Hong Kong consumers are at the forefront of global smartphone usage. Almost half (48%) of respondents in Hong Kong own a smartphone *, more than double the global rate of 23%.

“Until fairly recently, smartphone or PDA phones were owned by a very specific group of consumers – mainly tech geeks and business ‘road warriors’”, says Marc de Lange, Director – Technology Sector. “But in the coming year, Hong Kong will reach an important milestone as more than half of all mobile phone owners start to carry a smartphone in their pockets.”

(*A smartphone user is someone who uses two or more of the following features: pull email, push email, mobile internet, Microsoft office capabilities, Qwerty, Touchscreen.) Read More

NBC Universal places mobile at center of movie marketing strategy

NBC Universal Inc.’s Universal Pictures and Rogue Pictures are using mobile to create buzz for “MacGruber,” a comedy film that hits theaters May 21.

The entertainment giant launched an application for Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch and iPad to promote the movie. The MacGruber application features the Bomb Defuser game, the Mullet Generator photo tool, a soundboard with lines from the film, ringtones, wallpapers, a plot synopsis and a video trailer.

“MacGruber is an iconic character on Saturday Night Live, but only has the chance to be on screen for a short amount of time in a given episode,” said Ben Blatt, manager of digital marketing at Universal Pictures, Universal City, CA.

“The feature film expands on the character as an action hero, but more importantly on the comedy,” he said. “This app is a chance to bring existing fans of the character and a new audience into the world of MacGruber and showcase just how hilarious the character can be. Read More

Apple’s iPad went on sale Saturday, and the computing giant reports that consumers have already downloaded more than a million applications and over 250,000 ebooks to the new tablet device. “iPad users, on average, downloaded more than three apps and close to one book within hours of unpacking their new iPad,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a prepared statement.

As of Monday morning, the App Store features 3,275 iPad apps, according to mobile analytics firm App Shopper–by comparison, the company reports there are now close to 180,000 applications for Apple’s iPhone. Mobile ad exchange Mobclix notes that about 80 percent of iPad applications carry premium price tags, while the remaining 20 percent are free–the average iPad paid app price is $4.99. Read More

Google has revamped AdWords to support iPhone, Android and Palm Pre smartphone users.

According to Wikipedia, AdWords is Google’s flagship advertising product and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click advertising and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads.

“We’ve heard that your smartphone and AdWords account have been pining for each other,” said Miles Johnson, a member of the Inside AdWords crew at Google, Mountain View, CA.

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In February 2010, smartphones accounted for 48 percent of AdMob’s worldwide traffic, up from 35 percent in February 2009. The strong growth of iPhone and Android traffic, fueled by heavy application usage, was primarily responsible for the increase. Although the share of feature phone traffic in AdMob’s network declined from 58 percent to 35 percent year-over-year, absolute traffic from feature phones still grew 31 percent. Mobile Internet devices experienced the strongest growth of the three categories, increasing to account for 17 percent of traffic in AdMob’s network in February 2010. The iPod touch is the top mobile Internet device and is responsible for a vast majority of this traffic; other devices include the Sony PSP and Nintendo DSi.

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Proclaiming “Location adds new relevancy to mobile search,” Google director of mobile advertising Diana Pouliot said one of every three mobile search queries received by the digital services giant now includes some element of local-specific intent.

Speaking at the Mobile Marketing & Advertising event here in conjunction with CTIA Wireless 2010, Pouliot cited four catalysts driving the mobile opportunity: Information ubiquity, the mobile web and cloud computing, location and audience engagement. “Mobile drives action,” Pouliot said. “We’ve seen explosive growth over the last three years.” Google’s mobile search and location services are spearheading that growth, Pouliot noted–the company’s mobile search traffic has increased five times in the last two years, and its Google Maps for Mobile solution now boasts more than 50 million active users.

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The good news for brands trying to market through the mobile device starts with the amount of time people are spending on their devices throughout the day. When asked how much time is spent on personal use (with the remaining being on business) 74% of smartphone owners indicated they are using their device primarily for personal reasons.   Below we can look at when, throughout the day, the device is getting the most attention.

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Finally, after an year of rumor, Apple has revealed the curtain, it will release its newsest cross era product – iPad.

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We all know that China has started 3G in 2009. But what is the real situation now in China?

Here are some quick figures: Up to Dec 2009, China has over 720 millions of mobile users, compared to about 320 millions of Internet users. The reason for such a big difference is due to that a portion of rural areas in China cannot access Internet but 2G mobile signal is still available.

How about 3G? Latest figures is about 10M users in end of 2009, which includes 3M of mobile network card users. It seems to be a little bit slow and has large growing potential. Read More