In the ongoing "war of the worlds" patent litigation between Apple and Samsung/Google, the Cupertino company has said it will amend its patent infringement claims to include the Galaxy S4. That's according to Foss Patents, which also reports that Apple asserts Google Now infringes two patents associated with Siri. Overall, there are five patents being asserted in the amended Apple pleadings (below). The Siri-related patents are U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604 and U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959, which pertain to a "universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system." Apple is [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: Siri | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Legal | Google: Mobile | Google: Search | Legal: Patents

Apple is once again listed as the most valuable brand on earth, while Google inched closer to the top spot and Microsoft fell out of the top five in the 2013 Brandz Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands. This is the eighth year that Brandz has compiled its list, which comes from research involving two million consumers and more than 10,000 brands, the company says. Apple tops the list again this year, with Google moving up from third place to second. Microsoft was ranked fifth last year, but fell to seventh this time around. IBM, at No. 3, is the fourth technology company in the top 10. [...]

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At the Google I/O keynote this morning, Google announced that Google Play had seen 48 billion app downloads. This was on the heels of the announcement that there were 900 million Android device activations since inception. Later in the day at roughly 5 pm US Eastern time, Apple said that its App Store saw its 50 billionth app download. This had been long anticipated. And, it's quite a milestone. However, Google partly stole Apple's thunder with its own announcement of nearly the same number of downloads earlier in the day. This afternoon, the following image appeared on Apple's homepage: [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues

Pinterest is upping its mobile game by adding more mention, notification and search features to its iOS and Android apps. Now including the "@" sign before a name makes it possible for Pinterest users to mention friends within the app. The new notification feature alerts users via the app when they have been mentioned or if a comment has been made on one of their pins. Push notifications also have been added, letting users know they received a comment or have been mentioned without opening the app. Because the nature of Pinterest includes finding content from across the Web, the Pint [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Mobile Marketing | Pinterest | Pinterest: Mobile

In a new report from Gartner, the only global market to experience mobile phone sales growth during Q1 2013 was the Asia/Pacific region, demonstrating a 6.4 percent increase year-on-year. This growth rate accounted for a 53.1 percent year-on-year increase in Asia/Pacific's share of mobile phones globally. China witnessed a 7.5 percent increase last quarter compared to Q1 2012, and accounted for 25.7 percent of all global mobile phone sales. "The Chinese and local manufacturers have been exemplary at addressing the demands of buyers by offering affordable devices with optimum features," claim [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Samsung | Statistics: General | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Is Google simply trying to create a better user experience on the iPhone and iPad or is it trying to "colonize" iOS with its apps? It all depends on your point of view -- though, it's probably a bit of both. When the new Gmail app for iOS was released May 6, immediately, inflammatory headlines appeared, suggesting that Google was "taking over the iPhone." However, that's not exactly the case. Users of the new Gmail app have the (default) option to go directly to the native versions of YouTube and Google Maps, as well as open Chrome via links in email. Previously, such links would have op [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Apple: Safari | Channel: Industry | Google: Android | Google: Chrome | Google: Gmail | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | Google: YouTube | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

After posting higher than expected profits in 2012, Apple ranked No. 6 on today's 2013 Fortune 500 list. Not only was this Apple's first time among Fortune's top ten companies, they were the only Silicon Valley technology company to break into this year's top ten list since Hewlett-Packard fell to No. 15 after reportedly suffering the biggest loss of any Fortune 500 company. Ranking companies by total revenue for their respective fiscal years, Fortune magazine released its annual list of Fortune 500 companies today with Walmart reclaiming first place after sliding to No. 2 in 2012. Other t [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Industry | Facebook | Internet Marketing Industry

Google and Facebook combine to take up seven spots on Apple's newly-released list of the Top 25 all-time free iPhone apps. Apple published that list -- and three others -- as part of its countdown to 50 billion App Store downloads, which the company expects to happen soon. (Apple is giving away a $10,000 App Store credit to whomever completes the 50 billionth download and $500 credits to 50 others.) Those lists look at the most popular iPhone apps (free and paid) and iPad apps (free and paid). On the paid side, the majority of apps on both lists are games. But, there's more variety in th [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Facebook: Instagram | Facebook: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

The March smartphone market share numbers are out from comScore. What we see is Apple gaining 2.7 points to maintain its lead as the top US smartphone maker. Samsung also gained slightly and remains the number two smartphone manufacturer in the US. All other hardware makers, including Google's troubled Motorola unit, lost ground. Below are the smartphone operating system share percentages. Android lost about a point and a half of share. Apple gained 2.7 percentage points. And Windows Phones saw a slight gain. These comScore data above stand in contrast to data released earlier in [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Google's "predictive search" service Google Now has finally arrived for iOS users, after being Android-only since it launched last June. Ironically, the ground-breaking service is now available to more iPhone and iPad users than Android ones, because on Android, only the minority with Android 4.1 or higher can access Google Now. We have full coverage of the roll-out on our sister-site Search Engine Land: iPhone & iPad Users To Get Google Now, As It Comes To iOS: News about the launch & how Google Now is part of the Google Search App The Amazing “Google Now” — When Google [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: Siri | Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Search

Not that long ago many people were speculating about when smartphone penetration would reach 50 percent. That happened relatively early in 2012. And today US smartphone ownership stands at roughly 60% according to Nielsen. Yesterday IDC reported another milestone: smartphone "shipments" surpassed non-smartphone shipments for the first time in Q1. According to the device-tracking firm, "more than half (51.6 percent) the total phone shipments in a quarter were smartphones." The following chart shows top global phone vendors (all phone shipments) according to IDC: Samsung lead all ot [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

The bears were wrong. Apple beat Wall Street financial analysts' expectations this afternoon. The company had been steadily losing value as analyst after analyst expressed anxiety about the company's outlook. Apple reported quarterly gross revenues of $43.6 billion, compared with a $42.3 billion consensus estimate. Second quarter revenues in 2012 were $39.2 billion. Growth was driven by better-than-expected iPhone and iPad sales. Last quarter Apple reported $54 billion in revenue (a miss) and $13 billion in profit (a beat). Profit was $9.5 billion vs. $13 billion for the holiday quarter. [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iPad | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Top News

Yahoo introduced its new iOS app today, noting that the technology used to build the app was possible because of their recent acquisition of Summly. "The new Yahoo mobile app is also smarter, using Summly's natural-language algorithms and machine learning to deliver quick story summaries," said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a post on Yahoo's corporate blog. Yahoo gained a number of headlines when it acquired Summly less than a month ago for approximately $30 million. Most of the attention was garnered because the startup was founded by a 17 year old who based his technology on a licensing arra [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Top News | Yahoo: Mobile

As law enforcement officials continue their manhunt for one fugitive that's suspected to have been involved in the Boston Marathon bombing this week, consumers looking for the latest news and information have pushed several news and scanner-type apps into the iOS top apps charts. As of about 11:30 am PT, CNN's app has taken over the top spot on the iPhone's free app chart. It wasn't in the top five as recently as last night. Further down the top 10, an app called 5-0 Radio Police Scanner Lite is ranked seventh, TuneIn Radio -- another source for following police scanner communications -- is [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Top News

Two reports over the past two days from ad network Chitika shed light on adoption of the much anticipated BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen phone, as well as the current state of tablets in North America. The new iOS and Android competitor is generating 5.3 percent of all BlackBerry traffic, which reflects a "doubling in usage share since the Z10’s US release 20 days prior." That's impressive until those figures are put into context. Chitika also told me that "BlackBerry-based Web traffic as a whole constitutes about 1 percent of all mobile Web traffic on our network." So, in fact, the Z10 is [...]

Related Topics: Amazon | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPad | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android

Opera has released its quarterly State of Mobile Advertising report for Q1 2013. The major finding is that "iOS continues to outperform all other device platforms in terms of monetization, with the highest average eCPM and greatest percentage of publisher revenue." In addition the iPhone has regained its lead (among the publishers using Opera's Mediaworks platform) over Android handsets on a global basis. This is remarkable given the overall OS lead that Android has now established. Opera observed that "Android tablets [have grown] to a small but noticeable share of the market." However [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Statistics | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Mobile is one of the fastest growing mediums of our time. It seems every day some new technology or new development is being brought to market. With so much going on in such a short time frame, key developments are sometimes glazed over and often not fully understood. This is the case with Apple’s move to replace the use of the UDID for ad targeting with a new and improved ID created exclusively for adverting purposes – the launch of IDFA (or sometimes called IFA) with their release of IOS6. This article is the first of a two-part series to provide mobile marketers with a little back [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

In the original Star Trek series episode called "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," two nearly identical aliens, inflamed by mutual hatred, beam down to their decimated planet to continue their fight, seemingly for eternity. That might also be a way to describe the Apple-Android global litigation: it goes on and on, seemingly forever. A frustrated federal judge in Florida has publicly attacked both Apple and, in this case, Motorola (Google) for being unwilling to voluntarily streamline and simplify their case or engage in sincere settlement talks. According to Bloomberg, exasperated US  [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Legal | Legal | Legal: Patents | Top News

Earlier in the week, I speculated that Yahoo might be able to follow Facebook's lead and create a Home-like proprietary software layer on top of Android. But, there would be risks in doing so. An alternative way to boost mobile usage and traffic might be to deepen an existing partnership with another operating system that has massive reach: iOS. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting this afternoon that Apple and Yahoo are having a conversation, with no deal imminent, to expand the amount of Yahoo content available to Siri and pre-loaded on Apple devices. According to the WSJ: But [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Apple: Siri | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Yahoo | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Mobile

The Google Search app for iOS  has been updated with bug fixes and an improved voice search, but there's no mention of Google Now included in the latest version of the app. Last month, the leaked video posted below suggested that Google Now would soon be available for iPhones and iPads via the Google Search app, but there has been no official comment from Google besides a remark Chairman Eric Schmidt made at the Google Big Tent Summit in India. In response to a direct question about the availability of Google Now for iOS, Schmidt said, "You’ll need to discuss that with Apple," inferring [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Search Marketing | Google: Search