Forget the Nook, Amazon’s Kindle Fire has already blown that tablet device away with 335% growth in Google search interest during the last quarter of 2011 compared to the Nook’s 150% search interest growth. Fueling growth for both brands was the holiday season, but there is no doubt that the Kindle Fire’s low price tag attracted a lot of buzz and a lot of sales after it debuted.

The Nook isn’t the only tablet feeling pressure from the Kindle Fire. Apple’s dominance won’t be challenged in the near future, and the iPad will stay the market leader. However, it will continually lose market share to new competitors and lower-priced tablet devices. Emarketer estimates that iPad market share will drop from 83% in 2011 to 68% in 2014.

In 2011, 3.9 million Kindle Fire devices were sold compared to 18.6 million iPads. The total tablet market in 2011 reached 65 million units, but market research firm IHS iSuppli expects that number will grow to 287 million units by 2015.

If the Kindle Fire’s early success is any indication, there are plenty of opportunities for non-Apple tablet devices to steal additional market share from the leader. For example, Barclay’s Capital estimates that in 2011, 5.5 million Kindle Fire units were sold (higher than the IHS iSuppli data) and expects that number to increase to 27.8 million in 2014.

With rumored launches of a Kindle Fire device with a larger screen and a Google tablet coming in 2012, the tablet market is wide open to new competition. And with all of that competition comes better products and better prices for consumers.

While tablet device sales continue to skyrocket, advertisers see growing opportunities to leverage the content consumers view on those devices. In fact, Barclay’s estimates that Amazon Kindle Fire content revenues reached $38.5 million in 2011 and could grow to nearly $1 billion in 2012 and over $5 billion by 2014.

It’s a changing world for content publishing, content consumption, and content monetization. To date, it appears that consumers have benefited greatly with better access to the information they want and need anytime they want or need it. The next step in this evolution will undoubtedly include a battle between content publishers and device manufacturers as each party tries to get its fair share of the ROI potential that content consumption via tablets offers. Who do you think will win? Leave a comment and share your prediction.

Image: Brian Sawyer

Last month, Juniper Research released a report about the rise of geosocial networking and the growth of smartphone adoption. These trends spell big business for mobile content and mobile social media to the tune of 1.3 billion mobile social users by 2016 (up from 650 million in 2011).

The biggest driving force behind the mobile social media growth prediction is the integration of social, local, and mobile experiences. With these trends shaping the way people consume content in the near future, content publishers and brands need to develop strategies for content distribution through varied mobile devices.

As Surajit Agaarwal describes on Technorati, publishers and content distributors need to consider not only the many devices and platforms that end-users can consume content on in the mobile environment but also the context of that content consumption. He mentions the following types of context that can affect the content consumption and mobile social media experiences:

1. Device

People can consume content an a wide variety of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and so on, and that content could be viewed on a small screen or a large screen. Device options are only going to get more diverse in the future.

2. Location

Mobile social media activities and content consumption can happen from just about anywhere you can imagine. That’s why mobile marketing and geo-targeting are high priorities for businesses these days. It should be important to content publishers, too.

3. Time

People consume content via mobile devices at all hours of the day and night. The trick for publishers and businesses is to publish relevant content targeted to audiences that are online at any given moment.

4. Social Relevance

Mobile social media will be even more heavily affected by what users’ social circles are consuming, liking, sharing, and talking about at any moment in time. Social relevance also includes geo-social influence from people who may or may not be in a user’s social circle but are within the local vicinity of that individual at a given point in time.

5. Personalization

One of the hottest topics for social media and content marketing as we begin 2012 is content personalization. The goal is to deliver content that individuals are most likely to be interested in at a specific moment via their mobile devices using behavioral research and analytics tracking.

6. Attention Spans

People’s attention spans on mobile devices are lower than most other media — including online. For example, in his article on Technorati, Surajit cites a study from the University of Colorado that found college students typically consume less than three paragraphs of text, less than 30 seconds of audio, and less than one minute of video on mobile devices before moving on to different content. That means your content needs to be relevant, personalized, interesting, and device-compatible, or you’ll have almost no chance of getting your complete message across to people.

Keep these trends and insights in mind as you develop and implement your content publishing and marketing strategies in 2012. And if your plan doesn’t already include a mobile social media strategy, develop one now, because 2016 will be here before you know it.

Image: Steve Paine

This week, eMarketer released new predictions for the future of the tablet market that tell us by 2014, 1 in 3 online consumers will own a tablet device.

In fact, by the end of 2011, eMarketer predicts that 33.7 million Americans will use a table device at least monthly, which is 158.6% higher than 2010 when the iPad was first released.

By 2014, 35.6% of Internet users and 27.7% of the total U.S. population (that’s 90 million people) will have tablet devices. You can get the details in the chart below.

During that time, the tablet user audience will change too. Today, eMarketer reports that women make up less than half of the total tablet user base, but the gap will continue to close each year. In terms of age, eMarketer predicts that the tablet user audience will start to skew younger as we get closer to 2014. This might be a result of prices dropping as more competition enters the market.

Speaking of competition, the iPad will retain its position as the pioneer brand with the greatest market share, but new market entrants will start to steal market share from the leader. The number of iPad owners is expected to double between now and 2014 to 60.8 million users, but the iPad will have just 68% market share in 2014 — down from 88% in 2010.

Frankly, I’m excited to see what competitors release to take on the iPad in coming years. There is certainly plenty of room in this market. What do you think?

Image: Flickr

In the past week, there have been some interesting updates about the rumored Amazon smartphone and Facebook smartphone products. The latest rumors suggest that both phones could hit the market before the end of 2012.

According to a report from All Things D (via Citigroup’s research department), the Amazon smartphone will be developed with FIH and manufactured by TMS (the same company that manufactures the Amazon Kindle e-reader and Amazon Fire tablet). The Amazon smartphone is likely to cost between $150-$170 to manufacture, which would bring the expected retail cost to approximately $300.

However, Amazon’s strategy is likely not to try to make money from the smartphone device but from the books, movies, games, and so on that users will purchase with the device. That’s not a new strategy for Amazon. The Kindle Fire sells for $199, which has been estimated to be $10 less than the $210 cost to build it. This type of loss leader strategy is a good idea for Amazon, which needs to find a way to lure consumers away from the established smartphone market leaders — Apple and Google.

All Things D also reports that a Facebook smartphone will be developed by HTC and a device could debut in as few as 12 months. The Facebook phone is predicted to be an Android-powered device with deep integration of Facebook’s social features. Neither Facebook nor HTC have commented on the rumor, but a Facebook spokesperson did offer the following quote to All Things D, “Our mobile strategy is simple. We think every mobile device is better if it is deeply social.”

Do Amazon and Facebook stand a chance in the smartphone market? Can either steal market share from Apple or Google? The iPhone is the most popular smartphone, but Android is by far the most popular platform (Android is available on multiple devices vs. Apple’s which is only available on the iPhone). Blackberry certainly learned the lesson that the smartphone market could change at any moment. Amazon and Facebook need to bring something extra to the table. They need to define a specific niche and offer a benefit that matters to consumers. Whether Amazon has chosen its pricing as its differentiator or not is still unknown, but one thing is for sure — copycat devices aren’t enough to be truly competitive at this point.

What do you think of the Amazon smartphone and Facebook smartphone rumors? What would Amazon or Facebook need to offer to convince you to switch to either brand’s device? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr

A new infographic from the Pew Research Project for Excellence in Journalism puts the shift in news consumption to tablet devices in quantifiable perspective. According to the report used to create the infographic, 11% of Americans report owning a tablet device, and 77% of those people use their tablets every day. Furthermore, tablet users spend an average of 1 hour and 35 minutes on their tablets each day.

Getting news via their devices is a popular activity for tablet owners. 53% of study participants claimed to get news on their tablets every day. Other popular daily activities for tablet owners include getting email (54%), using social networks (39%), playing games (30%), reading books (17%), and watching videos (13%).

A trend has already started — people are using their tablets as a replacement for getting news via other sources. 79% claim to get news on their tablets instead of their desktop computers or laptops. 59% have replaced print newspapers and magazines with their tablets for news consumption, and 57% have replaced television with their tablets.

Tablet users show no signs of going back to their old consumption habits and news sources. Approximately 1 out of 2 tablet owners surveyed in this study prefer to access both headlines and longer news articles via their tablet devices than their desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, or print.

Click the image below to view the full-size infographic.

Interestingly, news apps are just starting to grow in popularity. Most tablet users still access news via their browsers, but of those who do use apps to get news, they are typically power tablet users and are very satisfied with their tablet news experiences.

Tablet users also tend to be more interested in news, better educated, and have higher incomes than the general public. More tablet users are employed full-time than members of the general public. When it comes to age, the differences between tablet owners and the general public might surprise you:

• 18-29 years old: 22% of both tablet users and the general public
• 30-49 years old: 46% of tablet owners vs. 35% of the general public
• 50+ years old: 32% of tablet owners vs. 43% of the general public

Tablet sales are predicted by Forrester Research to double in 2012, and there are likely to be more significant shifts in how consumers use their tablet devices and consume news and information through them for years to come. In fact, it would be extremely interesting to compare the data from this Pew Research study to a similar study a year from now. It’s safe to bet that these numbers will look quite different with even more people turning to their tablets for news consumption and more.

Image: Pew Research

Android’s dominance over the U.S. smartphone market continues with second quarter 2011 data from Nielsen providing the following market share percentages by operating system:

• Android OS = 39%
• Apple iOs = 28%
• RIM Blackberry OS = 20%
• Windows Mobile WP7 = 5%
• Palm/HP WebOS = 2%
• Symbian OS = 2%

If you compare this data to the market share percentages reported by Nielsen between November 2010 and January 2011, you’ll see the players haven’t changed, but the Android operating system has continued to grow and steal market share from its competitors, particularly from RIM Blackberry OS and Windows Mobile WP7. Check out the data from that time period below:

• Android OS = 29%
• Apple iOs = 27%
• RIM Blackberry OS = 27%
• Windows Mobile WP7 = 10%
• Palm/HP WebOS = 4%
• Symbian OS = 2%

Now, compare that information to data usage patterns, and you get an even better picture of how consumers are using smartphones. During the time period of February 2011 to April 2011, Nielsen studied U.S. smartphone data usage and found that although Apple iOS smartphone users are slightly more likely to download apps than Android users (79% vs. 74%), to stream music (46% vs. 43%), and to watch video or mobile TV (37% vs. 35%), those same Apple iOS users consume less data each month on average than Android users consume (492 MB vs. 582 MB).

When it comes to which smartphone users download the most apps, that’s dominated by Apple followed by Android with competitors lagging behind.

So are Android users innately different from Apple iOS users? Is it to early to tell? Will other smartphone operating systems be able to catch back up? Only time will tell.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts. Which smartphone operating system do you use and why?

Image: Flickr

According to research from ZDnet, people download apps from the Apple Store faster than they buy McDonald’s hamburgers. It took Apple just three years to reach the 15 billion app downloads milestone, and Apple is projected to reach 100 billion app downloads within 5 and a half years. It took McDonald’s 46 years to reach the 100 billion hamburgers sold milestone. Check out the chart below for all the data and follow the preceding link to learn more about the ZDnet study.

Of course, its important to point out that most downloaded Apple apps are free while McDonald’s hamburgers are not, but there is clearly widespread interest in mobile apps for Apple devices. The question is whether or not this fast growth would continue if all apps had price tags attached to them. What if more and more apps are released with price tags in the future? How will that affect Apple’s speed at reaching the 100 billion app downloads mark?

One thing is for certain — mobile apps aren’t going anywhere. It’s likely more premium apps will be launched in the coming years and we’re sure to see a proliferation of brand extensions beyond the mobile app market. The spread of the Angry Birds brand into merchandise, computer games, and a movie is the perfect example of how apps can reach beyond the mobile market into everyday life.

In the meantime, other brands are seeing slower app growth. Even the popular Android brand can’t keep up with Apple app downloads. We’ll have to wait and see if that continues or if other brands can step up their offerings to lure more developers and consumers to their devices and apps.

What do you think of the incredible popularity of Apple apps? Will this explosive growth continue for the long-term? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

In a new survey conducted by Corporate Counsel called 2011 Survey of In-House Technology, it was reported that 65% of in-house company lawyers now use mobile devices instead of laptops when they’re on the road, and 90% use mobile broadband Internet services when they’re traveling.

Company lawyers are moving away from BlackBerry devices en masse and switching to trendier iPhones and Android devices. Tablet devices such as the iPad are also growing within this audience. Click on the image below to view all of the charts from the study.

With mobile access comes the “always on” career, and company lawyers are not immune to the disease. 40% of law departments have policies stating that lawyers are expected to answer every message they receive, whatever the time or reason.

On the flip side, all of this mobility also brings security concerns. The study revealed that only half of the surveyed legal departments have formal security policies about mobile devices. Furthermore, nearly 75% of the surveyed legal departments allow lawyers to bring in digital files from home on their mobile devices.

What if an attorney had clients’ personal and private files on his iPhone, which accidentally fell out of his pocket at the gas station? Scary. What if he’s busy downloading apps, sharing files, and exposing private client data to potential hacking? Disturbing.

There are good sides and bad sides to giving employees mobile access and inflicting them with “always on” disease. While it’s great to ensure your employees are always accessible, it opens the doors to a lot of security risks, not to mention burned out employees.

What do you think about professionals who work on, share, discuss, collaborate, and send private client information on their iPhones, iPads, Androids, and so on? Good or bad? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

 Image: Law.com

Images not only add visual appeal to online content such as blog posts, but they also make your content more marketable to mobile content distributors. In other words, taking an extra minute to add an image to each of your blog posts or pieces of online content can mean more exposure, more readers, and more money for you.

Here’s why you should care:

When you license your content for syndication through Newstex, distributors provide that content to their end-user audiences through closed systems such as university libraries, corporate libraries, government agencies, and more. Recently, large-scale distributors are also making licensed content, like the Authoritative Content syndicated through Newstex, available to their end-users through mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. As the market for these mobile devices continues to grow rapidly, you can bet that demand for Authoritative Content through mobile devices will grow as well. The potential for Authoritative Content publishers who syndicate their content through Newstex also grows with the mobile market.

Here’s what you need to know:

Content with images is more likely to be selected by distributors for mobile distribution to their clients, and it’s more likely to be viewed and deliver royalties to publishers than content without images.

When content is syndicated and distributed through mobile devices, it doesn’t just look a bit better with an image. It looks a lot better. Both syndicated content distributors and end-users are more likely to view content through their mobile devices with an image than without an image. That’s because syndicated content is distributed via mobile devices as a feed, which means there is a lot of text. Images draw attention to posts within all the text in those feeds, add visual relief to text-heavy pages on a mobile device, and can improve click-through rates simply because images are easier to view on small mobile devices than text.

A highly relevant, interesting image can make a huge difference in getting your content noticed among mobile audiences. Take a look at the image below which shows how mobile content feeds look with images — much better than a page filled with text looks!

Keep in mind, the first image used in your blog post or content is the one that will appear as the “thumbnail” or “cover image” with your story in the feed of syndicated content that distributors provide to end-users on mobile devices, so choose your first image carefully.

If you haven’t been using images in your content and don’t know where to look to find images you can legally use on your blog, check out this article on About.com for some suggested sites to find free images.

If you’re not already syndicating your content through Newstex Authoritative Content, follow the links to learn more or to contact us for more information.

With all the buzz about the iPad and the many other tablet devices that are hitting the marketplace, you might think that single-use devices like ereaders are poised to have short lifespans. Already Cisco killed the highly popular Flip video camera claiming single-use devices are no longer relevant in a world where smartphones and tablets can do the same thing and so much more. (On a personal note, I’m still mourning the demise of the Flip). However, such thinking might not be entirely appropriate — at least, not yet.

According to new data from eMarketer, ereader use continues to grow — and fast! This year, ereader sales jumped by 60%.

Check out the chart below which shows ereader growth since 2009 and projected through 2012. As the chart shows, by 2012, 12% of the U.S. adult population will have an ereader such as a Kindle, Sony Reader, or Nook. That’s up from 8.7% in 2011 and a huge jump from the 1.9% in 2009!

The most interesting part of this story, however, isn’t the number of ereaders people have purchased but rather, ereader penetration. As eMarketer notes, research from Nielsen shows as many as one-third of ereader owners share their devices with at least one other person. That means far more than the predicted 12% of the U.S. adult population who own an ereader are actually using ereaders.

It seems that immediately ruling out the importance of single-use devices will lead to missed opportunities to connect with large audiences. For publishers, marketers, brands, and businesses, that could be a big mistake, particularly since Amazon has launched its low-cost, ad-supported Kindle that has quickly become its top selling ereader device.

What do you think? Are single-use devices still important? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.