Samsung’s Galaxy Note “phablet” is a hit, with the company having sold more than 5 million units to end users around the world. While Samsung has not yet shared any region-specific sales data, any success the phone has had in the United States can be attributed to the company’s advertising, a new study suggests. The huge handset’s launch in the U.S. was precluded by a series of ads most agree were not terribly effective — including one where the vendor tried to coin the term &#...

Google is attempting to file a patent that would thrust smartphone users into Orwell’s “1984.” TheNextWeb reported on Wednesday that the search giant is looking to patent a technology that can analyze the background noise during mobile phone calls and then serve up advertisements based on the environmental conditions Google hears. In short, the company’s famous “don’t be evil” motto may soon evolve into “we are going to listen to your phone calls to make money....

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that mobile applications that integrate advertisements pose privacy and a security risks. The team conducted a study that examined 100,000 apps from the Google Play market and noticed that more than half contained “ad libraries,” while 297 of the apps included “aggressive ad libraries” that could download and run code from remote servers. Researchers also found that more than 48,000 of the apps that were examined could track l...

Facebook on Wednesday announced at the company’s Marketing Conference that premium ads will now appear in its mobile application. Advertisements will be displayed on mobile news feeds — much like Twitter’s “promoted” tweets — starting immediately, with desktop logout screen advertisements scheduled to roll out in April. Previously, users would only see ads in the sidebar and news feed on the desktop version of Facebook. The move comes as the social networking giant is in the proce...

Microsoft, Nokia and carrier partners are planning a $100 million marketing push for the Nokia Ace (also known as the Lumia 900) when it launches in the United States. While the Ace isn’t yet official, it has been rumored that AT&T will unveil the device during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. We exclusively reported in November that the Ace will offer a 1.4GHz processor, a 4.3-inch ClearBlack display and an 8-megapixel camera. Other reports have suggested it will run Windows Ph...

A company called Cellrderm has taken Microsoft to court over its Windows Phone “Really” advertisements, according to Adweek. Cellrderm, a gag company that creates commercials for a fake Cellrderm “cell abuse aid” product, argues that it owns the copyrights to the creative content used in Microsoft’s ads and that Microsoft copied its work in its “Bedroom” and “Bathroom” commercials. You’ve probably seen the ads on TV: in one, a man is too busy on his ...

Nokia may be preparing to kick off a monstrous advertising blitz alongside the launch of its first round of Windows Phones, UK-based Marketing Magazine reports. The advertising campaign, which will apparently kick off in October when Nokia finally begins pushing out Microsoft-powered smartphones, is reportedly valued at just under $130 million. The new global campaign will seemingly be a rebranding mission of sorts, and will reportedly run for six months. Nokia has a steep climb ahead as it attempts to slow ...

Amazon announced on Wednesday that AT&T will sponsor a new Kindle 3G with Special Offers, a deal that has lowered the price of the device $50 to $139.99. In a statement, AT&T’s CEO Ralph de la Vega said that the Kindle 3G is “by far the fastest growing connected device” on AT&T’s network. Amazon’s “Special Offers” devices come at the cost of ad-sponsored content. Users will see advertisements at the bottom of the screen and can launch the “AdMashR...

Amazon on Monday revealed a new discounted version of its popular Kindle eBook reader. Amazon’s announcement came on the same day Barnes & Noble announced its all-new NOOK eReader. When asked during a Q&A session after Monday’s press conference if Barnes & Noble would ever consider releasing an ad-supported NOOK, CEO William Lynch laughed and said it was highly unlikely — but Amazon seems to be having some success with the ad-supported model. Joining the company’s $114 ad-suppo...

As we prepare to finally get our first taste of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia PLAY here in the U.S., we can’t help but think back and remember Sony Ericsson’s hilarious Web-only spots starring Kristen Schaal. We laughed, we cried, and we even readdressed them in a feature covering gaming as a differentiating factor for Sony Ericsson moving forward. It has been a couple of months since the spots first ran but they’re still racking up hits on YouTube, and we’re happy to report that BGR ha...

Apple has reportedly confirmed to a developer that it is no longer serving advertisements tied to its iAd platform in iOS apps geared toward children. When Mike Zornek — developer of Dex, a free Pokemon app for the iPhone and iPod touch — noticed iAd ads were no longer being served in his app, he contacted iAd support. The purported reply he received from Apple reads as follows:Hello Michael,We periodically review the apps in the iAd Network to ensure that all apps receiving ads are aligned with the need...

Toyota recently launched a publicized campaign that placed a special Scion-branded theme pack in the Cydia store for jailbroken iPhone users to enjoy. The move was seen as progressive considering Toyota’s decision to embrace the jailbreak community, but a new report reveals that the theme pack has since been pulled from Cydia. According to the report, Toyota’s advertising agency claims Toyota was contacted by Apple and asked to have the theme removed from Cydia. Toyota complied, of course, and ha...

According to data released by The Nielson Company in March, Sony Ericsson’s share of the U.S. smartphone market is barely a blip on the radar. Apple and RIM combine to own more than half the market, HTC is coming up behind them with 19%, Motorola holds 11%, Samsung has a 7% share and Sony Ericsson sits somewhere in the “Other” category, grouped among an undefined number of nameless manufacturers that combine to share roughly 3% of the smartphone market in the U.S. But Sony Ericsson smartpho...

Dear ad firm that put together Sony Ericsson’s latest round of Xperia PLAY promos: thank you. In its latest effort to garner some attention for its upcoming gaming Goliath, Sony Ericsson brought actress and comedian Kristen Schaal on board to go over some of the Xperia PLAY’s finer points. In the spots, Schaal uses the Xperia PLAY to shoot herself in the face, watch furry kittens, score a triple-kill, check herself out on YouTube and even… edit some spreadsheets. If you haven’t seen t...