For all the excitement around apps and smartphones, a new report from VisionMobile pops the hype bubble: highlighting the fact that only 27% of mobile phones sold in the first half of 2011 were smartphones, with the remaining 73% being feature phones. And while the smartphone percentage rises to 63% in North America and 51% in Europe, elsewhere it’s much lower: 19% in Asia-Pacific, 18% in Africa and the Middle East, and 17% in Latin America. Which explains why in 2012, while there will be justified excitement around the smartphone activities of services like Spotify and Pandora, savvier elements of the music industry will be just as enthusiastic about services that can help address the still-huge base of feature phone owners in emerging markets.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…