Mobile advertising powerhouse Millennial Media today announced the acquisition of Condaptive — a location-based mobile data startup out of Washington D.C.

Details of the acquisition are very limited and Condaptive’s Website says nothing more than “We’ve been acquired by Millennial Media.”  Condaptive’s technology focuses on “audience formation and development through the innovative analysis of location and data,”  meaning it looks beyond where a user is to determine who they are and what they need.

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The following is a guest post from Mikhail Damiani, CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Bite.

Lately, one would be hard-pressed to read through a tech journal or mobile-focused publication without finding some mention of NFC (Near-Field-Communication).  But why the sudden surge of excitement and evangelization of the not-so-new technology? In fact, NFC has been around for years, and manufacturers like Nokia have been embedding the technology in their handsets as early as 2006, albeit, these phones have not made their way into the U.S.

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New research out from Network Solutions and the University of Maryland suggest that small business owners still prefer so-called “tried and tested” marketing channels like direct mail over mobile marketing solutions, even though most ” fully understand the many benefits of the mobile channel.”

According to the study, entitled the “Small Business Success Index,” almost three-quarters of smaller firms recognize that text messaging and location-based marketing solutions can drive sales, however just 15% of owners consider mobile marketing to be “extremely” or “very” valuable in reaching new prospects and a fifth felt it was only “somewhat” important to their direct marketing strategy.

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Skyhook Wireless, a provider of location-based services, has filed suit against Google in relation to a complaint over how Google “exerts control of Android to force companies to end its partnership with Skyhook in favor of Google’s location services.”

In the beginning of the mobile location race, Skyhook had a corner on the market by building a massive database of locations by seeding data from WiFi hotspots.  The company has long had partnerships with companies like Motorola, Samsung and even Apple.  Now that companies like Google and Apple have taken over their own location databases as the foundation for their own location-based services, Skyhook is losing relevancy in the market.

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New research out from Global Industry Analysts, Inc. suggests the global market for mobile software will reach an impressive $79.7B by 2017.

Building on historical trends, Asia-Pacific will remain the most prominent regional market for mobile software.  Growth in the Asia-Pacific mobile software market is particularly driven by the continued craze for smartphones and other mobile devices in emerging markets such as China and India.  Increased demand for mobile email and other Internet-enabled services within the burgeoning corporate sector in these countries also augurs well for the market according to the research.

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A new survey just published from digital marketing agency White Horse suggests smartphone users are still showing a surprising lack of interest in location-based mobile services.

The report, based on the White Horse Digital Futures Group’s recent survey of 427 US smartphone users, defines immediate opportunities to “test participation incentives, increase social integration, and actively overcome privacy concerns to drive participation,” according to the agency.  The report reveals that more than 60% of smartphone users still aren’t using location-based services, and marketers and location-based service providers have more work to do in establishing the value of the services to the uninitiated.

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NAVTEQ LocationPoint, the location-aware ad-network from the leading GPS provider, has published the results of its first hyper-local ad campaign targeting millions of users of the Poynt mobile application running on Android, Blackberry and iOS.

In a series of campaigns, NAVTEQ LocationPoint delivered location- and contextually-aware ads to Poynt users actively conducting related searches.  The initial campaign featured hyper-local ads for national gas station and restaurant brands throughout the United States.  All four campaigns performed three to five times better than the industry average click-through rate of .49% with an average CTR of 2.68% across campaigns.  Post-click user engagement ranged from 4.49% to as high as 11.25%, depending on advertiser.

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