How’s The Gold Rush Pan...

There’s been a lot of buzz about how important mobile apps are for years now , and an increasing number of tech startups are launching with mobile-only strategies . But a new study indicates the sector still has a ways to go before it attracts significant money from a wide breadth of users. In fact, the majority of people who use mobile apps today do not spend any money on them at all. According to a recent study of US consumers conducted by ABI, some 70 percent of mobile app users spend “either nothing or very little” on or in applications. It turns out that, much like gambling or gaming, the mobile app market of today relies mostly big-spending “whales” to account for a bulk of its direct sales. The highest-spending three percent of all app users account for nearly 20 percent of the total spend in the market, ABI said. Now, it isn’t that a majority of mobile users are uncomfortable with the idea of spending on apps at all: Two-thirds of app users said they have spent money on an app at least once, and of those people, the mean spend is a healthy $14 a month. But the whale issue becomes apparent when you look at the median mobile spend among those users, which is $7.50 per month. This shows that a small number of “big spenders” play a “disproportionate role” in the overall market’s revenue, ABI says. It’s unlikely that this data will put the immediate brakes on the ongoing mobile app development gold rush . And it’s important to point out that a whale-driven customer base has allowed for long-term sustainability in a number of industries, in the tech space and beyond. So what should be the takeaway here? According to ABI, it’s all about balance. “Don’t get obsessed by mobile and apps, but remember also the web,” ABI senior analyst Aapo Markkanen is quoted as saying in a press release accompanying the new data. “Most of the successful app concepts either support, or are supported by, a web component.” There has been growing word for a while now that many of the companies who jumped head-first into the native app frenzy, particularly traditional news publishers, are starting to focus once again on their traditional and mobile web experiences. If the uneven revenue issue does not balance out over time, it will certainly be interesting to see how the larger landscape adjusts. Here is a visual representation of ABI’s data:

Samsung Shipped 1 Milli...

As much as I love Samsung hardware, I’ve felt for a long while now that the Galaxy Note was a bit of a mistake . The screen size is just too big for me to wield the device comfortably, and I see no real value in the S-Pen other than having a little fun during bored moments. But a good chunk of people out there in the world apparently disagree with me, as Samsung has just announced that the South Korea-based company has shipped 5 million units of the Galaxy Note phablet. At the start of this month, Samsung had sold 2 million Galaxy Notes globally — a solid stat albeit not equal to Galaxy S II or iPhone 4S sales. It’s important to note (heh) that the March 2 announcement (2 million units) refers to actual sales, whereas this morning’s news just counts Galaxy Notes shipped. The numbers can often be very different, but the fact that Samsung sold so many Notes over the past five months and that it feels comfortable sending out 5 million more tells us that the Note is officially a big dog in the mobile arena. To be honest, I’m much more excited about this Galaxy Note 10.1 that debuted at Mobile World Congress. A 10-inch tablet is exactly what the Note should have always been, and should make the S-Pen much more useful. In any case, congrats to Samsung for yet another successful device. Now we can all move on to lust after the Galaxy S III . [via Ubergizmo ]

Keen On… Jeffrey Harris...

As a forty-year veteran of the venture capitalist industry and the Managing Director of the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, Jeffrey Harris has unusual insight into what makes CEOs like FedEx’s Fred Smith and Starbucks’ Howard Schultz winners. And to pass his insights into this successful entrepreneurial mentality, Harris has just authored a book, Transformative Entrepreneurs: How Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Muhammad Yunus, and Other Innovators Succeeded. So what did Steve Jobs and Walt Disney have in common? I asked Harris when he came into our New York City studio. It’s perseverance, he explained to me, the unwillingness ever to quit, an undying faith in one’s own abilities and ideas, which make the transformative entrepreneurs. Companies fail, Harris told me, because they lack leadership. Which is why, he explained, he always invests in people rather than ideas. And it’s why, he went on, “without entrepreneurial activity, we all lose.”

Eyeing An IPO, HubSpot ...

Marketing software company HubSpot has brought on a new leader today—Akamai CFO JD Sherman . Sherman has been chief financial officer at Akamai for over 6 years. Prior to Akamai, Sherman served as the chief financial executive of IBM’s $21 billion Systems and Technology Group. Over the course of 15 years at IBM, Sherman held senior executive positions in Finance, including Vice President, Finance and Planning, zSeries Server Division, and Assistant Controller of IBM Corporate Financial Strategy and Budgets. He also served as CFO for semiconductor company CommQuest, which was acquired by IBM in March of 1998 for $200 million. For background, HubSpot’s marketing software customers manage websites and generate leads. HubSpot, which just raised a massive $32 million from Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, Salesforce and others, has been on a bit of an acquisition spree and just bought Performable and OneForty. Sherman’s addition represents more than just a talent win. His experience leading two public companies in the technology space could help HubSpot navigate a future in the public markets. The company says: We have been growing at record pace and want to build a company that can be successful in the public markets. HubSpot CEO and co-founder Brian Halligan explained: “We always thought HubSpot could be a large, publicly traded company anchoring the software industry in Boston. Hiring a COO with public company experience is the next step on that path…We are on the same fast growth path of all the successful SaaS companies, and need to start preparing for an IPO. I know JD brings the right experience to our management team.”

Sprint Sold 1.8 Million...

Sprint Nextel this morning released its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 as well as the full-year results. The company reported a net loss of $1.3 billion for the quarter, and $2.9 billion for the whole of 2011. The company reported total net subscriber additions of 1.6 million during the quarter, the best quarterly result in six years and bringing total subscribers to the highest level in Sprint’s history. Now serving roughly 55 million customers, the company said it is seeing “strong iPhone sales”, selling 1.8 million of the popular smartphone in Q4, of which 40 percent was to new customers. However, the iPhone launch also had a negative impact on its balance sheet, due to increased equipment net subsidies and sales expenses, the company said. From the press release: Strong revenue growth and cost management partially offset the impact of increased equipment net subsidies and sales expense associated with the successful launch of the iPhone. Forty percent of Sprint’s 1.8 million iPhone sales in the fourth quarter were to new customers. Based on internal estimates, including incremental costs associated with iPhone sales, the combined impact of iPhone and Network Vision costs reduced fourth quarter Adjusted OIBDA margin, which was 10.8 percent, by approximately 8.8 percentage points. Based on internal estimates, Sprint Nextel says the combined impact of iPhone and Network Vision costs reduced fourth quarter Adjusted OIBDA of $842 million by approximately $684 million. In case you were wondering: OIBDA is operating income (or loss) before depreciation and amortization. Adjusted OIBDA excludes severance, exit costs, and other special items.