At the annual Apple shareholder’s meeting yesterday, CEO Steve Jobs reiterated again the fact that Apple is a mobile device company focused on small acquisitions to grow its businesses using the nearly $26 billion pile of cash its sitting on.  Through its acquisition history and future plans, its clear that Apple wants to own every piece of  each “mobile device” they offer, especially the iPhone.

At the shareholder’s meeting, Jobs expressed his continued interest in acquiring companies based on their talent and technology, not by their perceived market position, meaning the company will go after small startups that offer highly focused technology, or highly skilled and knowledgeable founders.  The company wants to acquire startups that can help bolster certain aspects of its products- a perfect example being the low-key acquisition of a mapping startup a while back to help Apple develop its own in-house mapping solution.

It’s clear the company wants to own every aspect of the devices they offer, and they’re already on the right track.  With the iPhone, the company directly handles the hardware,  software, the mobile commerce and music aspects via iTunes, mobile application distribution via its App store, and soon its own mapping solution, effectively locking out all third-parties and positioning itself to keep the iPhone (and all its revenue streams) all to itself.

One obvious priority is to directly dominate the mobile advertising flowing through iPhones and their subsequent content.  With Quattro wireless waiting in the wings, it will soon pull the trigger and offer a unique in-house mobile advertising solution to the thriving community of developers surrounding the iPhone and the future iPad.  By Quattro being the default solution, and being included in the iPhone SDK, it will effectively lock out other ad-networks without explicitly doing so, keeping yet another aspect of the iPhone ecosystem all to themselves.

With a location-aspect being paramount in mobile advertising, its in-house mapping solution will play a huge role as well, meaning Apple can offer developers and advertisers one of the most comprehensive and well-rounded mobile solutions available, without forcing them to seek certain aspects elsewhere.  When a developer wants to develop, distribute and monetize their applications, Apple will be there to handle the entire process from design to monetization.  This puts Apple in a unique and highly powerful position.

With $26 billion in the bank, and a highly focused acquisition strategy, Apple is on track to dominate the mobile ecosystem on several levels.  This was the message Jobs had for shareholders yesterday, and as history has proved, he usually delivers.

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QderoPateo, a unique startup that generated some buzz with its focus on “Articulated Naturality,” has launched a bluetooth proximity marketing solution and the beginning of its “Bluetooth Advertising Network.”  The announcement, sent in a press release yesterday, comes after I mention a complete lack of interest in proximity marketing in the recent past.

The proximity marketing solution, dubbed “Blu-Pons,” is focused on malls and shopping centers and uses distinct calls-to-action to encourage roaming consumers to turn their Bluetooth on and make themselves discoverable.  Once they do so, the Blu-Pon system implicitly asks for permission to push a coupon to the user, and if they accept, the coupon is transmitted.

Upon acceptance, the coupon is downloaded and stored on the user’s phone to be presented and redeemed at the participating retailer during purchase.  Later this year, the company plans to add the ability to redeem “Blu-Bucks” at retailers, providing a unique retention tool to keep customers coming back for more.

In addition, the company will soon launch an online advertising portal at blu-pons.com to enable advertisers to purchase and manage Blu-Pon campaigns online- with complete reporting that can even be emailed directly to the campaign manager for easy ROI measurement.

While the solution is not unlike several others on the market around the world, QderoPateo has taken things a bit farther in terms of campaign management and access, reporting and the concept of creating a “network” between hotspots.  Still, the prohibiting factors of the bluetooth marketing concept is still present.  Since this implementation is US-based, it will be interesting to see how consumers respond, and how retailers embrace the new concept.

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A new report published yesterday by the UN indicates that 67% of the world’s population, or two-thirds total, are mobile subscribers- far outweighing Online access.

67% of the world’s population represents around 4.6B people, up from only 1B in 2002, indicating staggering continued growth.  In developing nations, however, the uptake is even more substantial with 57% of the total population in these nations being mobile subscribers, even though other technologies are scarce.

To compile the report, the UN tallied mobile phone, land-line telephone and internet usage in 159 countries, which ranged from the most advanced European nations to the least developed nations in sub-Saharan Africa.  The report also found that Internet use has grown, but at a much slower pace.  It’s no secret that mobile devices are replacing computers in many parts of the world, and that a large majority of Web usage is attributed to mobile.

The potential for mobile marketing is obvious, especially in developing nations, with cellular penetration (CP) more than doubling in developing nations such as Africa and India since 2005.  The CP in emerging markets exceeded 50% for the first time in 2009, reaching an estimated 57% by the end of the year, the report claims.

Providers and carriers are already taking note, as earlier this month, Vodafone revealed it will target consumers in India and across Africa with two new, ultra-low cost handsets which will support mobile banking and other services.  Without immense competition as felt in developed nations such as the US and European countries, the possibilities are endless.

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BIA/Kelsey published its US Local Media Annual Forecast (2009-2014) today detailing some interesting findings and predictions when it comes to local marketing and advertising in the US.  The overall message being that spending is increasingly being focused towards local advertising, as well as a continued shift towards digital media and primarily mobile.

Generally speaking, BIA/Kelsey predicts the US local advertising market to reach $144.9 billion in 2014, representing a modest compound annual growth rate of 2.2 percent from 2009.  A closer look at the forecast period reveals, following a significant contraction in 2009, local media spending is expected to be slow through 2011, with meaningful recovery beginning in 2012.  The group also forecasts spending on traditional media to decline from $115 billion in 2009 to $108.2 billion in 2014.  During the same period, however, spending on online/interactive/mobile media is projected to grow from $15.2 billion to $36.7 billion.

The interesting take-away from the forecast is the revelation that 55 percent of all ad spending is with local media, defined as “spending by small and medium-sized businesses and national advertisers or regional advertisers making local buys.”  In 2009, total U.S. ad spending was $235.6 billion.  Of that, the group estimates $130.2 billion was spent on local ad buys, with $105.4 billion attributed to national advertising.

This is interesting because as the shift to digital/interactive marketing mediums continues, so too does the interest in local advertising, likely fueled by much better targeting and relevancy potential over older, legacy forms of marketing.  This is a prime example of why mobile is increasingly becoming the channel of choice for forward-thinking brands wanting to get more bang for their buck.

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The “Mobile Entertainment Forum” (MEF) is a trade group that represents leading companies throughout the entire mobile entertainment value chain, and publishes a “Business Confidence Index” (BCI) to analyse revenue and business trends in the $36bn mobile entertainment industry.  As such, the group has released its latest BCI in which it predicts a 24% growth for mobile media and entertainment.

In Q3 2009, the MEF posted strong optimism with a 33% growth estimate, but has readjusted their estimates after taking into account the global recession and changes in the mobile ecosystem.  ”Since its launch in January 2009, the BCI has underlined the industry’s ability to weather the storm of the recession and leverage the new opportunities presented by the proliferation of smartphones and digital economy business models. With the global economic recovery underway, the first aggregate results of the Annual BCI point to a toughened industry which has readjusted growth predictions from 33% growth in Q2, down to 24%.”

The growth of mobile media relies heavily on the evolution of the supporting value chain, and the MEF has found that the proliferation of smartphones, the growing trend of mobile apps to distribute mobile content and other key aspects are driving the growth estimates they predict.  Respondents now expect the value chain that develops, sells and delivers applications to account for 21% of revenue streams for the next quarter and the majority expect this to be incremental revenue.  Considering applications stores only came about 18 months ago, this is a significant development, showing consumers’ willingness to embrace and consume mobile content.

Though optimism in terms of mobile media growth have had to be scaled back to more logical proportions, one thing’s for sure: the trends emerging in the mobile ecosystem will do nothing but foster the creation and distribution of mobile media in large scale.

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