BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: The Top Mobile Predictions For 2013

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Predictions For The Mobile Industry In 2013 (Forbes)
With a little help from analysts, entrepreneurs and researchers, here are 10 forecasts on the big changes we’ll see for telecommunications and mobile technology in 2013:

HTML5 will make a comeback, helping to make smartphones cheaper.
Companies will continue to launch dark, rectangular slabs of plastic.
A few firms that were late to the mobile game will launch their own phones.
Wireless technology will give new life to products that were almost killed by smartphones.
Samsung will continue to dominate.
So will Foxconn.
Microsoft and (especially) Research in Motion will struggle to sell phones.
Dark horses will challenge the third ecosystem.
Carriers will lose more control to software providers.
Big demand for big data.

The definition of “mobile” will broaden. Today the smartest machine in many homes, besides a desktop computer or laptop, is a smartphone. Everything else from the TV to the toaster, are dumb by comparison. But that’s changing. More devices will go mobile, augmenting the very definition of the term, and the smartphone will become increasingly important as the “mothership” that controls them all.

Email Marketing Predictions For 2013 (MediaPost)
Email has changed dramatically since the "you’ve got mail" days. And it changes incrementally from year to year. Here are some of the changes in store this year:

Marketers will get serious about creating mobile-friendly emails.
Triggered email programs will give sophisticated marketers a sustainable competitive edge.
Video in email will finally take off.
Special characters in subject lines are here to stay.
Pinterest and email integration to grow.
Free gift cards will be the new free shipping.

It should be another exciting year of changes in the email marketing industry.

The Next Hot Trend In Smartphones This Year (Business Insider)
Phones with massive screens that can play full HD video will become the new norm this year. We got a taste of this a few months ago with HTC's new Droid DNA phone on Verizon. The DNA is the first mobile device capable of playing 1080p HD video and includes a large five-inch screen (the iPhone 5 has a 4-inch screen for comparison's sake). As the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show approaches, we're hearing about similar upcoming devices from companies like Sony and Huawei. In a recent research note, Barclays Asian equity group predicts that smartphones with screens five inches and above will dominate the market this year.

iPad Tablet Web Share Falls 7.1 Percent Following Christmas Holiday (Chitika)
Sounds like it was a good holiday for Android. The biggest shopping season of the year has passed, and gift recipients are getting to know their brand new devices. Chitika Insights examined smartphone and tablet traffic before and after Christmas Day, analyzing shifts in Web usage volume as well as market share fluctuations, and found some striking results:

mobile holiday winners 2012

Perhaps the most interesting result of this study concerns the iPad. This Christmas marked a serious diversification in tablet shares, with the iPad falling 7.1 percent in its share in the days after Christmas, from 86.0 percent to 78.9 percent following the holiday.

How To Plan For Mobile Commerce Beyond The Holidays (Fast Company)
There is a well-known truth when it comes to holiday shopping in 2012: Mobile devices played a huge role. However, now that the tinsel is coming down and the stockings are being put away for another year, what happens to a retailer’s mobile agenda? What are some smart, actionable steps?

Think about a 365-day plan with the holiday strategy as one component of it.
Integrate mobile into the overall marketing strategy.
Embrace mobile as the shopping companion.
Leverage current technologies and prepare for what’s to come.

Overall, navigating the mobile landscape is no different than navigating online or physical retail stores. It’s all about providing consumers with a relevant, engaging experience that ties to the overall brand strategy. Those companies that are able to successfully tie in mobile will reap great rewards during the next few years as more consumers adopt the latest mobile technology. As consumers naturally become more comfortable using mobile to make transactions, retailers will win big.

HTML5 Is Now Stable And "Feature Complete" (Computer Weekly)
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has said that a stable specification of the HTML5 Web markup language has been laid down for Web application developers to now focus on. Although this new stable version is not yet a W3C standard, it has been called "feature complete" at this stage. This means that (as far as the W3C sees it) businesses and developers have a "stable target" for implementation and planning the next generation of Web applications. HTML5 is described as the "cornerstone" of the Open Web Platform, a full programming environment for cross-platform applications with access to device capabilities; video and animations; graphics; style, typography and other tools for digital publishing; extensive network capabilities. To read more about HTML5, here are some of the more recent BI Intelligence reports:

Check them out.

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