iPad 2: No Big Surprises, but Another Fine Piece of Work

Many of you no doubt heard that the new iPad2 was just unveiled. The invitation for the press event made no secret that it was an iPad related announcement (a giant “2” signified the date as well as “iPad2″).

One surprise, however, was the appearance of Steve Jobs mid-sick leave. He started out with some general stats around Apple products that were positioned as the “post PC blockbusters” (iPod, iPhone, iPad). Here are a few numbers announced:

— 100 million iPhones sold
— $2 billion paid to iOS developers
— 200 million iTunes accounts
— 100 million iBooks downloaded
— 65,000 iPad specific apps (compared with 100 apps for Android’s Honeycomb tablet OS)

On to the main event: 2010 was positioned as the year of the iPad. But 2011 so far has been the “year of the copycats,” including HP, Samsung and Android (ouch!). Still, Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010, accounting for $9.5 billion in revenues and a 90 percent market share.

Now to once again set the bar is the iPad2. The impressive list of new features includes:

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The Local Reviews Ecosystem — Threats and Opportunities Abound

One of the slides we presented at last week’s Social Local webinar was from my Local Reviews Ecosystem post. We sped through it and given the brouhaha that has been bubbling up between Google and reviews sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor over the past year, I thought it might be of interest to repost it.
local reviews ecosystem

As I mentioned in the earlier post, in my survey of 20 SMB SEM consultants about their top social media client priorities for 2011, review generation and review management was by far the highest on the to-do list.

As you can see from the infographic, the ecosystem is complex, just like the entire local search ecosystem is complex — David Mihm’s chart on how local search services are connected deserves to be included in a Where’s Waldo book. But within that complexity lie amazing green fields of opportunity for innovation. Some thoughts on how you might approach the sector:

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Mobile Discovery Marches On

It's no secret that local discovery is becoming one of the central trends in mobile advertising. This replaces the search based paradigm that ruled the desktop, in favor of pushing content that is geographically relevant. The portability of the device…

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The Week in Mobile: MLM Roundup

In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to posts we've written over the past week from the wide world of mobile sports. -- More Infographics for Your Friday Pleasure (Update) -- More Infographics for Your…

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More Infographics for Your Friday Pleasure

I was talking to a colleague earlier about the rise of infographics. Yesterday, we saw one from The Dealmap, and recent notable ones include Facebook and Foursquare. My all-time favorite is Napoleon's March. They're fun, illustrative, viral and of course promotional for whoever…

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Guarantee at Center of New Dex Strategy

ScreenHunter_03 Feb. 24 13.48

Following a discussion of its 2010 full-year results, Dex One’s leadership team outlined a new strategy today that it says will restore the company to positive revenue growth by the second half of 2012, with print stabilizing to single-digit declines.

One of the key elements will be the Dex Guaranteed Actions, a performance-based model tested beginning last year in Phoenix and recently launched in Seattle and Minneapolis, with a gradual rollout in other markets. The program essentially guarantees advertisers a predetermined number of business leads.

Dex leaders say the program succeeded in changing the sales conversation from price to performance, and is seen as a key element in the company’s efforts to stability print revenue declines from their current high double digits to mid-single digits within two years.

CEO Alfred Mockett and his team outlined a number of key objectives and supporting initiatives, among them:

* The company projects it will move from 10 percent digital to 30 percent digital revenues by 2012.

* DexOne is planning to convert its 2.2 million free business listings into paid. Mockett describes free listings as an “historical anachronism.” Converting to paid will generate revenues and also direct more leads to paid advertisers, Mockett said.

* The company is investing in its sales force, arming it with iPads and launching the Dex One Sales Academy to improve both initial and ongoing sales training.

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Social Local Media: SLM Webinar Is Today!

BIA/Kelsey's newest advisory service - Social Local Media - launched yesterday, and on today's webinar, Neal Polachek, Andrew Shotland and I will connect with you to learn about your challenges, successes and needs in this vast and evolving ecosystem. Among the questions…

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