Dear Members,

On behalf of the Internet Marketing Association, we wish you a very Happy New Year! As we share the holiday spirit with family and loved ones, we will look back with thanks and appreciation for all the positive things 2011 brought our way. And we will look ahead with optimism as we prepare for the New Year.

Sincerely,

Sinan Kanatsiz
Chairman
Internet Marketing Association
www.imanetwork.org
949.443.9300 tel

Apple Reportedly Buying Flash Memory Company Anobit for $400-500 Million

Apple is reportedly going to use part of its enormous pile of cash to buy an Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage solutions. Calcalist reports, in Hebrew, that the world's most valuable company is in talks to buy Herzliya Pituach, Israel-based Anobit for $400-500 million.

If the report checks out, this would mark Apple's first acquisition in Israel (and the first with Tim Cook at the helm as CEO) and a rare occasion because the consumer electronics giant doesn't usually buy non-software companies. The only hardware companies Apple is known to have acquired in the past two decades were Steve Jobs-founded NeXT, Raycer Graphics, Intrinsity and P.A. Semi.

Anobit provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile markets, based on its proprietary MSP (Memory Signal Processing) technology. Its solutions are designed to improve the speed, endurance and performance of flash storage systems while driving down the cost. Anobit's technology is comprised of signal processing algorithms that compensate for physical limitations of NAND flash, the company claims.

Anobit does not publish a list of customers or references, but says its clients are among the world's leading flash manufacturers, consumer electronics vendors and storage system providers. According to Calcalist reporter Assaf Gilad, Apple relies on the company's solutions for the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air product lines, among other devices. South Korean Hynix is said to use Anobit's solution for a flash memory chip you can find inside the iPhone 4S.

Anobit says it has 21 granted patents (and 95 in total). The company has raised $76 million from Battery Ventures, Pitango Venture Capital and strategic investors, including Intel Capital. Apple is likely interested in Anobit for its MSP-powered MSP20xx embedded flash controllers for smartphones and tablet computers, which can significantly boost memory performance. Last August, Anobit announced that it had shipped a remarkable 20 million of said flash controllers.

Anobit was founded in 2006 and is led by co-founder, chairman and CEO Prof. Ehud Weinstein. Prior to co-founding Anobit, Prof. Weinstein was a co-founder and CEO of Libit Signal Processing, which was acquired by Texas Instruments in 1999. Anobit co-founder and president Ariel Maislos was previously co-founder of Passave, which was acquired by PMC Sierra in 2006. The rest of the Israeli company's management team members also have impressive resumes, which is certainly another argument in favor of an Apple acquisition. Calcalist reports that Anobit employs roughly 200 people today.

Microsoft Releases New All-In-One Tag, QR and NFC Reader

By Mashable

Microsoft recently launched its updated, all-in-one, QR code and Tag reader, that also has the ability to interact with NFC (near field communication) technology.

After the launch of the previous iteration of the reader, 18 months ago, designed to read only Microsoft Tags, the tech company noticed a growing frustration from mobile phone users around having to download multiple readers to scan different mobile tags. This confusion defeated the overall purpose of these triggers: to provide easy access to additional information for consumers.

Microsoft has responded to this feedback with an integrated, multi-platform reader that makes it simple for phone users and offers marketers a full suite of technologies to use in a single place.

Marja Koopman of the Microsoft Tag PR team told PSFK, "It was important to update the Microsoft Tag platform because there was a need to address the overall market fragmentation in the industry. Our goal was to deliver the freedom for brands to select the recognition platform most appropriate for their customers and grant customers a single app to launch those experiences."

2012 Trends: Social Media Metrics Take Center Stage

By eMaketer.com

Marketers still focusing on soft metrics, can't gauge ROI.

From the early days of the Internet, the prospect of detailed metrics fueled the promise that online advertising could yield unprecedented insights about customer preferences and behavior. That promise has only partially materialized. True, online channels provide feedback that offline media cannot, but marketers are still grappling with how to make this input work toward the bottom line.

They may have a long way to go. The Econsultancy report, "The State of Social Media 2011," noted that 41% of marketers surveyed had no return on investment figure for any of the money they had spent on social channels as of October 2011. Further, only 8% could attribute ROI for all their investments in social media. The survey sample was primarily UK companies, with some representation from other territories.

A 2011 MarketingSherpa study noted that only 20% of US agencies and consultancies surveyed said their clients thought social media marketing was producing measurable ROI. However, 64% said clients were confident that this form of marketing would eventually deliver a return and were willing to conservatively invest in it.

In August 2011, the top method used to measure the success of social media marketing campaigns was tracking the numbers of people linking as friends, followers and "likes," according to a Chief Marketer survey. Much further down the list was tracking incremental sales attributable to social media.

In 2012, marketers will need to focus more sharply on hard metrics to gauge digital and social marketing ROI. They will be pushed in this direction by economic and competitive forces, and by rising expectations from internal stakeholders who are more interested in the bottom line than in creative experimentation. Up until now, marketers have been content to dabble in digital and social marketing out of curiosity or peer pressure. But as stakes get higher, these media will have to provide concrete business benefits.

For more information on marketing developments expected next year, stay tuned for the forthcoming eMarketer report "Top Trends for 2012," available to eMarketer corporate subscribers only. Corporate subscribers have access to all eMarketer analyst reports, articles, data and more.

Key Contacts

Tyler Holliday
Executive Director
949-350-3084 tel.
tyler@imanetwork.org

Vince Walden
Board Member
940-230-4648 tel.
vince@imanetwork.org

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