Archive for July, 2011
In-App Payments Have Totally Changed The Business Models Of iOS Games (AAPL)
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-app-store-revenue-top-100-grossing-games-2011-7
In-app payments have radically changed the business model of games in iOS, says Jeferson Valadares of Flurry, a mobile analytics company.
Free games are now generating the majority of the revenue amongst the top 100 grossing games in the App Store. A free game gets more downloads, and if it’s engaging, and has the right mechanics, it should compel you to pay for features inside of the game.
Only a sliver of gamers — 0.5% to 6% of users says Flurry — actually spend money in a free game. But those that do spend big supporting the developer and keeping the app free for everyone else.
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Smartphone owners increasingly ignoring other devices to get online
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/12/pew-smartphone-owners-increasingly-ignoring-other-devices-to-ge/
Some more fun phone facts from the folks at Pew: 83 percent of American adults own a cellphone, 35 percent have a smartphone, and 87 percent smartphone owners use their handset to browse the internet and read email, apparently having decided that the things are good for more than just making phone calls and keeping papers from blowing away. Also of interest is the fact that 28 percent of the 2,277 people surveyed actually use their small screen devices as their primary method for accessing the internet. It’s worth noting that it’s not a huge sample size we’re working with here, so maybe hold off on declaring the PC dead — still, it may be a sign of lots of squinting to come.
Pew: Smartphone owners increasingly ignoring other devices to get online originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jul 2011 03:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Google Confirms That It Has Acquired Digital Loyalty Startup Punchd
Last Friday our own Alexia Tsotsis broke the news that digital loyalty card startup Punchd was being acquired by Google. The company is still very young but it’s a move that makes sense — Punchd’s service, which lets customers accrue digital versions of those buy-10-get-1-free cards, could tie in well with Google’s payment products, like Google Wallet. Punchd responded to the article by tweeting that it had not been acquired.
Now, three days later, they’re officially announcing that the six-person startup has indeed been acquired by Google and will be working from the search giant’s Mountain View headquarters going forward.
The cause of the discrepancy: Punchd cofounder Reed Morse says that at the time of our post, the deal had not yet gone through, and that now it has. Okay.
Anyway. Morse did share some other interesting tidbits, including the fact that the Punchd team isn’t simply being absorbed by Google to work on other projects — it’s going to continue working on Punchd full time, and that the service isn’t going anywhere.
He also shared an interesting piece of Punchd’s history. The service got its start last year when Morse and cofounder Grantland Chew (who has since left the company) took a class at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo that focused on Android development — a class that was made possible when Google donated two dozen G1 devices to the school. You can read an article about Punchd from the school newspaper here.
Punchd was a member of the first batch of 500Startups companies.
Google Tries To Improve Product Search With New Merchant Rules
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/11/google-tries-to-improve-product-search-with-new-merchant-rules/
We know Google is investing heavily in product search, most recently adding local availability, discovery tools and more to the comparison shopping portal. Today, Google is updating its requirements for merchants in a number of countries.
In the U.S., Google is adjusting its Google Product Search Feed to help make the search portal more useful for online shoppers. For background, online retailers create a data feed for their content they would like to be indexed by Google Product search.
For example, online merchants will now be required to give availability status for all products. Google is also making a product image required for merchants, and is encouraging retailers to submit up to 10 additional images of the product for search. Retailers also now need to include information like size, category and color availability for all products in their feed. And, Google is asking retailers to provide gender and age group specifications.
The search giant says that starting on September 22, 2011, Google will be ‘taking action’ against accounts with feeds targeting the United States, France, United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany that do not comply with these requirements.
So why is Google cracking down on merchants? The company is trying to make product search better, so requiring data like images, sizing, and availability will help Product Search become more useful and powerful for consumers.
Why Everyone Wants A Piece Of The TV Advertising Pie
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-us-advertising-by-medium-2011-7
Online advertising is the fastest growing sector in the ad business, but television is still where the most money goes. That’s why so many online advertising players — like Google, Yahoo, AOL, Hulu, and others — are trying to capture more of TV ad budgets, via Internet video and multimedia content and ads.
According to Barclays Capital estimates from earlier this year, online ad spending is expected to reach $30 billion in the U.S. this year — a little more than 15% of the overall U.S. advertising market, and up about 15% from its estimate for 2010. But TV could reach $60 billion in ad spending this year — twice as much as online. (All stats excluding political spending.)
TV is not growing as fast as online, but it’s still the biggest recipient of ad dollars. And that’s why everyone wants a piece of it.
Click here for more from our special report: The Future of Advertising →
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MoviePass gets kicked out of theaters before it can get a ticket
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/02/moviepass-gets-kicked-out-of-theaters-before-it-can-get-a-ticket/
Here’s a bad idea: announce a beta run for your discount subscription movie ticket service, but neglect to inform the 21 San Francisco-based theaters listed that they’re part of the fun. That’s essentially what Landmark, AMC, Camera Cinemas, and Big Cinemas are claiming MoviePass did earlier this week, and boy has the corn begun to pop. According to The Wrap and Variety, the chains weren’t pleased to find out that MP had worked with mutual partner MovieTickets.com to set admission prices without their consent; the intriguing tidbit here is that despite the low cost for consumers, the theaters would still be paid full admission. MoviePass had been hoping to gain more support with the test phase, but it looks like that’ll be on pause for a good while. No word on whether the beta will see a rescheduling, but you’ll find the full details in the links below, and a PR rebuttal from AMC past the break.Continue reading MoviePass gets kicked out of theaters before it can get a ticket
MoviePass gets kicked out of theaters before it can get a ticket originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Jul 2011 11:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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GMC showroom app tells you where to pick up your dream SUV, doesn’t help with down payment
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/01/gmc-showroom-app-tells-you-where-to-pick-up-your-dream-suv-does/
Ever felt the need to customize vehicles and search dealer inventory, right from the comfort of your smartphone? Us neither, but here’s the General with another app to whet our appetites. While certainly not the first of its kind, the GMC showroom app for iOS (coming soon to Android), allows you to specify drive-type, trim, and both exterior / interior colors. Once content with your selections, you’re shown nearby dealers carrying exact replicas of your magnificent taste. Unfortunately for us, the app makes no mention of the closest EN-V. If SUVs are you’re thing, however, have a peep at the free app at the source link below.
GMC showroom app tells you where to pick up your dream SUV, doesn’t help with down payment originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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One Reason Google+ Needs To Be A Hit
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-average-minutes-spent-on-google-and-facebook-2011-6
Google has decided to finally go all-in with Google +, a social network that mimics many aspects of Facebook.
Vic Gundotra, the man in charge of the project, calls it a bet the company product, and warns that if Google whiffs on social again and again, it will be drowned by Facebook.
Facebook is becoming its own private internet within the internet that Google can’t crack. Without that information it becomes a less valuable property.
To show how important Facebook has become, comScore sent us this data showing time spent inside Facebook for U.S. users versus Google.
Granted, it’s not a perfect comparison since Google sends people away from its core product, while Facebook wants to trap them inside. But it shows how big a time suck Facebook is, and how much it can pick up on users that Google just can’t get.
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Digital Consigliere
Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.
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