The battle for the mobile market is heating up, and it looks like Android has been making some serious strides lately. New figures indicate that about 500,000 new Android devices are activated each day. While this is a staggering number, what’s even more remarkable is the fact that this number is growing by about 4.4% each week. Back in May, this number was closer to about 400,000 devices activated each day. So in just a few weeks, the sales for Google’s smartphone platform (Android) have surged by about 100,000 additional activations per day. It would seem that Google's Android platform is really starting to take off...

 

In today’s modern age, technology is having a profound impact on every industry – allowing the gears of commerce to turn more efficiently. Between mobile devices and social media, today’s technology is also revolutionizing the way we communicate, interact, and shop. While the immediate impact this technology is having seems profound, only time will tell just what type of impact that mobile devices and social media will have on society in general. In the long term, innovations like these can have a ripple effect that lasts decades and even centuries. Many innovations, whether they intend to or not, have the unique ability of impacting other industries in unforeseen ways, and alter the course of progress.

 

As many of my fellow entrepreneurs begin to use social media to help expand their business and connect with their customers, some will encounter peculiarities that might be confusing at first. One common item you will encounter as you delve deeper into the realm of social networking is the # symbol. The # symbol, which many of you know as the number sign or the pound symbol, is actually known as a hashtag in the digital world. Hashtags are placed in front of keywords to help organize groups or topics. Hashtags make it easier for people to follow conversations, and are used to determine what topics are “trending,” which is another important concept. Trending essentially describes a word or topic that has been tweeted multiple times, i.e. something that is popular. So let’s say its Game 7 of the World Series – the type of topics that you would expect to “trend” well that day would be #baseball or #worldseries. If you tweet something like: “I can’t wait for the #worldseries tonight!” – you would be able to click on #worldseries to see all the other tweets that included that tag – making it easier to connect with those who want to discuss the same topic. Essentially, hashtags help to sort topics, and make them easier to search for.

 

To be fully successful, entrepreneurs must utilize all of the tools at their disposal to maximize opportunities. Viral videos and social networking sites might just be the tools you need to help push your business to the next level. As a way to help grow and develop your UnFranchise business, my amazing wife, Loren, created a set of powerful new viral videos. These videos take a comprehensive look at the industry’s only Cashback program with no annual fee, and are a great tool for explaining the program to potential customers.

As mobile technology continues to change the way we shop, the need to deliver cutting edge applications and features becomes ever more crucial. With that in mind, the Market America mobile team has developed some remarkable new apps and updated features designed to enhance your shopping experience. I am pleased to introduce two amazing new features for our mobile application, MA Mobile, as well as an entirely new application for customers in Taiwan, MT Mobile. The MA Mobile app can be found in the Apple App Store, as well as the Android Market, while the MT Mobile app is available in the Apple App Store.

 

“If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG.” – Bill Gates

To say that technology is advancing at a rapid pace is an absolute understatement. Anyone familiar with Moore’s law knows that our computing power essentially doubles every two years, as engineers find ways to squeeze more and more transistors onto circuits. For over 50 years the concepts presented in this law have helped digital electronics to advance at an almost exponential rate. These advances in technology have been profound, but putting this advancement into perspective can be a challenge sometimes.

It’s amazing to think that the Apollo Guidance Computer, which was responsible for guiding our astronauts to the moon, had the computing power of a modern digital watch. The AGC had an utterly miniscule amount of memory (2k) and storage (32k), a sluggish clock speed (1.024MHz), and software capable of multi-tasking a mere 8 jobs at a time. In essence, computers made today are thousands of times more powerful, but processing speed hasn’t been the only advancement.

 

As a CEO, it is vital that I have information readily accessible at all times. For quite some time though, it meant carrying around a laptop, a cellphone, folders, USB flash drives, hard drives and more.  With the necessity to carry so many gadgets, I had to then remember to pack chargers, memory cards and more. Essentially, I needed an entire bag just for all of my gadgets! This seemed hardly convenient - more like inconvenient. The whole point of technology is to improve upon past technology by making it faster and smaller, not to add more gear.

In 2010 though, things finally changed. Cellphones became smartphones, convergence devices that could make calls but also take pictures and videos.  Laptops became tablets, and everyone seemed to want in, with Apple making a huge splash with the iPad,

Then in 2010, Research In Motion (RIMM), announced the Blackberry Playbook -- another tablet coming to market to compete with the Apple juggernaut.  While reviews made it sound surprisingly good (and who wouldn't want a Blackberry product, they make great devices for handling email), so far, I'm not sold. There are two main reasons why I'm not sold.

 

 

This is a very interesting read I received from the VP of Digital Marketing of Edelman Group.  As we enter a new digital era and a new year, we must keep up with trends, plans and news.  Please take the time out to read out the 6 social media predictions and trends for 2011.

 

It was a banner year for social media growth and adoption. We witnessed Facebook overtake Google in most weekly site traffic, while some surveys reported nearly 95% of companies using LinkedIn to help in recruiting efforts. In my outlook for last year, I cited that mobile would become a lifeline to those looking for their social media fixes, and indeed the use of social media through mobile devices increased in the triple digits.I also outlined how "social media would look less social" or more accurately exclusive, and indeed, we've seen the re-launch of Facebook groups, which focus on niche interactivity, and more recently, the emergence of Path, billed as "the social network for intimate friends" which limits your network to only 50 people. The past year also saw some brands go full throttle on Foursquare's game-like geo-location platform, attempting to reward mayors and creating custom badges for the network's power users.

To achieve your goals you have to program your mind the right way. Listening to audios is the one thing that you can do in addition to anything else that you are doing so there is no additional time spent (ie. getting ready in the morning, working out, cooking, cleaning, driving to and from work, or even going to the bathroom).  Listening enables you to obtain knowledge, build confidence, and create the attitude and posture needed to take action. Market America's audios are now available on the MA Toolbar! You can listen to up to 50 different Market America audios.  You can see some of them in the screen shot below.  It’s great when you go on the web and you can listen to MA audios while you are on the computer.  If you have not downloaded the MA Toolbar it is a fabulous tool.  You can download it by clicking on the MA Toolbar on the front page of the web portal. ~Keep Growing JR