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The Enterprise Irregulars blog is sponsored by .   Work.  Online.  

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So with this in mind, I’ve pulled together a few links which may help shed some light if you’re mulling these kinds of questions over too.

There’s the FT Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference which was on yesterday and today. Although I’m not there, and despite the distinct lack of women speakers (i.e. only one across two days – Jeez, is this really 2010?! Come on FT.com – you can do better), nevertheless I’m following some of the tweets from it and there are some gems in there. Have a look for the hashtag #FTMedia10 and follow FTDigitalMedia on Twitter. I’m sure there’ll be some news and blog coverage coming out of this conference too, so watch this space.

A *must read* article is this one Understanding the participatory news consumer – a comprehensive breakdown of the latest Pew Internet research showing what the US digital news consumer is up to on their mobile phone. I’m not going to repeat what the article covers, but it shows that mobile internet users access the internet more often than their fixed line counterparts:

“On-the-go news consumers:  Who are they?

The typical on-the-go news consumer is a white male, age 34, who has graduated from college and is employed full-time.  Given their younger profile, it is not surprising that 40% of this group are parents of young children (compared with 30% of the general adult population), and 32% have never been married.  One in three (32%) live in households with incomes of $75,000 or more. As a subset of the broader mobile internet population, on-the-go news consumers reflect many of their characteristics (see table below).

Not surprisingly, on-the-go news consumers maximize their cell phone use.  They are 67% more likely than other cell phone users to text message, more than twice as likely to take pictures with their phones, and four times as likely to use their phones to instant message.  They are also especially heavy internet users—80% of this on-the-go group are online on a given day, compared with just 67% of other internet users—and they engage in activities such as blogging (20% v. 11%), using social networking sites (73% v. 48%), and using status update sites like Twitter (29% v. 14%) at significantly higher rates than other internet users.”

And this topic or where mobile meets media was also on our minds in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress where the UKTI hosted a Mobile Monday London panel session discussing this very topic. Paul Skeldon from Telemedia 360 took some video of it, the highlights of which you can see here. It's in four parts with Russell Buckley, VP of Global Alliances at Admob chairing, and Chris Boden from Lonely Planet, Lucie McLean from the BBC, Steve Ives, CEO at Taptu and yours truly on the panel.

Is Traditional Media Dead?

Is Advertising Dead?

Are Applications Dead?

Will the iPad Save Us?

Paul also covered the panel session in this month’s Telemedia 360’s PDF newsletter which is worth a read if media and mobile is your game. [You can download a free copy from their website.] I am widely quoted in the article but to get the full context, it’s probably best to view the videos *and* read the article too to get the whole picture.

If anyone else out there has interesting links to share around the topic of where media meets mobile, then please do share in the comments below, or email me and I’ll add them to the article.

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Pear Analytics™ today announced the release of its free Website Analyzer™ for the iPhone® and soon to be iPad® application.

The  application analyzes any website or blog by scanning the site and a variety of data sources to determine how “SEO-friendly” the website is. Within 30 seconds, the user will get a full report on their website with vast and easy-to-read information and resources to show the user how to fix or solve the problems in non-technical, easy-to-follow instructions. 

Through its SiteJuice product, Pear develops software to help website owners with search engine optimization tasks. The iPhone/iPad app is simply an extension to their existing product suite, and is similar to the Free SEO Analysis you can get on Pear’s website, but with a couple of extra advantages. The app provides anyone the ability to review the status of key SEO elements in a mobile environment.

Pear says that many of the clients who use their products are boutique ad agencies and web development shops who could easily use the app to help counsel and work with clients in better understanding the strategic value of sound SEO principles and practices.

Pear’s mobile app looks pretty robust, offering users the ability to store their last ten reports and even email those reports to clients or colleagues.

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Having already launched a successful version for Tokyo, Art Beat recently created the NYAB iPhone app, an informative application that keeps New Yorkers current on all of the cultural happenings going on around the city.

The simple interface organizes events by location, popularity, type of medium or schedule. Ideal for residents and visitors alike, the Art Beat app truly allows users to tailor their interests and make the most of their time.

Featuring an average of 600 Art Beat-approved events, the app includes exhibitions big and small. For those just seeking some culture close by, it will even sort the events by closest proximity.

NYAB ($1) and TAB ($2) iPhone and iTouch apps are available from iTunes.

The release of AdMob’s January 2010 Mobile Metrics Report reveals some intriguing data from the mobile advertising network’s latest consumer survey, but the trends taking shape across iPhone, Android and Palm webOS application platforms are for the most part predictable.

The just-released report was compiled as a six-month follow-up to AdMob’s July 2009 survey intended to track consumer usage and attitudes throughout the mobile Internet category. There were 960 respondents among users of iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and webOS devices on the more than 15,000 mobile Websites and applications presently in AdMob’s network. Left out of the survey was the RIM platform because AdMob does not currently serve ads into Blackberry applications.

Some interesting, if not surprising statistics coming out of the report include a 5 percent rise in requests coming from mobile Internet devices throughout AdMob’s network since the first survey was conducted six months earlier—17 percent in January 2010 as compared to 12 percent in July 2009; a 10-percent disparity between iPhone users (16 percent) and Android users (6 percent) that said they intended to purchase the new iPad when it becomes available next month (webOS users split the difference at 11 percent), and the following breakdown of monthly application downloads among the four groups of respondents: 12.1 downloads per month for iPod Touch users (10.5 free downloads and 1.6 paid); 8.8 monthly downloads for iPhone users (7.0 free, 1.8 paid); 8.7 for Android users (7.6/1.1), and 5.7 for webOS users (5.1/0.6).

This last trend in particular is easily explained by the fact that 78 percent of iPod Touch users are under the age of 25—a group made up largely of students and kids downloading free games. Less easily explained, though, is perhaps the most curious of all the data: 73 percent of Android users responding to the survey were males, compared to 58 percent of webOS users, 57 percent of iPhone users, and 54 percent of iPod Touch users.

Perhaps the folks behind the Android’s male-friendly marketing campaign will take note and we’ll see a more delicate touch in the future—or not.

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Apple has begun a purge of the app store, targeting risque content, but is the company going too far?

Apps which Apple approved, and have been selling successfully for months, are among those unceremoniously pulled for containing inappropriate adult content. What makes this so hard to swallow for some developers is the lack of clarity in the criteria Apple is using to make its judgements. Programs with barely PG-13-level content are among the targeted, but others like that from Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue are able to skate by.

Is Apple using a double standard for big-name developers vs. independent programmers? Is Apple going too far in exercising this level of control over which apps are approved? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Perpetually updating their line of removable adhesives for portable devices, GelaSkins adds the National Geographic to their list of intriguing collaborations. (Check out other CH favorites the Boombox series by Lyle Owerko and their recent DIY service, allowing you to upload and customize your own image.) Initially only available for iPhones and laptops, the National Geographic skins include a wide range of choices from their collection of riveting photographs.

The skins range from $15-30 depending on size and are available online.

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