With the increase in the number of smart phones, more and more users are making use of applications to tailor their mobile experience.

DM2PRO and Quattro Wireless compiled a report last year where they questioned over 600 respondents to determine whether or not the respondents have been integrating mobile apps with their brand’s current marketing strategy. According to the report the majority of the respondents haven’t invested in mobile apps yet but 65% of them planned to develop a mobile app in 2010.

On the other hand, those that have invested in mobile apps seem to be limiting the success of their app by not properly marketing it. If the aim of developing the app is to build brand awareness or convert impressions into profit, then a proper promotional plan is needed. On Emarketer.com Noah Elkin looks at the opportunities and challenges mobile apps provide marketers in “App-ortunity” Knocks. To summarise his key points; make sure that there is a consumer need for your app, pay attention to user feedback and keep users engaged with regular updates.

Read the full report by DM2PRO and Quattro Wireless for more information and statistics. Do you think South Africa will follow the same trend and see a significant increase in the number of mobile apps developed in 2010?

According to eMarketer.com mobile apps are set to do better than social apps in 2010 with the iPhone being the platform of choice followed by Android. I find mobile apps especially useful when travelling and, keeping this in mind, I’ve decided to look at a few apps that might be useful to visitors to South Africa during the FIFA World Cup.

ShoZu

Share content easily with Shozu to a wide variety of social websites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Twitpic to name a few. This app is available for many different types of handsets, check here if the app is compatible with your phone.

A virtual cellar: Drync Wine

Whether you are a wine newbie or connoisseur Drync Wine for the iPhone is the perfect wine partner. Drync acts like a virtual cellar with reviews and ratings for over 800 000 wines. With integrated Twitter access, you can easily share your wines of choice with your followers. Buy Drync from iTunes for $3.99 and add all your favourite wines to your virtual cellar list. This is the perfect app for foreign visitors who want to try out the Western Cape’s famous wine routes.

Pano

This app for iPhone allows you to take “beautiful, seamless panoramic pictures” straight from your phone. Panoramic photos are created by taking multiple shots and then stitching them together in the app. No additional software is required. Pretty cool!

fring

Perfect for staying in touch with family and friends while you’re away, fring is an instant messenger mobile app. Social networks that work through fring include Skype, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo, AIM and MSN Messenger. You can also use fring to make affordable local and international calls via Skype.

amAze GPS

amAze GPS offer users turn-by-turn navigation and the latest, most detailed maps. Additional features include a 3D bird’s eye view over detailed satellite imagery in major cities. The app is available on a number of handsets and subscriptions are either $3.99 on a monthly basis or $33.99 per year.

Any favourite apps you would like to share?

Yesterday, Google announced their acquisition of Admob on the Google blog.

Admob, a dominant player in the mobile advertising arena, was founded in 2006 after Omar Hamoui couldn’t find ways to generate traffic to his mobile site.  As a solution to this problem, the Admob platform was developed. Since then, Hamoui and his team have grown Admob into a thriving and innovative mobile advertising company.  With this merger Google is aggressively entering the mobile advertising market and as a result of this acquisition Google will dominate the mobile advertising arena with approximately 30% - 40% of the market share.

According to Google mobile revenue is their fastest growing revenue stream. This can, in part, be attributed to the introduction of smart phones with advanced Internet browsers.  Google states that their mobile search requests have increased more than five times over the past two years.

The partnership between Google and Admob will result in increased advertising in applications on smart phones such as the iPhone and others that run on Android.  Within applications these ads are typically displayed as a banner at the top or bottom of the screen.

Admob’s publisher network is made up of more than 15 000 mobile websites and applications and according to Admob they received 2.6-billion ad requests from iPhone and iPod Touch devices in September 2009, up from 130-million in September 2008.  Even though Google has been displaying text ads on mobile search results it hasn’t had much success with mobile web display ads or in-app ads – until now.