Mobile Groove

eMarketer has forecasted the growth of the US mobile payments transactions over the next four years. They believe that the annual mobile payments transactions value will increase from approximately $640 million this year to a whopping $62 billion by 2016. That is an average increase of about 230 percent or total growth of 9,600 percent over the next four years. The number of mobile payment users will increase by 6x to 48 million while average annual spending per user will increase by 20x to $1,294. T…

Facebook has certainly been no stranger to public relations debacles over the past few years for their cavalier regard to their users’ privacy and permission. Recently, the FTC announced a settlement with Facebook that forces the social networking giant to undergo privacy audits for the next 20 years and being on a sort of “privacy probation.” Seeing the breadth violations in one list is stunning; from giving user information to advertisers and 3^rd party apps to saying that information th…

Smartphone penetration is fueling mobile ad budgets as brands grasp the opportunity to engage, interact and drive results further down in the purchase funnel. In the U.K., for example, where smartphone penetration is now nearly 60 percent, the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) reports that mobile advertising is on a “meteoric rise,” growing 132 percent to reach GBP 181.5 million in the first half of 2012. It now accounts for 7 percent of all digital ad spend.

This dovetails with new …

Recently, an Oracle study was release that underscored how retailers are leaving real dollars on the table by not effectively use big data correctly. Oracle surveyed 333 C-level executives from U.S. and Canadian enterprises spanning 11 industries to determine the pain points they face regarding managing the deluge of data coming into their organizations and how well they are able to use information to drive profit and growth. The report found that retailers were losing upwards of 10% of their to…

After years spent on soapboxes telling brands, agencies, and anyone who would listen that they need to be where their consumers are, it’s refreshing to see more companies moving towards a #MobileFirst approach.

The latest companies to adopt a truly mobile mindset are Fab and Allrecipes.com. In an interview with Mashable, Fab founder Jason Goldberg says: “Back in February or March, we realized that fairly soon, mobile customers will be more than 50 percent of our usage, and we need to star…

Smart developers understand that selling apps is a serious business. But a raft of research suggests a singular focus on driving downloads is patently flawed. It’s really how well app developers can persuade us to make their app part of our regular routine that will make or break their app business. Winning is all about making the right choices to delight us again and again.

The bottom line: app developers need to work out a strategy to increase engagement, not just downloads. To provide them a …