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.

The mobile device market is exploding and publishers and businesses are anxiously trying to learn how best to provide content to consumers via mobile devices, particularly smartphones and tablets. The recipe for success is far from being discovered, which means the doors are wide open for businesses and publishers of all sizes to stake their claims in the mobile space.

The question for both brands and content publishers is: Do you need a mobile app?

Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy answer to this question because an answer given today is most certainly going to be outdated and wrong a year from now. In fact, it might be wrong tomorrow. If you’re wondering if you should create a mobile app for your Authoritative Content, for your business, or for your brand, then the infographic shown below, which was developed by BuySellAds.com, might be helpful to you. You can click on the image below to view the infographic at full size.

Bottom-line, your mobile app shouldn’t replace a great mobile website. In other words, don’t put the chicken before the egg. However, you need to understand how your audience wants to consume your content and engage with your brand. A mobile app can offer diverse ways for people to access the type of content they want and need. That’s where a mobile app can become a valuable part of your marketing strategy. It can integrate your content with mobile tools and become an integral part of your audience members’ fast-paced, mobile-dependent lives.

What do you think? Do you need a mobile app? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Everyone is talking about the launch of the iPad 2 this week, so it’s very timely that eMarketer put together some relevant research data about consumer satisfaction with tablets.

eMarketer cites a December 2010 study by The NPD Group that reported tablet users were highly satisfied with their devices, preferring them over smartphones for Internet, email, and social networking activities. The chart below provides all the details.

The NPD Group research also revealed that 30% of respondents to the survey the company conducted were spending less time on Internet, email and social networking activities on their PCs as a result of their increased tablet use. It’s safe to assume that statistic will continue to grow in 2011 and beyond.

So far the tablet market has been dominated by younger consumers. Research from Vision Critical in November 2010 revealed that men and women were equally interested in the iPad but 18-34 year olds were more than twice as interested in the device than any other age group. As with most new gadgets and devices, early adopters will make way for a broader demographic of consumers. The question is how far interest will actually spread and how long it will take for the spread to happen.

The new iPad 2 brings new features and a clear drive to push video on tablets even further. New devices are coming quickly and the tablet market will undoubtedly look quite different a year from now. Just as the smartphone market exploded and changed the way people lead their lives, the tablet market will have strong effects as well. We’ll have to wait and see how big those effects will ultimately be.

Do you have an iPad or tablet yet? If not, are you planning to get one? Leave a comment and share your thoughts about tablets.

Want to know what’s expected to make the iPad 2 better than the original version? A new iPad 2 infographic published on PositivelyChargedIons.com and Apple Gazette tries to find the truth amid all the rumors of the much-anticipated new tablet from Apple.

Predictions for the iPad 2 include changes to the display, GPU, camera, speakers, and more as shown in the infographic below (click to open the infographic in a new window at the source and click again to make it larger).

Do you agree with the predictions for the iPad 2 offered in the above infographic? More news comes out all the time.  The latest rumors speculate that the iPad 2 might debut as early as March 2, 2011.

What do you think will be the best new features for the iPad 2? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

In April 2010, PR Newswire and Newstex launched a new iPhone and iPod Touch mobile app and a month later, the PR Newswire and Newstex iPad app debuted.  Today, a new and enhanced PR Newswire and Newstex mobile app is available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices.

The new (and still free) PR Newswire mobile app offers new features like push alerts, offline reading and a Spanish interface.  The new app also offers enhanced search features of all press releases, photos and images by company name, ticker symbol or via a list of topic categories.  Users of the new app can also save searches based on multiple keywords or stock market tickers.

The alerts feature enables users to be automatically notified by email or notification on their mobile device when a new press release is issued related to the company or keywords chosen for the alert or when the @prnewswire or @profnet Twitter feeds include those keywords.

The new and improved PR Newswire mobile apps offer more ways for users to find and share the press releases, images, video and other content that matters to them when they’re on the go.  A new PR Newswire mobile website adds even more ways for people to access and share content.

Check out the video about the new PR Newswire mobile app and mobile site.

Learn more about the PR Newswire mobile apps.