Flurry estimates that the number of users who launched applications in the United States between the hours of 3:15 PM PST to 7:15 PM PST on Sunday, February 5 totaled 98M.  The total television audience, according to Nielsen, reached 111M.  What’s most interesting is the mobile app engagement shown throughout the game.  Looking at the overall trends reveal a highly correlated, inverse relationship between app usage and game, halftime and commercial events.

Generally, app usage increased steadily over the first three quarters of the game, showing the challenge in holding peoples’ attention over several hours.  However, because this year’s game was close throughout, including an exciting fourth quarter finish, app usage remained relatively checked.  Noticeably, app usage declined significantly during the last part of the fourth quarter. The most clearly visible change in app usage occurred during Madonna’s half time show, where app usage remained consistently low for the longest, sustained period of time.

Many more stats, examples and graphs are available here.

Advanced healthcare solutions made mobile by Verizon’s award winning wireless network = next generation solutions that can really move the needle in terms of our nation’s overall health.  We’re very excited to see what might come out of this.

Read the full release HERE.

The survey, called “Marketing in Today’s Economy,” surveyed more than 100 marketing executives across North America on their company’s use of email, mobile and social media marketing. The survey found that a full 90% of marketing executives surveyed use social media, and three quarters believe it has a positive impact on their business, yet more than half (54.5%) of respondents said their company’s marketing team spends less than 10 hours per week investing in social media.

In addition, 35% said they spend only between one and five hours per week on social media marketing.  ”Social media has clearly become a widely used tool among B2B marketers and few doubt that it is helping their business,” said Rhianna Collier, Vice President of SIIA’s Software Division.  ”But our survey also shows that marketers may not be dedicating the resources necessary to get the results they want from social media marketing.  It is remarkable to see that, despite their strong belief in the power of social media, over one-third of marketers are engaged in it for only five hours or fewer every week.”

Some other interesting findings include:

1. 75 percent of respondents do not outsource any social media efforts.
2. Nearly 60 percent of respondents said that less than 5 percent of their deals began through social network interactions.
3. Privacy is the top ethical concern in today’s marketing world.
4. Most marketers predict that the biggest trend in 2012 will be greater communication and quantification of value to customers.

More information on the survey and it’s results is available in this press release.

Dr David Lee Scher, a pioneer of mHealth monitoring techniques, has released a new list of ways that hospitals can decrease readmission rates and it matches most of our experience as well.

The list is as follows…

1. The use of bioinformatics
2. Bedside computer tablets
3. Mobile apps with cloud-based patient portals
4. Mobile technologies for instruction and medication
5. Telehealth conferencing

Read his full list and explanation HERE.

The survey, conducted by an independent research firm and based on telephone interviews with more than 1,400 CIOs from companies across the United States, also found that a full 43% are planning mobile apps for 2013 or later.

When asked what the greatest challenge was in developing a mobile application, 29% said “collaborating between departments,” while 28% said “finding and hiring IT professionals with the necessary expertise.”  Keeping the application up-to-date and gaining app store approvals were seen as other obstacles — expressed by 19% and 16% of CIOs polled respectively.

More stats and data from the survey are available in this press release.

According to their studies, cardiac monitoring will be the leading use of the new category of mHealth tools followed closely by diabetes and COPD chronic management.  Driving factors behind the increase are the increasing penetration of smartphones in the worldwide population along with projected increases in computing power.

Read the full release by Juniper HERE.

“Too many programs fail to incorporate customer data effectively, to deliver more targeted and relevant emails,” says Matthew Kirsch, senior manager of online marketing at DirecTV. “The challenge with social and other new technologies is that an emailer can expend time and money chasing the newest thing and fall further behind on the nuts and bolts that will make meaningful and measurable improvements in his or her program,” he explains.

Email’s decrease in ROI isn’t due to the medium losing its effectiveness, however, in fact email is big business and continually growing.  According to Forrester Research’s “US Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2011 to 2016,” email is expected to bring in $1.7 billion in revenue in 2012 and grow 10% annually through 2016, hitting $2.5 billion by 2016.

At mobileStorm, we’ve long believed that email marketers need strong guidance in terms of making the most out of their email marketing strategy, which is why we give each and every client a dedicated account rep to provide such guidance and know-how every step of the way.

More on the DMA’s recent study can be found here.

This week, Rep. Edward Markey introduced what could become federal legislation to add mobile privacy safeguards to mobile phone users in the United States.  Markey released a “discussion draft” of the proposed “Mobile Device Privacy Act,” which would obligate wireless operators and their partners to “notify subscribers if they employ mobile analytics measurement tools like the controversial Carrier IQ.”

Some key protections include:

1. Third party receiving the personal information must have policies in place to secure the information.
2. Agreements on transmission to third parties must be filed at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
3. Outline an enforcement regime for the FTC and FCC, along with State Attorney General enforcement and a private right of action.

More info on the Mobile Device Privacy Act is available here, and in this Mobile Marketing Watch article.

The three main elements discussed are advanced personalization, enlisting dynamic content and using “date-triggered campaigns.”  These tips and more echo what we’ve been telling our clients for years in terms of improving everything from delivery, unsubscription rates, and of course, relevancy.

The full article is available here.

Mobile Device Security
Business Associate Agreements
Internal Operations

The list assumes a very hardware centric environment with little management capabilities, but overall its a good quick read with some ideas on preventing a breach.

Read the full article here.