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iPass CEO, Gary Griffiths, to present at the 19th Annual Needham Growth Conference in NYC
From connection management to location-based marketing solutions, we are ready to tell you more. Fill out the form below to learn about intelligent connectivity and what it can do for your business. One of our representatives will reach out to you shortly.


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Are you looking to really give it your best and go super hard at the gym to get that perfect physique? You will surely need some help along the way and by now everyone knows that prohormones are the best legal way of getting that help. Today we are looking at Monster Plexx by Innovative Labs, a very complex prohormone formula designed to give you some really huge gains and turn you into a proper monster. With 1 Andro, 4 Andro and Epiandrosterone all in one formula, you just know the results you are in for will be massive. So let's take a really careful look at Monster Plexx to see just how potent the product is and who should have the best results with it.
What's In It?
As we already said, Monster Plexx contains three major prohormones along with a bunch of other great ingredients.
1 Andro: A DHEA derivative that converts to 1-Testosterone through a two-step process, this prohormone is 7 times as anabolic as Testosterone. The prohormone is designed to help you gain lots of dry muscle mass which will not diminish during PCT nor will the hormone convert to Estrogen.
4 Andro: or 4-DHEA as it is known is another derivative of DHEA, which converts to Testosterone. The anabolic and androgenic hormone Testosterone is one of the most important for body growth as it provides both increased muscle mass and strength. 4 Andro will dramatically raise your protein synthesis and give you the monster pumps you have always dreamed of. This compound will give you wet muscles like all true bulking hormones do and it may convert to Estrogen as Testosterone levels raise.
Epiandrosterone: The final of the three DHEA derivatives in Monster Plexx, Epiandrosterone converts to DHT. Sufficient DHT levels are required for proper sexual function as well as muscle building. DHT also elevates mood, strength, sexual desire and helps burn off fat.
Cyclosome Technology: This special patented technology is designed to help prohormones and other compounds pass through the liver unspotted and enter your bloodstream without being significantly reduced by the liver. This is an amazing delivery system and one that every prohormone can find a great use for. There are a number of other compounds in Monster Plexx as well, all designed to support the three basic prohormones.
Without listing them all out, we bring you the full label by the manufacturer with all the lesser ingredients on it:
Does It Work?
When you stack 1 Andro, 4 Andro and Epiandrosterone, add a special delivery system and other support ingredients, you can bet your life the product is going to work. The product absolutely does work and it will help you build up tons of new muscle, both dry and lean as well as increase your strength, energy and libido through the roof.
The problem with products like this is that you need to really be ready for them. If you want to avoid negative side effects and want to actually get the best gains from this product, you will need to both eat and work out the right way. That said, with a proper workout regimen and diet, you can expect Monster Plexx to absolutely propel your growth and gains.
You can expect to gain 6-10 pounds of muscle mass per month with this product which is really insane but the multiple prohormones in it may cause all sorts of side effects if not taken carefully. By all means use Monster Plexx with additional on cycle support supplements, Aromatase inhibitors and proper post cycle therapy to keep your organs safe and prevent unwanted side effects.
How Do I Take It?
Cycle the product for about 6 to 8 weeks taking 1-3 capsules per day. Take one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening if taking all 3. Do not take more than 3 per day. Do not take if you are under legal age or suffering from any medical issues. As the product is so potent already, we do not recommend stacking it with further prohormones.
Here is what some of the users had to say about Monster Plexx:
Amazing gains, explosive pumps in and out of the gym. went up 16 pounds(all muscle) no water, was taking .25mg letro ed on cycle. Kept 50% of those gains after cycle even with a TERRIBLE pct. Bench went from 235-285 in just 4 weeks.
I tried it for a month and gained 9 pounds within 3 days of starting it so it must have been all water weight. My weight fluctuated up 10 pounds or up 9 pounds from my starting weight. Today is my last day and I'm up 9 pounds.
I took it for 29 days, since I was missing a pill (probably dropped it and didnt notice) and let me tell you something- I gained some serious weight. I started at 255 standing at 6'7″ and I am on my second day of PCT standing at 272.
Final Verdict
This product is prohormone on steroids. With three potent prohormones mixed into one formula, you can expect some major gains and awesome results. Increased strength, libido, and muscle mass are all guaranteed as long as you cycle the product right and keep going hard at the gym and in the kitchen. The only problem with this product is that due to its potency you will need to keep careful and use all the right support supplements and post cycle therapy to keep safe. That said, as long as you know what you are doing and this is not the first time you are using prohormones, we absolutely recommend giving Monster Plexx a whirl and let us know how you did on your cycle.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chapter 225: Entering the Luo's Residence
This was the first time Fang Chixia came to the Luo's Residence.
When she arrived outside the gate, the housekeeper was waiting with two servants.
The Luo Family was comprised of four generations living together. All of them are living in this majestic manor villas.
The large manor was surrounded by a number of independed European style villas. Luo Xichen's family, the Luo Enqi couple, and Xiao Zuo were all living alone in different villas.
There was also a special old man, the great-grandfather of Luo Yibei in there. And he himself was living in a separate villa.
The Luo's garden was vast. Between each villa, the distance was a bit far away that covering the distance would take ten minutes.
Xiao Zuo was livign in a villa in his own home but because he was only a child, he usually has no playmates thus, he likes to follow Luo Yibei and Baby around. This is also the reason there was a spare room in Luo Yibei's separate villa.
When Fang Chixia was taken in by the housekeeper, she went into the room where Xiao Zuo stays in in Luo Yibei's villa.
Children are still very young so their resistance to illness was not comparable to that of adults. After a bout of illness, his usually vitality has long been gone and he was only lying sickly in bed, looking very pitiful.
There were a lot of people in the room. Earlier, Tong Yan was the one who apprised her of the people in the Luo Family. When someone introduced them, seeing their face in person, Fang Chixia was able to point out who was who.
Sha Zhixing, Luo Xichen, Luo Yibei's uncle, Luo Rongci (I might have translated this as Luo Rong before), and several servants.
Sha Zhixing was holding Xiao Zuo in her arms, obviously distressed at his condition. She was also holding a bowl of steaming porridge in another arm, seeminly feeding him, but Xiao Zuo didn't even open his eyes.
Fang Chixia was in fact still uneasy but when the people in the room saw her, they weren't surprised at all.
"Miss Fang, we meet again!" Sha Zhixing smiled at her and gestured her to sit next to her.
"Hello, Madam!" Fang Chixia greeted corteously.
"Xiao Zuo has burdened you!" Sha Zhixing glanced down at Xiao Zuo in her arms and motioned for her to try.
Fang Chixia took in Xiao Zuo's poor state and first placed her palm to his forehead to check his temperature. Her eyebrows wrinkled and she tried speaking, "Xiao Zuo, can you hear sister?"
Xiao Zuo's closed eyes slightly opened and looked dazedly at her. His eyes seemed to brighten a bit before he vaguely answered, "Stupid woman…."
His childish voice, because of his fever, lacked energy but it let the group of people in the room sigh in relief.
If it wasn't for his illness, Fang Chixia would have pinched him.
Who has taught him such speech?
Xiao Zuo curved the corners of his mouth and smiled at her.
That smile was very faint and weak, coupled with his pale face, it rendered those around him upset and distressed.
"Xiao Zuo, you have to eat so you can recover faster, don't you know?" Not caring of his opinions, Fang Chixia took the bowl of porridge from Sha Zhixing's hand and carefully fed it to him.
Xiao Zuo was quite obedient this time. Although he was clearly in pain to be able to eat, he just grimaced and still opened his little mouth to swallow mouthfuls after mouthfuls she has sent over.
Fang Chixia patiently fed him, and then took the towel from the servant to help him wipe his body.
A number of people from the Luo Family stood back quietly to watch, surprised that Xiao Zuo actually listened obediently to her.
As a result, Fang Chixia went and stayed for several hours.


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Episode 054 - Cloves
December 20, 2017
Podcast Episode 054 - Cloves
Cloves is the first herb that we will discuss that is inside the concoction "thieves" from last weeks epsiode.
Well, technically eucalyptus was, as we talked about that one already in Podcast Episode 018.
But umm...cloves is a bad mamma-jama! I know I will personally start to have these bad boys on hand all the time...listen to hear as to why!
Please remember to Subscribe, Rate & Review!
To leave a comment, or feedback, leave a message at 404-828-0051
- December 20, 2017
- Share | Download(Loading)


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Housing Market Forecast : Experts Weigh In On 2017 Real Estate Mortgage rates today, February 6, 2019, plus lock recommendations Mortgage rates today, December 7, plus lock recommendations As you probably know some of the islands in the Philippines were recently wiped out by a typhoon in April. See below article snippet.
Today I am writing on Ladder Capital (LADR), an internally-managed commercial mortgage REIT that. of bridge loans at an advanced rate of 81.5% and then all-in net cost of fund assuming no credit.
Mortgage rates today, January 30, 2019, plus lock recommendations January 30, 2019 Mortgage rates fell moderately today, largely in response to the Federal Reserve's policy announcement. The Fed is in charge of seeing a key short-term rate that impacts the. Mortgage rates today,December 1, plus lock recommendations Rate Lock Advisory.
Contents 90-day: 06/03/2019: 08:15 Rate outlet center Sqm house price Lock recommendations hernandez mortgage rates today, June 27, 2019, plus. Continue Reading Posted in: Mortgage Rate Articles. Mortgage rates today, December 29, plus lock recommendations.
Investment property mortgage rates: How much more will you pay? A crucial consideration as you. interest rate, lender fees, discount points and other loan charges. Pay close attention to the APR because it's a more holistic view of how much your loan really.
Mortgage rates continue to hover near record lows dec 06, 2011 walt wojoiechowski Rates on 40-year mortgages climbed this week, freddie mac reported thursday, as consumers and homeowners continue to face trouble refinancing or purchase new property.Mortgage rates today, April 29, 2019, plus lock recommendations Mortgage rates were unchanged again today, despite moderate weakness in underlying.
MBS RECAP: Once More With (Slightly Less) Feeling NEXT: The ladies pile up on Beverly once again. Weren't we past. which is something having to do with Star Trek. More importantly, he wasn't sporting his perennial top-knot and looked much better.Mortgage rates today, July 10, 2018, plus lock recommendations NEW YORK, Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Index declined in November. The Index now stands at 97.1 (July 2018=100), down from. to remain strong and labor.Mortgage rates today, September 27, plus lock recommendations Texas Lending Mortgage Rates and Review – Mortgage rates today on 15 year conforming home loans are currently advertised at 2.75 percent with an APR of 3.19 percent with 1 point. This is an incredibly low mortgage rate and lower than the current national average 15 year rate of 3.04 percent. Texas Lending is also offering 10 year mortgages.
Then, find a mortgage loan with a good interest rate (do your homework online to look at available rates) and consider asking your lender to (in writing) lock in the rate. But. Mortgage rates today, May 15, 2019, plus lock recommendations Mortgage rates today are driven by movements in financial markets worldwide.
Mortgage rates today, March 13, 2018, plus lock recommendations A rate lock guarantees that the lender will honor a specific interest rate at a specific cost for a set period. The benefit of a mortgage rate lock is that it protects the borrower from market.
Mortgage Rates Today: Wednesday, March 22 Mortgage rates today, March 22, 2019, plus lock recommendations Sales of existing homes slowest in almost a year – Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a November pace of 5 million, with sales pulling back after buyers rushed over the summer to lock in low mortgage rates.Tracker mortgage rates tumble: should you get one? – Which? News Bernanke: QE Keeping Mortgage Rates Low 12-13 meeting to launch a new mortgage. It also decided to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate near zero through at least mid-2015.In his speech, Bernanke sought to reassure investors that.Home prices continue to rise, but not as fast as they have over the past few years. Many would-be. Instead, mortgage rates have tumbled.
Mortgage rates today, March 8, 2019, plus lock recommendations. freddie Mac report quite a rise in rates over the seven days ending Mar. 7. Mortgage rates today, June 7, 2019, plus lock recommendations Mortgage rates today are driven by movements in financial markets worldwide.
Mortgage rates today, June 17, 2019, plus lock recommendations Mortgage rates today are driven by movements in financial markets worldwide. When the economy heats up, bond price drop, and rates.


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I am not going to read this article very closely, because it's already very close to Halloween and thus I'm feeling very fragile, but maybe there will be an announcement very soon about a new Pee-Wee Herman something. As discussed in the "First Scary Memory" post many of us are afraid of Large Marge and still to this day have an unfathomable fear of claymation female truck drivers. This is our greatest nightmare come to terrorize us in adulthood.
Please pray of all of us who are afraid of Pee-Wee Herman projects during this time. Thank you.


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Due to the school closings for the terrible weather, we must make up 5 days. This is the schedule.
We will attend school on:
President's Day, Monday, February 18th
Spring Break days, Monday, March 25th and Tuesday, March 26th
Good Friday, April 19th, ½ day attendance with dismissal at 11:00AM
Easter Monday, April 22nd.
Many of you have already made vacation plans for Spring Break and I understand that.
We will not be required to make up any more days if the weather does not cooperate! They are considered Act of God days.
TUITION PAYMENTS - Semi-annual and 3rd quarter payments are now due. Statements have been sent in the mail.
EDUCATION TAX CREDIT - forms may be picked up in the office. You will need this form to receive the credit on your income tax form.
KROGER PROFIT - We received a check for $447.94 from Kroger for our quarterly dividends. Please check the bottom of your receipt and make sure it says St. Mary's School/Sterling on it so we are receiving the dividends from your shopping there!!
SKATING PERMISSION FORMS - are going home. Please complete the form/permission slip, and return it to school by Friday, February 15th with your payment. If you have more than child skating, you may send ONE check for payment, but you need to complete a form for EACH child, as it includes their skate size. Questions? Call the school office.
**Students in grades 1-5 will be using the quad skates, while students in grades 6-8 may choose between quads or in-line skates.**
EARLY DISMISSAL - We will dismiss at 11:15 on Wednesday, February 13th for staff professional development.
VALENTINE'S CLASS PARTIES - will be Thursday, February 14th beginning at 2:15PM.
ADDED SCHOOL DAY - We will be attending school on Monday, February 18th as one of our make-up days.
LEI'D BACK LUAU - The auction will be here before you know it! It will be a great night of fun and friends, so please plan to join us on Saturday, February 23rd. Get your luau outfit ready to go!!! There is a "ton" of fun planned…..come and get your SUMO on!
Check out the auction packet that was sent home for your reservation and beverage pre-order forms. Turn them in to the office as soon as possible! Please remember to check your shift commitment for the event. Also, room moms are busy preparing the class baskets. Your contributions to class items are a huge part of the auction and we are counting on you!
50/50 Update - The progressive 50/50 raffle will be drawn the night of the auction (need not be present to win), and the pot is up over $2,000!! Keep selling your tickets, and please return ones you are not able to sell.
COMMUNITY SERVICE - 4th and 5th graders will be going to The Citadel to play bingo with the resident on Monday, February 25th.
January Birthday Book Club Member: January 17th, Mrs. Linda Cook, "resistance" (Holocaust).


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|Yesterday afternoon, two Kudus came to call. Standing by the braai, he nibbled on
the leaves of a tree.
|Such a handsome guy.
|Then there were two, after we'd placed a few of our dwindling pellets on the stone.
|On the way to the Crocodile River, we saw this baby Zebra nursing from its mom. It looks as if the mom is pregnant again. Hummm...does this dispel the thought that nursing moms can't become pregnant? Or was this a surrogate mom?
Okee Dokee picked us up for one final visit to the Crocodile River. On the way, she stopped to speak to a passing motorist. In Afrikaans, he told her there many Elephants on the river and to hurry. She translated for us and off we went. Safari luck.
|As we approached the Crocodile River lookout, we spotted only a few of the Elephants we saw moment later when we moved to a better viewing spot.
|The Elephants were on the move when something startled them and when they spotted the Rhino on a mad run heading toward them.
|There were many more than is shown here, off to the sides.
|If we'd arrived five minutes later, we'd never have seen them running.
|They left dust in their wake as they ran to safety.
|The Zebra family was back waiting for us!
|It was wonderful to see them one more time.
|We happily tossed a few of the remaining pellets their way.
Hopefully, during the upcoming 29 hours of travel time, we'll have access to an electrical source to charge our equipment, making it possible to document this lengthy journey along the way.
So, we say goodbye and thank you to Marloth Park, to South Africa, to our friends, human and animal, only hoping that someday we'll return. A special thank you to Louise and Danie who's kindness, consideration, generosity and love added so much to our comfort and enjoyment.
Over the coming years, as we continue on our worldwide journey, on many occasions we'll tell the story of our glorious experiences in South Africa, bringing tears to our eyes and gratitude to our hearts.
But, for today, we continue on...
|Thank you, Mr. Tree Frog for serving as the mascot for all the "small things" that brought us so much pleasure during our time in Marloth Park. Even you, will be remembered.


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In this ever changing and dynamic business environment, customer service has never been as important. Every individual's needs are important. Each customer wants to be treated like they are your only customer. They know that isn't true, just as well as you do, but they still want that kind of attention. A service-oriented philosophy says that you are there for your customer.
"In order to be customer service leaders, it is vital to focus on each and every Moment of Truth, where the customer touches your brand and has contact with you", says Rachel Johnson of Palomino Training Solutions. "In the Moment of Truth you can create customers for life or you can initiate a slow and painful demise of your company, one customer at a time."
There are three Moments of Truth that can be created. A Moment of Misery, a Moment of Mediocrity, or a Moment of WOW.
A Moment of Mediocrity is what most often occurs in business to customer interactions and this is where the customer's expectations were met – and those may even be low expectations. Customers who experience a Moment of Mediocrity feel "satisfied" but will not reward the company with loyalty. These customers are only your customers because they haven't found a better experience yet.
A Moment of Misery is created each time you fail to meet the customer's expectations. Often, Moments of Misery result in damaging and highly persuasive negative word-of-mouth advertising and customer defection.
"Some of the ways you can create a Moment of Misery," says Johnson, "include responding to complaints with an accusatory style; refusing to take responsibility for problems; failing to apologise to customers; amongst others."
The best moment to create is a Moment of WOW. This is when you exceed the customer's expectations. Service must be truly outstanding and service providers have to go "Beyond WOW" to create the Moment of WOW. Moments of WOW create a profitable base of loyal customers, which results in growth, increased profits, and lasting value.
"Go out of your way to delight your customers in all aspects of customer service," suggests Johnson. "You only have one Moment of Truth – what will it be?"
Palomino Training Solutions, which was established in 2006, offers over 150 training courses ranging from telephone etiquette, public speaking and business writing to conflict resolution, recruitment & selection and supervisory skills. The upcoming 2019 Customer Service courses will be held on 15 March, 18 April and 16 May in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban. The cost is R2,295 ex vat per delegate (contact for excellent onsite rates). This one-day interactive course includes modules on meeting expectations, moments of truth, dealing with difficult people and much more.
This course is also available as an onsite option at your work premises (contact us for the very competitive prices) and also as an online (e-learning) option.
"Our aim is for delegates to leave our workshops feeling inspired and motivated, with a wealth of knowledge and hands-on tools that they are able to implement immediately," says Johnson.
For more information, contact Rachel Johnson on 082-878-1164, email [email protected] or visit www.palominosa.co.za.


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Congratulations to Paulo Santana's amazing student, Manuel Fernandez Hache, of the Dominican Republic, who entered the Final Round at the 2015 Pan American Games tied for 9th place, ahead of show jumping veterans such as Olympian Ian Millar, Kent Farrington, Georgina Bloomberg and others.
What an extraordinary accomplishment – and an incredible experience for all of your Santana Stables team. We're so proud of you!


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I keep reading very aggressive projections about local-mobile advertising from BIA and others. Rather than grounded in reality today, these forecasts are built on a set of "optimistic" but simple assumptions about how the market will inevitably develop. For example, one assumption is that national ad dollars from brands and retailers that sell locally will pour into mobile and that their mobile ads will necessarily be geotargeted or localized.
While all forecasts must make assumptions about the future, my belief is that many of the assumptions being made about mobile are crude at best or simply incorrect. I'm a big proponent of location-based marketing and have written extensively about how geotargeted ads and ads with localized creative outperform conventional or "generic" national advertising. There's no question about consumer demand for local information. The question is whether and how advertisers can match or exploit that demand.
There remains a great deal of friction and many challenges to overcome before these big local-mobile forecasts can come true. There are also several "unexpected" things that may change the direction of the marketplace. I go into a few of those things below. In truth the majority of the localized mobile advertising today is happening in search. The platform is mature, the demand and the tools are there. The value is obvious to all involved. That's why Google is making the most money in mobile advertising today. (Facebook is also going to make a lot of money in mobile, some of which will be localized.) By contrast, local-mobile display is in its infancy.
There are two mobile ad networks generating and syndicating a large percentage of the local display inventory that you're likely to encounter: xAd and YP. CityGrid is out there and so are Verve, LSN, Telenav/ThinkNear and a couple of others. Marchex is there too with pay-per-call; however much of that is driving mobile callers to national call centers. Among the major ad networks Millennial, JumpTap and AdMob (Google) all offer local targeting. Often that targeting doesn't extend beyond state or DMA-level precision.
The emerging exchanges and RTB platforms all offer location as part of a laundry list of targeting capabilities. Indeed, location is likely to simply become one of many targeting variables on most networks and exchanges.
Some people have described the competition for business owners in the mobile payments segment as a "race to the bottom" in terms of credit card processing fees. Indeed, there are now at least 10 mobile payments or POS vendors targeting small businesses that are undercutting traditional credit card processing fees. The include LevelUp, Groupon, Square, PayPal Here, GoPago and others.
Just yesterday Coaster introduced an iPad POS app that charges bar owners zero credit card fees -- zero. It makes money off charging consumers a small amount for the "premium service."
Clearly this is not the company's long-term strategy. It's trying to create more bar "inventory" for consumers in the hope of driving app adoption and expanding beyond San Francisco, it's only current market. However the zero credit-card processing fee is a major incentive for bars to sign up and use the system.
Coaster is another example of something I've written about multiple times: vertical or point solutions that offer self-evident value to consumers and will drive adoption of mobile payments. My favorite example is mobile parking payments but Coaster is a pretty good example.
By using Coaster smartphone owners can order, pay and tip at bars without giving over their credit cards directly or waiting in line. I've not yet used the app myself. However Coaster offers concrete and obvious value for bar patrons (and bar owners).
These kinds of vertical scenarios or "point solutions" will educate consumers and get them comfortable with mobile payments, paving the way for broader adoption of "horizontal" solutions such as Google Wallet. Exposure to a positive veritcal payments experience will tend to accelerate broader payments adoption.
By contrast people often don't see the reason or need for "mobile wallets" in the abstract.
How interested are you in using your mobile phone to pay for things, and replace cash or your credit cards?
Source: Opus Research (August, 2012; n=1,501 US adults)
Russian-based search engine Yandex this morning released a new mobile app called "Wonder." It's currently only available for the US market and right now only on iOS. It uses speech recognition from Nuance and social data from Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and Twitter to provide search results refracted through social networks.
The kinds of queries Wonder envisions are those such as "tech news stories liked by my friends" or "restaurants near me visited by my friends." The app can only be used in landscape mode. It offers a visually polished UI but generally poor search and user experience (it would be better on the iPad). Unless there are some dramatic changes it won't be widely adopted by consumers.
Indeed, Wonder is no substitute for Google or Yelp or Facebook's new local and general search capabilities. What's interesting and significant is that it does illustrate broader adoption of social data as a filter and mechanism to personalize search results. The app is also consistent with the embrace of voice as a primary UI and capability.
Wonder offers a hint of a personality there but it's not a full blown "assistant" like Siri or Speaktoit. However Amazon's acquisition of text-to-speech specialist Ivona is a move to bring a Siri-like assistant feature to Amazon's Kindle tablet devices. (Amazon previously purchased speech provider Yap.)
Amazon already had text-to-speech for Kindle but Ivona offers a smoother, human-sounding voice capability that can be deployed for a range of purposes and use cases. And like Wonder it reflects the degree to which speech has become a critical "must-have" function on mobile devices.
By itself, however, speech is not enough. Increasingly there must also be a "personality" (assistant) to go along with the raw speech-processing capability. This is the impact of Siri on the broader marketplace.
My colleague Dan Miller brings a different perspective to the Ivona acquisition. He sees it in the larger context of speech-industry consolidation.
Update: TechCrunch says that Facebook has blocked Wonder's access to its user data while the companies negotiate about access.
Yesterday comScore reported that Facebook had the number one US mobile app of 2012. It beat out perennial leader Google Maps for the top spot. As an aside, Google Maps now has more usage in mobile than on the PC according to comScore.
There's nothing necessarily surprising or remarkable in Facebook's rise to the top position. It has long been one of the most popular apps and the app with the greatest monthly engagement (time spent).
What may be most significant here is the way in which Facebook's victory over Google operates as a kind of "metaphor" for the differences between PC and mobile usage. Search is not the center of the mobile experience as it is on the PC -- although local search, represented by Google Maps, is a critical and hugely popular function. Of course Facebook Nearby is a local search tool and has significant potential if Facebook invests further and continues to develop it.
Notwithstanding Facebook's win, Google still dominates the top 10 in comScore's chart above.
As widely discussed Facebook's challenge is to fully "monetize" all this mobile traffic/engagement without negatively impacting or "corrupting" the user experience. Search will help the company do that as would a mobile ad network for third party publisher sites that used Facebook user data. (There are some privacy issues and potential challenges there and it's on hold.)
Facebook has "display" ad units for mobile that are helping to quickly ramp its mobile revenues. The company allows mobile-only targeting as well as combined or cross-platform targeting for PC and mobile, thereby simplifying the mobile ad buy for marketers.
Many analysts simply assume that mobile advertising will follow the well-worn path of PC advertising, only perhaps in a more accelerated fashion. Thus you get mobile advertising forecasts that show a relatively smooth progression of ad budgets into mobile, with search and display being the two main ad categories (calls fall into both). There's a longer post to be written about these assumptions and why they may not play out as expected -- especially with respect to location-based ads on mobile devices.
Overall there are relatively few mobile search impressions available outside of Google. So most of the ad inventory being sold today is some form of mobie display. However there's also something a "war on mobile display." That's really about the business model: CPM/CPC vs. CPA.
It's largely being waged by firms whose business models that are not CPM or CPC based. Companies that use a pay-per-[app]-install or other CPA models have attacked CPM or CPC-based mobile display with the idea of the "fat finger problem."
The argument is that a huge volume of mobile display clicks are simply mistaken or perhaps even fraudulent in some cases.
Source: Trademob (9/12); based on analysis of 6 million mobile ad clicks
There's also the idea, often discussed, that consumers don't like mobile display advertising and consider it to be just a notch above spam.
More recently Marchex, which has transformed itself into a call-based advertising platform and network, asserts that the overwhelming majority of mobile display impressions and clicks are nearly worthless. In a study, released in December, involving six major display ad networks Marchex found that it took almost half a million ads to generate one "quality" phone call:
We examined a set of mobile display ad campaigns across the six largest mobile display networks to investigate the real, measurable performance of these ads. The call to action on all advertisements was a phone call. Performance was based on the number of high-quality calls driven by the media investment. Marchex defines high-quality calls as those that do not include misdials and spam; existing customers looking for support services; and unproductive calls (e.g. too short).
Our advertisers included national, branded businesses in Education, Insurance, Home Services and Entertainment. We conducted the study on major mobile ad networks and employed media tactics ranging from highly targeted to broad buys. Ad spend was distributed across networks and advertisers to ensure statistically valid conversion results on the back end.
Marchex said that in its test it took 494K impressions to generate 2,481 clicks, which in turn generated only one "quality" phone call (as defined above). That single call effectively cost $302 according to the company, because of all the wasted impressions.
Source: Marchex (2012)
I exposed these findings to one mobile ad network, which disputed them and said on its network the ratio of impressions to qualified calls was much smaller: 15:1 rather than 494K:1.
The Marchex argument is that it's simply cheaper to buy calls directly than to buy mobile display impressions. The company's study needs to be replicated before we can conclude that Marchex's findings are valid across networks. There's also the argument about awareness vs. direct response -- most national advertisers currently are just seeking broad awareness and scale.
Regardless Marchex's findings and the other data above collectively fuel pervasive doubts about the value of mobile display advertising.
Yesterday afternoon Google announced Q4 2012 earnings. In almost every respect it was a spectacular holiday quarter for the company. Consolidated revenues (which include Motorola) were $14.42 billion, an increase of 36% over 2011.
Google made $50.2 billion for the full year, crossing that revenue threshold for the first time. That compares with $37.9 billion the company made in 2011.
However the average price that avertisers paid Google per click (CPCs) decreased 6 percent vs. Q4 2011. That was a smaller decline than in the past, which could be seen as a positive.
The CPC YoY drop is because more clicks are now coming from mobile devices and advertisers are paying less for those clicks. According to a report released yesterday from marketing firm The Search Agency, CPC prices for paid-search ads appearing on smartphones are well below comparable ads appearing on tablets and PCs (see graphic below).
In Q4 mobile search clicks were worth less than 50% of what marketers paid for PC search clicks according to the data. Why are marketers paying much less for mobile clicks when mobile consumers are often much better prospects and customers than PC users?
There's less competition currently for mobile clicks than there is for PC search clicks. Because Google's ad system is an auction that necessarily affects pricing. But more than that many advertisers are unwilling to pay more for mobile clicks because they don't trust them and/or can't calculate a mobile ROI.
Source: The Search Agency
Many search marketers, especially brands and large advertisers, rely on automated systems that calculate paid-search ROI based on some pre-defined conversion event. Those conversions can be a variety of things but frequently they're e-commerce transactions or, in some cases, phone calls.
PC ROI calculations are generally flawed because they usually don't or can't capture online-influenced offline buying. Accordingly the system and the marketer only see online events but not the far larger collection of offline purchases and activities (e.g., store visits) that are driven by online and paid search advertising. The problem is even more pronouced for mobile, however.
Because there are relatively few mobile commerce transactions -- though there are plenty of phone calls from mobile devices -- marketers simply don't see the "latent" conversions that happen in the real world or later on another screen, such as in the case where someone does research on a mobile device and later buys on a PC or tablet.
As a result of this varied, multi-screen consumer behavior marketers aren't able to correctly perceive or attribute ROI and accordingly value mobile clicks. While this represents a "buying opportunity" for advertisers that know the true value of mobile the majority of advertisers are undervaluing mobile clicks. And that's reflected in the average CPC declines that Google has been reporting.
Yesterday Nokia announced "better than expected" Lumia sales. Overall the company said (in these preliminary results) that it sold just over 86 million mobile devices. Among them were 16 million smartphones, including 4.4 million Lumia handsets. The remainder were legacy Symbian devices and new lower-end Asha devices.
Asha phones are somewhere between a feature phone and a true smartphone. They're designed to be low cost and intended for emerging markets such as India. They would see little or no success in developed markets like North America or Europe. Indeed, they're not directed toward those markets.
In Q2 and Q3 2012 Nokia sold a combined total of 6.9 million Lumia handsets. The troubled-company's stock was up yesterday and this morning, having seemingly beaten a very grim Q4 forecast. And some financial analysts are hailing the results as the beginning of Nokia's long-hoped-for turnaround.
Any celebrations are premature however. According to Kantar Worldpanel Comtech research demand for Windows Phones is uneven and limited.
In the US Windows Phones continue to lose share and have failed to capture consumer interest. The story is somewhat different in Europe, however, in part because of the legacy of Nokia's strong brand. In the five major EU countries Windows saw aggregate growth of 1.7%.
The markets where Windows Phone gains have been meaningful are Italy, Spain and the UK, according to the Kantar data. In Italy, for example, Windows Phones gained almost 8 points and now have an 11.7 percent share of the smartphone market.
While there may continue to be modest growth for Nokia with Windows Phones, it's fairly clear that they are unlikey to power a full recovery. What Nokia really needs to ignite growth is to add Android devices to its lineup.
Remarks earlier this week by Nokia CEO Stephen Elop suggested that the company could be open to using Android:
In the current ecosystem wars we are using Windows Phone as our weapon. But we are always thinking about what's coming next, what will be the role of HTML 5, Android... HTML5 could make the platform itself -- being Android, Windows Phone or any other -- irrelevant in the future, but it's still too soon [to tell]. Today we are committed and satisfied with Microsoft, but anything is possible.
Contractual agreements with Microsoft probably would make Android "diversification" unlikely in the near term unless Windows Phones sales fell below a certain threshold. Given the modest momentum around Microsoft's OS Nokia will probably stick with Windows.
Yet if the company were to offer both Android and Windows devices it would see its fortunes improve more rapidly -- much more rapidly.
Nuance Communications, which provides speech recognition services for enterprises (and increasingly consumers, including the Swype keyboard) released a "mobile assistant" survey in connection with CES. The survey of roughly 1,000 US adults found that 75% of respondents had their mobile devices (presumably smartphones) "always on them" or "at hand."
Among the 90% of survey respondents that reported they had some sort of assistant capability on their phones (not defined in the survey results), a majority (60%) said they used that assistant daily. The following were the most common use cases:
This survey implies satisfaction is relatively high with these assistants. More than 80% of respondents indicated if they could they'd want the "same mobile personal assistant" with them at all times, across all devices and use cases: phones, tablets, PCs, cars, TVs, apps and so on. Accordingly the survey was partly intended to support Nuances "cross-device persona project" called Wintermute, which the company is showcasing at CES.
Using your unique voice print, the system remembers who you are and "follows you from one device to the next, remembering what you like, what you've been doing, and where you've been." This is in a way a voice-version of what Google is trying to do in asking people to sign in to the Chrome browser so that it can monitor them across devices. In Google's case it's for the purpose of personalizing search results, serving better ads and collecting data on user behavior. Nuance seems to be focused more directly on improving the user experience.
Interestingly the survey also found that respondents had emotional connections (to varying degrees) to their assistants:
More than half of all respondents cited a personal connection with their mobile personal assistant. Women actually name their mobile personal assistant more than men, with 71% compared to a close 66% of men . . . 73% of men feel comfortable asking their mobile personal assistant for directions but 79% of women ask for help more often.
The materials I received don't provide detail on whether the assistants in question are Nuance products (i.e., DragonGo) or Apple's Siri or Google Voice Search/Now. It's not clear how specifically the "personal assistant" idea was defined in the survey instrument.
The concept of the personal virtual assistant has been around for quite a long time, using a range of technologies and approaches. Yet crystallized in the public mind with the advent of Siri. Nuance, which provides speech recognition for Siri, recently introduced Nina -- a white label Siri-like assistant for enterprise customer service applications.
My colleague Dan Miller recently issued an expansive new report on personal virtual assistants and their adoption in the enterprise and on consumer devices.
Update: Nuance has reportedly acquired VirtuOZ, which is a provider of virtual-assistant enterprise customer care solutions with a PC focus. The VirtuOZ online assistant will be enhanced and improved by Nuance's speech recognition capabilities and Nuance's Nina offering will help expand its reach into online customer care.
Mobile handsets already outnumber PCs across the globe. However, in terms of internet access (including apps) PCs could fall into third place after smartphones and tablets. That would represent a radical change from today, where PCs still represent the most common way that consumers in most developed countries access the internet.
Hardware monitor NPD Group is predicting that this year tablet shipments globablly will exceed notebooks (laptops). Here's the projection:
NPD also takes a stab at forecasting penetration of tablets by screen size. However this is somewhat less important than the fact of tablet adoption.
Rather than the cornucopia of screens displayed in the graphic above, we're likely to see standardization around three primary tablet screen sizes:
The general publisher response to the rise of tablets is probably going to be responsive web design, which has limitations. However tablets will further reinforce app usage among consumers, though surveys and behavioral studies show more mobile web usage on tablets vs. smartphones.
Tablet adoption also ends the reign of Microsoft as the most important company in the PC universe. Windows 8 and Surface adoption to date has been quite tepid. And the inevitable availability of Office for tablets removes yet another incentive to buy a PC.
The "big takeaway" here is the simple fact of more tablets than new PCs. PCs will remain prominent in the workplace and among business users. However for consumers they will see less and less "face time." Tablets and smartphones will become primary internet access points in the home, with PCs being used for more limited and specific things.
One of the challenging things for marketers these days is to figure out how to efficiently reach consumers on the growing array of screens they interact with. The growing complexity of consumer behavior and the interplay among devices is dizzying.
Last year Google did some terrific research about the parallel and sequential usage of smartphones, tablets and conventional PCs along the path to purchase. The company found that 90% of US adults surveyed used multiple screens during the day. It's really challenging to track this behavior in real time let alone create coherent, integrated campaigns to address it.
One of the central behaviors identified in the Google research was the multi-screen path to purchase. Consumers often start on one screen but complete transactions on another. The behavior wasn't random, however. Smartphones were found to be the most commonly used screen but people chose different screens depending on the context and nature of the task at hand.
Harris Interactive has released similar research that reflects different user preferences and behaviors depending on the particular screen and use case. Harris found overlapping usage scenarios but also consumer preferences for one screen vs. another in several instances.
The survey sample consisted of 2,383 adults, about 42% of which owned a smartphone. However that's lower than the US mobile average of 50%+. The data were collected in November 2012.
The question fielded was: "Thinking generally about your media and communication behavior on a smartphone versus on a computer, please indicate which of these actions you regularly perform on each." Multiple responses were permitted.
In some cases smartphones tended to be used more and in others PCs dominated. Unfortunately Harris didn't ask about tablets.
General activities (penetration/usage):
Social media usage (penetration/usage):
The presence of children in the home was correlated with increased smartphone activity across almost all categories of activity.
In looking at these data one can see that certain kinds of activities, better suited to smartphones (texting, map usage, checking in), are more often performed on mobile devices. However activities that require larger screens or where the mobile user experience is sub-optimal, favor the PC (e.g., product research, purchasing).
Independent analyst Ben Evans has teased out a range of Facebook mobile usage and user data, partly derived from the company's own public statements and partly from his own calculations. You can read what he says here. Below I use some of his data and one of his charts.
Mobile users as of Q3 2012 (mostly public numbers):
Accordingly, roughly 44% of Facebook's global user base doesn't access the site on mobile according to the company's own data. However that figure is likely to get smaller over the next 12 - 24 months and become a very small minority.
Evans estimates the following smartphone app usage for Facebook (based on Q3 data above):
Below is a chart from Evans showing the relative growth of Facebook access on the various mobile platforms from September 2011 to September 2012:
Assuming these numbers are accurate you can see the reversal of positions of the iPhone and Android since last year, which makes sense. However the larger point is that a majority of Facebook users now access the site via mobile.
Facebook has argued that mobile is ultimately a much larger revenue opportunity than the PC. The following verbatim Facebook remarks come from the Q3 earnings call transcript:
Social and paid-search ad platform Kenshoo came out with data today that argue the percentage of ad revenue coming from mobile is now up to 20.3%.
Facebook is expected to generate roughly $1.5 billion in overall revenue in Q4. Not all of it is ad revenue, however. Roughly $260 or so million would be attributable to mobile if the 20.3% figure holds and the forecast is correct.
Google sees lower CPC prices on mobile paid search ads but better performance on mobile devices vs. the PC. However Facebook is experiencing the opposite phenomenon, according to Kenshoo. It sees higher mobile prices but lower engagement vs. the desktop.
I had an interesting experience this past week with my 13-year old daughter, which illustrates the challenges but also the opportunity for Windows Phones. One of several smartphones I have is a blue/purple HTC 8X (Windows Phone). The phone offers Beats Audio integration. It's a very attractive handset and looks very much like a Nokia Lumia device, only not as heavy. (Nokia is not too happy about the close similarity.)
My daughter is currently a feature phone user and really wanted an iPhone 5, which my wife and I cruelly denied her. But she spied the 8X on my desk and really liked how it looked. She also had seen (on Hulu) the relentless Microsoft Windows Phone ads -- "as unique as you are" -- and was parroting some of the ad copy/dialogue to me almost verbatim. (The campaign must be working.)
She asked for the phone and I agreed that she could have it. I gave it to her to try at home on WiFi to make sure that she was really interested before I went through the trouble of changing carriers and so on. I suspected the OS might throw her; she's had an iPod Touch for several years and we've also had several Android phones. She's familiar with both operating systems but hasn't ever used Windows.
Another factor: she was intrigued by the Microsoft Surface tablet, which she saw at a friend's house. The colorful and different look of the UI appealed to her. The Windows "metro" design -- I can still use that term even if Microsoft cannot -- on both devices got her attention.
Then she started playing with the phone and found out that some of the key apps that she and her friends routinely use weren't there. She wasn't thrown by the metro UI and "live tiles," as I expected. Rather it was the fact that Instagram, Oovoo, Snapchat and other apps she uses were missing. She was particularly annoyed by the pseudo Instagram apps that appeared (e.g., Instagram blog). After discovering that these beloved apps were missing she rejected the phone.
Had those and a few other critical (in her mind) apps been present, she would have kept and used the phone. I told her that Instagram would eventually come to Windows Phones as would other missing apps. That didn't satisfy her.
Windows Phone now has 150,000 apps; however as indicated by the above it's still missing many key apps. For example, as part of its antitrust argument against Google Redmond says it's being unfairly denied access to YouTube metadata. It's makeshift YouTube app is deficient in fundamental respects:
Google has refused to allow Microsoft's new Windows Phones to access this YouTube metadata in the same way that Android phones and iPhones do. As a result, Microsoft's YouTube "app" on Windows Phones is basically just a browser displaying YouTube's mobile Web site, without the rich functionality offered on competing phones. Microsoft is ready to release a high quality YouTube app for Windows Phone. We just need permission to access YouTube in the way that other phones already do, permission Google has refused to provide.
If Microsoft can manage to get the key/top apps onto Windows Phone it will be able to attract buyers who like the different look of the UI and/or who may be attracted by the aggressive subsidies offered by carriers. The 8X is available for $49 with a two-year contract at Verizon, for example.
However until these apps (enough apps, key apps) are there would-be users, such as my daughter, won't bite. Microsoft can break the "catch-22" of Windows Phone app development through developer payments and incentives, which it's trying to do. The company needs to identify all the "necessary apps" and make sure those are built for Windows Phones.
Beyond this the current messaging isn't really successful in attracting buyers, notwithstanding my daughter's ability to parrot the commercials. Microsoft needs build messaging around three ideas:
Finally, ideally, there should be something about the hardware and software (beyond the UI) that is different. Microsoft argues there are already such things (e.g. Kids Corner). And the colorful phone cases offer an approach taken by Nokia and HTC. A better camera (i.e., Lumia) is another.
Yet these things aren't quite enough. There needs to be a highly visible feature or dimension of Windows Phones that truly isn't present on iPhone or Android handsets. Right now, nothwithstading the nicely designed metro UI, Windows Phones continue to seem like "wannabe" devices that are still playing catch up to other smartphones.
Earlier this month (on December 17) Facebook transformed its "Nearby" mobile-app friend finder into a local search tool. Nearby had previously been a way to locate friends who had enabled location or checked-in somewhere in the immediate area. The new (mobile only) Nearby is a logical and complete overhaul of the service, which holds significant implications for the entire local search landscape – with one major caveat.
Everything depends on Facebook's commitment to Nearby and how much the company is willing to invest in local.
There has long been an expectation that Facebook would get into search, beyond its existing relationship with Microsoft. A robust search capability on Facebook could provide significant new revenue, in the form of paid-search ads, as well as greater utility to Facebook users overall. The question is: what is the scope of Facebook's search ambition? Would it be limited to better site search or would it extend to web search more generally? It's likely that Facebook will take a kind of middle course that relies primarily on site search but holds competitive implications for Google and others. Nearby is something of a model.
All the data in the Nearby "index" are provided by the businesses themselves. Facebook doesn't show places for which it doesn't have local Pages. This is by design, partly as an incentive for SMBs to create Pages for their businesses. The company isn't licensing data or crawling the web for local business information. This makes the database potentially more reliable but also less extensive than competing offerings. There are other significant user-experince limitations as well.
Notwithstanding these current limitations Facebook Nearby could become a major competitor in local search relatively quickly. We won't have a sense of how real that possibility is until roughly the middle of next year. By then we will know something about consumer adoption, as well as Facebook's commitment to improving the service.
But despite Facebook's privileged position in the marketplace the company doesn't have years to develop Nearby. In order for Nearby to succeed, it must become more visible to consumers. It also must improve considerably during a time-window that is probably not longer than 24 months. Otherwise, Nearby could easily go the way of Facebook Deals and simply be remembered as a provocative experiment that failed.
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As part of a year-end release of data Nielsen indicated that 56% US mobile subscribers owned smartphones as of Q3. By contrast, comScore says smartphone penetration currently stands at 52%. And Pew said earlier this year that it was 53%.
In the smartphone segment, the following are Nielsen's data regarding US mobile operating system share (again, end of Q3):
Here are similar data from comScore's for comparison purposes (November, 2012):
Below are Nielsen's lists of top apps for 2012 for both the iPhone and Android devices. While the lists are different there are several apps that appear on both: Faceobook, YouTube, Pandora, Twitter and "weather."
Google's Gmail and search apps are at the top of the Android list but absent from the iPhone list.
Nielsen is also reporting that there are an average of 32 million Maps users on the iPhone each month. That's more usage than Facebook or YouTube, which both have huge mobile audiences in the US.
It's also a significant loss of traffic for Google. However because there were very few ads on the iOS 5 version of Maps it's not a revenue loss for Google.
Millennial Media has released an infographic that offers year-in-review data. I've excerpted what I thought were the most interesting aspects. However you can see the entire infographic here.
There were two data sets that I found most interesting. The first is verticals ranked by ad spend on the company's network. Automotive was the leading vertical and biggest gainer in 2012. This is mostly car makers doing broad, awareness-oriented brand advertising.
Below is an example of automotive general awareness advertising (though not necessarily from Millennial Media). The screens I've presented are just a few from the ad. The ad makes it possible to locate a dealer to do a test drive -- but that capability is buried a few clicks down and below the fold.
If you take a look at all the categories in the Millennial top verticals list, all are categories in which most of the transactions will be realized offline. However I would bet that few if any of the advertisers in these categories are doing anything like trying to drive consumers into local outlets or stores.
For example, the graphic below shows Millennial's most recent data on the distribution of "post click" objectives associated with the campaigns on its network. Only 19% of these ads contained a "store locator." And those are probably not prominently displayed. Most of these campaigns are simply branding campaigns.
This is a significant missed opportunity. Only 5% of retail spending in the US happens online and an even smaller amount through mobile devices. The rest -- literially more than $4 trillion -- is offline. The ability to lead consumers to a store or point of sale is one of the great opportunities of mobile. However it's not really being utilized or exploited by advertisers.
The other interesting piece of data in the Millennial infographic shows the growth (and decline) of Android OEMs. Samsung is winning and HTC, Motorola (Google) and LG are losing when it comes to Android share.
As I've now argued numerous times Android is increasingly identified with Samsung. Partly this is because Samsung is making compelling devices -- although the LG Nexus 4 is the best Android handset on the market -- but it's equally because Samsung is spending so much money on marketing around the globe.
Just as Android now controls more than 50% of the global smartphone market, Samsung will soon control more than 50% of the Android market.
This morning the IAB reported that Q3 US online ad revenue came in at $9.3 billion. First half digital revenues were $17 billion. It's quite possible that the second half will see $19 or $20 billion total, bringing FY 2012 to $36 or $37 billion in online ad revenue (including mobile). However the IAB didn't provide a detailed breakdown of Q3 revenues by segment.
Two days ago eMarketer revised its mobile ad forecast upward for 2012 from $2.61 billion to just over $4 billion.
The IAB said that mobile advertising revenue was $1.2 billion for the first half. It also said that mobile represented 8% of Q2 2012 revenues, or $661 million. While mobile is the fastest growing digital ad segment it's still small relatively speaking. If mobile continued to represent 8% of digital ad revenue in Q3 that would translate into $744 million.
However if mobile grew as a percentage of overall digital revenue to, say, 10% that would represent $930 million in revenue. That's probably the range that's reasonable to assume: $744 to $930 million. Let's take the midpoint of that: $830 million.
Because of the holiday shopping activity surrounding mobile devices we can assume that mobile ad revenue will grow further in Q4. Accordingly, it's possible that Q4 US mobile ad revenues might reach or slighly exceed $1 billion.
We can probably expect mobile ad revenues to come in for the full year between $2.6 and $3 billion on the high end. It's very unlikely that they will reach $4 billion this year however.
Earlier this week Appcelerator released its quarterly mobile app developer survey. The survey of more than 2,700 global developers found they were primarily focused on the iOS and Android operating systems, with Windows Phones, RIM and others relatively far behind. This reflects the "duopoloy" of iOS and Android (increasingly "Samdroid') sales in the global smartphone market.
The challenges of creating a strong developer ecosystem for Windows is partly what's holding the mobile OS back. Sales are relatively good in isolated EU markets (e.g, Spain, UK) but lackluster on a global basis and in North America in particular, where Windows continues to lose market share.
According to the survey, about 36% of developers indicated interest in building apps for Windows devices. However Windows Phone's modest market share is creating a kind of Catch-22 for the platform.
Without boosting the perception that Windows has app-parity (at least among the most important ones), there won't be more handset sales. Without more handset sales there won't be more consumer usage and without consumer adoption there are few incentives -- except direct payments from Microsoft -- to develop for the platform. The majority of developers, according to the Appcelerator survey, can only focus on two mobile platforms.
Separately, IHS iSuppli released a full-year, 2012 estimate of global smartphone market share. The calculation is based on the untrustworthy "shipments" metric. However, the company shows Nokia dropping to third position, Apple in second and Samsung-Android now leading iOS "decisively":
Samsung and Apple ended 2011 in a neck-and-neck battle for leadership in the smartphone market, with only 1 percentage point of market share separating them. However, entering the 2012 year, Samsung moved ahead decisively ahead of Apple with a wide range of Android smartphone offerings. Samsung made significant gains in both the high end as well as the low-cost market with its Galaxy line of smartphones. This diversified market approach has allowed Samsung to address a larger target audience for its phones than Apple's limited premium iPhone line.
The Samsung and Apple duopoly represents the dominant force in the smartphone market, with the two companies accounting for 49 percent of shipments in 2012, up from 39 percent in 2011. While Nokia and Canada's Research in Motion (RIM) also held double-digit shares of the market in 2011, Samsung and Apple remain the only two players that will each command a double-digit portion of the smartphone space in 2012.
As Google-owned Motorola, LG and HTC struggle for consumer attention and handset sales, Samsung becomes more and more identified with Android in the consumer mind. RIM's forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS is truly the company's "last hope." Nokia too will likely need to do something fairly radical if it is to remain viable (i.e., adopt Android) in the smartphone market.
Global mobile ad network InMobi has released its latest "Insights Report" for the US market. Interestingly it finds Apple devices generating the majority of ad impressions despite their smaller overall hardware market share.
Apple's iOS devices have a 46% share of impressions on the InMobi network, compared with Android's collective 43.6% share. Here are the top five devices that InMobi sees on its network:
While there is almost no Android presence in the top five (Kindle Fire is a quasi-Android device) the network says that Android growth is outpacing that of the iPhone. Compare InMobi's data to other ad networks, which show Android with a greater share of impressions.
Jumptap (July, 2012):
Millennial Media (November, 2012):
The Millennial numbers above correspond almost exactly to comScore's market share data regarding handset penetration (October, 2012):
There are a couple of studies that suggest a substantial percentage -- perhaps as much as 40% -- of mobile display ad clicks are unintended or "bad" in some way. Pontiflex and Trademob are the sources of these findings.
There are a number of ways to address this. One way is changing the billing or business model (moving from CTR to CPA); another is to ensure that clicks are truly intended. For example, mobile ad networks like YP and xAd ask users to confirm that they want to actually contact an advertiser or visit the advertiser's site/landing page.
Below is an example of that approach from the YP mobile ad network:
Now Google is taking steps in its banner ad creative to make sure that clicks are valid. The company said in a blog post that
[M]ost accidental clicks on in-app image ads happen at the outer edge of the ad unit, likely when you're trying to click or scroll to nearby content. Now if you click on the outer border of the ad, we'll prompt you to verify that you actually meant to click on the ad to learn more.
Below are screens from the Google post. The company will require users to now click on a specific area of the banner ("visit site"). The entire banner won't be "clickable."
This is smart and together with other, similar efforts it should ensure that clicks and other consumer actions in response to mobile ads are intended and that advertisers are only charged for "valid" clicks and not fat-finger accidents.
In one sense this is a solution to a practical problem but in another it's a symbolic, confidence-building measure for mobile display advertising.
Last week eBay reported that it will realize "more than $10 billion in mobile volume for the year from its mobile apps and PayPal expects to transact more than $10 billion in mobile payment volume." Those are big numbers. If we visit some of the mobile payments forecasts the numbers get much bigger.
Yet consumer surveys in the US and elsewhere reveal consumer ambivalence and even indifference to mobile payments. It does vary by age however, with younger users indicating greater interest than older people.
A survey we fielded in August (n=926 US adults) found that roughly 29% of respondents had varying degrees of interest, whereas 71% were "not at all interested" in mobile payments.
"How interested are you in using your mobile phone to pay for things as a replacement for cash or your credit cards?"
In our survey people under 45 years of age were considerably more interested than people who were older. A new survey from Harris Interactive is more bullish on the outlook for mobile payments however, with smartphone owners reflecting much greater interest in mobile payments:
"How interested are you in being able to use your smartphone to process in-person payments via tapping a special receiver, rather than using cash or payment cards?"
In other words 27% were "Very" or "Somewhat Interested" while 57% were "Not Very" or "Not at All Interested." This was the full sample population. The following were the smartphone-only responses:
Thus "Very" or "Somewhat Interested" came out to be 44%, while "Not Very" or "Not at All Interested" was 47%. Quite a bit more interest accordingly.
Smartphone owners in the 18-47 age range were most interested in mobile payments according to the Harris survey. In addition, 38% of smartphone owners saw mobile payments replacing card-based transactions "for a majority of purchases" within five years.


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What is an Innovation Lab?
"Don't just study, learn. Don't just go, make a difference!"
An innovation lab is an intense, interactive, hands-on process. We begin with Orientation—two weeks in Chiang Mai, Thailand, learning 'laboratory' skills for working in Asia. It is an intense and interactive process. Orientation leads to a Month doing 'fieldwork'–exploring what happens in real life with real people. You will be assigned a field site where the team is committed to a creative approach to being salt and light in their community. Lastly, you will return to Chiang Mai for a week of Debrief and Integration. Debriefing is the process of reviewing what you have seen and beginning to make sense of it all! Integration is the process of opening the door to take that learning with you back to your home. Innov-Asia is not a vacation, it is a life-changing learning process.
How does it all work?
Innov-Asia focuses on three areas—
- Mapping Your Walk—developing a robust faith that sustains you for the long run
- Mapping a New Culture—developing eyes and ears, and a heart, to read a new culture
- Mapping Ministry at the Edge—developing resources and a framework for ministry among unreached peoples and communities
Where are the field sites?
After Chiang Mai, which is the second-largest city in Thailand rich with a diversity of cultures, you will have the opportunity to visit and engage a Muslim, Hindu, Secular or Buddhist community. Definite locations are not fixed until early in 2020 due to constantly changing circumstances in Asia. Possible locations include–
- A team with mobile medical clinics
- A business in a rural farm community
- A community center in a regional city
- A couple more locations with other models
What do you need to do next?
First, pray. This will be a significant commitment of your time, faith, and monies. You will be challenged and stretched. Pray and ask God if this is from him for you.
Second, talk to a missions coach! Your coach will help you determine if Innov-Asia is the right fit for you—and will then guide you through the application process. Submit an inquiry at TEAM.org right away and a coach near you will be in touch. Space is limited to eight apprentices! So Pray and Apply!


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The overall goal of WP1 is to
design, develop and implement into an integrated Digital Platform
the models and methods that will enable the optimal configuration
of the RLW hybrid assembly plant to achieve quality/productivity
performance with minimal energy consumption and environmental
impact. This software platform (System Layout Configuration Wizard,
SL-Config wizard) will be designed to interact with the local
process and workstation design decisions to be taken in WPs 2, 3,
and 4 in order to ensure consistency with the system level design
decisions, avoiding myopic solutions and local improvements that
are detrimental at system level. Strict requirements for the
SL-Config wizard will be considered in terms of execution times and
accuracy with the objective to allow the on-line use of the tool
for supporting fast reconfiguration and adaptation of the assembly
system. To this purpose it will be based on general advanced
analytical models whose accuracy is preliminarily verified via
benchmark with discrete event simulation. Particular attention will
be given to the visualization of the results to deliver a
user-friendly application.
Scientific and Technological Objectives to be Achieved
in this WP
The main scientific and
technological challenges are related to the need of meeting
requirements of(I) short execution time of the optimization
analysis and the (I) applicability to general hybrid assembly
systems of the methods to be delivered. The first issue will be
tackled by proposing, on the one hand, a completely new integrative
solution strategy for searching for the optimal configuration, that
is designed to save a huge number of evaluations of feasible system
configurations (Task 1.2), on the other hand, a completely new
quality/productivity/energy integrated assembly system model (Task
1.4) based on approximate analytical methods that is expected to
reduce the evaluation time of one system configuration of three
orders of magnitude with respect to discrete event simulation. The
proposed analytical method will provide the set of equations
describing the dynamics of the system behaviour that
relates the input parameters of the system, under a given
configuration, with the system response in terms of quality,
productivity and energy. The second issue will be mainly addressed
by considering for the first time in the analytical method assembly
stations that are modelled as general complexity Markov chains,
thus enabling to include in the assembly system model a large set
of previously un-modelled features, like degrading quality states
and different energy requirements for each station's
If you would like more information
on this aspect of the research please use the contact details here to identify and
contact the work package leader.
RLW Navigator is a three year,
€3.9M, project funded by the European Commission under the
ICT-Factories of the Future programme. The project has
fourteen partners and began in January 2012.
The goal of the project is to
develop an engineering platform for an emerging joining technology
from the automotive industry, Remote Laser Welding (RLW), that will
enable the exploitation of this technology and ultimately support
other joining processes.
©2013 RLW Navigator. All rights reserved.


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Are you keen to join a local authority which is on its upmost absolute up rise? Are you a natural leader? Are you looking to make a difference with an ongoing organisation that is making a huge impact on children's lives who visit them? Please do keep on reading....
I've been working closely with a children's respite centre in Medway, Gillingham this past week. They are currently in the process of building this new centre - it has 2 state of the art sensory rooms, a fantastic garden with equipment for the children and walls covered in murals. A generous, family sized kitchen to go with it too. They're moving from an old centre to this new one and are currently in the process of doing so.
The children's bedrooms are unique to the children's needs, fully equipped and made to cause next to no disturbance throughout the night when they stay for a night / the weekend. This is a fantastic time for the centre and they're looking for a passionate, leading individual to join them.
The next part - what's in it for you?
- £45,000 - £48,000 PA - Depending on experience
- Final salary pension + 6% pension paid by you - 9% paid by them
- 28 days holiday plus bank holidays
Full relevant experience is essential along with the qualifications.
I have had a full walk around of this centre and can only speak highly of it. I'm looking for the right individual to join this team who is ready to lead the team to even more success. I'm happy to have a phone call to discuss the centre and work as a whole - so get your CV over ASAP directly through this website so we can arrange a phone call
Please note: applicants have been high - so we will only be contacting those who are successful
Best of luck!


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If we are not careful, we become spectators sitting on the couch or backseat drivers. Christ is our coach, Christ makes the game plan and calls the plays. We are the players called to love and to do justice.
As much as we would like to find a way around it (or find a way to benefit from the injustice), we are called, in spite of the culture we live in. What injustice makes you lose sleep? Whom do you know personally who has not been treated fairly by a system or institution? Are you reading widely or watching reliable news sources which might challenge your frame of reference? We don't live in a perfect world; yet, we are called to help bring in God's Kingdom
1 John 3:17; James 2:15-16


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John Dunkin, former personal pilot for Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), is under consideration for FAA administrator. In charge of all U.S. civil aviation, the FAA chair oversees a $16 billion annual budget. While Dunkin supervised the DDT campaign air fleet, VP Mike Pence's plane had several "hard" landings, including a plane ended up 300 feet from a major highway. Dunkin also hired a pilot wanted for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, running over a colleague with his car three times, and deliberately running into someone with a motorcycle. Other DDT hires include:
- DDT's golf caddie as the White House Director of Social Media.
- DDT's bodyguard as the Director of Oval Office operations.
- Eric Trump's wedding planner in charge of HUD for the northeastern United States.
- The husband of a member of DDT's household staff at Trump Tower who ran a home contracting company called "Steve's Tools in Motion" in a job at EPA Region 2 headquarters in New York.
- DDT's bankruptcy lawyer as the ambassador to Israel.
And John Dunkin in charge of a life-and-death job.
Wendy Vitter, appointee for a federal judge and wife of GOP Louisiana senator reelected after he confessed to hiring prostitutes from the "D.C. Madam," omitted her anti-abortion speeches, interview, and letter from a disclosure form for the Senate Judiciary Committee. She skipped information about moderating a panel on the false dangers of abortion that supported the myth about women taking oral contraception having a higher risk of dying violent deaths, cheating on their partners, having fertility problems and unhealthy children, and experiencing poor relationships with their partners.
Hope Hicks, White House communications director who is "like a daughter" to DDT, left after she testified to the House Intelligence Committee that she told "white lies" for DDT. A black lie from November 2016:
"There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign."
There were contacts between DDT's campaign and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, top advisers including family members met privately with the Russian emissary about "dirt" on Clinton, George Papadopoulos' contacted with Russians, Carter Page traveled to Moscow and contacted with Russian officials, Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak's met with a variety of DDT's campaign surrogates and officials including Jeff Sessions, and Donald Trump Jr. privately communicated with WikiLeaks..
Josh Raffel, White House spokesman and "manager" for DDT's children, White House officials, Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, quit.
Joseph Yun, the top U.S. diplomat with the foreign service since 1985 who is overseeing North Korea policy, retired. Last year, Yun assisted the release of Otto Warmbier, U.S. citizen held prisoner by North Korea.
Roberta S. Jacobson, U.S. ambassador to Mexico and one of the most experienced Latin America experts in the State Department, left her position after the growing schism between the two countries and the diplomatic relations being assigned to Jared Kushner. Other major State Department resignations include Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the third-highest ranking official, and John Feeley, the ambassador to Panama.
Matthew Masterson, a GOP member of the Election Assistance Commission who won't be reappointed by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), brings the four-member agency down to two members. Masterson was an expert in non-partisan approaches to help states fight cyber attacks and develop anti-hacking protocols.
H.R. McMaster may resign as National Security Council adviser, his departure facilitated by Chief of Staff John Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis. The replacement is reportedly Stephen Biegun, a bigwig at Ford Motor Company who was on the council for a couple of years with the George W. Bush when national security warnings were ignored. He also tried to advise Sarah Palin on foreign policy when she was a VP candidate.
The 4th Circuit Court ruled 10-4 that Maryland's ban on 45 different "assault" weapons, such as the popular AR-15 in mass shootings, and its 10-round limit for magazines does not violate the U.S. Constitution. The court wrote:
"Put simply, we have no power to extend Second Amendment protections to weapons of war."
Last year a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit sent a ruling upholding the ban back to U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake, ordering her to apply "strict scrutiny." Maryland appealed to the full court which supported its decision. The fourth similar ruling in a decade, it follows the 2008 opinion from SCOTUS Justice Antonin Scalia in Columbia v. Heller that the right to bear arms "is not unlimited." Other rulings permitting the ban came from the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the 7th Circuit, and the 2nd Circuit.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear DDT's appeal of a federal court ruling to continue DACA; DHS must accept renewal applications for 700,000 young Dreamers, making DDT's arbitrary March 5 deadline moot. Two weeks ago, DDT turned down six bipartisan compromises, including one that funded his wall in exchange for extending DACA protections to Dreamers.
Two victories in LGBTQ rights: The 2nd Circuit Court banned discrimination against LGBTQ workers based on Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The DOJ had supported discrimination in the lawsuit in which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was fighting the discrimination. Last April the 7th Circuit Court was the first appeals court to ban this discrimination. The 11th Circuit Court ruled for discrimination in a split three-panel decision. The U.S. Supreme Court left in place the Arizona decision recognizing Suzan McLaughln as the legal parent of a child she and her female spouse, Kimberly McLaughlin, conceived through assisted reproduction.
The New York-based International Refugee Assistance Project has asked the Supreme Court to join Hawaii's challenge to DDT's travel ban, to be argued before SCOTUS in April. The 4th and 9th Circuit Courts have already ruled against the ban. Syrian filmmaker Kareem Abeed, nominated for an Oscar for Last Man in Aleppo with Feras Fayyad, could not attend the ceremony because of DDT's travel ban. Also denied entry is Mahmoud Al-Hatter, featured in the movie as co-founder of the White Helmets, a humanitarian volunteer group in rebel-controlled Syria and Turkey that does search and rescue after bombing to evacuate civilians. Russian propaganda has pushed the misinformation from Syrian president Bashar al-Assad who accuses them of being a front for Al-Qaeda.
In the second recent lawsuit to reverse DDT's deportations of people with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), eight Haitian and Salvadoran recipients have sued with the argument that the decision was based on discrimination. Both suits use DDT's "public hostility toward immigrants of color" as evidence. One of the Salvadoran plaintiffs began as a kitchen assistant and now has four Boston restaurants; he employs over 20 U.S. citizens.
A federal court ruled that South Dakota's March 27 petition deadline is too early and that the 2.5 percent mandate of voters too high for a new political party in the state primary.
A federal judge stopped construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in southern Louisiana, the southern extension of the Bakken Pipeline until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reconsider its environmental impacts.
Without permanent security clearance, Ivanka Trump explained the new U.S. economic sanctions against North Korea to South Korean President Moon Jae-in. An ambassador didn't have this responsibility because DDT fired his nominee, Victor Cha, after Cha disagreed with DDT's threats toward North Korea.
Net neutrality is dead, and AT&T is dancing on the body. After its claim that nothing will change, the company texted its customers to tell them that it's expanding zero rating, content exempt from arbitrary usage caps, to "some" content meaning that which already belongs to AT&T and "sponsored" data—that is paying AT&T.
DDT hasn't saved coal: the average for the closure of a plant every 16 days in 2017 matches the average for President Obama's eight years.
DDT wants to emulate Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in killing drug dealers—over 12,000 in the past two years. "You know the Chinese and Filipinos don't have a drug problem. They just kill them,'" DDT said.
The faculty at Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), self-identified as "among the nation's premier research universities," voted to rescind an honorary degree given DDT in 1988. The decision is now with the Board of Trustees which took no action on a petition with 35,000 signatures.
DDT's most bizarre tweet last week:
"I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved. Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed."
California officials fought the project, and the administration has no change in policy, despite a judge's ruling that the wall can be built with no attention to environmental and endangered species laws.
Melanie Trump stayed in the U.S. on a "genius" visa, the EB-1, for only the highest accomplished artists, doctors, academics, and engineers in 2001. Only 3,376 immigrants with "extraordinary ability" were granted of the one million visas that year.
DDT's problems in the White House:
A new poll sponsored by a conservative group shows that 77 percent of millennial voters, ages 18 to 35, want action to oppose human-caused climate change, and only ten percent oppose any action. Even 57 percent of millennial Republicans want to stop or slow climate change. Over twice as many millennials think that the country is "on the wrong track" as those who see it in "the right direction." Last week, DDT's approval rating was 35 percent.


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Whether you are vegan, vegetarian or meat-eater, you will love this new range available in our chillers!
From the exception to the exceptional – the mission of Bonsan is to break down the 'us and them' divide and bring food that's exciting, accessible, vegan and organic. Bonsan is dedicated to bringing the world of vegan eating to life, through an array of exciting products.
The range, that spans from creamy dairy free dressings to kombucha cultured tofu products, allows anyone to make healthy and enjoyable food choices that make a difference; to themselves, to animals and to the environment.
Bonsan Kofu Products – Unlike conventional tofu, Bonsan Plant based Kofu products are made from fermented kombucha cultured tofu. Kombucha contains a variety of vitamins; minerals and enzymes and is known for its many health-promoting properties. Full of flavour; rich in protein and gluten free, they are the ideal vegan meat alternative.
Bonsan Vegan Breakfast Scramble – Make mornings more delicious with Bonsan Vegan Breakfast Scramble. Made from tofu and a subtle blend of spices, this vegan egg replacement is a guaranteed winner served alongside freshly toasted sourdough and crushed avocado.
Soon on our shelves you will also find….
Bonsan Vegan Dressings & Mayos – Made from the finest organic ingredients Bonsan salad dressings are creamy, thick and delicious. Perfect drizzled over fresh salads or roasted vegetables. Also in the range are the Bonsan cocomayo & garlic aioli, free from soya and lactose, they have been lovingly created for you to dip, spread and share.


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I have been meaning to do a post like this for a while, but I kept putting it off……but two things happened this week that finally gave me the impetus to reflect on the effect that technology has on our interaction with the wider community.
1) While hanging out with milady on Sunday, I accidentally left my Ipod and headphones in the back of her car.
Since she works most of the week, and we only get to see each other on days-off, that meant I had three to spend three days without portable music, and no wi-fi connection at my fingertips. 😦
2) I finished reading Digital Disciple by Adam Thomas. In this short book, the author explores both the pros and cons of living in a world permeated by social networking, online gaming and Google searches that take mere fractions of a second.
He writes with a central question in mind: What does all this Tech (and its consequences) have for followers of Jesus Christ?
With these two events coinciding, I was forced to reflect on my own use of technology…..and more especially the power my Ipod gives me to ignore the world around me.
For those of you who don't know…..I work part-time as a street pastor for one of the churches here in London. Basically, this job involves entering into pastoral relationships with people who find themselves homeless or (as is more often the case) those who are making a very limited income.
The government pensions that they are given are high enough that they can afford to live somewhere, but there is no guarantee that a) the living conditions they can afford are healthy for their well-being or that b) there is enough disposable income left to afford basic needs like food and clothing.
Normally, I go out for about 2-3 hours on any given day and scoot around the downtown area and the East End….listening to the lives and witness of these folks. If the situation calls for it, it is also my job to direct them towards services that they inquire about, or might be able to make use of.
What struck me over this past week….is that the Ipod allows me to dictate when I will listen and when I won't. Having my ginormous headphones on signifies to most folks that my ability to listen is gone….or at the very least, occupied in another activity. It allows me to close my ears to the cry of the poor….and I openly wonder if that's a good thing.
In the days of the Walkman and CD player, my ability to block out the world only lasted for as long as the AAA batteries kept running. After those two or three hours, I was forced to either go to the dollar store and get some more, or put the Walkman away and resume my "normal" life of interacting with people 1:1
Now….. with batteries and smart-phones that last the whole day, the option to engage with the world, or to drown it out becomes a conscious choice.
In the three days that I had without music, I found myself surrounded by snippets of conversation. Instead of my favourite tracks by DMB, my ears were filled with the loud drilling and hammering of the construction crews. Instead of contemplating the Gospel through a podcast, I found myself open to more encounters with those on the sidewalk.
I have no real end-point or conclusion to this post/reflection……but I thought it was important to throw it out there as both an observation for myself and–potentially–a chance for us collectively to think about: what distracts us from being disciples??? …..Leave a comment on this post with some of your thoughts. As always, I look forward to some discussion. +


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click here to see our charlotte nc wedding photographers website:)
click below to watch the wedding day slideshow from Travis & Emily's big day!
Here's another fun shot from my second shooter, Dawn Roof… thanks again Dawn for coming to help out for the day!
Travis & Emily used 3 songs for their first dance… the dancing progressed from a "traditional slow dance" into a full on Tango! Awesome!!!
All the single ladies choreographed an entire dance for the bouquet toss… more awesome points for these two and their wedding!!!
And as a late night snack, warm Krispy Kreme was brought in!
Click here to be sure to check out Part 1 of Travis & Emily's wedding day if you missed it yesterday!
And click below to watch their wedding day slideshow!


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Nominations are sought for 2018 Junior Athlete Representative election. Five (5) Athlete Representatives serve on CSI's Board of Directors and annually shall be elected 2 or 3 each year for a two-year term or until their respective successors are selected. For the 2018 election, two (2) Junior Athlete Representative nominations are sought. Athletes interested in running for Junior Athlete Representative should read the Athlete Representative Responsibilities below and complete the Athlete Representative Nomination form.
The MJCC Age Group Qualifier on January 19-21 has been revised; the announcement and entry files were updated to include 25 backstroke on Sunday afternoon.
Technical Planning Committee will meet Tuesday, January 9, 7:30 pm, via teleconference. Agenda. CSI meetings are open to members. Please contact Chair Jen Lyman for details.