Hasta La Gadget!

The blue oval may be headed out the door sooner than later if those “in the know” with Samsung are to believed about a full brand reboot around the time of CES 2013. Reports come from Channel News in Australia where they’ve got some anonymous sources speaking to the idea of a “more vibrant international brand image.” They’ve made it clear that this new look and feel will be brought on by none other than Brandstream and its powerhouse CEO Scott Bedbury.

This fellow Bedbury is known for creating the Nike “Just Do It” campaign that turned the company into an international beast of a brand. He also made Starbucks into the beast it is today with the comfy chairs and CD sales we now take for granted in coffee shops around the world. Samsung’s rebranding is said to be taking on a bit of a “feel” change, concentrating no longer so much on the “features and benefits” of the devices they sell, but on “lifestyle activities” instead.

History images via Samsung Village

We had a conversation about this sort of shift just this past week in a column by the name of Device Specs are Over, Long Live the Ecosystem. Basically what appears to be happening here is the peak of excellence in smartphones and tablets – or the peak of what consumers could possibly want in a device without getting something to back these devices up. Backing them up – that means creating a software and brand ecosystem to make them all worthwhile.

It’s as if there’s a world without roads and manufacturers have been selling bikes without making enough effort to create the paths that people need to ride them on. If Samsung does indeed continue on the brand ecosystem path they’re on now, a complete rebranding around the time of CES 2013 would certainly not be out of the question. Here’s looking forward to it!

Samsung brand reboot reported for CES 2013 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The last time we saw Steve Ballmer star in a commercial for Microsoft, he was extolling the virtues of a 286-based PC running the glory that was Windows 1.0 — in 1986. You can imagine the surprise we got 26 years later when Microsoft premiered an ad featuring the now-CEO during its Windows Phone 8 event. If you were expecting that same kind of unbridled enthusiasm Crazy Eddie once used to hawk underpriced TVs, you may be either pleased or disappointed. It’s a very level-headed and well-spoken Ballmer this time around, with the executive calmly highlighting the advice he gets through his HTC Windows Phone 8X from people like his wife and a certain Billy G. Besides evoking nostalgia, the pitch is an illustration of what Windows Phone’s live tiles can do as well as a reflection of Microsoft coming full circle — as it was two decades ago, Redmond is fighting for market attention at a time when new interface concepts are challenging its main business. We’re just glad there’s fewer plaid business suits in 2012.

Continue reading Steve Ballmer returns triumphantly to Microsoft ads for Windows Phone 8, now with less Crazy Eddie (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft

Steve Ballmer returns triumphantly to Microsoft ads for Windows Phone 8, now with less Crazy Eddie (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s no secret that Facebook saw FarmVille for iOS as writing on the wall: it had to either tap into mobile app revenue or risk losing income (and marketing-savvy developers) whenever someone left the web. Following a beta this summer, the company’s solution to its dilemma is now open to everyone. All developers on the social network can build ads that link from Facebook’s Android and iOS apps to either Google Play or the App Store — offering both an easy plug for their native apps and that all-important ad revenue for Facebook. The system currently takes a shotgun approach and may pitch social networkers for apps they already have or don’t want, but it should be refined in the next few months to where some curious purchasers won’t even have to leave Facebook to load that hot new title. Hopefully the increased recognition for mobile developers is worth sullying our once pristine news feeds.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Facebook

Facebook opens mobile ads for apps to all developers, keeps them on the money train originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft is going balls to the wall with marketing and advertising for their upcoming Windows 8 operating system, and it’s estimated they’ll spend between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion on marketing alone. Yesterday, Microsoft launched a new ad for Windows 8 that teases the user interface and simply refers us to wait until “10.26.12″.

The ad is actually pretty clever and quite good. It starts out with a dramatic countdown, which is certainly cliche of any upcoming launch advertisement, but the countdown stops at 8 and continues to repeat the number 8 (for Windows 8, obviously). In between, we see glimpses of Windows 8 in action, as well as the various hardware from Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, and Acer.

We also catch a quick look at different apps and games, such as Xbox Video, Fruit Ninja, and various photo and painting applications. To anyone who has used Windows 8 already, like the different preview or beta versions, the ad won’t really be anything new, but if you’re still waiting for the final release and haven’t yet gotten your hands on the new OS (literally), this ad will certainly whet your appetite.

Windows 8 will officially launch next Friday on October 26, and we have the invitation and everything, so we’ll be there to bring you the latest updates on the launch and any other details that release on the same day. We’re pretty excited to see Windows 8 in action and we’re curious how the general public will react to the revamped OS.

[via Gizmodo]

Microsoft unveils new Windows 8 ad is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple has quietly enabled a mobile ads tracking system in iOS 6, with unique per-device identifiers that provide advertisers with more user information than ever before. Having blocked developers from using UDID codes – device-specific codes that could be monitored to see if adverts led to app downloads – Apple replaced the unofficial functionality with an official version, IFA/IFDA (Identifier For Advertising) that comes automatically set active, Business Insider reports.

Unlike UDID numbers, which are assigned to the device and cannot be changed, IFA codes are designed to be ephemeral. Created randomly and then anonymously assigned to a phone or tablet, they transiently link publishers serving up adverts and the ad servers so that an appropriate advert is displayed on subsequent browsing.

If you go on to download an app, the ad server can see what led you to that download, something which was impossible to track previously. There’s no personally-identifiable data, but the fact that Apple has it turned on by default might frustrate or upset some privacy advocates.

IFA can be switched off on iOS 6 devices, though the setting to do so isn’t where you’d perhaps first expect. Rather than being part of the Privacy options, it’s under General > About > Advertising, and labeled “Limit Ad Tracking”; for IFA to be deactivated, the switch must – arguably counter-intuitively – be set to “on” rather than “off.”

“The biggest thing we’re excited about is that it’s on by default, so we expect most people will leave it on” ad provider Mobile Theory’s CEO Scott Swanson told BI, saying that while the data was personally non-identifiable, it nonetheless provided “a really meaningful inference of behavior” previously unavailable to advertisers.

Apple quietly turns on iOS 6 iPhone advert tracking is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.