Samsung holds more mobile patents than any other company

"Samsung lost out big to Apple last year in a mobile patent blowout in the U.S., but it’s been slowly building up an arsenal of patents that potentially will keep it from falling into the same situation again. Samsung, also currently the world’s biggest mobile company, received the most mobile patents in 2012, and it now holds the most mobile patents of any company worldwide, according to the latest patent report out from mobile analyst Chetan Sharma, which lays out a thicket of companies scrambling to put a legal seal on their intellectual property in the fast-moving world of wireless communications.
For his study, Sharma looked at more than 7 million mobile patents awarded in the U.S. and Europe, the two biggest markets for patents globally at the moment. He found that the U.S. has stolen a march over its old world counterpart since 1996. The U.S. accounts for nearly three-quarters (72%) of all mobile patents across the two regions."

Source:  Techcrunch, 27th March 2013

Tumblr hosts 100 million blogs

"Tumblr has today quietly ticked over the 100 million blog mark, with those blogs containing some 44.6 billion posts. We noticed that the ticker on the popular blogging platform’s about page had ticked over and Tumblr confirmed with us that this milestone was reached today.
This marks significant growth over the last year, of somewhere around 50 million blogs since April of 2012, when it crossed 50 million for the first time. The last reported number of blogs was 93 million as of March 2, 2013, so the pace is still accelerating, with 6 million being created in the last month or so alone."

Source:  The Next Web, 26th March 2013

83% of tablet owners use the tablet alongside TV

"The BBC [survey] found the following:
– Some 43% of tablet owners say that they watch more TV now than they did five years ago. 83% say they use tablets alongside TV.
– 25-34 year-old professionals are the biggest “news enthusiasts.” But that enthusiasm is still TV-first, other screens second, with tablets remaining distinctly in a secondary, not primary, role. Across all age groups, 42% of news consumption is still happening on TV, with laptops (29%), smartphones (18%) and tablets (10%) scoring in significance.
– Advertising may be appearing in different formats, but users are not surprised by that. The BBC found that “news audiences expect to see advertising nearly as much on mobile.” The exact figures: 79% tablet and 84% smartphone were unsurprised with ads compared to 87% on TV and 84% online. But response times on mobile are still less good. 1 in 7 users said they responded to a mobile ad in the last four weeks with responses to TV and desktop are 1 in 5 and 1 in 4 respectively.
– TV remains first screen. “In breaking news situations, users turn to television as their primary and first device (42%), with the majority (66%) then turning to the internet to investigate stories further. Users rated national and international news of most importance (84%, 82%), closely followed by local news (79%). Financial and business news (61%) were more highly valued than news about sports (56%) and arts/entertainment news (43%).”

Source:  Research by the BBC, reported by TechCrunch, 26th March 2013

Methodology:

"The survey, The BBC says, polled some 3,600 consumers across Australia, Singapore, India, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Poland, Germany, France and the U.S., the BBC, working with InSites Consulting, says this is the biggest study of its kind. The geographical reach complements the ongoing work from Pew Research Center on digital media usage, which focuses on the U.S. only."

26% of Americans own a laptop, a smartphone and a tablet

"Twenty-six percent of consumers are digital omnivores (own a laptop, smartphone and  tablet).
Tablet ownership increased 177 percent over the past year, with almost a third of tablet owners viewing it as one of their top three most preferred consumer electronic devices.
Tablet owners stream movies 70 percent more often than non-tablet owners.
More than 80 percent of consumers are multi-tasking while watching TV.
The survey reveals that 93 percent of Americans place Internet access as the most valued household subscription.
More than half of all consumers are willing to pay a premium for faster Internet connection with tablet and smartphone owners more inclined to pay for faster connections."

Source:  Data from Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy survey (7th edition), March 2013

Note - More info in the press release here

Europe - Key digital insights

"Key takeaways from the 2013 Europe Digital Future in Focus (#FutureinFocus) report include:
- 408.3 million people in Europe used the desktop-based internet in December 2012, a 7 percent increase over the past year.Turkey has the youngest European internet audience with nearly 70 percent under the age of 35. Source: comScore MMX
- Russia widens the gap to Germany as Europe’s country with the largest online audience (61.3 million), while Italy’s internet audience grew the fastest over the past year (up 17 percent). Source: comScore MMX
- 57 percent of EU5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK) mobile users owned a smartphone in the 3 month average ending December 2012. Spain’s mobile audience showed the highest adoption of smartphones with 66 percent. Source: comScore MobiLens
- In the EU5 region, Samsung leads the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) market with a 32 percent share, whilst Google is the operating system of choice for 50 percent of EU5 smartphone users. Apple was the smartphone manufacturer with the 2nd largest user base and also ranked as the 2nd most popular smartphone operating system (OS). Source: comScore MobiLens
- EU5 online video audience grew 5 percent over the past year, whilst the number of mobile video viewers jumped by 162 percent since December 2011. Leading online video platforms across Europe are YouTube (Google), Dailymotion, Facebook and VEVO. Source: comScore Video Metrix
- Yandex Web Search captured a 10 percent share of the European search market in December 2012. Source: comScore qSearch
- Time spent on news/information sites increased by 10 percent amongst European internet users. - - The most visited news/information resource was Yahoo!-ABC News Network (34.6 million), followed by the BBC (27.4 million). HPMG News, which includes sites such as Huffington Post and TechCrunch, ranked as the 3rd largest news/information site and saw the strongest audience growth amongst the top 10 over the past year (up 60 percent). Source: comScore MMX
- 19.2 million EU5 smartphone users purchased a product or service via their device in the 3 month average ending December 2012 (14.1 percent of EU5 smartphone owners). Source: comScore MobiLens."
Source:  Press release from comScore, 21st March 2013

Twitter drives ratings for British digital TV channel UKTV

"Twitter has driven UKTV's ratings, according to Darren Childs, the broadcaster's chief executive, speaking as part of a panel that discussed the complementary relationship between on demand and broadcast.
At the Guardian Changing Media Summit on Friday, Childs said online conversations have increased UKTV’s viewers and the broadcaster’s on-demand engagement model was exemplified by the rise of Dynamo.
Dynamo is a magician whose online discovery by UKTV led to a popular broadcast series on pay channel Watch.
Childs said: "What was interesting when we broadcast the first couple of episodes of Dynamo was watching how Twitter was driving our ratings. Online conversation about this great new piece of television was actually increasing our viewership. The two are very complementary."
Childs admitted UKTV had been "behind" on digital content when he joined the company in 2010: "Whilst I wish we were doing this four or five years ago, I’m quite happy where we are in terms of catching up.
"We’re turned our disadvantage into an advantage – a lot of people have lost a lot of money doing things that we’ve been able to learn from, so we can focus on the areas that are commercial successful.""
Source:  Marketing Magazine, 25th March 2013

Contactless payments account for 20% of transactions at Pret A Manger in the UK

"Contactless payments at sandwich chain Pret A Manger have boomed over the past 12 months, according to the firm's director of IT, delivery and support, Andy Chalklin.
"Contactless payments in terms of our overall transactions have gone from single digits of probably between three to five per cent, to about 20 per cent in the last 12 months," Chalklin told Computing in an exclusive interview.
He said that although the firm moved into the contactless area early on, it is only recently that it has seen a huge surge in users adopting and using the technology.
[...]
He added that the sandwich chain is gaining sales from the use of contactless technology now, and is adamant that the firm will do everything in its power to ensure it is ready for the rollout of other mobile payment solutions.
"I think to be known as a place that accepts contactless cards has raised sales. What I don't want is to fall back; we need to always make sure our devices are the fastest available," he said."

Source:  Computing. 6th March 2013

Note - these are payments through NFC chips in cards, not mobile phones

HMV had 22% of the UK physical music & DVD market in 2012

"According to Verdict, HMV’s share of the combined music and DVD market, defined as physical and downloaded products bought on and offline, was 22.3 per cent last year. Amazon came in second position with a share of 17 per cent.
Kantar Worldpanel, a consumer research group, has estimated that if HMV disappeared from the high street entertainment retail sales of £300m would be lost – over 9 per cent of the total entertainment market – as a result of fewer sales from browsing and buying on impulse."

Source:  Financial Times, 23rd March 2013

Note - Kantar reported very different market shares for 2011 - 17/5% - so beware...

Starbucks generates 3 million mobile transactions a week in the US

"Starbucks is seeing big results via mobile, with the beverage giant generating more than three million United States mobile payment transactions per week.
In addition, Starbucks is rolling out a cross-channel, multi-brand loyalty brand, as well as global social impact initiatives. The comments were made by Howard Schultz, president/CEO of Starbucks, during the company’s annual meeting of shareholders."

Source:  Mobile Commerce Daily, 22nd March 2013

Note - this is 3m payments, not $3m in payments!

Twitter is one of three statistically significant variables that correlate with TV ratings

"U.S. TV viewers are taking to Twitter to talk about TV, and the digital chatter is building steam. According to SocialGuide, 32 million unique people in the U.S. Tweeted about TV in 2012. That’s quite the confab, but what does it all really mean for the TV industry? Should networks and advertisers be paying attention? Early research on the subject from Nielsen and SocialGuide says yes.
By analyzing Tweets about live TV, the study confirmed a relationship between Twitter and TV ratings. It also identified Twitter as one of three statistically significant variables (in addition to prior-year rating and advertising spend) to align with TV ratings.
“While prior-year rating accounts for the lion’s share of the variability in TV ratings, Twitter’s presence as a top three influencer tells us that Tweeting about live TV may affect program engagement,” said Andrew Somosi, CEO of SocialGuide. “We expected to see a correlation between Twitter and TV ratings, but this study quantifies the strength of that relationship.”
Much of the correlation is being driven by the rise in media consumption across multiple device screens. We know that 80% of U.S. tablet and smartphone owners who watch TV use their device while watching at least several times a month. We also know that 40% of U.S. tablet and smartphone users visit a social network while watching TV.
How well does Twitter align with TV program ratings? The recent Nielsen/SocialGuide study confirmed that increases in Twitter volume correlate to increases in TV ratings for varying age groups, revealing a stronger correlation for younger audiences. Specifically, the study found that for 18-34 year olds, an 8.5% increase in Twitter volume corresponds to a 1% increase in TV ratings for premiere episodes, and a 4.2% increase in Twitter volume corresponds with a 1% increase in ratings for midseason episodes. Additionally, a 14.0% increase in Twitter volume is associated with a 1% increase in TV program ratings for 35-49 year olds, reflecting a stronger relationship between Twitter and TV for younger audiences.
Further, the study found that the correlation between Tweets and TV ratings strengthens for midseason episodes for both age groups. An increase in Twitter volume of 4.2% and 8.4% is associated with a 1% increase in ratings for 18-34 year olds and 35-49 year olds, respectively. Moreover, by midseason Twitter was responsible for more of the variance in ratings for 18-34 year olds than advertising spend.
“The TV industry is dynamic and it was important for us to analyze multiple variables to truly understand Twitter’s impact on TV ratings,” said Mike Hess, Executive Vice President of Media Analytics for Nielsen. “While our study doesn’t prove causality, the correlation we uncovered is significant and we will continue our research to deepen the industry’s understanding of this relationship.”"

Source:  Press release from Nielsen, 20th March 2013

Botnet fraud costs advertisers $6 million a month in false clicks

"Security researchers have discovered a botnet they have dubbed "Chameleon" which they calculate is costing display advertisers around $6m (£3.9m) per month by falsely viewing billions of pages and adverts on about 200 sites owned by a small group of publishers.
The discovery points to widespread fraud in which adverts are clicked among networks of sites to generate money for sites and ad networks – though it is still unclear whether it is one or more publishers, or one or more ad networks which supply ads to the sites, which are to blame for the fraud.
Spider.io, a security group which previously pointed out that a flaw in internet Explorer was being exploited by advertising companies to track users, says that the botnet consists of at least 120,000 subverted Windows machines, 95% of them located inside the US."

Source:  The Guardian, 19th March 2013

YouTube has over a billion viewers each month

"In the last eight years you’ve come to YouTube to watch, share and fall in love with videos from all over the world. Tens of thousands of partners have created channels that have found and built businesses for passionate, engaged audiences. Advertisers have taken notice: all of the Ad Age Top 100 brands are now running campaigns on YouTube. And today, we’re announcing a new milestone: YouTube now has more than a billion unique users every single month.
What does a billion people tuning into YouTube look like?
- Nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube.
- Our monthly viewership is the equivalent of roughly ten Super Bowl audiences.
- If YouTube were a country, we’d be the third largest in the world after China and India.
- PSY and Madonna would have to repeat their Madison Square Garden performance in front of a packed house 200,000 more times. That’s a lot of Gangnam Style!"

Source:  YouTube blog, 20th March 2013

Earlier - 800m uniques still being reported in early March 2013