MediaPost

A new report predicts that tablets will emerge as the primary platform for mobile ad revenue in the next two years as a result of their larger screen and the more immersive media experience. The Yankee Group study forecasts that tablets will account for 53% of mobile ad dollars in 2014 compared to 47% for mobile handsets. By 2016, tablets’ share of mobile ad sales will rise to 60%. Ads within mobile applications in particular will help to drive growth.

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eMarketer 

The number of US mobile phone users will increase at a compound annual rate of just 1.8% between 2011 and 2016, eMarketer estimates, moving from nearly 75% penetration in 2010 to 79% by the end of the forecast period.

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Nielsenwire

Almost half (49.7%) of U.S. mobile subscribers now own smartphones, as of February 2012. According to Nielsen, this marks an increase of 38 percent over last year; in February 2011, only 36 percent of mobile subscribers owned smartphones.  This growth is driven by increasing smartphone adoption, as more than two-thirds of those who acquired a new mobile device in the last three months chose a smartphone over a feature phone.

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MediaPost

By year’s-end, mobile will contribute 25% to total paid-search ad clicks, up from 12%. By then, U.S. mobile campaigns will contribute about 23% to Google’s paid-search revenue in the United States.

More consumers on mobile devices continue to click through on ads at a higher rate compared with desktop, according to Matt Lawson, vice president of marketing at Marin. “The small screen on the phone only allows room for one or two at the top, not six to 10 down the right rail,” he said. “When Google renders results from a query, the paid ad may take up as much as two-thirds of the screen.”

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All Things D

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, says last week’s iPad launch was the company’s strongest ever. And while it does include nine days of preorders, opening weekend iPad sales of three million is an impressive feat. How many companies can claim to have sold three million tablets total, let alone in just under four days? NotMotorola. Not Research In Motion. And certainly not Hewlett-Packard.

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PC World (US)

Windows 8 tablets have a lot of potential, but without strong support from Dell and HP Microsoft will struggle to compete against the iPad
Dell is committed to joining the tablet fray once again–this time with Windows 8 tablets aimed at going head-to-head with the Apple iPad. That is good news for Microsoft because Windows 8 tablets will essentially be dead on arrival without strong support from Dell and HP.

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The share of emails accessed via mobile devices increased by 81% from October 2010 to March 2011, according to a survey released by Return Path on May 17.

“I think what really surprised us is the very rapid growth in mobile as a proportion of all platforms,” said Bryan Dreller, senior product manager at Return Path, an email certification and security company. “I don’t think we expected to see that in just a six-month period; mobile viewership relative to its peers would nearly double,”

Sixteen percent of emails were accessed via mobile devices in March 2011, up from 9.2% last October, according to the survey. Mobile’s share trailed webmail, which saw 48% of all emails accessed in March, and that of desktop (36%), although the shares of webmail and desktop did drop 4% and 2%, respectively, from October 2010. Read more

Fueled by higher smartphone sales, the worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8%% in the first quarter of 2011, according to new data from technology research firm IDC. The number of mobile devices shipped increased to 372 million from 310.5 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Rising smartphone adoption, especially in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), Middle East and Africa, and Latin America, helped drive the wider market to a new first-quarter record. The nearly 20% growth rate was also up slightly from the 18% rate in the fourth quarter of 2010.

IDC noted that manufacturers are making smartphones more affordable to a wider range of customers in emerging markets and elsewhere. That trend has helped handset makers, such as Micromax, TCL-Alcatel, Huawei, Research in Motion (RIM) and others outside the top five vendors, collectively outpace the broader mobile market, with a 46.4% growth rate.

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Mobile video ad impressions averaged 728 million a month in the first quarter of 2011, up 36% from the prior quarter, according to new data from mobile video ad network Rhythm NewMedia. More than 70 marketers ran campaigns during the quarter, about the same as in the fourth quarter.

The Rhythm data is based on ads served across the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android and other mobile devices in the U.S. HBO, Kraft, Disney and Marriott, among other brands, use the company’s network to run pre-roll, tap-to-play and in-stream video ads on the apps and mobile sites of various publishers, including CBS, Fox, NBC, Discovery and AP.

Among the three ad types, the in-stream unit, which plays as a commercial break during full episodes or before video clips, had the highest completion rate: 87%. The pre-roll, which automatically plays when an app is launched or between game levels, had a 27% completion rate, and the tap-to-play ads, requiring a user to tap on a display ad to run, a 21% rate. (Unlike most pre-roll ads on the PC-based Web, viewers can skip the Rhythm pre-roll ads, contributing to the lower completion rate.)

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Everybody, especially commentators and journalists, loves to talk about defining moments. That is the reason there has been so many column inches dedicated to predicting, or dismissing “the year of the mobile”.

Everyone can see the potential for mobile devices to change the way we consume and engage digitally and they are all hoping for, and expecting, a single event that marks the beginning of mass mobile adoption from a marketing stand point.

The reality however, is this event is never going to occur. The year of the mobile will probably never happen as there is no single event which is going to change the way we use and consume information and advertising on mobile devices.

What will happen is a natural evolution of mobile devices, platforms, and user attitudes that will evolve mobile internet into a channel with mass usage allowing for marketers to engage with customers more.

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