RIM Looking to Acquire a Mobile Advertising Network?

The latest news in the mobile world is that Research In Motion, the famed Blackberry maker, is looking to buy a mobile advertising network.

RIM firmly believes that the only way to take on its arch rivals Apple and Google is to buy a mobile ad network which is big enough to challenge the networks of its rivals. It is said the company has been negotiating with Millennial Media, a Baltimore based advertising network. The talks, however, were not a success as the ad network expected a huge sum – somewhere in the range of $400-500 million.

RIM, understandably, is concerned about paying such a huge price as it believes that it is too expensive a price to pay to acquire the network. If you remember, Apple paid close to $300 million to acquire Quattro and Google paid an astronomical $750 million to acquire AdMob.

Millennial Media, according to sources, is not very interested in the deal as it believes that it has a bright future as an independent company. Also, it believes that an acquisition by RIM would limit its ability to serve targeted ads to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod platforms, which would eventually affect its relationship with Apple. So, it is not willing to give the nod unless it gets the right price.

Since the talks with Millennial Media were less than satisfactory, RIM is also believed to be looking for other mobile advertising networks like Greystripe and JumpTap.

The reason why RIM is so desperate to acquire a mobile ad network is not hard to understand. Its share in the global smartphone market slumped from 19.1 percent to 17.8 percent recently and most of its latest launches like Blackberry Storm, Storm2, and Blackberry Torch have not been a great success. So, to catch up with the rapid growth of Google Android and Apple OS, it believes it has to have its own mobile advertising network. While both Millennial Media and Research In Motion have declined to comment publicly on the developments, it is said that we could expect some big news, particularly from the RIM camp, in the near future.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, RIM.

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Mobimag - Print Medium Goes Mobile in the Middle East

Mobivision, a digital media solutions provider based in Dubai, has developed a first-of-its-kind mobile application called Mobimag, which allows people to read magazines and newspapers on their mobile phones.

Mobimag is an ad-funded platform, which means it is available free to customers. The developers call it an intuitive, effective, and interactive advertising platform. They say the adverts could be in the form of small applications, games, videos, or animations, which gives advertisers a variety of choices to reach their target customer base. The platform has a ‘click to call’ button which customers can use to respond to the adverts.

The USP of the application is that it displays magazines and newspapers exactly in the same format as their print versions. It allows users to open and view the content in a mobile friendly format. Accessing print material on mobile phones is a fairly new concept in the Middle East, so, understandably, the application has garnered a lot of attention quickly.

Prominent UAE publishers including Campaign Middle East, Gulf Business Magazine, and the 7DAYS newspaper are available on the platform. Mobivision plans to have at least 20 publishers onboard within the end of the year. It should not be a problem as the platform offers a solution to a problem that most publishers in the region face – lack of multiple revenue streams. So, publishers are most likely to use this platform to deliver their content to the fast-growing mobile phone user base in the region.

Mobimag is compatible with more than 240 mobile phones, including Windows Mobile and Symbian based smartphones and certain models of Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, and HTC. Surprisingly, it is not compatible with the Blackberry, Android, and the iPhone – three of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the Middle Eastern region today. The company, however, has stated that customized applications for the Blackberry, Android, and the iPhone will be released later this year. It has also mentioned that a very special application for the iPad will be released shortly.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, All things mobile phones, Mobile Applications.

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The FTC Approves Google’s Acquisition of AdMob

It has finally happened folks. The United States Federal Trade Commission has approved Google’s acquisition of AdMob. While this is something that we all knew would happen, there is an unexpected twist to the story. The approval was made possible because of Apple – Google’s arch rival. Incredible, don’t you think?

The FTC was reluctant to approve Google’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob because of just one reason – it thought the move would give Google an edge over all its competitors and make it a monopoly in the mobile advertising market. It thought the deal would make Google too big for any competitor to take on. Apple’s acquisition of Quattro Wireless in January, however, changed everything.

The acquisition of Quattro gave Apple a strong chance to dominate the mobile ad market. Moreover, an increasingly large number of people are using Apple iPhone and iPad to access the web on the go. So, the FTC decided that Apple’s deal with Quattro Wireless, coupled with the fact that the company has a significant presence in the smartphone market, will definitely mitigate the dominance of Google as a mobile advertising powerhouse and approved the latter’s acquisition of AdMob.

The FTC, in its own words, admitted that the decision was very difficult to make as the parties involved in the deal (Google and AdMob) are two of the most powerful mobile advertising networks in the world today. The regulators were worried about antitrust issues, which is one of the main reasons why they did not approve of the deal right away. The deal between Apple and Quattro Wireless changed their opinion and overshadowed their concerns. As a result, Google can now breathe a sigh of relief.

This, in my opinion, is the best thing that could have happened to the mobile advertising industry. Apple, which recently released the iPad, is poised to become a dominant force in the market and Google, with its Android OS, is already making waves in the market. As of now, the top players in the market include Apple, Symbian, Blackberry, Android, and Microsoft. The AdMob deal, however, gives Google a definite edge over its competitors.

The deal has made Google the largest mobile advertising network in the world today. As some of you already know, AdMob recently served its 200 billionth ad and serves, on average, 8.5 billion mobile ads every month. The company has its presence in more than 160 countries and has some of the biggest companies in the world as its clients. So, Google is all set to become the most dominant player in the market. Its competitors have their work cut out. It should be an interesting battle.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google, Apple.

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Google Upbeat About The Future of Mobile Advertising

Depression or boom, good economy or bad economy, if there is one thing that you can bank on, it’s the performance of Google. The internet giant disclosed its first quarter results recently and the numbers were nothing short of incredible. The company saw a 35% rise in net profits ($1.9bn) and a 23% rise in total revenues ($6.7bn).

The lion’s share of Google’s revenues comes from online advertising, which is not very surprising. The company generated $4.4bn from ads on its own sites and $2bn from ads on third party sites. An interesting thing mentioned in the first quarter results was the success of mobile advertising.

Google considers mobile the ‘third axis’ and has asked its developers to focus on mobile advertising and technology. Eric Schmidt, in fact, has gone on record to say that the company encourages its developers to think ‘mobile first’.

Google is benefiting a lot from the growth of smartphones that can access the internet. The company also says that the launch of new products like the Nexus One has boosted the revenues considerably this year. Though no one knows the exact sales figures of Nexus One, it is said to be one of the top selling smartphones on the market today.

Google has been selling the unlocked version of Nexus One for $529 and the locked version, which comes with a T Mobile contract, for $179. Already, the phone works with AT&T Mobility and T Mobile USA’s 3G networks and other major operators like Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel are expected to support the device soon.

Google’s mobile operating system Android is also expanding its presence on the market rapidly. As of now, the OS is on 34 devices from 12 different mobile manufacturers. The company says that more than 60,000 Android devices are getting activated every day, which is quite a big number. The Android market now has more than 38,000 mobile applications and the number is growing by the day thanks to mobile app developers all over the world who are religiously working to come up with new, innovative apps.

The Google story can be summed up in just one sentence – so far, so good. Right now, more than anything else, the company seems to be focused on expanding its presence on the mobile market. While it is good news for mobile users, it is not so for Google’s competitors.

Categories: Cell Phone Advertising, Google.

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Mobile Mix From Millennial Media

Millennial Media has launched a new report called Mobile Mix, which covers the latest trends in mobile devices, manufacturers, operating systems, and technology. Some of you might be aware of the fact that Millennial Media already releases a scorecard called SMART (Scorecard for Mobile Advertising Reach and Targeting) every month, which focuses on mobile advertising. The company says that Mobile Mix and SMART will complement each other.

Millennial Media has released its fist Mobile Mix report for the month of March 2010. Given below are some of the highlights from the report.

• Apple accounted for over 40% of the ad impressions in the month of March. The company has held on to the top slot continuously for six months now.

• Manufacturers supporting Google Android enabled devices dominate the list of Top 15 Mobile Manufacturers. In fact, more than 50% of the manufacturers on the list are associated with Android powered devices.

• Mobile handheld devices like iPod Touch, iPad, and Sony PSP accounted for nearly 21% of the impressions in the month of March. This is the first time the report has mentioned something about handheld devices with mobile web facility. Earlier, it used to focus only on mobile phones.

• Android ad requests increased by a whopping 75%, which is unprecedented. RIM ad requests, on the other hand, increased by 25%.

Categories: All things mobile phones.

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