The company reported Tuesday that soaring sales of the iPhone, especially in China, helped Apple nearly double its profit in the company’s fiscal second quarter.

Apple said it sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, an 88 percent increase from the period a year ago. It sold 11.8 million iPads, more than double the number it sold in the same quarter last year.

“It was an incredible quarter in China,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in a conference call with Wall Street analysts. “It is mind-boggling that we could do this well.”

For the quarter that ended March 31, the company reported net income of $11.62 billion, or $12.30 a share, compared with $5.99 billion, or $6.40 a share, in the period a year earlier.

Apple’s revenue was $39.19 billion, up from $24.67 billion a year ago.

Mr. Cook said that Apple’s quarterly revenue from China was $7.9 billion, about 20 percent of total company revenue. Furthermore, that was triple Apple’s China sales in the same period a year ago. In contrast, Apple’s China sales during its last fiscal year were about 12 percent of total revenue. Two years ago, Apple sales in China were 2 percent.

“China has grown from a rounding error to a massive new market,” said Robert Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners. “Their premium price point clearly has not been any hurdle to them growing there.”

Mr. Cook said that enormous numbers of people moving into the middle class in China were creating demand for goods including the iPhone. He said Apple was “doing everything” it could to serve the market. The iPhone 4S went on sale in China on Jan. 13, near the beginning of the last quarter, and starts at nearly $800 without a wireless plan, though it is available free with a multiyear carrier contract.

Since becoming chief executive of Apple last fall, Mr. Cook has repeatedly identified China as one of the biggest growth opportunities for Apple. The growing appetite for Apple’s products among Chinese consumers comes at a time when Apple is working with manufacturing partners and parts suppliers to improve working conditions in factories in countries like China, where most Apple products are made.

Apple executives also said demand for the newest version of the iPad, released by Apple last month, was outstripping supply of the product, leading to shortages. They said it remained their fastest-growing business and that Apple had sold 67 million of the device since the first model went on sale in 2010.

Mr. Cook said it took 24 years for Apple to sell an equivalent number of Macintosh computers. In the education market, one of the strongest for the Mac, Apple said it sold two iPads for every Apple computer. In one example, the San Diego school district bought 10,000 iPads during the last quarter, with plans to buy 15,000 more in the current quarter, according to Apple.

Apple previously told Wall Street to expect earnings of $8.50 a share and revenue of $32.5 billion for the quarter. But as they do nearly every quarter, analysts viewed Apple’s official figures as lowball estimates and came up with their own more bullish forecasts. On average, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected Apple to report earnings of $10.06 a share and revenue of $36.81 billion for the quarter.

Investors in Apple had grown increasingly skittish about Apple’s performance in the weeks before the earnings report, sending its shares down from a high of $636.23 on April 9 to $560.28 at the close of regular trading on Tuesday. Among their chief concerns were research data showing weak sales of the Macintosh computer and worries about whether iPhone sales could keep up their momentum.

But immediately after the results from Apple came out, its shares shot up nearly 7.4 percent in extended trading. Even after the jitters of the last several weeks, Apple’s shares are up 38 percent for the year and the company remains the world’s most highly valued company.

Some investors fear a repeat of a pattern from last year, when Apple said it lost some sales of the iPhone because of a steady escalation of rumors about the release of a new model. Those rumors were accurate; Apple announced the iPhone 4S in early October.

There is widespread speculation that Apple will again introduce a new version of the iPhone in the fall and that consumers might wait for its release so they can get the latest gadget. The iPhone has become an engine of Apple’s growth over the last two years, accounting for almost 40 percent of the company’s revenue during the quarter. Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said a slowdown in iPhone sales in the months ahead of an expected fall or summer release of a new version remained likely.

“You can count on that,” said Mr. Munster.

As it does in most quarters, Apple again tempered expectations with analysts. In the company’s current quarter, Apple said it expected to report earnings of $8.68 a share and revenue of $34 billion.

The company also said its hoard of cash and cash equivalents rose to more than $110 billion. Apple has said it intends to slow the growth of its cash through investor dividends and share buybacks.

NFL

The New England Patriots will face the New York Jets in a Thanksgiving-night game on NBC.

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NBC is seeking an ambitious sum for ad inventory in its new Thanksgiving-night NFL broadcast, a signal that discussions for ad time in football could heat up in the weeks leading to the annual upfront haggling sessions between advertisers and TV networks.

NBC will attempt to get "pretty close to seven figures" for a 30-second spot in the game, which will feature the New England Patriots squaring off against the New York Jets, said Seth Winter, exec VP-sales and marketing for NBC Sports Group.

The price tag is bold. Last fall a 30-second ad in NBC's "Sunday Night Football" -- the most expensive program for advertisers at the start of the 2011-2012 TV season -- cost an average of $512,367, according to Advertising Age's annual survey of ad prices in prime time. At near seven figures, the cost of a 30-second spot in the Thanksgiving-evening game would come close to doubling that price.

NBC is certainly trying to make the most of this year's Thanksgiving-night game, which was previously available only on cable's NFL Network. It was added to NBC's schedule this year as part of recent contract talks with the NFL, so its ad inventory is not included in ad packages that NBC may have negotiated previously. "It's a different animal," Mr. Winter said in an interview. "We are looking at it as a unique entity within the broader NFL package."

The network's pitch? NBC believes that families will be sitting at home after dinner, seeking out original content and potentially delivering huge ratings. The game also leads into the biggest season for retail and holiday purchases, starting with Black Friday the following morning and Cyber Monday after the weekend, so it could be opportune for a broader swath of marketers that typically advertise in football.

A price approaching seven figures would be in line with the price NBC has sought in the past for its Thursday-night broadcasts of the NFL season's "kickoff" game, one media-buying executive said. That Thursday-night broadcast has attracted around 27 million viewers in its last two airings, according to data from Nielsen.

NBC's aggressive maneuver puts a spotlight on negotiations for football advertising in the coming fall season. In recent years, with automotive marketers rushing to get ads back on TV after a recession, demand for time in football matches has been intense -- and some sales have even moved in advance of formal May presentations for the upfront, when networks typically sell the bulk of their upcoming ad inventory. Advertisers like the games' ability to draw a broad audience that many dramas and sitcoms cannot match, as well as the fact that a good portion of the viewership tunes in to watch the games live, meaning they can't skip the ads with a DVR.

All the networks that televise NFL football -- Walt Disney's's ESPN, News Corp.'s Fox, CBS Corp.'s CBS and Comcast's's NBC -- are at the very least holding exploratory conversations with advertisers about football packages, according to people familiar with the talks. NBC has sold some time for the fall, Mr. Winter said. CBS has been selling time for the fall season as part of its negotiations with marketers for its broadcast of Super Bowl XLVII, according to several people with knowledge of the situation, but is also selling fall ad time independent of that effort, one of these people said.

There's no reason, however, for marketers to feel irrational exuberance. Most of the current conversations about football adverting appear to come as part of filling schedules for multi-year deals already in place, said the media-buying executive. "Anybody that has got real estate or a big equity position in a network can potentially be having discussions sooner rather than later," the media buyer said. "We'll give them some stuff under their belt, but going into the upfront, I don't see the NFL marketplace moving ahead of prime time."

Can NBC get the price it seeks for Thanksgiving night? Already, the two games broadcast by CBS and Fox on Turkey Day afternoon bring in around 30 million viewers each. The NFL Network's broadcast of a Thanksgiving-night game last year snared just 10 million or so viewers, attributable to that outlet's smaller distribution.

"I think it's going to do a big number," the buying executive said. "Whether the market will bear it out is another story."

NBC's ability to secure top price for its Thanksgiving-night game could hinge on the network's ability to draw retailers who normally don't advertise on football. "How important is that date and that time period to the broader marketplace?," the buyer added. "There might be a couple of categories that find it to be critical, but there are others who won't."

NBC has impetus to get top dollar. The network's parent has in recent months invested heavily in sports, including renewing deals with the NHL, NFL and the International Olympics Committee, and has spent money marketing NBC Sports Network, the cable outlet that replaced the former Versus.

Jonathan Mak Long never thought his tribute to Apple founder Steve Jobs would go viral, much less lead to his spearheading a design for Coca-Cola.

Shanghai bus shelter

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The image by the 20-year-old student from Hong Kong -- two hands in the shape of Coke's iconic white ribbon passing a bottle -- premiered this past weekend in bus shelters and elevators in Shanghai. And the fresh design, part of Coke's global "Open Happiness" campaign, has caught the attention of top executives at the beverage giant.

"It's got unusual, intriguing stopping power," said Stephen Drummond, director-content and creative excellence for Coca-Cola in Asia Pacific. "Everyone's responded with a sense of, 'Wow, that's a different, intriguing spin on something so iconic and so familiar.' Just for that reason it engages people. Of course the message of connection and friendship with the brand at the center comes through very clearly."

The design could be used in markets outside of China, though nothing is confirmed because it's still so fresh, Mr. Drummond said.

Mr. Mak, a second-year communication design student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, described his involvement with Coke as a "happy accident." The design for Mr. Jobs was something he had created and posted to his blog in August 2011, when Mr. Jobs stepped down as CEO. Mr. Mak did not expect it to go viral when he reposted the image, featuring the Apple logo with Mr. Jobs' silhouette making up the "bite," after his death in October 2011.

Graham Fink, chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather China, was on vacation in London when Mr. Jobs died and was captivated by the visual tribute, which was published in several British newspapers. They said only that that it was "designed by a Hong Kong student."

"Because we didn't know the college, it took quite some time to get hold of him," Mr. Fink said. "I had my assistant in Shanghai calling all the colleges in Hong Kong."

After his vacation, Mr. Fink flew directly to Hong Kong to meet Mr. Mak.

"We went through his portfolio ... his book was beautifully simple," recalled Mr. Fink, who said he has a passion for nurturing young talent. "I said to him, 'Look, we must keep in touch. I'd love to help you in any way that I can.' "

In February, Mr. Fink offered Mr. Mak an assignment that he had just presented to his creative team. The brief was simply: "Sharing a Coke."

Jonathan Mak Long

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"I think the way I approached the poster is quite similar to the Steve Jobs Apple logo," Mr. Mak said. "I enjoy making visual puns. ... I don't want to say it's my style, but I do enjoy combining elements together to create a joke almost. It captures people's attention. These kinds of images are quite appropriate to advertising. It takes a second to get, and then there's an 'aha' moment."

Mr. Mak was paid for the work, though he declined to disclose the amount. He's currently on an exchange program at the Cologne International School of Design in Germany and said his friends, who knew about the project, tease him when he complains about the high cost of living in Europe.

Interestingly, the brief was not an official assignment for Ogilvy. Leo Burnett is the Coke brand's agency of record in China, and Ogilvy is one of Coca-Cola's roster agencies, working on several brands, including Fanta.

"Ogilvy took the initiative and totally surprised us," Mr. Drummond said. "Sometimes these ideas pop up out of serendipity, it's very much on-brand and on-brief." Coke wants to be "open to ideas that come from anywhere and everywhere and embrace it," he added.

Martin Murphy, managing director-global brand management at Ogilvy & Mather, Shanghai, said, "We are often thinking about ideas and approaches that could help our client's brands, even those brands outside of our portfolio. This specific initiative came about through some internal brainstorming on iconic messaging."

It's not clear how the staff creatives at Ogilvy China feel about having a student steal their thunder. But Mr. Fink said he considers it a dose of healthy competition.

"The way creative departments work these days, ideas can come from anywhere," he said. "You want anything that makes people work better, faster. There are a lot of great people out there, especially in China. The whole country is learning about [advertising]. ... There's a huge opportunity for us to find these people."

Mr. Mak is focusing on finishing his studies and doesn't know yet whether he will go into advertising. He stressed, though, that he was grateful for the opportunity and hopes to continue working with Mr. Fink.

"I'm still a student, and I'd like to continue to see if there are other areas that interest me," he said. "I just want to do good work that can affect people the way the Steve Jobs-Apple logo did. But my concrete career achievements? I don't want to think about that. I just want to do good work."

Mr. Mak had a message for his Tumblr fans: He's posting again after retrieving the MacBook he left on a German train.

Tim Tebow is so popular he even inspires lawsuits.

Nike filed suit against Reebok on Tuesday, claiming that its competitor is using Mr. Tebow's name without permission on Reebok-made apparel and replica jerseys bearing the quarterback's No. 15 in the wake of his trade to the New York Jets on March 21.

AP

Tim Tebow

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Reebok's 10-year contract as the NFL's official uniform supplied is ending; Nike takes over in a new five-year deal that begins on Sunday, April 1. The suit, claiming a misappropriation of rights and unauthorized and improper use of Mr. Tebow's name, was filed in federal court in New York. Nike is asking for "preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorneys' fees."

In a statement provided to AdAge.com, Nike said: "We have filed a complaint relating to unauthorized use of Tim Tebow's name on New York Jets related apparel. Nike is authorized and licensed to use Tim Tebow's name on products. We have no further comment at this stage."

Nike claims Reebok has no agreement with the National Football League Players Association to use Mr. Tebow's name, or an agreement with Mr. Tebow himself. The quarterback signed an endorsement deal with Nike in March of 2010 after graduating from the University of Florida.

Part of the complaint read that "Reebok has taken upon itself to illegitimately seize on this unique and short-lived consumer opportunity in order to capitalize on the public's short-lived intense consumer appetite for such products, and to prevent Nike from doing so."

Reebok said it had no comment.

Mr. Tebow had the league's second-biggest selling jersey last year, behind only NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers. Last season he played for the Denver Broncos, but was just traded to the New York Jets.

In its suit, Nike noted "the demand for Tebow-identified Jets apparel arising from last week's trade is intense during a normally subdued time period for NFL merchandise sales, and at a time when Nike is going to extraordinary lengths to build up demand for its soon-to-be released NFL product offerings. Based on the upcoming April 3 unveiling of the Nike-supplied official New York Jets uniforms and apparel for use in the 2012 season, demand for Tebow-identified Jets apparel would be expected to continue to increase. However, unless restrained, Reebok's distribution of unauthorized Tebow-identified Jets apparel will preclude Nike and its licensors from fully realizing the unique opportunity presented by the convergence of the Tebow trade to the Jets and the announcement of the new Nike NFL uniform."

Ironically, it still hasn't been determined if Mr. Tebow will wear No. 15 with the Jets since a player whom New York just re-signed on Tuesday, Scotty McKnight, wore the number last year.

Popular mobile photo-sharing app Instagram announced it now has more than 27 million users on iOS, and is hinting the company plans to release an Android app soon. Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom showed off a forthcoming Android app, currently in a private beta period, at the music, arts, and tech conference South by Southwest in Austin, TX on Sunday.

Rumblings of an Android version of Instagram, which allows you to easily stylize images, have been circulating for months. But Instagram has yet to make to the jump to mobile platforms other than iOS. But that looks set to change. Systrom didn't specify a release date beyond saying the company hopes to release Instagram for Android "really soon," according to The Verge.

Instagram originally launched in October 2010 and quickly gained popularity as a way to modify and share your photos with your friends and people around the world. Many users also enjoy using Instagram's filters that make your photos look as if they were taken with an old Polaroid instant camera. The new Instagram for Android will feature the usual filters and include sharing integration with other social services such as Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook.

See Related Slideshow: Instagram Your Photos Without an iPhone

Everybody (on iOS) Loves Instagram

By August 2011, less than a year after its debut, Instagram announced its users had taken and shared 150 million photos with the app. Others are also building features and enhancements based around the popularity of Instagram. A recent Kickstarter project, Instaprint, aims to sell Instagram-centric photo printers for use in the home or at public events. Pricing for Instaprint devices ranges from $400 to $1450. There have also been rumors that Facebook was experimenting with Instagram-like filters to enhance its own mobile photo-sharing features.

Despite Instagram's popularity, the company has so far avoided coming to the Android platform. Instead, numerous competitors and imitators have sprung up trying to fill the Instagram void such as Lightbox Photos, PicPlz, and Vignette. Yahoo's photo-sharing site Flickr has also tried to claim Android photo-sharing fanatics with an app featuring filters and social features. And yet all of these Instagram competitors have met with limited success, meaning Instagram could be as dominant on Android as it is on iOS once it finally launches on Google's mobile OS platform.

Connect with Ian Paul (@ianpaul) on Twitter and Google+, and with Today@PCWorld on Twitter for the latest tech news and analysis.

iPhone 5 Coming with 4G LTE

South Asian News Agency (SANA) ⋅ March 13, 2012 ⋅

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Apple’s iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE connectivity, according to a new DigiTimes report. Speculation about the next iPhone is already well underway.

Apple’s next iPhone will support 4G LTE connectivity, according to a new report by DigiTimes.

“A new version of iPhone to be launched in the second half of 2012 is very likely to support LTE as well,” suggested the publication’s March 12 article, which cited unnamed “smartphone makers” based in Taiwan.

While the DigiTimes track record is sometimes spotty when it comes to Apple rumors, the appearance of 4G LTE on the latest iPad is nonetheless a strong indicator that the next iPhone will follow suit.

During the New York City unveiling of the iPhone 4 on Verizon in January 2011, then-Apple COO Tim Cook suggested that adapting the device to LTE would have resulted in “compromises” that Apple refused to make. In the year-plus since that event, Apple’s engineers have presumably wrestled with the best way to install a 4G LTE antenna in a small form-factor without compromising its design or performance.

Although the next iPhone’s release is almost certainly many months away, rumors about the device’s possible features have been drifting around the blogosphere since late last year. In January, Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac reported that the “iPhone 5” would feature a bigger screen and a redesigned casing. That report cited a “reliable source at Foxconn in China,” referring to the factory where iPhones are made.

Over the summer of 2011, analysts and pundits seemed certain the company would release an iPhone 5 with a radically altered design and powerful new hardware. In October, however, Apple executives unveiled the iPhone 4S, whose exterior seemed virtually identical to the iPhone 4. Despite that similarity, a collection of new features—including Siri, a voice-activated “digital personal assistant”—quickly helped the new smartphone become a bestseller.

For its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, Apple reported sales of some 27.04 million iPhones. During the Jan. 24 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed the iPhone’s robust sales numbers to a combination of what he called “breathtaking customer reception” as well as pent-up demand from a particularly long gap between new iPhone releases.

In order to sustain that sort of sales run, inevitably, Apple will need to release a next-generation iPhone capable of matching or surpassing rival devices running Google Android and Windows Phone. That could very well mean the next iPhone comes with 4G LTE support.

http://www.sananews.net/english/2012/03/iphone-5-coming-with-4g-lte/

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iPhone 5 Coming with 4G LTE

South Asian News Agency (SANA) ⋅ March 13, 2012 ⋅

• Share/Save

Apple’s iPhone 5 will support 4G LTE connectivity, according to a new DigiTimes report. Speculation about the next iPhone is already well underway.

Apple’s next iPhone will support 4G LTE connectivity, according to a new report by DigiTimes.

“A new version of iPhone to be launched in the second half of 2012 is very likely to support LTE as well,” suggested the publication’s March 12 article, which cited unnamed “smartphone makers” based in Taiwan.

While the DigiTimes track record is sometimes spotty when it comes to Apple rumors, the appearance of 4G LTE on the latest iPad is nonetheless a strong indicator that the next iPhone will follow suit.

During the New York City unveiling of the iPhone 4 on Verizon in January 2011, then-Apple COO Tim Cook suggested that adapting the device to LTE would have resulted in “compromises” that Apple refused to make. In the year-plus since that event, Apple’s engineers have presumably wrestled with the best way to install a 4G LTE antenna in a small form-factor without compromising its design or performance.

Although the next iPhone’s release is almost certainly many months away, rumors about the device’s possible features have been drifting around the blogosphere since late last year. In January, Apple-centric blog 9to5Mac reported that the “iPhone 5” would feature a bigger screen and a redesigned casing. That report cited a “reliable source at Foxconn in China,” referring to the factory where iPhones are made.

Over the summer of 2011, analysts and pundits seemed certain the company would release an iPhone 5 with a radically altered design and powerful new hardware. In October, however, Apple executives unveiled the iPhone 4S, whose exterior seemed virtually identical to the iPhone 4. Despite that similarity, a collection of new features—including Siri, a voice-activated “digital personal assistant”—quickly helped the new smartphone become a bestseller.

For its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, Apple reported sales of some 27.04 million iPhones. During the Jan. 24 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook attributed the iPhone’s robust sales numbers to a combination of what he called “breathtaking customer reception” as well as pent-up demand from a particularly long gap between new iPhone releases.

In order to sustain that sort of sales run, inevitably, Apple will need to release a next-generation iPhone capable of matching or surpassing rival devices running Google Android and Windows Phone. That could very well mean the next iPhone comes with 4G LTE support.

http://www.sananews.net/english/2012/03/iphone-5-coming-with-4g-lte/

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Mindshare is the latest agency to set up an international hub in India, broadening the scope of its existing mobile practice in Mumbai to service global clients.

Norm Johnston, Mindshare's global digital leader

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Mindshare, part of WPP's GroupM, has had a mobile team in Mumbai since 2007 that currently handles 55% of mobile ad campaigns in the Indian marketplace, including work for Nike, HSBC and Ford, according to Alice Manners, GroupM Interaction chief operating officer, Asia-Pacific.

The group also executed campaigns elsewhere in Asia, but India has been a priority due to its off-the-charts mobile usage. As of December 2011, there were 894 million mobile subscribers in the country, second only to China, driven by a highly competitive mobile market with low rates and handset prices.

Mindshare executives decided they could use the practice to help clients outside of the region scale their mobile offerings, since executing a mobile campaign in India can be one-third of the price of similar work in the U.S. or Western Europe due to labor costs, according to Norm Johnston, Mindshare's global digital leader.

"We're letting all of our global clients access this team to produce high-quality work at a lower cost," said Mr. Johnston. He noted that the 20-person mobile team in Mumbai, which includes developers and graphic designers, could potentially double in the next year, since five global clients are already interested.

"As the need for more mobile content increases dramatically it becomes cost-prohibitive to do it locally," he added.

The Mumbai team was repositioned with a global focus last month. It's intended to have a full-service offering encompassing both strategy and development and to serve as a production hub for HTML5 content, mobile apps, websites and ad units, though there will still be mobile strategists and other practitioners in other Mindshare offices around the world.

Mindshare isn't the first agency to stake out a global presence in India. Sibling WPP agency Ogilvy & Mather has had a digital hub in Bangalore since late 2007, originally to service its global Lenovo account. It now has two other global clients and 180 employees, including creative directors, account executives, production and digital staff, according to Poran Malani, who oversees the hub as president, digital at Ogilvy & Mather Bangalore. About 10% of Ogilvy's Bangalore employees are expatriates from countries like England, France, Australia and Cameroon.

The main imperative for locating the hub in India wasn't cost-cutting, according to Mr. Malani, who said that it happened to be the ideal setup for Lenovo, since India was one of the markets outside of China where the company had been successful with consumers. Lenovo had also set up its own global marketing hub in Bangalore in mid-2007.

"India hadn't done any international advertising, so we had to do it from scratch," said Mr. Malani, who noted that it's been easier to hire and train employees in India than it would have been in other markets since Indians are English-speaking and have a "creative heritage." "We were very lucky to be ahead of the game."

 The sizzling rate at which e-books are growing suggests that digital textbooks almost certainly will be the norm when your kids' kids are in school. What we don't know is how quickly a transition to a mostly all-digital textbook education system might happen, how it could affect the way students learn, and which companies will be leading the charge.

Personal Tech

By Edward C. Baig Two weeks ago, Apple declared its intention to be at the head of the class, with the unveiling of the iBooks 2 for iPad app and the iBooks textbooks that are the first to exploit the app.

I've spent time diving into some of these textbooks on the original iPad and the iPad 2. Initial works in algebra, biology and chemistry come from major educational publishers McGraw-Hill and Pearson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and DK are also early publishing partners (the latter produces books on dinosaurs, insects and mammals).

• MORE: Ed Baig columns

Though I encountered some unfortunate crashes and bugs — Apple has a software fix coming soon — multitouch digital textbooks, when working smoothly, are engaging in ways that were simply not possible with the textbooks I grew up with. Digital versions promise instant search and easy navigation. They're rich in interactive animations, pictures and videos. It's better to see an animated tour of the genome in E.O. Wilson's Life on Earth than just to read about it. The various books let you consult study cards, create bookmarks, drag your finger to highlight passages and add notes. And textbook authors can update material to keep it current.

The other obvious A-plus benefit, true of any e-book but especially comforting to a student schlepping from class to class, is that you can lug the digital equivalents of heavy print textbooks without breaking your back.

Still, Apple and other companies hoping to make a big play in the digital textbook space face arduous tests. There aren't many available textbooks for iBooks 2 yet, in part because Apple, as usual, kept things close to the vest prior to launch.

And no matter how compelling a digital textbook might be, it is only useful to a student if the teacher or school decides that this is indeed the textbook to use with their class.

To encourage development, Apple launched iBooks Author, a free authoring tool for the Mac that encourages anyone to produce their own iBook textbooks, cookbooks, how-tos and other works. Apple says more than 600,000 copies of the tool have been downloaded since launch. Authors can distribute the books for free. But if they put the iBook textbook up for sale, they must do so through Apple's iBookstore. (Authors can use the content in other digital and print formats, Apple says.) So the supply of digital textbooks should look a lot better by next school year.

Another question mark is the iPad. Not every parent or school district is likely to buy iPads, which start at $499 each, for every student, even if educational discounts lower the cost a bit.

The first textbook titles concentrate on high school curricula and are priced at $14.99 or less, well below most of their print counterparts. The first two chapters of Wilson's book are free.

Apple has designs on the rest of the K-12 market, too, but hasn't said much about the prospects for iBooks on college campuses, though you can bet it will become an area of emphasis. But given how much college textbooks cost — well into three digits in many cases — it's hard to imagine Apple matching $14.99 pricing for them.

Apple has competition, too. Already, a couple of start-ups, Kno and Inkling, produce slick digital textbooks for the iPad. And I'd expect Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble to respond in some way.

Moreover, except for the odd torn page, you never have to worry about technical issues with old-fashioned textbooks. The Wilson book, among others I tested on the original iPad, froze. Performance on the iPad 2 was a bit poky at times, too. That Apple is producing a fix is good: A student who fails to do his assignments would be hard-pressed to say, "The iPad ate my homework."

Apple has certainly provided authors and publishers with tools that can provide compelling high-tech textbooks. But it's up to those authors and publishers to deliver the goods. As Wilson writes in Life on Earth, "Although we believe in the power of visual storytelling, we are careful to keep special-effects glamour in its place. Our animations are crafted to achieve high-quality instruction, not box office."

The bottom line

Apple's iBooks 2 and iBooks 2 textbooks

www.apple.com

Pro. Multitouch books engaging, easy to search and keep current and feature videos, animations, diagrams. First high school books inexpensive.

Con. Very few titles. Buggy software. Requires iPad, but not every student can afford.

E-mail: ebaig@usatoday.com. Follow @EdBaig on Twitter.

 

The next Super Bowl will be streamed online by NBC Universal, adding a new-media dimension to one of the oldest but most viable big-TV properties on the prime-time schedule.

The National Football League made the announcement Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Under current plans, all postseason games broadcast by NBC, including a wild card Saturday game, the Pro Bowl and the Super Bowl, will be streamed via NBC's website and Verizon's NFL Mobile application. Online viewers will be able to access additional camera angles and live statistics.

In recent years NBC began online streaming of its "Sunday Night Football" telecasts.

The Super Bowl has broken viewing records for the last three years. CBS's telecast of the Super Bowl in 2010 trumped the famous series finale of "M*A*S*H" to become the most-watched event ever on broadcast TV. This year's broadcast on Fox beat that record, topping 111 million viewers. The online-streaming component of the 2012 game could add more viewership, though whether advertisers would consider that segment as valuable as TV viewership remains in question.

The stream of the telecast will have its own separate ad load, and could feature advertising that is not being seen on television, according to an NBC Sports spokesman. While Super Bowl TV sponsors could - and likely will - purchase advertising on the stream, a TV purchase is no guarantee the ad will also be shown online. The spokesman declined to comment on the price of ads to be shown on a Super Bowl stream, but chances are the cost would be significantly lower than what NBC has been seeking for TV. The network has been looking for up to $3.5 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot.

NBC plans to give streaming viewers the chance to see the Super Bowl TV ads. One feature will give fans on-demand access to the new crop of Super Bowl TV ads as soon as they have aired on the NBC TV broadcast.

  

• Starbucks raises prices in two parts of the U.S.
• The new way to reel in income
• Cash in on a consumer comeback in 2012
• Industrial stocks: Ready for a rally

 

• Citibank turns rewards into 'social currency'
• NBC, ABC hail taxi TV deals, but will riders?
• LIU launches massive branding campaign
• Tragedy sparks temporary office for Y&R, New York

 

• Stocks start new year with surge of optimism
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• NYT: Signs point to tepid consumer spending for 2012
• Starbucks raising prices in US Northeast, Sunbelt

Cathy Halligan

At this year's Web 2.0, Mary Meeker shared a staggering statistic: the number of people on social networks today exceeds the number of Internet users in 2006. Seventy percent of those individuals use Facebook. Never before has a brand had such rapid adoption, frequent engagement and deep trust. The Facebook phenomenon has executives scrambling to respond to questions from their CEOs and boards, namely "What's our social strategy? What are we doing with Facebook?"

And this scrambling has ignited a rush of activity. Facebook has seen a massive influx of advertising dollars ($3.8bn projected this year). Ad agencies have seen a major uptick in demand for Facebook campaigns, brand pages and apps. Companies have created community manager positions just to monitor and respond to Facebook activity. Consumers have been presented with a panoply of promotions, deals and special offers just for liking a brand on Facebook. But all of this activity begs the question: where are the results? CMOs can readily state the number of Facebook fans they have, and do a lot of hand waiving around "earned" or "shared" media. But are they really creating any business value or sustainable advantage? The answer for most businesses is categorically, no. Here's why:

• Most marketers approach Facebook purely as an advertising and engagement platform. The select few who are getting it right recognize and approach Facebook as a new business-building capability.
• Most execute programs only on Facebook.com. The select few who are getting it right also use Facebook off Facebook.com; using the open graph to develop relevant, compelling, personalized experiences on one's branded web properties.
• Most measure the media activity (reach and frequency, impressions, buzz, fan count) only. The select few who are getting it right also measure commerce activity (referral traffic from Facebook and the resulting conversion on one's site, customer acquisition).

What follows below are four examples of major brands using Facebook. When you evaluate their strategies, think through the three points above and ask this simple question: What relevant and compelling consumer problem does this address and how does it deliver benefit to the business?

The Amazon Facebook experience
Amazon, in addition to using Facebook as an advertising and engagement platform, has clearly approached Facebook as a net new business initiative by using the open graph on Amazon.com. If you haven't experienced Amazon's Facebook experience, try it now. Go to Amazon.com, click on your Amazon.com link above the search box, and use the Facebook Connect on the right-hand side of the page (image).

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What you get is a personalized Amazon.com experience – your Facebook friends with upcoming birthdays (1), what's popular with them (2), and recommendations for music, movies, and books for you based on your profile data (3 and 4).

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The verdict
Consumers want personal, customized experiences. However, creating and delivering these experiences has been out of reach for all but the small mom and pops who know their customers by name. Instead of face-to-face relationships, the big players are forced to rely on data bases full of past transactions, clicks and data overlays. This approach fails because these metrics represent only a fraction of what is relevant to people, and don't reflect the real context of their lives.

Relevant information from your Facebook profile has been pulled into the shopping experience, enabling you to easily purchase a relevant product or a gift. Amazon's Facebook programming further solidifies its value to customers as a top retail brand, while driving real business results in the form of referral traffic and sales. (In Q4 2010 Amazon received 7.7% of it traffic from Facebook.)

The Step2 Facebook experience
Step2 has enhanced the social shopping experience on its site by giving consumers what they need to make a purchase decision, while using the open graph seamlessly both on their site and on Facebook.

According to a recent Social Shopping study from the e-tailing group, customer reviews are the No. 1 social tool in the buying process. Ninety percent or more of consumers want objective information from people like them about the products and services they are interesting in purchasing. Step2 takes their review experience to the next level with Facebook-enhanced reviewer profiles using the open graph. By allowing users to connect with Facebook when submitting a review, Step2 is able to offer richer, more relevant research experiences by blending their data (the review) with Facebook profile information on their own product pages.

Step2 also provides multiple hooks throughout its site experience that make it easy for customers to share their experiences and engage with Facebook friends. On the product page, they've got the Like button, and in the review submission process, Step2 gives reviewers the ability to easily share submitted content with their network or comment on other reviews using Facebook Connect, all with links back to Step2's product page.

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Where Step2 gets really innovative is in making it possible for customers to interact with Facebook from their product page, beyond the traditional Share or Like. Consumers have the option to ask friends for advice, subscribe to new/trending products, future reviews, or contributions from a specific reviewer – all on Facebook.com. This is notable because it gives consumers the option to subscribe to and interact with individual pieces of content within the page versus Liking/Sharing the page itself. While all of this interaction happens on the product page, Step2 reaps the ongoing benefit on Facebook.com by being able to connect with a customer and their friends via the News Feed over time.

The verdict
Consumers want objective, authentic reviews from people they can trust. Using Facebook, Step2 increases the relevance for consumers, while engendering trust in the authenticity of each review. The Like button shows you how many people have endorsed a product and whether they're in your network and you can ask your Facebook friends for advice. The reviewers' Facebook profile lets you know that a mom like you endorses this product. You can also subscribe to a reviewer's future contributions, all future reviews on a product, or new and trending products within a particular category. Finally, you can comment on this product or a review, stimulating the conversation with friends and further interaction on Facebook.com. All of this gives shoppers the confidence to click the "add to cart" button.

The TripAvisor Facebook experience
Like Amazon and Step2, Travelocity has used Facebook's open graph on its branded web property. Granting TripAdvisor access to your Facebook account via the open graph transforms the website into an ultra-personalized experience where consumers can plan their a vacation based on places their friends have been, reviewed, or plan to go.

Connecting with Facebook lets consumers see where their friends have traveled across the globe (on a map of the world, or by city).

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Within a given city, consumers can see hotels and restaurants that their friends have reviewed. However, the most interesting innovation on TripAdvisor is based on Facebook's ability to Like or check in at a destination. Using data from Facebook's Like and Places feature, TripAdvisor shows consumers places that their friends have Liked or checked in at recently, and gives the option to read more about the destination, rate it, or add it to a "Want to go" hit list.

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The verdict
While most travel sites offer "Featured Vacations" or even "Top Destinations," but whose top destinations are they? Not people you know and trust, that share your interests and values, and a similar budget. Similar to the relevancy conundrum presented with our Amazon example, travel sites can't rely solely on their past purchase database of demographic information to present relevant travel recommendations to me. The best they can do is present "Top Destinations" based on where complete strangers have traveled.

TripAdvisor uses the open graph to merge the best of data collected on TripAdvisor.com (places you've reviewed, want to go, or have already been) with the best of Facebook interactions (Likes, Check-ins) to present a highly personalized experience that promotes engagement on TripAdvisor.com and keeps consumers coming back. TripAdvisor.com, rather than Facebook.com, is where the company is best equipped to convert consumers into paying customers when they see a hotel, rental, or destination endorsed by friends.

Louisville Slugger Facebook program
On the heels of the 2011 World Series, Louisville Slugger undertook a cross-platform social scavenger hunt that increased its Facebook buzz by 834% in a week. The brand's social media team dropped 45 World Series commemorative bats at spots around St. Louis (hometown of the series-winning Cardinals), then posted clues to Twitter and Facebook so fans could find them. Besides increasing brand-related chatter, the campaign helped increase the brand's Facebook "likes" by 143% and its Twitter following by 161%.

The verdict
While certainly creative, this entire campaign gave us a flashback to the days when maximizing eyeballs was the primary measure of success. Sure, it generated Facebook and Twitter buzz, but what relevant and compelling value did it provide to consumers? And where was the long-term benefit to Louisville Slugger? Did it drive significant traffic to Louisville or its retailers' websites where customers could ultimately make a purchase? Highly doubtful. While it certainly generated a bit of short-term buzz around the manufacturer, there's not a compelling consumer problem solved that will create new customers or retain them over time.

Looking at media activity (or "buzz" numbers), this campaign was a success. Fan count and Facebook engagement are worth tracking and will likely prove to be valuable metrics one day. For the time being, the moral of the story is not for brands to ignore these metrics altogether, but to look at social campaigns holistically, tracking commerce metrics (traffic and sales) in addition to "earned" media numbers. From the outside looking in, the Louisville campaign was successful at driving fans and awareness, but the real metric of success is how these newly acquired fans have converted since.

Conclusion
Those who are getting it right are devoting a small share of resources to evaluate the ad and engagement performance and media value both in absolute terms and relative to other choices. They are, however, spending a much larger share of resources to testing, learning and implementing capabilities on-site via the open graph, a net new business-building capability to deliver real consumer value and advantage their business.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cathy Halligan is the former CMO of Walmart Stores.com and current SVP of Sales and Marketing for an SF-based start-up called PowerReviews, which powers customer ratings and reviews on brands' and retailers' websites.

Miami, Florida, Nov. 15, 2011 /The Cuban Art Project/ — Lopez Negrete Communications has been named Best Hispanic Agency Using Social Media to Reach Latinos by LATISM, the largest organization for Latinos and Latinas engaged in social media. The prestigious award presented on behalf of leading Latino social media influencers was announced at Chicago’s Navy Pier November 10 at LATISM’s 3rd annual awards gala conference.

“The digital emergence of 13.5 million Latinos on Facebook* and 8.1 million on Twitter,** along with the emergence of an enormous community of Latino bloggers has revolutionized the marketing landscape forever. Our clients’ brands are competing for the moment and competing for relevance in a time when attention is a precious commodity. Hence, we have made it a strategic imperative to be an innovator in this space and to have the best people in the industry, setting models and standards in the use of social media targeting Latinos,” stated President, CEO and Chief Creative Officer Alex Lopez Negrete.

Lopez Negrete’s award-winning, full-service digital unit leads the strategic and operational social media efforts for diverse major clients. The agency’s most recent accomplishments include social media platforms for Verizon (Somos Verizon FiOS on Facebook and @SomosFiOS on Twitter), in addition to interactive websites for Verizon (www.EnciendeteFiOS.com), Sonic Drive-Ins (http://espanol.sonicdrivein.com), and Pernod Ricard‘s Chivas Regal (www.nochesdebrotherhood.com). Lopez Negrete also maintains a robust and interactive online agency presence with friends and fans on Facebook (Lopez Negrete) and Twitter (@Lopeznegrete).

“We are honored and humbled to receive this award. This recognition is a timely distinction for our firm, and it is yet another testament of Lopez Negrete’s swift and bold evolution into a ‘connected agency,’” says Leonardo Basterra, executive director of Digital at Lopez Negrete. He added: “This award is unique because it comes from the community of Hispanic content creators and curators – bloggeros, twitteros and facebookeros – who follow our work and who bring to life the social media space for Latinos.”

The LATISM 3rd annual conference brought together hundreds of Latino bloggers, influencers and social media thought leaders in a national forum designed to explore the latest trends in the social media arena. The LATISM awards recognized blogging, outreach, marketing, mobile and new media, with award nominees selected by voting LATISM members.  Top honors, including the award bestowed upon Lopez Negrete Communications reflected the popular votes of thousands of Latinos throughout the United States and Latin America cast this past month.

About LATISM

A pioneering social media organization, Latinos in Social Media (LATISM) has been hailed as the most influential online movement in the new multicultural Web. LATISM, the largest organization for Latinos and Latinas engaged in social media, is a 501(c) 4 nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing the social, civic and economic status of the Latino community. LATISM also serves corporate brands, NGOs and government entities, with a broad range of services including research, event sponsorships, and leadership training. One of the most popular hashtags on Twitter, the #LATISM hashtag captures over 10 million impressions on a daily basis and enjoys the largest Latino network on Facebook.

About Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc.

Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. is an independent, Hispanic owned and operated, full-service agency specializing in Hispanic marketing. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, with a second office in Los Angeles, California, the company’s billings are $160 million. Since 1985, Lopez Negrete has offered a full range of advertising, marketing and public relations services to industry leaders, including Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Bank of America, Verizon Communications Inc., Georgia-Pacific (Quilted Northern), Kraft Foods (Kraft Singles, Maxwell House), MillerCoors (Miller Lite), NBC Universal Motion Pictures Group, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Tyson Foods, Sonic Drive-Ins, and others. With over 200 employees, Lopez Negrete Communications, Inc. is a proven leader in providing fully integrated national Hispanic marketing and communications services. For more information, go to www.lopeznegrete.com.

SOURCE  Lopez Negrete Communications

Google Intros Dynamic Search Ads

Oct 20, 2011 at 7:00am ET by Pamela Parker

• inShare313

Google is opening wider a beta test of Dynamic Search Ads, an interesting new type of AdWords ad for larger advertisers that eliminates the need for keywords.

With this ad type, designed for retailers or other advertisers with large, often-changing inventory, Google automatically generates ad copy — based on the advertiser’s template — by looking at the content in the advertiser’s Web site. Google also automatically displays the ad in response to search terms it thinks are a good match, without the advertiser having to select keywords. Google has been using a similar no-keywords approach in its program for small local advertisers, AdWords Express.

For Dynamic Search Ads, advertisers input their Web site URL or the URL of a range of pages on their site — say, a retailer wanted to promote their women’s clothing — and select a bid price based on the value of that category to them. Google then continually crawls the Web site so it knows when inventory changes, and can theoretically respond with relevant ads more quickly than the marketing team that’s manually creating keywords and ads. The system is also designed to keep on top of changes in the types of queries people are performing — Google says 16% of searches every day are new.

In an effort to keep this from impinging on advertisers’ existing campaigns, the system will hold back the dynamically generated ad in favor of advertiser-created copy, if the advertiser already has a campaign targeting the specific search term.

“We want to make sure it doesn’t affect keyword campaigns,” Baris Gultekin, director of AdWords product management, told me. “This is purely incremental.”

Gultekin says the company will provide advertisers with reporting on search terms that generated clicks, the matched destination pages and ad headlines generated, average CPC, clicks and conversions. Advertisers may optimize by adjusting a max CPC bid.

The new ad type has been in development for two and a half years, and “a couple hundred” advertisers across a variety of verticals have already been testing it. Gultekin says advertisers on average are seeing 5-10% increase in conversions with a positive ROI.

One advertiser in particular — ApartmentHomeLiving.com, a real estate Web site with constantly changing inventory — says it saw a 50% increase in conversions at an average cost-per-conversion that’s 73% less than their normal search ads. The company is already a seasoned search marketer with campaigns of up to 15 million keywords.

Dynamic Search Ads are available in all languages and all countries currently, but only to advertisers in the limited beta. The company is soliciting inquiries from customers that might be interested in participating in the beta in order to widen its reach.

Related Topics: Google: AdWords | Top News

About The Author: Pamela Parker is a contributing editor for Search Engine Land. She’s a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since 1998, including a stint as managing editor of ClickZ. She’s also worked to help monetize independent publishers’ sites at Federated Media Publishing. She blogs about media and marketing at The River and about cooking, gardening and parenthood at Free Range. She can be found on Twitter as @pamelaparker. See more articles by Pamela Parker

JONATHAN SALEM BASKIN

You are driving down the interstate, looking for the nearest outlet of your favorite fast-food restaurant. The billboards tell you things you didn't ask to know, until finally one says there's an app that will find what you're looking for. You pull over, download it on the spot, and two exits later sit down to that perfect meal. This app, called RoadNinja, was launched late last week by the Lamar Advertising Co. You can check it out on iTunes. Its arrival suggests that CMOs still figuring their 2012 new-media budgets better include some for outdoor media.

Think about it. We talk so much about how to make online technology relevant locally and in real-time (witness Walmart's announcement last week that it will use Facebook to send local promos to its millions of "friends"). But we're surrounded by media tools that already do both, from billboards and newspaper ads, to radio and TV. They've just been used, owing to the limitations of technology, to target mass segments of the population, based on highly imperfect data.

There's nothing inherently wrong with "old" media other than that we choose to put garbage into it. Consumers didn't start waking up hating print ads, per se, but rather learned to hate stupid ads, or hate the fact that marketers presumed it was OK to interrupt them with info they didn't care about. In response, we dug ourselves ever-deeper holes –- and still do –- by creating entertaining content to win their tolerance in exchange for not asking them to buy anything.

Lamar is taking a different approach. It is infusing its billboards with immediate utility, which makes them newly relevant. Not to mention creating a new new-media channel on the app, through which it can also deliver ads. That gas station at the upcoming exit can run a promo that the driver will see as he is finding the address of the restaurant he needs.

This isn't branding by engagement or conversation or osmosis. It's not entertainment, just a smart rethink of the good ol' purposes of marketing. It sells stuff. But unlike the old-fashioned marketing that could only give the consumer information that he might decide to use some day, Lamar combines new and old media to get the viewer to act immediately to fulfill a need he has in the moment.

What truly makes media new is not simply the opportunity to display content in new ways and new locations; it's about finding new ways for all forms of media to work together. The RoadNinja model suggests a few guidelines for your integration plans:

Skip the "more info" URLs. I'm blown away by how many products and services still list a web site, as if anybody cared. Lamar's billboards use the available real estate to give consumers an immediately relevant and useful call to action. Your ads and products labels should do so, too. Things like apps and the mobile experience of web content mean that everyone's a direct marketer now.

Think next media, not new media. The billboards smartly recognize that what matters is what happens next, not just now. So think less about the glorious immersion of your digital media creations and more about how every media placement links to another one. Every radio spot should have a phone number (or SMS address, better yet) with content directed to motivate dialing. Every magazine ad should reference another one, or a TV spot, or whatever. You get the idea.

Consumption is the ultimate metric. Don Schultz, the godfather of integrated marketing communications, says that what matters is how consumers actually experience a variety of media, often simultaneously, rather than the clicks or eyeballs registered by any of the constituent parts. Recognizing this consumption synergy is reality, not an option, and Lamar uses it to accomplish a strategic goal. Your metrics should measure not just engagement, but what the combination of media consumed produces.

The RoadNinja campaign's initial run will be from Oct. 11 through the end of the year, utilizing over 1,000 billboards across 200 markets nationwide. You can tell I'm excited about what Lamar's doing. I think you should be, too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JONATHAN SALEM BASKIN is president of BaskinBrand, a marketing decisions consultancy, and an author and blogger. You can follow him on Twitter: @jonathansalem.