More "Apping" Than Surfing

As you surf online this holiday during your shortened work week, consider that the average smartphone user now spends more time in mobile applications per day than the average Internet user like you spends online. And with 1 million smartphones activated daily, mobile marketing is gaining on traditional online platforms because of advanced browsers, faster network speeds and apps that can be downloaded on any type of mobile operating system. Today, more than 28 percent of all mobile phone users own smartphones and they spend more than four minutes on each app session. That also explains why there are now more than 4 ads shown per app. Rainmakers know it's all about the mobile apps.

Tablet Popping - It's A Portable Platform

With several global communications technology brands announcing new tablet PC products this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), there is a lot of  hype about the tablet PC being the next huge platform for digital marketers. After all, Forrester Research said there will be more than 80 million tablet PC users in the U.S. by 2015. Sounds phenomenal, until you realize that's less than 1 percent of the number of mobile smartphone users in the world. But beyond the obvious numbers gap, there's also an important difference that most people don't realize between mobile and portable. Your mobile phone goes everywhere, staying within arm's reach whether in a pocket or purse, and you're likely to have it with you when those smart Rainmakers send location-based purchasing incentives for you to buy products at the grocery store, clothing at your favorite retail store or even a movie at the neighborhood theater. Tablet PC are designed to be portable enough for you to bring along to most places, but not to be with you at all times. So your mobile device is more apt to be geared toward instant communications, while the tablet PC is designed around media consumption. This important distinction has a significant impact on marketing tactics. Immediacy of message delivery to mobile smartphone users has an expected immediate return on investment (ROI) since it stimulates purchase based on location-based marketing. On the other hand, maybe you brought along the tablet PC because you wanted to read digital version of a magazine, book or marvel at the fantastic graphics in your favorite gaming applications. Or maybe, the laptop was too heavy to carry around. So while marketers shouldn't be so quick to be led by technologists, they'll no doubt find ways to effectively reach consumers immersed in their tablets. Digital Rainmakers always do!

Lights, Camera, Action - Live from Your SmartPhone!

While most of the hype at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas has been about the new tablet products set to capitalize on the iPad's success, The Digital Raindance believes it's the new, breakthrough features in smartphones that continue to enhance the sharing, uploading of original content. Today's smartphone features give users the opportunity to become instant producers, programmers and broadcasters. Dual-core smartphones have been touted for years, but now we finally get a glimpse of that future with LG’s launch of the Optimus 2X. The Optimus 2X is the world’s first smartphone with a dual-core processor featuring a 4-inch WVGA screen, 8 GB of memory (expandable up to 32 GB via microSD memory cards) an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p high definition recording capabilities (Apple iPhone has 720p) and a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video calls. Its most impressive spec is that it supports HDMI mirroring, which lets users display the videos, photos they've just taken to an external monitor or flat-screen TV in full HD quality. With an HDMI cable connected from the LG Optimus 2X to an external display, users can, for example, stream their favorite NetFlix movies or Hulu programs from their Internet-based phones onto a hotel TV set, if they're travelling. They can also project favorite online and offline gaming apps in HD quality. Oh and did I mention that their Skype conversations can magically feature their friends and family on the "small screen" too! Running on the Android operating system, the LG Optimus 2X "wonder phones" will be available to US consumers this Spring.