Articles of the Day
Arbitron Finds Online Listening Up 14% - The weekly audience for online radio rose from 29 million in January 2007 to 33 million in January 2008, according to the most recent Infinite Dial report from Arbitron and Edison Media Research, which will release the survey in April).The 2008 figure represents 13% of the American population over the age of 12, and 17.5% of the total online population (188 million in 2007, according to separate figures from eMarketer. In addition to metrics documenting growth in the overall audience, the latest round of research from Arbitron and Edison focused on the substantial overlap between online radio listeners and social network users.
Mobile Search Service Revenues To Hit $4.8B By 2013: Juniper — Annual revenues from mobile search services are expected to hit $4.8 billion by 2013, according to a new report from Juniper Research. Among the factors driving growth are the decline of carriers’ “walled garden” approach, falling data costs and the entrance of search heavyweights such as Google and Yahoo. Local search will be the most popular service among advertisers, attracting 40% of mobile search ad spending over the next five years. Globally, China and the Far East are expected to generate most revenues from mobile search in the coming years, followed by Western Europe and North America.
EyeWonder Launches Live Streaming Video Feature — Rich media and digital video provider EyeWonder has launched a new LiveWonder feature, designed to deliver live streaming video via any of its online ad formats. Stinson Partners is the first agency to user LiveWonder to promote and deliver General Electric’s retail investor presentation last week. LiveWonder is designed to help advertisers and agencies increase brand awareness and communicate with their audiences through online video campaigns.
Relevantis Rolls Out Ad Platform for Android — Relevantis has launched its universal Ad Platform, a monetization platform for Web sites and developers of widgets, applications and games for Android, Google’s mobile phone platform. The platform allows Android developers to include personalized and location-aware ads within their apps–and the API gives developers more control over the kinds of ads that can be displayed, as well as enabling the ads to be cached. This way, if a user with an Android-enabled mobile phone is underground in the subway or otherwise offline, the ads can still be displayed. Kirkland, Wash.-based Relevantis takes a portion of any ad revenues earned as its fee.
Apple, Music Co’s Mull Unlimited Music Model - Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a new “all you can eat” subscription model for its iTunes music service that would give its users free access to the entire iTunes library in exchange for paying a premium for its music enabled devices like the iPod and iPhone. This is the same model as the “comes with music” deal Nokia struck with Universal Music a few months ago, although this would include each of the four biggest recording studios. The plan now hinges on the price the iPod maker is willing to pay for access to the labels’ music catalog. Nokia, for example, is reportedly offering music industry partners almost $80 per handset, which would be divided according to their share of the market. Apple so far has offered $20 per device.
Microsoft Wants Wireless Consumers, Too — Under pressure from Apple’s iPhone, the software behemoth is reinvigorating efforts to make Windows Mobile more appealing to the mass market Spurred on by Apple’s pursuit of the wireless mass market, Microsoft is redoubling efforts to court mobile-phone consumers. Despite long-standing attempts to widen the appeal of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, the operating system for cell phones is popular mainly with business users looking for a way to view documents, spreadsheets, and corporate e-mail on a handheld device. Luring the less-business-minded has taken on added urgency in light of Apple’s success with the iPhone, introduced in June, 2007. “We’ve always been going in this direction, but we feel it’s time to move in more aggressively now,” says Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft’s mobile communications business, though he denies the push has to do with Apple (AAPL). In 2007, the Windows Mobile share of the U.S. smartphone market slipped to 28%, from 30%, reflecting inroads by the iPhone, which uses Apple’s OS X operating system, according to researchers at IDC.
