Yahoo Goes All-In With Mobile. Yahoo released four products Wednesday, and almost all of them were for iPad, Android and mobile.
The big news was Yahoo Livestand for iPad, a social newsstand app that competes directly with Flipboard. But Livestand wasn't the only product that Team Yahoo released at its Product Runway Even at its headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif. The struggling digital media giant also released IntoNow for iPad. IntoNow, which Yahoo acquired earlier this year, has the ability to listen to a couple seconds of a TV show and determine what show you are watching. The new iPad app brings that functionality to the tablet, while surfacing related tweets, hashtags and other content. The company also unveiled Yahoo Weather for Android, now available in 35 languages. Lastly, Yahoo released a new HTML5 version of Yahoo Mail for the iPad. The commitment to mobile is stark, but it isn't a surprise. Google About To Launch Website Mobilizer GOMO.
Publications Tablet Users Keen On News, Not Payments 10/25. A new study on news consumption via tablet computers suggests catching up on the news is one of the most popular activities on the devices, rating even higher than social networking and gaming.
But the research, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism with The Economist Group, found that most users still aren’t willing to pay for news on tablets. A year and a half after the iPad’s introduction, the study overall said 11% of U.S. adults now own a tablet of some kind. The vast majority (77%) use them each day for an average of an hour and 35 minutes. With Zagat Purchase Google Gets A Massive Foothold In Mobile Market. Zagat, the restaurant (and shopping) reviews stalwart, "famous" for "quotation-mark studded" morsels of criticism, has been acquired by Google.
The deal, spearheaded by Marissa Mayer--Google's guru of local--isn't just about the content or the database: it's about mobile internet. Google's massive growth has required the company to diversify far beyond its engineering and service development roots. And its attempted purchase of Yelp in 2009 was an early indication that the search giant may be entering the content game. That one failed, leaving Google to throw its money at other home-grown innovations and myriad other acquisitions that increasingly reflected its mobile ambitions.
Late last year, for example, the company launched its Google Ideas think tank, which focuses mainly on geopolitical issues and solving problems in markets where mobile access to the Internet is more pervasive than broadband. For Zagat, the purchase comes at exactly the right time.
Shopkick Has 750,000 Users. Number of available Android applications - AppBrain. Top Android Apps and Games in the Android Market. Collaboration, not domination, will lead to mobile payment success. In a post written by Joanne Trout, Vice President of Worldwide Communications, she made an excellent observation about the state of mobile payments: focus should not be on domination, but rather collaboration.
“No doubt, the opportunity in the mobile payments space is huge. It’s a segment that is expected to generate $86.1 billion worldwide in 2011 – according to Gartner. At MasterCard, the buzz isn’t around domination, but rather about creating an open ecosystem that supports multiple players, as we believe this is the best way to get it right for consumers. And having consumers’ trust is key to success.” Right now it seems like everyone is scrambling to be the first/only/best mobile payment solution on the market. I don’t want to paint a picture of complete chaos; it hasn’t gotten that bad yet. There are organizations in place that are working to ensure we don’t reach a state of chaos.
Mobile Industry Data. Infographic: Mobile advertising battle of the sexes — Mobile Technology News. 10 Things You May Not Have Known about Digital Traffic Worldwide. H&M increases in-store traffic via targeted mobile ads. By Rimma Kats June 23, 2011 H&M bolsters in-store traffic via mobile ad Retailer H&M is targeting on-the-go consumers and increasing in-store traffic via mobile and audio ads that highlight its current summer sale, as well as let customers browse inventory and find the nearest locations.
The company is running mobile ads within Pandora’s mobile application. Additionally, the ads are an effective way to get consumers in-store by offering an incentive – such as items on sale. “It’s a great way to drive as much foot traffic as you can,” said Neil Strother, Kirkland, WA-based practice director at ABI. “If there are ways to do that in mobile devices – a way to get that audience in-store then it makes a lot of sense.” Mr. H&M did not respond by press time. ReadWriteMobile Poll Summary: Your Thoughts on Recent Mobile Trends & News.
Every week on ReadWriteMobile, we ask readers questions pertaining to trends and news related to the mobile industry.
Sometimes we ask you about thoughts on the mobile platforms themselves, other times about user behavior or monetization methods. This week, we'll take a look back at some of our polls from the past few months to summarize what you've told us so far. No, QR Codes Aren't Dead. They're Just Used Badly.