Tablets are a killer device when it comes to media consumption today, but is that down to the form factor, or because they are only being used by early adopters?

Some love to talk about the future and promise of the mobile web—and that may well be the case, longer term—but today the mobile world is still strongly under the influence of apps.

Some media companies, like Disney (NYSE: DIS) and News Corp.‘s Fox, have invested a lot of time and money into mobile as standalone businesses, expected to drive their own revenue streams and sometimes even their own brands. Others, like MTV, have largely focussed on it as a way of driving…

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  Our paidContent Mobile Conference: Here’s What Happened (paidContent) »  Here’s an interesting debate: “This Is Your Brain on Twitter,” a defense of the micro-blog from New York Times’ Nick Bilton, was written in response to his boss Bill Keller’s The…

For a few hours Wednesday, the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood became an energetic mobile media hub courtesy of paidContent Mobile: Platform Power.

New research released at Wednesday’s paidContent Mobile from the app analytics company Flurry spells out the force of apps in the mobile world today pretty clearly: there are 500 million of them and counting—a number that will only continue to grow as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Android devices continue to…

Research and development is challenged when media companies try to protect their existing businesses instead of moving forward. And Sara Ohrvall, Director of Global R & D at Bonnier, said technology doesn’t always initiate development at media companies the way it does in other industries. She, Turner Sports’ Michael Adamson,…

In addition to seeking third party help from sources, MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) has been experimenting with its own home-grown entertainment check-in service called “Caption Bomb” to provide the link between its live programming and social media. That, plus heavy use of Twitter, is what drives brand lift for the…

There’s been a good deal of worry over geo-location services embedded in iPhone and Android phones, after it was revealed that Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG) could track users—but only for the sake of aggregating information on wifi hotspots and cell phone towers. Tom Krazit, Mobile Editor, paidContent…

It does to TV rights holders, but for consumers—it depends what they’re watching, panelists at the pcMobile 2011 conference. Jon Dube, past president of the Online News Association and formerly an *ABC* News digital exec, noted that in the U.S., networks use 30 percent of the bandwidth. So is there…

Here’s a safe bet: is Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) going to launch a music subscription service within the next year? Two of the three music industry panelists discussing the business of music at the pcMobile 2011 conference, readily said “yes.” The third, Michael Paull, EVP, Global Digital Business, Sony (NYSE: SNE)…

“Globalization is now not just for Foreign Affairs magazine,” said Chrystia Freeland, editor of Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) Digital, in this afternoon’s Going Global panel. She and fellow panelists Ben Jones, VP Mobile at Zynga, and Andrew Stalbow, SVP Fox Digital Entertainment, said that companies expanding their platforms into other…

One of the greatest mobile gaming hits ever just keeps on rolling: Angry Birds has hit the 200 million-downloads milestone, Rovio’s Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka announced at pc Mobile 2011 as part of a larger discussion on the unique cross-promotional scheme that Rovio and Fox Digital Entertainment cooked up with…

What are venture capital firms looking for in mobile startups? Think emotional value and rethink the economics of content, Albert Wenger, a partner in Union Square Ventures, told Ernie Sander, executive editor of paidContent. Mobile Phone as Personal Identity: “The only thing more stable than most people’s phone number is…

With the unquestioned growth in mobile platforms and the penchant for free services on mobile devices and services, one would think mobile advertising would be enormous. But according to panelists at pc Mobile 2011, mobile advertisers and companies looking to build mobile ad technology are having just as much trouble…

Everybody’s talking about the weather, but contrary to the old adage, Mike Kelly, president and CEO of The Weather Channel Companies is actually doing something about it: putting weather-related information at the fingertips of an astounding number of mobile users

Content publishers are facing difficult choices about how to direct often limited resources to a growing number of platforms and business models. Which mobile strategy makes the most sense? This morning at pC Mobile 2011, Tom Krazit, mobile editor at paidContent and mocoNews, talked with Fran Hauser, President of Time…

There’s a false dichotomy that makes its way into conversations about media strategy about whether it’s best to have a paid content strategy or one that rests on advertising support. In a conversation with paidContent editor Staci D. Kramer at the kick off of pC Mobile 2011 conference, Major League…

Of all the wireless devices that have hit the market in the past several years, tablets present the biggest commercial opportunity for media owners, in terms of what consumers are willing to pay for and consume on the devices. But for now, that opportunity is, at best, a mid-to-long-term one.…