A mobile and VR heavy FWD this week… Amazon wants you to take Alexa everywhere, get ready to pay in-store with your face, paid search spend on mobile and tablet overtakes desktop in certain markets, get a box full of weather in your living room and Virtual Reality will cure your fear of heights.
Headlines
- Facebook to push Live video to the top of your newsfeed
- Potentially related, Meerkat is pivoting
- Amazon pushing Echo and its Virtual Personal assistant ‘Alexa’, with two new product launches
Insights
- Insights into the US and UK Paid Search markets. At the end of Q4 2015, Mobile and Tablet accounted for 53% of all UK Paid Search spend (figure 14)
- Five ways consumers are connecting to stores with Mobile Shopping
- Apps drive higher conversion rates for retailers than Desktop or Mobile web
Cool
- Get a box that simulates the weather. Far cooler than checking a weather app… or looking out of your window
- Samsung using VR to help people conquer their fear of heights
- Your face is your new wallet. Google exploring ways for you to pay in-store using facial recognition
- Adidas building ‘Hyper local communities’ with Whatsapp and potentially rolling out to other platforms
Deep Reads
- How Google and the charity ‘Water’ are putting VR to good use
- Oculus Rift founder: ‘Facebook as we know it is not the future of virtual reality’
- The winners and losers of the maturing app store economy
And finally….if you find normal roller coasters boring….…
