Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totaled 455.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013, an increase of 5.7 percent from the same period last year.

But the real fireworks came in the smartphone product category.

According to Gartner, sales of smartphones accounted for 55 percent of overall mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2013, and “reached their highest share to date.”

Worldwide smartphone sales to end users reached 250.2 million units, up 45.8 percent from the third quarter of 2012.

Once again, Asia/Pacific led the growth in both markets – the smartphone segment with 77.3 percent increase and the mobile phone segment with 11.9 percent growth.

“Sales of feature phones continued to decline and the decrease was more pronounced in markets where the average selling price (ASP) for feature phones was much closer to the ASP affordable smartphones,” said Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner. “In markets such as China and Latin America, demand for feature phones fell significantly as users rushed to replace their old models with smartphones.”

Gartner estimates that global mobile phone sales are on pace to reach 1.81 billion units in 2013, which is up 3.4 percent from 2012.

The post Gartner: Smartphone Shipments Achieve Highest Share to Date appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Simply Measured reports that 71 percent of the world’s largest brands now use Instagram.

In fact, almost overnight, Instagram’s growth has come to rival the brand adoption of Google+ and Pinterest.

“This was a comprehensive view of activity that tracked brands across all social channels and put in context with their other social media activity,” Nate Smitha, a marketing analyst with Simply Measured, tells Inside Facebook.

Instagram is a channel we’ve been tracking for sometime. It’s an excellent channel for brands to repurpose their marketing content. Brand adoption has increased significantly, which has made it a great place for consumers to connect with those brands.

For the time being, Mercedes-Benz – with well over 425,000 followers – remains the top brand on Instagram. But other companies, both large and small, are similarly coming on strong.

Details gleaned from the report show that brand engagement has spiked 350% year-over-year as a result of a corresponding 70% increase in brands posting to Instagram.

The post Marketers Making Instagram The World’s Fastest Growing Social Network appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

That puts year-over-year growth at nearly 50% from Q3 2012.

In the same report, Juniper revealed that Samsung now accounts for a third of all smartphones shipped with an estimated 85 million smartphones – a new record for the company.

Additionally, Apple’s iPhone accounted for 1 in 7 smartphone shipments during the most recent quarter ending September 30th, 2013. Apple enjoyed quarterly growth of 8% from Q2 2013.

Juniper’s latest research forecasts that Apple and Samsung will continue to dominate the global market, shipping 17% more smartphones in 2018 than were shipped globally by all vendors in 2012.

“These top end players are expected to continue to witness impressive growth next quarter due to seasonality, however Juniper expects a steady decline in growth thereafter especially in maturing markets,” a summary of today’s report reads.  “At this point differentiation becomes vital to continued success, and the strategies used to achieve differentiation need to be different for maturing and emerging markets.”

The post Global Smartphone Shipments May Have Set New Quarterly Record appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Gemalto, a leading digital security solutions provider, has just published the results of a new survey conducted by IFOP in Dubai.

On Wednesday, the Arabian Gazette highlighted key findings from the survey indicating that users are willing to engage with mobile marketing “provided that business respect the ‘golden rules’ of messaging and incentivizing users.”

The infographic shared below presents other informative findings from the aforementioned study.

The post Infographic: Understanding Mobile Marketing in the Middle East appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Keeping with the theme, a new report from Juniper Research has found that increased utilization of analytics platforms, allied to the introduction of innovative ad formats and purchasing mechanisms, will push global mobile ad spend beyond $39 billion in 2018.

That’s a significant jump from $13 billion this year.
Additionally, the report observed that the growth of Real-Time Bidding (RTB), a mechanism which lets advertisers buy impressions in real-time, means that publishers will be able to more easily sell their advertising inventory, which will thereby boost overall mobile ad spend.

Other Key Findings from the Report Include:

• The fastest growing region, in terms of mobile ad spend, will be the Indian Subcontinent. Spend here will increase four times from 2013 to 2018.
• Advertisers can increase conversions by simply adding mobile optimized features, for instance a ‘click to call’ button, or by linking to the correct app store.

“We are witnessing a change in consumer perceptions of mobile advertising as advertisers begin to use opt-in, or reward-style advertising; by harnessing big data and location information, mobile ads are being better targeted to users,” writes report author Sian Rowlands.

The post Juniper: Mobile Ad Spend to Reach $40 billion by 2018 appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The report projects that retail revenue from smart wearable devices, including smartwatches and glasses, will reach $19 billion by 2018 compared with $1.4 billion this year.

Researchers for Juniper note that revenues will likely be driven by high price points for these devices allied to their anticipated strong market demand.

In its latest report, Juniper Research has revised upwards the adoption of devices in the two key segments of consumer electronics ‘Multimedia & Entertainment’, and ‘Multi-functional’ devices. Revisions such as these are common in the early years of a new technology category, and reflect the latest announcements from vendors across the sector.

“It is worth observing that this change in adoption levels can also be attributable to heightened consumer awareness of wearable technology and a better visibility of product adoption, especially in the smart watch segment,” explains report author Nitin Bhas.

Juniper’s complimentary whitepaper titled “Smart wearables…beyond mobile” is now available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the full report.

The post Juniper Makes Bold Prediction for Mobile Smart Wearable Devices appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

We’re told that a “standing-room only” crowd was jam-packed into the council chambers long before the meeting commenced.

“Steve [Jobs] transformed Apple into one of the most innovative companies in the world and we understand the responsibilities that come from carrying his legacy forward with this project,” Apple’s head of real estate and facilities Dan Whisenhunt told the City Council. “We’ve designed it with the same care and attention to detail as we do with all Apple products.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, some residents expressed concerns related to new traffic problems resulting from the campus, but there were no major obstacles to overcome.

“As my mom used to say, ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you,'” Cupertino resident Carol Baker told the Council. “If we don’t honor Apple with this building, they’ll leave. There’s no reason for them to stay here and be loyal to a community that doesn’t support them. But if they left, it would be a disaster for the city.”

The post New Apple Campus Gets Formal Green Light appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

This latest effort, the company says, is the product of ON24’s commitment to developing new mobile webcasting capabilities in recognition of the growing mobile content delivery market trend.

According to the organization’s Chief Product Officer and CTO Jayesh Sahasi, providing an optimized participant experience, regardless of what devices the audience uses, is a core component of ON24’s product development strategy.

“ON24 enables enterprises to communicate effectively with mobile audiences,” Sahasi says. “We are utilizing HTML5 and mobile access to knock down the walls that exist between people and information, delivering a mobile experience that makes it easy for attendees to access both live and on-demand webcasts from anywhere, at any time and on any device, without the need to install apps or download software.”

ON24’s market data show that mobile webcasting registration and attendance in the enterprise continue to rise. In just the last month, over 30,000 people accessed the ON24 platform from mobile devices, a press release from the company reveals.

“Mobile adoption is taking off in the enterprise, and so is mobile webcasting,” Sahasi concludes. “In addition, according to our data, webcast attendance increases more than 10 percent when mobile access is offered — an automatic and no-cost ROI enhancement.”

The post ON24 Introduces Enterprise Mobile Webcasting Initiative appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

The latest projections indicate that an ultra-low cost generation of smartphones will capture large volumes of the emerging markets.

Juniper forecasts almost 200 million in shipments by 2018, compared to just 10 million in 2014.

On a global scale, this means that the Ultra-Premium end of the smartphone market is set to diminish proportionally by volume over time, not due to a drop in sales but a faster level of growth at other price points.

The report, Smartphone Futures: Differentiation Strategies & Emerging Opportunities 2013-2018, asserts that this new generation of devices will permanently change the market, splitting the global market in two, with the developed high margin low volume markets on one side and low margin high volume markets on the other.

In addition to the full report, which is available now for purchase, the complimentary “Smartphones: Ultra-Premium to Ultra-Economy” whitepaper is also available to download from the Juniper website.

The post Juniper: Low Cost Smartphones Poised for Mobile Dominance appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

In the past 5 months, the number of “automotive intenders” on the Jumptap network reached 25 million, an increase of 47%.

Given that there are typically between 5 and 10 million cars sold each year in the U.S., this audience is a critical segment for advertisers to reach.

Among the report highlights shared with MMW are:

• Consumers Brake for Auto Tablet Ads, More Rich Media Features: First interaction rates of tablet automotive ads are 6% higher than the same creative displayed on a smartphone. Consumers interact 180% more with automotive rich media ads when they offer multiple features versus a single feature.

• Different Devices for Difference Drivers: Consumers in the market for trucks are more likely to use an Android device, while consumers in the market for SUVs are more likely to use an Apple device.

• The United States of Auto Intenders: Wyoming is 70.9% more likely than the avg. state to have truck ‘intenders’ on mobile devices, while New York is 40.6% more likely to have luxury sedan intenders.

• Tablet Auto Content Consumption Accelerates in Early Evening: Consumption of automotive content on a PC is higher in the early morning (7 a.m. – 10 a.m.), while consumption on tablets spikes significantly in the early evening (5 p.m. – 8 p.m.).

“In-market automotive consumers are more likely to shop on mobile devices, access multiple devices while watching TV, and engage with mobile ads – making them a desired segment for automotive advertisers,” says Matt Duffy, VP of Marketing at Jumptap. “As the September MobileSTAT illustrates, this segment tends to show different behaviors and device usage based on their vehicle affinity. Advertisers interested in reaching this group must take location, time of day and device into consideration when targeting for a specific make and model.”

The post New MobileSTAT Report Highlights Mobile Behavior of Car Shoppers appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.