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This article by USA TODAY (@USATODAYtech)  tech reporter Jon Swartz (@jswartz) has implications for the future of bookstore retailers. Swartz writes, “The convergence of smartphone technology, social-media data, and futuristic technology such as 3-D printers is changing the face of retail in a way that experts across the industry say will upend the bricks-and-mortar model in a matter of a few years.”

"The next five years will bring more change to retail than the last 100 years," says Cyriac Roeding, CEO of Shopkick, a location-based shopping app available at Macy's, Target, and other top retailers.

Within 10 years, retail as we know it will be unrecognizable, says Kevin Sterneckert, a Gartner analyst who follows retail technology. Big-box stores such as Office Depot, Old Navy, and Best Buy will shrink to become test centers for online purchases. Retail stores will be there for a "touch and feel" experience only, with no actual sales. Stores won't stock any merchandise; it'll be shipped to you. This will help them stay competitive with online-only retailers, Sterneckert says.

Read this in full.

Below is a slide deck summary of psfk’s (@PSFK) report, The Future of Retail.

Also read about the possibility of Google providing same-day delivery and what IKEA is doing with Augmented Reality.

See our other blogposts tagged “Retail.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you navigate the revolutionary changes occurring in the world of books.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Since August 2008, the Digital Bookmobile (@DigiBookmobile) has traversed America coast-to-coast, allowing readers of all ages in over 400 venues to experience digital audiobook, ebook, music, and video downloads from their public library and immerse themselves in an interactive learning environment.

Housed inside a 74-foot, 18-wheel tractor-trailer, the Digital Bookmobile is hosted by individual libraries in support of their download services and operated by OverDrive, Inc. (@OverDriveInc) [OverDrive Digital Library Blog (@OverDriveLibs)].

The traveling community outreach exhibit is an updated version of traditional bookmobiles but is equipped with Internet-connected PCs, high-definition monitors, a sound system, and a variety of portable media players.

See the national tour calendar of venues.

Also see our blogposts tagged “Library.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you digitally publish and market your brand’s content in ebook, pbook, and audiobook formats.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

As the above image shows, mobile marketing can be a bit confusing.

Advertising Age (@adage) columnist Steve Rubel (@steverubel) points to a report about the apparent shift to apps in the mobile environment.

“Flurry (@FlurryMobile), an analytics firm, reported that US consumers spend on average 94 minutes a day in their apps vs. 72 minutes a day in mobile browsers.” There is a less time being spent with PCs and more time being spent with mobile. And when people are on their mobile devices, they are using apps more than mobile browsers.

Read this in full.

But a difference of opinion is expressed on iMedia Connection (@iMediaTweet) by Eric Anderson (@unsettler), partner and VP of marketing at White Horse (@whitehorsepdx), who offers “10 Tech Trends You Can Ignore in 2012,” of which #7 is “Having a branded app for that.”

Having long been a loudmouthed proponent of prioritizing mobile sites over branded apps, I thought I might be in for another plate of crow when Flurry Analytics released a study showing that in 2011, smartphone users’ time spent on apps exceeded their time spent on the mobile web for the first time ever.

But does this trend indicate an overall preference for apps over the mobile Web? It does not. A whopping 80% of that app time was spent on gaming and the Facebook app, and the rest of the time was, sorry to say, not spent on your app. A separate study by Deloitte found that 80% of branded apps are downloaded fewer than 1000 times, which is not a piece of ROI analysis I'd enjoy presenting to a CMO. Branded mobile apps belong to a narrow but important set of use cases, based on activities your loyal customers engage in again and again.

Read this in full.

Over on Harvard Business Review (@HarvardBiz), David Armano (@armano) writes in his article, “The Future Isn't About Mobile; It's About Mobility”:

In the early days of digital, the core behavior we needed to understand was that people wanted information at their fingertips and the convenience that came with digital transactions. In the social era it was all these things plus social connectivity. Mobility means information, convenience, and social all served up on the go, across a variety of screen sizes and devices.

Mobility is radically different from the stationary “desktop” experience. In some cases, mobility is a “lean back” experience like sitting on a commuter train watching a video. In other cases it can be "lean forward" — like shopping for a gift while you take your lunch break at the park. And in many cases, it’s “lean free” when your body is in motion, or you're standing in line scanning news headlines or photos from friends while you wait for your turn to be called.

Mobility trumps mobile... don't put mobile tactics in front of strategy.

Read this in full.

And senior writer with GigaOM (@gigaom), Mathew Ingram (@mathewi), writes in “HuffPo, The Daily, and the flawed iPad content model”:

The dream that many publishers seemed to have was that the iPad would create a market for their individual apps, and that legions of readers would happily download and pay for them, creating a brand new stream of significant revenue. With a few exceptions, however — such as The New York Times and other publications that have strong brands or are targeted at a very specific market — that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you know when it strategically makes sense to create a mobile app and to help you think with ‘mobility’ about your brand and your content.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard. And use our mobile website as your link resource on the go.

According to a new survey by Public Religion Research Institute (@publicreligion), white evangelical Protestants are significantly more likely than other major religious groups to use technology for religious purposes.

·         One-quarter of white evangelical Protestants say they’ve downloaded a podcast of a sermon or listened to a sermon online, compared to fewer than 1-in-10 white mainline Protestants and Catholics (6% each).

·         White evangelical Protestants are also more likely than white mainline Protestants or Catholics to report that their church uses technology or social media.

·         4-in-10 white evangelical Protestants say their church has an active Facebook page or website where people interact, compared to 29% of white mainline Protestants and 13% of Catholics.

·         Nearly half (49%) of white evangelical Protestants and about 4-in-10 (39%) white mainline Protestants say their church uses television or multimedia screens during worship services, compared to 11% of Catholics.

·         Nearly 1-in-5 white evangelical Protestants (19%) report having posted a status update on their Facebook page or other social networking site about being in church, compared to 6% of white mainline Protestants and 2% of Catholics.

·         Nearly 4-in-10 (37%) younger Americans (age 18-34) say they use Facebook several times a day, while about 6-in-10 (59%) seniors (age 65 and up) say they never use Facebook.

·         Younger Americans are significantly more likely than older Americans to report following a religious or spiritual leader on Twitter or Facebook (9% vs. 1%), or to say they have joined a religious or spiritual group on Facebook (10% vs. 1%).

·         Younger Americans are more than twice as likely to say they’ve downloaded a podcast of a sermon or listened to a sermon online (17% vs. 8%).

·         Younger Americans are also much more likely than older Americans to have sent or read emails during a worship service (16% vs. 3%), posted status updates on Facebook or other social networking sites about being in church (16% v. 3%) or used a cell phone to take pictures or record video during a worship service (20% v. 3%).

·         Among Americans who use Facebook, half (50%) say they don’t describe their religious beliefs at all on their Facebook profile. One-in-five (20%) Americans say their religious identity on Facebook is “Christian,” while 9% identify as Catholic, 8% identify as another Protestant denomination, 6% identify as “something else,” and 4% identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

·         White evangelical Protestants (53%) are more likely than white mainline Protestants (32%), the religiously unaffiliated (8%), and Catholics (3%) to identify simply as “Christian” on Facebook.

Read this in full.

Interestingly, one aspect of the above survey seems to defy the trend of prominent religious leaders using social media to build a following and a brand. Here’s another perspective on the survey. And see Christianity Today's (@CTmagazine), "Religious Self-Profiling" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam).

Also see our previous blogposts:

·        “Almost Half of Online Americans Use the Internet for Religious Purposes”

·        “More Than 1/3 of Online Adults Visit Church Websites”

·        “Study: Christians are Embracing Tablets & E-readers”

·        “Study: Religiously Active People More Likely to Engage in Civic Life”

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you identify and analyze market research for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

See the SlideShare deck page.

See the report in pdf.

According to a new survey, 56% of Americans have a personal profile on a social network, up 4% from 2011. And the number of people who say they follow brands or companies online has almost doubled in the last 2 years, to 33% of those polled.

These stats are from The Social Habit 2012 study by Edison Research (@edisonresearch) (SlideShare; Blog) and Arbitron (@ArbitronInc).

See The Social Habit website (@thesocialhabit).

WCG (@WCGWorld) highlights the following from the report:

·         Social networkers check their profiles often

·         Understanding the mobile experience is critical

·         Visual content is king

·         Users of social networking sites are following brands now more than ever

·         Facebook does impact buying decisions

·         It is not all about the coupon

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Report: Half of Americans Are Now Social Networkers.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically leverage and effectively communicate your brand message using social media.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Google’s Nexus 7 is the latest tablet on the tech scene, along with Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Microsoft’s Surface.

See a comparison chart above and another one by The Verge (@verge).

See all tablets compared at The Verge.

A new study by Gartner (@Gartner_inc) says consumers are choosing to use tablets now for some activities they previously used to use PCs for.

According to the findings, the “main activities moving from PCs to media tablets” included checking email, a shift observable among 81% of contributors, and reading the news, on 69%.

Over 50% prefer reading newspapers, magazines, and books on screens rather than on paper.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you use current technology to publish and market your brand’s content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

This week’s The New Yorker (@NewYorker) cover bitingly captures how obsessed Americans are with being online all the time, no matter what we’re doing and who we’re with!

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you capitalize on the digital revolution to strategically and effectively publish and market your brand’s content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Christian Retailing (@ChristianRetail) reports on CBA-commissioned research by the Barna Group (@barnagroup) that Christians are using computer tablets and e-readers at a faster pace than most consumers.

Barna President David Kinnaman (@davidkinnaman) summarized the findings of The Rise of E-Reading: What Digital Content Means for Customer Loyalty, Products, and Retailing study in a video presentation July 15 during the opening general session of the International Christian Retail Show (@ICRShow) (#ICRS) in Orlando, Fla.

The study shows that

·         44% of pastors

·         30% of Christian store shoppers

·         25% of practicing Catholics all report they own a mobile tablet device or e-reader, compared to 18% of shoppers who don't visit Christian stores.

Also, the most popular device is the iPad — 44% of tablet-owning Christian store shoppers.

And nearly 70% of Christian store shoppers said they would definitely or probably buy an ebook or digital download from a Christian store.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Family Christian Stores Now Selling Its Own Tablet,” and our other posts about tablets.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market pbooks and ebooks.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, created specifically for publishing and marketing executives.

The promise we can all go paperless has been around for years, so why is it that despite email, smartphones, e-readers, tablets, and computers, we’re still so dependent on pen and paper?

BBC Click (@BBCClick) reporter LJ Rich explores why paper has such staying power in this hi-tech age. She says

Demand for paper is at an all-time high. Finnish paper provider Foex predicts that the global paper market could reach a new record of 400m tons in 2012.

See her video report.

Also see the BBC Click article, “Is the paperless office possible?”

Since paper is not going away, technology is being developed to enhance it. The above video is from Layar (@Layar), a company specializing in augemented reality that wants to make the print world clickable.

With Layar, publishers and advertisers can quickly and easily activate their static print pages with digital experiences...all without hiring developers or installing software.

Layar makes it possible for consumers to scan with their smartphones a printed magazine cover, articles, photos, and more, to immediately see digital content such as a video or more detailed and localized information.

Back in April, one of our blogposts explained how AbeBooks (@AbeBooks) uses videos to promote itself. One of them answers the question, “Why do old books smell?”

Similarly to how people enjoy the smell of the interior of new cars and look for ways to replicate it, now comes a perfume for people who prefer the smell of books.

As Melville House (@melvillehouse) reports the story:

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld came up with the name Paper Passion, which launched on July 12 in Wallpaper magazine’s annual Handmade issue. It was actually at Wallpaper‘s Handmade exhibition in Milan last year that the idea for the perfume originated, when German publisher Gerhard Steidl remarked that his favorite scent was a “freshly printed book.”

Since then, Steidl has been working with perfumer Geze Schoen on perfecting the scent, using only four or five ingredients. Synthesizing paper’s unique aroma was apparently not an easy task. Schoen explained, “The smell of printed paper is dry and fatty; they are not notes you often work with.”

Read this in full.

If you’ve read this far, you obviously have a keen interest in books. So you’ll want to visit this website (@bookshelfporn) that features photo upon beautiful photo of bookshelves.

Also see our previous blogposts:

·         “Home Libraries Despite the Ebook Era”

·         “Even E-reader Owners Still Like Printed Books, Survey Finds”

·         “Photos: The 20 Coolest Bookstores in the World”

·         “EPILOGUE: the future of print.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market your content as either pbooks or ebooks (or both).

And if you’re a book lover like we are, bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to MediaPost’s (@MediaPost) Online Media Daily, the spread of connected PCs, smartphones, and tablets has altered how people consume media and make purchases. So says a new study by mobile ad network InMobi (@inmobi) and Mobext, the mobile marketing arm of Havas Digital (@HavasDigital). Among the highlights:

·         Tablet use has risen quickly to 29.5 million US users, 11% of the total US population.

·         Over 60% of US tablet owners spend at least 30 minutes each day accessing media content on their tablets and 52% use a tablet to fill what previously would have been “dead time.”

·         After buying a tablet, 29% of tablet owners say they stopped surfing the Internet via their PC and/or laptop.

·         Nearly half of tablet owners — 48% — agree that tablets’ appealing design and accessibility make it is easier to access media content than on a PC or laptop.

·         When it comes to shopping, 22% of tablet users say they've shopped less in physical stores since purchasing a tablet and more than half (55%) make purchases on their device in an average month.

·         Tablet use peaks at home in the evening between 6 pm and midnight for most owners.

·         Regarding considered purchases, 55% of tablet owners say they first learn about the product on their tablet, 53% actively evaluate the product, and 58% follow through with purchasing those goods on their tablet.

Read this in full.

Read the press release.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Tablets Fuel New Habits.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you maximize your brand’s content for the digital landscape.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.