Mobile Groove

Facebook and Twitter advanced their mobile strategies this week, each with an emphasis on providing brands a means to reach and engage with people who use the social networks to connect and communicate.

Twitter’s “news’” comes nearly two years after the company introduced the concept of Promoted Tweets. The approach effectively introduces advertising into tweet feeds, an experience that we mostly know from online.

To understand the importance of this week’s announcement, Twitter reminds us that Promoted Products have already been a part of our mobile experience. In fact, Promoted Trends and Promoted Tweets in search have been available on Twitter for iPhone, Twitter for Android and the mobile web (m.twitter.com) for some time. Additionally, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Tweets in the timeline have been available on the mobile Web for several months.

Editor’s note: This provocative guest column from Andy Bovingdon, Bango VP Product Marketing, takes a hard look at the critical questions publishers, developers and advertisers need to ask themselves as they architect truly effective mobile strategies. Should the Apple iPad, just now coming to Europe, be considered a mobile device (and therefore take a central role in mobile strategy)? Or do other factors beyond technology play a deciding role?

In the run up to launch of the iconic iPad device it’s no wonder that the topic has come up in several recent mobile marketing meetings with clients and colleagues alike. The emotional bond – even obsession – with this device is understandable. But the need for hard-nosed business realism (particularly if you are a publisher or marketer aiming to delight your particular customer base or target demographic) is much greater.

UPDATE: Today is the last day to register and get one of my specially discounted VIP passes.

Here’s a link that will take you straight there: https://www.openmobilesummit.com/lon/register/step1.aspx?dc=MSEARCHVIP

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Now in its second year the Open Mobile Summit (May 26-27, London) covers all the bases to again set the bar. I attended and spoke at this exceptional event last June and was struck by to things: the sold-out crowd and the balanced mix of speakers and authorities from companies and organizations across the entire ecosystem.

When I connected with Randy Cavaiani, Novarra Vice President, Marketing, last week at CTIA I had a hunch that something big was in the pipeline. For one, he was in a great mood. Second, he used the opportunity to walk me through Novarra’s big-picture vision of the mobile Internet, a topic we have discussed several times and at key milestones in

I’ve followed Novarra from the start and watched it cleverly and quietly align its server/micro-browser capabilities to focus on a much broader agenda. It’s all about providing operators, handset makers and Internet brands the technology and know-how to create new services and revenue streams (with the help of in-network intelligence, mobile Internet click-stream analytics and context information from Novarra).

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It’s a milestone day for the fledgling app space. We have a solid report from esteemed colleague Chetan Sharma that gives a good overview of the size of the global mobile apps economy and some valuable insights into the regional

In the run up to Mobile World Congress 2010 MSG hosts a three part series dissecting the mobile developments impacting the mobile industry and our society at all levels, as documented in the Netsize Guide. This
comprehensive annual analysis of what matters in mobile – often referred to as a mobile 2.0 reference work — combines country telecommunications data, exclusive interviews with senior executives and insights from online surveys with mobile professionals and practitioners to provide the inside track on what’s happening in mobile – everywhere.

Today we look at mobile entertainment. What issues/opportunities peg the needle? What models deliver? And what past industry events/milestones shape the future?