After filing its S-1 for an IPO, the largest independent ad network Millennial Media is releasing a yearly report on on performance of smartphone operating systems on its network in 2011. Continuing its growth as a platform on Millennial’s network, Android impressions grew 504 percent year-over-year.

In 2011, Android had a 47 percent share of device OS impressions, while iOS had a 33 percent share. For basis of comparison, in 2010, iOS had the top spot with a 41 percent share, while Android made up 30 percent. iPhone impression share declined 7% year-over-year but maintained its position as the number one device on the Top 20 Mobile Phones ranking, with 15% of the impression share. Millennial says no other device has been able to achieve the same level of market share of the iPhone.

The Apple iPad has been the number one tablet on Millennial’s platform since its debut in early 2010, with Samsung Galaxy Tab in second place with a little more than half the impression share of the Apple iPad. Smartphones led the Connected Device Mix for the past two years, increasing 68% year-over-year, thanks to the decline in Feature Phone usage.

In terms of manufacturers, Apple was the top manufacturer on Millennial’s platform in 2011 and the iPhone was the top individual mobile phone (both were also on top in 2010). Apple’s impression share as a device
manufacturer was relatively flat year-over-year; however the Apple iPad impressions grew substantially from 2010 to 2011.

Samsung was the number two device manufacturer on Millennial’s platform for two consecutive years, representing 17% of the Top 15 Manufacturers ranking in 2011. Samsung’s impression share was also relatively flat year-over-year. In terms of Android manufacturers that saw the biggest growth, HTC grew 79 percent year-over-year and was the number 3 manufacturer on Millennial’s platform in 2011.

Wi-Fi grew 21% year-over-year and accounted for 27% of the Carrier Mix in 2011, thanks to an increased number of Connected Devices on the platform.

In terms of app-specific data, gaming applications moved into the number one spot on Millennial’s Top Mobile Application Categories in 2011, growing 16% year-over-year. Music & Entertainment applications moved to the number two position, and news apps moved up five spots and grew 66% year-over-year.

Twitter says that 70 percent of its users come from outside the U.S. at the moment, and so it makes sense that this is where it is also investing more to grow the rest of its business. Today the company announced that it has appointed another sales executive to beef up its efforts outside its home market.

Stephen McIntyre, most recently of Google, will be overseeing Twitter’s international self-serve business, based out of Twitter’s European HQ in Dublin, which Twitter opened in Septembe 2011.

The news also comes as one third-party Twitter analytics company, Twopcharts, claimed that Twitter this week would pass the 500 million user mark. Twitter’s most recent official figure for active users comes from September 2011, when it said it had 100 million active users.

McIntyre’s appointment comes about a week after reports emerged that Shailesh Rao, currently based in New Delhi, India, would be leaving Google to join Twitter. Rao is now Twitter’s new VP of International Revenue.

Both announcements were “officially” announced on Twitter by Adam Bain, the company’s overall revenue chief.

Both McIntyre and Rao had been with Google for years and played a significant part in Google’s international growth.

McIntyre is the latest hire for Twitter’s office in Dublin, opened in September last year. According to his LinkedIn profile — not updated to include the Twitter news at the time of writing — he was senior director, new media products and platform at Google. That job was also based in Dublin. McIntyre had been with Google since 2005, working in a variety of jobs in sales for the search giant.

Rao, meanwhile, who had been with Google since 2007, had been MD of Google India and also oversaw display sales for Asia.

While McIntyre is looking after a specific platform, it looks like Rao, as a revenue VP, might have a wider remit. That could include licensing deals along the lines of the one announced earlier this week between Yandex and Twitter to provide real-time search results. Although there were no financial terms revealed with that announcement, a similar one between Twitter and Microsoft to provide similar data for Bing was reported to be worth $30 million.

The hires come at the same time that Twitter is looking to expand its employees outside the U.S. That hiring drive has also seen the company looking for additional staff to manage PR and others to focus on content development from specific verticals, such as sports.

Z2Live, the creator of hit free-to-play social games on mobile devices, is announcing today it has acquired Big Sandwich Games in Vancouver, Canada.

The deal will add nine employees to Z2Live’s work force. Terms were not disclosed. But the deal shows that Z2Live is moving fast so it can keep up with all of the rivals rushing into the mobile games Gold Rush.

Z2Live has grown fast since its founding in 2009 with hit titles such as Battle Nations (pictured above), Trade Nations and Metal Storm. Before the debut of Apple’s Game Center app for iPhone gamers, Z2Live was attempting to build something similar to offer users an Xbox-live style experience on a mobile device. It received $3 million in funding for the idea. Once Apple came out with the rival network, Z2Live decided to shift their focus and work in internally developed games. Z2Live’s games now have more than 25 million users.

Big Sandwich Games is led by Glenn Barnes and Tyler Sigman, and it will now be rechristened Z2Live Games Vancouver, tapping into a rich pool of talent in the Canadian region.

“Big Sandwich Games clearly executes at a level that meets our bar for quality”, said Lou Fasulo, chief operating officer at Z2Live. “The acquisition represents a key part of our long term strategy to build, operate and scale genre defining games.”

Z2Live has grown from 16 employees a year ago to 80 now, not counting the Big Sandwich Games team.

]]> http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/23/z2live-swallows-big-sandwich-games-in-acquisition-deal-exclusive/feed/ 0 http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/panasonic-eluga-specs/ http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/panasonic-eluga-specs/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 09:33:00 +0000 MadisonAnd42nd http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/panasonic-eluga-specs/ No, it's not the noise people make when they've eaten too much caviar. Panasonic's revealed the reasoning behind calling its long-heralded smartphone Eluga -- apparently it stands for "ELegant, User-orientated GatewAy." The company's also revealed a few more specs and tidbits following on from yesterday's rather sketchy announcement. You'll find an 8-megapixel camera sitting flush to that 7.8mm body, NFC and an "eco mode" that will shut down non-essential features when you're nursing your nearly-empty battery. That 1.0GHz TI OMAP processor we revealed to you yesterday will be joined by 8GB storage, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. You'll buy the phone with Gingerbread 2.3.5 installed, with ICS promised to arrive "from June," by which point you'll have probably learned how to pronounce the name without looking ill.

Continue reading Panasonic: Eluga means 'Elegant, user-orientated gateway,' not a cry of distress

Panasonic: Eluga means 'Elegant, user-orientated gateway,' not a cry of distress originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 05:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Wi-Fi Alliance on Wednesday revealed its plans to begin certifying devices under its new Passport initiative, which ensures mobile phones – among other things – can log into Wi-Fi networks seamlessly. Now it’s the Wireless Broadband Alliance’s turn to pick up where its partner left off, integrating those devices and the access points into the mobile operator’s network.

The WBA has closed out trials of its Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) standard with some of the world’s biggest operators, including AT&T, China Mobile, BT, NTT DoCoMo and Orange. Encouraged by the results, the WBA on Thursday said that the technology is now ready for commercial launch and expects the first NGH deployments over the next 12 months.

The Wi-Fi Alliance aims to negotiate the tricky connection between phone and access point without messing around with log-ins and registration pages as part of its Hotspot 2.0 and Passport initiatives. If a device is authorized to use a particular hotspot operator’s network it simply connects.

From there NGH takes over, extending that handshake between phone and hotspot to the operator’s back end systems where the connection can be treated like a regular cellular link. A Wi-Fi access point becomes just another cell on the operator’s network: data sessions and even voice calls can be passed from the cellular to Wi-Fi, operator services like mobile wallet or media streaming subscriptions can be maintained and the carrier can track data usage and even bill for Wi-Fi consumption (though many wouldn’t consider that positive).

Here’s what WBA Chair Chris Bruce had to say about the trials recent completion in the WBA’s statement:

“The complementary relationship between Wi-Fi and mobile networks is finally becoming a reality. Next Generation Hotspots allow smartphones and tablets to automatically roam from the cellular network on to Wi-Fi hotspots thereby augmenting the coverage and capacity of both. Fixed and mobile operators alike are leading a Wi-Fi hotspot renaissance in a renewed effort to sate the seemingly unquenchable desire for ubiquitous broadband connectivity. What has made this trial so unique is that the key players from both the mobile operator community and the Wi-Fi ecosystem have actively come together and supported each other for this industry-wide program. The future is a great broadband experience that operates over all sorts of different technologies.”

One of the biggest benefits of NGH will be its support for complex roaming arrangements. No operator is going to build Wi-Fi hotspots in every cranny of the world, so they will need to partner heavily to either share capacity or buy it from third parties. NGH will be able to negotiate those multi-leveled agreements, allowing devices to not only connect to multiple networks seamlessly but also prioritize which networks they connect to.

Expect to hear much more about Hotspot 2.0 and NGH next week when Mobile World Congress ramps up. As I wrote last week, Wi-Fi has become a huge theme at the show and threatens to overshadow LTE and HSPA as its dominant network technology discussed. All of the key operator players will be in Barcelona as will its major industry backers, Cisco System, Ericsson (which just became an NGH fan by virtue of its BelAir Networks acquisition), Google, Intel, Ruckus Wireless, Aruba Networks and Accuris Networks.

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