Google Adding +1 Buttons to Mobile Web, Mobile Display Ads

It was announced today that Google will begin adding +1 buttons to their Web and mobile display ads in early October, adding user photos and recommendations to the ads themselves.  The buttons were recently added in the same way to Google search results.

                              

On its “Inside AdWords” blog today, Google said that +1 buttons have been installed on over a million Websites across the Web with more than 4 billion daily impressions.  By adding the buttons to display ads across both the Web and mobile, advertisers have the ability to run social-enabled ad campaigns that work across millions of sites on over 40 countries around the world.  The new feature is being added to display ads by default, though users can opt-out manually via their AdWords account.

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Intuit’s Mobile Efforts Look to Make Big Splash on The Small Screen

Intuit’s dominance in the realm of mobile solutions for business owners is growing at a rapid pace.

                                  

Late last week, the venerable name in business and financial management solutions, raised the curtain on its next generation of mobile products that will expand its portfolio of connected services.

According to Intuit, these range from innovations that will make it easier for the smallest of businesses to accept credit card payments, to others that will help doctors and patients communicate quickly, to a banking application that allows consumers to deposit a check from anywhere with just their mobile phone.

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Goodbye to the Traditional Wallet, Enter the Mobile Wallet

The following is a guest post from Tope Abayomi, Founder of Emityme Apps.

Can your customers pay for product and/or services through a mobile phone?  If not, you should start thinking of implementing an option unless you’re comfortable  leaving money on the table.

                                                     

New forecasts from PayPal show that this year’s total mobile payments (TMP) volume is expected to reach $3 billion.  But PayPal only serves a small part of the mobile payment market.  For all mobile payments sent through all systems in the US, the total volume is set to hit the $6B mark, according to Forrester Research. PayPal’s number is double from what they expected at the start of the year, as the number of customers using their phones to pay has soared.

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Is Facebook’s Long Awaited iPad App a Flop?

On Monday, Columbus Day, Facebook finally “discovered” a new world of its own – the iPad.

                                       

Following months of speculation and suspicions, Facebook finally raised the curtain on its iPad-optimized mobile app, which is available now as a free download in the App Store.

Leon Dubinsky, a software engineer at Facebook, says the app had been designed to create an immersive and “fun” experience for iPad users.

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Mobile advertising networkGreystripe has announced some innovative new mobile ad units focused on making the experience more relevant, targeted, and “app-like” for mobile users.

                           

The new ad units, or “Ad Boosters” as they’re called, allow for both industry-focused and social ad units.  The industry-focused units drill down to a specific, targeted vertical for things like retail, CPG, automotive, etc., and can be customized to allow advertisers to direct users to specific actions.  The retail booster, for example, includes a “Find Store button,” a “Coupon button” and a “Buy Now button.”  The social units add integration for services like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

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Fiksu: Android Users 2X More Likely Than iOS Users to Open an App Ten Times or More

Mobile app monetization provider Fiksuhas published new data comparing mobile app loyalty on both Android and iOS devices, finding user loyalty to be much higher on Android.

                                      

The company analyzed more than four billion “app actions” through its platform and applied a metric defining a loyal user based on the number of times he or she opens an app.  The data shows that on average, Android users are two times more likely than iOS users to open an app ten times or more.  iOS still dominates among premium brands but what this means is that there’s plenty of inventory available on the Android platform, where global traffic can cost much less than iOS traffic based on standard supply and demand principles.

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SMB Market for Mobile SaaS to Reach $3.3B This Year, Growing to $16.6B in 2016

According to a new survey out recently from Strategy Analytics, the market for mobile Software-as-a-Service solutions is expected to reach $3B by the end of the year, growing to an impressive $16.6B by 2016 — representing a 5-year CAGR of 29.5%.

                                            

According to the data, North America and Western Europe represent the greatest SMB spending opportunity for mobile SaaS, with SMBs in North America spending twice as much than those in Western Europe.  Smartphones and wireless devices form the basis of mobility and pave the way for mobile applications including access to company e-mail, calendars, CRM systems and databases.

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eBay Sees $5 Billion in Mobile Sales in 2011 via Mobile Apps, Smartphones

It is shaping up to be a banner year in mobile sales for eBay. This week, the online marketplace’s CEO, John Donahoe, revealed that eBay will have done $5 billion in business this year via mobile phones. eBay owned PayPal isn’t far behind with $3.5 billion in mobile payments for the calendar year.

                                      

The smartphone boom and corresponding popularity of eBay’s mobile applications have made this impressive feat possible. Donahoe admits that that eBay’s applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone have been downloaded in excess of 56 million times.

“We are seeing profound change in how consumers are behaving and will behave. We believe we are at an inflection point,” Donahoe reportedly said this week at the Open Mobile Summit. Our perspective on mobile is that it’s not incremental, it is another screen in the shopping experience. It’s a consumer that is coming back more frequently and shopping more because now it can be done at any time of the day. We know it is driving consumer engagement and customer value.”

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