iPhone shipments up by 128% in Q4
Apple’s smartphone shipments increased by 128% year-on-year in Q4, meaning that it has now jumped to third overall in worldwide mobile phone shipments.
The report from the International Data Corporation shows that Nokia and Samsung maintained their positions as one and two in the table, with 113.5m and 97.6m units shipped respectively. For now, Apple is still some way behind with 37m units shipped.
Debenhams reaches £1m in sales through its iPhone app
Statistics from Debenhams provide further evidence of the value of mobile commerce to retailers, with its iPhone app bringing in £1m in sales in five months.
Following the early success of the iPhone app, Debenhams is now releasing apps for Android and Nokia devices.
Q&A: Mark Squires, director of social media at Nokia
Mark Squires is director of social media at Nokia, and is responsible for the Nokia Conversations blog, internal blogs, blogger outreach, and more.
We interviewed Mark about Nokia's approach to social media, internal and external, as well as its recent 'marathon PR failure'...
Nokia upsets blogger due to marathon PR failure
Last week I wrote about how to engage bloggers, based on my experience as a (pro) blogger. I explained how I receive hundreds of emails every day, and how it can be difficult to make a message stand out amid that noise.
I also explained that campaigns – all campaigns – have budgets, and that it is highly lame for brands to expect bloggers to keep doing favours for them, for free.
Today I spotted a tweet by Malcolm Coles that makes for a fantastic case study in what not to do. He flagged up a real shocker between one of the world's biggest mobile companies and a humble blogger.
So on one side we have Muireann Carey-Campbell, who writes the Bangs And A Bun blog. On the other is Nokia. And in the middle is one of Nokia’s presumably expensive PR firms, Mission.
Apple tries to throw competitors under the bus, but they won't go quietly
Apple's press conference last Friday was a notable event for the company. Not simply because Steve Jobs took the stage, but because the purpose of the press conference was to address problems being reported with an existing product, the iPhone 4.
It was unfamiliar territory for Apple and Steve Jobs. Jobs, of course, is used to introducing new products, not dealing with an existing one that is the subject of customer complaints, class action lawsuits and a media firestorm.
What do consumers want in a mobile phone experience?
When Qualcomm launched a device to accompany its mobile television programming, it was FLO TV Personal Television, "a 3.5-inch touch screen allows users to surf through channels with the swipe of a finger."
This was because:
- Consumers want to swipe their fingers.
- Consumers want a touch screen.
Adobe looks to extend Flash dominance to the mobile
When it comes to the desktop, Flash Player is one of the more dominant plugins. Adobe claims it's "the world's most pervasive software platform...reaching 99.0% of Internet-enabled desktops". There's just one problem: internet-enabled mobiles are where much of the internet's future growth is usage is expected to come from.
But Adobe is trying to make sure that Flash Player is as dominant on the mobile as it is on the desktop and is making lots of announcements about its Open Screen Project at the Adobe developer conference in Los Angeles today.
Nokia officially announces Dopplr acquisition
Although reports of the acquisition had been circling since last week, Nokia made it official today: it has acquired London and Helsinki-based mobile travel startup Dopplr for an undisclosed amount. According to rumors, the acquisition price is somewhere between €10 million and €15 million.
Dopplr, which currently has seven employees, will join Nokia's services division. According to Nokia's press release, "The acquisition does not change the current Dopplr service which is available at Dopplr.com and on platforms where Dopplr is integrated".
App Store: 1.5bn served
In 1963, McDonald's reached a significant milestone that it would go on to proudly promote: 1bn hamburgers served. The milestone was achieved a mere 23 years after Dick and Mac McDonald opened the first McDonald's restaurant in California.
But in the internet age, 23 years is an eternity. Just ask Apple. It announced yesterday that it had hit an impressive milestone of its own: more than 1.5bn apps downloaded in the App Store's first full year.
Q&A: Troy Norcross on Bluetooth marketing
Troy Norcross currently works as Senior Relationship Manager
at Nokia, as well as running a blog which focuses on responsible marketing practices.
He has just written a paper on using Bluetooth for proximity marketing (here's a pdf teaser of the paper). We've been asking Troy about Bluetooth marketing best practice, and the issues surrounding it...
