Yay! We just received our invitation to Google Wave and have (of course) activated it.

HOT OFFER! We now have 20 [UPDATED: NOW 16 9 DOWN TO OUR LAST 3! ALL GONE, SORRY] Google Wave nominations to share, so we’ll invite (FREE) that number of new subscribers to our Marketing Rag newsletter. If you want to be a Google Wave early adopter, subscribe today.

So what exactly is Google Wave?

If you’re like most people, you may not know much about Google Wave. The video below (clocking in at 1 hour 20 minutes) is from the launch of the product back in May. It’s a very comprehensive overview (if you can spare the time and have a real interest in a new product offering that has real game-changing potential).

We’ll be talking about the marketing implications of Google Wave in our next newsletter. We think it’s a must-read.

GOOGLE WAVE APPS FOR THE IPHONE

It was always inevitable that the hottest technologies on the planet would converge. We just weren’t expecting it quite so soon.

The UK’s Revolution Magazine tells us that the race is on to be the first Google Wave app approved for the iPhone, with at least two contenders currently being reviewed by the Apple AppStore.

One of them, Waveboard, serves as client software for Google Wave for both Mac OS X 10.5+ and iPhone OS 3.0+; the Mac version is already operational.

Here’s a (rather basic) video demonstrating Waveboard functionality:

The other potential candidate is an Adobe AIR application called Waver, which has been developed as “your tiny Google Wave client”.

Google Wave is going to be big. Better learn about it as soon as you can.

PS One way to do so is by signing up for our newsletter (and if you’re one of the first few to sign up while this offer is still valid you’ll receive a free invitation as well).

PPS We’ll update this blog entry as the numbers decrease. Of course, if this was posted via Google Wave, you’d see the numbers dropping, in real time. Anyway, more on that in the newsletter.

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Tags: early adopter, free invitation, Google Wave, hottest technologies, iPhone, waver

Being only slightly tech-obsessed (though our wives might agree to differ), we haven’t paid too much attention so far to Google’s Android mobile phone offering. To be honest, we hadn’t even felt compelled to invest in the ubiquitous iPhone. Our excuse: a stated preference for style over substance. Actually, we probably weren’t cool enough.

Anyway now, courtesy AdMob, we’ve come across some fascinating/frightening statistics that suggest:

1. Android is becoming a serious contender
2. Smartphones are taking off faster than earlier data had led us to believe
3. Mobile apps are ‘the next big thing’ on the very small screen

First, take a look at this chart, comparing mobile data usage worldwide for the various operating systems.

Clearly Android has a long way to go to pick off Apple — but look at the tripling in Android’s worldwide operating system usage in just six months.

Secondly, some mobile application download numbers from a month earlier:

AdMob surveyed over 1,000 iPhone, iPod touch and Android users to find out more about their interaction and download behavior with apps.  Some highlights:

• Android and iPhone users download approximately 10 new apps a month, while iPod touch owners download an average of 18 per month
• More than 90 percent of Android and iPhone OS users browse and search for apps directly on their mobile device instead of their computer
• Upgrading from the lite version was the top reason given when users were asked what drives them to purchase a paid app
• iPhone and iPod touch users are twice as likely to purchase paid apps than Android users.
• Users who regularly download paid apps spend approximately $9 on an average of five paid downloads per month

In a separate post at BrandRepublic, AdMob’s Russell Buckley notes that:

We serve about 10 billion ads every month to mobile web publishers and app developers globally. This means that we can’t measure market share, but we can track handsets that are used more than they should be, to view mobile web pages and download and use apps.  We noticed very early on that iPhone was getting a disproportionate amount of share when measured like this and history is being repeated with Android.

What’s also great for mobile advertisers is that Android and iPhone both offer much more creative advertising formats and that their ease of use generally mean more interaction and higher click-through-rates. Consumers are engaging with marketers via the mobile channel in very large numbers and that trend is going to speed up with more Android handsets in the market.

Even allowing for the fact that Russell is in the mobile marketing business, the enthusiasm is contagious.

Which leads us to ask the question: how prepared are you for mobile marketing? [Forecaster/analyst Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley has already outed the Mobile Internet as one of The Big Trends of the next twelve months!]

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Tags: admob, Google, iPhone, mobile apps, mobile data, mobile device, mobile web, operating system, smartphones

That little problem that Rupert Murdoch has — the one about the Internet tearing his business plan to shreds?

Perhaps he should have a chat to Steve Jobs about selling newspapers through iTunes.

Clearly Si Newhouse (publisher of Condé Nast magazines) has been having a word or two with the reality-distortion-meister. Lo and behold, hot on the heels of the closure of Condé Nast titles Gourmet and Modern Bride comes the news that GQ is going mobile from its November “Men of the Year” issue.

Condé Nast has announced it has developed a mobile app that offers users an exact replica of its print mags in online form, starting with GQ. The free app is made for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and issues of GQ will be available for $2.99 in the iTunes App Store on the same release date as the print issue. Ads will appear as they do in the print version, but will also offer more interactivity as video, e-commerce and linking capability are all enabled as part of the new app.

Okay, it may be a challenge fitting the Wall Street Journal layout onto the iPhone  screen, but hey — Mr Murdoch was never one to take the easy road.

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Tags: condé nast magazines, gq, iPhone, iPod Touch, itunes, mags, modern bride, rupert murdoch, si newhouse, steve jobs, wall street journal