New Evidence Of A Brand Push Into Mobile Advertising

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New Trends In Mobile Advertising (Velti)
Velti's State Of Mobile Advertising report compares mobile ad statistics for May 2013 with a year earlier, and comes up with some interesting trends. Overall, it's clear that there's a shift away from direct response type advertising, and toward audience-based, impression-based marketing characteristic of brand campaigns. The evidence for that is in the move toward larger ad units, cost-per-impression rather than cost-per-click advertising, and the decline of gaming apps in terms of ad impression share. Here are a few stats:

The iPhone saw a 4.7% increase in full-screen ads between May 2012 and May 2013
Gaming apps saw their ad impression share drop 15% in the period
CPM (cost-per-impression) campaigns rose 30% year-over-year
iOS saw a 5% increase in its impression share

Click through for more statistics. Read >

HTC Joins Parade Of Has-Been Handset Makers (The Next Web)
HTC has made some great phones. The HTC One, it's latest flagship smartphone, was universally praised by gadget reviewers. But disappointing sales have caused Taiwan's HTC to plunge in the financial markets. The hardware maker's future — like that of Nokia and BlackBerry — is suddenly unclear. HTC's decline highlights just how bruising, and winner-takes-all the smartphone market has become. Read >

Free App Giveaway As Apple's App Store Marks Five Year Anniversary (The Verge)
Top game and music apps are among the properties being made available for free download today in order to mark the Apple App Store's fifth birthday. Read >

Shazam Sees $40 Million Investment And Reports Robust User And Sales Growth (Mashable)
Shazam says it does $300 million in the sale of digital goods, and has 350 million users globally. Could it be the next big app IPO? The latest infusion of cash came from América Móvil, the Mexico-based telecom company controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim. Read >

Will iOS 7 Make Apple Devices Even More Popular In The Enterprise? (Business 2 Community)
Security settings, app-specific network settings, and multitasking capabilities — all these new changes might make Apple devices as popular with IT managers as they are with employees. Read >

Softbank Will Acquire Sprint, But Credit Agencies Don't Like It (Bloomberg)
On July 5, the Federal Communication Commission in the United States approved the takeover of U.S. carrier Sprint by Japanese telecom giant, Softbank. Although the FCC declared that the deal was in the "public interest," credit agencies downgraded Softbank's debt, since the deal will expose the company to difficult competition in the U.S. market. Read >