“When you promote your app, you should avoid using services that advertise or guarantee top placement in App Store charts. Even if you are not personally engaged in manipulating App Store chart rankings or user reviews, employing services that do so on your behalf may result in the loss of your Apple Developer Program membership,” the warning from Apple reads.

The warning came in response to a growing number of claims that shady marketing practices and purpose-driven technologies are falsely inflating app store rankings via erroneous, repetitive download schemes.

In order to maintain the integrity of the App Store and its ranking system, Apple says it will clean house and not hesitate to remove anyone who tinkers with the legitimate established processes that determine an app’s rightful ranking in the App Store.

Luckily for music lovers, the Grammy Live Mobile App is now available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users.

If this announcement sounds familiar, there’s a good chance that it is. For the third year in a row, music fans worldwide will have unprecedented access to all the VIP and backstage events leading up to and throughout the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, airing Sunday, Feb. 12 at 8p.m. on CBS.

Beginning Friday – and running through Sunday – Grammy Live will feature three days of exclusive live videos, blogging, tweets and re-tweets, as well as official news reports and updates from Grammy Live hosts Alison Haislip, Drew Hinze, and John Norris.

“We’re giving music fans the ultimate Grammy experience this year through GRAMMY Live,” said Evan Greene, Chief Marketing Officer for The Recording Academy. “We connect with music in very personal ways, and through shared, social experiences, fans are more eager than ever to support and follow their favorite artists in new and exciting ways.”

“We’re excited to be partnering with The Recording Academy to bring music fans this incredible multi-platform experience,” adds Marc DeBevoise, SVP and GM of Entertainment at CBS Interactive. “By making this program available in so many ways, we’re catering to all music fans, giving them an exclusive virtual ticket to the biggest music event of the year on any device.”

Do you plan to remain engaged with your smartphone to follow all the Grammys coverage this weekend?

According to the report, there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the so-called “App Economy” in the United States. That’s a dramatic improvement over 2007, when that number was… well, zero.

TechNet also found that these App Economy jobs are spread throughout the nation. The top metro area for App Economy jobs is New York City and its surrounding suburban counties, although together San Francisco and San Jose together substantially exceed New York.

“America’s App Economy – which had zero jobs just 5 years ago before the iPhone was introduced – demonstrates that we can quickly create economic value and jobs through cutting-edge innovation,” said Rey Ramsey, President and CEO of TechNet. “Today, the App Economy is creating jobs in every part of America, employing hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers today and even more in the years to come.”

“The App Economy, along with the broad communications sector, has been a leading source of hiring strength in an otherwise sluggish labor market,” said Dr. Michael Mandel, the report’s author and President of South Mountain Economics and former Chief Economist for BusinessWeek.

To read the full report, click here.

According to RIM vice president of developer relations Alec Saunders, the BlackBerry App World storefront is more profitable for devs that the competing Android Market owned and operated by rival Google.

Saunders revealed this week at the BlackBerry DevCon Europe conference that BlackBerry App World sees more than 6 million app downloads every 24 hours. Saunders alleges that App World now produces 43 percent more daily downloads per mobile app than Apple’s App Store.

More interesting to the developer community, however, is Saunder’s assertion that 13 percent of RIM’s developers earn $100,000 or more annually.

BlackBerry, which only controls roughly 16 percent of the total U.S. smartphone market as of late 2011, is struggling to not only retain customers but also developers.

By trumpeting the profitability of the BlackBerry App World store, perhaps the developer community will take a fresh look at the otherwise fading smartphone platform.

According to the survey, nearly 40% of respondents used mobile devices in response to TV ads and 45% estimated that they spent 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game.  Interestingly, the survey showed that almost twice as many respondents used their mobile devices during the first half of the game compared to the second half – a powerful take-away for advertisers indeed.

“Mobile is an amazing channel for reaching consumers when they are in a lean-back entertainment-oriented mindset,” explained Anne Frisbie, Vice President and Managing Director, North America, for InMobi.  “Savvy advertisers will allocate more dollars to mobile advertising, either in conjunction with TV ads or through mobile-only advertising campaigns during similar sporting events and key holiday weekends throughout the year.”  Other takeaways from the survey include:

• 39% used their mobile device in response to a TV commercial during the game by doing one or more of the following: discussing commercials, getting more information about an advertised product, or watching TV ads again.
• 30% reported using their mobile devices most during commercials.
• 27% downloaded a Super Bowl app.

“I am extremely excited to be able to hang out and bond with my fans in the PlayUp app in real-time during the premier event on the sports calendar,” said Johnson. “I love being able to use social media to relate with my fans in ways never before possible, and the PlayUp app is great in that it lets me connect with them over our shared passion – football. It should be a remarkable game. Hopefully next year football fans will be using PlayUp to praise my team while we’re on our way to a Super Bowl victory!”

Both stars have selected PlayUp as their preferred social media platform to interact with football fans during the biggest sporting event of the year.  On Super Bowl Sunday, Jackson and Johnson will be corresponding with fans in “interactive virtual hangouts” where fans can join and message with them about the action transpiring in Indianapolis.

In addition to engaging with fans in their own public chat rooms, Jackson and Johnson will also be hopping to other rooms and chatting with additional football addicts. Jackson will be using his PlayUp username “sj39” and Johnson will be using “StevieJohnson13”.

“We are thrilled that both stars are choosing PlayUp to engage with passionate football fans over the Super Bowl,” said Dennis Lee, PlayUp USA CEO. “PlayUp is making it easier than ever before for sports fans to connect with each other, along with their favorite athletes. We know football fans will love having the chance to interact with these outstanding players. Both Stevie Johnson and Steven Jackson are great partners for PlayUp given their love for their fans and the way they have successfully used social media to connect with them.”

“Augmented reality has become the futuristic media of the moment, but many consumers,” Ypulse says, but even mobile’s core audience – young, hip, tech-wise adults – are “having a hard time figuring it out.”

Based on the findings of Ypulse’s research, only 11% of high schoolers and collegians have ever used an augmented reality app.

During the holiday season, retailers like Macy’s and brands like Starbucks tried to get customers in the spirit with AR apps. They’re fun and clever, but as with QR codes, Millennials don’t always get the point,” says Melanie Shreffler, Ypulse’s editor-in-chief. “They need to see value in using AR to make the effort to download and use the apps.”

Among students who have used AR apps

•  34% think they’re easy and useful;
• 26% think they’re easy but not useful;
• 18% think they’re useful but not easy; and
• 9% think AR apps are neither useful nor easy to use.

“AR apps have to be interesting enough to get users to download them, and they also need to be engaging enough to get users to come back to the apps again and again,” Ypulse says. “But mostly, they have to work right the first time.”

Are you a fan of augment reality or have you similarly found yourself bewildered by the functionality of AR in modern mobile apps?

The data used for the infographic stems from a report White Horse published last year called “The Future of In-Aisle Mobile,” in which the agency conducted a first-of-its-kind ethnographic study on consumer use of smartphones to aid in-aisle shopping.  The result was a dramatic picture of the gap between consumer mobile behavior in the aisle and retailers’ readiness to channel that behavior into customer loyalty and sales.

In creating the report, White Horse surveyed 390 smartphone users and turned six of the most interesting findings into the below infographic.  The free report is available for download here.

Just in time for the Super Bowl this year, Verizon Wireless is giving customers a simple approach to get some of its most popular apps, including NFL Mobile Premium, Verizon Video, VZ Navigator, Visual Voicemail, Usage Controls and a Ringback Tones subscription.

Best of all, says the carrier, they come in one bundle for one monthly price.

For a limited time, customers who sign up for the Smartphone App Pack will get all six apps for $12.99 – which is less than purchasing the apps individually. If customers already have one or more of the apps, they can get the bundle with additional apps at little to no additional cost. Smartphone customers must also have a data plan.

According to the details announced this morning, the Smartphone App Pack now bestows access to the following features:

• Live streaming of Super Bowl XLVI: For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be streamed to select smartphones via NFL Mobile, only from Verizon.
• Power of Control: Visual Voicemail allows subscribers to view caller and voicemail information and listen to voicemail messages with ease. Account owners can manage wireless usage with various settings and tools offered through Usage Controls.
• High-Quality Video Entertainment: Verizon Video gives customers access to more than 250 current, full-episode TV shows from all the major broadcast networks and popular cable channels.
• Smarter Navigation: VZ Navigator’s voice-guided directions enable customers to travel with confidence whether they’re in a familiar place and need to get around more efficiently or exploring new territory in a car or on foot.

What role – if any – will your smartphone play in the days leading up to Super Bowl Sunday?

One of the key findings of the report shows that the average revenue rose by 41% in the Apple App Store for iPhone when looking at those applications that were already among the 100 highest grossing applications in any category, on the first day of the sale.

Moreover, Distimo’s report finds, the revenue during the whole sale increased by 22%. In the Apple App Store for iPad those figures were +52% and +19%, respectively. In the Google Android Market on the first day the revenue increased by 7%, and during the whole sale increased by 29%.

30% to 50% of the applications on sale experienced a decrease in revenue even though on average the revenue increased in all three stores for the total group of applications on sale.

“Our research,” Distimo says, “found that it is important to offer a significant price reduction to actually earn more revenue when putting an application on sale. In general, we noticed that the optimum sales occurred when the price was cut in half or the application was offered in tier 1 ($0.99) or tier 2 ($1.99).”

Another way to attract attention is by getting featured in one of the app stores. When looking at those applications that were already ranked among the top 100 most popular applications, the average gain in the first three days after getting featured was highest in Google Android Market (+42 ranks), followed by Apple App Store for iPad (+27 ranks), and Apple App Store for iPhone (+15). Looking at the whole period these applications were featured (seven days), the rank gains were more or less equal to the three days average in both Apple stores, but were even higher in the Google Android Market (+65 ranks).

To learn more about the insightful findings published today, click here.