Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - MLB is Big League With Mobile App

It isn’t called the major leagues for nothing. Major League Baseball had 8.4 billion minutes streamed to its mobile app in 2015, per comScore. A total of 53% of the total minutes consumed were in the At Bat app with users watching or listening to games. The activity was more than than in all other U.S. official sports leagues apps combined.

Nearly one in four shoppers say that they have changed their minds while in a checkout line after looking up details on a smartphone: Google.

Meerkat is dropping the livestream. It’s a cautionary tale for those looking at "solutions"at SXSW that may be shiny and not stand test of time,

Headline: Retail Executives Say Mobile Investments to Increase This Year. Me: you don't say.

Two weeks after calling for an Apple boycott call, Donald Trump was using an iPhone to send half of his tweets: Marketing Land.

A man with a gun while taking selfies fatally shot himself in Concrete, Washington, police say. Interestingly, the Russian government has issued a guide to discourage people from taking dangerous selfies.

Consumers’ use of health apps and wearables has doubled in the past two years, according to Accenture.

After all this time, Apple has now opened a Twitter account to answer tech questions and to deal with problems.

I read a story that predicted: "When you tuck your iPhone 9 into your back pocket, it may well flex to conform to the contours of your butt" I can only say yay.

One in 10 U.S. Internet users (31.1 million people) will be mobile-only this year, eMarketer reported.

Mobile payments make up only 3% Of U.S. transactions, per GfK. Weren’t we told that cash would be gone by some Tuesday in 2015?

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Another Reason To Smile At The Selfie

Despite its negative reputation in some circles, I will argue that the selfie has done more to drive smartphone adoption and bring people closer than any other recent product enhancement. I came across another reason to smile:

Until March 14, Disney Parks will donate $5 to Make-A-Wish – up to $1 million – for every “ear photo” shared on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #ShareYourEars. What kind of ears? “Cool ears. Funny ears. Mickey Mouse ears. We want to see them all!”

So show ‘em.

Customizing vehicles and watching a video on a manufacturer’s website are the most common activities on desktops for vehicle-shopping individuals, per Ipsos. On mobile, Nos. 1 and 2 are reaching out to family and friends and reaching out to a dealership or salesperson.

Ninety percent of smartphone users have used their devices to find a location, per Pew. The activity upended the free-standing and pricey navigation units that we no longer use or want.

Gizmodo reported the availability of the first smartphone with built-in FLIR thermal vision that can also survive a hurricane. The line of people is short for such a “need”.

Yahoo's Simon Khalaf says that we're at the end of Mobile 1.0 and we're entering Mobile 2.0. Let’s commit to punching anyone who calls 2016 The Year of Mobile 2.0.

More from Khalaf: time in the mobile browser decreased from 20% to 9% since 2013.

Emergency room visits by distracted walkers are up 124% in five years, reported The Wall Street Journal.

LinkedIn should block users from sending generic invites to connect. Someone needs to save these dolts from being stupid and lazy.

An Adweek infographic showed that 32% use tech or an app to track exercise. But left unanswered is whether others don’t exercise or just not track.

After all these years and successes, do we still need stories about the importance of building a mobile loyalty club though SMS opt-in? It isn't that I question the notion that these clubs are valuable. But are we still at such elementary how-to stage?

Eighty-two percent of TV ad-driven searches during Super Bowl were done on smartphones, vs. 70% in 2015: Google. But only 7% on tablets as smartphones continue to eat into the use of those devices.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Why Singing In the Rain Is Easier Than Texting

You have to hand it to South Korea's KT, the country's second largest mobile carrier, to solve one of the mobile generation’s biggest problems – holding an umbrella in the rain while texting on a large smartphone. Thought not yet for sale, the Phonebrella is an umbrella with a C-shaped handle that fits on the wrist and frees the hands.

Of course, freeing yourself from your smartphone while in the rain gives you two hands and no need for such a product.

A tourist was recently arrested after taking a selfie on top of the Brooklyn Bridge. Last week, a man died doing the same in the middle of the Running of the Bulls. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a selfie isn’t worth these stunts.

Samsung is reportedly working on a large iPad Pro rival. The timing of this is in question given the tablet's fall from “must-have” status.

One third of the 1.3 billion smartphones in the world are used in China.

Twenty years ago, AT&T's annual wireless revenue was $3 billion, according to industry analyst Chetan Sharma. Now, it records that in two weeks.

Apple may be working on “smart bands” for Apple Watch to add new health tracking functions: AppleInsider. And they would come at a cost. Were these not features promised in the already excessively-priced watch?

My reaction to Fast Company’s story called “How to stop overscheduling yourself”? I have no time to read it.

Tweet of the week from @ryangraves: “i wonder what people who write “u” and “ur” do with all that extra time.”

Nearly six in 10 US millennial adult mobile phone users will use mobile banking this year: eMarketer.

Major League Baseball gave Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost an Apple Watch Sport for being the manager of the All Star Game. Now it says that he can’t use the device during games. They can’t wonder if Siri will tip off pitches. She still often can’t accomplish even the more simple of tasks.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - A Selfie Tsunami Is Just Ahead

iOS9, coming this fall, will put all of one's selfies in an album. I can see a massive increase in social sharing - "Here's when I was in the park." "Here's when the traffic light made me late for work". Help us.

Subway's new app gives customers the ability to build a custom sandwich and pay in advance via PayPal.

On average, each U.S. household will spend approximately $3800 on access and devices in 2015, per industry analyst Chetan Sharma.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Selfies Take A Backseat For 18-24 Year Olds

Is the 18-24 year old group a “me” generation? Maybe not. 74% are most likely to use their mobile devices to take photos of animals, primarily pets, per eMarketer. Selfies trail at 67%.

You are well underway on your planning of holiday mobile campaigns, right?

Early Apple Watch wearers: do you feel differently about Apple given your experience the last few months? I do. In my mind, the brand is less bullet-proof. In other words, I will think twice about buying another product sight unseen.

Only 2% of U.S. consumers use digital wallets, per Gallup. Some thought cash would be gone. Please.

250 million in India are experiencing the Internet for the first time on mobile, in contrast to 80 million on desktop, according to Tyroo Technologies.

Meerkat introduced a GoPro livestreaming feature.

A memorable tweet from Jimmy Kimmel – “I’ve never been in prison but I did sit through a 60 second pre-roll ad on YouTube.”

The runner-up tweet of the week is from former Myspace CEO Michael Jones: “A phone that I don't use to make calls now paired with a watch I don't use to tell time.”

The spend on app-install ads is forecast to climb 80% in 2015, eMarketer says.

69 million Americans go online more often from smartphones than any other device, Forrester reports.

My six elliptical workouts last week didn't save me – Apple Watch called me a slacker. I guess that we all need to Be Like Bo.

Businesses investing in the Internet of Things are reporting a 16% increase in revenue as a result, according to The Complete Reimaginative Force by Tata Consultancy Services.

Jonathon Niese of the Mets watched the birth of his child on a mobile phone after leaving a start. Technology got him closer, but there was lots of debate about whether he should have been there in person.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Facing A Life of Paying By Selfie

MasterCard is testing an app that lets customers pay with a selfie. Facial recognition enables the app to verify one’s identity. After registering, users would be able to pay by looking at their phone and blinking once. The blink prevents thieves from showing the app a picture of a face to get around the system.

For those uncomfortable with this, the app can read one’s fingerprint. Or, of course, one can pay with cash.

45% of smartphone owners begin with Amazon when shopping on a smartphone, according to a survey by Mizuho Securities. Google is in the runner-up slot with 16%.

But when it comes to searching for information, 34% begin with the Google search app, followed by 27% typing into the Safari browser, and 19% beginning with the Chrome browser.

An example of the need for more personalization in mobile – I received a text offer for a brown sugar bacon sandwich. Totally random.

The third quarter of 2015 begins and Gogo is still at dialup speed. I’m told by someone in the know that they raised their prices significantly to discourage usage while still making their overall business goal by gouging the poor suckers who use the crappy service.

What is one to do about an Apple Watch tan line. I’m surprised that CNN hasn’t covered this phenomenon and dubbed it Breaking News.

Matti Makkonen, considered the father of SMS, died at 63. He made an enormous contribution to mobile and to marketing. Despite proven results, text messaging is often too quickly dismissed by marketers.

To the next person who uses appsolutely - pow.

Facebook is giving marketers the option of paying for video ads after 10 seconds of viewing instead of three, per the Wall Street Journal.

A diet-based video game claims to make you thinner. Fat chance.

A man claimed that his iPhone 6 overheated, burst into flames. These stories almost always turn out to be hoaxes.

China’s Huawei introduced a phone with a dancing piece of pizza. I’m figuring that it was something about wanting a slice of the market.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Why Responsive Design Can Lead To Unresponsive Consumers

Coca-Cola's mobile chief Tom Daly chastises those who've considered their work done at the completion of a responsive design project.

“All responsive does is make the content show up on the screen, as if all screens were the same, as modality was the same, as if context was the same,” he said at Mobile FirstLook.

Lose weight or use the “wide selfie” mode? Samsung is marketing the feature available on Galaxy Note 4. Careful who you suggest needs one.

The mobile industry generated $3.3 trillion last year and created 11 million jobs, according to Qualcomm.

Google will stop selling the current version of Google Glass this week. In three days at CES, the largest gather of tech pros, I saw only two people wearing the spectacles.

56 percent of consumers expect brands to respond to their tweets within an hour, per Twitter research.

Time Inc. generated 100 percent revenue growth in mobile in 2014. It has 72 million mobile unique users a month, which is 80 percent growth year over year.

Tablets and mobile phones are not interchangeable for marketers, according to Forrester’s Julie Ask. Only 15 percent of tablets are always connected.

More from Forrester: 21 percent of U.S. consumers have an expectation of anything, anywhere, anytime. Another 29 percent are transitioning there.

Also, more than 40 percent of consumers are tired of pulling their mobile device out to see what happened. It’s an opportunity for tactile technology and signals.

Coca-Cola’s app strategy is a work in progress. Only two apps have ever had more than one million downloads.

Mobile is still a single digit percentage spend of Coke's overall global digital budget.

How’s $2,499 for a gold Apple Watch? For some, it will be about buying fashion and function.

Holiday shoppers tweeted more than 28 million mentions about their gift purchases - up 8 percent year over year, per SAP.

Just 11 percent of U.S. digital retail dollars are spent via mobile, eMarketer reports.

A London phone booth has been turned into a solar-powered mobile charging station.

Mobile app usage grew 76 percent year over years, Flurry research showed.

Google Play now has more apps than Apple's App Store, appFigures said.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - On The Joy of Giving A Selfie Stick

Sure, using a selfie stick makes you a dork, but one with a smile on your face. I bet tens of millions more could’ve been sold this season on street corners, outside the holiday recital, and anywhere that there is mistletoe or Santa Claus. Admit it, you bought one. Or should have.

Is this the last holiday season before our refrigerators send a message to our mobile or smartwatch that we are low on eggnog?

My belief is that after all these years and all the dollars spent, we have no idea how much data we need in our mobile plans.

Led by Whole Foods shoppers, Apple Pay accounted for 1% of digital payment dollars in November: ITG.

Tweet of the week is from eMarketer’s @noahelkin Anytime headlines mention #beacons in relation to boosting fast-food sales, I always assume they meant #bacon. Did Noah mean #iBacon?

32 million in the U.S. reportedly download more than 17 mobile apps a month. They are dubbed Mobile App Install addicts.

Half of shoppers research on mobile devices while in-store, say Forrester Research and SPS Commerce.

In the time that BlackBerry took to bring the new Classic, I've gotten around using one by changing to shorter emails on my iPhone. It as proven to be good enough. Are you in the same camp?

The problem with companies like Comcast is that they build no brand loyalty. After tons of trouble with them, they overbilled me. And then they got no slack.

From Yahoo: BlackBerry works with Boeing on phone that self-destructs. Me: No mobile entity is more qualified on self-destruction than BlackBerry.

41% of North American smartphone users are highly aware that their phones can be used as payment devices at retail counters, yet only 16% have done this: Accenture.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - When A Selfie Deserves A Kick In The Face

A guy who was taking a selfie in front of a speeding train got kicked in the face by the conductor. Do you know anyone who believes he got something other that what he deserved?

Mark Cuban invested in a pot that charges your smartphone by boiling water.

ESPN says mobile traffic now exceeds desktop.

Android had 53 percent of U.S. smartphone activations in Q1.

U.S. smartphone thefts doubled in 2013. Approximately 4.5 million phones were lost or stolen. Tech companies have committed to offering a “kill switch” to stop the trend.

A report says that two-thirds of doctors are using some kind of mobile app while working. My guess is about the same amount of patients are using one during an appointment.

Nearly 40 percent in the U.S. are cellphone-only households. Idaho leads with 52 percent.

About 75 percent of prescription-takers use mobile apps, including most older adults and seniors. Those and the rest of them are reachable via opt-in SMS for reminders and health tips.

17 percent of parents say their children use at least one mobile device in the classroom. Meanwhile, for every story that says tablets are wrecking kids’ motor skills, I can point to at least five that say that they are an indispensible learning tool.

Forrester: while 91 percent of connected employees use a computer at their work desk, 64 percent also use a smartphone.

Several recent stories talk of the need to walk away once in a while from our connected devices. No app required – it’s self-discipline. I fail often. Do you?

More 65 and older adults own tablets or readers than smartphones, Pew says. About 18 percent of this group has a smartphone. 27 percent have a tablet or reader.