While it used to fly straight ahead, Twitter’s new bird logo has its beak held high, representing a company ready to take off, not just cruise on. Bloomberg’s sources close to Twitter said the company expects to generate $1 billion in sales in 2014, almost double eMarketer’s prediction, so it’s fitting that the Twitter bird is looking skyward and has a new professional haircut. The redesigned bird replaces both the old bird as well any “T” or bubbled typeface “Twitter” logos. It will automatically be pushed to all official Twitter buttons, but sites may want to update any static Twitter logos they display.

And if you wanted to read entirely too much into the redesign, you could say the sharper, aerodynamic 3-feather design represents Twitter’s improved speed and reliability. No bloated fail whale here.

The company seems optimistic about the money it will make as it completes the roll out its self-serve ad buying interface for purchasing Promoted Tweets, Accounts, and Trends. But Twitter will have to be careful not to overrun its site and apps with ads, or engagement could take a nose dive.

eMarketer has a more conservative estimate for Twitter’s sales growth, predicting $540 million in 2014, but that’s still more than double the forecaster’s $259.9 million expectation for 2012.

But these estimates may not take into account a strong new competitor in the interest graph space: Facebook Subscribe, which has used its massive network size and time-on-site to drive tens of thousands of followers to influencers. If receiving updates from thought leaders and celebrities in the news feed is more convenient, existing Facebook users might be less likely to start a new account on Twitter.

Twitter has plans for international expansion and promotion, though, which could make sure it doesn’t have to squeeze its current flock of 140 million active users too hard.

And one last fun fact about the design: “This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles” says Twitter, as you can see in the video below.

Apple Rubs Android’s Fragmentation Problem In Google’s Face

Apple took a lot of potshots at Android and Google today. This one is probably the most damaging.

Scott Forstall, the head of Apple’s mobile software flashed the graphic below on the screen and said, “More than 80% of our customers are running the latest version of iOS, iOS 5. Now if you compare that to the competition, they released a dairy product, 4.0, about the same time that we released iOS 5. And about 7% of Android customers are running the latest version.”

Yes, this is an Apple talking point, but it’s important. Over 80% of Apple’s users have the best possible OS Apple can make. Only 7% have the best possible OS Google can make.

How Cutting $100 Off The Price Of The iPad Has Affected Sales

Here’s an breakdown of how many people are buying the new iPad versus the iPad 2, from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), which surveyed 521 iPad owners.

As you can see, taking $100 off the price of the iPad has made an impact. Almost half of consumers are buying the older iPad.

Is this bad for Apple? It’s bringing less money.

But, there’s some evidence that Kindle Fire sales have weakened, and the cheaper iPad could be to blame. So that’s good for Apple

Even if it has no effect of Kindle sales, the important thing for Apple is to sell as many as it can. It’s in land-grab mode, and it should be trying to move iPads out the door as quickly as possible.

As part of the celebration, Casasanta reflected on his company’s journey over the past two years. In his post, he reveals that tap tap tap received a handful of acquisition offers from several notable names: “It started with Adobe, then went to Zynga (for The Heist, not really for Camera+), then Google. And most recently, Twitter.”

The startup has also apparently had plenty of interest from VCs and was recently close to the finalizing its first round of financing. However, the team decided against closing the round, Casasanta says, because they “didn’t like the direction the investors were trying to push us in,” and instead chose to remain independent.

In a rallying cry for all those who forego outside investment, the founder then exposed his middle finger to the world’s venture capitalists, saying, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … f*ck the VCs!”

In a post from 2008, which he links to, Casasanta outlines his quarrels with VCs, saying:

In a nutshell, VCs will give you just enough money to get the ball barely rolling, but then repeatedly force your hand in later funding rounds (if you even make it that far). They’ll have you by the cojones and you’ll have no choice but to give up more and more of what you’ve built through your blood and sweat. And what’s worse, VCs typically bet on a large group of startups with the expectations that one will hit big (the 1 in 10 guideline).

So what about the ones that don’t make it? Well, the founders may very well care about their creations deeply. But the VCs will be quick to amputate and cauterize. They’ll cut their losses in a heartbeat no matter how this would affect the people who’ve poured their souls into their babies. I’ve known many people who’ve been in this predicament over the years and it’s unfortunate to say the least.

He sounds bitter, like someone who’s been scarred by a deal or two with investors turning sour, but his note of encouragement are words for all punk and indie developers to live by — although it’s probably not advisable for all to follow the same path. Clearly, there are more than a few startups that would kill to have been in the same fortunate position, and would have gladly taken the money.

You most likely won’t have a runaway hit like a Koi Pond your first time through. But you’ll gain valuable experience. And you can’t put a price tag on that … Plain and simple: The more you work at it, the more you’ll learn. And the more likely your chances for success down the line. There’s almost nothing better than the freedom of not having to answer to some suits breathing down your neck and assing-up everything you’ve worked so hard for.

The post also shares the news that tap tap tap’s development team has grown to 17, and that the next major release for Camera+ is on the way, code-named “Darkroom,” which includes some “pretty substantial” updates that have apparently been in the works for “a very long time.”

Here’s some more of the founder’s comments on how Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram affected Camera+:

The proposed Facebook acquisition of Instagram fueled a lot of ridiculousness in the industry and the the number of zeroes that’ve come-up in these negotiations has been insane. These offers have been tempting … extremely tempting in some particular cases.

… Will the failure of the Facebook IPO change the climate here going forward? Possibly. But it doesn’t matter… we didn’t build this company with the intention to flip it. We’re in it for the long-haul and we’re committed to building a real business that makes great apps, not on selling-out. We’re doing more than fine on our own and we’ll continue to do do so on our own.

Find Casasanta’s blog post here. Camera+ here.

More Proof That Apple Is Crushing Android In The Platform War

Here’s more proof that Android, despite having a huge lead in marketshare, is still losing the platform war to Apple.

As you can see in this chart, 69 percent of new apps started by developers in the first quarter of the year were for iOS, as opposed to 31 percent for Android. The data comes from Flurry, which is a mobile analytics company working with thousands of developers.

What this means is that for every 10 new apps started by a developer, seven are for the iPhone, and just three are for Android.

What is the “platform war”? It’s a battle to get the best software from the best developers on your platform.

As we explained earlier this week, marketshare only matters if it means developers are focused on your platform first. If developers choose Android first, then Apple has a big problem. It misses out on the best software. If it misses out on the best software, consumers are more likely to choose Android.

For whatever reason, despite Android’s huge lead in marketshare, developers still choose Apple’s iOS first. Until this changes, Apple’s smaller share of the market is not a big problem.

Android defenders might look at this chart and note its share of the new project starts are growing on a sequential basis. However, Flurry says, “While Google made some gains in Q1 2012, edging up over the 30 percent mark for the first time in a year, this is largely due to seasonality, as Apple sees a spike in developer support leading up to the holiday season.”

Meidata is a company in Israel, but has clients from around the world.  The infographic is based on their own internal information from global customers and system statistics, so this information is not available anywhere else in the world.

Apparently some interesting trends are undergoing the Mktg research world and most of all on the source selection: Social media are, of course, growing in importance, (24%) overcoming the Financial and Classical Mktg info (16%) while only 10% is the specific weight of the interviews in the source selection.

Apple has only had one tablet that could legitimately be considered a rival: The Kindle Fire.

When it launched, there was great buzz about the product and the price. Well, seven months later, the interest in the Fire is gone.

ChangeWave research released its most recent data on interest in the Kindle Fire, and as you can see, just 8% of people polled say they will buy one in the next three months. That’s down from 22% when the Fire launched. The iPad, meanwhile, is at 73%.

The sad truth for Amazon appears to be that people thought the Fire would be awesome, then got their hands on it, or read reviews, or talked to friends, and changed their mind.

While free wi-fi is great it does not necessarily protect you the same way a secure network may. Today’s infographic Free Wi-fi, Friend or Foe? gives us some examples of ways hackers can hijack your accounts and how to ensure your safety when browsing on an open network. One easy way to ensure your security when loggin on to a free public network is to know the exact name of the network. You don’t want to log onto a network someone nearby the coffee shop created giving them total access to personal files. A lot of computers have shared folders that can be accessed by other users on wifi, these sharing features are something that can be turned off to increase security. Make sure and read through today’s infographic, it’s a good one.

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Android Growth Has Fallen Off Cliff, Apple Still Cranking

Android makes up the majority of the smartphone market right now, but that might start to change if recent sales growth trends continue.

The number of new users who purchased an Android smartphone steadily declined throughout the first four months of this year, according to an analysis of recent comScore data by Asymco’s Horace Dediu. In fact, Android net user growth in April hit its lowest point for any month since 2009.

By comparison, the iPhone’s monthly user growth rate has remained about as strong as ever.

Dediu suggests that it may be “too early” to say that Android is on a permanent decline, but these new numbers should definitely make Google sweat a bit.

“The concern has to be that rather than seeing the net adds growing–as they have for two years with only two contiguous months of decline–Android net adds have been falling for four months,” he writes.

Here’s Asymco’s chart showing the month-over-month changes in net user gains for each of the major platforms:

Do you use your smartphone to help make traveling easier? If you do, then your part of a huge growing trend. The How Mobile Technology is Changing World Travel infographic from MyDestination.com shares some interesting statistics when it comes to traveling.

Back in 1903 when the Wright Brothers first took flight in their first fixed winged aircraft, little could anyone have imagined what travel would become. Fast forward to 2012 and the internet has revolutionised travel – along with communication – with the birth of the smartphone. But just how much as this palm-held device influenced and changed our travelling habits? And just how far has travel–based mobile technology still got to go?

There’s a lot of information gathered from many different sources in this one, which is one reason it’s so long.  The use of mobile devices to plan your travel and the use of them during your travel are definitely growing, and this infographic does a great job of helping the readers get some basic understanding of what’s going on.

A few issues with the data visualization designs though:

• The doughnut charts at the top are hard to read because the edges are so thin.  A thicker area around the circles would have been easier to see.
• How can the UK have 129% Mobile Penetration?  By definition that number can’t be higher than 100%.
• The visualization using the airplane silhouette is challenging.  There should be 10 windows to easily visualize the 74%.  Readers think in tens, and it’s hard to understand a portion of six windows.  I’ll bet the 54% color fill is close, but I have no way to figure out if it’s accurate.
• Again, readers think in tens, so don’t show the “…traffic for 78% of travel sites” as a visualization of seven computer monitors, use ten.
• At the bottom should be a copyright, and the URL to the original infographic landing page.

My Destination is also asking readers for suggestions for their next infographic design:

Are you an avid smartphone user abroad? Can’t imagine life without Facebook on the move? Don’t have a smartphone and not intending on caving in? We want to hear from you! Whether you are embracing the mobile travel revolution or just love travel, we want to know what is getting you talking. We’re also on the lookout for ideas for our next infographic special. Email hq.socialmedia@mydestination.com with any suggestions or tweet us @MyDestination using #TravAndTech.

The purchase of Face.com by Facebook is happening and is a done deal, say multiple TechCrunch sources.

Those familiar with the matter have confirmed the price will be $100m, as per the media speculation in the last few days. So far Face.com itself has declined to comment. CEO Gil Hirsch told us via email today “I have nothing to announce.” However, among our sources, one told us “Yes, the wheels are in motion on the deal”. We understand lawyers are huddling over the details of the deal right now but the acquisition is agreed.

Now, whether Moscow-based search engine Yandex is selling its stake in the Israeli company to Facebook instead of this being an outright acquisition remains only one outstanding detail that has not yet been confirmed. Yandex, together with Israeli investment fund Rhodium, put $4.3 million into Face.com in return for 18.4 percent of the company. Yandex CEO, Arkady Volozh, joined Face.com’s board of directors, according to Vedomosti, as picked up by GigaOm. Vedomosti has sources that say Yandex wants cash and stock in Facebook in return for the deal.

We’ve already outlined how much sense this deal makes.

But CEO Gil Hirsch is a canny player and would have waited for the IPO before calling for his price. It looks like he got it.

To review: the facts on the ground to date are:

• Israeli business publication Calcalist first reported (in Hebrew) that Facebook was looking to purchase Face.com.

• The deal size has been put at $80 million and $100 million. We’re calling it at $100m.

• Face.com’s technology is a natural acquisition target for Facebook. Photos are core to Facebook’s lock-in strategy and facial recognition allows tags to better reflect the social graph, which then feeds into making its advertising platform more efficient.

• There is evidence the two companies have been talking for some time (after all, Face.com appeared in 2007) but a price was never agreed until now. A post-IPO Facebook can now afford it.

• Face.com’s popular Facebook application Photo Tagger allows people to scan their (or their friends’) photo albums for known faces. It also has the iOS facial recognition app KLIK and a public API that could benefit Facebook.

• Facebook’s own camera app could integrate the Face.com API.

• Face.com has so far raised $5.3 million from Yandex and Rhodium

CHART OF THE DAY: Google Chrome Beats Internet Explorer To Become The World’s Most Popular Browser

Google’s Chrome browser, which doesn’t come pre-installed on any computer, has leapt past Internet Explorer, which is pre-installed in over 90% of all computers, to become the most popular web browser.

This comes from StatCounter, which tracks web traffic through its own widget. It’s not a perfect data set, but it seems to be as good as any other, and most other analytics groups seem to be illustrating the same trend.

Facebook’s Stock Versus Apple And Google Since 2008

Here’s an awesome chart from CNBC comparing the stock growth of Facebook to Apple and Google since 2008 using private market data from SecondMarket for Facebook.

As you can see, Facebook was a much better investment! However, the average investor couldn’t get in on Facebook. And, even if he or she could have invested it would have been a big risk. Facebook was a largely a speculative bet in 2008. However, it paid off!

While printed books remain the top choice for readers those reading e-books with e-content reportedly spend more time reading. With e-content a reader is allowed to get more involved in what they’re reading. Through the simple click of a link an e-book will show you a video or take you to a website full information.

As someone who has used an iPad for my textbooks I have to say I am a fan of the digital medium. It is surprisingly easy to take notes and highlight, something I imagine will only get better after time

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While instagram talent isn’t something to marvel too hard at, it is a fun, creative way to share your life in pictures.

I know many people who constantly keep their phone at eye level, take far to many pictures of meals, pets and nature, and I know I have definitely ran into a car or a wall while taking a photo. Does this mean we are all photographer wanna be’s? I think not but it certainly a way to express your personality and the physical extrication of “your view on this world”….and that’s what really matters in this “From digital to physical era”….and THIS is what we Love!

BeAngryBeFoolish

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Despite the fact that Facebook has 900 million users, the general public doesn’t think that it’s not just a passing fad.

CNBC and the AP surveyed 1,003 Americans about Facebook and found 46% think it will fade away. Amusingly, only 31% of the people surveyed think it’s a bad investment.

Personally I think Facebook is already too deep in everyone’s daily routine to simply disappear from a day to the other…then of course nothing last forever…but somethings are meant to @least go the distance…

But the important thing is:Well what do U think about it?!

I can barely remember my life without the Internet or a time when the yellow pages had a use.

The World Wide Web has become a mirror image of real life as establishments and individuals take advantage of the endless online marketing opportunities and develop a presence online.

Heck, it seems like every business has a Facebook page for you to “like,” every restaurant has a Yelp.com profile that allows word of mouth to go viral, and every activity has had at least one clever Groupon offer.

Here’s few Data on how a localized online presence affects a business’s growth, suggesting that utilizing social media, businesses are able to cultivate greater customer loyalty:

• 73% of internet search are related to local content
• 7 out of 10 Online Users are more likely to USE a local business if it has Information available Online
• 85% of Internet searches on Local Business are followed by an actual Visit to the Store!
• in 2011 more than 1.1 TRILLION on retail sales is considered to be WEB INFLUENCED
• Digital Media is expected to be 23.6% of ADV by 2015

OF COURSE, Being Myself a professional in the sector I WILL NEVER Enphasize ENOUGH the IMPORTANCE of a “COHERENT BUSINESS’ DIGITAL STRATEGY” to fully Exploit the opportunities presented by the channel rather that performing a meaningless And EXPENSIVE style exercise.

DIgital is a serious and complex Field, that has to be treated with the same respect and professionality of Retail, Pricing, Market research, Production and so on.

DON’T Trust easy promises, Panacea system implementation or special effects, without a TRUE Professional competence and a true digital Strategic sensitivity it would all be a whole, BIG, Expensive Waist of Money and Time!

Be Angry Be Foolish

Communication is the process of conveying information. Almost all species have some sort of communication system.

However, successful communication is the trait that has made humans the most successful species.

Today’s inforgraphic shows a timescale of how communication has evolved over time.It’s hard to imagine communication long before the hustle and bustle of email and text messaging.

Technological communication has grown exponentially, leaving snail mail to be a thing of the past…and that’s standing on the principal that wants machines and computers double their computational capacity every 6 months. That means not only faster innovations but also….closer distances….

Think to the world as a system kept together by inner forces and rules, a society based on digital technologies speed up its social pace with a  more that proportional acceleration that brings the boundaries of the system increasingly near…making us wonder till when this system could survive avoiding implosion…

Facebook and Twitter is the most popular form of communication right now.

These social giants are changing the game of communication. Today’s communication seems to only be in the form of short spurts with hashtags or tagging.

Social media has taken the complexity out of communication, it is no longer organic, but short and to the point.

Today’s style of communication represents the direction society a technology is headed, towards a more efficient form of communication

Forget the silly battles over who has more market share, Apple or Android, and just look at this chart from Horace Dediu of Asymco. Apple has 73% of the smartphone market’s profits and over 40% of its sales.

How big is mobile? Really big. This slide from analyst Chetan Sharma shows that mobile is the most pervasive technology ever invented.

As you can see, mobile has deeper penetration than electricity and safe drinking water

The Most Remarkable Instagram Chart You’ll See

The chart above plots both how many times Instagram has been downloaded, in gray, and how often it has been used to share photos over Twitter, in red.

Look at how, moving left to right, the red bars extend away from the gray bars.

Know what that means?

It means, in the words of the Distimo analyst who put together the chart, that “the average number of shares per users are increasing.”

That’s profound: The app isn’t just getting more popular, it is becoming a more important part of its users’ lives

Questionable!??! well as someone use to say “numbers don’t lie”

The Scariest Thing For Anyone Thinking About Buying The Facebook IPO

Here’s the scariest thing to come out of Facebook’s updated financials yesterday: The company’s growth is rapidly decelerating.

Last quarter it was only up 45%. The quarter before that it was 55%, and the quarter before that it was 104%. 45% is good for most companies, but for a company that’s supposed to be a hot IPO it’s underwhelming, as is the growth trend

Facebook needs no introductions. Facebook is, to say it in the words of Hollywood, “The Social Network”…it’s something that Really, like it or not, changed the world.

The generation after mine (I’m about to enter my 30s) is called Digitally Native…and that means that, unlike the previous generation, they simply can’t imagine the world with such things as Smartphones, Social networks or Internet.

We, the (almost) 30rs…the Xgeneretioners…or whatever you wanna call us, are the ONLY generation that Naturally Evolved from analogical to digital, we’ve seen and lived the world without Internet and Social Media phenomena and for that we decided to fill an existing Gap with them.

This fact gives us, capacity of abstraction from the digital world, and give us the ability of moving back and forth from physical to digital and back again.

The ability of abstracting the context is extremely important when it comes to relate to something and even more crucial when it comes to manage and exploit it full potential (U don’t believe me?! well just take a look to the average age of todays Social entrepreneurs or gazillion $ Startups founders….it’s  between 25 and 34, and I’m referring to the most successful ones) and if there’s a blackout….we still know how to live life…or talk to people in a club…..while youngers….well i respectfully doubt it

After I shocked u all with this Revelations (ahhahah), i could just keep being adorably predictable by saying that Facebook is no panacea, it has its limits and that by working consultancies I’ve heard all sort of crazy thought and speculation on how Facebook and Social Media in general are going to Magically solve every company’s sickness…..of course that’s absolutely ridiculous!

U FIRST need to learn The Rules in order to think or hope of winning certain games!!! But i think I’m done with the writing for this post! Enjoy the Graphics on How Facebook changed our lives….and what world would it be without it

Be Angry Be Foolish

Daily Users Of Draw Something Totally Cratered

We have some good news and some bad news for Zynga.

First, the bad news. Daily active use of its $210 million acquisition, Draw Something has completely cratered since Zynga bought the game.

Now, the good news: Monthly active use has pretty much doubled on a month over month basis.

The data comes from AppData, which tracks users via Facebook logins. It’s not perfect because Draw Something doesn’t require Facebook, but it’s a pretty good directional measurement.

What does it mean? Draw Something users aren’t as addicted to the game as they once were. However, they haven’t abandoned the game entirely. We’ll see if Draw Something can succeed as a casual game played every so often.

A Completely Useless Chart On Google+

Google revealed that it has 170 million registered users on Google+.

That’s amazing right? After all, it only launched in June.

Uh, no.

Google has hundreds of millions of users and it’s stuffing Google+ down their throats. Naturally, many people are going to sign up. What we don’t know is how many people are actually using Google+.

The chart that you see above is what Google wants you to think is happening with Google+. It wants you to think the service is taking off.

The truth of the matter is that we just don’t know because Google won’t tell us.