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The Mobile Marketing Industry Will Employ 1.4. Million People By 2015 (Mobile Marketing Association)
That's up from around 500,000 jobs in 2012. The Mobile Marketing Association estimates in a 124-page study released May 9 that $6.7 billion was spent on mobile marketing over the course of 2012. That will rise to $19.8 billion by 2015. Read >
Google's Sundar Pichai: Users Care About Apps, Not Operating Systems (Wired)
In his first interview as Android boss, Sundar Pichai said that Android and Chrome would remain separate operating systems in the short-term, despite synergies and commonalities. He told Wired's Steven Levy, "Users care about applications and services they use, not operating systems. Very few people will ask you, “Hey, how come MacBooks are on Mac OS X and iPhone and iPad are on iOS? Why is this?” They think of Apple as iTunes, iCloud, iPhoto." This may also help explain Google's aggressive release of new apps and services, like Google Now, on iOS. He also didn't rule out the possibility of Google blocking software like Facebook Home to provide a consistent user experience. He also voiced skepticism about Mark Zuckerberg's disavowal of HTML5, saying "I disagree with the opinion that all of Facebook’s mobile issues can be blamed on HTML5. I just don’t think that was true." Finally, he said that this year's I/O will be very developer focused. Read >
Here's Where You Can Watch Google I/O Live Online (GigaOm)
Tune in to watch Google make its pitch for its platforms, services and products to developers. Read >
ABC To Live-Stream Its Shows (And Ads) Via App (New York Times)
ABC becomes the first major TV network to let users live-stream programming from its local station through a mobile app. It will initially only be available to iPhone and iPad users. The move is an attempt to keep up with changing television viewing habits and, consequently, stave off any major decline in its ad business. For example, 23% of millennials view videos through a tablet, according to GfK. The mobile live-stream will not carry the same ads as the broadcast, but will include digital ads similar to those on ABC.com. Read >
Digital Rights Management Comes To HTML5 (Ars Technica)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body responsible for development of Web standards, released a working draft of a framework that allows for the delivery of DRM-protected media through browsers, without plugins. The consortium has recieved pushback from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which argues that DRM would undermine the open Web. However, Peter Bright of Ars Technica believes that it is a victory for the open Web. Since browser plugins like Flash and Silverlight don't work on smartphones, he argues, distributors of DRM-protected content would move away from the Web entirely to apps without a DRM solution. Read >
5G Is Coming ... In 2020 (Engadget)
Consumers are just starting to buy LTE phones, but Samsung successfully tested its 5G platform recently. It is expected to be released to consumers in 2020. Read >
iTunes Users Spend $40 Per Year (Asymco)
Good charts from Horace Dediu. Some interesting tidbits: iTunes revenues hit a new high last quarter, topping $4 billion; content sales form the bulk of the revenue, accounting for $2.4 billion; growth has been very steady, averaging 29% a quarter; iTunes's gross content revenues of nearly $5 billion per quarter and 500 million users mean that its users spend an average of $40 per year. Read >
Are NFC Payments Dead?(Forbes)
We've heard again and again that Near-Field Communications just needs some time to be accepted by merchants and consumers as a payments tool. But will consumers really ever tap or swipe to pay at NFC-equipped terminals in the supermarket? It may be — as we at BI Intelligence have argued — that NFC is too reliant on hardware and won't take off. Mobile payments apps may win instead. Read >
Thoughts On Mobile Design (Matt Gemmel)
An interesting read about mobile design and skeuomorphism, which is when digital design tries to approximate physical objects, like Apple's Notes application, designed to look like a small notebook. Gemmel's article is something of a manifesto for truth in design, which Gemmel defines as being faithful to a product's purpose and identity, "not as factual accuracy, but as fidelity to both intent and embodiment. A design is true if it fulfills its requirements judiciously, and yet surprises and delights its intended audience. An app is true if it has a purity of vision and focus, and serves its intended customers on their terms." Mobile design, he concludes, does not need to embrace skeuomorphism for the sake of skeuomorphism. Meanwhile, another take on mobile design from Tim Green asks whether Apple will embrace the trend toward "flat" user interface designs without textures or glows. Read >
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