BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: Smartphones Driving Huge Growth In Mobile Video

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Smartphones Used For Most Mobile Video Consumption (Flurry via Rapid TV News)
Nearly a third of time spent playing games take places on larger devices, namely full-sized tablets, small tablets and phablets, Flurry's research found. And they represented only 15 percent of device models in use in February and 21 percent of individual connected devices. But video is more often viewed on smartphones. "It's somewhat surprising that tablets, which possess larger screens, do not see a larger proportion of time spent," the company said. "An explanation for the high concentration of time spent in smartphones could be that consumers watch videos from their smartphones on-the-go (e.g., commuting to work on public transit), whereas they opt for a bigger screen to watch video (e.g., computer or TV) when at work or home." Read >>

App Store Revenue And Downloads Continue Upward Trajectory (Canalys via Mobile World Live)
The world’s four leading app stores generated $2.2 billion in total revenue from 13.4 billion downloads in the first quarter of 2013, according to analyst firm Canalys. The research found that Apple’s App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store and BlackBerry World enjoyed a 9 percent increase in direct revenue from paid apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions compared to the previous quarter. This was slightly below the 11 percent growth in downloads. Apple’s App Store generated the largest proportion of revenue, while Google Play saw the highest number of downloads, accounting for 51 percent of the total. Read >>

Why Mobile M&A Deals Are Taking So Long (Mobile Marketer)
Despite the continuing migration of consumers from desktop to mobile devices, few significant deals have been struck. There was the acquisition of Amobee by Singtel and the successful IPO of ad network Millennial Media, but the overall pace of M&A and IPO activity in mobile has been spotty. The reasons are many. Very few mid-staged companies have posted earnings sufficient to entice either “strategics” or private-equity buyers. There is also a huge disparity between the time spent on mobile devices (eyeballs) and the amount of marketing money chasing those eyeballs. The mobile landscape is still composed of a dizzying array of early-stage companies. Read >>

Survey Shows Consumers More Loyal To iPhone Than Android (Raymond James via Barron's)
In a note to clients, Raymond James’s Tavis McCourt details responses to a survey of Apple customers regarding their purchasing intentions, responses he opines demonstrate higher loyalty toward the company than is enjoyed by customers of Android. The survey, conducted March 14th through the 26th via the Web, with 250 people taking part, is part of series of such inquiries that McCourt says he conducts every three months. Among the conclusions that McCourt derives from the survey is that users of Apple’s iPhone are willing to upgrade more frequently than users of other platforms, willing to stick with Apple products more than customers of other platforms, and that a reduction in price is a principal factor that would bring in new buyers, whereas a larger screen on the iPhone would mostly prompt upgrades. Read >>

T-Mobile Execs See Early Momentum (CNet)
T-Mobile's decision to abolish contracts and cell phone subsidies has piqued the interest of consumers. That's according to T-Mobile's senior vice president of marketing, Andrew Sherrard, and its executive vice president for corporate services, David Carey. Carey said traffic was up in all of the stores he visited after the carrier made its switch late last month and announced the changes during a high-profile event in New York. Carey also said pre-registrations for the iPhone 5, which debuts on T-Mobile on Friday, have been strong, although he declined to provide any specific figures. Read >>

Big Growth Coming In Mobile Payments (Javelin via Bank Tech)
Javelin predicts significant growth in mobile payments and moderate growth in prepaid cards, with further decline in cash and checks, in its 2013 Retail Point-of-Sale Update and Forecast. The report said that the highest growth for any payment type from now until 2018 will be in mobile payments. Mobile proximity payments accounted for only .01 percent of the $3.98 trillion in retail point-of-sale payments last year. Javelin predicted that mobile adoption and industry push for mobile payments that the total amount of mobile payments at the point of sale would increase from $398 million last year to $5.4 billion in 2018. Read >>

How Mobile Is Changing How We Pay For Things (CBC)
Calgary food truck owner Cosmo Spina used to watch potential customers walk away hungry because he couldn't accept their credit cards and they didn't have any cash. "I found that as I got busier and got to more places and more people, a lot of people just don't carry cash anymore, not even $10," Spina said in an interview outside the Husky building. Now, after adopting e-payment technology from one of the many players jockeying for position in this new market, both Spina and the customers who want to use credit cards at his Italian pasta truck are much happier. Cosmo Spina says about 20 percent of the customers at his Calgary food truck pay with a credit card, which he can put through a Square reader. Read >>