While many have hailed the iPad as a future mainstay of targeted mobile marketing campaigns, no shortage of advertisers are taking a wait and see approach with regard to the new Apple tablet. However, if the pre-order stats from this past weekend are any indication, the iPad could very well have a much larger than expected audience right out of the gate.

The unofficial count of first day orders for the iPad presents an estimated 120,000 tablets were sold. And according to the information and sources cited in a multitude of media reports, that estimate could very well be a low-end conservative one.

A truly remarkable fact about the iPad’s pre-order explosion is that tens of thousands of consumers are purchasing a device that they have never before seen, touched, or experimented with in person. But if the tablet resonates with consumers as the iPhone has, it’s easy to understand why many industry analysts predict millions of iPads could be sold before the end of 2010.

With the iPad’s already established popularity will come an array of unique digital content offerings to the tablet, like the freshly announced Barnes & Noble e-book reader app. An application designed exclusively for the iPad, the e-reader app will provide access to the B&N eBookstore as well as any ebooks already located in the user’s digital library.

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It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. And while the waiting isn’t fully behind us yet, people chomping at the bit to get their hands on the iPad can at least circle a date on their calendars.

Apple today announced that the iPad will be released on April 3rd. However, only the Wi-Fi version of the iPad will become available first. And although a release date is yet to be announced for the 3G and Wi-Fi iPad models, a late April arrival is expected.

Global availability (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, etc.) similarly won’t be achieved until late April as well.

On March 12th, pre-orders will be accepted for the tablet either via Apple’s online store or at a retail outlet.

In the official news release this morning, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated: “The iPad is something completely new. We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Coinciding with the iPad’s April 3rd arrival, the iBooks app will also arrive along with Apple’s iBook bookstore.

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r2integrated, an internet marketing and technology firm, has developed a simple and innovative tool to help brands plot the future of their mobile apps.  By comparing an app’s brand value against its usefulness, the tool predicts whether the app is doomed for failure or future success.

The quadrant is comprised of “campaign focused,” “most successful,” “least successful,” and “utility focused.”  By plotting a proposed mobile app’s brand value proposition against its usefulness, the quadrant can help predict its likely success based on one of the four aforementioned outcomes.

The first of which is obvious; if your app has low brand value proposition and low usefulness, the likelihood of success is inherently low, and it’s not worth the investment.  Low brand value compared with high usefulness, however, will place your app in the “utility focused” quadrant, meaning its success will improve, but will still face heavy competition from other utilitarian-based apps from larger software companies and providers.

If your app has high brand value but low usefulness, you’re app will be deemed “campaign focused,” meaning it will likely be successful for short-lived branding initiatives, but will lack long-term viability from a user-perspective.  Finally, if your app has high usefulness and high brand value, you’ll find yourself in the “most successful” quadrant for obvious reasons, meaning its utility will keep it “top of mind” with users, while driving brand impression and buying behavior as well.

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In case you missed it, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, an architect at Microsoft Live Labs, architect of Seadragon, and the co-creator of Photosynth demoed the truly amazing possibilities of augmented reality when integrated with mapping solutions at last week’s TED2010 conference.

The demo highlighted what’s possible with augmented reality, and what Microsoft is doing to leverage the jaw-dropping technology to bolster its mapping solution.  With augmented reality embedded into Bing maps, you’re left with a Google Street View-like interface that goes well-beyond anything offered today.  Things like the ability to walk indoors, look up at the sky to view astronomically correct data, view live-video of the location you’re looking at in maps, and view user-generated content and images layered directly on top of the mapping image are all possible with Microsoft’s new technology.

Of course, the possibilities when integrated with mobile devices will define mobile advertising, social networking and just about any other segment for a long time to come.  It’s an exciting technology and is becoming closer than ever to becoming a reality- or “augmented” reality if you will.  Hit the read more link to view the video, be prepared to be amazed…

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CloudMade, a startup offering map-based app solutions, today announced the integration of location-based advertising (LBA) into its platform, allowing developers easy access to monetization tools for their applications and Web apps.

CloudMade’s LBA solution provides developers the ability to tailor the advertisements they display to their application type and user location. With no additional development resources required, a developer can display ads in their Web or mobile app in under five minutes by inserting just one line of code.

CloudMade integrates niche “channels” that developers can hook into to serve relevant ads in their applications.  For those with a mobile travel application or website, for example, this could mean choosing to display only advertisements from the CloudMade Travel Advertisement Channel, featuring hotels, taxi companies, restaurants, bars, and more. Alternatively, developers of more specialized applications such as cycle navigation could find displaying only bike and sporting good stores, and only those nearest the cyclist, return higher click-through rates.

The CloudMade mapping platform has been popular with developers since its inception, but monetization has been a key request from its user base;  ”The number one request from our developers continues to be for location based ads to be included in our platform,” said James Brown, CTO, CloudMade. “We’ve now fulfilled this request coupling it with detailed analytics on user behavior to help developers reduce churn. Next, we’ll be introducing sponsored points of interest and our roadmap features retailer coupons and special offers to put even more money in our developers’ pockets.”

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So far, there’s been a lot of emphasis placed on wireless carriers during this year’s MWC, with numerous solutions tailored specifically for wireless operators and their need for everything from network optimization to mobile content distribution.  Openwave is continuing that trend, with its debut of “Openwave Analytics, Data Mediation Edition (DME),” which aims to help operators effectively monitor, manage and monetize mobile data traffic.

Openwave Analytics DME enables operators to gain “detailed network and usage related insights across a wide array of operator data sources,” or in other words, allows carriers to know exactly how users are interacting with their network to better leverage various opportunities.  The solution also allows operators to seamlessly insert this intelligence into their control points in the network and mobile ecosystem, allowing them to stay focused on providing the ability to build rich profiles and segments and leverage insights into new revenue streams.

The solution is fueled by real-time analytics that provides early identification of mobile data trends that enable operators to make timely decisions to avoid bandwidth problems while targeting business driving opportunities.  To make it happen, the platform mediates among all different ecosystem elements, enabling the enhancement of every mode of IP traffic, including mobile internet, messaging, video and social networking.

Startups and solution-providers have recognized the deficiencies present with wireless operators, and have begun to offer solutions targeted directly to solving those shortcomings.  As the mobile ecosystem has evolved, the real innovation has lied in third-party providers, not the carriers, and those providers are now trying to bolster the networks that fuel their products and services by offering specifically targeted solutions such as Openwave Analytics DME.  Whether operators will make use of such solutions is yet to be seen.

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Adding to a week already replete with major announcements from mobile marketing firms both large and small, Xtify certainly isn’t missing an opportunity to capture some of the broad spotlight emanating from Mobile World Congress. Today the company announced the release of its Geo-Messaging Platform, an online software tool for developers and publishers to push Geo-targeted messages directly to their mobile customers.

Rooted in the company’s obvious faith in the power and potential of geo-target mobile messaging, Xtify’s new platform helps developers of local search and discovery applications to drive prospective customers into a retail store with a message sent only to those who are in the immediate area. Similarly, publishers of travel and restaurant guide applications can distribute “interesting facts and recommendations” to their users in relation to their location at the time.

According to the company’s formal announcement, Xtify’s Geo-Messaging Platform comes with a web-based “Campaign Manager.” In order to create messages for their intended target audience, a Software Development Kit (SDK) is included that can be conveniently integrated into a mobile application to “determine where and when a message should be sent and how it should be displayed.”

“For the first time, mobile application developers and publishers have an effective platform for communicating with their mobile audience beyond the confines of their application,” said Josh Rochlin, CEO of Xtify. “Developers have been dreaming of a solution that remains active, even when the mobile application is not. Developers (and marketers) can now communicate to their customers, with the right message, in the right place, at the right time, to drive the actions they want.”

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