According to published reports in the Financial Times, Facebook could launch its mobile advertising platform in early March.

Why the rush? Facebook clearly wants to illustrate to the investment community that it has established – or is in the process of establishing – viable and highly lucrative income streams.

The writing was on the wall for this platform based on the language Facebook used in its IPO filing last week.

“We currently do not show ads or directly generate any meaningful revenue from users accessing Facebook through our mobile products, but we believe that we may have potential future monetization opportunities such as the inclusion of sponsored stories in users’ mobile News Feeds,” Facebook revealed.

As of this writing, Facebook is planning to hold a marketing-related event in New York City on February 29th. Current plans call for Facebook to raise the curtain on its mobile ad platform at that time.

“Remote patient monitoring,” Juniper says, “using the smartphone as a hub, will also lower the cost of mHealth services by reducing the need for costly tailored devices.”

The report finds that the monitoring of cardiac outpatients is currently leading the field, as insurance reimbursement in the US market plays a key role.

But Juniper estimates that in the years to come, the management of diabetes and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder) and other chronic diseases will play an important role in the remote patient monitoring market.

“Remote patient monitoring will step in to reduce the cost burden of unhealthy lifestyles and aging populations,” writes report author Anthony Cox.

Other findings from the report include:

• Mobile Healthcare and medical App downloads will reach 44 million in 2012, Rising to 142 Million in 2016
• Clarification from the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration) on which mHealth apps will require FDA approval is still required but is expected to add further impetus to the market.
• Developing markets continue to benefit from SMS-based education programs and stand to benefit in medium term from app-based healthcare services such as mobile ultrasound that are now being developed
• EHR (electronic health records) have yet to gain significant traction even in developed markets but in the long term will become an important component of mHealth offerings

To learn more about Juniper’s mHealth studies and reports, click here.

And, as always, for the latest mHealth news and industry happenings, stayed tuned to mHealthWatch.com.

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?

Just two weeks ago, massive crowds outside of Beijing’s Apple Store caused Chinese police to deploy crowd-control measures to ease the iPhone 4S frenzy caused by the device’s long-anticipated arrival.

So unruly were Apple fans that the company was forced to strip the Aple Stores of their iPhone 4S unventory and revert back to selling the smartphones online only in China for the time being.

Not surprisingly, in response to the iPhone 4S frenzy, China is now seen as Apple’s next big market to conquer. In order to do so, says investment bank Morgan Stanley, Apple will all but certainly team with both China Telecom and China Mobile to make future generations of the iPhone available on all three Chinese carriers.

With such an eventuality likely before year’s end, Huberty predicts that some 40 million iPhones will be sold in China in 2013. That’s not bad, considering that Apple sold 68.5 million iPhones all around the world in 2011.

Huberty also believes that Apple’s Chinese ambitions will be greatly helped by the fact that the company’s sixth-generation iPhone may be compatible with China Mobile’s approaching 4G TD-LTE network.

In case you’re unfamiliar, the Carrier IQ software is what’s known as a rootkit that is installed at a carrier’s request on mobile phones. Carrier IQ raises user privacy concerns because it runs in the background and monitors and logs user activity. Carrier IQ is known to be installed on well over 100 million devices around the world.

As of today, however, Sprint Nextel says Carrier IQ software is effectively erased from devices across its network. The move was achieved in part by Sprint’s partnership with HTC, which yielded a firmware update targeting Carrier IQ.

“HTC can confirm that we’re working with Sprint to provide maintenance releases that will remove Carrier IQ and provide security enhancements and bug fixes beginning in January,” HTC admits, according to The Verge.

Until now, carriers like Sprint and AT&T previously claimed that the Carrier IQ software and its collected data have only been used as a means to “improve service performance.”

Do you feel more confident about your mobile usage now that Carrier IQ has been dumped by Sprint?

On Wednesday, the largest carrier in the United States announced that it has a new “hard requirement” of all future smartphones on its network: they must support 4G LTE.

In response to the so-called demand, iPhone loyalists are openly questioning whether the next generation Apple touchscreen smartphone will finally embrace 4G LTE.

Others, however, are already drawing attention to a loophole in Verizon’s bold pledge.

According to the carrier, the “requirement” may not be as strict as it sounds. Verizon admits that exceptions will be made, although no insight was given as to whether such an exception will be made for the iPhone.

One thing, of course, is patently obvious. And that is Verizon certainly won’t drop the iPhone – the hottest new smartphone on its network – in the event that the iPhone 5 isn’t 4G friendly.

“We’re paving the way here for the rest of the world on LTE,” Keith Lampron, Verizon’s associate director of device marketing, tells CNET.

In addition to generating record sales, Hipcricket says it has now passed the industry-leading 150,000 campaign count, and recorded a 76 percent increase in campaigns in 2011 when compared with the previous year.

Among the myriad milestones Hipcricket is trumpeting this week are:

• Hipcricket recorded more than 61,000 campaigns in 2011, 76 percent more than the 34,000 developed and executed in 2010
• Hipcricket’s Mobile Advertising Solutions have been used by companies in 15 industries, with an emphasis on quick service restaurants (QSR), retail, travel, technology and consumer packaged goods (CPG)
• Hipcricket expanded its relationships with a number of major brands including Nestle and the American Cancer Society

“2011 was quite a year for Hipcricket,” says Eric Harber, Chief Operating Officer of Hipcricket and Augme. “More and more, brands are seeking to align themselves with Hipcricket, a trusted mobile partner that provides best-of-breed mobile marketing and advertising products and services. Our growth is due in large part to our clients’ ability to leverage the experience that 150,000 campaigns bring, resulting in gains in sales, trial and brand loyalty.”

Medialets currently supports more than 20 billion monthly impressions.

Consequently, the savvy firm is promising with no shortage of credibility to deliver significant efficiency to buying premium inventory at scale, uniquely providing agencies and advertisers with a platform that supports direct, guaranteed and reserved buys in addition to real time bidding (RTB) with full transparency on a per placement basis.

The new platform grants advertisers complete control at every stage of the campaign process–offering flexible purchasing options, a centralized repository for ad specs and placement data, the full spectrum of display ad units, campaign management and delivery, and comprehensive performance reports–all through a single point of contact.

“Medialets has worked closely with the world’s leading brands, agencies and publishers to set an exceptionally high bar for creative, high-value rich media advertising on smartphones and tablets,” says said Eric Litman, CEO of Medialets. “Along the way, we’ve gained a unique perspective into both the factors that make mobile the world’s most powerful advertising medium, as well as those operational details that challenge agencies to profitably build their mobile businesses at pace with client demand. The launch of Medialets Private Marketplace represents a critical milestone in simplifying large-scale brand buying in mobile, and gives publishers the full control to manage, grow and enrich their most valuable advertiser partnerships.”

“Mobile is the true pay per call platform as there is an immediacy about mobile local search that drives higher response rates and the dominant mobile ad response is a call,” says said Bill Dinan, president of Telmetrics. With mobile, consumers are ready to make a purchase right away and advertisers are seeing the valuable link between a call and a purchase. The mobile marketing performance model is more easily defined and monetized, and that will help drive more revenue for advertisers and further tailor their mobile approach.”

Among the predictions for 2012 outlined in the report:

1. Pay Per Call Goes Mainstream With Mobile: High mobile adoption rates for both consumers and advertisers mean there is a mutual understanding of the platform and the relevancy of calls. Unlike the drawn out learning curve that came with online advertising, this new proficient mobile knowledge base will help drive pay per call programs.
2.  Mobile Propels Pay Per Action: Advertisers today realize the wealth of data available via mobile and are eager to track and pay for revenue producing actions including calls, map/directions downloads, QR code reads – any definable and concrete action that means a purchase is likely imminent.
3. In-App Call Tracking Rises: We expect consumers will continue to hone their lists of favorite apps and use them as their go-to resources for everyday planning and purchasing more so than mobile browsers. As such, advertisers will increasingly track the impact of in-app activity on call volumes and sales. This includes social apps like Facebook and Yelp.
4. Marketers and Advertisers Shift to Mobile-First Strategy: The combination of continued low advertising budgets and the tracking capabilities of mobile will mean a market shift of companies implementing a digital strategy that starts with mobile and then extends to other platforms that can supply similar metrics.

Do you agree with the bold projections made by Telmetrics? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

Munster says AdSense for mobile and the AdMob unit have been huge cash generators in the past and 2012 will be no different.

Unlike Apple, however, which continues to fall short of initially high expectations surrounding the iAd mobile ad service, Google’s mobile ad business has consistently grown – from $1 billion in 2010 to $2.5 billion in 2011.

Google’s track record of 150 percent mobile ad growth won’t slow in the least this year, says Munster.

“On the advertising side, one source shows that Android is doing well as a percentage of mobile ad impressions on their network, which we believe makes sense since a greater portion of Android apps are free versus paid,” Munster observed.

Thanks in no small part to Google’s Android market share sitting at more than 50 percent, Munster said Android will soon become “biggest platform for mobile advertising both for Google and the industry.”

“Mobile now accounts for 10.1 percent of time spent with media, up from 5.4 percent in 2008, but only 0.9 percent of advertising dollars,” Munster concluded in his note to investors. “The shift to mobile will likely come at the expense of other over-indexed media like newspapers and magazines, but as we know from the shift to online advertising, the shift is likely to be slow and steady.”