Top Grossing Apps on iPad, iPhone Are Costly

Distimo is out with its July report on the various app stores, their pricing and the top ranked apps. There's lots of great data in the report. Here are the big bullets provided by the company:

• The average price of the 100 most popular applications in Google Android Market and Palm App Catalog is higher than the average price of the entire catalogue of applications.
• While the average price of all applications is only 16% higher in the Apple App Store for iPad than in the Apple App Store for iPhone, the average price of the 100 most popular applications is nearly three times as high in the Apple App Store for iPad.
• Paid applications are priced lowest in Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store and Palm App Catalog.
• The top three cross-store publishers that publish applications in multiple stores are Gameloft, Electronic Arts and Handmark, Inc.
• In the Apple App Store for iPad, BlackBerry App World and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, the respective companies that run each application store are the top publishers in their own store with only a limited number of applications.
• The top grossing publisher in the Apple App Store for iPhone is Electronic Arts, which publishes free and paid applications as well as applications with in-app purchases.

You can take a look at the report for more. I'll briefly highlight two charts that struck me.

All the app stores have a similar proportion of free to paid apps, except Android which has a much higher percentage of free apps: 

The top grossing apps on the iPad and iPhone are much more expensive than the average and it seems to indicate a pretty healthy willingness to pay on the part of Apple users. This will undoutedly make the iOS platform more attractive to certain kinds of publishers and developers. 

Apple Announcements: iPods, Ping & Apple TV

Steve Jobs is on stage discussing the architectural elements of some of Apple's new stores in China, London and Paris. These stores really reinforce the "premium" nature of Apple's brand. Now there are 300 Apple retail stores in 10 countries, soon to be 11 with impending opening of a store in Spain.

First announcement: iOS 4.1 app with several bug fixes in this release. Jobs details some of the new features: new photography features, game center (with social integration done by Apple APIs). . . Now he's providing a "sneak peek" at iOS 4.2 for all iOS devices but really upgrades iPad (all iPhone functionality, including multi-tasking coming and it adds wireless printing). It comes out in November.

Jobs says there are now 120 million iOS devices that have shipped since the iPhone launched. The company is seeing 230K iOS "new activations" per day. He takes a swipe at Google indirectly without naming the company. Two-hundred apps are being downloaded every second from the app store. 

More data:

• 250K apps in iTunes app store
• 25K iPad specific apps
• 6.5 billion downloads of apps from the apps store overall

First announcement: iOS 4.1 app with several bug fixes in this release. Jobs details some of the new features: new photography features, game center (with social integration done by Apple APIs). . . Now he's providing a "sneak peek" at iOS 4.2 for all iOS devices but really upgrades iPad (all iPhone functionality, including multi-tasking coming and it adds wireless printing). It comes out in November.

Jobs demonstrates multi-tasking and folders on the iPad. Now he's going to talk about new iPods (275 million sold). The iPod line has been totally redesigned: shuffle, nano (with touch screen). And now for the iPod Touch ("an iPhone without a contract").

iPod Touch:

• Two cameras
• HD Video 
• Face Time (between iPhone and iPod Touch)
• Retina display
• A4 (iPhone 4) chip

All the new iPods will be available next week.

Jobs is now announcing iTunes 10, with a bunch of new features.

Apple announces "Ping" -- a social network all about music, built into iTunes. Follow artists and friends (very interesting). This is a very significant announcement (maybe a MySpace killer). It appears to be very thoughtfully designed (lots of privacy controls, groups). It also has concert listings as well. This is going to be quite successful I suspect.

A social network all about music: Wow. Facebook, Twitter, Ping. Ping is also available on iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as PC. 

Apple TV: it's never been a huge hit, says Jobs. The new model is 25% percent of the size of the current Apple TV. No purchases; all rental model. 

You can also stream content from computer (photos, video, music). iTunes rental prices: $4.99 for movies, $.99 for TV shows (ABC, Fox). Has Netflix streaming as well and YouTube content.

Apple is very effectively connecting all its devices and now has the most complete digital product suite. 

Apple TV price: $99 (going to drive a lot of sales I suspect). It's available in about a month. 

AOL Pushes the Gas Pedal on Mobile

AOL at one time said it was going to help consumer-users adopt the mobile Internet in the same way it helped get millions online on the PC. The company bought mobile ad network Third Screen Media in 2007 and had an ambitious mobile "platform" initiative. But the seismic shifts at the company over the past two years, the personnel changes and the spin out of TimeWarner caused most of AOL's mobile momentum to slow or stop entirely.

Third Screen was rolled into AOL's Platform A and largely disappeared. So did the platform effort. But there are now a number of signs that AOL is building momentum in mobile again. The most recent of these was yesterday's announcement of the acquisition of mobile development shop Rally Up. Characterized by the Associated Press as "a location-based social networking service," the acquisition is less about any of the specific mobile applications the nine-person startup has built than acquiring the talent and expertise they will bring to AOL.

It also marks the beginning of a new "mobile first" approach that will build products exclusively for the mobile market:

Mobile-first marks a new approach to the mobile market at AOL. For the first time, AOL mobile applications will consist not only of mobile versions of its popular desktop and web offerings, but also will include all-new products that launch first on mobile devices. The infusion of mobile product development talent provided by the Rally Up team will provide AOL with an additional spark to ignite its mobile-first initiatives.

Major portals and publishers online will absolutely need to extend their products to mobile as many are now doing. But mobile is a unique medium that demands specific attention and simply "mobilizing" portal or publisher content won't always work.

Apple's 'On the Grid' Highlights LBS Apps

Apple has collected about a dozen location-based apps in a new featured iTunes area called "On the Grid." While there are many more apps that offer location as a central element of the experience -- yellow pages apps for example or various cityguides -- the bias appears to be  toward check-in style apps.

Apple should recognize that location and check-ins are not entirely synonymous.  And I would expect the selection to grow over time. Here's what's there now:

Third party sites that monitor the app store recently indicated that it now exceeds 250,000 apps from more than 50,000 developers. Here's the distribution of apps from 148Apps.biz. Somewhat surprisingly books has taken the top spot from games.

CardStar Launches iPad App, Coupons

Mobile loyalty platform CardStar launched an iPad app. It expands the functionality of the company's earlier iPhone app (and other smartphones) by adding coupons and deals that are tied to users' registered loyalty cards. In other words you see the deals for the companies whose cards/programs you've registered on the app. 

Here are the features of the new iPad app:

• Scissor-Free Coupon Clipping & Hassle-Free Redemption – To select a coupon, drag and drop it onto the corresponding merchant’s digital loyalty card inside of CardStar for iPad. To redeem saved coupons, simply use the loyalty card at checkout
• Retailer & Manufacturer Coupons – CardStar currently partners with numerous retailers and coupon providers, including Zavers, to provide a wide range of saving opportunities.
• Personalization – CardStar helps avoid information overload by only sending coupons for retailers saved in a user’s CardStar card catalog.
• Filtering – CardStar offers filters so users can easily see coupons they’ve previously selected or search for those from specific brands.
• Social Sharing – Coupons can be e-mailed to friends and family through the app and users can also automatically check in through Foursquare at checkout.

One of the nice things about the new app is that offers saved on the iPad are in the "cloud." So they're automatically logged on the iPhone and other smartphone apps.

People obviously aren't going to bring the iPad to the point of sale. But they can browse deals on the couch and associate them with their registered loyalty cards. By using the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry apps at the POS, users automatically get the benefit of the coupons previously "clipped" on the iPad accordingly. 

In addition, one spouse can clip coupons on the iPad and the other one can use the CardStar smartphone app and get the benefit of those coupons at the POS without any knowledge of the spouse's prior iPad clipping activity. 

Adding coupons (tied to loyalty cards) is a logical move for CardStar, whose iPad app becomes something analogous to the Sunday circulars. And the automatic linkage of the deals to the loyalty card/account offers a "closed loop" to merchants. CardStar told me that they're were going to greatly expand the variety and range of coupons offered. However I believe offers presented will remain largely "personalized" via the filter of existing loyalty memberships.

CardStar is compiling some fantastic data on user behavior that it can use in a variety of ways to be determined. The company says it's had two million downloads since launch in 2009 and currently has 700,000 active mobile users. 

See our earlier posts on CardStar:

• CardStar Lets You Check-in at Checkout
• CardStar Gains Small Investment from Verizon
• Cardstar: Mobile Loyalty and Much More

GMail Voice: A Million Calls in 24 Hours

If there was any question that Google Voice/GMail calling was going to be popular, let's put that to rest. Google announced earlier today that in the 24 hours since Google's new free-calls-to-phones service went live there were over a million calls.

I don't yet have access so I can't give you my personal impressions and experience. Reviews have been generally positive but mixed in terms of call quality. Here are two . . .

InformationWeek:

How was call quality? Calls were about on par with what you expect from VoIP. They were somewhat muffled and "digital" sounding. Several of the people with whom I spoke noted that I sounded "echo-y." In other words, we're not talking pin-drop quality here, but an average VoIP client. I tested several Skype-to-Skype calls for comparison, and Skype performed at about the same level. 

CNET:

We were pleased with the call quality, overall, which we tested with other U.S. callers using landlines and mobile phones. Calls were loud and mostly clear, however, there were a few moments of garbled voices on multiple calls. There was also sometimes a noticeably persistent high buzz, but it did not distract from the meat of the call. The experience was about on par for VoIP calls, which are known to break up due to variable conditions with the callers' hardware, strength of Internet connection, and the telecommunications channels that process the voice data.

Assuming that, as these reviews say, the call quality is comparable to other VoIP offerings it becomes a viable telephony solution that for many could replace landlines, whether business or personal. It's hard to argue with free.

Intuit GoPayment Adds Smartphone Credit Card Swiping

Mobile consumer payment solutions are starting to emerge and proliferate. The flip side of that development is small business smartphone-based credit card acceptance and processing. Many people are familiar with Square and its smarpthone credit-card swiping hardware. This enables anyone -- SMB or consumer -- to easily accept a credit card on the spot with a smartphone.

Intuit has a small business payments platform (GoPayment) that integrates with QuickBooks. It's really a PayPal competitor. The product has been in the market for a year. Fees are $12.95 a month, plus a 1.7% to 3.7% commission and $0.30 to $0.34 per transaction fee. Now Intuit has teamed up with Mophie to offer an intelligent case (and software) that enables the iPhone -- like Square -- to swipe a credit card. (Previously credit card numbers were manually keyed in.)

Per the release:

The speedy new Intuit Merchant Account application process is designed to let small business owners easily and quickly apply and be approved to start processing credit cards. A user can apply from the GoPayment App, online or by calling Intuit right from their iPhone.

By adding the sleek, clip-on mophie marketplace card reader, merchants can save time by securely swiping credit cards instead of entering numbers by hand. After swiping the card, data is immediately encrypted using Intuit’s industry-standard security methods.

Customers authorize the payment by signing their name on the iPhone touch screen. The merchant can then send them an e-mail or text receipt. GoPayment processes the credit card within seconds and funds are deposited into the businesses’ bank account.

Square doesn't require monthly fees but takes a higher percentage of the transaction than Intuit GoPayment. The decision of which system to use will be driven by the volume of credit cards being processed and the average transaction values. QuickBooks integration may also be determinative for some. 

Kindle-iPad: The Tablet Market's One-Two Punch

By lowering the price and coming out with an improved device, Kindle has established itself as the "iPod of eReaders." Today Amazon said that its new Kindle was selling like mad:

More new generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launch, making the new Kindles the fastest-selling ever. In addition, in the four weeks since the introduction of the new Kindle and Kindle 3G, customers ordered more Kindles on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined than any other product, continuing Kindle’s over two-year run as the bestselling product across all the products sold on Amazon.com.

The iPad rather than killing Kindle may have helped it buy forcing it to improve and lower its price, and by expanding awareness and the market in general.

Carefully positioned as a "single-purpose" device vs the iPad's multi-function capability, Kindle has carved out a solid position in the market. It threatens to extinguish all eReader competition and has (perhaps in tandem with the iPad) already caused some competitors to cancel products. 

For its part the iPad is showing surprising traction in the enterprise market:

When Apple Inc.'s first iPhone came out in 2007, many companies told their employees that the device wasn't appropriate for the workplace. The iPad is a different story.

The company's tablet-style device seems to be sidestepping the resistance that the iPhone and other consumer-oriented devices have faced in the corporate environment. Indeed, many businesses have raced to snap up iPads.

In addition a recent global survey of 1,100 “mobile workers” by iPass found that just over one quarter of them intended to buy an iPad: 

TappLocal: Another New Local-Mobile Ad Network

The sleepless bloggers at TechCrunch profile TappLocal, a new LBS entrant that reportedly wants to build a local-mobile ad network. It's partly or largely directed at SMBs and it sounds a little like Foursquare meets Placecast:

TappLocal uses their backend to create a geofence around certain partner venues. When a user crosses that boundary and happens to be using one of the partner apps, a deal indicator will pop-up. A quick click on this area will open a larger area explaining exactly what the deal is. Simply click one more time to verify you wish to use the deal, show it to the store that it’s valid at, and you’re good to go.

The company has two "franchises": nearby, proximity marketing and time-sensitive deals:

Hyperlocal means in closer proximity than just local. Generally this is measured on a more granular basis such as a neighborhood, intersection, or even meters. TappLocal uses advanced GPS technologies, mobile smartphones, and a network of mobile applications to target users as closes as +/- 3 meters* to visit your business. 

This platform allows you to instantly notify users, in real-time, of a sale to move perishable items, or to instantly get customers in your door. Imagine being able to put a time-sensitive deal, selling unsold pastries for half off 2 hours before closing, or half off drinks to fill your business with customers from 3:00-5:00pm. Our network would send an alert to all users in the metro-region alerting them that for the next 2 hours they can get your pastries half off, or from 3:00-5:00pm they can get drinks half off. Furthermore, you have complete control over the offer, so it can be whatever you like.

To the extent that TappLocal is trying to attract SMBs it will encounter the familiar -- or perhaps not so familiar to them -- challenges of educating the market and then signing up advertisers. 

There are a range of other local ad networks online and/or in mobile. Here is a partial list:

• Chitika (LAX)
• CityGrid (IAC/Citysearch)
• Google
• Groupon/LivingSocial/daily deals
• Local Ad Xchange 
• Marchex (calls)
• Where 

All the major mobile networks offer geo-targeted ads as well.

My guess is that TappLocal will "backfill" with inventory from these networks as it tries to build its own inventory. But again, it will encounter major challenges in acquiring small business advertisers.

Report: GMail to Soon Offer VoIP Calls

We've been waiting for Google to implement its Gizmo5 acquistion and turn Google Voice into a true VoIP solution and Skype competitor. However CNET is reporting that Google may be about to offer direct calls (to phones) through GMail:

Google could be ready to turn Gmail into a communications hub by adding the ability to make phone calls from the Google Chat interface.

CNET has learned that Google is testing a Web-based service within Gmail that will allow users to place phone calls from their in-boxes. It's launched from the Google Chat window on the lower left-hand side of a Gmail page and allows users to place and receive calls from within their contacts through a user interface that strongly resembles the one used in Google Voice.

At some point (apparently pretty soon), whether through GMail or Google Voice, Google will make it possible to place and receive calls directly rather than having to rely on an underlying phone number (landline or wireless). That's the moment when Google becomes a carrier/telco. Right now Google Voice is effectively a call-connection service.

(credit: CNET)

The image above suggests the system might allow free calls to landlines and mobile phones. Quality is always an issue with VoIP but I would imagine this would become an immediately popular service.

It would also allow all kinds of connected non-phone devices to become phones, in the way that Skype does too. 

___

Update: Google announced this feature this morning: 

Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap (see comparison table) with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.

Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

Google will also be promoting Google Voice calls via UK-style red telephone kioks at various sites around the country. 

Android Users: Natural Born Clickers?

I'm an Android EVO user and I rarely click on ads, but that's apparently not true of my Android brethren and sistren. According to ad network Chitika, "people on the Android OS clicked on ads 81% more often than people on the iPhone." Chitika quickly comes to the conclusion that 'Android users [are] 80% more valuable than iPhone users." However I wouldn't equally jump to that immediate conclusion. 

Ad mediator/exchange Smaato previously found, similarly, (in February) that Android users clicked-through more than iPhone users: 

But later Smaato reports, as Android penetration grew, saw its CTR position decline. Compare July numbers for the US and then globally:

There may be some novelty around mobile advertising for many Android users, especially if they've upgraded from feature phones and this is their first smartphone. However, the Smaato figures suggest that the Chitika numbers will similarly change in a few months after the newbie Androids become jaded and embittered.

Once again, however, this all begs the question of whether we should be paying any attention to CTRs on mobile ads (other than paid search). If there's a lead-gen form on a landing page or a store locator, then arguably yes. But otherwise CTR is probably the wrong metric.

It's an easy, lowest-common denominator metric so people gravitate to it. But comScore has repeatedly argued and shown that CTR is the wrong metric to assess the efficacy of onlne display advertising. That should equally apply to mobile. 

There are a range of metrics that mobile marketers can and should be using to assess the success of their campaigns, depending on their objectives. The generic CTR is not necessarily very helpful or meaningful in terms of brand lift, purchase intent or other actions that mean something in the real world. 

Consumer Reports Publisher Warns on Mobile Payments

Perhaps as more confirmation that the era of mobile payments is finally upon us the publisher of Consumer Reports is offering warnings and best practices to consumers. The publisher, Consumers Union, says that people should link mobile payments to 1) credit cards, 2) debit cards and 3) carrier bills or pre-paid cards in that order for maximum protection and recourse should there be any fraud or disputes.

As Consumers Union explains, credit cards offer consumers the most legal protection, while carrier billing is the most risky: 

[W]hile mobile payment technologies may offer a convenient new way to pay for goods and services, consumers could be at risk of losing money when mistakes are made by merchants and processors or as a result of fraud, according to Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports . . . 

Federal law protects consumers in the event that their credit card or debit card is lost, stolen or misused. But current protections are badly fragmented and don't apply to all new types of payments . . .

If mobile payment transactions are backed by a credit card and appear on the credit card bill, then consumers are entitled to all available protections.  If the transaction amount is deducted from the consumer's deposit account with a financial institution like with a debit card, it should receive the same protections as any other electronic fund transfer.  This means consumers receive a legal right to get back money for errors and theft, but not for a dispute with a merchant about the goods and services.

However, if the transaction is funded by a prepaid card, even the protections for unauthorized use may be missing, and there also will be no legal guarantee of protection in the event of a dispute with a merchant.  If the payment service is provided directly by the mobile carrier . . . the product might escape consumer protections entirely.  If the cell phone company asks the consumer to make a prepaid deposit to the phone company to cover future charges, protections also will be missing unless the contract provides them.

Depending on how the forthcoming mobile carrier payments systems are structured this type of warning to consumers -- if widely publicized -- could harm or even doom their competitive chances vs. traditional credit card issuers, PayPal (if tied to a credit card) and iTunes. 

The Demographics of Talk & Text

Nielsen offers data culled from a year of looking at US mobile subscriber phone bills and other sources. It shows the places and populations who talk and text the most by state and ethnic group.

There are geographic differences in terms of voice minutes and texts per month. And it's a bit of a non-surprise that teens text way more (emphasis on the word "way") than anyone else -- more than twice as many texts per month than those in the 18-24 age bracket. 

Residents of the south talk more than others, while the states with the greatest volume of texts are distributed: 

The chart above confirms (again) that the most effective way to market to teens may be SMS-based.

Era of Mobile Payments Almost Here

After many years of discussion it appears that mobile payments will finally break through in the US in 2011. The SF Chronicle offers a nice roundup of some of the mobile payments initiatives going on, focusing on near-field communications and a company called Bling Nation:

Bling Nation, a Palo Alto startup founded in 2007, is among the furthest along in this emerging field, with more than 1,000 retailers nationwide accepting its payment system. The company provides so-called Bling tags, or small stickers, that affix to the back of a mobile phone and transmit data using a wireless standard known as Near Field Communication.

When users tap the tag on a proprietary reader at participating retailers, it pulls money from their PayPal account. For security, users have to enter a personal identification number for purchases over a certain amount, or when transactions occur at an unusual frequency or location.

Here are the major existing and potential mobile payments contenders in the US market:

• Visa (and Mastercard)
• PayPal (eBay)
• Apple/iTunes
• Verizon, AT&T & Discover (carriers + payments processor)
• Others: Boku, Zong, Square, Bling Nation, Amazon potentially 

As the article explains Bling Nation's appeal to merchants is lower fees vs. traditional banks/cards. It then hopes that merchants will proselytize and evangelize the system to consumers. Companies in Bling Nation's position typically face the proverbial "chicken and egg problem." Smaller players must often build merchant and consumer acceptance for their service at the same time, like Tabbed out or Square. Bling itself has reportedly built some of that scale with merchants. 

Successful smaller companies, as measured by relative scale, will be acquired in the near term. Mobile payments will be a kind of "clash of the titans" ultimately, where size and scale will matter significantly. There can be three or maybe four major players that can co-exist and succeed in the market. However Visa and the carriers are unlikely to offer anything truly innovative in terms of user experience or merchant discounting. So it's up to Apple, PayPal and the startups to innovate around the merchant and/or user experience.  

And where's Google in all this? The company will definitely want to be part of mobile payments. Google's payments platform, Checkout, has largely failed to catch on because of tepid consumer promotion. Google could try and reinvigorate it and/or acquire one of the smaller companies in the space. Watch for a payments acquisition by Google I predict.

Geodelic Does White Label Deal with Clear Channel

Clear Channel Airports, a division of Clear Channel Outdoor, has partnered with Geodelic to create a co-branded airport-centric local search app called FLYsmart. It offers fairly comprehensive information about services, flights, transportation, as well as places to eat and shop within and nearby the user's airport of choice.

Presumably Clear Channel will be extending its ads into the app, appropriate to the location and airport in question.

I found it to be a nicely done application, with a number of ways to view desired information (carousel view, list or map view). I'm not a fan of the Geodelic carousel. According to the press release:

FLYsmart is available now for free download for the iPhone smart phones, with an Android version expected to be released soon. A BlackBerry version is slated for release in early Fall. The app will initially be launched in ten of North America's largest airports including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. New airports, of all sizes, will be added each week.

Dedicated to airport advertising for more than 30 years, CCA is the premier innovator of contemporary display concepts that currently handles more than 200 airport programs across the globe. CCA has a presence in 32 of the top 50 U.S. markets with major airports.

Geodelic has done co-branded projects in the past, with T-Mobile initially and then Universal Studios. In each case users get the Geodelic-branded app as part of the partner app (T-Mobile offered a branded version of Geodelic). The same is true with FLYsmart; Geodelic is one of the options (screen far right). 

The company will likely pursue a dual course, doing more partner deals like Clear Channel while continuing to try and build its consumer brand and usage -- a much more challenging proposition. But the co-branded download also provides Geodelic with a kind of backdoor into consumer usage.  

CardStar Gains Small Investment from Verizon

Verizon has made a small investment ($400,000) in mobile loyalty app CardStar, according to the Wall Street Journal:

A $400,000 investment by Verizon Communications Inc. in start-up CardStar Inc. may not sound like much, but it’s a hint that wireless carriers are realizing that commerce is going increasingly mobile . . .

CardStar has 2,000 merchants – from major airlines and chain stores to mom-and-pop operations – signed on to use the system. Some of these merchants have point-of-sale scanners that can read bar codes, and others don’t. The merchant portal offers various other options for merchants with low-tech point-of-sale systems.

From SMS-based marketing on Placecast, to Foursquare, ShopKick and potentially Facebook Places, mobile loyalty is a rapidly emerging and very important marketing arena. 

Verizon has launched a mobile payments initiative with AT&T, which ultimately could become directly integrated into mobile loyalty programs and related marketing.

See our previous posts about CardStar: 

• CardStar Lets You Check-in at Checkout
• Cardstar: Mobile Loyalty and Much More

Nokia Buys Analytics Firm Motally

As is being widely reported, Nokia has bought San Francisco-based mobile analytics firm Motally. According to the press release:

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Motally Inc., a privately-held US-based company. Motally's mobile analytics service offers in-application tracking and reporting, and is designed to enable developers and publishers to optimize the development of their mobile applications through increased understanding of how users engage. The service offering is planned to be adapted for Qt, Symbian, Meego and Java developers, and Nokia plans to continue serving Motally's existing customer base.

"The acquisition underpins Nokia's drive to deliver in-application and mobile web browsing analytics to Ovi's growing, global eco-system of developers and publishers, enabling partners to better connect with their customers and optimize and monetize their offering," said Marco Argenti, Vice President, Media, Nokia.

This appears to be a pretty straightforward effort to bring analytics to the Ovi store for developers. The company offers both mobile Web and app analytics.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Motally was founded in 2008 and has eight employees. 

RIM Bids for Millennial Ad Network

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that RIM was/is in talks to acquire mobile ad network Millennial Media:

Under pressure in the increasingly competitive wireless market, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. is shopping for a mobile advertising network, people familiar with the matter said.

In recent months, the Canadian device maker has held talks with Baltimore-based mobile ad network Millennial Media about a potential acquisition, these people said. But the talks have stalled over disagreements regarding the value of Millennial, which serves advertisements on its own network of mobile websites. It also brokers ad sales to a group of other mobile ad networks.

The proposed sale price, at which RIM has balked reportedly, is $400 to $500 million. Assuming all this is relatively accurate the failure of these talks may turn out to be a good thing for Millennial in the end. 

First, why might RIM want to buy an ad network? The rationale would have to be the same as Apple's: keep developers fed and happy and ensure that its platform and apps have a revenue stream. Beyond this Millennial could help develop/serve ads across the "RIM network" (its installed base of users).  According to comScore, RIM/BlackBerry has 42% of the US smartphone market, followed by Apple with 24%. 

The similarly situated Nokia previously bought Enpocket, although I think there's essentially nothing left of that organization. 

RIM, with its legacy enterprise focus and related "buttoned down" culture, would probably not be a good fit with Millennial and its consumer-facing ads orientation -- unless RIM was totally hands off. There's also the question of whether RIM would continue to operate the broader network or simply focus Millennial's efforts on RIM devices and its developer ecosystem, as Apple is now doing. Apple is, as expected, shutting down the Quattro network to focus entirely on iAds. That would probably also happen at RIM. 

Getting into the advertising business might also be something of a distraction for RIM. Arguably buying a network doesn't get the company where it needs to go: better consumer products that really excite people. So while buying a network is one of those things that might make sense on the whiteboard, it might not turn out to "on the ground." 

Millennial will probably get bought at some point by someone already in the interactive ads business. Alternatively the company could go public, as has been rumored. 

By the same token, if RIM feels that it must have an ad platform/network to compete and to ensure its apps ecosystem remains healthy and grows, it probably will buy someone else. There are a number of other possibilities. My guess would be Jumptap's on deck.