Company experiences explosive growth adding 500,000 new users in the last four months
September 21, 2009 (Toronto, ON) – Polar Mobile (www.polarmobile.com) today announced that applications built using the company’s SMART(TM) content and advertising platform are now being used by more than 1 million people around the world. Media publishers are using the proprietary SMART push-publishing platform to launch custom-branded mobile applications so their readers can access content from their favorite brands much faster than browsing through traditional mobile websites. Since its debut applications for Rogers Media – Canada’s largest publisher – launched in February 2008, Polar Mobile has launched more than 50 applications for such major brands as TIME.com, Business Week, CNNMoney.com, Maclean’s and Hockey News.
“Media applications drive repeat value to consumers, advertisers and publishers by consistently delivering new content,” said Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar Mobile. “Contrary to published reports suggesting usage rapidly declines soon after an application is downloaded, Polar Mobile sees usage of our applications increasing over time. Polar Mobile applications are engaging and easy to use, so consumers visit them every day and our customers gain an important brand- and community-building tool on a take-everywhere device.”
Polar Mobile enables businesses such as magazine publishers, television networks, sports teams and other organizations that build communities to harness the rapid changes in the communications landscape. Although the Newspaper Association of America found that traditional print and online ad sales dropped precipitously in the first half of 2009, losing nearly $5.5 billion or roughly 29 percent from the same period in 2008, another major avenue for readership and revenue is opening in mobile.
Mobile phones are becoming increasingly more capable with larger screens, easier navigation and input mechanisms, more memory and the ability to access faster networks. High speed data networks are nearly ubiquitous across North America, Europe and Asia, and the cost of data plans are dropping worldwide. An August 2009 report from the industry research firm Gartner Group finds that smartphones represent the fastest growing segment in mobile, surpassing 40 million new devices sold in Q2 2009, an increase of 27 percent over the same period in 2008. Once perceived as a business tool, devices like the newest BlackBerry smartphones and iPhones, now more affordable than smartphones of the past, are regarded as “lifestyle” devices and used by consumers of all ages. Designed to be engaging and intuitive, Polar Mobile applications are transforming the relationship between publishers and millions of their customers.
“There is no question that sites like TIME.com require a robust mobile presence.” said John Paris, director of mobile products at Time Inc., publisher of TIME.com. “Though TIME.com’s mobile apps launched by Polar Mobile for BlackBerry and iPhone smartphones are still relatively new, early data justifies our investment in mobile content. Not even 2 months old, TIME.com’s mobile apps already have strong download numbers and usage patterns.”
Polar Mobile’s SMART content and advertising mobile platform easily extends online content to mobile devices such as BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile smartphones through native applications. SMART not only allows media companies to launch custom-branded mobile applications suited to their audiences, but also provides tools for advertising and analytics. Polar Mobile customers are realizing click through rates as much as 15 times greater than they do via the Web. Applications built on Polar Mobile’s SMART platform not only extend the reach of brands into this explosive mobile marketplace, they also create entirely new, predictable and dependable revenue streams.
Polar Mobile applications are tailored for its customers’ specific audiences. For example, the recently-launched application built for BusinessWeek not only gives users top global business news and market analysis, users can also set up personalized watch lists and create customized channels that organize the news as they want to read it. The Toronto Maple Leafs launched applications that deliver fans the latest news, scores, standings, player data and team schedules. The Food Network Canada not only offers users of its mobile app a daily recipe, seasonal recipes and cooking tips but also cooking videos from its hosts.
Consumers will find most applications available for free. A complete list of the more than 50 and growing Polar Mobile applications can be found at http://www.polarmobile.com/mobile-apps/.
About Polar Mobile
Polar Mobile’s SMART™ content and advertising mobile platform provides publishers, brands and advertisers tools to deliver, measure and monetize digital media on mobile devices including BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile smartphones. With its proven track record for compelling personalized content and feature-rich mobile applications, Polar Mobile is the choice of major brands such as Business Week, TIME.com, and the Hockey News for putting sports, finance, news and entertainment into their audiences’ hands. Polar Mobile has offices in Toronto and New York and can be found on the Web at www.polarmobile.com.
For more information, please contact
Polar Mobile – Media Relations
T: 416-907-9611 | E: media@polarmobile.com
Polar Mobile – Canada
156 Front Street West, Suite 402, Toronto, ON, M5J 2L6, Canada
T: 416-907-9611 | F: 416-981-7843
Polar Mobile – United States
1230 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 700, New York, NY, 10020, United States
T: 212-618-6348 | F: 212-618-6309