eMarketer introduced its Executive View app for BlackBerry today, which provides eMarketer reports and insights in a simple, easy-to-use mobile application.

The launch of the app coincides with the rapid adoption among eMarketer clients of Executive View for iPhone, which eMarketer released last month. According to eMarketer President Lisa Church, the acceleration in client usage is indicative of digital’s growing importance to the marketing and advertising world.

“We’re seeing a sea change right now among our clients,” Ms. Church said. “A couple years ago, most marketers were content to keep digital in a silo. Today, our most successful clients are disseminating digital information with tools like Executive View throughout the organization, using it to make data-driven decisions about their overall marketing strategy.”

So far, many have given Executive View positive reviews. Here’s some additional feedback we’ve received:

“It’s not enough to rely on the research department for information about digital anymore—everyone needs to be up to speed. That’s where eMarketer Executive View comes in. Executive View is all the information I need about digital marketing and media—anytime and anywhere I need it. For someone who does most of their research reading while they’re traveling, it is a must-have.”
- Rick Wion, director of social media at McDonald’s Corporation

“Executive View is a great application. It’s easy to browse and read, and it makes keeping up with digital trends all the more convenient. I’ve got eMarketer with me whenever I need it.”
- Dave Chaimson, vice president of global marketing at Sony Creative Software

“All in all, a useful app—especially for professionals that spend most of their day away from the computer.”
- Andy Kauffman, vice president of global ecommerce marketing at Marriott International

Stay tuned for Executive View for Android.

Is your company an eMarketer Total Access client? Click here to download the BlackBerry app.

Not an eMarketer client? Click here to learn more about what eMarketer has to offer.

A few weeks ago eMarketer introduced Executive View, a new app for iPhone that provides essential digital marketing insights on the go, and already we’re seeing exciting usage rates and great feedback:

“Executive View is great. It’s bite-sized and allows me to quickly digest information on-the-go. I feel I can manage the wealth of information that eMarketer provides because I can read it when I have down time away from my inbox and computer.”
– Charles Voon, Strategy, Blast Radius

“My phone is often my desk these days. Executive View delivers eMarketer’s wealth of information on digital marketing trends directly to me in an easy-to-read format—it’s perfect for all the running around I have to do.”
– Gordon McLeod, Digital Media Consultant

We will be rolling out Executive View over the next few months to eligible clients. Apps for Blackberry and Android are coming soon!

Is your company an eMarketer Total Access client? Click here to download the app.

Not an eMarketer client? Click here to learn more about what eMarketer has to offer.

Today eMarketer introduced Executive View for iPhone, a new app available exclusively to clients and designed to help them keep up with digital marketing, media and commerce trends—anytime, anywhere.

Executive View provides essential digital marketing insights on social media, online video, location-based services, ecommerce, internet advertising and more to all the people at eMarketer subscriber companies who need to stay up to date, but who don’t need the advanced functionality of eMarketer Total Access.

Here’s what a few of our clients have to say:

In addition to being available today in Apple’s App Store, Executive View will also be available in the Android Market and for BlackBerry in May 2011. eMarketer expects to roll out Executive View to its clients over the next several months.

Is your company an eMarketer Total Access client? Click here to download the app.

Not an eMarketer client? Click here to learn more about what eMarketer has to offer.

BlackBerry owns a commanding 42% share of US smartphone subscribers (and a 9% share of the total subscriber population), according to July data from comScore, and globally, BlackBerry shipments rose 45% from Q1 2009 to Q1 2010. So why has the introduction of its newest smartphone, the Torch, and version 6 of its proprietary operating system been described as a make-or-break moment for BlackBerry?

First off, Research In Motion (RIM) may hold the lead among US smartphone subscribers, but it certainly isn’t gaining share. At best, RIM is managing to tread water while other platforms, most notably Android, surge ahead. Globally, Canalys projects 169% year-over-year growth in Android smartphone shipments in 2010 and 100% year-over-year growth in total market share. RIM, by contrast, is forecast to lose six points of market share.

Second, and perhaps more worrisome for RIM, is BlackBerry users’ lack of loyalty to the platform. In findings released this week, Nielsen revealed that only 42% of current BlackBerry owners would opt for another BlackBerry as their next smartphone, while 29% want an iPhone and 21% have their eyes on an Android device.

Now, had Nielsen’s survey sample included only dedicated business users, who constitute the core of the BlackBerry faithful, the results might have looked somewhat different. But that highlights the very challenge BlackBerry faces in the market today: with more mobile users, including both consumers and business users, consolidating their communication, media consumption and social networking activities on a single device, the line between business and personal is rapidly eroding. And that means smartphones need to be really good at many things, not just really good for e-mail, which has historically been BlackBerry’s strong suit.

When the competition includes the iPhone 4, HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S and others in the annoyingly termed “superphone” class, BlackBerry devices seem desperately short on the “wow” factor: good enough for the faithful, but not appealing enough to attract new users to the fold. That was the consensus among analysts polled by FierceWireless. Leading tech journalists had a mixed reaction, but at best, RIM seems to have caught up with its rivals. There are few voices to suggest this latest BlackBerry surpasses the other leading smartphones on the market.

It will be interesting to watch whether the Torch and OS6 light the way as a new direction for RIM or whether the BlackBerry platform will continue to suffer from the perception that it is stagnating in the face of increasingly fierce competition in the smartphone market.

Sales of Android-based smartphones surged past Apple’s iPhone in Q1 this year, according to a widely reported press release from the NPD Group. Android garnered 28% of the US smartphone market, 7 points ahead of the iPhone, but still 8 points behind BlackBerry, which retained the lead, with a 36% share. As noted in the NPD press release, these figures are based on consumer surveys, and do not include corporate device sales, which are unlikely to have swayed the market that dramatically in any case. Note also that NPD’s sales figures differ considerably from comScore’s most recent breakdown of the US smartphone market:

There are a few different sides to this story worth noting. The first, and most obvious, is that Android continues to see strong growth, as you might expect from an operating system starting from a small base. That said, the evidence extends beyond handset sales into usage. AdMob’s March 2010 Mobile Metrics Report, for example, noted that Android smartphones had moved ahead of the iPhone for the first time in terms of US-based ad impressions (the iPhone continues to lead globally, however).

That segues into the second and third angles to this story: there are many Android devices, but just one iPhone, and Android has multiple US carrier partners (versus just one for the iPhone). Plus, all of the carriers, most notably Verizon, have been putting considerable marketing muscle behind their Android devices in an all-out effort to compete with the iPhone. As Ross Rubin, NPD’s Executive Director of Industry Analysis, noted in the release, “In order to compete with the iPhone, Verizon Wireless has expanded its buy-one-get-one offer beyond RIM devices to now include all of their smartphones.”

In the context of this competitive landscape, it is equally valid to underscore how well Apple has done with just one device as it is to highlight the progress Android has made with multiple devices, especially when Apple only puts out hardware updates once per year. But as evidence continues to mount that mobile ads may in fact be more effective than online ads in some instances, more competition is good news for marketers. Android’s growth provides a viable alternative to the iPhone and Apple’s upcoming iAd platform, the table stakes for which may be beyond the reach of many advertisers.