Mobile Industry News 12/16/09

Quattro Wireless' daily take on interesting and important news for the mobile industry. See something today that we missed? Post it in the comments or send it our way on twitter @intheq

Coca-Cola's vitaminwater app sees 250K downloads in two weeks
Mobile Marketer
Coca-Cola Co.’s vitaminwater-branded Sound Lab application featuring hip-hop superstar 50 Cent was downloaded more than 250,000 times in the first two weeks in the App Store.
 
How People Use The iPhone
Silicon Alley Insider
In the early Internet days, the best way to figure out where the money was going to be was to look at how people used the medium. Right off the bat, people spent a huge amount of time online searching for other stuff online.  And, lo and behold, look where the money is today (search).

Morgan Stanley: Apple Is Going To Rule The Mobile World
Silicon Alley Insider
Apple's (AAPL) iPhone was the hero of an hour-long conference-call seminar on The Mobile Internet presented Tuesday by Morgan Stanley. The report was intended to be a follow-up to Mary Meeker's 1995 "The Internet Report," which became known as "the bible" of the dot-com boom.

GEICO turns to iPhone app for brand-building
Mobile Marketer
GEICO has launched the GloveBox application for the iPhone and iPod touch as a means to engage both potential and existing customers.
 
Mobile phones decoupling Internet from desktop: Deloitte
Mobile Marketer
The mobile phone is important to connected consumers and continues to be a popular entertainment device, according to Deloitte.
 
How soon till mobile TV really gets going?
VentureBeat
Mobile TV has analysts excited. ABI Research estimates that mobile TV will have 43 million subscribers by 2013, and research firm TeleAnalytics estimates 50 million mobile TV users in North America by the same year. But so far mobile TV has not nearly lived up to the hype. Qualcomm’s FLO TV, the technology used behind the current market leaders — AT&T’s Mobile TV and Verizon’s V Cast — still isn’t making money. For this holiday season, Qualcomm launched a new product, FLO TV Personal television, to turn the situation around. Could this be a new beginning for mobile

Microsoft's Bing Finally Makes An iPhone App
paidContent
Microsoft’s Bing search service is now available as an application in the iPhone App store. The free application looks just as it does on the PC with beautiful landscape images and a simple design. However, there are a few differences: When you open the app, it asks permission to get your location, and it has six categories on the center of the page: Images, Movies, Maps, Businesses, News and Directions. When you click on movies, it automatically shows you what is playing near you; the directions category automatically sets your current location as the starting point.

Oracle Aims To Help Carriers Cash In On Mobile Advertising With New Platform
Mobile Marketing Watch
It’s always amazed me that carriers, who know more about mobile consumers than anyone, have been the slowest to adopt mobile marketing and advertising.  While there’s some undeniable barriers carriers must overcome, third-party providers are already doing their part to help in the cause.
 
All I Want for Christmas is an iPhone Please
Mobile Marketing Magazine
The iPhone tops many consumers’ Christmas wish-lists this year, according to research from Experian Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service.
The device picked up 1.75% of all product searches and 14.01% of all mobile phone searches during the week ending 5 December, with the iPod Touch in second place with 1.29% of all product searches. There are no other phones or PC in the top 10 product searches, though third, fourth and fifth places are occupied by the xbox 360, the Wii and the PlayStation 3, respectively.
 
Evernote Launches Android App
GigaOM
Evernote, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company that makes my most often used cross-platform app called Evernote is all set to release the final version Android. The application will be available for download in the Android market sometime tomorrow.
 
Verizon adds WiFi to mobile broadband plans, but skips smartphones
FierceWireless
Verizon Wireless customers who have Mobile Broadband and Global Access mobile data plans will now be able to access thousands of WiFi hotspots in the U.S., Canada and Mexico for no additional charge. The plan covers customers who access the Internet via Verizon's USB modems, PC cards and netbooks;