People want access to all of their important content wherever they are on any device. The addition of Dashwire’s cutting-edge sync services and deep mobile cloud experience strengthens our ability to deliver these services in a more powerful way.

That’s HTC president Fred Liu last week announcing his company’s acquisition of Dashwire, a Seattle-based mobile cloud platform developer. The acquisition underscores the growing importance of the cloud in mobile, but as Boy Genius Report noted, it also highlights how valuable patents have become in the space. For example, Core Mobile Networks, which recently scored an investment from Citrix Systems, could be targeted for patent-pending technology that delivers cloud-based content with contextual relevance to mobile devices. Another potential acquisition is Blaast, a Finnish startup that seeks to leverage the cloud to bring smartphone-quality data services to feature phones, although that company has to reveal details of its technology.

Patents will drive substantial M&A activity — and plenty of lawsuits — as we increasingly lean on the cloud to access mobile data. For more thoughts on how patents are shaping the growth of the mobile cloud industry, please see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro.

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Considering the increasing importance of Bada to Samsung, it should be clear that Android is not the only source of growth for the company and its transition of feature phones to Bada as well as Android is a key strategic driver for differentiation vis-a-vis low end entrants.

That’s asymco’s Horace Dediu this week discussing Canalys’s recent estimate that shipments of Samsung handsets running the Bada platform grew 355 percent in the second quarter over the same period last year. That growth may not be jaw-dropping in context: Bada debuted in June 2010 and has yet to reach the U.S., so we’re not talking about a huge figure to begin with. But it’s clear that Samsung is successfully targeting a market that exists between no-frills mobile services and high-end data offerings. The manufacturer could duplicate that success in the U.S., and prepaid would be an ideal way to bring the platform to market here. For more thoughts on how that could happen, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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Everyone thinks that mobile phones and mobile commerce are the next big things, and I think what this data shows is it’s probably actually tablets. We have always capped e-commerce at 10 to 15 percent of total retail sales, but this potentially has the capability of really expanding e-commerce much beyond that.

That’s from Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst with Forrester, commenting in the New York Times on a recent Forrester study that found that tablets already account for 20 percent of e-commerce sales, despite the fact that only 9 percent of shoppers own tablets. Those figures come on the heels of last week’s survey from Perfomics, indicating that tablets are increasingly driving paid mobile search impressions. The study found that tablets account for 14 percent of paid mobile search impressions, and they generate 1.7 percent of all paid search impressions. And businesses looking to take advantage of that emerging trend must innovate in a few key areas.

For example, in the app space, retailers should consider producing their own branded app as well as leveraging third-party apps and online social networks. In search, advertisers should take advantage of offerings like Google’s new tablet-targeting options, which enable them to include “tablets with full browsers” on the list of devices they want to receive their ads. In my latest weekly update at GigaOM Pro, I brainstorm more about the areas in which businesses and advertisers need to take advantage of the rise in tablets in order to conquer the mobile commerce arena.

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Voice revenues are shrinking for mobile carriers, networks are approaching capacity and the rising cost of handset subsidies is eating into profits. And while U.S. consumption of mobile data is up 89 percent, according to recent figures from Nielsen, the price of data has dropped 46 percent per megabyte over the past year.

There has never been a more challenging time for mobile carriers, but opportunities still abound for those willing to embrace new business models and innovative services. Carriers could differentiate their messaging services, for instance, by overhauling traditional voicemail and developing more-sophisticated offerings that integrate voice messaging with other forms of communication. For more thoughts on how carriers can better monetize mobile data and avoid becoming simple access providers, please see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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“The 3G thing on tablets is bogus. Nobody wants to pay for that data.”

That’s from IDG analyst Bob O’Donnell recently in Computerworld, opining that the high price of data plans are why 3G tablets are gathering dust in inventory. O’Donnell suggested those lagging sales will force carriers to offer a single data plan that covers a family of devices. That solution makes a lot of sense, but I think there could also be a sizable market for affordable prepaid tablets. For more on this, see my weekly update at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

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“We believe there is a large opportunity to extend our brand and games to mobile platforms such as Apple iOS and Google Android. We will continue to make our games accessible on a large number of mobile and other Internet-connected devices and invest in developing and acquiring development talent, technologies and content.”

From the S-1 Zynga filed last week as it prepares for its IPO. But while Zynga helped pioneer online social gaming, mobile gaming is an established space teeming with powerful players like Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Rovio. To take on those companies and build on its newfound momentum in mobile, Zynga should focus on a few key strategies. For my thoughts on how Zynga should expand into mobile, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (sub. required).

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Femtocells have not been successful with consumers for three major reasons:

1. Price: AT&T charges $150 for its MicroCell, and Verizon Wireless’s Network Extender will run you $250. Network operators incur back-end costs in deploying femtocells, of course, but it’s no mystery why customers have balked at the thought of paying what amounts to a double dip.

2. Wi-Fi: Home-based femtocell technology is squaring off against Wi-Fi, which is supported by nearly every data-friendly smartphone on the market.

3. Advancing cellular technologies: Femtocell development has lagged behind the advancement of cellular build-outs; for example, Verizon didn’t offer a 3G femtocell until last October. And new technologies like LTE and even HSPA+ provide more capacity as well as faster network speeds. Capacity has been an important selling point for femtocells.

While the window for consumer-targeted, in-home femtocells is closing quickly, there are still segments in which they could thrive. As the Register noted earlier this week, manufacturers such as Picochip and Ubiquisys have begun unveiling public access products dubbed “metrocells” that fill network gaps where blanket coverage with traditional cell towers is difficult. Meanwhile, the market research firm Maravedis has predicted that public-access femtocells will fall from $100 to $70 or so this year and will continue to slide into the $50 range next year. Those colliding trends lay the foundation for long-awaited growth in the femtocell market.

Further opportunity also lies in the enterprise, where femtocells can be used to deliver better indoor coverage and multiple connections to smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. They can be a low-cost alternative to picocells or DAS (distributed antenna systems), for instance, and can route calls through an enterprise PBS to deliver them to four-digit office extensions or mobile phones. If carriers can integrate femtocells in a way that makes it easier and cheaper for businesses, the technology will see substantial adoption in the enterprise.

For more thoughts on why opportunities still exists for femtocells outside the residential market, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro.

Image courtesy Flickr user jtjdt

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That may be largely due to LinkedIn’s slow response to the drastic increase in smartphone usage: The company didn’t release a downloadable app for BlackBerry until last year, and its Android app is only seven months old. But while LinkedIn has long been the subject of speculation regarding tie-ups with Google or Research In Motion, among others, it doesn’t need to depend on others to boost its mobile business. It could tap the booming mobile market by focusing on a few key initiatives:

1. Integration with Skype. Om suggested a partnership last year, and embracing Skype would give LinkedIn communications offerings that would be very compelling to many of its business users. It would also pave the way for videoconferencing over smartphones and tablets.
2. Partnerships with handset manufacturers and carriers. Embedding LinkedIn’s mobile apps on handsets would go a long way toward making users aware of those offerings. It could also help the company leverage its precious contact information by enabling users to sync phones with their accounts, just as Android does with Facebook contacts.
3. Mobile advertising. LinkedIn’s network compiles an enormous amount of data that is valuable for marketing and corporate intelligence, as Business 2 Community noted last month. That information can be coupled with mobile data such as location to deliver highly targeted ads that can be presented through LinkedIn’s mobile site and applications.

LinkedIn has done well so far without aggressively moving into mobile, but its users will increasingly demand more from the service as our data consumption continues to surge. For more thoughts on how the company can boost its business by serving those on-the-go users, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

Image courtesy Flickr user smi23le

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And while end users are primarily driving the market for enterprise tablets today, businesses will increasingly take tablet deployments into their own hands, as a recent survey from Dimensional Research illustrates. The firm found that 22 percent of business and IT executives polled said that they had officially deployed tablets, and 78 percent plan to do so by the end of 2013.

But as I discuss in a new report on enterprise tablets at GigaOM Pro (subscription required), the competition will be fierce, because so many new tablets are coming to market. Apple has created something of a standard with its $500 price point for the least expensive iPad, so competitors who can’t match that price will have to differentiate themselves with other features or functionality. Both consumer and enterprise applications will also play a major role in determining the success or failure of tablets in the enterprise. And security will increasingly be a factor, especially for businesses that allow employees to use their own tablets for work.

Enterprise tablets represent a very promising space, especially in vertical markets such as education, retail and health care. But the market for business tablets is still in its infancy, and it will endure substantial growing pains over the next two to three years. Tablet manufacturers and application developers who understand the needs of businesses and their employees will thrive as the space gets legs. Those who fail to meet those needs will quickly find themselves left behind. For more thoughts on the promising market for enterprise tablets as well as a competitive analysis of major players in the space, please see my new report (subscription required).

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But mobile is a very different game than email discounts: Our phones are always with us, so they’re much more personal than computers, and they provide marketers with tools like location data and downloadable apps. So coupon distributors will need to be mindful of four important areas as they expand beyond computer-centric businesses into the more complex world of smartphones.

1. Unwanted ads. Groupon has demonstrated that consumers are happy to receive a deal a day via email on their computers, then occasionally buy it to use weeks, or even months, later. But because phones are more personal devices, our tolerance for daily come-ons is much smaller, as this recent study from Ipsos Observer illustrates. Instead of pushing one or two ads a day at scheduled intervals, mobile deals should be delivered to consumers when they’re specifically looking for something or when they voluntarily disclose their location to see what’s nearby.

2. Location and search. GPS and geofencing are valuable tools, but sending an automated offer based solely on location isn’t enough. That’s why the tired “Starbucks scenario” of offering discounts to anyone who passes in front of a store has never taken off, and why proximity marketing via Bluetooth has foundered. Location-based offers should be sent when users check in at a specific venue or when they use their phones to search for something, and those offers should take into account the context of those activities.

3. App functionality. Groupon has the right idea here with Groupon Now, which launched last month in Chicago and features just two buttons: “I’m hungry” and “I’m bored.” But that functionality is a fraction of what we could see in the next few years. Search topics could be far more specific, and apps could perform searches based on barcode information or even an uploaded image.

The market for mobile discounts is still almost entirely untapped, giving smaller players and newcomers an opportunity to compete with the big boys as the space gets legs. Those who best understand how to bring real value to users on their phones by presenting highly targeted offers could alter the landscape of digital deals dramatically. For more thoughts on how the daily deal players should leverage mobile, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro (subscription required).

Image courtesy  of Groupon

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