Social Media Marketing and Branding

Nielsen recently published a study that revealed that only 43% of all US mobile phones users own a smartphone, while most subscribers under the age of 44 use smartphones.

Smartphones are most popular in the group of 25-34 aged, with 62 percent of them reported to own smartphones. And among those 18-24 and 35-44 years old the smartphone penetration rate is hovering near 54 percent.

Smartphone Penetration by Age Group, (c) Nielsen, 2011

Continue reading "Smartphone Market Expands – 62% of Mobile Users in the U.S. Aged 25 – 34 Use Smartphone" »

This will quickly become the most famous Apple Store in China: BirdAbroad – a blogger in Kunming – posted photos along with the story of a local store which actually looked just like one Apple’s iconic retail stores. It featured the standard design elements: glass exterior, winding staircase inside, pale wood display tables and of course giant posters displaying the iPad 2 and other Apple products, plus a neatly organized accessories wall.
A short quote:

Image via Wikipedia

I know, you guys are laughing: an Apple store in Kunming? No one who doesn’t know me personally has ever heard of Kunming before. Kunming is the end of the Earth. It’s all true – but seriously, China warps your mind into believing that anything is possible, if you stay here long enough. When we went back to this store 5 days later and couldn’t find it, having overshot by two blocks, I seriously thought that it had simply been torn down and replaced with a bank in the mean time – hey, it’s China. That could happen.
You have already guessed the punchline, of course: this was a total Apple store ripoff. A beautiful ripoff – a brilliant one – the best ripoff store we had ever seen (and we see them every day). But some things were just not right: the stairs were poorly made. The walls hadn’t been painted properly.
Apple never writes “Apple Store” on it’s signs – it just puts up the glowing, iconic fruit.

What do you think – will we see more store concepts copied in the Asian world?

Related articles

• Fake Apple Store spotted in China (telegraph.co.uk)
• The Ultimate Knock-Off: A Fake Apple Store (blogs.wsj.com)
• Fake Apple stores on the rise in China (cbsnews.com)

Remember Google Buzz? Or Google Wave?

Well, Google has tried several times to take on Facebook to conquer and master social networking – without much success. Now it is making its biggest effort yet.

Google introduced its social networking service called the Google+ project.  Similarities to existing Social Network are pure coincidence . Google’s service, which is initially available to selected Google users, who will soon be able to invite others, will let people share and discuss status updates, photos and links, much as they do on Facebook.

Image via CrunchBase

Google+ is meant for sharing with groups – whether colleagues, family or sports friends – not with all of your friends or even the entire Web. Features include group text messaging and video chat. Continue reading "Google+ or what?" »