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In 2011 unit sales of smartphones and tablets will exceed those of PCs, laptops and netbooks for the first time.

Gamification in marketing has become a popular buzzword in the last two years, but the practice of using game-like mechanics in marketing programs has been around for a long time.

Mobile advertising is expected to grow from $1.6 billion worldwide in 2010 to $3.3 billion in 2011, and will reach $20.6 billion by 2015, according to Gartner research.

A tighter integration of QR codes within the communication mix must happen before they will have a chance to make a mainstream impact on consumer marketing.

With the advent of handheld mobile shopping, retailers must investigate an entirely unique approach to on-the-go merchandising.

Here are three ways that marketers can create mobile opportunities within their email marketing programs.

Consumers read their text messages, even texts from advertisers, at a rate that blows away any other advertising vehicle. Story after story confirms it. Mobile marketing works.

There are sensitivities to how location tracking is used on mobile. Do consumers want that level of customization? Is location the most effective use of your budget, or is it the emperor’s new clothes?

Compared to other markets, mobile only truly became huge in the U.S. three or four years ago. But the U.S. does not have large numbers of people with deep mobile understanding.

How consumers feel a company’s values align with theirs—and even a company’s overall perceived likeability—are all integral to creating a favorable feeling toward a product or service.

The honeymoon of the mobile application industry is over. The fight for users – and the challenge of building a sustainable flow of money from them – has arrived. And it will only get tougher.

What passes for mobile commerce today often amounts to little more than a simple iPhone application or a mobile-optimized Web site.

Mobile marketing is heavy with dark arts. When you brief your agency, you had better know a lot about the technology available – and which of it you want to use.

Going mobile and engaging your audience anywhere and anytime is not about extending an Internet Web site to a mobile Web site and onward to a mobile app.

How to make the retailer’s site friendly to mobile users as more interactions and transactions migrate to mobile sites and applications?

Developing apps for mobile is different than the Web. While the reason for creating them may be similar, before you engage in a mobile project, you need to ask key questions.

At the end of every marketing campaign, regardless of channel, is the age-old question of, “Was it successful?”

Too often brands and marketers are quietly chanting troubling, false mantras targeted at two particularly powerful elements from the mobile marketing tool chest.

Over the last 10 years as a mobile executive in Australia and the United States I have seen every possible success and failure in mobile first hand.

One effective way for brands to instantaneously communicate with consumers is by introducing mobile bar codes into their marketing campaigns as a direct response mechanism.

Globally, brands and advertisers have woken up to the significance of the mobile medium and are now looking to actively engage with audiences via this direct route.