short workshops and approximately 31 poster sessions over the course of the 4-day technical conference and exhibition.

The conference opens with Accellera Day on Monday, February 26. There will be a morning tutorial, “Portable Test and Stimulus: The Next Level of Verification Productivity is Here,” followed by an Accellera-sponsored luncheon that will provide Accellera updates, honor the 2018 Technical Excellence Award recipient, and have a panel of Accellera Working Group Chairs providing updates on their working group activities and answering questions from the audience. The afternoon tutorial, “IEEE-Compatible UVM Reference Implementation and Verification Components,” will address the new reference implementation and describe the new features and changes relative to UVM 1.2 and what they mean in real applications.

The keynote, “Industry’s Next Challenge: The Petacycle Challenge,” will be delivered by Christopher Tice, vice president of Verification Continuum Solutions in the Verification Group at Synopsys on Tuesday, February 27. He will address how new growth segments in the industry, such as Automotive, IoT, Networking, and 5G Mobile among others, are fundamentally changing the requirements for verification.

There will also be two panel discussions on Wednesday, March 2: “Help! System Coverage is a Big Data Problem!” will have a panel of industry experts discuss some of the issues surrounding system coverage and some possible solutions; and “The Right Tool (or Tools) for the Toughest Verification Tasks” is comprised of users who will discuss how decisions are made about which tools are implemented in a design verification flow.

New to DVCon U.S. this year are four 90-minute short workshops on Thursday, March 1. The workshops were developed to give smaller companies more opportunities to participate in the program. There will also be six half-day tutorials on Thursday, including afternoon tutorials focused primarily on issues surrounding automotive safety and compliance.

For the complete DVCon U.S. 2018 schedule, click here.

The post 30th DVCon U.S. Kicks Off Next Week appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In this role, Garofola will oversee the evolution of the Vibes Mobile Engagement Platform and guide the development of new enterprise-grade mobile push, messaging and wallet solutions.

Brands like Chipotle, Redbox, The Home Depot, and PetSmart currently use Vibes’ solutions to drive more consumer engagement, encourage in-store device use, and increase conversations.

“Brian joins our team at a pivotal time in our business – and in the renaissance of messaging as a mobile marketing imperative. Brands now understand that they must approach mobile marketing as a holistic strategy rather than as a slice of their digital marketing initiatives,” said Jack Philbin, co-founder and CEO of Vibes. “Brian’s expertise in building digital marketing applications and scaling high performance, highly automated SaaS platforms will provide us with the technical leadership needed to enter this new era of mobile marketing.”

We’re told that Garofola comes to Vibes with more than 15 years of experience leading software engineering teams.

“Vibes is a one-of-a-kind mobile platform that enables marketers to run sophisticated campaigns and deliver compelling and profitable conversations at scale,” said Garofola. “We’re introducing marketers to new modes of communication with their audiences, and we’re employing highly relevant and fast-moving technology to do it. It’s a fun industry and a fantastic team.”

For information about Vibes, click here.

The post First Look: Vibes Names New Chief Technology Officer appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

As for the juiciest details of the report, the key findings of the global mobile analytics market, according to Technavio media and entertainment researchers, include:

• In 2016, the iOS segment dominated the market by occupying almost 63% share
• The Americas dominated the global mobile analytics market with 54% share in 2016
• Adobe Systems, Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, and Microsoft are the leading players in the market

The growing adoption of data analytics is a major market driver, the report summary notes.

To maximize their profits, increase revenue, and reduce costs, organizations use data analytics. It helps in eliminating the major work involved in understanding customers and data tracking processes. Data analytics also helps in attracting new customers and analyze the historical data patterns to provide insights into retaining the existing customers.

Data analytics, the Technavio team adds, also helps in understanding the consumer and providing them with customized services. Through data and customer analytics, insights can be gained about buying patterns of new customers. These insights can be used to strategize and plan ways and means to boost sales and revenue.

Want to know more about the report? The whole shebang is available for purchase here.

The post Technavio: iOS to Dominate the Global Mobile Analytics Market appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Sponsored by Accellera Systems Initiative, DVCon U.S. will be held February 26-March 1, 2018 at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose, California.

“I am very proud of the program we have put together for our attendees at DVCon this year,” stated Tom Fitzpatrick, DVCon U.S. 2018 Technical Program Chair. “It is the must-attend conference for design and verification engineers because it continues to grow and evolve with the needs of industry. This year we’ve added some new vertical topic areas that I think attendees will find particularly intriguing and useful. Safety critical verification is a theme that attendees will see addressed throughout the conference, and the tutorials on Thursday afternoon are focused primarily on issues surrounding automotive safety and compliance. There is also a paper that will discuss UVM-based Verification of a RISC-V Processor Core. There is something for everyone at DVCon and our team of reviewers has done an excellent job of pulling the best for the program from an outstanding group of proposals,” Fitzpatrick concluded.

To get a more complete guide to the conference, Dennis Brophy, DVCon U.S. 2018 general chair, explains why DVCon is even “Bigger and Better” in his Welcome Message to attendees. You can check it out here.

For the full DVCon U.S. 2018 schedule, including a list of sessions, tutorials, workshops, sponsored luncheons and events, visit www.dvcon.org. To register for DVCon, visit here.

The post DVCon U.S. 2018 Adds New Topics to Technical Program appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

“With the addition of GPS in Apple Watch Series 2 and LTE in Series 3, Apple Watch is quickly becoming a mainstream piece of outdoor technology,” said Kasey Feller, Lander’s brand manager. “The Moab Case + Band for Apple Watch naturally enhances the look and feel of Apple Watch, while protecting its classic design from unexpected scratches and dents that can occur when adventuring.”

The Moab Case + Band for Apple Watch features an outdoor design aesthetic with a speckled texture finish, and also allows the watch itself to “nest” snugly within the enclosure. Collectively, the case and band are engineered to withstand the unanticipated variables of nature.

Paying attention to the details, the black reflective nylon band features a sturdy “Lander-branded” classic buckle that firmly and comfortably keeps Apple Watch in place. “As the perfect wearable accessory for outdoor adventures,” Moab Case + Band for Apple Watch features three signature qualities:

• Reinforced case for full-impact protection
• Waterproof-treated nylon band for longevity and comfort
• Illumifind reflective band for added safety and locating

The Moab Case + Band for Apple Watch ($29.99) is compatible with Apple Watch Series 1/2/3 42mm, and can be purchased online at Lander.

The post First Look: Lander Moab Case + Band for Apple Watch Impresses appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

From the official release:

Basketball, football, baseball, hockey, and soccer modules will be released alongside ePlay’s partners throughout the year. The game, sometimes called “Pokémon Go meets DraftKings” allows users to meet and draft 3D animated athletes in AR.

“Working with our partners and athletes directly, the mobile game is designed to increase engagement between athlete and fan,” says Trevor Doerksen, CEO of ePlay Digital. “Athletes and players can control their appearance in the game with selfies and via social media. All players and eSports viewing audiences walk between two worlds: the on-court, on-ice, on-field performance augmented by customizable 3D avatars, front and rear-facing mobile cameras, player narration, selfies, and actual game play.”

A range of critical elements for the game, including logos, player images, as well as the sports data that will underpin the fantasy statistics and scores will be supplied by sports data technology leaders Sportradar. Those statistics and scores, delivered off the back of Sportradar’s own partnerships and processes, will enable users to draft athletes and begin earning points and prizes.

“At Sportradar, we are committed to delivering cutting-edge data and products that push insight and engagement to new levels,” says Dave Abbott, SVP Innovation and Product Integration at Sportradar. “Where fantasy and Augmented Reality meets is a fascinating space and it is exciting to see our data chosen by ePlay to ensure their upcoming game titles are reliable as well as innovative and fun”.

The post ePlay to Demo AR Sports Fantasy Game at CES in Las Vegas appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Ads.txt Plus is hailed as being “one of the first open source decentralized applications (DApps) for digital advertising. It is now available in beta on the Ethereum Rinkeby testnet.”

Ads.txt is an IAB Tech Lab project aimed towards transparency within the inventory supply chain of the programmatic advertising industry.

Since ads.txt is a public webserver file, the company says it makes it easier for buyers to identify authentic publisher inventory.

“Ads.txt was a great leap forward for the digital advertising community,” said MetaX Chief Revenue Officer, Alanna Gombert. “As members of the IAB Tech Lab Blockchain Working Group, we decided to give back to the community and build Ads.txt Plus, an open source version built on Ethereum. This is part of our greater mission to encourage honesty, integrity and communication within the advertising industry.”

The post MetaX Develops Ads.txt Plus, Powered by adChain and adToken appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The following is a guest contributed post by Dana Gibber, Co-Founder and COO of Headliner Labs, the leading chatbot creation platform.

Chatbots for Hotels

These days, almost every imaginable industry is experimenting with the use of intelligent, AI-powered chatbots to speed up processes, increase efficiency and provide more satisfactory customer service. Among the most exciting and high-potential are the uses for chatbots in the hospitality industry. Hotel patrons expect on-demand service; it is difficult to imagine anything easier than messaging a hotel concierge right on your mobile phone with an instantaneous response. Hotels should adopt chatbots to serve as the first line of contact for guests in certain circumstances, especially when the need is simple (more towels!) or when accessibility should be twenty-four/seven. In the hotel context, chatbots afford much of the functionality that mobile apps provide, without requiring guests to download an app. Chatbots are an ideal tool for fast service when the need is short in duration (typically, a hotel stay of a few nights), but requires a high frequency of interaction during that time.

Here are five ways chatbots can be used by the hotel industry:

1. Instant Reminders

After check-in, chatbots can send useful updates related to a guest’s stay. For example, a chatbot can notify a guest when his or her room becomes available, or conversely send reminders about upcoming check-out times. The chatbot can even be used to set wake up alarms in the morning, or send reminders about dinner and spa reservations. For a hotel, this reduces the volume of simple queries directed at human staff and clogging up phone lines, while reducing wasted resources due to missed appointments.

2.            Ability to provide upgrades/ additional services

A chatbot can be a valuable channel for upselling to hotel guests. With its unique ability to ping guests with concise, bite-sized messages, a chatbot can proactively notify guests of things like available upgrades, spa appointments, amenities, activities, etc. Chatbots are typically powered by machine learning algorithms that optimize messaging, so when implemented properly, these messages are helpful and informative — leading to conversion — rather than aggressive and intrusive.

3.            Customer Service

Up to 67% of queries directed at concierges or hotel personnel are repetitive on a daily basis, and can often be reduced to the same five or six topics. A text chatbot accessible from a guest’s mobile phone, or a voice chatbot sitting in each hotel room, could easily absorb some of these queries. For example, a voice bot sitting in a room can be directed to bring new towels, to request additional shampoo or soap, to provide the hours of operation of various hotel amenities, and serve as a clearinghouse for basic information and outbound requests.

4.            Room Service Delivery/ Online Ordering

Using a chatbot for online ordering is much more efficient than having a guest calling in. Chatbots can show photos of menus, enabling guests to click and instantly order. This streamlines the room service delivery process on both ends. With proper integrations into the hotel’s systems, a chatbot can give updates on how long the wait will be before room service arrives.

5.            Stay in Touch

After guests check out, chatbots are an optimal channel for soliciting feedback and securing a repeat booking. Chatbots can send feedback surveys with incentives for filling them out. Sending promotions and deals for future stays is also a highly effective way to encourage a second booking.

The post Chatbots in the Hospitality Industry: Enhanced Personalized Guest Experiences appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.