UK adspend report fails to highlight importance of mobile
Methodology changes welcomed but more granularity needed
The recently released AA/Warc Expenditure report is good news in general for the UK advertising industry. The headline was that expenditure in the UK reached £17,172 billion in 2012. The last time advertising spend exceeded £17 billion was prior to the recession in 2007 (£17,364bn). The big news, however, was that there was a change in methodology that allows subscribers to view the impact of online adspend for newsbrands, magazine brands and TV. This acknowledges the growing importance of digital but it didn’t do much to highlight the importance of mobile in such campaigns. Continue reading
China Mobile audit unearths accountancy ‘problems’
Suggestions of graft and inflated sales
China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile operator by subscribers, has revealed it is overhauling its accounting practices and internal management after a government audit hinted at problems. In recent years several executives and former executives of group parent China Mobile Communications – an unlisted company – have been investigated by Beijing officials amid reports of bribery, according to Chinese media reports. Continue reading
Anite shares emerge from the doldrums on upbeat trading news
Says revenues now look more promising
Shares in mobile phone testing specialist, Anite, closed more than 7 per cent higher in London last night, allaying concerns earlier in the year that it was in for a bumpy ride ahead. The price surge helped correct a 15 per cent plunge in the company’s stock in March after it admitted that its order intake was lower than 12 months previously. It also warned at the time that it needed to put in a strong fourth-quarter to meet financial targets for the year, further spooking investors and sending shares down to 131 pence. Continue reading
Sony’s real tablet for real people
GoMo gets hands on with Xperia Tablet Z
Whilst other publications might rave about how the Xperia Tablet Z from Sony Mobile Communications will be the first to run a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro ‘asynchronous quad core’ processor, GoMo News says, “Who really cares? This is product is a real tablet for real people – it meets IP55 and IP57 standards, for starters. So in layman’s terms it should survive a dip into the wash basin or a cup of coffee spilt over it – unlike certain other leading tablet products. GoMo News spent an hour playing with the Tablet Z pre-commercial availability (late May 2013). Continue reading
25% enter personal data via mobile data connexion
If you’re doing consumer research don’t make the focus too wide. This seems the moral of the tale for Experian Consumer Services. The company carried out research into consumers attitudes to online identity protection recently. The message for mobile operators – ie the role played in protecting consumers got a bit buried, it seems to GoMo News. As we’ve previously reported, it’s mostly not the MNO’s fault, but when things go wrong consumers tend to blame them – not the companies providing the insecure service. Consumers are still naïve it seem. Experian found that 25 per cent of those surveyed admitted to entering personal data via mobile data connexion. You can bet they hadn’t installed mobile security software. Continue reading
Guest Post: The time is now – it’s time for innovation
by Mark Windle, head of marketing with OpenCloud
How the impetus now lies with mobile operators to innovate, to launch a new frontier in communications pioneering
Recently, research from Infoma here has shown that the number of traditional SMS/texts being sent has been overtaken by instant messages on chat apps, such as WhatsApp. This number is only set to escalate, as Informa estimated that by the end of this year 41 billion instant messages will be sent every day, compared with an average of 19.5 billion SMS texts. SMS revenues are still expected to grow, however it’s clear that mobile messaging is now dominated by over-the-top (OTT) solutions: voice and other communication services are heading the same way. Continue reading
GENBAND launches Innovation Exchange with marquee members to deliver differentiated solutions
Press release
April 30th 2013. GENBAND, a leading developer of multimedia and cloud communications solutions, has announced the launch of the Innovation Exchange (IX), a collaborative business and technology exchange that fosters innovation by bringing to market holistic and vertical solutions that meet demanding customer requirements through the synergies of world-class members. Continue reading
O2 gets the customers in, but revenues still head south
Subscriber growth is at expense of rivals
Britain’s second-biggest mobile operator, O2, says customer growth is accelerating as it prepares for the launch of new 4G services. The operator, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, added 251,000 extra contract customers in the three months to April 2013, the fastest first-quarter growth it has witnessed in four years. And although it lost almost as many pay-as-you-go users, it still registered growth of 46,000 more of them as its main rivals, Orange and T-Mobile owner EE, saw customers defect. Continue reading
Adform reckons AdTruth’s device recognition can aid its mobile ad performance
AdTruth ID should make for more a accurate RTB service
In order to improve its pan-European ad tech platform, Adform will be utilising the AdTruth ID system to support its platform’s desktop and mobile real-time bidding (RTB) capabilities. The company claims this should lead to increased campaign reach and audience engagement. Adform argues that device recognition is at the core of delivering relevant consumer experiences for advertisers. It maintains that existing approaches have become ineffective in the current mobile and privacy-aware environment. Continue reading
