And as the number of smartphone owners rise, so does the popularity of mobile apps. From 2011 to 2012, the average number of apps per smartphone jumped 28% from 32 apps to 41 apps. Android & iOS users account for 88% of total mobile owners who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days. To date, more than 15 billion & 25 billion Android & iOS apps have been downloaded, respectively.

Smartphone owners are also spending more time on their apps versus mobile web. The average amount of time a smartphone owner spends on apps each day, however, remains relatively the same as last year – 37 minutes a day versus 39 minutes. To keep users coming back to your app, update (exciting) content on a regular basis & notify users of content through notifications (whether that’s from push messages or social network sites- just make sure to get the word out there!).

More and more mobile consumers are using their smartphones to get directions, addresses of local businesses, recommendations, and other location-based information- all in real-time.

Increasing in popularity amongst mobile consumers is geosocial services, which include check-ins and location sharing. The percentage of smartphone owners using geosocial services jumped 6% from 12% last year (February 2011) to 18% this year (February 2012).

Who uses location and geo-social services? 

Smartphone owners who are women tend to use these services more than men (76% versus 74%).

Younger adults (18-29) use these services more often than smartphone owners who are in the 30-49 age group or 50 plus age group.

Those with higher incomes or higher education levels also use these services more often than those with lower incomes or lower education levels.

See chart below:

This recent study was conducted from January 20 to February 19, 2012 in the form of phone interviews by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. A sample of 2,253 adults, age 18 and older, that represented the demographics of the U.S. was interviewed.

This rapid growth can be attributed to the trend that is occurring amongst new mobile subscribers- new subscribers are choosing smartphones over feature phones. In February 2011, around 62% of new mobile subscribers chose feature phones while 38% chose smartphones; however, in one year, these figures have changed to 52% & 48%, respectively (See chart below).

Fast forward to now, new mobile subscribers in the U.S. are choosing to buy smartphones more often than feature phones.

What smartphones are people buying?

Android is the top smartphone OS with 48.5% market share, followed by iOS with 32.0%, and then trailing behind at a distance are RIM Blackberry (11.6%), Windows, and other. While Android leads as the most popular smartphone OS, the most popular smartphone manufacturer is Apple.

Who are the mobile subscribers in the US? 

Females: Of female mobile subscribers, 50.9% owned smartphones compared to 50.1% of male mobile subscribers.

Asians: 67.3% of mobile subscribers of this ethnicity own smartphones, followed by Hispanics (57.3%), African Americans (54.4%), and Caucasians (44.7%).

25 to 34 year olds: 66% of mobile subscribers in this age group own smartphones. Those with the highest incomes are more likely to own smartphones (See chart below).

Back in December of last year, San Diego Zoo released their official app to the joy of animal lovers across the world.

And now they’re back with the launch of the official app for the Safari Park. The Safari Park is “an expansive wildlife sanctuary that is home to more than 3,500 animals representing more than 400 species. Over half of the Park’s 1,800 acres have been set aside as protected native species habitat.”

In the app, visitors can learn about the 9 safari packages offered, use the Map on their safari journey, check out upcoming Events, and brush up on Visitor Info to plan their day. And to much fanfare, the app includes Live Cams! Now, animal lovers around the world can watch elephants play in real time.

If you’re thinking of taking a trip to the Safari Park or want to get up close & personal with the elephants, download the official San Diego Zoo Safari Park app at http://road.ie/safari-park.

Below are the mobile websites for some of our tech client partners. (To experience our mobile web product, click on the titles through a mobile browser)

The Parlotones Academy of Country Music 

PJ’s Coffee

Chicago Festival Finder

BSCENE Magazine

Modelinia

Spider-Man on Broadway 

Gabriel Iglesias 

Taylor Swift 

With more people browsing the Web on mobile devices, it’s now more important than ever for brands to get started building their mobile presence. We want every brand and business to go mobile, and with our mobile website product priced for any budget, it’s now possible. To get started, check out our website.

That entailed new product offerings, more features, a new pricing structure, and a completely redesigned CMS. It’s all part of our ongoing commitment to constant improvement!

New Product Offerings

We’ve simplified our product offerings, consolidating our Core, Plus, and Pro packages into a single version with 6 optional packages that gives you the flexibility to cherry pick Pro features to customize your package; our Pro package continues to be an “all in” package with every bell and whistle we offer.

We are also bundling iPhone and Android together in a single mobile app offering; if you have just one platform, you get the other at no additional cost when you upgrade to a new package. We believe that all our customers need to be on both platforms, so they’re now included in all native app packages.

What are the feature packages? 

The 6 feature packages you can add to your app all perform different functions

Advanced Design Package – Additional design features for your app, including unlimited themes, custom navigation buttons, pre roll video, and premium badge & icon sets.

Advanced Views – Makes your app even more entertaining for your users with the addition of Photocards (upload your art over the user’s camera), Bopler’s in-app game integration, Aurasma’s augmented reality plug in, and the ability to duplicate sections & features.

Commerce Package – This package allows you to easily sell physical merchandise to your users, built in to your app. Upon full release (coming soon), it will support all common online stores.

Advanced Analytics – More analytical tools to better understand your users, including advanced reporting, advanced push notifications, session time reports, and full user list organized by influence (based on # of Twitter followers or Facebook friends a user has).

Advanced Developer Tools – This package includes features like MoRo API access, the ability to implement a custom ad network, support for you to insert a custom section into your app, and enhanced developer support.

Advanced Content Package – This package packs your app with more options to organize content, including the ability to categorize content, giving users the ability to search for content, and featured content slideshows.

If you want everything we offer, simply choose “Pro” to get all packages, built in (as well as a discount compared to adding packages a-la-carte).

Mobile Web & iPad

For iPad, we’ve redesigned the entire experience from scratch to take advantage of the tablet’s larger screen. Every view will look and feel like it was made for the iPad.

Our new Mobile Web product enables any brand or small business to create a mobile-friendly site on any budget. Unlike most of the mobile web products on the market, our mobile web product is easy-to-use and customizable, down to the smallest details such as fonts and colors. We’re including our mobile web product at no extra charge in every native app package. For those who want a mobile presence but aren’t ready or don’t have the budget to build their own app, we are offering a limited (free) version and a paid premium version of our mobile web product.

To view our two new platforms in detail, visit our iPad & Mobile Web announcement.

New Pricing

We’ve also replaced our existing pricing with an all-new pricing structure that is simple and straightforward. We’re no longer charging monthly customers initial setup or download overage fees. All packages now include unlimited downloads and our ongoing feature upgrades.

Existing MoRo customers have the choice to stay with their current pricing plan or be moved over to a new pricing plan.

For some customers, the new pricing is less expensive than your current pricing plan. If you’re one of these customers, you can immediately upgrade to Mobile Roadie 4.0 and be billed at the new lower rate.

For other customers, the new pricing is more expensive than what you are currently paying for a variety of reasons, including (new) unlimited downloads, new features, and an additional platform (for example, Android if you only have an iPhone app). If you’re one of these customers, don’t worry. As a current and loyal customer, we have grandfathered you in – there is no added cost to your bill, as long as you stay on your current package. It’s our way of saying thank you for your continued business.

For more information regarding the new pricing, please check out our FAQ Support Page or view our pricing page.

Completely Redesigned Website and CMS

We’re also excited to reveal our completely redesigned website and CMS. Our new CMS is easier to use and navigate around, and has integrated tooltips with video walkthroughs to guide you along the way. If you’re an existing customer, you can log in to your CMS right now and upgrade to the new CMS.

Other New Features

Other new features in Mobile Roadie 4.0 include:

- New analytics and push notification options

- New design options

- More promotion and marketing tools

- More technology integration with leading tech companies

- Free trial period to demo our products

- And more to be revealed soon!

Mobile-First World

We’re living in a mobile first world: Traffic from mobile devices and tablets will surpass desktop shortly, and it’s estimated that 660 million smartphones and 106 million tablets will be shipped this year alone. In the U.S., smartphones will outsell feature phones this year for the first time ever. So now is the time that every brand and business needs a high quality, low cost mobile presence.

Mobile Roadie 4.0 is our largest platform update since we launched in 2009! With the newest version, our goal is to make it easier than ever for you to build your mobile presence, organize content, and engage your audience. And with our easy-to-use platform, beautiful yet affordable products, and 20 million plus users enjoying our gallery of apps, we’re here to help you get started.

We hope you enjoy Mobile Roadie 4.0. If you have any questions please contact Support.

First, let’s take a closer look at our new iPad platform. Our iPad product is not our iPhone product “blown up” to fit the iPad’s larger screen. It was actually built from the ground up, specifically designed for the iPad, displaying rich media beautifully in an engaging way.

Main features of the iPad app platform include:

-Live navigation widgets which turn the main menu into a dynamic feed of streaming content

-Immersive hi-res graphics layers, parallax scrolling and slideshows

-Ability to sync content to an existing community with iPhone apps, Android apps, and mobile websites
To showcase what the native iPad platform can do, we would like to introduce three iPad apps launching today:

Tech City

Cristiano Ronaldo

David Guetta

Second, we’re excited to offer our self-service mobile website platform, which will allow any brand or business to create a mobile-friendly site on any budget.

Key features of the mobile website productinclude:

- The mobile website’s clean design and easy-to-use interface ensures customers will have a positive mobile experience on any device. Customers simply enter their URL to start the process and can design their mobile website to fit their needs, customizing to the smallest details such as fonts and colors.

- Access to your content instantly without waiting for the website to download.

- Cross-platform accessibility to reach a larger audience.

- Updates anytime from Mobile Roadie CMS or sync with your standard website.

- Ability to create a shortcut icon directly on your user’s home screen.

To demonstrate that any brand or business from any vertical can have a mobile web app, we picked the following mobile app partners to showcase our mobile web product:

The Parlotones Academy of Country Music 

PJ’s Coffee

Chicago Festival Finder

BSCENE Magazine

Modelinia

Spider-Man on Broadway 

Gabriel Iglesias 

Taylor Swift 

We believe every brand and business, no matter the size, needs to have a mobile presence. Create your own iPad app or mobile website today. We hope you enjoy these two new platforms!

We’re excited to announce that our Madonna app has been chosen by The FWA Network as Mobile of the Day today, which you can view on the FWA website!

FWA is “the most visited website award program in the history of the internet, with over 140 million site visits (as of July 2011),” according to FWA’s official website. In 2007, FWA (Favourite Website Awards) was named “the number 1 web award in the world, beating the likes of YouTube and the Webbys, in the Chicago Tribune’s first World Wide Web Awards.”

Submissions for Mobile of the Day are reviewed by FWA’s expert panel of mobile judges who base their decisions on 5 key criteria – creativity, originality, design, content, and personality. Past winners include Harper’s Bazaar anniversary issue on iPad, Zappos ZN digital magazine, the 2012 Nickelodeon’s Kid Choice Awards app, and mobile game Tap the Frog 2.

We are honored to be chosen by FWA as Mobile of the Day given the caliber of past winners and the rigorous judging process. To download the official Madonna app, visit http://road.ie/madonna.

Rethink Music 2012 is already underway at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. Rethink Music is a collaboration between the Berklee College of Music and Midem in association with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Babson College, bringing together “the strongest minds across all facets of the music industry to examine current challenges and formulate paths forward.” The event will feature creative workshops, expert panels, live performances, and competitions “designed to cultivate innovation.”

Speakers this year include influentials across music, entertainment, and education like Bertrand Bodson (SVP Global Digital Marketing, EMI Music UK), Cathy Merenda (VP of Music Publishing, 20th Century Fox), Bill Werde (Editorial Director, Billboard), Geoff Cottrill (CMO, Converse), Len Schlesinger (President, Babson College), and many more including MoRo CEO Michael Schneider. To view the full list of scheduled speakers, click here.

Michael will be speaking today at 4:50pm (EST) with Ori Lavie (VP Mobile Strategy, Conduit Mobile), Liz Leahy (CEO, Section 101), and Amaechi Uzoigwe (Head of Content & Business Affairs, Official.fm) on the Musicians’ Toolbox panel “D2F” moderated by Caroline Daniels (Professor of Entrepreneurship & Tech, Babson College). The panel will discuss how musicians can capitalize the “plethora of online and mobile applications” at their fingertips in the D2F or “Direct-to-fan Marketing” world.

Rethink Music will conclude on April 24th with the closing ceremony where the winner of the Genesis Project - a startup competition awarding the proposal that best has the potential to “encourage and monetize creativity in the music industry”- will be announced.

To stay connected with Rethink Music, download the official app available at http://road.ie/rethink where you can consult the conference schedule, discover all the speakers, share your experience, and so much more.

It’s that time of year when college students across the country get ready to put down the books and pick up their diplomas. And as they enter the “real world”, the memories of college life – parties, professors, classmates, exams, and even more parties- start to fade away…That is, until years later when it’s time to go the alumni reunion.

Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business is hosting their 2012 Alumni Reunion Weekend today and tomorrow for all alumni of this prestigious business school. To connect alumni even before the event takes place, they created their app powered by Mobile Roadie.

Inside the app, alumni can view the schedule of events and speakers, connect with each other on the Fan Wall, take branded pictures with Photocards, check hotels around the area, and much more. After the reunion, alumni can check back in the app for the latest updates, recaps, and photos.

The Tepper Alumni app is for all alumni of Tepper School of Business who want to stay connected even if they can’t make it out to the reunion. If you’re an alumni or current student of Tepper, download the official Tepper Alumni app at http://road.ie/tepperalumni.